He continued to study the piano independently until his interest in Bach and Beethoven was being replaced by Bowie and Bolan, and his desire to play in the orchestra was tempered in favour of a yearning for less innocent pastimes. By 1975, at the age of 16 (following moderate 'O' level success), a return to St. Clement Danes to study for his 'A' Levels didn't appeal and after just one more term, he opted out, applied to every recording studio in London and eventually secured the position of Tape Op. (studio assistant) at DJM Studios in the West End.

Alan reflects "I was great at the more musical aspects of studio work such as tape editing, drop-ins etc, but useless when it came to the patch bay or routing the mic lines through to the tape sends."

As DJM housed it's own record label, Alan found himself engineering on in-house productions as well as working with outside artists and it wasn't long before his keyboard skills were being sought after for session work. Inevitably, this demand for his services and his desire for a more creative role would lead him away from his current position and he remained with DJM Studios for just one year before moving to Bristol to join one of their bands, The Dragons..