[hand] [face]
The Original Deep Purple Web Pages
The Highway Star

The joys of country living

This is a 1977 vintage interview with the country gentleman Ian Gillan, taken during the IGB Japanese tour.

Thanks to the Deep Purple Podcast for posting this, and to Uwe Hornung for bringing it to your attention.



10 Comments to “The joys of country living”:

  1. 1
    Karin Verndal says:

    Thanks Uwe 🙌🏼

    Is this Ian?? Gillan?
    Ohh man I can’t recognise his voice here 😯

  2. 2
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Who says that jazz rock isn’t mind-expanding: “primitive forms of existence”, “the powers of mental energy”, and, of course, “the human race without bodies”, Ian shares slices of his own personal philosophy and visions of the future with us @03:20 faster than you can spell out “e-s-o-t-e-r-i-c” …🤯

    Returning to Ian’s penchant for somewhat flexible changes of view: While he showers Mark Nauseef @01:02 with accolades in this interview, six years later, while on tour with Black Sabbath, the thrill seems to have paled somewhat and memories darkened:

    “Mark Nauseef is a musical snob and he thinks that he is above people that play hard rock, so I knew that he would be disappointed when I wanted to do “Smoke On The Water”. The record company wanted some Purple stuff for the sake of increased sales so we ended up playing “Woman From Tokyo” and “Child In Time” as well. But the guys didn´t want to perform them like the original versions so we ended up doing them in this horrible way. But I don´t want to say anything bad about the Ian Gillan Band, I learnt more in that band than I can ever use. But I was so bored by the time we did “Scarabus” and that´s when I decided to end that and start what became GILLAN instead.”

    Uhum. Let’s watch Mark Nauseef “looking down on people who play hard rock” here in Australia (only a few months after the dissolution of IGB):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmBy48YJKd4

    For being allegedly such an arrogant prick vis-à-vis hard rock musicians, I’ve heard people drum worse and with less enthusiasm for Thin Lizzy, just sayin’. 😑

    In truth, Mark, who elevated Jon Lord’s Sarabande with his wonderful percussion work, is simply a world musician in the truest sense of the word, a man with an open mind:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2IUJGpGkCw

    Oh, I forgot, watch him look really down on Gary Moore in 1979 here!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdYoDZy8xZY

    No matter, at least the late great Ray Fenwick was unrepentant in his pride for the work he had done with IGB:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeBaCdTAm8Q

    Also included in the Fenwick interview: John Gustafson’s little French chair-out-of-the-hotel-window incident … @04:19.

    https://dmme.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gus3-300×214.jpg
    Don’t mess with this man!

  3. 3
    MacGregor says:

    Interesting comments about the future of human existence in our bodies. I wonder what Uwe thinks of that, hmmmmmmmmmm interesting @ 2.48. Go Ian. Cheers.

  4. 4
    Uwe Hornung says:

    That was exactly his voice as a young man, liebe Karin, it just sounds a bit more nasal via the telephone sound:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESzYQhMT6Q8

    Like with most of us, his speaking voice and speech rhythm has changed over the decades.

  5. 5
    Andrew M says:

    @4: some of the change, not only in Gillan’s speaking voice but also in others’, reflects changes in accent, and especially the social status of the accent. Roughly speaking, the Purple guys sounded more working class, or regional, when they were young, but have gradually come to sound more middle class, closer to the so called Received Pronunciation, as the decades have passed. (I’m ignoring Glenn’s adoption in the seventies of an almost convincing African-American accent on stage.) Whether the changes were deliberate, I don’t know; either is perfectly possible. The most striking example is Coverdale, who now sounds like an upper middle class gent, though that wasn’t his background at all.

  6. 6
    Karin Verndal says:

    @4
    Yeah ok Uwe ☺️
    No one would like to sound like we did as teens!

    I have to say this: I was listening to David Coverdale today, minding my own business, drinking coffee, listening to several different songs, and then my friend came by!
    I promise with everything that is sacred to me that I have not said anything about his breathing, but she said: who is that? And what is wrong with him 🙁

    I don’t know what to say but apparently I am not the only one who can hear this…..

  7. 7
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Oh man, sorry, that link above was a leftover from my homeopathy rant in another thread, here now is a recording of the voice of the artist as a young man (when he was lost in France as Bonnie Tyler would put it, i.e. tax-exiled there):

    https://youtu.be/yts0PBQaki8

  8. 8
    Karin Verndal says:

    @7
    Yeah ok, but I am still awaiting an in depth commentary, an apology and well, some flowers would do fine too 😉

  9. 9
    Adel Faragalla says:

    I just love listening to IG interviews full stop.
    I admire the fact that his family who comes from a humble background living in Hounslow has made a big financial commitment by sending him to a private school. The great command of the English language shows a superior unmatched level in his interviews compared to his peers. This is also demonstrated in the composition of his vocal lyrics in his songs.
    I often wondered if he would have been that successful if he hadn’t been sent to a private school.
    Peace ✌️

  10. 10
    Fla76 says:

    strange things happen in this interview!

    https://youtu.be/zgwAxNwRhXo?si=mXWq0oT70tWP2Yr-

    It could almost be the promotion of Cherkazoo album but obviously it’s not!

Add a comment:

Preview no longer available -- once you press Post, that's it. All comments are subject to moderation policy.

||||Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
© 1993-2025 The Highway Star and contributors
Posts, Calendar and Comments RSS feeds for The Highway Star