Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A different approach, November 16, 2002
The Ian Gillan Band years are indeed very different from everything Gillan has done before or after.
Not my favourite period either, but at least it's still a time when he had a pure clear voice before he ruined it in GILLAN and Black Sabbath before recovering it not long ago around the time of DP's FANTASTIC PURPENDICULAR album.
Different style, jazz-rock oriented, sometimes a lil too smooth but still worth a good listen.
Particular versions of Child In Time, Smoke on the Water, woman from tokyo...another interpretation of those hard rock masterpieces.
This live recording has a great sound, the musicians in IAN GILLAN BAND are way better than in GILLAN-Mark Nausseff on the drums on percussion is the perfect example.
No hard rock, no conventional Ian Gillan, but after all each PURPLE's member has gone thru new and unknown territories and this is how you might be tempted yourself to get out of the hard rock-heavy metal bubble.
Open your ears, open your mind
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some good moments, January 2, 2008
This is a single live CD taken from a 1978 concert and LP release. It was originally released as a double LP. It is around 70 minutes long. Note that the track order listed here, and on the CD cover is wrong.
The sound quality is fair to good. It is not as good as Deep Purple, Live in Japan, for example, but it is better than many concert releases.
This is basically the Ian Gillan Band's fourth album, after releasing 3 studio albums.
Someone made a silly comment about his being different from anything else Gillan has done. That is ridiculous. This is sounds just like Deep Purple and is the kind of music Deep Purple would play in concert. Deep Purple used to be a jamming band, with classic, blues and jazz influences. However, this sounds more like later Deep Purple (after Gillan left the group) than it does like the great earlier stuff when he was still in the band.
The Ian Gillan Band is a fairly good band, but not nearly as good as Deep Purple was. The group does get in some nice solos on guitar and keyboards on some of the songs.
A bigger problem is that the songs are not that good. Many of them sound like retreads of Deep Purple songs. Twin Exhausted sounds like Highway Star part 2. Again, the quality of the songs remind me of the Deep Purple years after Gillan had been kicked out of the band. Sometimes you would think that this would be a pretty good band, if they only found a new vocalist and better songs.
The CD ends with 3 old Deep Purple songs. I like the version of Child In Time, because it is completely different than any version by Deep Purple. It starts with a flute solo and is slower and more bluesy. I have some many live versions of Child In Time is that it is refreshing to hear a completely different version. Smoke on the Water and My Woman From Tokyo are not very good, although Smoke on the Water does have a nice little, 4 minute guitar solo in the middle. The singing during these songs is especially poor.
Overall, this is about a 3 star live album, with some very nice hard rocking parts. But, there are a number of songs that just bring it down, which is why I gave it 2 stars. I will rip out the parts of the album I like (including ripping solos out of bad songs) and will end up with about 20 to 30 minutes of good music.
Deep Purple has a pioneering progressive rock band with heavy overtones. In 1970, after the first three albums, the group dumped the lead singer and bassist and hired Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. (The old leadsinger went on to form Captian Beyond and had a mild hit with Sufficiently Breathless). After about Deep Purple hit the top of their popularity, Gillan and Glover left the band. There are different stories about what happened. I remember reading at the time that they were forced out (the group turned down the songs they wrote as not being good Deep Purple songs). Others say that Gillan kept trying to quit but the group kept talking him into staying. Gillan went off to form the Ian Gillan Band and later "Gillan". Deep Purple had a number of people parade through the band and eventually turned into White Snake. I remember seeing White Snake (not knowing who they were) and thinking the band stunk except really good peformances by the drummer and keyboardist (turned our to be original Deep Purple members Ian Paice and Jon Lord). Deep Purple (Mack II with Gillan and Glover) reformed in the mid-eighties. Glover, Gillan and Paice have been in the band ever since. Blackmore and Lord have since dropped out.
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