Deep Purple struggled to follow up The House Of Blue Light. As he wasn't needed for a while, Ian Gillan returned to the UK. He wanted to play a few low-key shows so with the help of Liverpool based DJ Phil Easton, he teamed up with three members of rock group Export to form Garth Rockett & The Moonshiners (named after one of Ian's pre-Episode Six outfits).
Ian
decided to end the project to get something more permanent together.
Ian's main recorded output of 1989 was ironically a leaden version of
'Smoke On The Water' for the Rock Aid Armenia charity single, with musicians
including Ritchie Blackmore (who did his solo on a different day), Dave
Gilmour and Brian May.
Gillan then beat Deep Purple Mk 5 to the punch when 'Naked Thunder' was released in July 1990. Despite sounding surprisingly commercial, it was not a sales success, only reaching #63 in the UK charts. In response, Ian retraced steps he had taken back in 1978; the band was pared back, a more uncompromisingly heavy approach was adopted, and the name was tightened to 'Gillan'.
(* despite having the same name, the new 'GIllan' was never intended as a continuation of the 1978-82 band, and only played one of their tracks live)
Debuting in Argentina, Ian Gillan's new four-piece band serial toured around the world, visiting countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, neither of which had previously been graced by any Deep Purple family band. In late August 1992 Ian Gillan was asked to rejoin Deep Purple, and felt unable to say anything except yes. Gillan's own band played their final, manic, show at an outdoor festival in Bucharest, Romania on September 13th 1992. He thought the Deep Purple spell would be short lived and planned to rejoin Repo Depo, but Deep Purple soon unexpectedly found new life and new personnel. Of the unreleased songs, two were eventually recorded (albeit nowhere near the power of the live versions) for Ian's 1997 'Dreamcatcher' solo album. As well as collaborating on 'Dreamcatcher', Steve Morris also played two songs on Ian's solo segment at the 1999 Albert Hall Concerto shows and in the encore of 'Smoke On The Water', and continues to record with his band Heartland. Both Dean Howard (in the Dean Howard Project) and Leonard Haze (with Y&T) have played support on Deep Purple shows. Brett Bloomfield rejoined a version of Starship soon after Gillan folded. (photo, left to right: Brett Bloomfield, Leonard Haze, Ian Gillan, Dean Howard)
.... 1989-92 UK Ian Gillan Discography ....
.... 1989-92 Ian Gillan, On PAL Video / DVD ....
.... 1989-92 Ian Gillan, Further Reading ....
with thanks to Jose Galvan & Nigel Young | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
They
played a low-key show at Southport Floral Hall on February 18th 1989,
followed by a few one-nighters. When Ian was sacked from Deep Purple
in May, they set out on a UK tour. A Manchester date on May 16th 1989
was filmed and released in 1989 as a live video, then in 2000 as a CD
(by Purple Records). They played a mix of tracks; Gillan/Glover album
tracks, old Gillan Band favourites, and two new songs which later appeared
on Ian's solo album. 
When
it came to launching his solo career Ian worked on material with Moonshiners
guitarist and writing collaborator Steve Morris (as well as briefly
with their keyboard player Mark Buckle), then used highly experienced
session musicians to record his first solo album 'Naked Thunder'. Before
it was released he formed a touring group with Morris; the ex-Sensational
Alex Harvey Band rhythm section of Chris Glenn and Ted McKenna; ex-Gary
Moore keyboard player Tommy Eyre; Mick O'Donoghue (ex Grand Prix) on
second guitar, and Dave Lloyd (ex Nutz / Rage) on second vocals. They
debuted on May 15th 1990 in the USSR (the first appearances by a Deep
Purple musician in that territory) before some highly successful shows
in Brazil. 
The
fresh energy generated by new guitarist Dean Howard lead to increasingly
powerful live performances as well as new songs such as 'Hard On
You' and 'A Day Late And A Dollar Short'. However in mid-1992 they
found themselves without a record deal and lacked the resources
to relaunch themselves under their new name 'Repo Depo'.
UK
singles
Completing
the collection
:
'I'll Rip Your Spine Out' and 'No Laughing In Heaven'
from The Moonshiners' Ritz show first appeared on a 12"
vinyl picture disc in 1990 called 'Chris Tetley Presents
The Garth Rockett Story', together with a lengthy interview
with the DJ in question. The songs were later released
as part of the Purple Records live CD. The Rock Aid Armenia
album consisted of 'Smoke On The Water', plus a collection
of previously released tracks by various artists. The
12" edition of Ian Gillan's 1990 UK solo single 'No
Good Luck' first appeared in a cover based on In Rock,
which was withdrawn at Ian's request. The German single
featured B-side 'Hole In My Vest', unavailable elsewhere.
Two tracks from Gillan's final show (a festival in Bucharest,
1992) were released on vinyl in Romania only as part of
a live compilation album from the event. The tracks were
'Smoke On The Water' and 'When A Blind Man Cries'. Ian
appeared on a few sessions between 1989 and 1992, including
The Bolland Brothers' 1992 'Darwin The Evolution' concept
album (pictured left) on which he contributed some vocals
and provided the between song narration.
