Phenomena and Ian Gillan Band
Louis H Iselin
from Purple. I bought their first album (out of print) when it
first came out. I really liked it - a concept album to go with
a movie which was never made. I can't find the album right now, so I can't
post the members of the band.
Songs:
Kiss of Fire
Still the Night
Dance with the Devil
Phoenix Rising
Believe
Who's Watching You
Hell on Wings
Twilight Zone
Phenomena
Their second album was more commerical, but the local rock station
has still never heard of them. Entitled Dream Runner, the musicians
were:
Glenn Hughes Ray Gillen John Wetton Max Bacon
Mel Galley Kyoji Yamamoto Scott Gorham John Thomas
Leif Johansen Neil Murrey Michel Sturgis Toshihiro Niimi
Songs:
Stop
Surrender
Did it All for Love
Hearts on Fire
Jukebox
Double 6, 55, 44...
No Retreat - No Surrender
Move - You Lose
Emotion Mama
It Must be Love
Most of the music is by Tom Galley and Mel Galley
RCA - BMG 1987
Both albums have a cool insert with pictures and lyrics. The first was
never released on CD as far as I know, and the second was not released
on vinyl.
Ian Gillan Band -
I have 2 of these and like both of them. One is "Mr. Universe" and
the other is 2-set "What I did on my Vacation" This has one of the
funniest songs I have ever heard from a rock group -- No Laughing in
Heaven.
Let's have some discussion of the spinoff bands...
Louis
Trond J. Strom
glo...@robot.nuceng.ufl.edu (Louis H Iselin) wrote:
> I noticed that Phenomena was mentioned in the FAQ as a spinoff band
> from Purple.
Not really a spinoff band - just mentioned because of Glenn Hughes' vocals.
> Ian Gillan Band -
> I have 2 of these and like both of them. One is "Mr. Universe" and
> the other is 2-set "What I did on my Vacation" This has one of the
> funniest songs I have ever heard from a rock group -- No Laughing in
> Heaven.
>
> Let's have some discussion of the spinoff bands...
Indeed, and Gillan is a very good place to start!
Perhaps I just should stress the difference between Ian Gillan Band and
Gillan.
_Ian Gillan Band_ was Ian Gillan's first active musical project after he
quit from Deep Purple in 1973. (Allthough he did record a solo album and
some other stuff inbetween, now out on the "Cherkazoo and other stories..."
CD.)
_Ian Gillan Band_ released three studio albums, and one live set:
Child in Time (the title track a reworking of the Purple song)
Clear Air Turbulence
Scarabus
Live at the Budokan (Vol. 1 & 2)
The _Ian Gillan Band_ (hereafter IGB) was directed to a high extent by the
musicians, which Ian actually had nicked from a band Roger Glover had put
together! (Bassist John Gustafson was an old friend of Ian, he was a short
period in Episode Six after Ian and Roger had quit to join Purple, he sung
on Jesus Christ Superstar with Ian (as Simon Zealotes?) , and he was in one
of the Purple Records bands (Quatermass?).
Anyway, IGB was rather directionless, a strange hybrid of jazz/fusion-rock
and hard rock. They never made any large impact, allthough the first
Budokan set sold well enough in Japan for the second set to be released.
Ian felt this was going nowhere, and panned the band. He kept keyboardist
Colin Towns, though, and the two cowrote very much of the early material
for the next band, _Gillan_. This was a back to basics hard rocking unit,
and they made some great stuff, allthough the massive amount of vinyl
output and constant touring ensured they never did a truly classic album.
Especially the early albums can be highly recommended, but all are
definitively worth having.
Gillan (1978 aka "The Japanese Album" out on CD on RPM 1993 with bonus
tracks)
Mr. Universe (1979) (wrongly credited to _Ian Gillan Band_ on the CD
release)
Glory Road (1980)
Future Shock (1981)
Double Trouble (1981) (one LP brill studio and one notsobrill live!)
Magic (1982)
All albums now out on CD, with heaps and tons of single cuts etc. as bonus
tracks. ("Future Shock" has ten - 10 - bonus tracks!)
_What I Did On My Vacation_ was a compilation done between Perfect
Strangers and The House of Blue Light, and features both IGB and Gillan
tracks. It's the only CD to feature the single track "Lucille", except
perhaps some of the newer compilations.
