![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/paice2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey2.jpg)
Feeling of power indescribable
Another British newspaper, The Telegraph profiles Ian Gillan, and while our regulars probably won’t learn much new from there, it is well put together and without glaring mistakes (which as all know, is not a given).
In 1970 his voice prompted an unexpected call – would he sing the role of Jesus in the recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar? He recalls going to the flat in South Kensington where Rice was living with Lloyd Webber’s family. “I was really flying high with Deep Purple at the time. Tim met me at the door and was very kind. Andrew was sitting at the piano with his back to me, and after a few pleasantries, Tim said, ‘Well, here’s the song…’” Rice handed him the lyrics to Gethsemane and asked whether he could follow the tune as Lloyd Webber played. That was easy enough for the former choirboy, and Rice approved, adding that in the studio they would require him to extemporise a bit, “like you do with Deep Purple” – and “Andrew looked over his shoulder and said, ‘Yes, but not too much.’”
Read more in The Telegraph (requires creating a free login; hint: TempMail addresses do work).
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I almost tumbled over this quote given above… 🤣
“You can extemporise like you do in Deep Purple… but not too much.” “Yes, Sir”, said Gillan, went on to the studio and recorded vocals that by now are deemed legendary. And the way the lines of “Once I was inspired… Now I feel so tired… (…) Take this cup away from me now, for I don’t want to drink it’s poison” dismantle the listener completely is NOT because of the banshee he was capable of doing… His voice was so much MORE than that. Then he went on to the Granada TV studios in Manchester two weeks later and cameras caught that “the extemporising attempt” take of “Child in Time” that has people younger by two, three generations younger than Ian, popping the eyes out of their heads in 2026, as they do yet another reaction video to his timeless performance, having their glass ceilings of musical horizons literally shattered.
And that’s less than tip of an iceberg of what he can sing anyway… Surely though gives a proper glimpse of this choir boy absolute uniqueness.
July 4th, 2026 at 09:29