body www.miltonkeynes.co.uk MK Citizen Go, Thursday, August 16, 2012 7 body body body body Who Cares special body body body body body body Aid for Armenia...and a truckload of rock IN 1988, nature showed its most ferocious side, looked so incongruous in all of the devastation,” he “Later in the evening, after dinner, everyone unleashing a devastating earthquake on Armenia, remembers. had to do a speech and with the brandy flowing writes Sammy Jones. Among all the carnage, one vision more than any the musicians said they wanted to donate When it was over, 25,000 people had lost their other left a deep impression on Ian: “There was instruments...I wasn’t aware I had to say lives, and a quarter of a million more were left one old lady holding up a picture of a family group, anything and having had one glass too many, homeless. probably 23 or 24 people...and she was the only decided to say that we should knock down the Ian Gillan, the voice behind a swell of Deep one still alive. existing school and build a new one!” Purple rock classics, visited the region a year later. “The next day, it dawned on us what I had Not as part of a humanitarian mission, but as done, and Ian and Tony came up with the name, part of a solo tour, which took him to Yerevan. “I noticed the WhoCares...” “I barely knew about the earthquake,” he recalls, “On the plane home we came up with the idea “It was still the Soviet Union then, and news didn’t of starting the music again,” Ian continues. travel very well. deathly quiet and “People are getting on with their lives again, “I went out to Spitak and it made an indelible but the school is pretty much derelict, although impression –I don’t know if it was my mind, my the Mayor said they still teach there. heart or my soul, it was just unbelievable, people “It gets cold in the winter and you can see were walking around in a daze.” there had been no through the walls to the outside, so we thought Accompanied by the Mayor of Spitak, Ian took we’d get roped in...” in a ‘tour’ of the area: “The church clock was The result is the aforementioned WhoCares, stopped at 20 to 12 which is when the earthquake music...” a new to the shelves double album of classics, took place, and the Italians had set up this refugee rarities, unreleased recordings, collaborations, camp of very nice, well designed little new mixes and forgotten songs’ by Ian and Tony, modules, but it “I noticed the deathly quiet and the Mayor said along with two newbies: Out of My Mind and Holy Gillan is at home in Portugal when we touch there had been no music in the last year – none in Water, recorded with an all-star line-up including base, on a break from recording the new Deep the church, none on the radio, the children weren’t Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden and ex-Metallica Purple album, their first in seven years. singing, even the birds weren’t singing...” bassist Jason Newsted. At the tail end of September, the band will When the time was right Ian roped in a swell of “In a way it turned out to be serendipitous,” Ian reconvene in Nashville and turn attentions back to his famous muso pals and set about releasing a says of the rarities within. the job in hand. benefit single to boost the coffers for the damaged “I moved from a house in Cublington to a “A lot of the stuff is organic and evolves out of region. small house by the seaside and had to rent this jam sessions, which is how we’ve always written, Deep Purple smash hit Smoke on the Water huge place to put all my stuff in – my studio was and this time we’ve got a producer who lets us was re-recorded with artists including Queen’s jammed from floor to ceiling with stuff. stretch a little bit...I am very pleased with the Brian May and Roger Taylor, Bryan Adams, Iron “Fortunately, I’d hired someone to come in, log progress, and I know one thing for sure, it is going Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Blakc Sabbath ace everything and box it all up, and in the process of to be the best sounding Deep Purple album ever,” Tony Iommi and Paul Rodgers lending talents. that I got a load of old CDs and cassette players he promises. Former Woburn Sands resident Ian and his and demo’s that I’d forgotten about which did But for the moment, it’s full steam ahead for new city based manager Phil Banfield were make it easier... it was fun pulling all that stuff out. Armenia – work begins on the new school later this instrumental in piecing together a compilation “The material is probably a bit weighted on my month: “We’ve done our bit and now someone has album to raise more cash to the much needed side – I’m not sure Tony had as much junk hanging got to bring out the shovel and spade and build the pile. around as I did! damn thing,” he says with a laugh. Fast forward to 2009, and the president of “I think the cupboard is pretty much bare now,” he And what Ian, Tony, Phil and all those involved in Armenia invites supporters including Ian, Phil says in respect of any unused tracks sitting around, the project really want is for the album to get some and Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi “...but you never know what might be stuck under prominence. back to say ‘thank you’ in the 20th the floorboards!” “It’s about making people aware it’s there, anniversary year of the tragedy. The album features contributions from Ronnie because the sale of every copy is important,” Ian Phil takes up the story: “We were James Dio and Jon Lord, who have both been explains. taken on a tour which included a visit mourned by the music industry in recent times. “It’s not mainstream – nothing that fits in, it’s all to a brandy factory and a children’s Ronnie lost his battle with cancer in 2010, and the stuff we personally have an attachment to. music school where the children Ian’s former Deep Purple bandmate Jon sadly “I wouldn’t try to sell it under false pretences – played Armenian folk songs and passed away the day the album was released. it’s a quirky album for sure. But, if you want to have Smoke on the Water and Paranoid on “One of my favourite, and the most poignant bits an insight into the kind of things we do outside of authentic Armenian instruments... on the album is a thing called Dick Pimple, which the mainstream I think it will be an intriguing thing it touched all of us, especially when was a jam session we did a long time ago, because to listen to. taking into account the terrible it has Deep Purple messing about in the studio. “It’s not something you want to put on in the facilities.” “Jon Lord is doing all the anagrams, and his life background, because it is diverse and has different was full of tortured anagrams and tortured puns... moods throughout. It’s something you would MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Ian to hear him so full of joy and so much a part of probably sit down late at night with, as a blues Gillan, Iron Maiden’s Nicko things is a keepsake for me. album. McBrain, the late Jon Lord, and “It made me smile listening to it the other day...” “I should think you’ll need a chiropractor if you Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi The head of the Armenian committee has listen to it standing up!” decided on the perfect tribute to Jon Lord, and will WhoCares is in stores now. Pictures: Ara Tadevosyan name the piano room in the new school after the Visit www.gillan.com for more details. influential player..