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Everything in one place
Get Ready to Rock reviews the upcoming Ian Gillan Band box set Down The Road: The Complete Ian Gillan Band Story, now due out apparently at the end of March.
Another wonderful package, two fold out card cases with a 7” booklet that is well annotated. Bonus artwork includes both UK and Japanese editions of Budokan, and the USA alternate sleeve for Scarabus. Top marks there.
While there may not be a great deal new for the collector, it’s a great set in that the mastering is good and everything is brought together in one place. Decent packaging too (although the outer case is flimsier than some). Still, well worth the money. ****
Read more in Get Ready to Rock
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Why oh why did it take friggin’ 50 years for IGB to get the recognition the band always deserved? Where were all these people back then when their records sat in the shelves and their tours did not sell out? IGB were always the thinking (wo)man’s DP split-off group.
It seems like the remastering has really done something, the Get Ready To Rock-guys mention the Child In Time debut sonics appreciatively, Father Phil from the parish of Aston on the other hand has preached in his recent YT sermon how good CAT now sounds. Ich bin mal gespannt.
https://youtu.be/P10ZZfXiF3c
March 10th, 2026 at 03:08Well, I am waiting patiently….
However, have of course been listening a bit at YouTube, and this is more to my linking:
https://youtu.be/WZupw1nllFs?is=rLlN7QKq9y1aOgkH
Ohh, and this:
https://youtu.be/IOBR1P1nNFw?is=Uoh1LcXoSwz2i1mq
But I’m nothing if not adventurous (Uwe!)
March 10th, 2026 at 07:56(So prepare the drumstick for a little trip to Denmark, Randers to be more precise ☺️)
Can’t wait till mine gets here!! IGB was certainly very under rated and got very little recognition here in the States!!
March 10th, 2026 at 11:40Hi Karin, here am. I’m looking after some Purple fan for trading Gillan and Purple promo or tour poster, but nobody’s seem interested in a contact…
March 10th, 2026 at 16:04I remember them touring in a package with Nazareth, Thin Lizzy and Ted Nugent in the US. In Germany, they just as ill-fittingly stuck them together with Black Sabbath and AC/DC plus then up-and-coming new wave art rockers Doctors of Madness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHCvi0C48mY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSI3Xt4fpqY
Now I love the Doctors and they were a bit of Punk before Punk even existed (plus Roxy Music and David Bowie thrown in), but what did their music have to do with IGB? And all the pairings with stadium hard rock acts were obviously only driven by Big Ian’s DP pedigree/notoriety, not by the music IGB were actually making. Sandwiched between acts like Nazareth and Ted Nugent, what impact could IGB have?
Not that there was anything wrong with mid-70s Nugent (before he turned into the intolerable buffoon he is today), it was his best line-up ever, but the mix with a band like IGB just wasn’t right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXq73BP5uv4
March 10th, 2026 at 17:32@ 1 – Easily done Uwe, that period of my life and I veered away from being obsessed with rock music. Obtained my drivers license and my first car, associating with different people who were not obsessed with rock ‘n roll at all. I gave away a lot of albums too, Status Quo and Kiss amongst them. Life’s journey took me to other places etc, so upon hearing the IGB, PAL and other things Purple related, actually fuelled my less than having any interest in anything DP, LZ and Black Sabbath related. Was I bored with it all, in a way I probably was at that time. Meeting older people who had progressive rock music in their collections also took me to different places musically. By the time I returned to see what was going on in Purple land I noticed an image of ‘Rainbow’ with an accountant, lawyer or dentist as the lead singer and that certainly raised my eyebrows. On Stage and a few other albums from the ex Deep Purple guys definitely took a back seat during those later teenager years, the late 70’s. Anyway, you mention a lack of concert ticket sales there for the IGB, you were one of those, were you not? Cheers.
March 10th, 2026 at 18:57New release date 27th March. My order like the last GILLAN CD box set 1978-82 comes with a Ian G. signed card. That was ‘nicely’ remastered? Same record label (Edsel). Ps – not holding my breath for good audio quality from Yubin Hall Hiroshima – have a few tracks in a double red vinyl IGB/GILLAN live record set? Cheers PJ
March 11th, 2026 at 07:41@4
Roberto, maybe you can ask Uwe or MacGregor?
They know, according to Uwe at least, everything there is to know about our favourite band!
😃
March 11th, 2026 at 09:36The one chance I had to see IGB, I did not take, my allowance was already spent and we had upcoming tests in school so no one wanted to go with me. Together with missing Sabbath on the Born Again tour because I had a night shift at the peep show (and foolhardily thought I could catch them on the next tour!) that dereliction of DP family fan duty is among my lifetime regrets!
