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Years to come, hopefully
Ian Gillan has appeared today, August 21, 2024, on the Eddie Trunk show Trunk Nation. When asked if a retirement is in the plans for the band and/or himself, he said:
There’s no intention to stop. At the moment… I spoke to my manager the other day. I’ve got some solo project. He said, ‘You’re gonna have to put ’em back,’ and I’m putting them back years. We’re already booked to the end of ’26, in the planning stage, in the diary, with all the projects we’ve got for DEEP PURPLE. So, yeah, years to come, hopefully.
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads-up and the quote.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I´ve been watching a lot of videos on You tube from Purples ongoing tour and everytime theres a guitar or keyboard solo Gillan leaves the stage and goes behind the stage..I dont know what he does behind the stage.. just taking a rest och drink something for his throat..I dont know..but it doesnt look good him disappearing like that everytime theres a solo. I love IG for me he´s the only singer for DP always has been.. but his throat and singing on stage doesnt sound that good these days.. when you look at him singing he´s face looks like a weight lifter in trouble…. I hope they all can carry on til 2026.. but I doubt Gillan can…
August 22nd, 2024 at 07:59it gets to the point when it gets embarrassing.. just look at Dylans conserts nowdays on You tube.. he lost his voice years ago but still go on tour round the world.. but nobody can hear what he´s singing…or talking in his case..its embarrassing.
Yo,
That’s great news, & you can’t ask for more than that !
Peace !
August 22nd, 2024 at 11:27@1: Gillan has been leaving stage during solos for a long time, probably 10, 15 years. It was a long time ago the congas disappeared.
August 22nd, 2024 at 11:59@ 1… When you get that age you will figure it out, with all the liquids you consume to keep yourself hydrated it has to end up somewhere 🚽
August 22nd, 2024 at 12:08For me the biggest excitement is that the guys are performing on average 4 new songs from their new album on stage live.
August 22nd, 2024 at 13:35This is very exciting and I think their new album will go down as pillar in the catalogue of DP
Peace ✌️
Well Gillan always looked like he struggles with singing. He is beeing accused he can’t sing since 84 so it’s like 4o years now. He was ill and could not sing at several European shows and everybody where afraid with the US very tight schedule but he got over it and is doing fine.
August 22nd, 2024 at 13:46“I don’t know what he does behind the stage …”
Easy, he rests, Wiktor! At least since the Infinite Tour, probably already before that, Gillan has a daybed backstage (hidden from sight to the audience, but close to where the band is operating) and lies down there during his frequent stage departures. Classic Rock reported about that (not in a nasty way, but as a fact of life and coming to terms with age) as a tour observation when the journo in question joined DP for a week or two (and interviewed each and every band member at length, it was a very good article). And why not? I nap and rest a lot more than I used to too.
For a couple of years now, I go to every DP gig expecting that it might be likely the last one. One not too far away day – unless someone is stricken with an affliction requiring home care – one of them will drop dead on stage/backstage or not show up for the hotel breakfast in the morning. But that is what they have collectively decided how they want it, so it’s all good.
Rick Parfitt died the first time backstage at a Quo gig in Turkey in June 2016, it took an inordinate long time to resuscitate him and Francis Rossi, never a man to mince words, who witnessed it, said in the aftermath (after Rick had finally ascended into the eternal rhythm guitar grounds from a hospital bed in Spain in December 2016, his organs having given up on him after a sepsis): “It wasn’t a pretty sight. I was wishing for them to stop.” Die with your boots on.
August 22nd, 2024 at 14:16@1: Quite a while back at one of the Glasgow shows, we could see the edge of Gillan’s ‘tent.’ After going off stage during a solo, he seemed to fall backwards onto a sort of table in the tent, and lay there until it was time to go back onstage. Everything seemed to be fine with him when he was performing though.
August 22nd, 2024 at 16:05what REALLY happens behind the stage 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lET9XKpO3eo
August 22nd, 2024 at 16:42@9 IG leaving the stage used to rub me the wrong way also, but now that I see what is really going on, I don’t blame him. Lol.
August 22nd, 2024 at 17:11That seems to me to be a recipe for eternal youth, all power to him!
August 22nd, 2024 at 17:17@1 Gillan started lying down and taking rests in 2010 during shows until he got his medical situation under control. Now, he just goes back to take a swig of water to hydrate his voice and body. Nothing wrong with that. He’s still listening to the music, but giving the other guys in the band the spotlight when they’re doing the solos. As for the comment about not making it to 2026: you’ve got to be kidding. They just put out their hardest-rocking album in 26 years.
August 22nd, 2024 at 21:28The ‘shenanigans’ of behind the stage have certainly changed over time, for some at least. Unless Gillan still thinks Ritchie is back there & getting up to no good. Old habits die hard. However I do think Gillan is most probably conversing with Father Time back there. After all, he waits for no one. “Not yet Ian, get back out there”. Cheers.
August 22nd, 2024 at 22:33Just saw them in Cincy. They played 5 songs off =1. Big Ian sounded the best I’ve ever heard him sing. I think this is around my 10th show beginning around 2000.
