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It’s a Nightmare
It’s that time of the week — time for another freshly restored classic Gillan video:
As several of our readers rightfully pointed out, this restored video campaign is most likely leading to the upcoming release of the Gillan box set, now scheduled for February 28, 2025.
Thanks to steve4422 for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
That was probably the most commercial and catchy self-penned song GILLAN (= Colin Towns all by himself in this case, he even wrote the lyrics too) ever wrote, I immediately liked it when I heard Double Trouble though some might say it was perhaps a bit calculated in its harmonies and execution. But no matter, a single may be calculated to be a hit.
With a proper vid (and a proper haircut for Ian, his hair was definitely too long and too little coiffured for MTV which had first time aired only two months before the release of Nightmare as a single) and serious promotion that song might have even gone somewhere in the US – it’s not that far removed from what JLT-Rainbow were also striving for. It’s very good AOR/melodic rock.
Great tune, boisterous performance.
February 15th, 2025 at 04:58What an energetic and intriguing tune 😍💜💜
February 15th, 2025 at 07:42One of the complex debates that DP fans could never agree on is whether there is an added musical value to songs from visual effects. Obviously DP never liked doing video clips to their songs and they were p***ed off that one of the MTV video to one of their songs on the HOBL costed more the production of the whole album in studio.
February 15th, 2025 at 10:35The sad things is people always relate songs to some of visual effects as in added popularity.
While there is no doubt that the music will always speaks volume but I think some songs are listed in terms of quality because of related videos.
And you can go along these lines when it comes to musical display on stage and the technology and lightings.
This is a sad progression in terms of how music was always created by small artist in small venues as a seed of growth to popularity.
For me I would spend every single holiday of my life in Nashville visiting every single bar and enjoying live music in small intimate social space.
We need to save our next generation of fans from falling in the trap of visual effects and its effects on their opinion on the quality of music filtering their ears.
Now regarding the song above, I think it’s below average musically but very entertaining visually.
Peace ✌️
@1
February 15th, 2025 at 11:01“With a proper vid (and a proper haircut for Ian, his hair was definitely too long and too little coiffured” <- ohhh my 🤣🤣🤣🤣
When, all those decades ago, we asked the band how it was that they always got on TOTP even though the song hadn’t charted they said it was simply because they were reliable and professional and the producers knew they could be relied upon to get the job done without drama, which wasn’t always the case with other acts.
February 15th, 2025 at 13:18Happy days when you could just wander backstage after the gig, knock on the dressing room door and say hello and get autographs – and no-one thought you might blow the place up.
@1
“But no matter, a single may be calculated to be a hit.” – exactly!
Except when it is over-calculated like this one:
https://youtu.be/w_RE4MOsF-A?si=fxG13WuDJP05TtAx
Please agree with me on this one ☺️
February 15th, 2025 at 15:20Reminds me of Rainbow’s Street Of Dreams for some reason. I’m pretty sure that the DP splinter bands were all keeping an eye on what each other were doing. Trying to either keep up with each other, or to one up each other to come out on top.
February 15th, 2025 at 15:38It’s all good music & I enjoy it. Bravo Gillan!.
“Please agree with me on this one.”
Kari(a)n (I thought you’d like to morph Herr Gillan’s first name into yours), I CAN’T !!! Here’s why:
– That song was never a single nor intended as one, it was the closing song on David’s fine 2000 solo album Into The Light.
– It’s a love ode to his wife Cindy. She actually also sings the female part on it and it is her you see in the accompanying vid (which didn’t come out at the time, but only when DC reissued the album last year).
I’m too much a romantic to diss that song! I believe the spouses Coverdale are actually very much in love through all these years. She even talked him into selling their Lake Tahoe mansion because it is simply too large and has too many stairs for the many movement impediments he meanwhile suffers from (replacement knees, hernias and arthritis), instead they moved into something age-adequate accessible. It wasn’t for her, she’s 16 years younger than he is.
How cruel of you, Karin, to qualify that song of all songs as “over-calculated”!
That said, DC has been guilty of over-calculation in the past, one of the worst examples is this here:
https://youtu.be/zHph4-OriXc
That song is compositionally so horribly contrived and overwrought: Hellbent for commercial success, it is weighed down by awful, strained key changes and drawing-by-numbers melodies. Thankfully, it didn’t become a hit, the public still sometimes recognizes shite when confronted with it. It sounded like something AI could have done except that there was no songwriting AI yet in 1990. I was stunned by how awful it was when I first heard it. Brrrr …
February 15th, 2025 at 20:08This reminds me even more of the gig we witnessed in late 1981. Ian Gillan going off big time. I think I mentioned here a while ago about being outside the pub indulging with our friends & this mini bus pulls up next to us. Out spill the band with Gillan himself off his rocker and hair flaying everywhere. He actually went to walk through the wrong door & had to be coerced into the correct one. The other band members knew which door was the correct one. I only just remembered that little scene, classic it was and it was then that someone in our group said, “this is going to be a good night” and it was. Cheers.
February 15th, 2025 at 22:08@8
“Kari(a)n (I thought you’d like to morph Herr Gillan’s first name into yours)” <- 🤣🤣🤣 why, ohhh why?!!
Please try to understand that I appreciate the man for his contribution to music (and apparently miming, since he isn’t playing the piano in the ‘Chopin-video’, according to Mike Nagoda) but that is all!
At least show a little respect for my intellect, and if you can’t do that, then just accept my existence as a person who likes music a lot!
“I’m too much a romantic to diss that song!” – ok may I show you a truly romantic song?
“How cruel of you, Karin, to qualify that song of all songs as “over-calculated”” – well sorry, but on the other hand, you know that I’m honest and when I praise someone I REALLY mean it!
“That song is compositionally so horribly contrived and overwrought: Hellbent for commercial success, it is weighed down by awful, strained key changes and drawing-by-numbers melodies.” – ohhh man, this I envy so very much!
February 16th, 2025 at 10:07You’re able to explain WHY a tune is all wrong (or right, depending on the song)! That is amazing 😍
Me, I can only say: “I feel”, “I think”, “I believe “ etc.
