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The contagious yawning experiment
During the band’s last visit to Montreux, Ian Gillan sat down to chat with the Independent Culture:
Uhm, minor annoyance: Independent Culture could use a habit of cleaning camera lens before shooting the footage.
Thanks to steve4422, Uwe Hornung, ozzie carr, Mike Whiteley, and Simon for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Hilarious! “Misquoted?! Heaven forbid!” . I messaged Ritchie Blackmore once about somebody putting nonsensical words in his mouth in his some article. He responded, “If I chased down every time someone misquoted me I’d have no time for anything else.”
July 20th, 2026 at 22:13I really like it that Gillan returned to screaming on “Guilt Trippin’.” No one can do it like him, and playing it slightly under the music bed does it justice. He’s not going to hit the high notes on “Child In Time” but could do it a little underneath like “Guilt Trippin’.”
@1
“If I chased down every time someone misquoted me I’d have no time for anything else.”
James I find him guilty in that 😁
I have often heard him in interviews stating something a little bit outrageous, but enough ‘sane’ for people to believe it, and when quoting the great master in here, I have been ridiculed for being so gullible! 😃
But he is the master of guitaring, so he can do as he please…
July 21st, 2026 at 12:43The Montreux Jazz Festival channel on YouTube justo posted this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCbqINZdbAQ. Does anyone recorded they playing The Only Horse In Town?
July 21st, 2026 at 17:47@ 2 We have been hearing him bullshitting about ” how the audiences got smaller and smaller and band dying with Ritchie in the band” which he tried to sell it for a very long periods of time. Maybe he should have referred to his voice back then and being guilty of getting sloshed and not taking care of himself
July 21st, 2026 at 20:10@2 Karin, there are sane people? :-O
July 21st, 2026 at 22:07@5
James I like you put a question mark in the end of that sentence 😁
There are sane people, I’m sure. Sometimes I even find myself a bit sane…
But re our favourite band, to be honest: I enjoy the lyrics so much! Takes quite a splendid mind to keep those sarcastic comments coming no end!
July 22nd, 2026 at 11:49@4
Al RB has a neat sense of humour.
I once heard him referring to the riff of SOTW as to be the “riff” from Beethoven’s 5th.
Later on he said it was a lie! – but oh man he made a lot of people quoting him for that statement 😁
IG has a lovely sense of humour too. Latest: a female interviewer asked him how long time he could be singing since his eyesight gets weaker.
And Ian answered: I’m not singing with my eyes….
Sloshed? Really? Oh my ☺️
July 22nd, 2026 at 11:53#4 Al Kellici:
that BigIan was drunk more often than sober from 1980 to 1993 was probably true, but it is equally true that with S&M Purple had lost (rightly or wrongly) credibility and audience in an era where hundreds of other bands were doing better numbers than Purple
July 22nd, 2026 at 22:11I don‘t think that Ritchie’s alcohol consumption through the decades puts in him any type of position to lecture IG on same. I‘ve never seen an interview with ole Ritch where he is having water, coffee or a soft drink – it‘s always beer or wine (or something stronger). Same on stage. And my gosh, I‘ve seen Ritchie a lot more drunk on stage than I ever saw Ian Gillan – mind you, he can then still play, accustomed to alcohol as he is, but a teetotaler he is not. Ian might have been more a party animal once, but Ritchie was a constant solitary drinker keeping up the level.
Anyway, that is all the past, both men have reached an age and a state of health where neither constant “level”-drinking nor binge imbibing are possible for them anymore.
July 23rd, 2026 at 04:22Smoking and booze affects certain things.
I dont think it damaged RBs playing.
I couldnt believe it when Gillan said to drink out of stagefright.
I must admit I m amazed how much his braincells are operating after all the booze.
July 23rd, 2026 at 16:33I agree Uwe. Just about any video I’ve seen him in he always has a brewski. In one of the question and answer sessions he did a few months ago, he seem pretty sloshed. Ian likes his drink also. More power to them as they are both in their 80’s. Where did the time go? 🙂 🙂
July 23rd, 2026 at 18:46Everybody is entitled to a drink as long as he/she can take it – that differs vastly from person to person. With Purple, there were times when drink became a way of life, they weren’t exactly a travelling girls’ boarding school.
By now, drink is neither gonna kill Big Ian nor Ritchie anymore (though the latter probably has to watch quantity due to his gout).
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To more important subjects: May I remark that I find the intervieweress, Ms Roisin O’Connor, extremely cute or does that need to go in the forum under a “hot chicks”-thread or something similarly music-aligned? 😎 Obviously not a starved to death Ozempic user, more plus size, I think it’s a breath of fresh air to see a media person not conforming to the prevalent diet terror. And she has a really lovely demeanor and smile.
“Uhm, minor annoyance: Independent Culture could use a habit of cleaning camera lens before shooting the footage.”
You tell me now! I just wetted my thumb several times with my tongue (not a nice habit, I know, but no one was watching), trying to futilely wipe off the “smudge” from my tablet screen! 🤣 I was beginning to worry whether I had early signs of cataract clouding!
