| Alan Gill | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Thingwall, Wirral Peninsula, England |
| Genres | Punk Rock, R&B, Synthpop, Post-Punk, New Wave, Psychedelia |
| Occupations | singer songwriter guitarist record producer engineer film score composer |
| Instruments | guitar, voice |
| Years active | c. mid-1970s - c. present day |
| Associated acts | Mr. McKenzie Radio Blank Dalek I Love You The Teardrop Explodes The Most High |
Alan Gill (also called Alan David Gill)[1] is a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, who formed part of the synthpop band Dalek I Love You and the Neo-psychedelic band The Teardrop Explodes.
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Living in Thingwall, Wirral,[2] he formed alongside Keith Hartley, a band called Mr. McKenzie, with David Balfe joining later.
In November 1976, with the onset of punk rock, the band changed their name to Radio Blank, with Stephen Brick joining on drums. The band played punk and R&B songs and also covers like "You've Really Got Me" and The Stranglers' Peaches but Gill and Balfe changed their musical views, dissolving the band to go in a far more experimental direction.
The experimental band Gill and Balfe founded was Dalek I Love You, in December 1977, alongside David Hughes and Chris Teepee.
Gill was also an influential member of The Teardrop Explodes playing lead guitar and co-writing their biggest hit "Reward" with Julian Cope which charted at no.6 in the UK Singles Chart. Gill performed on their 1980 gold selling album Kilimanjaro and famously had a big influence on Julian Cope, as documented in Cope's 1994 autobiography 'Head On', in which Cope describes Gill as his 'Guru' turning him from 'tense to loose to slack in 3 months.' Gill famously introduced Cope to LSD before leaving the band to concentrate on Dalek I Love You.
After Dalek I Love You released their final album, Gill turned to film scoring, most notably for the 1985 film Letter to Brezhnev in which he collaborated with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1985, Gill also formed the Bopadub label which released cassette compilations, one of which was the Dalek I Love You album Naïve. In 1991, Gill scored the film Blonde Fist. Also in this year, Gill acted as engineer for legendary British folk musician Davey Graham. Part of Graham's album 'Playing In Traffic' was recorded at Gill's cottage in Raby Mere, Wirral. Around this time Gill became disillusioned with the hard-edged music business retreating from the music scene completely, notably not picking up a guitar up for 15 years, where upon he found a deep inner spirituality.
Gill's band inspired the title of Dalek I Love You, a radio drama which premiered on the British digital radio station BBC Radio 7 on 11 February 2006. The story centred on a man obsessed with Doctor Who who falls in love at a science fiction convention. The band also inspired the title of Dalek I Loved You, an autobiography by the journalist Nick Griffiths about his life as a Doctor Who fan, published in 2007
In 2009 a Dalek I Love You track "The World" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Awaydays. As an interesing aside, Gill's guitar, painted by himself in a tribal style, is played by main protagonist Elvis in one scene. In 2010, Alan Gill, along with David Balfe and Gary Dwyer minus Julian Cope, picked up a Mojo "inspiration" award at The MOJO Awards in London for The Teardrop Explodes.
Gill has now immersed himself in music again and has embarked on a new band project called The Most High[3] with main musicians, bassist Simon Walthew, drummer Ikem Washner and Phil Channell, keyboards and flute.