Former MD of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Ian Maclay, who ran the RPO for over 20 years in total, passed me a few words about Alan.

"I don't think that Alan was ever a member of the RPO or if he was, it was only briefly but we did record the 4 Mozart Horn Concertos with him [under Kempe].
 
The RPO was due to tour the USA for six weeks in 1972 and three members of the horn section refused to tour at the last minute as they were in dispute with the management, so we made an SOS call to Alan who said he would cancel everything to do our tour providing we would book his wife, Shirley Hopkins, on second horn. Seeing as we had lost the second horn too, we readily agreed and they both did the whole six week tour."

Anyone remember the story ?