So Ian likes to tour, he’s finally admitted what we have been thinking all along. Most artists lose the taste for it as they age, but not him. Good for us. An English Bob Dylan.
July 24th, 2026 at 00:48I stopped indulging my white wine
Miss it.
But I thought, maybe its better this way.
July 25th, 2026 at 17:03Already damaged, still on meds and painkillers, eating like a pizza hermit.
Hi Uwe. Not related to this post but, I believe I’ve read in some of your earlier posts that you are not a fan of Rainbow Rising, or at least how it’s mixed and that you have taken some flak for it. It is my 3rd favorite Rainbow album after DTE and the first LP. Here is my question, what is your take on the LLRNR album. It is my least favorite Rainbow album and I’ve gotten some, shall we say, heated feed back on other sights cause I just don’t like it and don’t think Gates of Babylon is one of their best songs. Thanks much!! Your opinion is always valued!! Thanks and Cheers!!
July 25th, 2026 at 23:15I am sure Uwe would like to post a lengthy essay about what he thinks of LLRNR but he will do that in the forum! Cheers!
July 26th, 2026 at 07:53Thanks Svante! My bust LOL. See what one too many strong IPA brews will do 🙂 🙂
July 26th, 2026 at 13:55@15
Nice!
July 26th, 2026 at 17:20So you are conducting a forum software stress-test this weekend? 😀
Just the three second party version: LLRnR is to me the best Dio era Rainbow album as regards production, songwriting and musical versatility. GoB is the only time Rainbow approached something akin to Prog. I would probably go as far as to say that it is my favorite Rainbow album of all. DTE pretty much only lives from the Bonnet effect and I find Roger’s production a bit glammy. All three Turner albums are more or less lame to me, his best album with Rainbow is by far Slaves & Masters. 😂
PS: What is it that makes a commercially and artistically B league outfit like Rainbow all of the sudden such a hot topic on THS? We don’t write about Schenker era UFO all the time either and they were probably as relevant if not more so.
July 26th, 2026 at 18:10@18
“What is it that makes a commercially and artistically B league outfit like Rainbow all of the sudden such a hot topic on THS?
Maybe because Rainbow is DP related. Last time I checked THS is not a UFO related website.
July 27th, 2026 at 05:46Point well taken, Russ, but we don’t discuss GILLAN and Whitesnake (any era) nearly as much. Or Jon Lord solo albums for that matter. I have yet to read a track by track analysis of Sarabande, Pictured Within or Beyond the Notes here.
When you read these pages here, you get the impression that Rainbow was this highly influential mega band in the late 70s and early 80s when in fact – outside the circle of orphaned DP-fans and fledgling heavy metal aficionados – the only reaction you got from regular rock music fans at the mention of Rainbow back then was a sleepy: “Wasn’t he with Deep Purple once?” I lived through those years of Rainbow’s existence (late 1975 to roughly early 1984) and they were NOT a media presence at all nor were they perceived as torch bearers of then relevant and current music. As a DP fan, I found the displayed public disinterest in all things Rainbow back then extremely frustrating (even though I secretly realized that it maybe had to do with something lacking in their music as opposed to DP’s). When Dio left/was squeezed out in 1978/79, German Musik Express ran one sentence on it in a text box taking up a quarter of the page – together with other miscellaneous non-spectacular minutiae news of the month from other bands and artists squeezed into the same text box as well. Awful for me at the time.
And now – some 45 years later – I’m part of a site seemingly populated by diehard Rainbow fans – shouldn’t I be happy? 🤗😂
July 27th, 2026 at 15:18Thanks for the three second party version of LLRNR Uwe!! 🙂 🙂 Much appreciated!!!
July 27th, 2026 at 17:36Don’t discuss Whitesnake and the Gillan band enough??????????????Bring out the fairy floss folks, it’s entertainment time. Or should we get the tissues out and commence weeping. Oh the drama of it all. It is quite emotional actually, that Uwe could get so teary eyed about a non event. Seriously, those bands have had plenty of discussion here in the past so many times and they still do. Sheesh, talk about gamesmanship, who is leading the race, Rainbow, Whitesnake or the Gillan band. Maybe it is that Rainbow or Blackmore perhaps is more popular in certain aspects. There are a few more followers of that music or it could be some other ‘hidden’ agenda going on. Stay tuned folks, oh hang on, there is more tear jerking. The torture of Mr Uwe Hornung continues. how dare people talk about one act a little more than another, sacrilegious indeed. Regarding ole Jon Lord and his ‘orchestral’ albums, maybe that isn’t popular enough for many followers of DP related music Uwe. Anyway, hop on over to the forum, if you are game that is, and start a thread or three there. At least now we are starting to get to the ‘core’ of Uwe’s heartache. There has to be a movie in this, surely. It will be a ‘commercial’ flop though, most probably only one indiviueal out there will watch it. Cheers.
July 28th, 2026 at 00:35