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See what you want to see
Another clip from the series of restored and upscaled classic Gillan videos. This is Unchain Your Brain from the BBC TV series Rock Goes To College, as performed live at Oxford Polytechnic in 1981. The video has been cleaned up nicely, sadly the sound is the same muddy affair as before.
Thanks to steve4422 for keeping us up to date.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
In contrast to René, who really don’t like too fast rythm, I LOVE this! It has a charming nod to the punk era!
And as always, I’m impressed that it’s possible to sing so many words with that amount of hair in your face! I would be suffocated ☺️😉
The cute banjo-player fits right in here!
April 28th, 2025 at 05:41That song’s a keeper! Do you know the Garth Rockett version of it, Karin?
I dig that fast stuff too, Gillan had similar openers with Secret of the Dance and What’s the Matter plus neckbreaking songs like Message in a Bottle. Aparently the reason why IP did not want to join them. Back in the days of mix-tapes I had one with the fastes songs in my record collection. I got your Number by Glenn Hughes is another nice example. As is DC’s Mean Business with an appealing solo by JL. And then…of course A Light in the Black – the masterpiece from Rainbow Rising. Killer solis throughout. Whitesnake recycked that riff for Don’t mess with Me …and RB himself used the idea in some later songs himself…as he does.
April 28th, 2025 at 12:33I like this song.. speed rock!!
Gillan always had hair in his face back in the day when he had lots of it, just watch clips from 71 and clips from the
Made in Japan tour he throws he´s head back and forth and the hair is all over the place..
maybe he grew tired of it..maybe thats why he cut his hair in late 72 early 73…
he sure does look different on the pictures from 1973.
Cheers!
April 28th, 2025 at 14:28@2
No Max, I don’t know that version with Garth Rocket, but I will definitely find it. Hope yt has it 😊
“neckbreaking songs like Message in a Bottle.” – couldn’t find any video on yt, but if you’re referring to Ian’s dangerously headbanging ( I do have to say as a homeopath: cannot recommend anyone mistreating their neck like that (yeah I can hear all you younger folks: oh shut up Karin 😄 and I will unwillingly, but don’t come crying to me when your heads and necks are completely out of wack because the wind changed in China or sum’thing 🤣) (ok you can come crying to me, I can fix almost anything with acupuncture ☺️)
Re ‘I got your number’, I truly prefer this one 😃
https://youtu.be/tazI_27eZCg?si=QBHymxPfxY6oU9pZ
“A light in the black “ – 😄😄 yeah and if it hadn’t been Rio I would really have loved it!
“Don’t mess with me”, Whitesnake, I just got a very gloomy look from René, (he really doesn’t like fast songs!) I think it’s ok, even though it isn’t Purple 😉
April 28th, 2025 at 17:25@3
Wiktor, a man with a longer hair like that is very very appealing! Just have to say! ☺️
Nice phrase: SpeedRock!
April 28th, 2025 at 17:26@4
“And Ian’s voice is extremely suited” – but Uwe, isn’t that always so?
I can honestly say I have never heard his voice not being extremely suited!
The other day I heard a man, don’t know him very well unfortunately, but he hummed the first notes to a birthday song, and for the first time in my life I heard a voice that easily could take over the singing in Purple! What do you think about that! I was blown away! And haven’t I been so timid I would have told him 😃
Regarding the joke, or whatever you call that, no of course I will not bother Max for any explanation! You told me yourself the other day, that Max have children who reads in here! And now I have found out that brilliant mind of yours ain’t all pure, I will smile to you, and offer you a nice cup of coffee instead!
April 28th, 2025 at 17:59I will always remember the 2 Gillan shows I went to in 81 and 82 …and before he came on ( and the band ) …the atmosphere was electric!…everyone chanting ” Gillan…Gillan ” …then ..BANG ! off they went…and it was fantastic! They really knew how to get a crowd going …you can actually get a sense of this from the live at Reading bit on Double Trouble but, for some inexplicable reason …they went into No Laughing… Talk about a damp squid !
It was Similar to when Purple used to open with Fireball in 2002
April 28th, 2025 at 20:36The audio quality is indeed abysmal – like a 10th generation self-recorded cassette tape – and well below to what is today possible even without any access to the masters. Shoddy. There is no excuse for this after DC has proven how you can elevate compromised old recordings with today’s technology. Someone really doesn’t give a shit, GILLAN as a live band deserve better.
