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Gillan box set
7 Gillan the band albums will be reissued as a box set on February 14, 2025, by Demon Records.
The albums featured in this set are as follows:
Gillan (The Japanese Album) – Originally released in September 1978, this was the debut of the band formed by Ian Gillan after leaving the Ian Gillan Band. It marked a shift away from jazz fusion to a heavier rock sound.
Mr. Universe – Released in 1979, this was a key album that solidified their success, featuring a mix of hard rock and NWOBHM influences.
Glory Road – A 1980 release, this album is considered the height of the band’s success, both commercially and musically.
Future Shock – Released in 1981, this album continued the band’s momentum, but guitarist Bernie Tormé left shortly afterward.
Double Trouble – A double album from 1981 that combined studio tracks and live performances and marked Janick Gers’ debut as guitarist.
Magic – Released in 1982, this was the band’s final studio album before they disbanded after their last performance at Wembley Arena in December 1982.
Live From Reading ’80 – A live album capturing the band’s powerful live performances at the Reading Festival in 1980.
The collection includes a new interview with Ian Gillan conducted by Rich Davenport, providing deeper insights into the band’s history and the albums. The audio has been remastered from the original tapes where possible, ensuring high-quality sound. The packaging is designed in a 7” x 7” format, with 32-page booklet, offering a unique visual presentation for collectors.
Townsend Music is taking pre-orders for £35.70, plus shipping, for the signed box set (presumably, by Big Ian himself). Amazon UK offers unsigned ones for roughly the same price. Both sites have detailed track listings for all the CDs.
Thanks to Benny Holmström for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Interesting & good to see all the Ian Gillan related albums available in a box set for any Gillan aficionados out there. A bit suss on the ‘audio has been remastered from the original tapes where possible’? Which albums or songs? Anyway, better than not having them at all. Cheers.
October 16th, 2024 at 22:26But what about the live box “Back In The Game” Cherry Red had intended to release? This was already scheduled and announced for last year, but then at the last minute it became “temporarily unavailable” and has been in limbo ever since.
I’d rank the studio albums as follows:
Double Trouble Studio (best production and varied mix of songs, great songs by John McCoy)
Glory Road (McCoy makes his entry as a songwriter)
Japanese Album/Mr Universe (a tie, the Steve Byrd line-up was more refined, Bernie Tormé had punk abandon, can never decide which I like better)
Magic (not a bad album, but you could hear they were beginning to lose their spark)
Future Shock (never liked the even for Gillan standards very abrasive production of that album – it sounds tinny and rushed – nor most of the songwriting, Colin Towns took a backseat in the writing and it showed)
October 16th, 2024 at 23:41They don’t appear to ship to the US! 🙁
October 17th, 2024 at 00:15I have all these albums on vinyl (except Reading of course), but if they appear in my country (which I highly doubt), I will definitely buy them.
October 17th, 2024 at 00:54If someone from Demon Records reads this: While the planned Future Shock re-release features all the B sides from the No Laughing In Heaven single/EP, it doesn’t feature the single release of the song itself which is a missed opportunity as the single version was not some edit of the album version, but a different, rawer and more organic take altogether:
https://youtu.be/W3zU0uFxK-Y
Inter alia, it also features someone else singing with Ian on the chorus, I’ve always assumed this to be Bernie Tormé.
“Lotsa wimmin … no, not swimming …WIMMIN, WI-HIMMIN!”
Quite. Sheer bloody poetry, dragon-less and all.
October 17th, 2024 at 02:19Nice set although I would suggest ‘Gillan video box’ for consideration. This must include the following :
October 17th, 2024 at 07:17– video promo clips
– Top of the Pops appearances
– Live in Oxford
– live in Edinburgh
– Live in Gillingham
All remastered of course.
What do you guys think of it?
Great set of all the Gillan albums at a great price. If you don’t own the previous 2007 releases by edsel which are the same track listing it’s fantastic. Also if you don’t own the now very expensive and rare Japanese album it’s worth the price alone. On other sites they have a picture of the back of the box and no mention of the Reading 1980 disc.
October 17th, 2024 at 08:11Great news. I was positively surprised with the price tag, too. It could be £357.00 these days, and some people would still pay it, especially for IG’s signature. Nice to see Ian still sets a friendly price for his records, just like he did back in those days.
