Background

Gillan was born on August 19, 1945, at Chiswick Maternity Hospital. 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, came from a family where she 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 "Blue Rondo à la Turk" on the piano.

Education

At the age of 4, Gillan began attending Hounslow College and remained 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 (now Acton High 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.

Career

At the age of 16, Ian Gillan formed a band with the name The Moonshiners. Shortly after he began singing with The Javelins for about two years up until late 1964. Ian was so exceptional that he was approached by Wainwrights Gentlemen (who later became widely known as Sweet) and spend some time with them. It was summer of 1965 when he was offered the microphone of Episode Six. During those formative years, Ian used a range of pseudonyms (Jess Thunder, Jess Gillan, Garth Rockett, and others).

The time with Episode Six was highly significant. Extensive tours, many recordings, and generally hard work within a very professional framework. Ian was now very equipped for the years to come. But it was not only the experience on the road and on the studio. It was also the connections with the music industry with some of the pro musicians of the time perhaps most importantly with founder member Roger Glover. Episode Six worked very hard but the success was not equal to their efforts. Eventually, Ian was offered a position to replace Rod Evans in Deep Purple.

For the following four years, he is the magnificent voice on four of the most classic hard rock albums ever released! It is now that Deep Purple and Ian are establishing themselves on to the global scene. During this period apart from participating in the recordings of the 1970 Jesus Christ Superstar (he sang the role of Jesus) he also produced albums of other bands most notably for Jerusalem. However, most of his time is dedicated to Deep Purple. Another exceptional landmark of this period is the participation in Jon Lord's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra." This was the first time ever for a heavy rock group to perform and record with a Symphonic Orchestra. A monument in music history where two (at first sight diverse) worlds merge to produce an astonishing outcome of extraordinary brilliance and amazing craft! The merging of classical music and heavy metal, more than twenty years after, in the 1990s, was meant to be a healthy tendency for the genre and everyone who followed it (Rage, Metallica, Y. Malmsteen, Scorpions, etc) had that 1970 recording in mind.

It was 1973 when Gillan and Glover decided to part ways with Deep Purple. Ian took some time off to focus on a few businesses: a recording studio, a hotel, and a motorbike engine company. The year 1975 marks the beginning of his solo career. He forms the Ian Gillan Band where many progressive and jazz-rock elements come up. In 2 years (until late 1977) he made three studio albums plus the legendary "Live At The Budokan." Although the reception by the fans and the critics alike is quite a worm, Ian feels that there is indeed something missing. Major changes follow: band members come and go, the name shortens to just Gillan and a rockier approach to the music is delivered.

Late 1970's: under Gillan two records hit the stores: the self-titled "Gillan" (aka the "Japanese Album") and "Mr. Universe." The reception is now much greater. A new decade is emerging (along with new tendencies in heavy-rock music) and up until 1982 three more albums "Glory Road," "Future Shock," and "Magic" make the difference. This was a peak time. Ian Gillan was surrounded by some very good musicians and they were widely recognized as a driving force in Europe and Japan. All the albums get major chart success; they tour excessively and headline some of the most important festivals of the era.

1983 marks a beautiful but controversial moment in Ian's history. He accepted an offer to join heavy metal giants Black Sabbath after the departure of Ronnie James Dio. He only stayed for a year, recording just one album with them and doing a few shows. Fans and critics were divided. Nevertheless, it is a year that will be remembered for the combination of Iommi's riffing and Gillan's vocal cords.

Another great record followed, "The House Of Blue Light," although not of equal success but with strong material too. It is 1989 when the relations between the band members and most notably between Blackmore and everybody else start to shake big time and Gillan is fired. The first six months of 1989 he resurrects the name of his first band (The Moonshiners) and under the moniker Garth Rockett he goes on touring. A year before that Ian and Roger Glover spend some quality time in the Bahamas to record the joint effort "Accidentally On Purpose," yet another flower on both their discographies.

The 1990s saw Gillan striking back as a solo artist. "Naked Thunder" and "Toolbox" proved the wide scope of his productive ideas. Once more, while new emerging tendencies in heavy & rock music are sweeping the charts, Gillan delivers well-balanced albums preserving the classic rock values which are now enhanced with a variety of fresh ideas. The Deep Purple management and their label, recognized the mistake to suck Gillan and got him back to the band against the wish of Blackmore. The controversial 1993 album "The Battle Rages On" reflects the fragile relationships between Blackmore and the rest of the members. This is also evident on the video material that was recorded during the tour that followed. Shortly after, Blackmore left the band and the remaining members with Steve Morse on guitar continue to the present day.

