Following his first four years as the frontman with Deep Purple, Ian Gillan and his band Gillan emerged as one of the most popular and colourful rock groups of the late 70s and early 80s. With a high-energy sound that was turbocharged with melody, few will forget their run of appearances on Top Of The Pops for hit singles such as No Laughing In Heaven, Mutually Assured Destruction and their riotous revisions of Elvis Presley’s Trouble and Stevie Wonder’s New Orleans.
From an alarmingly non-conformist visual image to Ian’s often quirky lyrics, which included rhyming ‘ultrasonic’ with ‘gin and tonic’, and their choice of subject matter (No Laughing In Heaven was a largely spoken-word paean to a sinner who cleans up his act to avoid going to hell, only to discover that up in the clouds partying is forbidden), Gillan – the band – rarely trod the conventional path.
