The Official Ian Gillan Thread

Great vocalist. I'm a casual Deep Purple fan but I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE Black Sabbath's Born Again. What does everyone else think of this gifted singer (love that wail) and is his solo stuff worth picking up?

You gotta be careful IMO. "The Ian Gillan Band" is strange proggy fusion type stuff. But his band "Gillen" is essential. I don't like every Gillen song, but there are classics on every album. He also made a nice (but not heavy) album with Roger Glover "Accidentally on Purpose"; and I like some of solo stuff as well. Definitely start with the "Gillan" stuff from the Mr. Universe era. It's the most like Purple.

Ian Gillan one of the greatest rock vocalist period. Yes his solo stuff is worth picking up, grab " Mr Universe", " Magic" and " Double Trouble" which features future Iron Maiden axe man Janick Gers.

I agree with SAHB, " Child in Time' and LIve at Budokan" with the Ian Gillan Band are albums you approach with caution, they are progressive somewhat mellower rock, like Gillan was running as far away from Deep Purple sound has he could. It's not bad, but I doubt it something that will get many spins.

Speaking Gillan I have to up grade my collection I have all his solo album on vinyl or cassette.

manny wrote:

Ian Gillan is one of the greatest rock vocalist period. Yes his solo stuff is worth picking up, grab " Mr Universe", " Magic" and " Double Trouble" which features future Iron Maiden axe man Janick Gers.

Agree on both points. Outstanding vocalist and GILLAN (the band) is definitely worth checking out. Some of the GILLAN stuff is pretty heavy and is as heavy as anything Priest did in the 70's . Some of his Ian Gillan and Ian Gillan Band releases are quite different. Some of it is jazz inspired, while other material is more blues inspired.

I've seen Ian Gillan live with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. In both cases he was outstanding.

Cool, guys. Thanks for the recommends!

Btw Metal Misfit I saw Amazon had a number of Gillan and Ian Gillan Band CDS on their site, I am amusing these are reissues, also Metal Blade for a short time had reissued most of Gillan albums in the early 90's with bonus tracks. IMO none of the bonus tracks were essential but you may want to check ebay for those Metal Blade releases since I am not sure that Gillan albums that look like they have recently been reissued contain any bonus tracks.

Ian is my favorite vocalist and Born Again is my favorite album, awesome stuff with Deep Purple as well. When it comes to his solo, Id start off with the "Gillan" material, Ian Gillan Band is still good, but its a more melodic/lighter style as compared to his other stuff.

One of my favorite albums of the past few years:



Ian revisits songs that span his career and hits one out of the park! Many great guest appearances including Tony Iommi (they re-recorded Trashed), Ronnie James Dio, Joe Satriani, Uli Jon Roth, Jeff Healey, Steve Morse and many others. Essential.

Ian is in my top 5 favorite vocalists of all time...and he writes some of the funniest "stream of consciousness" lyrics ever.

The guy is a legend in my book.

I have been looking into some of his solo stuff for a few weeks now. I am a rabid Deep Purple fan, but am a bit leery of some of Gillan's solo discs. Ult's site and Wiki have been good sources of info as some of them are Jazz inspired prog rock. I saw over the weekend that Newbury Comics had a bunch of re-releases of his stuff (all 2 cd sets brand new for $17.99) but I can't remember if it was IGB or just Gillan. Thanks also for the info in this thread and to MM for the thread. Peace.

I like GILLAN albums more then the DEEP PURPLE albums. Albums like FUTURE SHOCK or DOUBLE TROUBLE were NWOBHM sounding records that i realy love.