October 17th, 2024 at 08:30Gillan… don’t have a representative official concert album like Rainbow “On Stage” or Whitesnake “Live…in the Heart of the City”, in the era of Bernie Tormé. On the set list some wonderful songs “Vengeance”, “Dead of Night” ,”Unchain Your Brain” ,”No Easy Way”,”Sleeping on the Job”,”If You Believe Me” “No Laughing in Heaven” ,”New Orleans”, “their” SOTW..Reading is not, nor a production ..maybe not enough Martin Birch “?
October 17th, 2024 at 08:35What is the difference with the previous Demon reissues?
Seems the only place to get the Japanese Album at the moment!
October 17th, 2024 at 09:53Neither of the track listings on the respective web sites can be correct. On Amazon double trouble only lists the studio album (plus Spanish Guitar which was absent from the original CD upgrades and I have the flexi disc – offers?) Reading 1980 was released as a stand alone album but appears listed on Amazon as the double trouble tracks (not 1980 as they feature Gers plus the single b-sides which I can’t recall the provenance and I’m on holiday so can’t check
October 17th, 2024 at 09:54The Townsend site only lists 4 of the CD’s tracks
October 17th, 2024 at 09:55bonjour à tous pour ma part j’en posséde quelques uns mais à part un titre ou deux de correct le reste est inaudible pour moi cordialement
October 17th, 2024 at 10:19Who owns the rights to all the IGB and Gillan material? It seems to have appeared on all sorts of labels over the past 40 years.
October 17th, 2024 at 12:17@3
October 17th, 2024 at 12:56Nate, they do ship to the US. I am from the US and I get stuff from them every now and then. As a matter of fact, I just ordered it. But sometimes when you try to order, the screen will say not available in your territory. I have no idea why but if you keep trying at some point it lets you do it. I know what I just said makes no sense but that’s the way it is. Shipping is $20.50 standard. Maybe try to go to their website instead of using the link above. Good luck!
I think Herr Gillan does (or did?) via his Caramba! label with the exception of perhaps CAT and Scarabus. All the other stuff is regularly licensed every couple of years to various rerelease labels such as Repertoire, Edsel and Demon.
The Gillan stuff is being curated only soso, but not as well as the Whitesnake legacy. Worst of all is the disinterest and lovelessness shown in the curation of Rainbow’s material which really shows that Ritchie gives less than a rat’s ass about his back catalog prior to the BN era.
Georgivs, I’ve been collecting Purple stuff since 1975 and have a few thousand Purple family CDs (I never count), but I certainly wouldn’t be paying £357.00 for evidence that Ian can write his name! 🤣 Autographs have never meant anything to me (nor basses pre-owned by celebrities). But if it were a box of previously unreleased material, it would be a different matter. I seek a complete picture of musical material, not memorabilia.
October 17th, 2024 at 13:18Didn’t the Live album from Double Trouble feature one number with still Bernie Tormé on it? I seem to recall.
McCoy’s bass playing was really something else. He always played those overtly monotonous, stoic and ostinato bass lines, but a lot of thought went into their seeming simplicity. He was actually cerebral – he came from a jazz rock/fusion background – in (de)constructing his bass lines in a way that they would follow the music around them AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE (he wouldn’t change notes on the bass when the guitar and keyboards changed chords, simply ploughing on with the previous fundamental note, or he would play the same rhythmic figure relentlessly again and again like clockwork), it was almost an iconoclastic approach to what bass playing had become in the late 70s/early 80s. No other bass player played like that, Ian Hill of JP adapted his style in a similar way come the 80s, but there was more humor and dominance in John McCoy’s bass playing, it was also thankfully much higher in the overall mix.
Among the greater Purple Family he was in his special way as good as John Gustafson and Paul Martinez ( both funky and intricate), Neil Murray (impeccable micro groove, melodic and organic) and Bob Daisley (forceful and tight as well as great technique).
https://youtu.be/wAhL52ns7Y8
https://youtu.be/jfwjoYorb5A
https://youtu.be/R35AqN-9XfY
https://youtu.be/DBuxc5Imm5A
https://youtu.be/iRFp4YRLq0c
His thoughtfully minimalist bass playing gave Gillan’s music this uncanny aura, the man is hugely underrated and even among bassists deplorably unknown. It breaks my heart that following the sad demise of GILLAN, he never again found another name band with longevity to play with (though Mammoth had its Andy Warhol 15 minutes of potential fame), he could have added so much with his style to various genres of rock, not just metal or heavy rock.
