Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is an English Rock vocalist and songwriter. He originally found commercial success as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan started and fronted several local bands in the mid-sixties, and eventually joined Episode Six when their original singer left. He first found widespread commercial success after joining Deep Purple in 1969. After an almost non-stop workload, during which time he recorded six albums in four years, and problematic relationships with other band members, particularly guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, Gillan resigned from the band in June 1973, having given a lengthy notice period to their managers. After a short time away from the music business, he resumed his music career with solo bands the Ian Gillan Band and Gillan, before a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath. He rejoined a reformed Deep Purple in 1984, but was fired in 1989. He rejoined the band for a second time in 1992 for their twenty-fifth anniversary, and following the recruitment of guitarist Steve Morse in 1994, has helped transform the group into a regular touring outfit, which he has fronted ever since. In addition to his main work—performing with Deep Purple and other bands during the 1970s and 1980s—he sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of Andrew Lloyd Webbers rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, performed in the charity supergroup Rock Aid Armenia, and engaged in a number of business investments and ventures, including a hotel, a motorcycle manufacturer, and music recording facilities at Kingsway Studios. More recently, he has performed solo concerts concurrently with his latter career in Deep Purple, and his work and affinity with Armenia, combined with his continued friendship with Tony Iommi since his brief time in Black Sabbath, has led him to form the supergroup WhoCares with Iommi. His solo career outside of Deep Purple was given a comprehensive overview with the Gillans Inn box set in 2006. Gillan was born on 19 August 1945 at Chiswick Maternity Hospital. Gillans father, Bill, was a storekeeper at a factory in London, who came from Govan, Glasgow and left school at 13, while his mother, Audrey, came from a family where she was the eldest of four children, who all enjoyed music and singing, and whose father (Gillans grandfather) had been an opera singer, and an amateur pianist. His sister, Pauline, was born in 1948. One of Gillans earliest musical memories was of his mother playing Blue Rondo a la Turk on the piano. He grew up moving between council flats before settling in a three-bedroom semi-detached on a council estate in Cranford, Hounslow, he was fond of animals in his early life, and enjoyed reading the comic strips of Dan Dare. His parents separated after Audrey discovered Bill had had an affair that started while he was stationed in the army during World War II. He started going to Hounslow College at the age of 4, and stayed there through his early teenage years. Like many others, he became influenced by Elvis Presley by hearing his records at home and at the local youth club. He switched to go to Acton County Grammar School (now Acton High School) to take his O Levels, where he was in the same class as Pete Townshend, but became distracted from studies after leaving the local cinema having watched a Presley film, deciding that he wanted to be a rocknroll singer. He subsequently took a job manufacturing ice machines in Hounslow. By spring 1969, Deep Purple had had a top 5 US hit with Hush, but the band, particularly Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice, decided their future lay in hard rock, rather than the psychedelic pop sound of the early band. On 4 June 1969, Blackmore, Lord and Paice went to see Episode Six perform at the Ivy Lodge Club in Woodford, and subsequently offered Gillan the job as new lead singer, asking him if he also knew any good bassists. Since Glover was by this point a reasonably experienced songwriter, having penned several Episode Six B sides, he was also recruited. They were both accepted into the band on 16 June 1969, replacing singer Rod Evans and bassist Nic Simper respectively. The old line up of Deep Purple continued to do several concerts until the end of the month, whereupon Evans and Simper were both fired by managers Tony Edwards and John Colletta after their last show on 4 July. Gillan made his first onstage appearance with Deep Purple at the Speakeasy in Londons West End on 10 July. As the band had only been rehearsing for a few weeks, they relied on older instrumentals such as Wring That Neck and Mandrake Root to fill in a set. Unsure of what to do, Gillan found a pair of congas onstage, and decided to play them during these instrumental sections. The congas would subsequently become a trademark of his live performances with the band. Deep Purple Mk.II continued rehearsing at Hanwell Community Centre. One of Gillans first notable contributions to band during these rehearsals was the vocal melody and lyrics to Child in Time. At Hanwell, the band wrote