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Gillan in my living room!!

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MON/AUG 4/Ian Gillan was in my living room!!!

(Events told in chronological order)

     Well, this is all very surreal.
     I’m thinking to myself as we drive to our house: “How many times have I played Glory Road, Mr. Universe, Accidentally On Purpose, Jesus Christ Superstar, Machine Head, In Rock, The Javelins, Purpendicular and all the rest of the whole catalogue(s) I’m lucky enough to own"... and I look to my right, and Ian Gillan is sitting there in the passenger seat.
     You can probably realize what this felt like. I’ve been actively listening to Deep Purple since 1970. I remember how I felt as a kid getting bowled over by In Rock and my own personal apex of rock achievement, Machine Head.
     If you would have told me that, Glen, some day one of your idols will be sitting in your living room after having played in front of 20,000 people, drinking Heineken, listening to music, getting in Deep about Purple and just rapping about rock for three and a half hours... well, of course not... that’s for far-fetched dreams.
     I mean I talked to Ian extensively in Toronto and New York, got the autograph and pictures with him thing done (treasures, of course), and had another great conversation with him late Saturday in the hotel bar here in Calgary, but to get him into my living room is another plateau — an unbelievable realm. I’ll tell you what, if the rest of the guys didn’t all have early morning flights, I think the whole band might have been here. I had told Bruce a few nights earlier that my bar was stocked and they were more than welcome to the museum. Next time!
     So we pulled up to my house just after 3 a.m.
     The participants: my wife Alice, Carl and myself.
     Sherri, Carl’s wife, arrived earlier to go to bed because she was dead tired and had the early-morning drive so that Carl could stay up late!
     I immediately gave Ian the tour of the walls: DP tour/promo posters, Gillan posters, DP record awards for Machine Head and Made In Japan, the fully autographed mug side of _I_ done in silver pen — dry-mounted, the DP cardboard record store promo from Perfect Strangers, the 100-plus Deep Purple CD collection, the Purple and Gillan LPs, the entire Gillan CD catalogue, the pic taken of Ian and I in New York at the hotel (thanks to Ed Janx for the steady hand), a great shot of Gillan in full scream during the Sabbath ’83 tour... and well, you get the idea I’m sort of a fan.
     He was amazed to see all this, particularly my pride and joy downstairs — a subway-size poster from the ’87 HOBL tour (dry-mounted) that was originally hanging in a Paris subway station. It’s a beauty, folks. Not so beautiful was me lifting it in the Jeep by myself last year and getting the damn thing all the way in.
     Then we retired to the living room. We all got our beers and what not, and then I remembered, oh yes, I have to show him all the Gillan programs. Well, his eyes lit up as I threw them one by one on the couch beside him. He’s been looking for some of these for ages, particularly because of the humorous text entries that he wants for a project. So, we set up a little transaction between us to accommodate what he needs.
     It’s funny because I discovered in my previous rock insider days that you can’t always assume that artists have all their own output whether it be an original pressing of a record, tour program or other memorabilia. So it’s pretty cool for this fan to know I can help him out. So, I throw on the Dick Pimple CD and find out he’s never heard it before! We all had a good laugh as Ian was earnestly listening, trying to recall the events of that jam.
     After having read his opinion piece on bootlegs on his own web homepage awhile ago, it was time to take out Gillan in Rock, and I just re-iterated my views (which he obviously agrees with) about boots. I am (along with several others) a textbook example: I mean I have everything released by DP and Gillan and just can’t get enough. The magic moments from the “unofficial” live recorded moments are items I treasure.
     Then a while later, an absolute joyous moment we knew was coming, because Ian told us about it earlier:

THE WORLD PREMIERE OF DREAMCATCHER WAS IN MY LIVING ROOM!!!!!

     Ian told us back on Saturday night that on the way over to Calgary on the plane, he had listened to the final mix (just completed) of Dreamcatcher for the very first time.
     “You guys are the first ones to hear the final mix, no else has heard it.”
     So he took out the cassette tape and I’m thinking, “Is this really happening?”
     Ian said this project originally started about four years ago and finally, the fruition of it all was being played on my stereo.
     I can’t properly put into words what it was like sitting here, listening to this wonderful music. I’m sure you can well imagine.
     Anyway, Dreamcatcher is outstanding. It’s outstanding because it’s got soul and spirit and that wonderful lyrical wit of Gillan that, for me, is unmatched except when he and Roger combine their writing talents. Of course, I downloaded Gunga Din and God Is Singing The Blues and you will notice the difference in the mix right away.
     Dreamcatcher is being released in Japan sometime in September with two bonus tracks and then will be released in Europe in October, minus the bonus tracks.
     Now, just in case some of you are wondering: :—) No, I don’t have a copy and I didn’t ask to make a duplicate. That’s not what this was about. Nor did I think about it. It was about getting a private preview of something that I will buy the first day it’s out in Japan. The moment was what mattered — sitting with my friends and seeing the joy on Ian’s face — listening to Dreamcatcher. It doesn’t get better than this!
     And there’s another Javelins project coming out next year.
     Now, it was not lost on me that I needed something of record to document the proceedings — so naturally, pictures were taken (they are sensational!) and 18 minutes of video from the three-and-a-half hour visit. I’ve already watched it five times.
     Like I mentioned before, we got in Deep about Purple and the band’s spirit is just in a wonderful place right now. All I can tell you is, I can’t wait until 1998!!!
     So, after getting more autographs, it was time to drive Ian back to the hotel so he could get some sleep before the flight back to London.
     We’re on the road just talking about our respective families and other stuff and I’m thinking to myself as we drive to the hotel: “How many times have I played Magic, Scarabus, Fireball, Made In Japan, Live At The Olympia, Child In Time, Naked Thunder, Born Again and all the rest of the whole catalogue(s) I’m lucky enough to own" . . . and I look to my right, and Ian Gillan is sitting there in the passenger seat.
     We pull up to the hotel, said our goodbyes with reminders of more phone communication to follow and off I went with the morning sunrise in full view.
     Ian Gillan?
     Never heard of him.

Cheers,
Glen