PORTRAITS OF GILLAN

PORTRAITS OF GILLAN ON LEAVING DEEP PURPLE IN JUNE 1973 IAN GILLAN seemed to turn his back on music. Instead of joining or forming a new outfit the vocalist instead invested heavily in a number of business projects and to all intents and purposes appeared to have retired. But there was more to Gillan than just his work with Purple, and he’d been singing for over a decade by this time so it was inevitable that he would eventually go back to what he did best – fronting a band and so in September 1975, in Paris, the world was introduced to the Ian Gillan band. Over the next few years the band expanded and transformed into Gillan, releasing a batch of successful albums and singles, sell-out tours, headlining the Reading Festival, guesting at the third ever Monsters of Rock event and playing a final show at Wembley Arena before the band disintegrated. What happened next surprised everyone and in April 1983, Ian Gillan, flanked by Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, was officially announced as the new singer of