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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.
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