Gillan Glory Road

Rock Chronicles : Gillan Glory Road

Joe Geesin’s Rock Chronicles

GILLAN – Glory Road
With this cropping up much in recent days, especially in the wake of the passing of drummer Mick Underwood, I thought I’d pull this album out. It was issued 44 years ago last week, and was also the first Gillan album I bought.
My intro to Gillan was an episode of Top Of The Pops, early(ish) 1981, an episode that also featured Graham Bonnet’s hit single Night Games, featuring Cozy Powell.

Originally released in August 1980, with was the band’s third album, second in the UK, and first on the Virgin label.
Following a jazz/fusion period in the mid to late 70s, former Deep Purple singer disbanded the Ian Gillan Band and, on the back of the Colin Towns penned Fighting Man, formed the more rock oriented Gillan. The eponymous debut, often referred to as The Japanese Album (a bit of a misnomer as it was released in Australia too), was recorded featuring bassist John McCoy, drummer Liam Genocky and guitarist Steve Byrd (all ex Zzebra) alongside Ian and Colin. Then, with a UK deal (Acrobat), 1979’s Mr Universe introduced guitarist Bernie Torme (imagine if Hendrix played punk) and Ian’s former Episode Six bandmate drummer Mick Underwood.

On Mr Universe, the bulk of the songs were written by Towns or Gillan / Towns, the pair’s relationship going back a few years, but by 1980 the ‘new boys’ were more settled, more confident, part of the band, and took on a much larger share of the song writing.It’s a fantastic album, explosive at times, mixing Torme’s punk metal influence with some much blusier numbers. Check out If You Believe Me, it’s a wonderful listen.

The dark cover with large Gillan signature makes for an iconic sleeve, an alternative was considered, and dummy / mock ups exist. Ian talks about these in later reissue sleevenotes.
Early copies of the LP (in the UK) feature a bonus LP called For Gillan Fans Only. This features rarities, including a single b-side, humourus tracks / covers, and inane ramblings. There’s a remixed version of a track from The Japanese Album), a Mick Underwood solo track (taken from a German only 7” of the same year), a cover of Elvis Presley’s Trying To Get To You, and a jam between John, Bernie and Samon drummer Thunderstick. There’s also a reworking of Samson’s Vice Versa (called Egg Timer), I think recorded by The Split Knee Loons. That band (originally called The Hamster Cage Ensemble) were effectively Gillan without Ian, with engineer Chat Watkins, under pseudonyms, often switching instruments (check out their 7” EP on brown vinyl).

That bonus album features a track from Colin Town’s debut solo album (recorded 1980), that has never been released; I have a cassette of it run off by Paul Samson somewhere. I remember Colin playing a track from this album at Paul Sanson’s funeral many years later.
The band were regularly touring the UK, and often in the UK charts, and given that the played Reading (at least) 4 years

Bassist John McCoy once told me “Recording the ‘Glory Road’ album was for me when the band finally gelled as a unit and the gigs around that time were some of our best”. John then adds: “It’s a little clearer why we were so successful in retrospect, we had the best singer to start with, he just needed a push back to the right direction and I was just the man to push him! We had great musicianship and great songwriters, the band were always one step away from contemporaries creatively but we never took ourselves too seriously, image too of course was/is important and we certainly didn’t look like any other band. But who knows why it was so successful, luck?, the right chemistry? or was it just sheer hard work and belief in ourselves and each other?”

And before anyone says otherwise, just because Gillan were around at the time, they were NOT a NWOBHM band.
I’ve been lucky enough to interview Ian Gillan several times, and I have worked with John, Bernie and Mick, to the point I could call them all friends.

Check out Live At Reading, The Glory Years, Live At Hammersmith 1980, and Triple Trouble Live, each showcasing the live recordings from the period, and the album has been reissued several times, on phone, LP, box set and picture disc.

Joe Geesin ” Now Spinning Magazine

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