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Smell of cedar trees
In the anticipation of Deep Purple’s gig in Dubai, local newspaper The National publishes an interview with Ian Gillan.
Three years before joining the British band that is regarded as one of the pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, Gillan was singing the harmonies of American jazz and doo-wop groups with Episode Six, a band that also featured future Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover. The Lebanon summer residency was Gillan’s first official international gig.
“I still remember the smell of the cedar trees when we landed on a Boeing 707 at the airport,” Gillan, 80, tells The National ahead of Deep Purple’s Dubai return to Coca-Cola Arena on Thursday. “I was there for three months and Casino du Liban was probably even bigger than Vegas and Paris put together at the time. In the three months we spent there, I absorbed the culture of Lebanon so much.”
Part of that memory is the contrast between the venue’s glamour and the city’s rough edges. “It was still a raw country, but the casino was very cosmopolitan, very international, and we had everything we wanted,” says Gillan. “We were staying in a derelict farmhouse up on the hills overlooking Lebanon. Not much there, but we had some good parties and a lot of stories to tell. We would do five shows a night and then a matinee show with no alcohol on the weekends, so it was full of kids. It was full-on and we learnt a lot.”
Read more in The National.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
KAAA-RIIINNN!!!
https://youtu.be/kLUNrdOQLe0
Are you there? Sehr gut. Do I have your attention? This is my favorite part from the interview:
“I learnt so much from listening to Elvis. His voice was incredible. It gets right through to you,” he says.
https://youtu.be/rlPazQMcNW8
Re the Casino du Liban days of Karin’s Ian, this song deals with an incident back then when enraged gypsy blood almost curtailed Ian’s young life on earth, alas!, crimes of passion …
https://youtu.be/_LlClLhLKvc
The things we do for love.
https://youtu.be/P0rf3_viTxk
November 20th, 2025 at 20:37Just got back to my hotel room, with purple posters, after the Dubai gig. I’m not sure how this is humanly possible, but big Ian has more air in his lungs than he had 20 years ago. Great show, absolutely super crowd too!!
November 20th, 2025 at 20:39#2 Jan de Bie:
Your words warm our hearts!
November 20th, 2025 at 23:02@1
Yeah! You got my attention alright 😄
Ok, so you just needed to link to the bt and IGB 😈
Well, as 10cc says so elegantly: let’s agree to disagree ☺️
Thank you for so often finding oldies I almost have forgotten 😊
This band,
https://youtu.be/V-zJ92Xy4bI
What do you think about them?
Sadly the lyrics is in Danish, but here is a translation (I know the lyrics is important, it is to me too)
Jason Watt is happy
Rasmus Trads is flat
Britney Spears is cute
Kurt Cobain is dead
Michael Stipe is wise
Wesley Snipes is a fart
Jimmy Floyd is black
OJ Simpson is asked
But You’re super league
with a world cup smile
x3
You’re super league x2
Katja Kean is tight
Don Ø is clammy
Bjarne Riis is dumb
Brian Steen is stupid
Amdi P is rich
Pia K is war
Johnny Cash is cool
Simon Kvamm is me
But You’re super league
with a world cup smile
x3
You’re super league x2
You’re more beautiful
You’re more cool
You’re a true love hug
which is more graceful
You’re super league
You’re super beautiful
You’re super cool
You’re super naughty
I’m super far away
In Danish it rhymes 😄
I had forgotten all about Nephew, but I really dig them ☺️
Simon Kvam is the singer, and his lyrics are captivating.
This song is about Vesterhavet, called “Heart starter”, and it has so much meaning for me, because standing anywhere at Vesterhavet, looking, breathing, thinking, gives so much power to the heart ☺️
https://youtu.be/KlV-xGTV1P0
Vesterhav come now and blow me up
Vesterhav come now and blow me up
Heart starter
Heart starter
Heart starter
Vesterhav come now and blow me up
Vesterhav come now and blow me up
Heart starter
Vesterhav come now and blow me up
Hey come now champagne lever
Can’t see anything can’t hear anything
Can’t use anyone can’t be anyone
Can’t treasure anything can’t get anything
Can’t like anyone can’t give anyone anything
Fill more salt on top, fill more malt in
Put more power on top, fill more dreams in me
Blow me through like a dandelion fluff
Fighting to be allowed to let go
Blow me to the ground like a conservatory
That should never have been built up
Vesterhav come now and blow me up
Vesterhav come now and blow me up time
Vesterhav come on and blow me up
Hey come on champagne lever
Ok, the beauty in the song diminishes a great deal at this brutal translation 😄
November 21st, 2025 at 02:08@2
Jan this is indeed very good news 😃🤩
Thank you so much for sharing!
