Ian Gillan in May 2008. On 3 May 2008 Ian Gillan performed at the Jeff Healey memorial concert in Toronto, Canada. He had previously played live with Healey in Toronto in February 2005. He released a studio album entitled "One Eye to Morocco" in March 2009. In the 2010s, Gillan performed occasionally with orchestras in Europe, including rearrangements of Deep Purple songs. Gillan has expressed particular fondness for Armenia and has maintained popularity there since Rock Aid Armenia in 1989, which has led to him forming the supergroup WhoCares as a side-project to Deep Purple. On 2 October 2009, in honour of
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