I would love to do what you can do!
@9
February 16th, 2025 at 10:08😄😄
Do you have some nice pictures of that?!
Karin, that song …Whereever You May Go’ makes tve girl round here mild and mellow any time I play it. She makes fun of Coverdale’s antics and school boy humour but she’s moved by some of his finest moments like this one, Need Your Love So Bad, Time and Again or Soldier of Fortune.
February 16th, 2025 at 14:37Even nordic hearts must have a soft spot somewhere, Karin! Give it a try!
#6 Karin
I’m sorry to disagree with you, but I think what David has done since the MTV period, namely Restless Heart, Into the Light and the live acoustic album, are the most genuine things since Saints & Sinners.
sincere songs from an old rocker who passed the age of 50 when hard rock was dying (Saxon, Queensryche, Motorhead, Skid Row, Motley, Def Leppard and others were starving) Pantera’s Thrash was in fashion or crap like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Green Day and Blink 182.
#8 Uwe
I disagree with you too, Now you’re gone is a ballad written and played impeccably, one of the few things to be saved from the 1989 album,
much better than Is this Love and that molasses The deeper the Love (if I were to sing this song to my partner, she would punch me in the stomach!!!)
#5 Ted
it’s very true, good old days
#3 Adel
Unfortunately Deep Purple MK II bis never believed in music videos.
the paradox is that Gillan and Rainbow made many more interesting and caricatural videos than MK II bis!
coming back to Gillan’s video, it’s very well shot, the director did a great job of acting with Big Ian.
February 16th, 2025 at 15:14the same words and some harmony brings me back to the song Dead of Night, and I also hear something of Cherkazoo but I don’t understand what, maybe it’s that Gillan sings less wildly here than in other songs of Double Trouble.
MacGregor
Tell us more please?
What was the actual gig like ?
Wasn’t that the tour where he played Black Night ? …or was that the Magic tour ?
I listened to Double Trouble the other night …brilliant album , brought back great memories!
February 16th, 2025 at 16:14Anyone remember when he used to get gig goers to join in on Born to Kill ?
Talking about gigs:
I was supposed to see, and listen to, Ian Paice and Perpendicular February 26th, but for some reason the gig is postponed until September 19th.
Do any of you know why?
Well, never mind, I really look forward to see them 🥰
February 16th, 2025 at 18:03Steve @ 14- the concert was very loud as expected, in a pub or club (slightly larger than a pub) at Penrith in western Sydney, Sundowners was the name of the venue. Not a large venue at all, it was full on, intense and Ian Gillan was pumped to the max, very hyped & giving 110%. McCoys bass was also rather loud from my distant memory. I honestly cannot remember a Deep Purple song played at all, but my memory, while still rather good on certain things is vague on that. If anything as this collection of 1981 setlists songs of that tour shows, Smoke may have been played, possibly. How accurate these setlist posted online are is anybody’s guess, but I would think the songs most played on this list would be pretty correct. It was the Double Trouble tour. Unchain Your Brain and No Laughing in Heaven were highlights, the intensity of it all was grand. My ears were ringing for many days after that gig. Cheers.
https://www.setlist.fm/stats/gillan-63d6aaf7.html?year=1981
February 16th, 2025 at 23:01MacGregor
February 16th, 2025 at 23:40Thanks , sounds really interesting and I can just imagine Gillan getting a bit legless down in Oz ! …he always says in his interviews how much he drinks …but , he says, it never ever affects he’s work !
I can remember when I met him, he clearly smelt of fag’s, stale booze and ( I think ..after shave ) ..but, he was as sober as a judge..totally coherent and a perfect gent!
I saw them on the Double trouble tour and the Magic tour ( the more I think of it , the more I’m sure he did Black Night on the Magic tour) …in fact, I’ve got a bootleg cd of the infamous Wembley gig from the Magic tour ( I think it was December 1982) …and I also recall they did ‘ Helter Skelter’ by The Beatles .
They always played Smoke !…and I remember What’s the Matter opening the Magic tour …followed by Bluesy Blue sea …then, I’m pretty sure it was Black Night ….I haven’t got the foggiest about the rest of the list ! Great Days though …proper Rock n Roll gigs !
By the way everyone
February 16th, 2025 at 23:45We’ve got a really popular tv show in UK called ‘ Doc Martin ‘ and Colin Towns did all the music for that !
He also did the music for a show called ‘ Cadfael ‘ 1990s tv …so, he’s doing alright!
@ 6 ………His wife is beautiful!
February 17th, 2025 at 13:22Steve, set list @ Bristol on the Magic Tour
What’s The Matter
Blusey Blue Sea
Black Night
Trouble*
Born To Kill*
MAD*
No Laughing in Heaven*
Dead Of Night
Hadely Bop Bop
Bite The Bullet*
Smoke*
Encore
New Orleans*
Helter Skelter
All *were in the Double Trouble set list at Bristol plus; Unchain Your Brain, No Easy Way, Vengence, I’ll Rip Your Spine Out & On The Rocks
February 17th, 2025 at 14:25@8 I quite like the song (English for it’s ok but not great!) but it’s coated in late 80’s bombast and a truly hideous guitar sound both of which which were thankfully stripped away by grunge. The video looked ridiculous then it now looks truly horrendous.
February 17th, 2025 at 14:32#13 Re Mk II videos. I believe the band were on TOTP in the UK with SKOW and that all trace of the recording is lost. However, I have a distinct recollection of seeing a promo for SKOW, presumably on TOTP. I think these were sometimes done just for that programme – I remember seeing two different promos for The Who’s I Can See For Miles for example. Anyway, what I recall is woman riding a horse around a number of adobe type buildings with the band doing nothing but sit against the walls of said buildings dressed as Clint’s Man with no Name. Not the completely bonkers film with the girl on a motorbike. Anyone else remember this, or is it the drugs messing with my brain?
February 17th, 2025 at 15:23Was this also a promo rather than something filmed for a particular TV programme; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gy1hoWFoIA&t=14s No sign of an audience, though some versions have the sound of one.
