I've found that adding a bit of stippled texture over the gradients makes them a bit more fun to work with since the stippled effect adheres to the effects of the underlying gradient. Pretty fun. Also, no banding, which is a HUGE plus.

An instance of bright gradients! I'm turning over a new leaf. In any case the gradients in the text in the elipse and text is the same as the stippled BG gradient for comparison.