The Ian Gillan Band were an English progressive

jazz-rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

band formed by singer

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is a British 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 ...

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

in 1975.

History

After leaving Deep Purple in June 1973, Ian Gillan had retired from the music business to pursue other business ventures, including motorcycle engines, a country hotel / restaurant (with a guitar shaped swimming pool), and ownership of the Kingsway Recorders studio, where from April 1974 he began to work on his first post-Deep Purple solo tracks. These ventures, apart from the recording studio, all ended in failure. This fact, combined with a warm reception to his guest appearance at Roger Glover's Butterfly Ball live show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 16 October 1975 (he sang "Sitting in a Dream" as a substitute for Ronnie James Dio, who was banned by Ritchie Blackmore to take part in it) prompted him to resume a singing career and form a new band. Initially called Shand Grenade, a combination of Shangri-la and Grenade, Gillan was persuaded by the management to change the band's name to the Ian Gillan Band. He recruited guitarist

Ray Fenwick Raymond John Fenwick (18 July 1946 – 30 April 2022) was an English guitarist and session musician, best known for his work in The Syndicats and in The Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s, and as the lead guitarist of Ian Gillan's post- Deep Pu ...

, bass player John Gustafson,

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

player Mike Moran and

Elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

percussionist

Mark Nauseef Mark Nauseef (born June 11, 1953), in Cortland, New York, is a drummer and percussionist who has enjoyed a varied career, ranging from rock music during the 1970s with his time as a member of the Ian Gillan Band and, temporarily with Thin Li ...

on drums. Using

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Ro ...

as producer and session musician, this line-up recorded their first album ''

Child In Time "Child in Time" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple, taken from their fourth studio album, ''Deep Purple in Rock'', released in 1970. The track is loosely inspired by the Cold War and runs over ten minutes. History and characteristic ...

'' in December 1975 / January 1976. In February 1976 Moran was replaced by

Mickey Lee Soule Mickey Lee Soule (June 6, 1946 in Cortland, New York) is an American musician. He was the keyboard player for New York hard rock band Elf and a founding member of Rainbow. Soule had a band in the mid-1960s until he was drafted into the army. A ...

(ex-

and

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

), but for the recording of follow-up album ''

Clear Air Turbulence In meteorology, clear-air turbulence (CAT) is the turbulent movement of air masses in the absence of any visual clues, such as clouds, and is caused when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet. The atmospheric region most suscepti ...

'' he was dropped in May 1976 in favour of

Colin Towns Colin William Towns (born 13 May 1948 in West Ham, London) is an English composer and keyboardist. He was noted for playing in bands formed by ex-Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan, and later worked extensively in composing soundtracks for film, telev ...

. The band had some success in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

but none at all in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and only cult status in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, their jazz fusion direction unappealing to pop and rock fans alike. Their first album, ''Child In Time'', reached 55 on the UK charts and 36 in Sweden. Their third album, ''

Scarabus ''Scarabus'' is the third and the last studio album by British jazz rock band Ian Gillan Band, released in October 1977. The album was reissued in 1982 by Virgin Records in the height of popularity of Ian Gillan's group Gillan (a CD edition f ...

'' (1977), had more of a rock sound but retained the jazz fusion direction. Released at the height of punk rock, there was no success beyond

and their label

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

dropped them. The following year Gillan dissolved the band but retained Colin Towns and formed a new band called simply Gillan. A live album was released after the breakup. John Gustafson said: "Gillan decided he didn’t like the band’s direction and wanted to do more rock stuff. In reality, he should have put his foot down a lot earlier. I personally was expecting Deep Purple stuff, but he let us do whatever we wanted."

Members

Ian Gillan Band

– vocals (1975–1978) *

– guitars (1975–1978) * John Gustafson – bass guitar (1975–1978) *

– drums (1975–1978) * Mike Moran – keyboards (1975–1976) *

– keyboards (1976) *

– keyboards (1976–1978)

Gillan

*Ian Gillan – vocals (1978–1983) *Colin Towns – keyboards (1978–1983) * John McCoy – bass guitar (1978–1983) *

Steve Byrd Stephen John "Steve" Byrd (25 September 1955 – 2 October 2016) was an English guitarist and session musician who has worked with artists including Kim Wilde (from 1982–95), Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, ZZebra and many others. Initially a self-t ...

– guitars (1978–1979) *

Bernie Tormé Bernie Tormé (born Bernard Joseph Tormey; 18 March 1952 – 17 March 2019) was an Irish rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, record label and recording studio owner. Tormé is best known for his work with Gillan, as well as his brief stints wit ...

– guitars (1979–1981) *

Janick Gers Janick Robert Gers (; born 27 January 1957) is an English musician who is best known as one of the three guitarists in heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He initially joined to replace Adrian Smith, but remained in the band after Smith rejoined. G ...