Steve, your recollection of the Double Trouble Tour corresponds in many ways with mine, I saw them in Mannheim in March 82 and while that set list doesn’t exist, from memory it seems to me to have been similar to this one here from around the same time:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/gillan/1982/metropol-berlin-germany-1b87bd6c.html
For some reason they apparently already played some songs off the forthcoming Magic album which hadn’t even been released yet. But I also believe to remember renditions of I’ll Rip Your Spine Out and Restless plus Hadely Bop Bop.
I remember the first few songs distinctly (they did play Black Night indeed, albeit somewhat heavy-handedly, neither Towns nor McCoy nor Underwood, good as they were, had the innate swing of Lord, Glover & Paice, the GILLAN version sounded a bit mechanical to me, it’s hard to beat Mk II Purple at playing a shuffle rhythm, with the exception of 70s Quo no one did it as well as them). I also remember Born to Kill (with the road crew singing on the chorus), MAD, No Easy Way, New Orleans and SOTW + Lucille. It was a good gig – if not showing the same element of danger the Bernie Tormé line-up had two years before. While Gers threw a lot of shapes on stage too (a lot of them owed to Ritchie), he was the more accurate, less noisy player compared to Tormé, but Bernie had something irresistible to him even if he wasn’t the world’s most refined player. The gig with Tormé I saw in early 1980 was altogether more gung-ho and warmer in joint band feel.
February 17th, 2025 at 16:27Ted, that SKOW vid you posted I did not know – it features Roger on the Fender Mustang short scale bass he used on Fireball (the album) in an attempt to be more audible than on In Rock (where he used a long scale Fender Precision). Video footage of him with that bass is very rare (first time that I see him in a vid playing it). Not that it really worked, he only found his trademark 70s Mk II bass sound with the Rickenbacker 4001 he used on Machine Head (and from then on on MIJ and WDWTWA as well).
The Fender Mustang was for much of the 70s Alan Lancaster’s weapon of choice.
https://youtu.be/HuHXnPudtX0
He sounded great with it, all pushy and throbby though the Mustang is essentially a budget and beginner’s bass. But in Quo it didn’t have to compete with either Jon Lord’s organ sound or Little Ian’s mighty bass drum.
February 17th, 2025 at 19:55Gillan would have most likely played Smoke when I went in ’81, I just cannot remember every song and that is what can happen when you indulge and create your own smoke, either before or during a concert. The memory is affected and from the mid 1980’s onwards I ceased doing that at concerts to improve my chances of remembering it all. It did work & I have enjoyed the concerts just as much. Pink Floyd 1988 is where I first attended a gig straight. I know for some that could sound a bit out of sorts, Pink Floyd of all bands! I made an exception to that rule for Hawkwind in 2000, you cannot attend a Hawkwind gig straight, can you. Towards the end of any concert, especially in small settings, I am craving to get outside into fresh air again, it all becomes a bit blurry inside after a while, too hot, all that stale air and the loudness and intensity of it all. The encore most probably would have been where Smoke was played and I have no memory after 43 years of the ending of that concert and anything that occurred after it. Not to worry. Cheers.
February 17th, 2025 at 21:58David Black @20 thanks, that seems very similar indeed …I wish I had your memory !
Ted …interesting point about SKOW …I’ve only seen a studio video for Italian tv ( it’s on you tube ) and there was a video of a girl on a motorbike ( I think ) which was on the rarities etc dvd that came out in 2001/02
February 17th, 2025 at 23:08Uwe
Looks like you had the same set as us but with Lucille instead of Helter Skelter
I remember Janick swinging his guitar around so much that he nearly whacked Gillan with it as he was going for his first can of Heineken during the solo for What’s the Matter
I also remember Colin Towns having a flashing bow tie during the encores !
February 17th, 2025 at 23:16MacGregor, you ole pothead! 😁
I never did that funnily enough, smoke pot or drink alcohol for rock gigs. I sometimes drink a plastic cup of beer or cider at a gig (regularly because I have a hot dog as well), two cups is already very unusual, I take ages to finish a cup or a bottle of beer. I expect the band to get me high.
It probably has to do with the fact that I seldom went to gigs in groups with other fans, at school or at work there were hardly any people who shared my music tastes. You try finding someone at a law firm who wants to go see Judas Priest directly after work still in his business suit! Or in 11th grade at a German Gymnasium someone who wants to see Status Quo, Rainbow, Slade or Sweet – my classmates called all that “Realschulrock” (an education form in Germany’s segregated school system that only takes you until 10th grade).
February 18th, 2025 at 00:23what you posted is a part of a video of Purple at RAI (Italian radio and television) who was with MKII also quite nervous about the playback, at the beginning you can see them passing through the audience
https://youtu.be/H7Gne6XPJ8Q?si=4kTtf88JJHftUjtP
February 18th, 2025 at 00:25Steve, not memory just a sad old git who used to write down the set list after the gig and put it in a scrap book with the ticket both of which I still have along with the programme. At one of them I caught one of Mick’s drum sticks but fell over backwards into the row of seats behind and dropped it and a chap in that row picked it up and buggered off. Vengeance is my right…..
February 18th, 2025 at 02:01That video of Strange Kind Of Woman is a humorous one in that I didn’t turn the volume up at first. The traditional grip of the drum stick by Paice and Glover’s dancing all over the bass strings with his fingers had me thinking I was watching a ‘jazz’ band or something similar. Even Ritchie’s moves were a little funny. Jon Lord was the only one looking a tad ‘normal’. Gillan and his youngish goatee beard developing. Those were the days, all so innocent too wasn’t it. And to think that Led Zeppelin were allegedly an influence on DP. Cheers
February 18th, 2025 at 05:39I saw the vid for “Nightmare’ for the first time in a documentary about Thames, of all things, many years ago on TV. For whatever reason, the documentary also featured Gillan’s interview who said a couple words about Thames and London. When I saw this thread, I wanted to google it but to no avail.
That said, I found another little gem, an article that declares Ian one of the most miserable lyricists of all time. ‘Nightmare’ sort of proves the point. Enjoy:
https://www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/most-miserable-songwriter-goes-chiswick-born-8029907
It was also a surprise for me to see that dark themes dominate Status Quo and Def Leppard lyrics. Who woulda thunk…
February 18th, 2025 at 07:26“Nigtmare”..music and lyrics Colin Towns
Colin is such a wide author that he could compose everything from progressive songs “Fighting Man”, “Mr. Universe”, “On the Rocks”, For Your Dreams” “Born to Kill”, Demon Driver”..HM songs to riff songs (Ian probably helped too) “Roller”, “Vengeance” “Sleeping on the Job”, “Night Ride Out of Phoenix”, pop song similar to AOR “Long Gone”, “Nigtmare” was probably intended for MTV ..and yes ..amazing intro themes.. Clear Air Turbulence (Live at the Budokan) “Second Sight”… “Second Sight” opening concert theme (1978-1982) had atmospheric horror elements, fear…. it always reminded me of the film classic John Carpenter Halloween Theme
February 18th, 2025 at 07:39(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqVyois9mp4)..
and that it is Colin’s passion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shgGc12E8V0) ..and it was an incredible film score recorded a year before (Halloween).
Towns was a great keyboard player (piano man). Unpredictable live.. in the blues song “If You Believe Me” he plays a jazz solo !!!??great !.. he often combined piano and synthesizer with his songs and solos. Very important in the Gillan sound, the keyboard much more than Rainbow or Whitesnake, comparisons with Jon Lord because of that (of course Gillan’s voice) atmospherically Gillan is closest to DP.
I continued to follow his work outside of rock, a lot of film work (Vampire’s Kiss with Nicolas Cage), work for television, series..and his jazz albums
An incredibly talented broad musician
Jon-Don.Colin..big DP family keyboards trio
#29. Thanks for that. The audience seem to have been very enthusiastic.
February 18th, 2025 at 10:37So no-one else remembers the promo I think I do. Perhaps I dreamt it.
@8
“How cruel of you, Karin, to qualify that song of all songs as “over-calculated”!”
Ok Uwe, this has been brewing in my mind since I read your very thoughtful comment ☺️
I know why I find it so over-calculated, (and I’m fine being the only one in here having this opinion), but it is rather difficult for me to explain in English (why haven’t you all learned Danish yet? It’s really easy! I spoke it fluently already as a very young child..) but here goes, and pardon for all the words I need to use ☺️
When a person, a singer, a writer, well anyone, is deeply in love with his (or hers) significant other, it seems to me to be over-calculated when this person feels the need to SHOUT it out! (Well ok it is actually romantic if he needs to SHOUT it out, the romantic part fades and withers away when he does it to earn money!)
Ian has been writing some beautiful love songs for Bron, but when I hear him singing ‘I love you’ to her, it sounds (at least in my ears) like he is bashful and almost shy. Like he really want to keep this ‘showing-off’ on a minimum!
DC on the other hand, well, besides he makes me feel quite nauseous, (ok maybe too strong a word to use, but he really seems so insensitive and very full of himself) he also makes me feel like he wants to earn as much money as he can of his ‘love-affair’ (yes, I do know they have been in a relationship for years and years).
If a person truly and deeply loves another (I’m not saying he doesn’t love her, but actually for me it looks like he loves himself more 😉) there is really no need to make it so public in an economic sense!
Let me give you another example:
John Lennon made these beautiful love songs, apparently for Yoko, I’m thinking of these:
https://youtu.be/si0sTBrcAIw?si=PZzxEH4A3_fBWa-i
And
https://youtu.be/e_ct_cfqyO4?si=CDIB-l1XR37QQlP-
And then it became public knowledge that he was indeed cheating on her!
I don’t know about you Gentlemen, but if a person wrote me such a wonderful song, and I knew he was a cheating bastard, I would feel so violated!
On the other hand, if he wrote this amazing song for me, and it was just him and me who knew about it, and I knew what we had was the real thing, then I would be very very VERY happy!
I’m not saying that I will put a ban on all love songs! Not at all 😄
But those over-calculated songs, where I get the feeling that this is for sending a (very wrong) (the ‘I-need-a-lot-of-money-now) message, that’s where I feel it is so wrong.
And then I also have to mention this: DC has no glint in the eye, there is no humour in his lyrics, whereas the troubadour, the current vocalist of Purple, he always makes me giggle, because his lyrics are intelligent and really wonderful.
This sentence from ‘She took my breath away’: “talking at him but looking at her much too loud”, well this is perfect! With few words he paints a picture, with all these nuances, and I’m completely won over!
Also this from ‘Fireball’: “your lips are like a fire burning through my soul”, well it is very well written because a woman hearing this will automatically think: oh man I actually made some impact on that man!
(And who doesn’t want to be the one who can make another person feel like that?!)
DC does not own this capability, or he doesn’t care!
I guess a woman (well most women), (ok indeed this woman) can always sense when a man is an admirer of her (not only her, but women as a group) and that is very appealing 😍
But we can also always detect when the guy is being all romantic and caring only to make everyone see his excellences!
I guess that was all 😄
February 18th, 2025 at 11:55Ian Gillan had nothing to do with the lyrics of Nightmare, it’s all Colin’s so. And Colin, it is true, always had a dark/melancholic/laconic side.
Purple’s music is – more so than Led Zep’s for example – largely in minor keys (major key stompers like Hush and Woman From Tokyo are an exception), few “happy” songs are. It follows that the lyrics, which in DP always follow the music, would not be exactly sunny most of the time.
As for that article determining the “miserableness quotient“ in music, I wonder what their standards were. Status Quo are a band that write almost everything in major keys, certainly nearly all their hits, I’d be hard-pressed to name a single song with truly miserable lyrics in their oeuvre, “In The Army Now” is about as dejected as they ever get (and that song wasn’t written by them).
I would have expected bands like The Doors, Type O Negative and Black Sabbath to be leaders in miserableness. Weird.
Not that a song in a major keys cannot be vitriolic too, Steve Harley’s Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile) is a case in point. Harley nastily disses former band members in it.