what would eventually become most of In Rock during 1969, though were interrupted in September to perform Lords Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a one off performance in September at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Gillan, along with Blackmore, was initially unhappy at having to perform the concerto, and wrote the lyrics to the second movement on the afternoon of the performance on a napkin in an Italian restaurant. In 1970, Gillan received a call from Tim Rice, asking him to perform the part of Jesus on the original 1970 album recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, having been impressed with his performance on Child in Time. After rehearsing a few times with Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, he recorded his entire vocal contributions in three hours. He was subsequently offered the lead role in the 1973 film adaptation. Gillan demanded to not only be paid £250,000 for his role in the movie, but also insisted, without the consent of his manager, that the entire band be paid because filming would conflict with a scheduled tour. The producers declined, instead casting Ted Neeley in the Jesus role, and Gillan continued on in the band. After 1971, particularly after the release of Fireball, Gillan started to become disillusioned with the workload of the band, who had not had any holiday since their initial rehearsals at Hanwell. He started drinking, and relationships between him and the rest of the band became strained, particularly with Blackmore. On 6 November 1971, he collapsed with hepatitis while waiting to board a plane in Chicago, cancelling the remainder of a US tour. By December 1972, having recorded Machine Head, Made in Japan and the yet to be released Who Do We Think We Are with Deep Purple, Gillan finally decided the workload had driven him to exhaustion. Unlike some band members, he was unhappy about Made in Japan, and disliked live albums in general. He tended to go into the studio after the rest of the band had recorded and finished the backing tracks, particularly for Who Do We Think We Are, to lay down his vocals separately. He had been continually at loggerheads with Blackmore, disagreeing about music regularly, which culminated in Gillan writing Smooth Dancer about him. While on tour in Dayton, Ohio, he sat down and wrote a resignation letter to the bands managers, stating he intended to leave the band, effective from 30 June 1973. He was replaced by David Coverdale. After purple: Mark ll In 1975, Gillan formed the Ian Gillan Band with guitarist Ray Fenwick, keyboardist Mike Moran, quickly replaced with Mickey Lee Soule and then Colin Towns on keyboards, Mark Nauseef on drums and John Gustafson on bass. Their first album, Child in Time was released in January 1976, followed by Clear Air Turbulence in April 1977 and Scarabus in October. The sound of the band had a distinct jazz-rock aspect which, although interesting to Gillan, proved unpopular, particularly since punk rock was in vogue at that time. Gillan then formed a new band, simply called Gillan, retaining Towns (who would co-write most of the material), and adding guitarist Steve Bryd, bassist John McCoy and drummer Pete Barnacle. Byrd and Barnacle were quickly replaced by Bernie Torme and by former Episode Six bandmate Mick Underwood, after Gillan saw Torme playing with his punk trio. This band had a more high powered hard rock sound, and the release of Mr. Universe in October 1979 saw Ian Gillan back in the UK charts, although the independent record company the album came out on – Acrobat Records – folded soon after the album was released, prompting a contract with Richard Bransons Virgin Records. In Christmas 1979, Gillan was visited by Blackmore, who offered him the position of lead vocalist in Rainbow. Gillan declined due to the smaller workload the band had compared to his own. However, the pair did jam together for three nights at Marquee Club – the first time the two men had shared a stage since 1973. Gillan continued, releasing Glory Road in 1980, which contained the hit single Trouble, and resulted in the band making the first of several appearances on Top of the Pops. He considered the album to be his best work since Machine Head nearly a decade earlier. Following subsequent albums Future Shock and Double Trouble, Torme was fired after missing an appearance on Top of the Pops, and was replaced by Janick Gers. Gers appeared on the bands final album, Magic. In 1982 Ian Gillan announced the band would fold, as he needed to rest his damaged vocal cords. The tone and style of his singing changed considerably when he eventually returned. His voice had a more nasal tone and this can be heard on albums he has made from 1983 to the present day. His use of multi-tracked backing vocals also became highly prominent. The rest of the band Gillan, particularly McCoy and Towns, were not happy at the sudden disbanding of the group so soon after the success of Magic, and sued Gillan for royalties.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:04:36 +0000
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