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Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillian has shared his memories of the ‘free love’ era of the late ’60s and early ’70s, which he looks back upon as an idyllic time.

In an interview with The Telegraph to promote his band’s new album, Splat!, Gillan is reminded of a section from his autobiography where he celebrates fellatio as “the ultimate sign of affection in rock ’n’ roll.”

In that same chapter of his book, chapter 4, Gillan wrote, “There was always the the nonchalant blowjob (BJ) happening while you were waiting for another pint, but of course it didn’t interfere with the conversation, and we always used to say that the ideal groupie stood four feet tall, with a flat head, so you had somewhere to rest your beer!.. Sadly for all concerned, the situation was stamped on by the women’s movement, whose cheerleaders chose to represent the whole of their sex (including the groupies) on such matters.”

“Did I say that?” Gillan asks interviewer Chris Harvey. “Oh, well, we were young then, and it was free love. Walking down Carnaby Street, you could end up with a girl – they’d pull you, you know. There was no exploitative element to it. Everything was mutual. Nobody was dragging people along by their hair into a bedroom. It was lovely.”

In the same interview, Gillan claims to have led “a very sheltered life”, claiming that he never tried cocaine until he joined Black Sabbath. “I didn’t try my first joint until I was 38,” he protests. “We used to drink and smoke cigarettes.”

If you want to hear more of Gillian’s anecdotes, you might consider purchasing a ticket for his first-ever spoken word tour

The Talking Gib’rish UK tour will commence on April 28 next year at the Bournemouth Pavilion, and come to an end on May 29 at London’s Cadogan Hall.

“I am quivering with anticipation at the prospect of embarking on my first-ever public speaking engagements, The Talking Gib’rish Tour, in April/May 2027,” says Gillan. “I’ll be covering a lot of ground, from my early days in Hounslow to whatever might have happened on the latest world tour with my beloved Deep Purple, and maybe something funky in between.

“After 65 years on the road, there will be stories about some of the fascinating and sometimes magical events and people that I’ve encountered along the trail. It’s going to be a blast!”

Ian Gillan: Taking Gib’rish UK Tour 2027

Apr 28: Bournemouth Pavilion
Apr 29: Ipswich Corn Exchange
Apr 30: London Union Chapel
May 01: Cardiff New Theatre
May 02: Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall Theatre
May 05: Glasgow Pavilion
May 06: York Barbican
May 07: Newcastle Tyne Theatre & Opera House
May 08: Edinburgh Queens Hall
May 09: Manchester RNCM Theatre
May 12: Leicester De Montfort Hall
May 13: Coventry Warwick Arts Centre Theatre
May 14: Birmingham Town Hall
May 15: Nottingham Albert Hall
May 16: Hayes Beck Theatre
May 19: Basingstoke The Anvil
May 20: Bath The Forum
May 21: Guildford G Live
May 22: Folkestone Leas Cliff Halls
May 23: Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
May 24: Bristol St George’s
May 27: Sheffield City Hall, Memorial Hall
May 28: Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
May 29: London Cadogan Hall

And you can read more from Gillian and his bandmates on the new Deep Purple album in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine.

Order your copy here.

We are delighted to report that our feisty New Zealand friends Pieces Of Molly have once again triumphed in our Tracks Of The Week contest, earning themselves a place in the pantheon of rock immortality with a comprehensive victory over These Wicked Rivers and Bywater Call. We’re putting it down to all the meat in the video.

So congratulations to them. And then up it’s Up! Up! And away! As we begin a new contest. Listen hard, vote harder.

Airbourne – Kid In A Candy Store

The latest slice of the Aussie’s long-awaited new album, Kid In A Candy Store is a pensive, understated affair with a surprise acoustic twist… just kidding: it’s AC/DC-baked raunch and balls-to-the-wall boogieing from start to finish, audibly draped in the same torn black denim and tourbus-fresh locks they’ve had since about 2003. It kinda puts us in the mind of their first couple of albums, channeling that same fury and road-dog work ethic. Have you heard it all before, and then some? Yes. Does that really matter? No. Sure to be a blast live.

The Heat Inc – Mind Control

London rock’n’rollers The Heat Inc cook up a haunting yet headbanging swirl of alt/goth 80s flavours and guitar fuzz, without feeling like a mindless throwback – quite the contrary. “This is a long way from being our first rodeo and God knows, we’ve never done it for the money,” they say. “We do it because we love it. There is no other way.” You can hear all that in Mind Control, and it feels all the more strident for it.

The Sheepdogs – Bad For Your Health

Riding the waves of this year’s Keep Out Of The Storm, the Canadian canines have released this gorgeous live version of one of its highlights – the lush yet rocking Bad For Your Health. All glam grooves, vintage threads and warmly toned riffage, it’s both beautifully laidback and the sort of rock’n’roller you can’t help but move to. Good health is overrated anyway, right? Catch them live in the UK this November and December.

The Anchoress – Throw Over Your Man

Enigma, auteur and progressive musical mastermind behind The Anchoress, Catherine Anne Davies is joined by James Dean Bradfield on guitar for this sumptuous taste of her next album, As We Once Were. Billed by Davies as a “celebratory queer rock anthem,” it mixes driving alt, classic rock and folk notes with sensual storytelling in one absorbing cocktail. If Virginia Woolf wrote rock songs instead of novels, having listened to a load of Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush, she might have come up with this.

The Virginmarys – My Nettle

A fiery, urgent highlight from 2024’s excellent The House Beyond The Fires, My Nettle packs a different kind of punch on this stripped-back rendition. An elegantly desolate slow burner, its bare-bones piano core expands through percussive beats and subtle, stirring string layers into something quietly lush, even as it bristles with raw feeling. Better than the original? No. A thoughtful, compelling sojourn from their fully electric set? Absolutely.

The Temperance Movement – Eat You Alive

Last year these guys reunited for their first shows since before the pandemic. Now, the fruits of that reunion further reveal themselves with this raw, rollicking taste of an all-new studio album, due later this year. Mixing analogue-y Black Crowes-come-Creedence spittle and sugar with classic British rock’n’roll, it’s a sun-dappled opening shot of this next chapter. Sonically not unlike Midnight Black (from their acclaimed debut), but with a sweetly roughened shadow.

Stanley Simmons – Don’t Leave Me Here Like That 

Stanley Simmons continue to carve out a niche that’s deliciously distant from their dads, with fifth single Don’t Leave Me Here Like That coming on like Simon & Garfunkel playing a long-lost Tom Petty tune. Or like UK indie verterans Dodgy, with an effervescent, summery vibe, and some 80s pop thrown in for good measure. The duo’s debut LP will be released on August 28, with tour dates following in September and October.

The Band Feel – Summer Song

St. Louis retro-rockers The Band Feel continue their musical mission, which is apparently to pretend that disco and punk and everything that followed never actually followed, and that one can journey safely from 1974 to 2026 without any pesky musical interference whatsoever. Summer Song is exactly as described on the packaging, sounding as if it were created on a hazy July 1974 evening in Laurel Canyon, with the right amount of lightness and whimsy. Debut album What Of Now will be available at your nearest hippie emporium from August 21.