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Ian Gillan

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ian Gillan is an English singer, born in 1945 in Chiswick and raised in Hounslow, on the edge of London. As a boy he sang in a church choir and fell under the spell of Elvis Presley. In the mid-1960s he sang in local bands such as the Javelins and then in Episode Six. There he began writing songs with the bassist Roger Glover. In 1969 Deep Purple asked both of them to join the band, which wanted to move from psychedelic pop to hard rock.

Music and breakthrough

With Deep Purple Gillan made In Rock (1970), Fireball, Machine Head and the live album Made in Japan. One of his first contributions was the melody and lyrics of Child in Time. Partly because of that song, Tim Rice asked him to sing Jesus on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar (1970). In 1973 he left the band, exhausted. After that he had the Ian Gillan Band, with a jazz-rock sound, and the heavier hard rock group Gillan. In 1983 he sang for a year with Black Sabbath on Born Again. From 1984 he sang with Deep Purple again, and since 1992 he has once more been its singer.

Influence

Gillan is known for his powerful voice with a large range, which can effortlessly go very high. He said that the singer Arthur Brown inspired him to start screaming in his singing. That combination of high wails and raw screams became a model for many singers in hard rock and heavy metal.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Child in Time (1970) by Deep Purple. Notice how Gillan starts quietly and lets his voice climb higher and higher, until he screams in his falsetto above Jon Lord's Hammond organ.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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See also

Categories: Artists