Yesterday I was part of the Orsom Ltd team, driving Mrs O down to the Jurrasic Coast to check on a job that is nearing completion. I was the driver yesterday for two reasons, one is that Toby, Mrs O's business partner, has slipped off to Venice for a few days with his girlfriend Rosie,,, and the second reason was that we were going to catch up with some friends who we had not seen for at least 15 years. It was a lovely day to be down on the beach again with great views to where David Tennant and company filmed Broadchurch back in 2013.
Mrs O checked the job, all was ok, so we could go visiting. Back in the early 80's Paul Mariner introduced me to a friend of his, a man with hair longer than Paul's and mine put together. This extremely pleasant long haired rocker was infact a true hard rocker. Lead singer and lyricists for Deep Purple, Jesus in the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, lead singer with Black Sabbath for a while,,the list goes on. Ian Gillan and his fabulous wife Bron welcomed us into their home like it was only a week ago that we last met, not 15 years or so. The next three to four hours flew by, reminiscing of late night swims in Ipswich docks, not to be recommended to anyone might I add, ordering 50 portions of fish chips mushy peas and a gallon jar of pickled gherkins! We talked about the all night rock festival at Knebworth back in 1984, when Mariner, Osman and Butcher were invited into Ian's hospitality motorhome for a few pre performance glasses of Bell's Whisky!! The muddiest event that I have ever attended but Terry and myself found a great dry area to watch from, until the safety officers founds us sitting on £100,000 worth of fireworks and thought it best if we moved on! Ian used to come along to Portman Road to watch Ipswich play in the early eighties and he enjoyed watching us perform as much as we enjoyed watching him. The difference nowadays is that we ex footballers are far too old to play any more but Ian and Deep Purple are still touring and still performing a heavy schedule year after year. In fact Ian feels that his voice is in as good a condition as it's ever been. It was a pleasure to spend a few hours with Ian and Bron again, today Ian is off on tour once more, this time through to November!! Obviously you are never to old to Rock and Roll.
2 Comments
Tim Caple
17/3/2016 11:18:09 pm
One of my all time heroes ! very jealous indeed did you know the man that put Purple together and who wrote that riff ! To "smoke on the water " was actually from Weston Super Mare , Ritchie Blackmore , you were also mentioned in Gillan's biography something about a party on a boat on a canal ! Lol
Reply
Tim
17/3/2016 11:36:02 pm
The story was about a late night party, 50 portions of fish chips and mushy peas, on a barge in Ipswich docks, IG decided to go for a swim around midnight, he was a qualified diving instructor so didn't worry to much about him,,,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
Categories |