Ian Gillan was born on 19 August 1945 and is an English singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple.
59 Facts About Ian Gillan
2.
Ian Gillan is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice.
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Ian Gillan first found widespread commercial success after joining Deep Purple in 1969.
4.
Ian Gillan resigned from the band in June 1973, having given a lengthy notice period to their managers.
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Ian Gillan returned to the group in 1993, and has remained its lead singer ever since.
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Ian Gillan was born on 19 August 1945 at Chiswick Maternity Hospital in Middlesex.
7.
Ian Gillan's 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.
8.
Ian Gillan grew up moving between council flats before settling in a three-bedroom semi-detached on a council estate in Cranford, Middlesex.
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Ian Gillan was fond of animals in his early life, and enjoyed reading Dan Dare comic strips.
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Ian Gillan's parents separated after Audrey discovered Bill had had an affair that started while he was stationed in the army during World War II.
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Ian Gillan began attending Hounslow College and stayed there through his early teenage years.
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Ian Gillan was influenced by Elvis Presley by hearing his records at home and at the local youth club.
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Ian Gillan subsequently took a job manufacturing ice machines in Hounslow.
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Ian Gillan 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.
15.
Ian Gillan soon switched to another local band who played at Dunstan's Hall, Ronnie and the Hightones, who renamed themselves as the Javelins after he joined.
16.
Ian 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.
17.
Ian Gillan 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.
18.
Ian 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 Ian Gillan on stage.
19.
Underwood had previously played in The Outlaws with Ritchie Blackmore, and it was via him that Ian Gillan knew about Deep Purple.
20.
Unsure of what to do, Ian Gillan found a pair of congas onstage, and decided to play them during these instrumental sections.
21.
In 1970, Ian 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".
22.
Ian Gillan was offered the lead role in the 1973 film adaptation.
23.
The producers declined, instead casting Ted Neeley in the Jesus role, and Ian Gillan continued on in the band.
24.
Ian Gillan started drinking, and relationships between him and the rest of the band became strained, particularly with Blackmore.
25.
Ian Gillan 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.
26.
Ian Gillan had been continually at loggerheads with Blackmore, disagreeing about music regularly, which culminated in Gillan writing "Smooth Dancer" about him.
27.
The sound of the band had a distinct jazz-rock aspect which, although interesting to Ian Gillan, proved commercially unsuccessful, particularly since punk rock was popular at the time.
28.
Ian Gillan then formed a new band, simply called Ian Gillan, retaining Towns, and adding guitarist Steve Byrd, bassist John McCoy and drummer Pete Barnacle.
29.
Byrd and Barnacle were quickly replaced by Bernie Torme and by former Episode Six bandmate Mick Underwood, after Ian Gillan saw Torme playing with his punk trio.
30.
In Christmas 1979 Ian Gillan was visited by Blackmore, who offered him the position of lead vocalist in Rainbow.
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Ian Gillan declined due to the smaller workload the band had compared to his own.
32.
Ian Gillan continued releasing Glory Road in 1980, which resulted in the band making the first of several appearances on Top of the Pops.
33.
Ian Gillan considered the album to be his best work since Machine Head nearly a decade earlier.
34.
In 1982 Ian Gillan announced the band would fold, as he needed to rest his damaged vocal cords.
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Not because Ian Gillan doesn't write good lyrics or anything like that; I think Ian Gillan is an excellent performer, great singer and often at times I think his lyrics can be quite brilliant.
36.
Ian Gillan was required to learn Sabbath's old repertoire, but had difficulty remembering the words.
37.
Ian Gillan's solution was to write the lyrics on a perspex folder and put it on the stage floor, turning the pages with his feet.
38.
Ian Gillan decided that he could not have a long-term role as Sabbath's singer and quit after a second North American tour.
39.
In contrast to his experiences with Deep Purple in the 1970s, Ian Gillan felt frustrated that the band were no longer working enough.
40.
Ian Gillan, meanwhile, formed a new version of Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners with keyboardist Mark Buckle, bassist Keith Mulholland, drummer Louis Rosenthal and guitarists Harry Shaw and Steve Morris.
41.
Ian Gillan later expressed dissatisfaction with the album, calling it "rather hum-de-dum".
42.
Ian Gillan continued to tour with his solo band, albeit with several line-up changes throughout Europe, the US and Russia.
43.
At the urging of Glover, Lord and Paice, who wanted him in the fold for the band's 25th anniversary tour, Ian Gillan rejoined Deep Purple in 1992 to record the album The Battle Rages On.
44.
Ian Gillan was unhappy with working on the album, as it had already been partially completed with Joe Lynn Turner, and he was only required to write replacement lyrics and vocal melodies, which, unsurprisingly, drew criticism from Blackmore.
45.
Ian Gillan pays particular interest to the lyrics in Deep Purple and considers it his prime composing role within the band.
46.
On 31 March 2006 Ian Gillan appeared at the Tommy Vance tribute concert in London.
47.
Ian Gillan was accompanied by Roger Glover, Steve Morris, Dean Howard, Michael Lee Jackson, Harry James, Sim Jones and Richard Cottle.
48.
Ian Gillan performed the vocals in the song Eternity from the 2006 video game Blue Dragon, composed by Nobuo Uematsu.
49.
On 3 May 2008 Ian Gillan performed at the Jeff Healey memorial concert in Toronto, Canada.
50.
Ian Gillan had previously played live with Healey in Toronto in February 2005.
51.
Ian Gillan released a studio album entitled One Eye to Morocco in March 2009.
52.
Ian Gillan has expressed 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.
53.
On 26 and 27 March 2010, in Yerevan, Ian Gillan performed with State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia.
54.
In 2010, Ian Gillan met Tony Iommi, Nicko McBrain and Jon Lord, Mikko Lindstrom from HIM and Jason Newsted at a studio in London to finish recording a song called "Out of my Mind", which was released the following year.
55.
On 20 September 2013 Ian Gillan participated in the opening of the Octet Music School in Gyumri.
56.
In 2010 Ian Gillan hosted a documentary about the Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin in Poland directed by Jerzy Szkamruk.
57.
Ian Gillan was in a relationship with Zoe Dean from 1969 to 1978.
58.
In 1984, Ian Gillan married his girlfriend Bron, to whom he had dedicated "Keep It Warm" from Black Sabbath's 1983 album Born Again.
59.
Ian Gillan supports Queens Park Rangers and is a cricket fan.