Rufus Stone Limited Editions has announced the upcoming book, Portraits Of Gillan. Watch a video trailer below.
On leaving Deep Purple in June 1973, Ian Gillan seemed to turn his back on music. Instead of joining or forming a new outfit the vocalist instead invested heavily in a number of business projects and to all intents and purposes appeared to have retired.
But there was more to Gillan than just his work with Purple, and he’d been singing for over a decade by this time so it was inevitable that he would eventually go back to what he did best – fronting a band and so in September 1975, in Paris, the world was introduced to the Ian Gillan band.
Over the next few years the band expanded and transformed into Gillan, releasing a batch of successful albums and singles, sell-out tours, headlining the Reading Festival, guesting at the third ever Monsters of Rock event and playing a final show at Wembley Arena before the band disintegrated. What happened next surprised everyone and in April 1983, Ian Gillan, flanked by Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, was officially announced as the new singer of Black Sabbath.
Portraits Of Gillan is a photographic celebration of Ian Gillan’s post Deep Purple career, published as a brand-new coffee-table book tracing his career with a mixture of well-known, rare and unseen photographs from some of rock’s greatest photographers. The book includes an 8,000 word essay from rock journalist and writer John Tucker, tracking Gillan’s career through this period. This unofficial book is 230mm square, case-bound, 240 pages, printed on luxury 170gsm matt-coated paper. The book comes with a fold out poster and is presented in a black slipcase with a gold foil logo. The main edition comes in 500 numbered copies and sells for £55 plus shipping.
In addition to this, a much larger, ultra-limited Black Leather and Metal Edition measuring 375mm square and presented in recycled leather and a hand welded aluminium metal slipcase with a screen printed logo in a run of 50 numbered copies. This edition also comes with a unique lenticular for framing and will sell for £350.
The books will go on sale on Wednesday, April 24 at 3 PM, UK time and will feature a 10% pre-order discount if ordered before November 30. The first 200 orders will also come with a free Gillan enamel badge worth £6.95. The books will ship worldwide at the end of June 2024.
The books can be ordered here.