Everyone always lauds Colin Towns as the musical force of Gillan, and all the accolades for him are well-deserved, the guy is a (weird, but brilliant) genius. But next to him, John McCoy’s style and songwriting (from Glory Road onwards) was just as pivotal for the band’s idiosyncratic music.
October 17th, 2024 at 15:13Very nice box-set!
October 17th, 2024 at 15:29Can’t wait to get my sweaty paws on it ☺️
#14 John
It was originally Virgin, then the albums were re-released by label after label over the decades
In the 90s I bought the entire Gillan catalogue reprinted by Angel Air record and RPM record (which with the Connoisseur Collection had also reprinted many other albums by the Purple family)
here’s a nice chat with Big Ian who a few years ago unwrapped the box set of the reissue of his solo albums and gave us some nice anecdotes:
October 17th, 2024 at 17:12https://youtu.be/iasvLfAptAk?si=xhjgNsgs3tRFMQkc
@George Martin, thank you so much! I powered through and ordered! I had an account with them so apparently I had ordered from them in the past as well!
October 17th, 2024 at 18:23Why does the Japanese album have ‘Street Theatre’ as the first track when it was actually ”Second Sight’ on the original import vinyl release?
October 17th, 2024 at 20:25@ 9
October 17th, 2024 at 20:25Maybe not with Bernie Torme but The Budokan is a monster representation IMHO of his eclectic talent and at a time when his voice was the best of the best.
I think the chosen albums for this box are really the best ones, althought I’d have left out the Japanese Album in favour of Scarabus, which I love. (Or Clear Air Turbulence, which I like a lot, too)
Cheers.
I would love to see “Parliament Square”, which surfaced on YouTube sometime ago, added to the Japanese album. Unlikely, though.
October 17th, 2024 at 20:48Bottom line is it remastered?or just repackaged from original Virgin releases and edsel releases.The way it was worded in promo was remastered if available. I DO hope it is new remastered but not holding my breath.Dont forget that it was also licensed to air records japan with same edsel master no major difference there either.
October 17th, 2024 at 21:00Thanks Fdr, hadn’t been aware of that track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqM48lPLsE
I think a reason why it did not end up on the Japanese Album might have been that its verse employs hooks Ian also used on the more up-tempo ‘Not Weird Enough’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4I4_IEzY0o
‘Parliament Square’ has of course another one of those ostinato John McCoy bass lines. He’s so dragging behind the beat playing it, he’s practically raping the song! 😎
October 17th, 2024 at 21:54#23 Fdr
Parlament Square is an incredible track, which once again answers the question “what style does Ian Gillan have?”…and the answer is uniquely and unmistakably “Gillan”!!!
October 17th, 2024 at 22:31Never saw this vid before either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ZJyyXxYGU&t=200s
There was something appealingly dangerous & wild about GILLAN that was lacking with both Rainbow and Whitesnake. Dio era Rainbow tried their best to appear dangerous, especially with their front man guitarist, but really everything about them cried “we’re 70s arena rockers with flared trousers”. And early Whitesnake were a – very musical – musos’ band. No one in GILLAN really looked the part for a conventional commercial rock band in the late 70s/early 80s, especially not in their idiosyncratic combination defying any type of genre categorization:
– Ian’s hair was by then again too long for the times and his dress sense (or lack of same!) harkened back to the early 70s.
– Bernie looked like he was on loan from Adam & The Ants and had only ever heard Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Jimi Hendrix in equal doses.
– John was proudly overweight and bald + bearded – two (or three) absolute no-nos in the 70s/80s rock musician image world, perhaps also a reason why he never found a suitable band post-GILLAN all through the 80s (neither Blackmore nor Coverdale would have ever hired someone like him as their bassist, their loss). In Nirvana era Seattle things might have looked different for him and these days he would find dozens of bands happy to have him the way he looked with GILLAN. Times have changed, but back then he just looked outlandish.
– Colin was a nerd/bookish intellectual, you could have imagined him in a band like Be-Bop Deluxe or The Cars, but not in a heavy rock/heavy metal outfit like GILLAN.
– And Mick, let’s face it 😁, always looked like he was a member of the road crew asked to step in for GILLAN’s ill real drummer at the last minute to save this night’s gig!!!
October 17th, 2024 at 22:33Although I have all these albums, even the Japanese Album bought in Japan, but to be honest I don’t have all the CD versions, for example, of the same Japanese Album and the price is so attractive that I couldn’t resist and ordered it. In the best case, this magnificence will arrive to me in March.
