DEEP PURPLE Retirement Rumours Are “Rubbish,” Says IAN GILLAN – “When The Energy Level Goes, That’s Time To Stop”
Deep Purple has flirted with the idea of calling it quits before. But according to vocalist Ian Gillan, they’re still running strong. Don’t pay attention to the rumours you may have heard. “So far, so good,” he quips in a conversation with Ultimate Classic Rock.
An excerpt from the above mentioned interview follows…
Ultimate Classic Rock: It’s great to see Deep Purple hitting the road with YES (Note: tour starts Wednesday, August 14). What sort of bond was there between the two groups back in the day?
Ian Gillan: “There wasn’t much of a bond. [Laughs] We were doing a festival [in] Plumpton, the first rock, jazz and blues festival that became the Reading Festival, run by Jack Barrie at the Marquee [Club in London]. He’d put on some absolutely great bands. Of course, we’d worked with most of them in those days. It was fantastic. They were all good in their own way – but I think YES were a bit miffed, because they wanted to close the show and it wasn’t in
their contract. It was [in our contract] that Deep Purple would close the show, so they refused to leave the hotel room. Jack said, ‘Guys, would you mind going on a bit earlier? I don’t want to push you but it would help me and it would help the crowd.’ ‘Yeah sure, okay, no worries.’ Then, Ritchie [Blackmore] decided that if we weren’t going to close, nobody was. He ordered some gasoline to be brought in. He threw it all over the equipment and then had the roadie light a broom, which had a petrol-soaked rag on the end of it to ignite the lot. Of course, it did ignite – because the fumes just exploded. Within a half-hour, there were blue lights flashing. The police, the fire brigade and ambulances were all coming in and there was complete chaos. Everything was on the front page of the Sunday papers the next morning and it was all quite rock ‘n’ roll.” [Laughs]
UCR: When the tour with YES was originally announced, it was billed as the =1 More Time tour. Realistically, how close does the end of the road – and perhaps, this band, feel to you?
Gillan: “Well, you know what, it was only recently that I heard somebody mention [the tour name]. I’d never heard that before. I’d never even spoken to anybody about it. No one asked me. That’s rubbish. [Laughs] That’s not the name of the tour. I think the tour is called Unleashed. Not that it matters; it’s a Deep Purple tour and we’re happy and whatever. But to answer your question: It is what it is. As soon as you start feeling unable to deliver at that level – of course, you adjust, of course, you adapt and make do the best you can. But when the energy level goes, that’s time to stop because then it gets embarrassing and nobody wants that. But so far, so good. I think that’s a much better title than what you just said.” [Laughs]
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