I love IGB, it's probably my favorite "Purple members gone astray"-outside project, it was also Ian Gillan's comeback from his 1973 self-chosen retirement from the rock scene three years later. But the "ex-singer of Deep Purple"-albatross around his neck was a weighty one plus it was the dawn of Punk. And IGB were paired with unlikely acts such as Black Sabbath, Nazareth and Thin Lizzy as an opening act, they probably should have gone out with someone like Gentle Giant or even Return To Forever, but again Ian's Purple pedigree overshadowed everything. After three studio albums and a successful tour of Japan (the only market where they had an impact), they lost their recording contract with Island Records (who hadn't known what to do with them in the first place) and folded. Ian only retained the (excellent) keyboard player Colin Towns to found the more hard-rocking and straightforward, but still edgy and off-the-wall 'Gillan' (the band).
IGB did really interesting, clever + musical stuff, fusion rock done differently with a voice not in the usual RnB vein of other fusion acts (to the extent they have a singer at all); John Gustafson's flangered WAL bass sound and Mark Nauseef's intricate drumming left quite a footprint on the music:
