BIO IAN MCDONALD
Ian is a very quiet man who at the end of the 60's started a little band called King Crimson. His writing partnership with Peter Sinfield (with occasional contributions from others in the band) created the basis for an outfit who changed rock music as Nureyev had dance. They removed all opposition by fusing qualities that had previously been regarded as opposites. It simply wasn't on for a band to sound like an orchestra one minute and become a jazz quartet the next, followed by the odd dalliance with pop contextualised as kitsch by it's very inclusion.

Central to their appeal was this one young fellow who had just recovered from five years learning to play in the British Armed Forces (and if you played a bum note they had you literally painting the grass green and the trees brown!). Ian was no stranger to "Discipline" when he teamed up with Fripp, Giles, Lake and Sinfield which is why, when most others were stoned, one group that were simply better rehearsed than the rest were able to show us all how it could and should be done provided you set your sights higher than ever before. Their greatest strength was their intelligence.

All of this was not lost on the shakers and movers of the time... David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Donovan, Peter Gabriel and numerous others all fell under their spell.

Ian could be said to have personified fusion... playing sax, flute, keyboards, guitar, sundry woodwinds, vibes ..... the list was endless and yet on each instrument he was no mere dilettante. His mellotron playing remains both legendary and seminal for aficionados of that arcane monster.

Not content with having invented a surrealistic blend of styles that remained on the house menu for the following decade for other groups to feed off and make fortunes, Ian decided he'd done that, handed Crimson to Robert Fripp on a plate and moved to New York.

The next we were to hear of him, he started another little group called Foreigner and sculpted them into the force that formed the style for Stateside groups for a further decade, defining the emerging sound of FM Rock with top ten singles such as "Cold As Ice". He remained with that group for a further four years, co-producing and arranging the first three albums.

Ian is seen at his chameleon best on this long awaited solo outing, fronting a lineup that includes Gary Brooker, Lou Gramm, John Waite, John Wetton, Mike Giles, Peter Frampton, Steve Hackett and many more. It's also the first time that he and Pete Sinfield have worked together since soixante - neuf (the year that is ...). On the blockbuster "Let There Be Light" that magic MacDonald/Sinfield combination, regarded by many as the real spirit behind the original King Crimson, is as potent as ever and shows that neither have lost their dramatic touch.