OK; check out _Gillan_ (the band!) if you haven't - it's worth it if you
take the time!
--
Trond J. Strom t.j....@ub.uio.no
MILAN
(I tried to reply to this article a couple of times before, but something
always went wrong. This is the long way, but I hope it works this time).
In article <t.j.strom-2...@129.240.37.120> you write:
>
>
>
>
>_Ian Gillan Band_ released three studio albums, and one live set:
>
>Child in Time (the title track a reworking of the Purple song)
>Clear Air Turbulence
>Scarabus
>Live at the Budokan (Vol. 1 & 2)
>
>
>Gillan (1978 aka "The Japanese Album" out on CD on RPM 1993 with bonus
>tracks)
>Mr. Universe (1979) (wrongly credited to _Ian Gillan Band_ on the CD
>release)
>Glory Road (1980)
>Future Shock (1981)
>Double Trouble (1981) (one LP brill studio and one notsobrill live!)
>Magic (1982)
>
>All albums now out on CD, with heaps and tons of single cuts etc. as bonus
>tracks. ("Future Shock" has ten - 10 - bonus tracks!)
>
>_What I Did On My Vacation_ was a compilation done between Perfect
>Strangers and The House of Blue Light, and features both IGB and Gillan
>tracks. It's the only CD to feature the single track "Lucille", except
>perhaps some of the newer compilations.
>
>OK; check out _Gillan_ (the band!) if you haven't - it's worth it if you
>take the time!
>--
>Trond J. Strom t.j....@ub.uio.no
Additional things that are worth checking out but were not mentioned
in Trond's essay:
In 1991 Gillan released a CD called 'Toolbox', with Leslie West
starring on one of the tracks ('Hang me out to dry'). The album is
quite heavy compared to the prior Gillan works. Mr. Universe himself
sings (pardon me 'screams') surprisingly well throughout the whole record.
In 1988 Ian and Roger Glover released together an album called
'Accidently on Purpose'. It's an absolute deviation from any Purple sound
(kind of reminds me of 'Butterfly Ball' (1974) and 'Wizard's Convention'
(1976)). Interesting stuff, though. One of the tracks ('Lonely Avenue')
was used in the movie 'Rainman'.
Finally, as Trond briefly said, all of the Gillan albums have been
re-released, each with a bundle of bonus tracks. 'Mr. Universe' contains
5 bonus live songs from Reading Festival in 1980, including a version of
Smoke On the Water. 'Magic' has 8 extra tunes of which probably the most
interesting ones are the two versions of 'South Africa', written by
Bernie Marsden. 'Glory Road' includes 'For Gillan Fans Only' which is
an additional material that used to be given away for free to the first
one hundred (or so) buyers of 'Glory Road' some 13 or 14 years ago.
Regards,
Milan.
P.S. Special thanks to Trond for descriptive text on current Deep Purple
status on alt.rock-n-roll!
Trond J. Strom
mimi...@essex.ecn.uoknor.edu (MILAN) wrote:
> Additional things that are worth checking out but were not mentioned
> in Trond's essay:
>
> In 1991 Gillan released a CD called 'Toolbox', with Leslie West
> starring on one of the tracks ('Hang me out to dry'). The album is
> quite heavy compared to the prior Gillan works. Mr. Universe himself
> sings (pardon me 'screams') surprisingly well throughout the whole record.
>
> In 1988 Ian and Roger Glover released together an album called
> 'Accidently on Purpose'. It's an absolute deviation from any Purple sound
> (kind of reminds me of 'Butterfly Ball' (1974) and 'Wizard's Convention'
> (1976)). Interesting stuff, though. One of the tracks ('Lonely Avenue')
> was used in the movie 'Rainman'.
>
Well, I just tried to cover the Ian Gillan Band and Gillan days, up to the
Purple reunion.