February 18th, 2025 at 15:13David Black @ 30
February 18th, 2025 at 16:27Thanks …and there’s nothing sad about that as far as I’m concerned…you’re set list brought back some great memories for me .!
In fact I’ve still got all my ticket stubs, programmes, T Shirts ( don’t fit anymore! ) from all my old gigs…I’ve even got a Gillan bootlace tie that he used to wear ( not one of Ians…they were actually selling them at the gig ) I saw all the bands at the Cornwall coliseum in St Austel …right on the coast ( it’s gone now ) …I always remember seeing the tour bus parked up on the sea front with catering by ‘ Eat to the Beat ‘ The Rainbow gig down there was sold out on the Difficult to Cure tour …so had to go up to Stafford Bingley Hall ( Rose Tattoo were support )
I remember Gillan having Budgie supporting him …and also Sansom …I presume with Bruce Dickinson !?
I bumped into John McCoy at the Marquee, as he was checking out the band that was playing, which featured a friend of a friend of mine – but whose name after 40 year escapes me.
I am not sure that John or I were impressed with the band. But we chatted over a beer about the end of Gillan and his new project, which became Mammoth, if not mammoth.
February 18th, 2025 at 16:56Roger Waters needs honorary mention for someone with a penchant for miserable lyrics – yet he is gracious enough to let us all share his depr- and obs-essions!
February 18th, 2025 at 17:38Of all the people who have played in post-DP-split bands – and that is a great number of excellent musicians -, Colin Towns is certainly the most noteworthy and idiosyncratic one. Totally his own man, versatile and vastly talented as a songwriter, composer and instrumentalist. Neither IGB nor GILLAN would have sounded anywhere near the way they did without him.
He’s done a lot of serious jazz music with broadcast orchestras in Germany.
February 18th, 2025 at 20:45@ 32- that is an article that may ruffle a few feathers here Georgivs, thanks for posting it & we wait with baited breathe indeed. 67% negative and even more miserable than Leonard Cohen, ha ha ha. Uwe will be beyond all control me thinks, but perhaps not. He may worship at the Gillan alter, however surely he must realise that some things in life are factually true. Even worse than ole Cov’s and Percy to boot, sheesh, time for some reflection eh? Well I guess that could be true, Cynicism isn’t usually found in those two lyrics. This is comedy GOLD and with all the Ian Gillan related articles of late, well this year especially it does make us wonder how the whole year is going to pan out. Settle down Uwe, take a deep breathe, enjoy a nice cup of tea perhaps. Cheers.
February 18th, 2025 at 21:11The extra hand on this guitar Andy Scott is handling, is it just for a laugh or can it be placed so it is doing something?
https://youtu.be/QYMUZo-dkUc?si=i0MO46zw0HsgP5PJ
February 18th, 2025 at 21:12#32 Georgivs
interesting study, it leaves me surprised that Gillan’s lyrics are ranked more negative than The Cure’s… is it reliable?
February 18th, 2025 at 21:19It’s a Nightmare, it’s a NightmareI It certainly is and my coffee this morning tastes so good, hmmmmmmm, wonderful. I had trouble sleeping last night thinking of this. Because of the pain in both sides from almost splitting with laughter. I actually lay awake for little while in the middle of the night and did seriously think that this was a Nightmare & had a look and no it wasn’t, it is REAL. Status Quo included, hmmmm. Although I have to say that I don’t ever recall Uwe banging on about Quo’s lyrics. So we will give him some room to manoeuvre there. What a lovely morning it is here in Tasmania, oh what a beautiful morning oh what a beautiful day…………………. I had better settle down. It is this coffee, it is surely the best coffee that I have ever tasted. Good morning Uwe. Cheers.
February 18th, 2025 at 21:27Karin @35
Totally agree with you ..DC and GH should show some humility …never did like them and all that Rock Star stuff has completely gone to their heads …and GH in mark 3 with his antics makes me puke ! Goodness knows what RB, JL and IP made of it …no class whatsoever, unlike Gillan…and I’m thinking in particular of Space Truckin live ( pick any mk3 version you like …)
I noticed you said you were listening to Prima Dona ? Well , on that album is a song called ‘ Sleepy Warm ‘ that he wrote and dedicated to Bron !
Incidentally, it was around that time that he moved down to Lyme Regis which, as I’ve said before is not very far from where I live , anyway , I met some people there who were selling their house at that time and IG and Bron went to look at it …..unfortunately, the house wasn’t what they were looking for but …rather then let them know through the estate agents , IG personally went back to the people to thank them for letting him see their house and to politely apologise that it wasn’t for him ! …I think that truly shows the class of the man in a nutshell! …just think , he’s an international rock star with a busy life but he still took the time to go and see these people himself!
February 18th, 2025 at 22:55Pure class …I can’t imagine DC or GH doing that …or anyone else for that matter .
In fact, everyone I’ve spoke to in that village who have ever met him or had dealings with him says nothing but good things about him …he goes out of his way to be polite and humble and take time for people
@37. Ah yes the Cornwall Coliseum. I was sad tosee what had happened to it. Saw Whitesnake there twice whilst I was at Poly in Plymouth and the first one, January 1983 (supported by Samson), remains the best gig I’ve ever been to (according to my list from that era!). The entire audience was bouncing up and down for the Wine, Women & Song encore.
2nd, 3rd and 4th were Gillan 1981, Gillan 1982 and Rainbow 1983 all in Bristol. The Rainbow gig being easily the loudest I’ve ever been to. Much louder than Motorhead.
February 19th, 2025 at 07:29@45
Steve, it was actually Sleepy Warm I was thinking of when I said he sounds almost shy to be singing in public how much she meant to him 😍
With Black Sabbath he also penned a song for Bron, ‘Keep it warm’, a little more hard rocking than Sleepy Warm, but there are no doubt of his feelings towards his beloved wife!
“In fact, everyone I’ve spoke to in that village who have ever met him or had dealings with him says nothing but good things about him …he goes out of his way to be polite and humble and take time for people”
February 19th, 2025 at 07:47I am not surprised at all to hear this!