October 18th, 2024 at 00:04@6
October 18th, 2024 at 00:07Totally agree. I love DVDs, they give me the feeling of being at the concert.
@17. If you believe me on double trouble is with Torme. The whole gig appeared on a Gillan live triple CD some years ago. I think it’s from Nottingham if memory serves.
October 18th, 2024 at 07:53I love Gillan! But I already have all these CDs, some of them the remastered versions from a few years ago. And I have the Japanese album as well as Live at Reading…..plus a plethora of other live and studio compilation releases I have picked up through the years. With no guarantee that everything will be remastered on this new box set, the only reason to get it might be the 36 page booklet inside. So as much as I love Gillan product, I will probably skip this box.
October 18th, 2024 at 15:18I think you guys are misreading the announcement blurb:
“The audio has been remastered from the original tapes where possible, ensuring high-quality sound.”
That to me means that everything has been remastered, but not in all cases from the original tapes because those might no longer be available or undamaged. But you can also do a remaster from a later digital copy. I wouldn’t expect spectacular differences to previous remasters though. The GILLAN albums were always musically high quality, but the production was very “rough & ready” and English in an US radio-unfriendly way. That and the image issues of this unusual band explain to me why they never amounted to anything in The Land of the Free.
October 18th, 2024 at 23:19Good news if you haven’t got them, ( I have- several times over), but a bit of missed opportunity
October 19th, 2024 at 09:49The original vinyl Japanese album had secret of the dance as track 1
There was a Japanese version of Mr universe, only available in Japan, Australia, and NZ I think, different track listing ( although most of those were issued as bonus tracks on the Edsel re release ). Street theatre kicked off side 2, leading into track 2 , Roller.
I know it’s real trainspotting stuff, but it would have been great to fix it as clearly they own the copyrights to all the songs. Also by having both versions of Mr universe punters would kind of get a “new”album.
Probably because I’ve listened to them in the original running order for years, they just sound “right” to my ears.
Oh well, at least they are back out there and for anyone who hasn’t got them, bit of a must buy in my opinion.
Ha, I have that Japanese Mr Universe too, the one with Ian in a denim jacket on the cover! I guess that only existed to create something for the Japanese market that differed from the previous “Japanese Album” there.
Were those GILLAN albums ever really unavailable on CD? In one form or another you could always get them from Virgin, Repertoire, Caramba! or Edsel/Demon. In the late 80s, Virgin already released its full catalog of GILLAN albums on CD – already with bonus tracks, this was long before you could get Rainbow or Whitesnake complete like that. Only the Japanese Album wasn’t always available on CD.
I think I would have liked Colin Towns to do the liner notes, the man is interesting.
October 19th, 2024 at 12:48@34 I think it was Bernie (might have been John) who said at some point that Colin would never ever talk about his time with Gillan. Music was fun, but the overall situation around the band left some deep cuts.
October 21st, 2024 at 08:09I thought Colin was the one who took it the least hard! He was growing out of rock music in any case, too limiting for him. John McCoy and Mick Underwood took it hardest I believe. John is really bitter about it. Bernie eventually made his peace with it and Janick of course found success and wealth with Iron Maiden, to him GILLAN was a stepping stone to greater things.
October 21st, 2024 at 16:46Big John McCoy always came across to me as someone NOT to be messed with. He & Gillan, both classic alpha males, would have started off fine as in the rather similar Blackmore & Gillan scenario. However as time does take it’s toll, personality differences become a real issue. That Ian Gillan guy, who let him into the building? Cheers.
October 21st, 2024 at 21:29@23 Thanks for adding this little gem, Fdr. I had never heard about it before and it sure makes the visit here worthwhile if it was for this track alone. I really like it a lot.
October 22nd, 2024 at 07:55Looks can be deceiving, Herr MacGregor, John McCoy cut an imposing figure, yes, but he was actually a very sensitive man, easily hurt.
What the GILLAN members failed to realize was that the band was never internationally established enough to become a really profitable venture. You could see it in Germany, generally a reliable elephants’ graveyard for any post-DP-split activity of an ex-member, but GILLAN never even matched the mid-size halls IGB had filled with their less than commercial music, they remained a club and small hall act or playing festival bills in broad daylight. This during a time when Rainbow would begin to fill the largest halls in Germany (circa Down To Earth) and Whitesnake was going from strength to strength (from Nazareth-opening act, clubs & small halls to AC/DC-opening act in large halls & filling mid-sized halls themselves to headlining Monsters of Rock festivals.
