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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.



44 Comments to “It’s a Nightmare”:

  1. 1
    Uwe Hornung says:

    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.

  2. 2
    Karin Verndal says:

    What an energetic and intriguing tune 😍💜💜

  3. 3
    Adel Faragalla says:

    One 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.
    The 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 ✌️

  4. 4
    Karin Verndal says:

    @1
    “With a proper vid (and a proper haircut for Ian, his hair was definitely too long and too little coiffured” <- ohhh my 🤣🤣🤣🤣

  5. 5
    Ted says:

    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.
    Happy 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.

  6. 6
    Karin Verndal says:

    @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 ☺️

  7. 7
    John says:

    Reminds 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.
    It’s all good music & I enjoy it. Bravo Gillan!.

  8. 8
    Uwe Hornung says:

    “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 …

  9. 9
    MacGregor says:

    This 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.

  10. 10
    Karin Verndal says:

    @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!
    You’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!

  11. 11
    Karin Verndal says:

    @9
    😄😄
    Do you have some nice pictures of that?!

  12. 12
    Max says:

    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.
    Even nordic hearts must have a soft spot somewhere, Karin! Give it a try!

  13. 13
    Fla76 says:

    #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.
    the 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.

  14. 14
    Steve says:

    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!
    Anyone remember when he used to get gig goers to join in on Born to Kill ?

  15. 15
    Karin Verndal says:

    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 🥰

  16. 16
    MacGregor says:

    Steve @ 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

  17. 17
    Steve says:

    MacGregor
    Thanks , 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 !

  18. 18
    Steve says:

    By the way everyone
    We’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!

  19. 19
    Eitablepanties says:

    @ 6 ………His wife is beautiful!

  20. 20
    David Black says:

    Steve, 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

  21. 21
    David Black says:

    @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.

  22. 22
    Ted says:

    #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?
    Was 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.

  23. 23
    Uwe Hornung says:

    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.

  24. 24
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Ted, 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.

  25. 25
    MacGregor says:

    Gillan 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.

  26. 26
    Steve says:

    David 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

  27. 27
    Steve says:

    Uwe
    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 !

  28. 28
    Uwe Hornung says:

    MacGregor, 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).

  29. 29
    Fla76 says:

    what 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

  30. 30
    David Black says:

    Steve, 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…..

  31. 31
    MacGregor says:

    That 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

  32. 32
    Georgivs says:

    I 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…

  33. 33
    Ivica says:

    “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
    (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

  34. 34
    Ted says:

    #29. Thanks for that. The audience seem to have been very enthusiastic.
    So no-one else remembers the promo I think I do. Perhaps I dreamt it.

  35. 35
    Karin Verndal says:

    @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 😄

  36. 36
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Ian 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.

  37. 37
    Steve says:

    David Black @ 30
    Thanks …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 !?

  38. 38
    Marcus says:

    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.

  39. 39
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Roger 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!

  40. 40
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Of 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.

  41. 41
    MacGregor says:

    @ 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.

  42. 42
    Karin Verndal says:

    The 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

  43. 43
    Fla76 says:

    #32 Georgivs

    interesting study, it leaves me surprised that Gillan’s lyrics are ranked more negative than The Cure’s… is it reliable?

  44. 44
    MacGregor says:

    It’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.

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