Gillan, Ian

The father of the musician, Bill Gillan, a Scot by birth arrived in London from Glasgow , where at the age of 13 he dropped out of school. In London, Bill worked as a storekeeper in a factory ^[3] . Mother, Audrey Gillan, was the eldest child in the family of an opera singer. Gillan's parents moved to various social apartments until they settled in Cranford - Hounslow . In 1948, Gillan's sister, Paulina , was born. The singer’s parents divorced when it turned out that Bill Gillan had an affair on the side while serving in the army during the war years ^[4] .

From the age of 4, Ian Gillan attended Hounslow College. In adolescence, like many of his contemporaries, he admired the work of Elvis Presley . After college, Gillan moved to the Grammar School in Acton ( en: Acton High School ), where he studied in the same class as Pete Townsend , one of the founders of The Who ^[4] . However, after watching a movie with Elvis Presley at a local cinema, Gillan dropped out of school, deciding that he would become a rock and roll singer. Later, he got a job at one of the factories in Hounslow, engaged in the production of refrigeration units ^[4] .

Ian Gillan's career began with participation in the Moonshiners group. The group included Gillan himself (vocals, drums) and Chris Aylmer (guitar). The band members made cover versions of Tommy Rowe's songs and The Shadows . Subsequently, he realized that he could not sing and play at the same time at the drum kit and decided to focus on vocals. In 1962 - 1964, Gillan performed in the band The Javelins , then until 1965 he was a member of Wainwright's Gentlemen. As part of these groups, he worked closely with the band Sweet , whose members, guitarist Gordon Ferminer and drummer Mick Tucker at different times played with Gillan ^[4] .

From 1965 to 1969, Gillan performed with the band Episode Six , which released several singles in Britain, but did not achieve significant success. In the same group, Roger Glover played the bass.

After participants in Deep Purple, John Lord and Ritchie Blackmore , who were just looking for a replacement for Rod Evans , who did not fit in their new style, saw Gillan at one of Episode Six's performances, they invited him to join their group, replacing Rod.

Deep Purple drummer Ian Pace subsequently spoke of the change in vocalist and bassist:

“Rod and Nick have reached the limit of their abilities in the group. Rod possessed excellent vocals for ballads, but his limitations became increasingly apparent. Nick was a great bass player, but his eyes were fixed on the past, not the future. ”

So Gillan joined Deep Purple in the summer of 1969, bringing bassist Roger Glover with him from the Episode Six. It is this composition of the group that is considered to be “classic,” the so-called Deep Purple Mark II. Gillan later recalled that when he met with Deep Purple, he was primarily struck by the intelligence of John Lord, from whom he expected the worst. Glover, on the contrary, was frightened by the gloominess of the members of the new group, who "... wore black and looked very mysterious."

Gillan's first recording of the new band was the Concerto for Group and Orchestra album (performed by Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ) composed by John Lord , recorded at a concert in Albert Hall on September 24, 1969 . After that, “classic” albums were recorded: In Rock (1970), Fireball (1971), Machine Head (1972).

Shortly after the publication of the album “Deep Purple in Rock” (June 1970), namely in September 1970, the audio recording of the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber ( Tim Rice libretto) “ Jesus Christ - Superstar ” was released, which became a classic of world music. The part of Jesus Christ in it was played by Ian Gillan. In 1973, the movie “Jesus Christ is a Superstar” was released , but in this version of the work, the role of Jesus Christ was played by Ted Neely , since Gillan, who had a busy tour schedule with Deep Purple , set too big requirements for his participation.

Gillan's last album, recorded as part of Deep Purple in the 1970s, was Who Do We Think We Are , a 1973 album so named because Italians, outraged by the noise level at the farm where the album was recorded, asked a repeating question: “For whom do they generally accept themselves? ”(“ Who do they think they are? ”). However, since 1972, relations between Gillan and Blackmore began to deteriorate. Later, they worsened so much that during the tour, Gillan traveled separately from the rest. In the fall of 1972, Gillan wrote a letter of resignation from the group, but managers persuaded him to finish recording who had already begun Who Do We Think We Are . This album so disappointed the critics and the musicians themselves that the relationship between them completely deteriorated, as a result of which Gillan leaves the group, and after him Glover.

After his first departure from Deep Purple, Gillan moved away from music for a while, taking up the motorcycle business. He returned to the scene two years later with the Ian Gillan Band . This group released 3 studio albums, but the group's music had a distinct jazz-rock sound, which turned out to be unpopular, so in 1978, Gillan returned to hard rock sound, reorganizing the group: he recruited new musicians and changed its name to Gillan .

