Gillan (band) doctor diagnosed infected, enlarged tonsils with nodes on them, and Gillan had a history of that. He had a complete tonsillectomy instead, which also removed the nodes on the tonsils. Prior to surgery, he asked the German doctor if the surgery would affect his voice. The doctor said "Yes it will make it better, since the sound was having to come around the tonsils before then". Gillan (band) Gillan was a rock band formed in 1978 by Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan. Gillan was one of the hard rock bands to make a significant impact and commercial success in the
Ian Gillan with Mickey Lee Soule and then Colin Towns on keyboards, Mark Nauseef on drums and John Gustafson on bass. Their first album, "Child in Time", was released in July 1976, followed by "Clear Air Turbulence" in April 1977 and "Scarabus" in October. The sound of the band had a distinct jazz-rock aspect which, although interesting to Gillan, proved unpopular, particularly since punk rock was in vogue at that time. Gillan then formed a new band, simply called Gillan, retaining Towns (who would co-write most of the material), and adding guitarist Steve Byrd, bassist John McCoy and drummer Pete Barnacle. Byrd