To take his post-reunion efforts chronologically:
Gillan Glover : Accidentally on Purpose (1988)
And album put together by Ian and Roger from songs written by the two, but
"deemed unsuitable for Deep Purple" (read: axed by Ritchie Blackmore). As
Milan wrote, this is different from most other Purple solo (duo?) efforts:
I find it very good, though. "She Took My Breath Away" is an ace track, for
instance. Actually, the promo single for "Telephone Box" got some airplay
in the US, but Virgin Records spoiled any chances of a hit by NOT releasing
it as a single! Some CD versions has three bonus cuts (single b-sides in
Europe): "Cayman Island" (soft reggae-buff), "Purple People Eater" (50s
silly (but funny!) rock'n'roll song) and "Chet" (mostly the two fooling
around with some synth riffs and vocals in the studio).
The album features well-known musicians as Randy and Martin Brecker and
Dr.John. The biggest problem is that it sounds a bit too much of a
studio-album.
Then, the summer of 1988 saw the release of
Ian Gillan: South Africa/John,
a single originally originating from a Bernie Marsden anti-apartheid song.
(I think the b-side is written by Ian, but ain't sure at the moment...)
Bernie got Ian to sing the song ; Ian was later so pissed off from the lack
of support for the single from Virgin Records, that he wrote a letter to
Richard Branson that ended with the words "I guess we don't love each other
anymore" (and thus broke of his contract with Virgin). That aside, the song
is rather weak, even though the intentions are good... The b-side sounds
like it's written and recorded in the studio to fill space.
Additionally, Ian released his first solo album in 1990:
Ian Gillan : Naked Thunder (1990)
This was actually a rather "soft" album - adult oriented rock, more or
less. Very smooth production (by Lars (whatshisname), who did some
production on Zep's last album in the ABBA Polydor studios in Sweden). The
production leaves little nerve, but I found myself liking the album after a
while. Most of the material could be described as "nice", but not much
more. The old Leadbelly-song "No More Cane on the Brazos", a live favourite
with Gillan from 1989-92, perhaps being the exception, except that the
finishing sequence (outtakes from "Accidentally on Purpose") is a bit too
pompous.
As Milan wrote, the "Gillan" name was resurrected for
Gillan : Toolbox (1991)
And indeed, this is the heaviest effort by Gillan. And he screams more than
on any Purple album, if I'm not mistaken. The band consists of Steve Morris
on guitar (and co-author) from the Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners-tour
in 1989 and the Naked Thunder album, a guy from Starship on bass and one
from Y & T on drums. During the tour, Steve Morris left, and was replaced
by a chap former in T'Pau.
At least this album should shut the mouth of anyone claiming "Slaves and
Masters" 'kicks ass'. This album is brutal, in comparsion. The only problem
I had with it, is that it sounded a bit old-fashioned. Would have been nice
to hear him to some really hard rock with an updated sound. And, he needs a
better co-writer than Steve Morris. Most songs aren't strong enough. But,
there's plenty to enjoy for a Gillan fan, with "Hang Me out to Dry" (with
Mountain's Leslie West) and "Dancing Nylon Shirt" being the highlights. The
latter is the only song detouring a bit from the traditional hard rock
pattern, and wins on that fact.
> Finally, as Trond briefly said, all of the Gillan albums have been
> re-released, each with a bundle of bonus tracks. 'Mr. Universe' contains
> 5 bonus live songs from Reading Festival in 1980, including a version of
> Smoke On the Water.
These were originally single cuts. "Bite the Bullet" and "On the Rocks"
being single b-sides from "Double Trouble",and are therefore from Reading
'81. The three last cuts, ("Vengeance", "Mr. Universe" and "Smoke") were
released on a bonus single that originally came with the "Trouble" single.
These are from Reading 1980 - some of them also appears on the "Gillan -
Live at Reading" CD.
The only new cut, is a previously unreleased live version of "Lucille",
from Reading '80 or '81. This was left out on the US CD release, as the
disc was so long some CD players refused to play the last track!
> 'Magic' has 8 extra tunes of which probably the most
> interesting ones are the two versions of 'South Africa', written by
> Bernie Marsden.
The second version is the 12" single remix.
>'Glory Road' includes 'For Gillan Fans Only' which is
> an additional material that used to be given away for free to the first
> one hundred (or so) buyers of 'Glory Road' some 13 or 14 years ago.
>
I think this (free) album came with far more than one hundred albums, but
don't have any figures at the moment.