He has always seemed to be a great person 🙌🏼
But Karin…of course DC isn’t a wordsmith like IG is…! Far from it. His lyrics are much more and deeply rooted in the Blues. While IG has a much more intellectual approach. IG is the thinking man’s rock star…DC is all about feel.
February 19th, 2025 at 10:39But there sure is humour in his songs. Try Lie Down, Bloody Mary, Girl, Would I Lie To You and others… It’s Rock’n’Roll, girl meets boy kinda stuff, tongue in cheek or heartfelt blues songs. As the man himself stated – if memory serves me right: I got two kinds of songs: the I’m a poor little boy so come and help me-ones and the I got a big willie and I’m coming to get you-ones…
Well, it’s not exactly philosophical stuff but it has a humour to it. As have the interviews with him.
On Twitter, now x, he had a tweet showing him showing off – and without thinking a lot I responded ‘you’re such a poser…:-) …’ to which – within seconds – he replied ‘but…of course!!’
I prefer Ian‘s wry sense of humor and his perception of life too plus his egalitarian touch as band leader with IGB and GILLAN (which was not shared by Ritchie or DC with Rainbow or WS), but I think it is fair to say that you can find an abundance of anecdotal evidence speaking for and against all three (IG, DC and GH) at any given point in time. Ian could be arrogant and/or aloof at times and if you ask that little Dane Lars Ulrich then GH was the greatest person on earth for him because he took some time to speak nicely with a shy nine-year-old fan (who had recognized him in a hotel foyer in Copenhagen) who asked him for an autograph. That 9-year-old was Lars one day after having seen DP live for the first time with his dad. (I do have doubts though whether Lars even at age nine could ever be considered “shy”. 🤣)
Coverdale can be extremely charming as well, when he still lived in Lake Tahoe he was everybody’s darling from school boards to supermarket cashiers. You know how Yanks melt when they hear a Brit accent.
February 19th, 2025 at 14:56when I see how Gillan’s face has aged, he has always been cool, I feel scared for my old age
February 19th, 2025 at 18:04🤣👍💜
Repeating this again as the previous comment disappeared somewhere. Most people are nice when out and about and that is a good thing, it depends on the mood of the day though doesn’t it? That biological rhythm that goes on everyday that makes us all tick. We all have a ‘dark’ side don’t we, well most people do I would imagine? That Jekyll and Hyde scenario, it depends on what is going on at the time, health issues, other people issues, everyday life and so on. All this nice guy and girl stuff is all very well and good. However……………..on another day……… Cheers.
February 19th, 2025 at 21:03# 36- “I would have expected bands like The Doors, Type O Negative and Black Sabbath to be leaders in miserableness. Weird.” Those names and many others wouldn’t have been punched into that data base Uwe, especially Roger the dodger Waters. His name being entered probably would have crashed the whole system. Excepting the band Bon Iver, that top ten list was all British although they said included Irish artists and others from different countries in their overall ‘analysis’. Poor old Ian though, he isn’t that a bad lyricist is he and he has done ok at times over the years. To be ranked more miserable than Leonard Cohen is a hit below the belt. Not to worry, it is only the ‘crass’ media attempting to put the boot in. Having said that, I thought it was the USA who did that much more in regards to Deep Purple, not the old home country. Where is all the patriotism for their fellow citizen. I suppose they did that in giving Cliff Richard the ‘most positive’ rating. Why do I think of The Young Ones and all the anti Cliff mocking they did 40 years ago, ha ha ha. Comedy again and not to be taken seriously, just like the media. Cheers.
February 19th, 2025 at 22:52I never thought Cohen miserable, he’s just thoughtful, unexcited and a bit on the melancholic side. Saw the man thrice live, the gigs were spiritual experiences with a very warm and mild-mannered Canadian senior citizen, nothing miserable about it. He even spoke about his impending death on the last tour in a very matter-of-fact way: “I might not see you again, thanks for sticking around all these years.” By then, leukemia had already got him.
And if being miserable attracts as many fine speci(wo)men of the fairer sex as it did with ole Leonard in his wildest days, then I should have been miserable more often!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTC_fD598A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y
February 19th, 2025 at 23:31Marcus @38
February 19th, 2025 at 23:44Please tell us more about what Big John had to say then ?
@51 For one, I don’t have a dark side. None of it. If you want a proof of that, come to my place tonight. I’ll give you a tour of the basement and my black cat will be accompanying us.
@52 Not to be taken seriously indeed. If you are good with numbers, you can back up virtually any point of view with the statistics, just cleverly filtering out whatever doesn’t fit your theory. Mincing lyrics through some kind of a number grinder still does not reflect the whole picture. Just look at the ‘Nightmare’ (I know, I know, it’s not Ian, it’s Colin). Dark lyrics? Yessir. A depressive song of misery? Nope. Just an energetic hard rock song that sounds like fun. Overall, hard rock has that cathartic ability to make the listener feel better after taking him some dark alley.
February 20th, 2025 at 07:18@ 55 – as long as I do not have to walk under a ladder I will be there, full moon or not. The only possible problem could be, what happens when I am in your abode & I look at the mirror with you in close proximity of that mirror and your reflection isn’t there? Oh dear oh dear, too late!!!!!! @ 53 That tabloid piece was comical in so many aspects, I would never see Ian Gillan like that with his lyrics. Maybe they had a bone to pick with Gillan, who knows. We know how the press can be if it suits them. I did watch a good older documentary on Leonard Cohen a few years ago, it was quite good as far as an artists life story etc. His deadpan vocal style is probably what many people don’t like and then they think, ‘this guy is too morbid’ etc. It could be his lyrics too and I don’t know enough about that. I have always been sceptical of the media portrayals of him in that sense. I do prefer a brighter vocal in a song, it is easier on the ear & usually more ‘uplifting’, however it can also depend on the mood at the time, sometimes that deadpan vocal style is ok. Cheers.
February 20th, 2025 at 09:09I like morbid – I really do. I love visiting cemeteries I don’t know on vacations, I find them culturally intriguing. Morbid music and movies entertain me. I have even become socially adept going to funerals (their number increases as you age!). I remember being to a post-mortem during my law studies and I found the whole examination just interesting – I’m neither repulsed nor scared by a dead body.