I’m not kidding, this band played with vigor, fun and a fire that burns deep.
It was an amazing show and the crowd is giving them energy right back, even on the new stuff. 5 off of =1 and Uncommon Man, of course the old stuff drew the bigger applause, but the crowd ate up the whole set.
As far as backstage, I believe he does lie down. Been doing it for years. If that’s what it takes, keep on keeping on with it.
This band is on FIRE right now. I took a so so Purple fan with me and he walked away talking about the energy those guys were putting out. He said if he had to guess, he would have said at best they were in their 60s and they killed that show
August 22nd, 2024 at 22:40and I think he actually only knew 4 songs out of the set.
Like the old guy we all know who insists he is still safe to drive when all of the evidence points to the contrary.
August 23rd, 2024 at 04:51@1 & @9 … he gets Oxygen and Special Treatment for the next number, just the usual thing….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jORz1wtDIpA
August 23rd, 2024 at 05:37Wiktor @1
August 23rd, 2024 at 06:03In the good old days IG used to disappear during Ritchie’s extended guitar solos during child in time and have entertainment under the table 😉
Could he still be doing the same.
Welcome to DP where have you been since 69
Peace ✌️
#9 Thanks for the link. Hadn’t seen that one before. Now I understand. There was an interview once on American TV where was asked what he was doing during “a lengthy guitar solo”. Still the same.
August 23rd, 2024 at 07:10Yeah..I buy that..that Gillan is getting old and need a rest behind the stage.. but at the same time..I cant see Paicy walking off the stage everytime theres a solo and rest his arms.. and he´s getting old too,, But I wish all of them the best for many years to come!
August 23rd, 2024 at 09:44It never bothered me if a singer strolls off stage when there is nothing to do for him, DC did it with Purple all the time too. I’m fine concentrating on what the other band members then do, I don’t need a guy jumping around doing crowd animation. Jagger does that fine, but not everyone has to. Big Ian was never much of a mover in any case.
It’s all very tame now with him, didn’t he use to collect female oral attention backstage during instrumental parts in the past? His personal flute solos were legendary. Let me serenade you.
Re recuperating backstage: KISS and Meatloaf already took regular oxygen mask gasps backstage in the 70s.
August 23rd, 2024 at 14:37“Gillan is getting old”
We all are. By the second. This ain’t a Taylor Swift forum.
August 23rd, 2024 at 15:31Maybe the DP gigs these last two decades or so are not situated near a pub? We know Gillan used to wander offf way back in the day when things became boring. Amd while we are at it, the songs are shorter these days, so he doesn’ get the time to get to the pub. As soon as he is heading out the door, ‘oops’ the guitarist and or keyboard player has already finished his solo. Lengthen the songs & books gigs close to a pub.
August 24th, 2024 at 00:23“Gillan is getting old”
“We all are. By the second. This ain’t a Taylor Swift forum”. No it isn’t and Taylor will NEVER grow old. Well until she looks in the mirror one day & God help that mirror. Cheers.
Uwe … I don’t want to get too gross, but IG has some amazing backstage and understage stories from yore, as you might imagine from someone who was the lead singer of a global band in the late 1960s/early ’70s. If you ever get a chance, ask him about the “hairbrush incident” backstage in a small room one time. Gillan and his friends were behaving, but some lady was not. A guy walked into the room and asked for a brush and Ian retrieved it.
August 24th, 2024 at 01:44@21 Uwe
😂
that’s what I always say to those who say enough DP JUDAS PRIEST IRONS etc we too grow old, only they grow old doing what they have always loved while many of us grow old in boredom, without a passion
Ciaooo
August 24th, 2024 at 12:33Yo,
Herr Uwe stated re-IG’s movents off-stage during a show…
qt.”His personal flute solos were legendary”…
His conga-playing was much better when we could hear it, & it’s dearly missed…A vital component for the music that’s regretfully missing in today’s shows.
Peace !
August 24th, 2024 at 14:02James’ contributions – like @23 – are always of most intriguing nature. A brush being retrieved , you say … the mind, it doth boggle …
August 24th, 2024 at 20:12on NON MONEY TO BURN everybody can understand why the sound of the drums is so shitly bad..
August 24th, 2024 at 22:11@16 Very interesting, indeed. The All Access doc shows that Ian rests before the show, as well. I saw the show in OK and was really looking forward to HLM. As well as Simon played it, I don’t think anybody can play the solo better than Steve did, live. Technical brilliance.
August 25th, 2024 at 00:41Help me, Aireight, what is ‘HLM’ again, ich steh’ auf’m Schlauch …
**************************
“on NON MONEY TO BURN everybody can understand why the sound of the drums is so shitly bad …”
Surely, AndreA, you’re not really saying that Big Ian hid Little Ian’s drum brush somewhere where it needed delicate retrieval?
The plot thickens, I like how all you guys think. 😎
August 27th, 2024 at 15:54@29 Seriously? ‘HLM’? Hughes Loves Morse? Hard Lovin’ Man? Love Help Me (scrambled)?
😉
August 27th, 2024 at 19:03Hard Lovin’Man – yup, that was it, danke!
August 27th, 2024 at 21:40