Alan Wilder - Early Years

Early Years

Wilder was born into a neither "rich nor poor" family and was raised in Acton, west London. He began piano at the age of eight, through the encouragement of his parents. Later on, he learned the flute at St Clement Danes Grammar school and became a leading musician in his school bands. He was influenced musically at school by Ted Ing, a percussionist. Alan and Ted formed Cloaca, (which also had Stefan Heller on bass guitar, Simon Thomas on vocals and guitar and eventually were joined by Mike Christer on guitar), a band which played many gigs in the west London area supporting the likes of Gary Numan's 'Tubeway army' and 'Henry Strand and the Westway Band' featuring The Clash's Mick Jones and Joe Strummer. After school, Alan worked as a studio assistant at DJM Studios. This led to him ending up working for bands such as The Dragons, Dafne and the Tenderspots (as Alan Normal), Real to Real (featuring Adrian Chilvers on Bass, Pete Fresh on guitar, Wolfgang Marlander on Drums and Paul St. James Vocals), The Hitmen, and The Korgis, appearing on the UK No. 13 single "If I Had You" (1979).