During the 1990s Ian Gillan was also involved in a variety of interesting projects. Along with names such as Bruce Dickinson, Bryan Adams, Keith Emerson, Dave Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Tony Iommi, Jon Lord, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Roger Taylor and Ritchie Blackmore he re-recorded 'Smoke On The Water' for a charity album to benefit the victims of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. As a guest, he sang with the Danish heavy metal band Pretty Maids in their 'In Santa's Claws' single. He participated on The Bolland Project's recording "Darwin The Evolution." He was the guest of Greek pop/rock artist Michalis Rakintzis on his "Etsi M' Aresei" record and also shared the stage with him in Greece. In 1994 he gathered his friends from The Javelins and they recorded the album "Sole Agency And Representation." Two years later he recorded a rap version of 'Smoke On The Water' with rapper Ray Slijngaard. In 1999, thirty years after the first performance, Jon Lord's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" was delivered again with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann.

The new millennium found Ian Gillan involved in many interesting things. He sang twice (2001, 2003) in a duet with Luciano Pavarotti the aria 'Nessun Dorma.' In 2004 he performed some guest vocals on Dean Howard's album "Volume One." On September 11th, 2006 he shared the stage with Lars Ulrich from Metallica for 'Smoke On The Water.' In 2006 Ian sang on the track 'Eternity' which was included in the soundtrack of the video game Blue Dragon. The music was written by Nobuo Uematsu. Also, he appeared in the 2007 album "Danger. White Men Dancing" by the Hoochie Coochie Men & Jon Lord.

A significant recording of this period is "Gillan's Inn" (2006) which is a CD/multimedia project and features current re-recordings of Ian's Purple, Sabbath, and solo material. It was made to celebrate his 40 – year recording career and one will find very interesting appearances from many past and present musicians who have worked with him and not only (Iommi, Satriani, Lord, Glover, Paice, etc).

Ian Gillan sang on two songs off the Jon Lord & Hoochie Coochie Men studio album, Danger. White Men Dancing, released in late 2007. On 2 April 2007 Gillan released a DVD Highway Star – A Journey in Rock. The DVD has 6 hours of footage including documentaries and music clips. This was followed in February 2008 by a double live album on Edel Records, Live in Anaheim that features Gillan and Deep Purple classic songs and several rarities. A companion DVD was released in May 2008.

In 2010 Ian Gillan hosted a documentary about the Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin in Poland directed by Jerzy Szkamruk. Chopin's Story is about the rise of the composer and documents his Polish years. The film has won several international awards, including the Best Documentary award at Tourfilm International Festival in Florianopolis, Brazil. It was aired on the Polish channel Discovery Historia on 21 June 2011. It was subsequently released on DVD.

On April 7, 2017, Deep Purple released their twentieth studio album, Infinite.

Achievements

• 

  Ian Gillan is best remembered for his high-octane voice in the 70s in front of the genre's loudest band, the dynamic Deep Purple. They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, and have sold over 100 million copies of their albums worldwide. Deep Purple were ranked number 22 on VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock programme and a poll on British radio station Planet Rock ranked them 5th among the "most influential bands ever." The band received the Legend Award at the 2008 World Music Awards. Deep Purple (specifically Blackmore, Lord, Paice, Gillan, Glover, Coverdale, Evans and Hughes) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

Works

More photos

• music

  • Concerto For Group And Orchestra

    ( )

    1969
  • In Rock 1970
  • Jesus Christ Superstar 1970
  • Fireball 1971
  • Machine Head 1972
  • Made In Japan 1972
  • Who Do We Think We Are 1973
  • Child In Time 1976
  • Clean Air Turbulence 1977
  • Scarabus 1977
  • Mr. Universe 1979
  • Glory Road 1980
  • Future shock 1981
  • Magic 1982
  • Perfect strangers 1984
  • House Of Blue Light 1987
  • The Battle Rages On 1993
  • Purpendicular 1996
  • Dreamcatcher 1997
  • Abandon 1998
  • Bananas 2003
  • Rapture of the Deep 2005
  • Gillan's Inn 2006
  • One Eye To Morocco by Ian Gillan 2009
  • Now What?! 2013
  • Infinite 2017

Religion

Ian Gillan said: "God is not the same thing as religion. And my understanding of God and religion has been encapsulated in a small phrase by saying to my friends that if I was born in Mecca, it’s most unlikely that I would have grown up a Catholic, and if you follow that line of thinking, you can understand the difference between how we understand God, or the spirit, or the human soul with our own local culture, with our own environment.

