Ian Gillan
Ian Gillan in 2003
Gillan greeting fans backstage, July 19, 2005, after a Deep Purple concert in Ottawa, Canada.]] Ian Gillan (August 19, 1945), Rock music vocalist. Ian Gillan is considered to be one of the foremost rock vocalists, who introduced into the rock music a very popular ever since belting technique. In his primetime, he possessed a very wide vocal range with seemingly effortless and fluid movement throughout it and with remarkable force and precision in the upper register. Gillan was born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England. He joined legendary band Deep Purple in 1969.
After leaving Deep Purple in 1973, he went into brief retirement before forming the Ian Gillan Band. The early band sound had a distinct jazz-rock aspect which proved unpopular and was replaced by a more high powered hard rock sound as Gillan reformed the lineup and shortened the groups name to Gillan. With the release of ''Mr. Universe'' Ian Gillan was back in the UK charts and through several more line up changes released a string of hit singles and successful albums including ''Glory Road'', ''Future Shock'', ''Double Trouble'', and finally ''Magic''.Then he announced the band would fold as he needed to rest his damaged vocal cords. In 1983 he joined Black Sabbath to record the ''Born Again'' album before rejoining a reunited Deep Purple shortly after completing the Born Again tour in early 1984. He left Purple again in 1989, but rejoined for good in 1992. He remains in the band today.Gillan is now working on a project to document his 40-year career, tentatively called ''Gillan's Inn''. Tony Iommi, Jeff Healey, various members of Deep Purple and many others will be featured on this 2006 DVD project.