Gun

7pm - 10.00 p.m.

£10.00

Tickets purchased for the 7/12 are valid for this show.

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. 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. 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. 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.

Alex Dickson replaced Stafford before the release of their second album Gallus, of which the single "Steal Your Fire" was a minor hit. 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 Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr) 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, charted well in many other territories and won an MTV award for best cover version.

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.

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 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.

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. 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 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, and three consecutive dates at Club Pacific Rock in Paris. November saw the band play Lisbon, Portugal. The band also played the Hard Rock Hell Festival in Prestatyn, North Wales on 4 December 2009. The Prestatyn Festival was preceded in November by a UK tour.

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.

On 28 June 2010, Jepson announced he was stepping down as GUN's singer due to other commitments. 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. Shortly after this the official website was removed and a placeholder page was left in it's place. Copies of both announcements were made available on the official fan page

In late July 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. Details will follow shortly on the new lineup