I have read he enjoys homeopathic whiskey…. Maybe the answer is in there 😄
November 21st, 2025 at 02:10#2. Are you sure? IG really struggling with HS here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quM9XUz0vf8
November 21st, 2025 at 07:24@6, absolutely. Just compare last night to YouTube archives of 2022-2024 HS openings. Big Ian came out blazing last night compared to some recent show openings. He looked fitter, happier and healthier than I have seen him for some time. Like I said, he defines humanity and I am beginning to believe that he will outlive us all LOL
November 21st, 2025 at 08:36No alcohol on the weekends. How did Ian survive?
November 22nd, 2025 at 05:38@8
Like I do MacGregor, with plenty of coffee 😃
November 22nd, 2025 at 10:08But Danish always sounds like everything rhymes and people are singing the language, Karin! 😂 I hear it all the time when Edith has her one-on-one lessons, watches Danish films and series or reads Danish books aloud.
Re: That Nephew band, the first song reminds me of Blur (a band you are not allowed to hear as an Oasis fan!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcA9-HZr6cs&t=35s
(A joke song where Blur took the piss on Nirvana and then it became this huge hit!)
and the second one features clean-shaven young men with a solemn look in black uniforms parading before evidently coastal battery architecture left by my forefathers in your good country as a keepsake, how could I possibly not like it? I didn’t know we where THAT lastingly influential! 😎
When I saw the first still from the vid I initially thought of this Danish film Under Sandet here …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bplXvG18De4
That was a deeply humane and touching movie.
November 22nd, 2025 at 18:17Worried MacGregor @8: Ian has a medical prescription for wholesome quantities.
November 22nd, 2025 at 19:00@10
“A joke song where Blur took the piss on Nirvana and then it became this huge hit!)”
– guess the link is a bit wrong? Since AC/DC+Blur+Oasis+Thunderstruck+Nirvana don’t add up 😅
Btw Thunder! This tune, ohhh man 😍:
https://youtu.be/q-VjTc-Ndrg
Nephew are very dear to me 😊
Blur, only a few songs I like, I won’t link them in here 😄 because then you all will fetch the forks and hunt me down 😄
You could say some Blur songs are my ‘guilty pleasures’ even though I’ve never understood that concept! If you like something then for your own sake admit it 😄 oh ok, so I better put my links where my mouth is:
https://youtu.be/gpuh1WE-RVw
And yes I’m aware of the irony in the lyrics but the tune is quite uplifting to me 😊
And Gorillaz, where the vocalist from Blur did something:
https://youtu.be/oVkatTa0D4c
I love this mix compared to the original tune 😊
And please! Oasis are way more cool than Blur ever could hope to be 😃
Give my best to your sweet Edith 🤗
November 23rd, 2025 at 05:59@10
“and the second one features clean-shaven young men with a solemn look in black uniforms parading before evidently coastal battery architecture left by my forefathers in your good country as a keepsake, how could I possibly not like it? I didn’t know we were THAT lastingly influential! 😎”
– yes, those colossal sculptures have always been my favourite excursion destination 😄
I thought you would like the video 😁
Btw: do your adorable wife ever mention Danish stand’uppers?
Simon Kvam from Nephew is, besides being a wonderful singer, also a very very fun man.
This song:
November 23rd, 2025 at 12:07https://youtu.be/yocEg7MgBHo
– is from Musikladen. Does that still excist?
