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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@15
“I know you don’t like to hear it, but Ian basically derived his singing style from Little Richard” – why shouldn’t I like to hear that!
We all lean on giants to become the best possible editions of who we like to end up being (woah! Hard sentence, have to re-read that again some times!) (and now I have a headache 🤕)
April 29th, 2025 at 20:05“Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners is one of my favourite Gillan albums of all time!”
OMG, Max, you really have me worried now. IG with Steve Morris and three third league heavy musos massacring GILLAN originals!
April 29th, 2025 at 23:11@17
Uwe! This is to die for! Or actually to live happily ever after to:
https://youtu.be/v-paPn4QV5o?si=4hxoNcbBrOW26EPy
Ohh man, that guy can sing 🤩 and in my tiny-not-to-think-anything-off-book, Steve Morris is SPLENDID 😃
Even this, despite its somewhat suspicious origins:
https://youtu.be/uRVtQ140Xzs?si=4E1ZXFS9m0nwRfns
I LOVE it! Listening to this I even consider some dancing on the tables!
This one:
https://youtu.be/K8g-rtnb4n4?si=dd9WAQB8s1X1eKvc
Listen Uwe, it’s energetic, beautiful, swing music – don’t get much better than this, apart from Purple that is 🥰
Someone finds this to be too fast
https://youtu.be/KEKdnpGHJSo?si=u9fOMEDmWMEWpqni
But in my head it makes perfect sense 🥰 it’s joie de vivre ALL AROUND ☺️☺️☺️☺️
And finally to a bit more ‘less-swinging-more R’n’R feel:
https://youtu.be/8H8PxOF9Rmo?si=Y_dECSc_bPcYaxrK
Maybe you feel they are massacring those tunes, but I really love the different perspectives ☺️
April 30th, 2025 at 07:53..Bernie Torma era, opening section
April 30th, 2025 at 10:431 Second Sight 2 Unchain Your Brain 3 Gillan communication with the audience …….. Good old days
They are fine on the non-GILLAN numbers with their hobby muso approach, but McCoy, Towns, Underwood and Tormé/Hers were so idiosyncratic that covering them is a steep task. For instance, that aggressive, yet contained and controlled energy John McCoy has in his bass playing is hard to match.
Ian undersold himself with the Moonshiners, he has a tendency to do that in his solo work which more often than not has a ramshackle appeal. That can be charming once in a while, but I’d think we all be pleasant surprised if Bob Ezrin produced an IG solo album for a change.
April 30th, 2025 at 12:39@20
“Ian undersold himself with the Moonshiners, he has a tendency to do that in his solo work which more often than not has a ramshackle appeal. “
Uwe, what if Ian doesn’t see it that way?
I have yet to meet the man, but I’m pretty sure he is humble and kind!
Steve in here have met him, and told how kind and like a real human being he is!
What if Ian simply has a big kick out of showing of his magnificent voice? What if he really likes to give concerts with all kinds of musicians?
As far as I see it, not every little event in your life has to be top notch! Some times it’s just nice to kick back at enjoy life with people who happen to be around 🥰
April 30th, 2025 at 15:20“Uwe, what if Ian doesn’t see it that way?”
Then he is of course free to do so! But I’m not a claqueur to anything he does. I’m Catholic, but not an altar boy in the Church of Gillan.
I look at Ian’s solo output over the decades and then I look at Robert Plant’s output since Zep (not a band I am a great fan of as is public knowledge here) dissolved and I cannot help but find a stark difference in the attention to detail, devotion to quality of work and, yes, general professionalism.
Whenever Ian is outside of DP he has a very unfortunate tendency to metaphorically resurrect The Javelins or a band of similar, less than compelling quality. Underproduced, hastily and/or by chance recorded albums with budget musicians and synth bass/drum machines. The one big exception was IGB, because those guys were ace, but that this band came about at all seems in hindsight to be more a product of coincidence than of any type of greater master plan on the side of Ian.
That doesn’t mean that even in Ian’s most mediocre solo work there aren’t glimpses of sparkle, but you don’t really get a feel that there is any long term honing taking place, much less tough quality control. Ian is a singer like Nicholas Cage is an actor: brilliant stuff and the most abysmal C- movies go side by side.
Never mind, I like Nicholas Cage too and tend to valiantly ignore his legacy-damaging work (of which there is plenty) before the camera in ill-chosen projects.
April 30th, 2025 at 17:50IG used the name Garth Rockett, an alias from his youth, to launch a low profile tour to have some good clean fun. So had those who were lucky enough to witness one of those shows. It is pure balls-to-the-wall Rock’n’Roll – nothing wrong with that. But there’s more: the covers are nice choices and played very extatic… they do fabulous on the Little Feat one as on the Elvis tunes. Raw, energetic, sexy and sweaty. One big party here – and that’s what R’n’R is about.
April 30th, 2025 at 18:00Can’t understand all this knocking of Garth Rockitt ( mainly by Uwe ) …but , the story goes, ( obviously, he had been fired by Purple) …and he was at home , kicking his heels around, and suddenly, he noticed his bags had been packed …anyway, it transpires , Bron had apparently phoned Phil Banfield and told him to book a tour as he was ( in a nice way ) getting on her nerves at home ! …So, off he went with his mate Steve Morris!
April 30th, 2025 at 21:05I was actually really pissed off to have missed it as, apparently he played a lot of low key venues etc without hardly any promotions…in fact, the first I knew about it was when I bought the video ….but , I did have a mate who saw them in Bristol and said it was fantastic! He was meeting fans after and having a beer etc …exactly as you would expect Gillan to do …sorry , I meant Garth !
I’m ok with the non-GILLAN stuff they did, Max – the GILLAN stuff, however, was a pale shadow of that band’s formidable live intensity. You have to be a little manic to play that stuff convincingly.
