Double Trouble (Gillan, 1981)

Woo hoo! More from the Deep Purple family! Ian Gillan's various projects between his first exit from Purple in 1973 and the reunion in 1984 have always been among my favorite twigs in the Deep Purple family tree.

Following an acrimonious split with the Purple people, Ian vowed to exit the music industry for good, a decision that lasted all of less than a year. Following a series of uncharacteristically mellow demos, the Ian Gillan Band officially launched in 1976 and released three albums (one of them, Clear Air Turbulence, was featured here earlier). IGB pushed into jazz-fusion territory, something Ian wasn't all that comfortable with, so in 1978 he quit his own band, took his keyboard man with him, and formed the similar in name but different in sound Gillan.

The history of Gillan is a true rock-and-roll roller coaster of personnel shifts, combined with peaks and troughs of popularity and persistent money struggles. By the time of this album, the train was starting to lose its wheels, but it is still, like all the other Gillan albums, a lot of fun to listen to.

The studio portion is a step down from the previous two albums, but to their credit, they were attempting to bounce back rapidly from the sudden departure of guitar slinger Bernie Torme, who dabbled with other acts like Ozzy Osbourne and Atomic Rooster before settling into his own solo career (and creating a jagged yet formal link between Deep Purple and Guns N Roses). In his spot for this album is Janick Gers, still about nine years away from worldwide fame with Iron Maiden (this stint with Gillan is credited with forging that later bond). It is no surprise that Colin Towns steps up to fill the void left by Torme, both in writing and his distinctively theatrical keyboard stylings. While song-for-song, it's all a step down from their best albums, Glory Road and Future Shock, they still come off as a strong NWOBHM band (another label Ian was uncomfortable with), with a more adventurous sound than their Purple peer bands, Whitesnake and Rainbow, both of which were desperately trying to crack the American market.

The live portion (hence the "double" in the album title) is not the greatest in production quality considering it's 1981, not 1961, but it's good enough to show that Gillan was one of those bands that was at their best on stage. Even if you find the studio portion of the album to be a bit lackluster, this part will put you right back on your feet. Back in 2006 I was fortunate enough to attend the closest thing to a Gillan concert, when Ian Gillan brought his solo band to Anaheim and performed a number of songs from that era. The only downside was having a video camera swooping over my head for most of the show, which I guess is understandable in hindsight because it was busy recording the DVD later released chronicling that particular tour.