And please, take a look at the cute girl, 3:15 in her pantsuit 😍 awww she is enjoying the music so much 😃
yes, those colossal sculptures have always been my favourite excursion destination
Sigh, can‘t people ever like something nice and small from Germany? Does it always have to be Wagner, Leni Riefenstahl, Rammstein or military gigantism? 🙄😂
https://youtu.be/hp_b-095yPc
November 23rd, 2025 at 16:02@12 – Karin – agree that Thunder were a cool group.
Their singer Danny Bowes was particularly good, with one of those blue-eyed soul voices in the tradition of Paul Rodgers, Jimmy Dewar (Robin Trower), and David Coverdale.
Drummer Gary “Harry” James also excellent, with a bit of “swing” to his playing, and often heard to throw in Ian Paice-ish fills.
Wonder why they never really caught on after their initial success 35 years ago. Good players with lots of catchy tunes. The lyrics were banal, but that doesn’t seem to matter much in rock ‘n’ roll.
One of those mysteries. Maybe if they were on another label things might have turned out differently.
November 23rd, 2025 at 18:31@14
Thank you Skippy! I was convinced the drummer (Bonehead from Oasis look-alike!) sounded a bit like Ian P 😃
Their music is so energetic, and yes I love the hard rocking bands 😊
November 24th, 2025 at 04:46@12 @14
For anyone who enjoys Thunder I can recommend the two albums Danny and their one and only songwrter Luke Morley released together. Very soulful, funky, fun music indeed. There was always more to Thunder than just being loud and counting on the lord. I guess that is why they did not make it big time. They never took care of looks, image and stuff – and after their debut and the – even better – Laughing on Judgement Day cd they refused to do the same stuff over agein and began trying out things a lot of stubborn hard rock fans cannot stand for the life of them … like using horns, playing funky tune or bringing in some female background vocals. A shame really. I collect all of their stuff and it never disappointed. Their albums of late were great too. But Danny got very ill sadly and it is unsure if they will ever hit the stage again.
November 24th, 2025 at 11:27@17
Thank you Max ☺️😊
Yes I really enjoy their music too.
I will look for those records.
As far as I remember Danny had some head injury and needed surgery.
November 24th, 2025 at 15:40@18 – read recently that he is still unable to sing, three years later. Sad, but it sounds like he is lucky to still be alive:
https://www.metaltalk.net/danny-bowes-talks-stroke-survival-and-the-power-of-thunder-fans.php
In the other part of the interview, he mentions DC being a fan:
November 25th, 2025 at 00:07https://www.metaltalk.net/from-terraplane-missteps-to-thunder-legacy-danny-bowes-on-survival-success.php
@19
Oh Skippy, that is indeed sad 🥺😞
November 25th, 2025 at 10:13#19 Skippy:
If I remember correctly, David had brought Thunder as support on the SOTT tour, it was a band he liked, he had even guested on stage with them when they did their small tours.
he often mentioned them in interviews and called them “young lions”.
November 26th, 2025 at 00:06as Talisman were a very good band that didn’t have much luck, I think the cause was the record company (I think EMI) that didn’t support them adequately
He liked them so much, he wanted to poach their guitarist Luke Morley for WS at a time!
Or not!
I have to ask about the infamous ‘Coverdale-gate’ story, when you were rumoured to be leaving the band to join Whitesnake. There has been some conflicting reports over the years about that whole period; was it really just a publicity stunt?
Yeah, it was. We wouldn’t fall out over anything as stupid as that. The funny thing is that David [Coverdale], we’ve obviously worked with loads over the years. I genuinely don’t know where the rumour came from, but it might have been Rudy Sarzo that started it. Somebody told me that he’d said that he’d seen me going into a rehearsal room in L.A. where Whitesnake where rehearsing, which is complete bloody nonsense as I was in Japan at the time. So it became this thing, and then we just decided to go with it, take advantage of it, and the fact that it cast a slightly darker shadow over us, I think we were quite pleased about that because we were a bit sick of being ‘cheerful cockney chaps’, and for that reason, we kind of went with it. I didn’t deny it, and David didn’t deny it, and we just let it run, and fifteen years later, we let it slip that it was an intentional kind of repositioning of ourselves, shall we say!
https://www.eonmusic.co.uk/thunder-luke-morley-eonmusic-interview-february-2017.html
November 26th, 2025 at 11:06