But overall, Ian’s solo albums and tours (excluding IGB, GILLAN and Accidentally On Purpose which was overseen by meticulous Roger) have at best cottage industry charm if you try to be nice about it. If you’re not, then you can say that he was devaluing the brand, he really has a knack for that. From filling the Festhalle in 1987 with DP to not even getting an old countryside cinema somewhere in the boondocks half full five years later when touring Toolbox takes some business acumen, let me tell you. 😑 Let’s not kid ourselves that is abysmal managing of business affairs.
I love the man, but without the DP business organisation taking care of him (or the one of Black Sabbath), he’s pretty much lost.
April 30th, 2025 at 21:42@22
Uwe, “Raw, energetic, sexy and sweaty. One big party here – and that’s what R’n’R is about.” – what Max says!
Uwe as I see it, when a singer is so brilliant as Ian is, he can ‘afford’ to play a bit around!
May 1st, 2025 at 07:37And it must have been completely fantastic for the musicians to be so lucky to play (literally and figurative meaning) with Ian!
I know I would have thought I was dreaming 😉 had that ever happened to me!
Having to (not wanting to!) play to half-empty old cinemas in rural towns on a tour after having played to 10.00o people in the same region only five years ago … nowhere in the books available to me on conducting a showbiz is that deemed as a sign for careful and effective career planning.
Let’s not romanticize things too much: Ian Gillan was
– broke when he joined Purple in 1969,
– broke only a few years after he had left them in 1973, all his commercial ventures failed,
– broke after IGB’s demise in 1978,
– broke after GILLAN in 1982,
– broke when he began to reassemble DP in 1983 and
– broke when he rejoined Purple in 1992 after years of unsuccessful cottage industry tours across the world as a solo artist.
Let’s not be delusional – for a man of his considerable talents that is overall a very poor commercial showing. Deep Purple is his life boat. Outside of that band he has never been properly managed or managed himself.
Robert Plant wouldn’t have been caught with a semi-pro outfit like the Moonshiners. Preserve your brand.
May 1st, 2025 at 12:54@27
My dear Uwe!
Happiness is not founded solely upon not being broke!
Some of us really don’t seek the security in having plenty of money.
It’s nice to be well fed, it’s nice to have a place to sleep, it’s nice to stay comfortably warm in winter time 😊
But for some people, it can easily end up being comfortably numb (to quote another great band’s song) to be well off.
Some people feel more alive when they don’t hide behind walls of wealth.
And to add to this little debate regarding ‘being broke – a tool to personal growth’ – isn’t it remarkable that the suicidal rate is sky high in those countries where people mostly are well off?
Here I’m not thinking about the ‘happiness’ factor, where Denmark btw has been at the top and the last couple of years has been second to Finland, because happiness like that has everything to do with the fact that there isn’t too big a difference between the poorest and the richest in a country, the equality of people are greater, therefore people feel more happy.
To end this, I like to say that if the only factor we measure people by are their ability to be wealthy, then by all means we are the ones who are broke!
To be successful and have a meaningful life is so much more valuable than having plenty of money 🤗
And to quote our Ian:
“I got no money
May 1st, 2025 at 22:10I got no cash
I got no moolah
I got no stash
Lost my deposit
I never learn
I got no money to burn”
(No Money to burn, =1)
I guess no-one can say that Ian Gillan was in the music business just for the money then………………………………..
May 1st, 2025 at 23:09He’s terrible with money. And that is coming from me – I’m not particularly good at it either.
Make no mistake: I like Ian for his happy-go-lucky attitude towards money, but he could only afford that stance via DP being his commercial safe haven to return to whenever need be.
Sure, being well-off solves no personal problems other than the one you encounter when not being well-off becomes debilitating to your dreams, contentment or even survival.
“Here I’m not thinking about the ‘happiness’ factor, where Denmark btw has been at the top and the last couple of years has been second to Finland, because happiness like that has everything to do with the fact that there isn’t too big a difference between the poorest and the richest in a country, the equality of people are greater, therefore people feel more happy.“
I’m with you on that, Karin. Where distribution of wealth becomes too distorted, it creates severe sociological issues. I’m no Ayn Rand fan as everyone here knows.
But while the former GILLAN members are today embittered about their financial treatment, you never hear something similar from ex-Rainbow members. That probably has less to do with Ritchie being more caring to employees than Big Ian and more with the fact that Blackers’ personal resources allowed him to make sure that paychecks arrived on time in a consistent manner Trying to self- finance GILLAN, IG bit off more than he could chew. Blackmore might fire you out of the blue, but he paid you while you were doing your job.
May 2nd, 2025 at 15:12#27 Uwe
but it must be said that when Ian was kicked out of Purple after HOBL, Teldec’s budget (I imagine the first record company his manager found for him quickly) for his solo albums and the related tours was probably very limited, Low cost.
Don’t you also think he would have been happy to have a better album production and tour promotion?
It is well known that the call from Purple in 1993 to come back home was a godsend for Ian because there was no more money for the tour.
then it is certain that if Ian had not returned to Purple, he would have found a job with some other band or would have continued with his solo career
May 6th, 2025 at 10:59I don’t blame Ian for not really having a commercial nous in the music business. But I think that his choice of people managing him outside of his Purple exploits (neither Edwards/Coletta nor Bruce Payne nor the people in charge today did an awful job IMHO) is appalling. Amateur hour for a vintage artist, really.
In the hands of a really good management, even Ian the solo artist could have been a huge asset, he is that good. But his solo status isn’t anywhere near Robert Plant, Paul Rodgers, Mark Knopfler, Sting or David Gilmour. That could have been handled a lot better.
May 6th, 2025 at 14:18