And, of course, they’re all different. And we end up having arguments about God, but I believe strongly that we have a spirit within us, and we might as well call it God. It is a word that we understand and a word that everyone respects. But religions claim there is one God. And each religion, I believe, is valued. But it’s very old. And, well, it’s reading from books, written by Prophets a long time ago. And we can improve our science of understanding. Euclid told us about parallel lines, but a hundred years ago we started thinking contemporarily and we now know that parallel lines don’t exist. And my dream is to just continue to explore these things with people, who have imagination and try to bring understanding a little further, forward. If we can jump our science forward, then we can jump our thinking of God forward as well. And we can improve our moral guidance and maybe change things a little bit. It’s not that dramatic, but it’s very important to me."

Politics

Ian Gillan said: "I’m apolitical. The whole political system drives me nuts. We get nothing done at all. Our democracy – supposedly the envy of the world – is ruled by minorities, people who shout the loudest getting the most influence. My dad worked in a factory. He was a shop steward, a big believer in the power of a union. My mother was a teacher, a very ‘small c’ conservative. As a kid, I used to hear them arguing, and I learned from a very early age that if you took the best bits of what my dad said and the best bits of what my mum believed in, that was probably the best way forward. We don’t seem to have grasped that. Meanwhile, it’s as if every single argument or debate is reduced to grains of sand. It’s about time we woke up and realised we’re standing in the desert."

Views

Gillan has expressed a particular fondness for Armenia and has maintained popularity there since Rock Aid Armenia in 1989, which has led to him forming the supergroup WhoCares as a side-project to Deep Purple. On 2 October 2009, in honour of the 20th anniversary of Rock Aid Armenia, Gillan together with Tony Iommi, Geoff Downes, and the project organizer Jon Dee were received by the Prime Minister of Armenia who awarded them with the republic's Orders of Honour.

Quotations: "I haven't ever had any ambition in my life. I just drift from day to day with a stupid grin on my face."

"Buy real records in real shops, or I'll come round your house and scream at your mother."

"Heavy metal drives me bonkers, it makes me want to vomit, heavy metal really is a pile of puke."

"We spent a long time learning the craft of songwriting, Roger Glover and I, for a few years before we joined Deep Purple. You learn about the percussive value of words, and you learn about rhyme and meter. You learn that you can't transform a poem into a song lyric, mostly because the spoken shape of words is different than the sung shape of words. You wouldn't use the vowel 'U' or the vowel sound 'ooo' for a high note for example, its very difficult."

"I totally ignore people who criticize me for coming to Israel, including whats-his-name [Roger Waters]. If he were to contact me, I would tell him to tell it where the sun don't shine."

Personality

Ian Gillan has a strong personality, which sometimes led to conflicts with others, most notably with Ritchie Blackmore. Gillan can't stand aggressive guards at concerts. On August 15, 1998, he was charged with assaulting a guard after hitting him in the head with a microphone.

Physical Characteristics: Gillan possesses a voсal range from Е2 to С6.

Quotes from others about the person

• Joe Elliot: "In 1971, there were only three bands that mattered, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple."

Interests

• His interests outside music are: his family, walking, drinking in good company, and scribbling his thoughts.

• Sport & Clubs

  football, cricket

• Athletes

  Queens Park Rangers

• Music & Bands

  Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly

Connections

Gillan was in a relationship with Zoe Dean from 1969 to 1978. They had known each other since his time in Episode Six. In 1984, Gillan married his girlfriend Bron, to whom he had dedicated "Keep It Warm" from Black Sabbath's 1983 album Born Again. They have twice since renewed their marriage vows.

Wife:

Bron Gillan

girlfriend:

Zoe Dean

colleague:

Roger David Glover

Roger David Glover is a British bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the bassist for hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow.

colleague:

Steve Morse

Steve Morse is an American guitarist and composer, best known as the founder of the Dixie Dregs; and since 1994, the guitar player of Deep Purple.

colleague:

Ian Paice

Ian Anderson Paice is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the English rock band Deep Purple. He has been the band's only constant member since its foundation.

colleague:

Donald Smith Airey

Donald Smith Airey has been the keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple since 2002, after the retirement of Jon Lord.

colleague:

Ritchie Blackmore

Richard Hugh Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the founder members of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard-rock music which mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. During his solo career he established the heavy metal band Rainbow, which fused baroque music influences and elements of hard rock.

References

• Deep Purple: Wait for the Ricochet: The Story of Deep Purple In Rock
• Deep Purple: A Matter of Fact
• The Road of Golden Dust: The Deep Purple Story 1968-76
• Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story
• Uncut Magazine The Ultimate Music Guide Deep Purple 50 Years in Rock 1968-2018
• Classic Rock Magazine (June, 2018) Deep Purple Cover