Gun (band)

This article is about the Glasgow rock band. For the 1960s, London band, see The Gun (band).

Gun
Also known as	G.U.N.
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genres	Hard rock, heavy metal, glam metal
Years active	1987–1997 2008–present
Labels	A&M Records Polydor Records
Associated acts	Baby Stafford El Presidente Blind Allez Little Angels
Website	http://www.gunofficial.co.uk/
Members
Giuliano 'Jools' Gizzi Dante Gizzi Paul McManus Derek Brown
Past members
Mark Rankin Alan Thornton Cami Morlotti David Aitken Scott Shields Baby Stafford Jim McDermott Alex Dickson Mark Kerr Irvin Duguid Stuart Kerr Toby Jepson Gordon McNeil

Gun are a rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, best known for their cover of Cameo's "Word Up!".

History

Early career

Originally called Blind Allez then for a short time, 'Phobia', GUN were formed in 1987 by Giuliano Gizzi (guitar) and Cami Morlotti (bass), with Mark Rankin (vocals), Alan Thornton (drums) and David Aitken (guitar). Signed in 1989 by A&M Records the band line-up changed after Thornton, Morlotti and Aitken parted company with them and new recruits Dante Gizzi, Scott Shields and Baby Stafford joined.^[1] In the studio, Jim McDermott (Kevin McDermott Orchestra, Simple Minds and The Silencers), provided drums on the albums Taking on the World and Gallus. Debut album Taking on the World was also released this year.^[1] Rankin's cousin Sharleen Spiteri, of fellow Scottish band Texas and ex drummer Thornton contributed backing vocals to several songs on the album. The single "Better Days" from the album made the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart.^[1][2] Gun toured the US and supported The Rolling Stones on their European Urban Jungle Tour of 1990. Tours with Bon Jovi and Def Leppard followed shortly after.

Mainstream success

Alex Dickson replaced Stafford before the release of their second album Gallus, of which the single "Steal Your Fire" was a minor hit.^[1][2] Spiteri and Thornton again contributed backing vocals to the album.

Both Dickson and Shields left before the release of Swagger, Giuliano taking over all guitar duties. Mark Kerr (brother of Jim Kerr, lead singer of Simple Minds who coincidentally were on A&M in North America) replaced Scott Shields on drums. Swagger was easily their most successful album, propelled by the success of their version of "Word Up!" The single was a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart,^[1][2] charted well in many other territories and won an MTV award for best cover version.

Decline and split

The band took a break and returned three years later with yet another new drummer, Stuart Kerr (formerly of Texas), a keyboard player, Irvin Duguid, a revised name (G.U.N. - the reason given at the time, was to distance the band's name from the Dunblane shooting incident and to show some sensitivety to those involved, as Rankin explained in an interview for the website dotmusic.com) and a new album 0141 632 6326 produced by INXS keyboard player Andrew Farriss. However, the album sold poorly in comparison to Swagger, peaking at #32 in the UK Albums Chart.^[2]

The band split in 1997 and aside from a few one-off reunion gigs in 1998 (Paradise Garage, Lisbon, Portugal) and 1999 (Scotland Rocks for Kosovo charity event), had not been active as a unit before reforming, with Toby Jepson as guest vocalist, for a Rockradio charity gig in January 2008. Two new Gun CDs were released (The Collection and The River Sessions - a double live CD) during their hiatus, and all the previous individual members went on to other projects within the music industry. An official fan site^[3] was set up, in agreement with the band, with previous and current members of the band participating in live web chats and contributing to the forums from time to time.

Reformation and future

In January 2008 Joolz and Dante Gizzi played a set of GUN songs, with Jepson guesting on vocals, and Alan Thornton on drums at the 'Garage' in Glasgow, Scotland. The gig was organised by 96.3 Rock Radio in aid of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy charity.

In April 2008, GUN announced on Rockradio that they were to reform and confirmed that Jepson would join the band on a permanent basis, replacing Mark Rankin as vocalist, who gave his blessing to the reformation and new line-up.^[4] Thornton also returned to his original position as drummer until being replaced by Gordon McNeil in October 2008. They played several festival dates before launching their own headline tour. New material has also been recorded, with a release to coincide with the 20th anniversary of their first album, Taking On The World.

In May 2008 GUN played the Rockradio Manchester launch festival. This was followed by an appearance at Rockers, Midland Street, Glasgow, Scotland on the 11 July 2008 as a warm up for their appearance on the main stage at the 2008 T in the Park music festival, the following day. After playing a couple of warm-up gigs in 2008 at Vivaz, Scarborough and Tackeroo, Cannock, GUN played two 'one night only' concerts at Shepherds Bush Empire, London and The Academy, Glasgow in December. At the Glasgow gig, original members Jools and Dante Gizzi were reunited on stage with early GUN drummer, Scott Shields. Shields replaced McNeil for one song, "Better Days". Shields also played drums, along with McNeil, at the aftershow warm-down at Rockers, Glasgow.

