Gun are a rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, most well known for their cover of Word Up!, originally by Cameo.
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 Alan, Cami and David 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. Mark Rankin's cousin Sharleen Spiteri, of fellow Scottish band Texas and ex drummer Alan Thornton contributed backing vocals to several songs on the album. The single "Better Days" from the album made the top 40 in the UK. 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 Baby 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 Alex and Scott 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 of which was a top 10 UK hit, 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 new name (G.U.N. - the reason given at the time, was to distance the bands name from the Dunblane shooting incident and to show some sensitivety to those involved, as Mark Rankin explained in an interview for the website dotmusic.com) and a new album 0141 632 6326 produced by INXS keyboard player Andrew Farriss, which was characterised by a much lighter, poppier sound than the more rock-driven sound of their earlier works. However, the album managed to simultaneously alienate existing fans of the band and fail to gain a new audience, and sold poorly in comparison to Swagger.
Source: http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/music/artists/gun/biography/
