‘Ian Gillan’s ‘purple patch’ post Deep Purple and pre Gillan’
After leaving Deep Purple, Ian Gillan retired from the music business to pursue other business ventures including ownership of the Kingsway studio, where in 1974 he began to work on his first post-Deep Purple solo tracks. This combined with a warm reception to his appearance at Roger Glover's Butterfly Ball live show prompted him to form a new band.
Initially called Shand Grenade, Ian was persuaded by the management to change the band's name to the Ian Gillan Band. He recruited guitarist Ray Fenwick, bass player John Gustafson, keyboard player Mike Moran and Mark Nauseef on drums, using Roger Glover as producer the band recorded their first album Child in Time released in 1976, musically the album saw a departure from the heavy sound of Deep Purple to a more progressive jazz rock fusion. The band built a cult like status across Europe and were firmly embraced in Japan.
Two other albums followed in 1977 - Clear Air Turbulence and the rockier Scarabus, this box set collates all the albums with added discs of rare mixes, single edits, and live shows from the time. The set is housed in Deluxe 7” wallet packaging with sleeve notes by Rich Davenport who has interviewed Ian about his time with the band.
