Gillan's Inn drummer Michael Lee died on November 24th 2008, aged 39. Michael had also played with Page / Plant, The Cult, Thin Lizzy and Little Angels.

See a full tribute at www.lastingtribute.co.uk

DB #700211, (with thanks to John Goldsmith and Stuart Hamllton)

If you fancy something a little different, there are two more 'classics play rock' concerts coming up in Germany, with the 'Prague Philharmonic Plays Deep Purple' over two nights in September 2009.

September 4th, 8pm - Gräfenhainichen
September 5th, 8 pm - Magdeburg

An important addition! - "Dear friends, just received my tickets for the concert of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in Graefenhainichen, Germany. Frontman will be Ian Gillan." Roland Elpert

NY #7002091 (photo: Alexey Efremov)

DPAS First Impressions: As the Gillan's Inn tour never made it out of America, a useful official souvenir for those who missed it. If you think IG during his between DP spell in the early 90s you'll not be far wrong; a top notch backing band and a whole mess of off the wall cuts and favourites all delivered in fine no-nonsense style. Gillan has been in stronger voice (the following DP tour for starters!) but all in all a great time seems to have been had by all. Strangely I enjoyed the early in the set grunge of Into The Fire most; with a bass so slack it sets the teeth on edge, it manages to capture some of the spirit of 1970 well. Guitars restrained as well. Points docked for flash but ultimately skimpy packaging (booklet? One piece of paper!), and the mix is a bit strange at times too. SR

SR #7001873

We've had enquiries so here's our thoughts. Despite what their advance publicity said, the latest Gillan archive CD is a poor quality audience recording from the short season the band did at the Marquee in December 1978. At least one listener reckons it's the first night with Ritchie Blackmore on the encores (ageing fans will recall the man in black turned up unannounced for a jam while trying to get Ian Gillan to join Rainbow) but overall less complete than the widely available bootleg.

SR #700188 (Thanks to Tim Summers)

There's another Gillan 'Best Of' out, this time from the label handling the Gillan back-catalogue reissues. So it's worth picking up as an introduction to the band (despite some early albums being ignored), and good value for money (31 tracks on a double). For the rest of us there's nothing here to tempt the collector, and even new fans will find very little to enable them to dig deeper into the catalogue as it lacks a straightforward list of tracks + origins. Our thanks to Stuart Hamilton for the heads up (the label couldn't even be bothered to email us a sales sheet!).

This collection can now be ordered from dpas mail order.

SR #7001841

Ian Gillan extends his online presence with his own TV station - well, his own channel, well a few clips powered by YouTube at any rate. So if the thought of yet more repeats, dumbed down docs or reality TV shows on the BBC doesn't turn you on, try tuning in. It's a bit silly, but much better than YouTube's usual fare of pirated copyright material!

http://www.youtube.com/CarambaTV

MM #700186 (Thanks to Richard Taylor)

Gillan's fondly remembered set off BBC TV's "Rock Goes To College" series at Oxford Polytechnic on the 2nd February 1981 is finally due out on DVD shortly. It includes the full one hour show, plus a wedge of Top Of The Pops appearances from around the same time and a German TV slot of the band doing Vengeance.

It can be pre-ordered now at dpas mail order, where a complete track listing can also be found.

MM #700185

Demon / Edsel are due to release a box set of the eleven UK singles issued by Gillan between 1979-82, in CD-sized replicas of their original 7” sleeves. As a clincher for fans the box also includes a bonus DVD of seven promo videos. most of which have never been commercially available before. The booklet will apparently be annotated by Ian Gillan. The singles are:

• 'Vengeance' / 'Smoke On The Water' [live at Kingsway Recorders]
• 'Sleeping On The Job' / 'Higher And Higher'
• ' No Easy Way' [single edit] / 'Handles On Her Hips' / 'I Might As Well Go Home (Mystic)'
• 'Trouble' / 'Your Sister’s On My List' / 'Mr' Universe' [live] /
  'Vengeance' [live] / 'Smoke On The Water' [live]
• 'Mutually Assured Destruction' / 'The Maelstrom'
• 'New Orleans' / 'Take A Hold Of Yourself'
• 'No Laughing In Heaven' [single edit] / 'One For The Road' / 'Lucille' / 'Bad News'
• 'Nightmare' / 'Bite The Bullet' [live]
• 'Restless' / 'On The Rocks' [live]
• 'Living For The City' / 'Breaking Chains' / 'Purple Sky'
• 'Long Gone' / 'Fiji'

"Bonus DVD: The Videos" - 'Sleeping On The Job', 'No Laughing In Heaven', 'Lucille', 'Nightmare', 'Restless', 'Living For The City', 'Long Gone'. (shame that there's one missing: ie. 'Mr. Universe', which it seems was made at the same time as 'Sleeping On The Job').

The box set can be ordered at dpas mail order. This release is now in stock. The label seem to have contracted out distribution, and this caused delays and non-delivery beyond the original release date. We should also note that this set is now limited to 3,000 worldwide. Review DTB Issue 59.