J.N. Dijkhuis
>
>Gillan Glover : Accidentally on Purpose (1988)
>
>And album put together by Ian and Roger from songs written by the two, but
>"deemed unsuitable for Deep Purple" (read: axed by Ritchie Blackmore). As
>Milan wrote, this is different from most other Purple solo (duo?) efforts:
>I find it very good, though. "She Took My Breath Away" is an ace track, for
>instance. Actually, the promo single for "Telephone Box" got some airplay
>in the US, but Virgin Records spoiled any chances of a hit by NOT releasing
>it as a single! Some CD versions has three bonus cuts (single b-sides in
>Europe): "Cayman Island" (soft reggae-buff), "Purple People Eater" (50s
>silly (but funny!) rock'n'roll song) and "Chet" (mostly the two fooling
>around with some synth riffs and vocals in the studio).
In 1989 he did some work for Rock Aid Armenia. Re-recorded Smoke On The
Water with amongst others Bruce Dickinson, Brian May, Roger Taylor, Ritchie
Blackmore and Paul Rodgers...
>
>Ian Gillan : Naked Thunder (1990)
>
>This was actually a rather "soft" album - adult oriented rock, more or
>less. Very smooth production (by Lars (whatshisname), who did some
>production on Zep's last album in the ABBA Polydor studios in Sweden). The
>production leaves little nerve, but I found myself liking the album after a
>while. Most of the material could be described as "nice", but not much
>more. The old Leadbelly-song "No More Cane on the Brazos", a live favourite
>with Gillan from 1989-92, perhaps being the exception, except that the
>finishing sequence (outtakes from "Accidentally on Purpose") is a bit too
>pompous.
No it's not too pompous it's the highlight of the album, togethe with
Nothing To Lose and Moonshine!
>
>These were originally single cuts. "Bite the Bullet" and "On the Rocks"
>being single b-sides from "Double Trouble",and are therefore from Reading
>'81. The three last cuts, ("Vengeance", "Mr. Universe" and "Smoke") were
>released on a bonus single that originally came with the "Trouble" single.
>These are from Reading 1980 - some of them also appears on the "Gillan -
>Live at Reading" CD.
>
>The only new cut, is a previously unreleased live version of "Lucille",
>from Reading '80 or '81. This was left out on the US CD release, as the
>disc was so long some CD players refused to play the last track!
Say Trond, you said there were horns in this version of Lucille! I can't
hear 'em (except for some gas horn sounds coming from the audience) This
would mean it's the '80 version!
>>'Glory Road' includes 'For Gillan Fans Only' which is
>> an additional material that used to be given away for free to the first
>> one hundred (or so) buyers of 'Glory Road' some 13 or 14 years ago.
>>
>I think this (free) album came with far more than one hundred albums, but
>don't have any figures at the moment.
>
Only about 100? Wow! So my brother's got a real rarity!
DJ
DJ
Seems they're screaming law and order
When I go with anyone's daughter... -Ian Gillan
Trond J. Strom
Dijkhuis) wrote:
> >To take his post-reunion efforts chronologically:
> >
> >Gillan Glover : Accidentally on Purpose (1988)
> >
> Great album. She Took My Breath Away has agreat video also
>
According to Ian, the video was done mainly because of the females walking
around on the set...it's rather nice, though, just Ian and Roger sitting on
two stools, and some girls swirling to and fro.
> In 1989 he did some work for Rock Aid Armenia. Re-recorded Smoke On The
> Water with amongst others Bruce Dickinson, Brian May, Roger Taylor, Ritchie
> Blackmore and Paul Rodgers...
>
This was after Ian was fired from Deep Purple. Ritchie had allready
accepted the job, but Ian was not invited. He promptly turned up in the
studio, 'cos, as he said, "It's my song!". ;-)
> >
> >Ian Gillan : Naked Thunder (1990)
> >The old Leadbelly-song "No More Cane on the Brazos", a live favourite
> >with Gillan from 1989-92, perhaps being the exception, except that the
> >finishing sequence (outtakes from "Accidentally on Purpose") is a bit too
> >pompous.
> No it's not too pompous it's the highlight of the album, togethe with
> Nothing To Lose and Moonshine!