Looking back, I already had morbid interests as a child. When I was a boy my dad thought it educationally wise and apt 🤣 to take me to the funeral morgue in our small town and lay eyes on the corpse of one of the first heroin deaths (a young man) there, I guess he hoped to teach me something with it. My mom was aghast, but not only did I look forward to going there, I found the laid out body strangely beautiful (the victim looked a bit like the gay blond vampire in Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers/Dance of the Vampires). I did not lose one night‘s sleep over it, but I can recall his angelic dead face and his pale hands with the bluish veins to this day – also my concern as a child that something might not be quite right with me for feeling intrigue rather than terror as would have been expected. There is after all an inordinate amount of people who feel uncomfortable around a dead body.
It‘s not that I do not mourn the loss of people, but the act of dying and death culture do not repel or unsettle me. I do not blame death for death if that makes sense, it is life that kills us eventually. I find it somewhat amusing and futile that the Western World has created such a taboo around it. I guess I could have become a mortician.
Thus equipped, I can unequivocally state: Ian is not morbid at all – he‘s just a very good observer of life AND death. I thought the line about whiskers growing on a dead man‘s chin in Gunga Din beautifully laconic.
February 20th, 2025 at 14:15@57
“I like morbid – I really do.” – sorry but I am not sure it’s the morbid you like.
I googled morbid: “characterized by an unusual interest in disturbing and unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease.” (Of course it’s worth a longer discussion what exactly are disturbing and unpleasant subjects 😉)
Of course I don’t know you but what I have read in here, you have a healthy interest in life!
And actually death is a mystery isn’t it? No one knows what to be dead really is like.
When my mum died, we were there, I hold her hand as she let go. I could feel the warmth in her neck, even after she was declared dead.
I sincerely hope I don’t make you feel weird, but it was a beautiful way to say ‘goodbye and thank you’.
Did I cry? Oh yeah I did! And I remember the following year was awful, because now and then I wanted to call her and tell her what was happening in my life (I never thought of calling her and screaming about René, wouldn’t have helped either, she was always on his side 😅)
I am happy I was a witness to her death! Somehow it made sense to be there and I wasn’t afraid one bit.
And regarding visiting cemeteries: I have a friend who was expecting twins, and we wandered around the cemetery to find beautiful names for the two soon-to-be-born!
Do I feel attracted to the morbid? No not at all, but man I love life and I celebrate life every day!
February 20th, 2025 at 15:24Karin @35, you explained what you meant about love songs very lucidly, thanks. Yeah, I get that with Ian Gillan’s glint in the eye, Coverdale doesn’t have that, he has a more macho-dramatic vibe when he sings about love. More theatrical, larger than life, but that’s just how he is. He also lacks Ian’s laconic outlook on life and his self-deprecating humor. But I wouldn’t go as far as to say that DC’s love songs are first and foremost driven by commercial interests, there just isn’t much else he really cares to sing about. Writing about the banalities of everyday life in an insightful way, that is very much IG shtick and he’s excellent at it.
Re morbidity: I was there too when my mom died, she was in coma and I was glad for her to finally be able to go. Ironically, it was actually on my birthday, not that she would have voluntarily chosen that date for her passing. But it hasn’t ruined my birthday for me, there is a saying in Germany in my Hessian dialect “Aaner kommt, aaner geht.” (one arrives, one leaves), it all belongs together. And as I’m writing this my daughter is in the pre-stages of labor and I might be granddad any day now. 😄
Both my daughter’s (Teresa) and my son’s name (Leon) bear first names we found on cemeteries. I’m happy to hear that we weren’t the only ones to find names like that. 😂 Both our kids know the origins of their first names too – and think it’s hilarious! But I remember a lot of people at the time who thought it extremely morbid to pick names for new life from gravestones in a cemetery!
I sometimes spend time compiling in my head the songs to be played at my funeral (have done that for decades). If I’m cremated, which is likely, ‘Burn’ will certainly be played. Also Laura Nyro’s great ‘And When I Die’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-fETpvtbWw
which contains the brilliant phrase
“I swear there ain’t no heaven … and I pray there ain’t no hell …”
which sums up my feelings about the afterlife perfectly.
Is that all morbid? 😆
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IppZ9AquHy0
Lovely movie.
February 20th, 2025 at 18:36That H.P.Lovercraft saying on Iron Maiden’s ‘Live After Death’ album says it all. “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.” A great line that is. Yes I do like frequenting cemeteries for that older vibe they have, the headstones & especially at night. Good camera images can be attained also with the Moon behind a grave. Bruce Dickinson visited an old cemetery for inspiration for his last solo album. We have to be careful telling certain folk though, many people think you are weird or morbid or need to get a life, sorry no pun was intended there initially. There is humour in life and death too. A friend was down there (the local cemetery) at night last week with his guitar. I bumped into him after his sojourn & asked him if he had any applause or reaction. His reply was somber indeed, ‘no, they were all just lying there’ I know that is a very common ‘joke’ of sorts, but we cannot be too serious about ole death can we. What was that line in Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’ 1950’s movie, ‘Are you following me’ Deaths reply ‘I follow everyone’. Cheers.
February 20th, 2025 at 20:46@59
Ohh congratulations on the new baby 😍😍
Please let us know how everything is going with Teresa ❤️
I agree with you, because my mum died on our 2nd wedding anniversary, and no, it has not ruined anything for us either! Actually René always says: we have two things to celebrate today 😅
February 21st, 2025 at 10:21Not everyone gets his humour, but I do 😄
I was at a funeral of the mother of a real estate investors‘ family who had died in a freak sports plane crash much too soon and one of her daughters said “She would have liked this here, front row and all …”. And a son chipped in: “Yup, mom always said only three things count: location, location, location …”. 😂
February 21st, 2025 at 15:24Grandpa Uwe, it has a sort of ring to it doesn’t it. Everybody here at THS, can we now please refer to Uwe as grand dad. I hope he isn’t going to start being ‘grumpy’ etc. Well, I had better remove that word, whoops too late, he he he. Oh how time does move us on. Cheers.