Most of the new material was written in collaboration with keyboard player Colin Towns, and Mr. Universe of the “new” group hit the British charts, reaching 11th place in 1979. After going through several changes in composition, Gillan's group released several more successful albums that fell into the British charts: Glory Road (No. 3 in England), Future Shock (No. 2), Double Trouble (No. 12) and Magic (No. 17 )

In 1982, Ian Gillan announced the dissolution of the group due to the fact that he began to have problems with his voice, and he needed to restore his vocal condition. After his return to music a year later, you can see that his vocals have changed quite a bit, he began to sing more “in the nose”.

From April 6, 1983, Gillan began working with Black Sabbath ^[5] instead of the departed Ronnie Dio , who, in turn, had previously performed in Rainbow with another former colleague of Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore . Gillan later described his arrival in the new group as follows: “I was not going to be part of Black Sabbath . We just got drunk with Geezer and Tony, and the next day I found out about my agreement. They are also such nice guys. I had a lot of fun, had a great year, so the adventure paid off. ”

Gillan recorded with Black Sabbath the album Born Again , which reached 5th place on the charts, and went on a tour during which he performed the encore immortal hit Deep Purple Smoke on the Water . Nevertheless, despite the commercial success of the album, Gillan was very disappointed with his stay at Black Sabbath, considering that his vocals were not suitable for the heavy metal style. In particular, he called himself the worst vocalist who has ever been to Black Sabbath. And despite his human sympathy for the old band members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler (as opposed to his relationship with some Deep Purple colleagues), he left Black Sabbath to join the re-created in the classic composition of Deep Purple .

In the early 1980s, Deep Purple already began to forget, when suddenly (after a meeting of the participants held in Connecticut ) the group gathered in a classic line-up (Blackmore, Gillan, Lord, Pace, Glover) and released Perfect Strangers , which was followed in Australia successful world tour. But after the release of The House of Blue Light (1987), it became clear that the union would not last long. By the time the Nobody's Perfect live album was released in the summer of 1988, Gillan had announced his resignation (he was actually fired).

Gillan, who, in the summer of 1988, along with Bernie Marsden released the single "South Africa", continued to work on projects separate from Deep Purple. From the musicians of The Quest , Rage and Export, he recruited a band and, calling him Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners , gave a debut concert at the Southport Floral Hall in early February. In early April, after finishing a tour with the Moonshiners, Ian Gillan returned to the United States . The conflict between Gillan and the rest of Deep Purple continued to grow. John Lord said this:

“I think Ian didn't like what we do. At that time he did not write anything, often did not come to rehearsals. ”

Gillan was increasingly seen drunk at rehearsals. One day, he almost burst into Blackmore's room and fell asleep there. Another time, he publicly swore at Bruce Payne, the band’s manager. In addition, he delayed the beginning of the recording of a new album, the release of which is scheduled for early 1990. Finally, on May 14, 1989, Gillan again toured England with the band Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners . During his absence, the remaining members of the group decide to fire the "big Ian." Even Glover, who usually supported Gillan, advocated dismissal:

Gillan is a very strong personality and cannot stand when things are not going the way he wants. He could work with me, because he was ready to compromise, but he always worked hard with the rest of the Deep Purple members, and mainly with Richie. It was a conflict of strong personalities, and it needed to be stopped. We decided that Ian should leave. And it's not true that it was Richie who drove Gillan out because this painful decision was made by everyone, guided by only one thing - the interests of the group.

On July 8, 1989, the Rock Aid Armenia festival was held in support of the victims of the Spitak earthquake. Gillan and many other famous rock musicians took part in the festival. The main event of the festival was the re-recording of the “hard rock anthem” - the Deep Purple hit “Smoke on the Water” with the participation of Gillan himself, as well as Ritchie Blackmore , Tony Iommi , Brian May , John Lord , Chris Squire , David Gilmore , John Paul Jones , Bruce Dickinson , Roger Taylor and many others.

