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Gillan's Inn - a critical view

CD

I usually don't like cover songs at all! Either they sound exactly like the original version or they are barely recognizable as a version of the same song. Both doesn't make sense to me at all. Having said this, I have to say that I kinda like this album. IG wanted to make songs from about 40 years sound as if they belonged to the very same album - and he succeeded in that. If I had to compare 'Gillan's Inn' to his previous recordings, I'd say the over-all sound and feeling reminds me most of 'Toolbox' - but I am open for discussion here ;-)

OK, the DP songs are extremely boring (why didn't he at least record them mainly with musicians that really play differently from the current two DP line-ups?) but for some others I have to admit that I prefer them to the original recordings. Some little funny organ sounds in 'Unchain Your Brain', very errrr, 'dark metal ' guitars in 'Bluesy Blue Sea', a funky version of 'Sugar Plum' and some country elements into 'I'll be Your Baby Tonight' etc.

Some statistics - in case you are no die-hard fan: between the overall 16 songs (two are only present on the DVD, see below) there is one new song ('No Worries' that I wouldn't miss if it wasn't there), 4 IG-in-the-90s songs, one Black Sabbath song, 4 Gillan Band around 1980 songs (one of them almost unknown), 4 DP 1970-72 songs and 2 songs that were already old when Episode Six covered them in the late 60s ;-)

Those of you who are interested in listening to Ronnie James Dio or Joe Elliot be warned: even if you know on which songs they are supposed to appear, you will hardly hear them! In fact, most of the special guests advertised in the press info (Tony Iommi is another one), are hard to make out. Glad that I (and hopefully most other fans) won't buy the album because of them...

What struck me most about this album is that IG really sounds like IG! Well, expect no miracles, but it is clearly IG how we know him. So the question is: did Bradford really do such a horrible job on IG's voice on 'Bananas' and 'Rapture of the Deep' - or is this one over-over-produced?

DVD

The main menu greets us with 5 chapters all as pictures on a wall: 'speaker set up' (that one features a guide how to set up speakers!), 'and to set up' (choice of sound quality), 'credits' (extremly useful if you don't have the finished product with booklet - but I hope that stuff will be in the booklet, my favorite line being 'Bruce Payne who puts a smile on my face' after thanking about 10 other persons ;-), 'play list' (that leads us to the same songs as on the CD with 'Demon's Eye' added in between) and 'special features' (that again has 6 different sub-chapters). If you click on any chapter you get 'moved around in the room' to end up with the wall that shows its sub-chapters.

Some words about 'play list': what we get here is a wall with one IG pic per song as sub-chapter, offering a full audio version of the song with 3 to 5 photos shot somewhen during the recordings as a constant loop. Most of the advertised 'special guests' (e.g. Tony Iommi, Steve Morse, Ronnie James Dio) are _not_ featured here (but Jeff Healey, Jon Lord, Don Airey, Roger Glover are to be seen). The only exception is made for Joe Elliot: the pic that shows him and IG must be dated somewhen around 1990.

The 'special features' in order of appearance: Beware of Michael Lee! Usually Michael Lee refers to the drummer of that name whereas Michael Lee Jackson is called Michael Jackson and Michael Lee Soule is named Mickey Lee Soule but you can't be sure ;-)

First is 'Brick by Brick' (that on most other DVDs would be called 'making of') - the building of 'Gillan's Inn'. What we get here (after a nicely put warning about its video and audio quality) is 26 minutes of material filmed during the sessions. The highlights for me being: Jon Lord doing his part as a kind of 'guess the song', Joe Satriani doing his part and afterwards listening to the take, Ronnie James Dio shouting his 5 words (that I still can't make out in the audio versions I have to judge this review on!) and the guy doing SOTW on a funny looking electric violin.

Next is 'Bootleg Basement' featuring 2 songs live in Belgium in 1994 with Satriani in really horrible bootleg quality. Well, otherwise it wouldn't be a bootleg, would it?

Third 'Track Commentary' - boring chapter title but nice to watch/hear at least once: the songs barely audible in the background with IG commenting one or two minutes on their history and the musicians featured on them, with an IG pic on the sreen. Altogether 26 minutes (again).

After that 'Liner Notes', which is 22 pages of IG history that I will still have to find a bigger sreen to read. Also 'lyrics' in IG's handwriting and a surprisingly nicely put 'discography' featuring e.g. Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and Bolland & Bolland's 'Darwin Project'.

Than it's time for the well-advertised 'choose your favorite soloist for SOTW': a wall with dog drawings leading to the solos by Joe Satriani, Jeff Healey, Steve Morse and Michael Lee Jackson - full stop (not 'more' as advertised). I guess there will be guitar players interested in this part somewhere out there... *yawn*

Finally the 'Witness Protection Program': photos shot during the recordings with 'Can I get a Witness' as audio track. My favorite is one of IG playing electric guitar, can't remember that I've seen that before.

All in all I think the DVD is a nice little addition - but I won't watch it too often...

Catrin Wiegand
Ramstein, Germany

Last update: April 17, 2006