February 21st, 2025 at 22:11@62
😂 lovely comment “location,location, location”
@63 – “I hope he isn’t going to start being ‘grumpy’ etc.” <- 😁 good one MacGregor, I’m afraid he has mood swings like the rest of us (hopefully they won’t get worse😉)
February 22nd, 2025 at 04:56I‘m turning 65 this year, not becoming a granddad at my age would be a deplorable state wouldn’t you think? If you‘d ask my daughter she would tell you that „This guy has been bugging me for the last ten years about becoming pregnant, terrible parent, let‘s not even talk about him dragging me to Judas Priest concerts!“ 🤣
But as I type , Teresa is still in pre-labor. Young Ruben was scheduled for late next week, but it looked for a while like he might be a week early, he‘s half-German you know, they have a penchant for surprise attacks. Now he‘s decided to hang on to that umbilical cord a while longer. 🤗
February 23rd, 2025 at 00:13A man dragging a woman to a Judas Priest concert would most probably be the only way that they would attend a concert of theirs. All that leather and studs etc. Having said, that a few weeks ago Uwe, you posted a link to a live Priest song, it looked like the 1980’s at the height of their fame. I couldn’t believe how many females were in the audience. Unless the audience shots were from a Van Halen or Bon Jovi concert, he he he. I wonder how many dropped off when uncle Rob came out of the closet? ‘He’s Gay, I don’t believe it’. It would be more like many of the males were ranting and raving at that. Your daughter has my fullest sympathies Uwe. Now don’t you go and influence that young lad Ruben too much. Hopefully he will be a Led Zep fan, like your son was. Hooray! Cheers.
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:59In 1986, CBS got decidedly cold feet that Halford’s gayness would finally lurch into the public domain – American fans were (unlike Europe) blissfully unaware of it though Rob liked to have an entourage of muscular male beach bums around him when on tour (to his chagrin few of them really gay). It was feared that it would hurt mainstream sales and put an end to breaking the band big in America. Hence the new, more colorful, less foreboding, less gay biker bar-looking Turbo era leather outfits, promo shots with Halford + scantily clad female beach blondes in SM poses (on their all fours, with Halford having to kneel on them – the guy doesn’t even like SM with men 😂, much less women, he felt terrible and hated those shoots and they have been consequently wiped from the internet) and that Fuel For Live concert shoot focusing on all these “metal babes”. In Europe I’d say that Priest audiences consisted and consist of about 20% women – not noticeably less than with other bands of the genre really unless you see an act like, say, Ghost.
I don’t know how anyone could have ever been in doubt: Halford was at all times a very gay man – he says since his childhood in his biography. His love for frequent sartorial changes, the way he moved (if you see Bruce Dickinson move, you immediately see he’s a laddish bloke, if you see Halford throw a shape, then through all the leather and studs there is always something lovably effeminate and theatrical to his gestures), the lyrics ignoring women totally as a subject – those were all clear indications. I mean look at his gyrations here (especially compared to those of the otherwise painfully 😆 straight band) at 01:10 and 02:38,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKuuHfMx3CQ
any doubts? 😁 (Within the band, his gayness was no secret, they knew it since he joined in 1973, when he had initially dated KK Downing’s sister desperately trying to fit in with Birmingham area working men’s conventions.)
It never bothered me at all, it was part of Priest’s charm. They NEEDED a gay singer just like Queen needed one. In fact, when Tim “Ripper” Owens took Rob’s place, a man with a great set of pipes, but ostensibly straight as an arrow, all Judas Priest magic was lost to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZsmgdXbN_E
Compare it to the real thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxyD65IC-Go
Don’t get me wrong, Ripper did an admirable job and 16 years younger than Auntie Roberta even hit notes that Halford no longer could (he has lost range over the decades too), but it just wasn’t right. Owens would have made more sense with an outfit like Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park, he was both physically and vocally muscular in a Nü-Metal sense.
Let’s ask Karin: Would have Auntie Roberta struck you as gay even before his coming out? We need your judgement!
February 26th, 2025 at 20:51@67
“Let’s ask Karin: Would have Auntie Roberta struck you as gay even before his coming out? We need your judgement!“
Hmmm 🧐
Wait a minute while I find my Sherlock hat..
No actually he wouldn’t strike me in any way as a gay man.
But then again, I don’t like to put people in prejudiced boxes 😊
Honestly I try to meet people where they are, and unless I plan starting a family with a man, I never think twice about sexuality 😊
February 27th, 2025 at 13:12Halford wearing his sister’s blouse was a long time ago. Effeminate, bi or gay, it was a fashion statement of sorts. It doesn’t matter at all, well to most people it doesn’t. For the so called image of ‘metal’ though it may have. Good comedy, the reaction of certain metal die hards at the time. ” I am burning all my JP records”. I still laugh at that. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvlq1F-X6Ko
February 27th, 2025 at 20:45To me, Gillan’s song Nightmare sounds like the earlier version of Whitesnake’s Fool for Your Lovin’.
February 28th, 2025 at 02:43Good ears, Stevie, though it was the other way around and FFYL actually preceded Nightmare, but there are definitely similarities.
FFYL had other admirers too …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCUSm-27Mac&list=RDQCUSm-27Mac&start_radio=1
Written at the time when Slade were quite often openers for Whitesnake (I saw them in that capacity too), Jim Lea must have liked what he heard. There is a bit of Don’t Break My Heart Again thrown in for good measure too.
All three songs (Gillan, WS & Slade) feature the bVI-bVII-i harmony, a telltale component of an inordinate amount of early 80s harder rock (in a key of a minor that would be F – G – am, in a key of e minor C – D – em), it really was played to death back then.
It’s the harmony you also hear in the chorus (“We both know what memories can bring, they bring diamonds and rust”) and coda (“Dia-monds, dia-monds and rrrust!”) of Joan Baez’ Diamonds & Rust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHyl8a394-M
Generally regarded as a very much drama-inducing chord sequence derived from Flamenco.
February 28th, 2025 at 19:32