DPAS Review / First Impressions: Gillan - The Singles / The Promo Videos

DPAS Illustrated Discography: Gillan 7" Singles

DB #7001811, with thanks to Martin Waldron (see more details at www.gillan.com)

The producers of the Gillan's Inn tour edition have at last issued a statement, and offered to replace the discs free of charge, as well as letting you keep the erroneous copy. So if your copy lacks the live tracks 16 and 17, you can get a relacement. For full details of how to do this read the statement in full:

In a further development I'm told that the live tracks come from a full show which may be the subject of an audio release at some time in the future.

Statement:
"It has come to our attention that some of the copies of the Tour Edition of Gillan’s Inn have been manufactured with the wrong CD in the package. Ian’s record label has looked into the situation and discovered that there was a problem in the production process; basically an early version of the master tape was sent to one of the manufacturing plants by mistake. This has been corrected but not all of the albums have the problem. If your copy has only 16 tracks on the CD with “Can I Get A Witness” as the last song instead of two live songs then you have one of those that were made in error. We apologize if that’s the case.

Ian’s label will correct the problem. All you have to do is send an email to info@essential-music.com – give your name address and the UPC code of the disc you have (the number above the bar code) and Immergent will send you the correct CD. To make up for the inconvenience, you may keep the original disc in addition to the new one. The original disc is now a collector’s item as there are no legitimate Gillan’s Inn CD’s that contain Can I Get A Witness” – just yours!"

"Thanks for the tip re Gillans Inn. I got the wrongly pressed item on the Saturday, saw article on Weds on the dpas website, emailed the address given that night, received an email back the following morning and new cd on the Friday. Thats what I call service." John Goldsmith

SR/MM #7001774

Edsel Records (part of the Demon group, now owned by 2.entertain) are finalising the third major reissue of the Gillan back-catalogue, the first time these have been generally available since the short-lived Caramba editions back in 1999, themselves a copy of the original comprehensive Virgin CD reissues (Sanctuary were in the frame for this project a couple of years ago). The programme includes Live At The Budokan and Child In Time by IGB, as well as Mr Universe, Glory Road, Future Shock, Double Trouble and Magic. No word yet on whether the missing titles will appear or not. They can all be pre-ordered at dpas mail order and should start appearing in the next couple of months. The albums are newly remastered but the source of the tapes used for this is as yet unknown.

The bonus tracks which were on the Virgin CDs are all included, albeit not always on the same CD (so for example My Baby Loves Me (Live), originally squeezed onto the Scarabus CD, is now restored to the Live At The Budokan CD instead.

The only other tracks of interest are as follows:

MR UNIVERSE : Smoke On The Water [live in studio] [b-side of Vengeance]
GLORY ROAD 2CD : Egg Timer [from For Gillan Fans Only] / Harry Lime Theme [from For Gillan Fans Only]
FUTURE SHOCK : Lucille [Virgin single VS 425 b-side] / Spanish Guitar [Lyntone LYN 10599, free with Flexipop magazine]

Gillan CD Reissues : DPAS First Impressions

dpas mail order say the second batch of Gillan remasters are shipping now; Live At The Budokan, Child In Time and Magic (the latter with 8 extra tracks).

MK #7001743 (Thanks to Gary Gilmurray for the low-down)

Ian Gillan's 40th anniversary (that's 40 years as a professional musician...), DVD has been through a number of changes over the last twelve months. First an internet only edition, then only available via IG's web site, etc. but now appears to have settled down as a 2xDVD edition on a major label, available Europe wide (and through dpas mail order). It has been released through Universal on March 12th internationally (April 2nd in the UK)

Titled Highway Star - A Journey In Rock, DVD 1 is a two and a half hour documentary featuring interviews with Ian Gillan, Pavarotti, Tim Rice, George Best, Roger Glover, Ronnie Dio and many more, along with performance clips etc. DVD 2 is a bonus disc, with features including another documentary of Ian Gillan on tour, titled 'End of Tour Blues', with 12 complete tracks from gigs in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Cardiff and Plymouth (1hr 45min); GillanCam, half-an-hour of heavily distilled footage filmed by IG himself; and lots of extras. The total running time of the two discs is 380 mins (that's well over six hours in old money) and it's initially available in a limited edition hardback book. So get that DVD player warmed up now!

Jon Kirkman has called us having seen the new Gillan History DVD, and is full of enthusiasm for the quality job they've done, and the remarkably candid and honest way Gillan is portrayed. All the current band (and Jon) are interviewed, as well as Colin Towns. He says he did sit down wondering whether it would hold his interest for such a long time but it held his attention throughout.

DPAS Review & First Impressions: Highway Star - A Journey In Rock updated 7.04

SR #7001327 (with thanks to Craig Hooper and Jon Kirkman, photos Andy Szczepanik)

Ian Gillan's US manager (Michael Lee Jackson) released a solo album a while back, but it has taken until now for us to be able to confirm that Ian Gillan sings lead vocals on a track called "Have Love, Will Travel". The album is called In A Heartbeat. Gillan also does backing vox on some other cuts. Gillan has also been asked to guest on Uli Jon Roth's next studio album, provisionally titled Under A Dark Side.

MM #700178
(Thanks to Francesco for the info)