Ian Gillan, the legendary singer of Deep Purple, shared some interesting news, when he spoke to Kaaos TV. More specifically, he revealed that he just recorded a new album with his first-ever band, The Javelins! Let’s see what he told during this interview, when he was asked if he has any plans to release new solo music.
Ian Gillan: “I’ve got about five projects in mind. I’ve got about 30 songs in my library that have never been recorded. I don’t know which of those will actually end up coming alive, but there is one, a project that we’ve just finished recording in Hamburg. I recorded a new album with my first-ever band, The Javelins, from 1962, and we finished recording that material of the time. And that’s coming out in August. And I’m gonna start promotion work on that in a few weeks’ time. So you’re the first to actually know about it. And it contains songs like Ray Charles and Buddy Holly and Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry and stuff like that, from that era. And the guys in the band, most of them tickled along at the occasional gig and they practiced, but most of them haven’t really played in any progressive way for 50 years or more — 55, 56 years now. I prepared all the material with Steve Morris, my old partner from Liverpool — not Steve Morse; Steve Morris. And we sent the tapes, 16 songs, to each of the guys, and said, ‘Okay, practice like crazy for six weeks.’ And so we all met in the studio in Hamburg and we recorded 10 songs on the first day. And the whole 16 were recorded in two days, and then the solos and extra bits and pieces, a few mistakes, were repaired on a Wednesday, and then we did a video, and that was it. It was unbelievable. And I was listening to the rough mixes, before we put on the vocal backings, the girls, and the brass section, because a lot of those old songs, like The Coasters and Ray Charles, had brass sections on them, so we’re doing it authentically, augmenting the band. But, you know, because they hadn’t played professionally for 50 years, they didn’t evolve at all — they kept playing in the style which was in 1962, and consequently, when I’m listening to it, I think, ‘My God! This is so authentic. It sounds just exactly as it did in those days.’ It’s not musicians from today trying to do a retro version of those songs, which I’ve heard plenty of, and they’re always high production — there’s no breathing space; no nothing. It sounds, to me, just as I remember it. And so I’m very excited about that. Of course, we’re all in our 70s, and we’re like a bunch of school boys in the studio. We had a reunion a couple of years ago — at Christmas, we all went on a boat up the river Thames and had a fantastic night. And it was great — the old banter was still there, the jokes and the sense of humor. And it was wonderful — just truly wonderful. A great experience for these guys who have not been in a studio like that before. We did try another project a few years ago and made another set. So I think there were some nerves and some apprehension prior to the session, but by God, they went through it great. After every day’s work, we sat down, we had a meal and drank some beers together and just talked about things. It was great. It was certainly a fantastic experience …”.
