Ian Gillan – The voice of Deep Purple – The Gillan years

Ian Gillan has long been the voice of Deep Purple. While the band has had other singers over the years, Ian Gillan has been the vocalist for 34 years in total – the vast majority of the band’s life. Deep Purple are currently on their long goodbye tour so assuming no changes of mind are bringing things to an end. Against that backdrop, Store for music are releasing a 3CD digipack featuring three Ian Gillan albums. The package contains three albums from Ian Gillan’s career – “Scarabus”, “Naked Thunder” and “Accidentally on purpose”.

“Scarabus” is the oldest album here – a 1977 release from the Ian Gillan band. It was the third album by the Ian Gillan band which he formed after leaving Deep Purple in 1973. The earlier Ian Gillan Band albums were Jazz Fusion rather than rock, but with “Scarabus” the sound moved towards rock, but still kept the Jazz fusion sound too. It’s a sound that isn’t going to appeal to everyone as it’s so different to the normal hard rock we associate with Ian Gillan

“Accidentally on purpose” was released in 1988 by Gillan & Glover. It’s a very varied album and includes an unusual choice of cover versions – “The Purple people eater”, originally by Sheb Wooley

“Naked Thunder” was a 1990 solo album from Ian Gillan, recorded and released shorly after he left Deep Purple for the second time in 1989.

It’s an interesting choice of albums – rather than just being a collection of albums from Ian Gillan band, or Gillan, instead it’s three very different albums taken from different times in his career. That means it’s far more diverse than you might expect and gives the listener a good idea of just how much variety Ian Gillan has packed into his long career. What is consistent though is that all contain fantastic vocals from Ian Gillan, but even there there’s variety – some songs are softer, some are heavy and he’s able to unleash the power he’s got in his voice, and with the different styles of music you get to hear different aspects of his voice.

The bonus tracks will obviously appeal to Deep Purple fans with four of them being Deep Purple classics. Beyond that, I think the whole package is going to be of significant interest. The songs may not be hard rock, but there’s so much variety that almost everyone will find something here they will enjoy. Of the three abums included here, “Accidentally on purpose” is the one I’ve been enjoying most so far, but all three have some great songs.

“The voice of Deep Purple – The Gillan years” will be released on 17th November 2017

Track listing:

Disc 1 – Naked Thunder

1. Gut reaction
2. Talking to you
3. No good luck
4. Nothing but the best
5. Loving on borrowed time
6. Sweet Lolita
7. Nothing to lose
8. Moonshine
9. Long and lonely ride
10. Love gun
11. No more cane on the Brazo
12. Smoke on the water (Bonus track)
13. Black night (Bonus track)

Disc 2 – Scarabus

1. Scarabus
2. Twin exhausted
3. Poor boy hero
4. Mercury high
5. Pre-release
6. Slags to bitches
7. Apathy
8. Mad Elaine
9. Country lights
10. Fool’s mate
11. Child in time (Bonus track)
12. Woman from Tokyo (Bonus track)

Disc 3 – Accidentally on purpose

1. Clouds and rain
2. Evil eye
3. She took my breath away
4. Dislocated
5. Via Miami
6. I can’t dance to that
7. Can’t believe you wanna leave
8. Lonely avenue
9. Telephone box
10. I thought no
11. Cayman island
12. The purple people eater
13. Chet
14. Restless (Bonus track)
15. Interview – Ian Gillan, Japanese tour (Bonus track)