Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
One of the few frontmen of rock to have found success across a myriad of bands or indeed been at the helm of a group that carried his name, not once, but on three separate occasions, performing on the Black Sabbath album Born Again, and being part of one the big names in rock in three different eras…never standing still, never allowing time to catch up with him…and in that Ian Gillan deserves the accolades and fandom he has continually found, nurtured, and given all for.
As the man who gave early Deep Purple their vocal sound approaches his 80th year, the sense of time being personified as a glorious expedition is overwhelmingly cool and it is a monster of proportions that in the period that utilises his name for a second time, the listener is fully immersed in the five studio albums and the expressive live set which embraced the Double Trouble period as the new boxset illuminates the sense of rock history that graced the charts and the mindset of those who had fallen under the spell of the performer and the magician of the vocal delivery.
Gillan:1978-1982 is a tour in history, it is an explosive journey through a period of division, of social upheaval and change, and one that as all good rock stars knew, was ripe for observation and placing into lyrics with an edge of incredulity and at times as the period allowed, to be suggestive, to add to the alure of the mechanics of the genre, and as the albums progress, as each one further adds to the dynamic of the band and Ian Gillan himself, it comes as no surprise that the boxset opens up another understanding of just how crucial the man was to the advent of other groups that were coming through around the same time.
From the self-titled debut, which later become known indirectly as The Japanese album, through Mr. Universe, Glory Road, the impressive Future Shock, the double header of studio and the live package of Double Trouble which features the ever poignant Mutually Assured Destruction, and a live version of the heavy hitting legendary Deep Purple track Smoke On The Water, and the final studio offering in Magic, the boxset is revealed to be a celebration, a festivity of sound and ideas that embrace the rock ethic of the late 70s and early 80s.
Gillan:1978-1982 confirms just how important Ian Gillan has been to the overall arc of postwar Britian’s rebuilding of the artistic intent that once offered hope to those who refused to be crushed by the system; a hope we could dearly do with in today’s uncaring and totalitarian world.
A fantastic opportunity to relish in the groove of one of Britain’s finest examples of rock’s dynamic past; Gillan:1978-1982 is an unbeatable model of that pleasure we derive from the pulse of the genre.
Ian D. Hall