The Autobiography of Deep Purple - Ian Gillan

Deep Purple were one of the most influential rock bands of the 70s; although most fans would say it is not one of their favourite songs, "Smoke on the Water" is, possibly, the most recogniseable riff of the last 40 years, featuring Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on keyboards, Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums and, on vocals, the subject of this autobography: Gubbins!!


I've been a fan of Deep Purple ...
...went on to put together The Ian Gillan Band, subsequently known just as Gillan, I liked several of the albums that he produced. When Deep Purple reformed, with him handling vocal duties, it was an absolute thrill seeing their UK comeback gig at Knebworth (which was recorded and released as a live album) and of course the roller coaster continued as Gillan left, briefly fronted Black Sabbath - something of a surprise all round - then came back to ... more

Deep Purple were one of the most influential rock bands of the 70s; although most fans would say it is not one of their favourite songs, "Smoke on the Water" is, possibly, the most recogniseable riff of the last 40 years, featuring Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on keyboards, Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums and, on vocals, the subject of this autobography: Gubbins!!

I've been a fan of Deep Purple for a long time, in particular the incarnations with Ian Gillan on vocals. After he left Deep Purple and went on to put together The Ian Gillan Band, subsequently known just as Gillan, I liked several of the albums that he produced. When Deep Purple reformed, with him handling vocal duties, it was an absolute thrill seeing their UK comeback gig at Knebworth (which was recorded and released as a live album) and of course the roller coaster continued as Gillan left, briefly fronted Black Sabbath - something of a surprise all round - then came back to Deep Purple.

Like many bands at the forefront of their genre, there were stories of tensions, fallings out and arguments within the band. Blackmore is often described as "moody" or "difficult" and it was often rumoured that his relationship with Gillan was troubled, a rumour that neither ever really denied.

So, seeing Gillan's autobography, I thought it would be an interesting read. Would I finally learn the truth about his relationship with Blackmore? what was it like being "in" Deep Purple? How did he enjoy his own band? How did he join Black Sabbath - the rumour was that he woke up with a hangover and found that he had joined? What was it like going back into Deep Purple?

Well, some of these questions were answered, sort of, but there was as much left unanswered.

What was said
As a brief introduction, or prologue, the story starts with Blackmore leaving Deep Purple in 1993, not long after Gillan had rejoined. This kind of sets the scene, Gillan admiringly describing Blackmore's superb musicianship while referring to their "volatile history and their relationship over many years, "some exquisite, some not. Gillan quotes disparaging remarks or comments that Blackmore made, but goes on to profess no ill will or negative feelings towards him.

The book swiftly moves on to describe his early years, the arrival of his sister, family life, and his youthful imaginings and dreams. There are several amusing attempts at inventions, his first sexual experience, before moving on to dreams of being a film star and finally getting into singing.

From early days with The Javelins, gigging clubs around the country, to joining the established Episode Six is covered quite quickly. We hear several stories of Episode Six, international tours, as well as some early personal difficulties (like a marriage!) before the introduction to Blackmore of Deep Purple.

Once in Deep Purple, life was quite different and we are treated to several stories of the glory days, having "made it", and the feeling of carefree euphoria comes across quite clearly. It is also here that the tales of alcoholic excess start to become more frequent. The next two years seem to fly by, mostly in stories of specific incidents and increasingly unhappiness with the management. In no time - and barely 60 pages - four albums have been recorded and he is leaving the band.

Another 60 pages or so describes the post-Purple days, a short time out of the industry, less than successful attempts at the hotel and motorcycle business, before putting together the first Ian Gillan Band which gradually developed from a rabble into several more serious projects, culminating in Gillan and several reasonably successful albums. It is over a short period with Gillan that he finally really sounds happy for the first time since the earliest Deep Purple days, but it was short lived.

From there, to Black Sabbath, then the Deep Purple reunion, leaving again (this time not so voluntarily), another brief happy Gillan time and then back into Deep Purple again.

Throughout the book there are many excerpts of lyrics, from all of the bands. There are parts of tour schedules, bits of band newsletter and quotes from fan club bulletins. These all punctuate a series of memories, reflections and tales, many of them involving drunken behaviour and most of the rest dissatisfaction with band management, the dynamics and organisation of running the Gillan band and relationships with a few people - managers and, of course, Blackmore.

It is quite apparent that the relationship is troubled. He refers to Blackmore as often as not as "The guitarist" or "The guitar player". He describes some drunken run-ins with him - some sound quite hilarious but one can imagine the other point of view!

There are many, many references to boozy nights, drunkenness, binges. Although he doesn't say as much, the reader can't help but get the feeling that this was the cause of some of the fallings out.

It is a very easy read. The narrative is written in a very relaxed, conversational way and the chapters are quite well punctuated. There is a lot of jumping around the timeline - flashbacks, flashforwards, flashsideways - but overall it reads well.

What is not said
Titled "The autobiography of Deep Purple's lead singer", and given that Deep Purple was the most successful band that he was in (excepting one year with Black Sabbath), one might expect the book to concentrate on the Deep Purple story. However, only about 60 pages of nearly 300 covers Deep Purple, and most of that is the early days, the "honeymoon period", getting things together, early tours, the success of the first album - and of course the binges - before moving on to the disputes with management and the dissatisfation. There is very little actual history - two of the four albums are barely mentioned. Of course, this is the Gillan story, not the Deep Purple story, but one might expect some more memories of the band, fellow members, the tours, the recording, the writing.

Even the reunion is described almost in the background, how the management was arranged, with next to nothing said about the comeback album, how it was recording again. The reunion tour is barely mentioned and nothing at all is said about their first UK gig for twenty years.

With the band Gillan, there were some anecdotes and stories, but much of the narrative is about the organisation and incidents rather than talk of dynamics. References are made to someone "being difficult" or "in keeping with his strange character" .. but there are just hints of the personalities involved. There were only a couple of times with Gillan that he sounded happy and told some wonderful tales from the road - notably a tour to the depths of Russia and he former Soviet republics.

Now I don't want to read about someone washing dirty laundry in public, but I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed - I was reading this because interested in the history of the person and what he did, and the people that he did it with, and how the creativity and inspiration was sparked; it just seemed to be mostly managers, lists and drink. Maybe that is, really, life as a musician but I expected more.

What was it like overall?
Yes I did enjoy the book. It was an easy read, relaxed and conversational in style and I did put it down feeling that I had learned a little bit about Ian Gillan, but only a little. Many questions remain unanswered and new questions raised. I know about the binges, some of the things that happened, and that he fell out with the management. But I can still only guess at what it was like onstage, backstage and even offstage. So overall, enjoyable but not very satisfying.
 

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