2009 would have seen GUN play the Castle Rock festival in Caldicot, Wales and the Indie Guitar Festival, Oxfordshire but both events were cancelled due to the ongoing economic downturn. They subsequently went out on tour and played venues in Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh in May 2009. The Inverness gig saw the debut of "Let Your Hair Down" which the band then went on to play at both subsequent venues in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. York and Wolverhampton dates were completed in June. The band then played the Derrame Rock Festival^[5] in Asturias, Spain on 11 July 2009. A concert in Wiesen, Austria was followed in October by a return to Spain with five dates in Valencia, Madrid, Gijon, Bilbao and Barcelona,^[6] and three consecutive dates at Club Pacific Rock^[7] in Paris. November saw the band play Lisbon, Portugal.^[8] The band also played the Hard Rock Hell Festival^[9] in Prestatyn, North Wales on 4 December 2009.^[10] The Prestatyn Festival was preceded in November by a UK tour.^[11]

2010 saw McNeil leave GUN to concentrate on his own project, GoGoBot. He was replaced by Paul McManus, previously of the bands 'La Paz' and 'No Dice'. GUN supported Lynyrd Skynyrd on the UK leg of their 2010 tour and followed this with the Popkiller Part 1 tour to promote their new mini-album of the same name.^[12]

On 28 June 2010, Jepson announced he was stepping down as GUN's singer due to other commitments.^[13] The statement was reproduced on the official GUN website the same day with an additional statement by Jools and Dante Gizzi confirming Jepson's departure. They also stated the band's future would be considered and that updates on this would follow in due course.^[14] Shortly after this the official website was removed and a placeholder page was left in its place.^[15] Copies of both announcements were made available on the official fan page^[16]

In late July 2010 the Gun website was updated. It was announced that Dante Gizzi would move from bass guitar to lead vocals and a new bass player would be brought in. The new bass player was eventually confirmed in October 2010 as Derek Brown, former guitar technician for the band during the "Swagger" tour.^[17] GUN's first gigs with the new lineup took place on the 31st of January and 1 February 2011 at the ABC2 in Glasgow.^[18]

Outside projects and work

In 2005, Dante Gizzi resurfaced in the glam rock band El Presidente. Thornton also collaborated on the band's debut album, playing nine of the drum tracks.

Jools Gizzi, Thornton and Morlotti 2006 joined up in 2006 to reform as 'Blind Allez', along with singer Peter Scallan and guitarist Ian Murray. Gizzi also collaborated with Deacon Blue and Texas as well as contributing in the studio to El Presidente.

Dante and Giuliano Gizzi have also collaborated with Rosie and the Goldbug, co-writing two songs for the group's eponymous 2008 debut album.^[19]

Shields has contributions to the films Black Hawk Down and Bend It Like Beckham and was also playing and touring with Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros until Strummer's death. Shields and other members of the band put the finishing touches to Strummer's last album.

Stafford recorded an EP under his own name in 1994 called Paper Love Maker, which also featured Shields on drums. He later played with the band 'Breaker'.

Dickson has played with Bruce Dickinson, Emma Bunton, Robbie Williams and Calvin Harris since leaving GUN, and is also a member of the rock supergroup Sack Trick.

Rankin is currently working for Mercury Records in London promoting up and coming bands.

Mark Kerr is currently living and working in Paris. He has been collaborating with many acts including Sly Silver Sly, Regency Buck, Scanners, Jackos One, Mellow, Bob's Symphonic Orchestra, Cathy Burton and DJ Daniele Tignino. He has also played drums on occasion for Simple Minds and for Les Rita Mitsouko.

McNeil also writes, produces and plays drums for Glasgow pop act GoGoBot, a project he started in 2008.^[20]

Toby Jepson previously fronted Little Angels and had a brief spell fronting Fastway as well as releasing solo material and touring as a solo artist.

Discography

• Taking on the World (1989)
• Gallus (1992)
• Swagger (1994)
• 0141 632 6326 (1997)
• The Collection (2003)
• The River Sessions (2005)
• Popkiller (2009)^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. p. 408. ISBN 1-84195-017-3. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 237. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
3. ^ Officialgunfans.co.uk
4. ^ Tobyjepson.com
5. ^ Festivalderramerock.com
6. ^ Officialgunfans.co.uk
7. ^ Pacificrock.fr
8. ^ Officialgunfans.co.uk
9. ^ Hardrockhell.com
10. ^ Officialgunfans.co.uk
11. ^ Officalgunfans.co.uk
12. ^ Officialgunfans.co.uk
13. ^ Official Toby Jepson Site - News/Blogs - Announcement 28 June 2010
14. ^ GUN - The Official Site - News - 28th June 2010 : Announcements Gunofficial.co.uk
15. ^ http://www.gunofficial.co.uk/ Gun - The Official Site
16. ^ http://officialgunfans.co.uk/news.html Gun - Official fan site - News
17. ^ Gun - The Official Site
18. ^ Gun - The Official Site - gigs
19. ^ Staff (2008-05-30). Rosie and the Goldbug, BBC Cornwall
20. ^ MySpace.com

External links

• Gun - Official page
• Last.fm page for Gun