Ian Gillan
Ian Gillan is an English singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice.
Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan started and fronted several local bands in the mid-1960s, and eventually joined Episode Six when their original singer left. He first found widespread commercial success after joining Deep Purple in 1969. He 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 in 1983. The following year, Deep Purple reformed and two more successful albums followed before he left in 1989. He returned to the group in 1992, and has remained its lead singer 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 Webber's 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 Gillan's Inn box set in 2006.
Early life
Gillan was born on 19 August 1945 at Chiswick Maternity Hospital in Middlesex. His father, Bill, was a storekeeper at a factory in London, who came from Govan, Glasgow and left school at 13, while his mother, Audrey, was the eldest of four children, who all enjoyed music and singing, and whose father had been an opera singer and amateur pianist. His sister, Pauline, was born in 1948. One of Gillan's earliest musical memories was of his mother playing "Rondo alla Turca" on the piano.He grew up moving between council flats before settling in a three-bedroom semi-detached on a council estate in Cranford, Middlesex. He was fond of animals in his early life, and enjoyed reading Dan Dare comic strips. His parents separated after Audrey discovered that Bill had had an affair that started while he was stationed in the army during World War II.
Ian began attending Hounslow College and stayed there through his early teenage years. He was influenced by Elvis Presley by hearing his records at home and at the local youth club. Gillan briefly attended Acton County Grammar School to take his O Levels but became distracted from studies after leaving the local cinema having watched a Presley film, deciding that he wanted to be a movie actor. He subsequently took a job manufacturing ice machines in Hounslow.
Career
Early years
Gillan's first attempt at a band was called Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners, and consisted of himself on vocals and drums, alongside guitarist Chris Aylmer, who later went on to work with Bruce Dickinson. The band covered songs such as Tommy Roe's "Sheila" and The Shadows' "Apache". He discovered he couldn't sing and play drums at the same time, so settled on the role of lead vocalist, performing regularly at St Dunstan's Hall, the local youth club. He soon switched to another local band who also played at Dunstan's Hall, Ronnie and the Hightones, who renamed themselves "the Javelins" after he joined. The band played covers of Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, and were early customers of then-local music shop owner Jim Marshall. The Javelins disbanded in March 1964, with guitarist Gordon Fairminer leaving to join what eventually became the group Sweet.After the Javelins, Gillan joined a soul band, Wainwright's Gentlemen, which included another future Sweet member, drummer Mick Tucker. The band recorded a number of tracks including a cover of The Hollies hit "Ain't That Just Like Me". Although the band played several local popular music venues, they did not find success, so in April 1965, he decided to join Hatch End-based Episode Six.
Episode Six
Gillan had been contacted by Episode Six's manager Gloria Bristow, who worked for Helmut Gordon, original manager of The Detours, later to become the Who. He replaced original lead singer Andy Ross, who left to get married, and joined keyboardist and singer Sheila Carter, guitarists Graham Carter and Tony Lander, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Harvey Shields. Gillan considers Episode Six to be his first truly professional band, and in their early days they were sponsored and championed by Tony Blackburn, who occasionally accompanied Gillan on stage. Later, as well as performing concerts in the UK, Episode Six also toured Germany and Beirut, and had regular appearances on the BBC Light Programme. During his time with Episode Six, Gillan began writing songs together with Glover, forming an ultimately long-lasting partnership. After a strained tour of Beirut, Shields left the band and was replaced first by John Kerrison, then by Mick Underwood. Underwood had previously played in The Outlaws with Ritchie Blackmore, and it was via him that Ian knew about Deep Purple. By 1969, after having released nine singles, none of which charted in the UK, and finding their style of music too restrictive for him, he decided to leave Episode Six.Deep Purple, 1969–1973
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. In June 1969, Blackmore, Lord and Paice went to see Episode Six perform at a pub gig 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, he was also recruited. They were both accepted into the band on 16 June 1969, replacing singer Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper, respectively. The old line up of Deep Purple continued to do several concerts until the end of The Book of Taliesyn Tour. Evans and Simper were both fired by managers Tony Edwards and John Coletta after the last show of that tour, which was at the Top Rank Club in Cardiff on 4 July.Gillan made his first onstage appearance with Deep Purple at the Speakeasy in London's 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.
Deep Purple Mk.II continued rehearsing at Hanwell Community Centre. One of Gillan's first contributions to the 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 they were interrupted in September to perform Lord's 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.
Gillan has said he was inspired by Arthur Brown to incorporate screaming into his own style: "He changed my life".
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 heavily, 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 band's managers, stating he intended to leave the band, effective from 30 June 1973.