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Impromptu in Portugal
A quiet family dinner next to a charity event at a Portuguese resort Santa Barbara De Nexe turned into an impromptu performance for Gillan. The Portugal News Online reports (complete with mistakes and misspelling):
As diners dug deep in their pockets for an Albufeira based children’s charity, former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillham, who had been dining privately with his wife and daughter, was encouraged to provide an impromptu performance of one of the greatest rock classics of all time, ´Smoke On The Water´.
Ian was backed on guitar by resident local musician Howard Scott Parkin who jumped at the opportunity to play with the Deep Purple front man if only for one song.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Ian Gillham likes Oldham and West Ham and also Tottenham… 😉
September 26th, 2008 at 18:03Many of you have met Gillan and know he is quite gracious. I was once that “local musician” who had the opportunity to play “Smoke” with him, and as I waited in the audience for my cue to go on, Gillan constantly motioned and sang toward me and my family, acknowledging our prescence.
I remember up in the green room, an older gentleman in a wheelchair went on and on about how important Gillan was to him in his life through all the years of music. Ian was obviously uncomfortable with the gush of emotion as the gentleman was bursting into tears, but Gillan still took the guy’s hand and gave him a hug, perhaps making this man’s night a bigger one than my own.
September 27th, 2008 at 02:54I too have met Gillan although not to extent of T and some lucky others but he was gracious and not at all too good to have have kind words and handshakes for me and my youngest son.
September 27th, 2008 at 03:18I went to see Purple in 96 at a small venue in Columbus, Ohio called Newport Hall, and this fellow came to the show with his two young daughters. Now, this guy had been a big fan a long time, and he wasn’t very well off financially it seemed by the cut of his garments and his daughters, and the impression I got from him it was a financial strain to be there, but he wanted his girls to see the Purple.He was front stage to the right of me, and Gillan caught sight of them and went over to talk to them,shake his hand, and during the set he waved at the little girls a few times. After Rosa’s Cantina he gave them his harmonica. I can’t recall if they got to go back stage or not, but I know they were floating during the show. It was a very nice thing for Gillan to do.
September 27th, 2008 at 05:38My son (13) is diabetic and Gillan’s management arranged backstagepasses for us at a festival. A lot went wrong, we only had short time to meet Gillan and Glover. They were very friendly, posed for pictures and signed some stuff. During the show my son got real tired. Gillan saw that and arranged that he got a chair. After the show they had to leave immediately, but Steve’s guitartech brought my son a few guitarpicks. I thanked Ian’s mangement for the experience. They got back and offered free tickets and backstagepasses for a future show. We went to see them a few months later and met them again. Again they were real nice gents. I was offered a lot of money for those all access passes (they were for the whole tour) by some fans, but kept them to myself.
September 29th, 2008 at 15:33A lot more stories to tell about it, but don’t want to bore you.