G M T Official Forum

Ian Gillans 'version' of why Bernie left Gillan, detailed in the Future Shock re-issue. You can read between the lines as well

Quote: Virgin decided to follow up the sucess of 'New Orleans' by releasing 'No Laughing In Heaven' as a single and offered to pay the cost of flying the band back from Germany on a day off to record a spot on Top Of The Pops. It was a fantastic opportunity at a time when rock bands rarely had the chance to perform on British TV, but when Ian called the band together to tell them, they were less than pleased at having to sacrifice their precious day off.
'They were grumbling and grumbling, and Bernie took the lead and said, 'well, fuck it, I'm not going!' Ian remembers. So I said, 'Maybe I'm not being diplomatic enough, but Gillan is going to do this show. The record company's been great, its a marvellous opportunity to promote the single on television, and thats it. Anyone who is not in the bus to the airport in the morning is not in the band anymore'. Bernie just stormed off, as did everyone else.
Bernie didn't appear the next morning and was promptly sacked. Unquote


Nice one Bernie, I wish I had the balls to tell my employer* that. Top bloke!!



* Thats NOT to say you were HIS guitarist, more like he was YOUR singer

Nice!

Not sure I said that, but I may have.

What a fantastic thing the internet is to learn after 26 years that I was sacked!

Obviously I wasn't around at the time to find out, having already left.

The disagreement had nothing to do with days off, it was about whether we were ever actually going to be paid anything or not.  On the evidence available at the time I thought not, and left.

These current re-releases are in fact the first ever official Gillan releases from which John, Mick, Colin and I will be paid, so I am happy to be finally proved wrong after 26 years of being right.

Ian no longer owns the rights to the albums.

Hahaha. Sorry Bernie but I can't help seeing the funny side of this.
Gillan has his head so far up his ass.

Agreed about Gillan. He seems to be at odds with talent, i.e: R. Blackmore and now Bernie. Feuds like this are OK when you're a younger man. Now, Gillan just comes off like some grumpy old man yelling at kids for playing on his lawn.

.....and 26 years the Dortmund Halle 3 gig cancellation still ranks as one of the few lowpoints of my time in Germany. Nobody told us it was cancelled, we cruised 70 miles to find out & then had to run the gauntlet of several hundred Schalke & Borussia Dortmund fans on the way back to the bikes!!

No matter, I've seen Bernie & John several times since then & never been disappointed!

I saw Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, The Scorpions, Def Leppard and Accept in Dortmund about 83
and was a Moenchengladbach fan, when I lived there.

Seems we could well both have been at several of the same gigs then!

I hope Bernie and John, (and Mick and Colin) make some cash from it as any member of a band that sold so many albums should. I saw Gillan live some seven times and I have all the reiisue cds and it is very clear which incarnation of the band is the best. No disrespect to Janick Gers who is fantastic but Double Trouble struggles and Magic is somewhat awful.....