Joe Lynn Turner, Ritchie Blackmore 's former Rainbow colleague for Rainbow , took the 1990 album Slaves and Masters with the band, but neither the audience, nor the band's members, nor its management were satisfied with Turner and his vocals, after which the record company demanded Gillan return to a group. And even Blackmore, despite his personal dislike of Gillan, agreed:

Ian is deeply unpleasant to me with my antics and bad behavior. Therefore, on a personal level, we do not communicate with him. I know it’s also very difficult with me, but Ian is really crazy. On the other hand, he is the greatest vocalist in hard rock. On stage, he is what he should be. It carries a fresh stream in modern rock. On stage, we complement each other perfectly, I can be myself, and not copy, for example, Stevie Wai . But when we are off stage, we are far apart. It has always been that way. Joe has always been my friend. He is a good singer, but we need Ian. He is a man of a completely different type, "Mr. Rock and Roll." When Joe appeared on stage, I immediately caught myself thinking that Deep Purple was turning into a Foreigner . What for? He began to copy David Lee Roth and was completely lost as an individual. I tried to convince him, but this is a dead number.

In the summer of 1993, Ian Gillan recorded with Deep Purple a new album, The Battle Rages On , and his recreated "creative union" with Blackmore again turns out to be short-term: in November 1993, Blackmore left the group during a world tour. It remained unclear why Blackmore saved the group by agreeing to Gillan's return, inflicting a serious blow on her (the group) with his departure just 3 months after that. Apparently, the hostility between them was still so strong.

Since then, Gillan has remained with Deep Purple , often performing separately from the group both with his solo program and in projects of other musicians.

In April 2006, Gillan released his project called Gillan's Inn , which reflects his entire 40-year musical career. Tony Iommi , Jeff Healy , Joe Satriani , Dean Howard, and his Deep Purple partners John Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Don Airy and Steve Morse took part in this project. The disc included songs by Gillan, recorded by him as part of Deep Purple , Black Sabbath and his solo compositions.

In late February 2008, Ian Gillan released a double live album, Live In Anaheim , recorded during an American tour in 2006. Gillan's band included: Randy Cook, Rodney Appleby, Michael Lee Jackson, Dean Howard and Joe Mennonne. ^[6]

In 2009, Ian Gillan was awarded the Order of Honor for the assistance provided to the people of Armenia ^[7] .

In recent years, Ian Gillan has occasionally performed in Europe, performing mostly Deep Purple hits with the orchestra. In particular, on December 18, 2009 such a concert took place in Moscow ^[8] , on December 19 and 20 in St. Petersburg, and on March 26-27, 2010 in Yerevan (together with the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia under the direction of conductor Friedman Rieli). After the Yerevan concerts, Gillan said in an interview that he considers Armenia his spiritual homeland ^[9] .

In 2011, Gillan, together with Black Sabbath 's guitarist Tony Iommi, gathered the Whocares charity touring group, which included: Iron Maiden drummer Nico McBrain , Deep Purple keyboardist John Lord , HIM guitarist Mikko Lindstrom and ex- Metallica bassist Jason Newsted . On May 6, the debut single of two songs was released - “Out Of Mind” and “Holy Water”. All funds from the sale of Whocares music were transferred to the restoration of a children's music school in the Armenian city of Gyumri , which Gillan and Iommi have been helping for a long time. A 40-minute documentary about this school is attached to the CD version of the single Whocares ^[10] . To advertise this event on Youtube , a promotional video was posted ^[11] . Later, in 2012, the group released the double album Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi: WhoCares .

In 2013, he recorded with Deep Purple the new album Now What ?! . In June 2014, vocalist Ian Gillan said the band was working on a new studio album. According to the musician, the group works in a studio in the Algarve ( Portugal ). According to preliminary data, the record should be released before the end of the year ^[12] .

From 1969 to 1978, Gillan met with Zoe Dean, whom he met while still the lead singer of The Episode Six.

In 1984, Gillan married his girlfriend Bron. He dedicated the song Keep It Warm to her , recorded with Black Sabbath in 1983 . Gillan has two children and three grandchildren, each of whom was born in Scotland. In the late 2000s, the Gillans moved permanently to Portugal .

Gillan is a passionate football fan supporting the Queens Park Rangers English club. He is also a fan of cricket ^[13] . He cannot stand aggressive guards at concerts - on August 15, 1998 he was accused of assaulting a security guard after having hit him in the head with a microphone ^[14] .

Sometimes the name of Gillan is incorrectly pronounced as " Gill and en ." Gillan himself beat this in the text of one of the songs for the album Rapture of the Deep , when he sang a line about “ Mr. Grover and Mr. Gill and Ana ” ^[15] .

• Deep Purple Vocalist Biography - Ian Gillan
• Ian Gillan answers questions from readers of Lenta.Ru
• Interview with Jan Gillan as part of the “This Morning” program on NTV. Interviewed by Alexander Glotov
• Interview Ian Gillan cultural portal "Experiment". Interviewed by Herman Goshkador