>
When I called it pompous, I meant just the ending sequence. I much prefer
the stripped down live versions he did.
(Mr. Universe CD)
> >The only new cut, is a previously unreleased live version of "Lucille",
> >from Reading '80 or '81. This was left out on the US CD release, as the
> >disc was so long some CD players refused to play the last track!
> Say Trond, you said there were horns in this version of Lucille! I can't
> hear 'em (except for some gas horn sounds coming from the audience) This
> would mean it's the '80 version!
>
I meant "gas" horns from the audience. Aren't these on "Double Trouble" as
well?
> >>'Glory Road' CD includes 'For Gillan Fans Only' which is
> >> an additional material that used to be given away for free to the first
> >> one hundred (or so) buyers of 'Glory Road' some 13 or 14 years ago.
> >>
> >I think this (free) album came with far more than one hundred albums, but
> >don't have any figures at the moment.
> >
> Only about 100? Wow! So my brother's got a real rarity!
>
I actually think there was several thousands of this bonus LP. "For free,
at no cost at all, for Gillan fans only..." ;-) Actually, a couple of
tracks from the "For Gillan Fans Only" LP are left out of the CD, but Ian's
not on these tracks.
J.N. Dijkhuis
>>
>According to Ian, the video was done mainly because of the females walking
>around on the set...it's rather nice, though, just Ian and Roger sitting on
>two stools, and some girls swirling to and fro.
>> >
>> >Ian Gillan : Naked Thunder (1990)
>
>> >The old Leadbelly-song "No More Cane on the Brazos", a live favourite
>> >with Gillan from 1989-92, perhaps being the exception, except that the
>> >finishing sequence (outtakes from "Accidentally on Purpose") is a bit too
>> >pompous.
>
>> No it's not too pompous it's the highlight of the album, togethe with
>> Nothing To Lose and Moonshine!
>>
>When I called it pompous, I meant just the ending sequence. I much prefer
>the stripped down live versions he did.
I know you meant the ending, but I love the ending!
>> >The only new cut, is a previously unreleased live version of "Lucille",
>> >from Reading '80 or '81. This was left out on the US CD release, as the
>> >disc was so long some CD players refused to play the last track!
>
>> Say Trond, you said there were horns in this version of Lucille! I can't
>> hear 'em (except for some gas horn sounds coming from the audience) This
>> would mean it's the '80 version!
>
>I meant "gas" horns from the audience. Aren't these on "Double Trouble" as
>well?
Ah well, ok!
>
>> >>'Glory Road' CD includes 'For Gillan Fans Only' which is
>> >> an additional material that used to be given away for free to the first
>> >> one hundred (or so) buyers of 'Glory Road' some 13 or 14 years ago.
>> >>
>> >I think this (free) album came with far more than one hundred albums, but
>> >don't have any figures at the moment.
>> >
>> Only about 100? Wow! So my brother's got a real rarity!
>
>I actually think there was several thousands of this bonus LP. "For free,
>at no cost at all, for Gillan fans only..." ;-) Actually, a couple of
>tracks from the "For Gillan Fans Only" LP are left out of the CD, but Ian's
>not on these tracks.
Bummer. These tracks not included on the CD were pretty cool though. A
little out of tune, but still pretty cool...
And they should have put Higher and Higher with the rest of FGFO also...
DJ
DJ
I haven't got a job
Because they said they couldn't employ a no-good freak
I wanted a position at the top
No training and a two day week... -Ian Gillan
Trond J. Strom
> >I actually think there was several thousands of this bonus LP. "For free,
> >at no cost at all, for Gillan fans only..." ;-) Actually, a couple of
> >tracks from the "For Gillan Fans Only" LP are left out of the CD, but Ian's
> >not on these tracks.
>
> Bummer. These tracks not included on the CD were pretty cool though. A
> little out of tune, but still pretty cool...
> And they should have put Higher and Higher with the rest of FGFO also...
A matter of CD playing time, I guess... Also, it was released as the b-side
to "Sleeping on the Job", and thus fits in with the other b-sides on
"Future Shock".
"Higher and Higher" was originally on the Japanese version of "Mr.
Universe", btw, where they added some new songs to avoid duplication of
tracks already used on "Gillan" (The Japanese album).