The level of success GILLAN had in the UK made the other members (who unlike Big Ian had never been in an international mega-draw like DP) oblivious to the fact that a Brit market alone cannot support you as a band.
October 22nd, 2024 at 13:56@39
October 23rd, 2024 at 13:45‘Brit market alone’ – well also the Danish market was in on that to 😉
Yes, Karin, you’re right, I forgot the 124 copies GILLAN sold in Denmark which is of course sufficient to grace the Top Ten there for quite a long time!
It really is like Danish summer – both days tend to be great, so why complain?
I’m being my usual nasty self again. 😈 You may hit me now!
October 23rd, 2024 at 17:44@41
124 copies? I wonder who bought the 2 I didn’t get ☺️😉
Ask Edith! She’ll tell you we have at least 1 week all together with decent weather 😄
I wouldn’t dream of it!
What I do like to hear is your opinion on Dan Baird!
October 23rd, 2024 at 20:22As you may know he was in Malmø the 4th and 5th of October and it was a wonderful concert.
He is not anything like Deep Purple of course but I really like his way.
Karin, if you don’t like Dan Baird or The Georgia Satellites then you don’t really have a heart for good time rock, I hope that answers your question, this coming from a Status Quo fan, a band that already covered C&W classics in the 70s:
https://youtu.be/82_jIzWHPUY
(Produced by Roger Glover who also played the bass track on it as Quo bassist Alan Lancaster was in Australia at the time of the recording.)
So if Baird/Satellites is your thing (perhaps together with a little line dancing?), then I recommend Blackberry Smoke to you:
https://youtu.be/AAjXJDFqsoU
I’ve always heard country-tinged music, whether it was Johnny Cash, Dr Hook, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Loggins & Messina, Poco, Eagles, Garth Brooks or newer stuff like Midland
https://youtu.be/g7f6HiQ2LuU
or The Castellows
https://youtu.be/8bEJ3TRDNfE
Rock’n’Roll is the illegitimate offspring of an affair between Blues and Country, we all know that.
October 24th, 2024 at 01:32@43
See 🤩 I ask a little question and get an in-debt analysis! Thanks so much 🙌🏼
I really love Dan Baird! I think he is an amazing singer and songwriter, he has a certain je n’ai sais quoi quality, and now as a 70 yo he is not less interesting.
Normally I don’t poke around in peoples personal lives, but the man has fought leukaemia twice (🥺), the loss of a beloved wife, and because of that he has been sounding rather down lately. But the concert in Malmö was really a dish!
I do have to admit that no I really don’t like c&w. René is on a Omar and the Howlers trip at the moment, and I admit I put my ear-thingies in my ears and listen to decent rock (well DP) when he advances with the Omar guy.
I did like Shania Twain, but hadn’t it been for her great personality (‘That don’t impresses me much’ where she turns down Brad Pitt 😄) I wouldn’t have given her another listen, and she sounds merely blah nowadays.
Dan Baird does not sound blah!
Line dance! Well why not 😃
According dancing I’m more a Fred Astaire kind a gal 😆 (or rather Ginger Rogers…)
October 24th, 2024 at 15:55“But the concert in Malmö …”
You hang out with Swedes?! 😑
“Hvad er det bedste ved Sverige? Udsigten til Danmark.”
“Why wasn’t Jesus born in Sweden? It would have taken three wise men and a virgin.”
“Why is Danish migration to Sweden a good thing? It raises the average IQ in both countries.”
October 27th, 2024 at 21:29@45
You’ve to get that chat with Dan Baird, I didn’t decide the place for his venue ☺️
Besides their language sounds a tiny bit peculiar in Danish ears, they are kind and good neighbours!
October 28th, 2024 at 03:33Just like you in the south 😊
I already paid and ordered the box with the signature of Ian and a cd with an interview of him in it.
November 3rd, 2024 at 15:52I already have all the music on vinyl and cd but something extra from Ian Is always more than welcome.
@47
November 5th, 2024 at 08:37Me too! The time until February ‘25 is going to be feeling long and awful 🤓
Only gripe is the new boxset seems to have omitted ‘Trying to get to You’ from the For Gillan Fans only release. Hard not to be tempted =)
November 18th, 2024 at 22:59