– guitars (1981–1983) *

Liam Genockey Liam Genockey (born 12 August 1948) is an Irish musician, who is the drummer with British folk rock band Steeleye Span. Biography Genockey was born in Dublin, Ireland. During the 1960s he lived in Plymouth, Devon, U.K, playing in local semi- ...

– drums (1978) *

Pete Barnacle Pete Barnacle is an English rock drummer who has played for various bands including Gillan,Thompson, Dave (2004) ''Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story'', ECW Press, , p. 214 Girl,Jasper, Tony & Oliver, Derek (1985) ''The international En ...

– drums (1979) *

Mick Underwood Michael John Underwood (born 5 September 1945) is an English drummer. He first played drums at the age of 14 and was a professional musician by the time he left school. Underwood has collaborated with a number of notable musicians and groups, ...

– drums (1979–1983)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:25 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1975 till:01/12/1982 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1975 ScaleMinor = increment:2 start:1976 Colors = id:Band value:yellow legend:Band id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:Guitars value:green legend:Guitars id:Keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums id:Lines value:black legend:Studio_releases LineData = at:11/07/1976 color:black layer:back at:15/04/1977 color:black layer:back at:17/10/1977 color:black layer:back at:11/09/1978 color:black layer:back at:19/10/1979 color:black layer:back at:10/10/1980 color:black layer:back at:06/04/1981 color:black layer:back at:15/10/1981 color:black layer:back at:12/10/1982 color:black layer:back BarData = bar:IGBand text:"Ian Gillan Band" bar:Gillan text:"Gillan" bar:IGillan text:"Ian Gillan" bar:Fenwick text:"Ray Fenwick" bar:Byrd text:"Steve Byrd" bar:Tormé text:"Bernie Tormé" bar:Gers text:"Janick Gers" bar:Moran text:"Mike Moran" bar:Soule text:"Mickey Lee Soule" bar:Towns text:"Colin Towns" bar:Gustafson text:"John Gustafson" bar:McCoy text:"John McCoy" bar:Nauseef text:"Mark Nauseef" bar:Genockey text:"Liam Genockey" bar:Barnacle text:"Pete Barnacle" bar:Underwood text:"Mick Underwood" PlotData= width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:IGBand from:start till:01/01/1978 color:Band bar:Gillan from:01/01/1978 till:end color:Band bar:IGillan from:start till:end color:Vocals bar:Fenwick from:start till:01/01/1978 color:Guitars bar:Byrd from:01/01/1978 till:01/07/1979 color:Guitars bar:Tormé from:01/07/1979 till:01/07/1981 color:Guitars bar:Gers from:01/07/1981 till:end color:Guitars bar:Moran from:start till:01/02/1976 color:Keyboards bar:Soule from:01/02/1976 till:01/10/1976 color:Keyboards bar:Towns from:01/10/1976 till:end color:Keyboards bar:Gustafson from:start till:01/01/1978 color:Bass bar:McCoy from:01/01/1978 till:end color:Bass bar:Nauseef from:start till:01/01/1978 color:Drums bar:Genockey from:01/01/1978 till:01/09/1978 color:Drums bar:Barnacle from:01/09/1978 till:01/07/1979 color:Drums bar:Underwood from:01/07/1979 till:end color:Drums

Discography

Studio albums

* ''

Child in Time "Child in Time" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple, taken from their fourth studio album, ''Deep Purple in Rock'', released in 1970. The track is loosely inspired by the Cold War and runs over ten minutes. History and characteristic ...

'' (1976, Oyster) * ''

'' (1977,

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

) * ''

'' (1977, Virgin Records)

Live albums

* '' Live at the Budokan'' (1978,

Eastworld Eastworld is a Japanese jazz and pop music record label owned by EMI Music Japan (former Toshiba-EMI), under Universal Music Group. Artists *Minako Honda *Jennifer Connelly *Marvin Peterson *Original Love *RC Succession *Sadistic Mika Band * San ...

) * ''Live: Yubin Chokin Hall, Hiroshima'' (2001,

Angel Air Angel Airlines, trading as Angel Air, was an airline based in Bangkok, Thailand, which was operational between 1998 and 2003. Destinations Over the years, Angel Airlines flew to the following destinations: Thailand * Bangkok — Don Mueang In ...

) * ''Live at the Rainbow 1977'' (2002, Angel Air)

Compilation albums

* ''Anthology'' (2002) * ''Rarities 1975–1977'', (2003)

Singles

* "You Make Me Feel So Good" / "Shame" (Europe, 1976) * "Down the Road" / "Lay Me Down" (US/Japan, 1976) * "Country Lights / Poor Boy Hero" (Japan, 1977) * "Twin Exhausted / Five Moons" (Japan, 1977) * "Mad Elaine" / "Mercury High" (UK, 1978) * "Smoke on the Water" (live) / "Mad Elaine" (Japan, 1978)

References

Sources

* *

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillan Band, Ian English progressive rock groups Musical groups established in 1975 Musical groups disestablished in 1978 1975 establishments in England 1978 disestablishments in England Ian Gillan