Ian Gillan has been awarded with a special medal in Armenia on the instructions of Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. It has been struck to give to all musicians who took part on the Rock Aid rerecording of Smoke On The Water in 1989, and Ian Gillan and others were in Armenia in early October to receive the medal. Whilst there, Ian spoke of plans to stage a special show in the country in March 2010 as part of the on-going reconstruction efforts with local musicians.

Two concerts are now due to take place on March 26th/27th 2010 in Armenian capital Yerevan, with Ian performing alongside the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia. In addition, Deep Purple have been announced as playing Yerevan on May 25th 2010 at the Sports and Concert Complex.

NY #7001951 (with thanks to Francesco)

There is another batch of Gillan back-catalogue titles out this month, including Accidentally On Purpose, Naked Thunder, Toolbox, Cher Kazoo, Sacarabus and Clear Air Turbulence. Although tracks from these albums have been compiled by any number of budget labels lately, this is the first time they have been reissued properly in their original form in over ten years. The discs are remastered and initial stock come in digi-paks and on gold CDs.

They will be available during November and can be ordered now from dpas mail-order.

SR #700197

Ian Gillan had a "Rock Meets Classic" concert planned for January 13th 2010, at the Intersport Arena, Linz, Austria. This show thas been put back to 31st March and at a different venue: Linz , Großes Haus.

He will be performing alongside the Bruckner Orchester Linz, with conductor Friedemann Riehler.

The orchestra's website promises adaptations of "Highway Star", "Smoke on the Water" and "Fireball".

NY #7001961

Ian Gillan's unplugged radio session for Absolute Radio in May saw Ian record unplugged versions of four tracks: When A Blind Man Cries, Black Night, Better Days and Change My Ways, with Steve Morris on guitar. The station has low-res video of the performances on their web site:

www.absoluteradio.co.uk/music/artists/ian_gillan

SR #700193 (with thanks to James Bateman)

Website Ultimate-Guitar.com has published a new interview with Ian Gillan as part of a series entitled "Hit The Lights". Ian discusses new solo album "One Eye to Morocco" at length, and touches upon other topics such as the songwriting process between himself and solo band members Steve Morris and Michael Lee Jackson, "Accidently On Purpose", reading, The Rolling Stones, his musical tastes as a teenager, his inaugural gig as part of Deep Purple, performing Deep Purple's older tracks live, and the possibility of a new Deep Purple album.

Read the entire interview at www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews

MR #700192 (with thanks to Robert Gray) photo: Nikolay Krastev

UK radio station Planet Rock will be broadcasting a special with Ian Gillan today, Saturday March 28th. Their site says: "We’ve got a couple of great features this weekend, starting on Saturday when Ian Gillan drops into the studio for My Planet Rocks. Tune in to hear Ian talk about his new album One Eye To Morocco, about his time in Deep Purple and their upcoming tour and of course the music that influenced him in the early days."

My Planet Rocks is on at 6pm, and is repeated on Tuesday at 6pm.

DB #700191 (with thanks to Gary Gilmurray at www.behind-the-mask.co.uk)

UK radio station Rock Radio are broadcasting a two-hour Ian Gillan special this weekend. Ian will be presenting the show in person, playing some of the songs that have inspired him throughout his career, and explaining the stories behind the inspiration. The show goes out on Saturday , March 21st at 6pm GMT on Rock Radio Scotland, and on Sunday, March 22nd at 8pm on Rock Radio Manchester. You can listen online, and there'll be the chance to listen again afterwards at rockradio.co.uk

DB #700190 (with thanks to Lisa Johnston and Mark Woodhead )

The UK seems to have been forgotten in the deal, and has belatedly been allocated a release date of March 23rd. As copies were about in the rest of Europe well ahead of their official release date, it means we're three weeks behind.

SR/TS #7001895

"Ian Gillan is interviewed in this week's issue of the German news magazine (and by far the best and most sincere one I may add) DER SPIEGEL. The mag contains a smaller mag called KULTUR SPIEGEL once a month that deals, as the name says, with cultur -topics. On the last page there is usually a feature called "Mit 17 hat man noch Träume". This means `you still got dreams when you are 17 years old` and is the title of an old German schlager (pop hit). In every issue there is another famous artist asked questions about if she or he remembers being 17, what kind of dreams they had back then, and where they stand now and so on.

Ian's answers make no groundbreaking news for anyone who read or listened to some of his interviews - and yes, the story about half empty halls while Ritchie was in the band gets another mention...

Two nice shots of Ian, one from 1965 (they always try to show a photograph of the person being around 17 years old) and one from the opera ball a few weeks ago." Thomas Max

Der Spiegel Online reproduces the interview.

DB #700190 (with thanks to Thomas Max)

The people at Jurassic Coast - the website for the world heritage site in South Western England - have had the inspired idea of asking Ian Gillan to do an introduction to the site. You can read his comments or hear Ian Gillan chatting about this on a short audio file (aka podcast) linked from their front page.

SR #700190
(with thanks to Jane Audas.)

It looks as if the very rare album by Jerusalem is to be reissued shortly. Issued back in 1972, the album was produced by Ian Gillan, who also managed the band for a time. It comes with unissued demos and notes by the band's bassist. The LP was reissued in Japan in 2005 but without any extra material.

More details to follow.

MR #700191

Drummer Bev Bevan has excerpts of his 1983 diary online at sundaymercury.net, covering life on the road with Black Sabbath during their US 'Born Again' tour in November 1983. Only one mention of Queens Park Rangers supporter and then Sabbath singer Ian Gillan, but we do get to hear about Roger Moore losing his shoe in a hotel lift!

DB #700192
(with thanks to Nigel Young)

Recorded on his Gillan's Inn tour of America in 2006, Live In Anaheim is "approved and 100% endorsed by the artist" according to the sales bumph. Two tracks from this gig appeared on the special edition of Gillan's Inn. It's released as a double CD set (out now) and (in July) as a DVD, and the press info says it is totally unedited. The band comprised Randy Cooke, Rodney Appleby, Michael Lee Jackson, Dean Howard and Joe Mennonna.

The Gillan Live In Anaheim DVD is finally out and shipping now from dpas mail order. Although it comes in the new super jewel box plastic case, if anything the packaging is even sparser than the CD (and the writing hasn't been changed, so it still advises you to crank up the volume of the disc!). Listed bonus features are: Tour Featurette Video / IG Interview / Photo Gallery / Memorabilia Photo.

The DVD is issued in Europe on PAL but David Coseni in Canada says there will be an NTSC version released in North America. SR #7001881

Smoke This is finally in stock at dpas mail order after attempts to purchase stock via the US label foundered because they had no way of accepting payment!

It's a scrapbook full of writings and photographs from Ian Gillan's career, nicely printed, with over 200 shots spread throughout. It first surfaced at his merchandise stall on the Gillan's Inn tour, then on the Deep Purple tour (although dpas mail order say they're selling it for half the price being charged then!) MK #700188