April 28th, 2025 at 21:32Max, Max, Max … when you get caught in a 30 km zone for speeding, is then your judgement equally bad as when comparing the tempo of songs? 🤣
Unchain Your Brain is about twice the speed of Hughes Thrall ‘I Got Your Number’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTiGeP4vfKY
which is only slightly faster than mid tempo and likely not even as fast a Highway Star. It’s miles away from anything like speed rock or metal, it’s not even double time – now where the hell is MacGregor when you need him for confirmation?
What probably fooled you is that it is a very energetic (and excellent) number, but speed? Nope. But let me alleviate your pain …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM__lPTWThU
Oder mal was Deutsches, schnell wie ein Hai:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to_fSIj5gaA
It’s music I find difficult to move your butt to. I always kinda miss that. I prefer something like this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS3SOwdxzII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWWQTqJhhKA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rv9yL8LU7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDABMyPblKc
Even as a teenage hard rock fan I already came to terms with the realization that there was a disco creature lurking in me too. 🤗 That is likely why Glenn’s funk exploits in Mk III and IV never bothered me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APNzr6ZKd5E
April 28th, 2025 at 22:19@ 9 – a bit like with Rainbow too Uwe. No one gives a shite about their older music too it seems. Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore, too similar peas in the same pod. Maybe after they have both shaken off their mortal coils, someone out there will have a go at their past recordings. Whether that is a good thing or not remains to be seen, sorry heard. Cheers.
April 28th, 2025 at 22:24@ 10 -No good asking me Uwe, all I know is: slow, medium and fast, he he he. The one thing I quickly learnt as a young drummer was to NEVER start off a jam session in double time. The guitarists and bass players seem to be able to play to that much longer than I could ever last for. After about 3-4 minutes I was floored and regretted that big time. Maxine Nightingale, Uwe how did you go from Accept to her, I suppose you just had to move your butt in time rather than out of time and end up all over the place. I do remember that song of hers rather well as it was played a lot back in the 70’s. Living Colour’s ‘Times Up’ song is about the fastest song intro I can remember. At least it was a short song and it isn’t all fast, but man is it a frenzy of sorts, a stress fest even. A perfect example of too fast for everything including Vernon Reid’s guitar solo. And I used to think that 30 years ago, these days I don’t listen to anything like that. Times up indeed. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YAA7nivQng&t=2s
April 29th, 2025 at 06:37The transition from Punk Rock to Heavy Metal
April 29th, 2025 at 07:05But Karin! Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners is one of my favourite Gillan albums of all time! It kicks some serious ass as they say…
April 29th, 2025 at 08:55And I never said I got your Number was anything like speed metal, Uwe. It’s just one fast thing in GH’s oeuvre.
Very nice in my book: I speed at Night / Dio
No question, Rainbow’s back catalog has been shabbily treated as well, probably in part because Ritchie and Roger who would be the natural people to oversee such a project cannot agree on anything anymore. Rainbow’s last four albums were to a notable extent also Roger’s albums and he produced them all. At the same time he had been Ronnie Dio’s producer in the latter’s Elf days, i.e. before the early Rainbow albums.
April 29th, 2025 at 12:12QUOTE
“And Ian’s voice is extremely suited” – but Uwe, isn’t that always so?
I can honestly say I have never heard his voice not being extremely suited!
UNQUOTE
Of course YOU would say that, liebe Karin, wouldn’t you, that is why we love you so much!
https://www.animatedimages.org/data/media/431/animated-cheerleader-image-0030.gif
But people who can muster a bit more neutrality …
—> 1. the state of not supporting or helping either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.; impartiality.
—> 2. absence of decided views, expression, or strong feeling.
…. on the issue would say that IG is not really a blues singer. His attempts at blues-tinged songs such as “If You Believe Me”, “No More Cane On The Brazos” and “You Make Me Happy” are faultlessly sung, yes, but they don’t exactly evoke the Mississippi Delta or a Chicago Speakeasy for me.
I know you don’t like to hear it, but Ian basically derived his singing style from Little Richard (a black artist, but not a blues singer) as regards his turbo-charged falsetto and from, yes, the much derided “butter tenor” as regards his mid range crooning (again, Elvis incorporated black, C&W and even Belcanto influences into his singing, but he wasn’t really a blues singer).
When Ritchie wanted to move DP in a more Free-like direction, he had to get someone else to do the singing. Gillan has never claimed to have a blues voice either. Unlike some other people …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-0AiRqvpMw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCabWQoQDUE
April 29th, 2025 at 14:20