IGB didn’t tour Germany all that often in 1976/77 , they weren’t steady guests to German concert halls like Rainbow or later on Whitesnake. Even GILLAN didn’t show up all that often, though still more often than IGB.
March 11th, 2026 at 10:19Clear Air Turbulence is very good album, but i like Scarabus better 🤣
March 11th, 2026 at 12:10PJ, the remaster of the imminent IGB set is courtesy of the same guy who also did the GILLAN set:
https://www.airstudios.com/phil-kinrade/
I thought his remastering of the GILLAN albums was fine if hardly radical. But with IGB his source material will have better sonics – IGB operated on a different budget than GILLAN’s shoestring finances allowed, Child in Time, CAT and Scarabus were all bonafide state-of-the-art productions of major record labels like Polydor and Island at the time (CIT suffered from the initial transfer to CD, the vinyl sounded great at the time). Add to that how Fenwick and Gustafson were weathered session cracks, they knew how to make instruments sound great in the studio and the IGB recordings are a testament to that, you hear everything clearly.
In contrast, the early GILLAN album productions had garage charm which fitted well into the punk era, but sonically IGB was in a different league. The first GILLAN album with a decent production was the studio side of Double Trouble to my ears. Let’s, however, not even talk about how amateur the live album sounded in comparison to Live At Budokan which has amazing quality.
The middish bootleg sonics of the Hiroshima gig are likely beyond any substantial resurrection, that recording is only of historical value and will never sound as pristine as the Live At Budokan tapes. Whoever recorded that night was a genius and set a real standard.
CAT, with all its intricacies, would probably be great for a Dolby Atmos mix, but IGB likely doesn’t have enough aficionados to ever make such a project commercially viable. My hopes really rest with the Kingdom of Denmark where – otherwise reliable sources seem to indicate – Ian Gillan has always been tremendously popular.
March 11th, 2026 at 13:31I like all three IGB albums, the debut for its Pink Floyd DSOTM vibe, CAT for its conceptual intricacy and world music influence, and Scarabus for being a vibrant bunch of versatile songs all expertly played. And it was even poppy in parts, Mercury High and Twin-Exhausted come to mind. Never forget that John Gustafson, who penned the latter, was also the writer of this goody here:
https://youtu.be/40-8G-jnufA
https://youtu.be/hzM4jS70-Z8
His Mersey Beat/Liverpool roots never quite left him.
https://youtu.be/FyPpmElPIiM
https://youtu.be/18Ynn3rjpJ8
March 11th, 2026 at 13:49@11
As I have said over and over again:
Ian Gillan has been VERY popular in Denmark since the beginning, and indeed still is! 😊 (NOT the ‘ohh-Ian-I-wanna-marry-you-and/or-polish-your-shoes-every-day’ kind of popular, more like: ‘WOAH that man has a nice voice, let me get me more of that chocolate spread in my ears!’)
So goes for Gillan (the band), and of course Deep Purple, my go-to Zoloft 😄 (which by the way is much more needed these days than I had imagined)
And if I may insert such a little Zoloft right here:
https://youtu.be/kML4ZwU4iIk?is=rOhqHesd5YM88E6a
HOWEVER: Ian Gillan Band was not that popular, if any ordinary Danes (I mean the Danes not knowing of Purple and Ian beforehand) even knew they existed.
Sadly IGB never caught on with me. I hope they will since I have payed some money to get this box set. (And more important: since some drumstick is at stake here, and I will, as I always am, be completely honest regard liking that music)
And come on Uwe, let’s all be honest here: would Ian have left his band (IGB) had he been in love with the project?
I remember someone in here (most likely yourself) mentioning that the other members of IGB were confused and feeling weird that he left so abruptly.
(And feeling weird is indeed a legit feeling when someone important leaves without a word…just sayin’)
WOULD HE HAVE LEFT? I don’t think so…. Also since Gillan (still: the band) was much more rock’n’roll, and later on when he re-joined Purple, a band known for its – uhh dare I say so? Hard rocking elements? Definitely not some fusion-jazz something..
…oh and if I may quote another brilliant lyricist, aka the Chief, who btw just won something last Saturday re his songwriting… well Noel Gallagher said this:
“I’ve got a broad taste in music. I’m still struggling with jazz. I mean, what is it all about? Four guys on stage enjoying themselves more than anybody else in the audience, all playing the wrong notes at the same time*. ‘But that’s jazz’ Alright, is that what they’re calling it now? ‘Cuz it used to be called sh•• when I was growing up’”
(* laughing so hard I fell of my sofa, coffee all over the place, laughing off some part of me 🤣)
Some jazz are adorable, take a listen to this beauty:
https://youtu.be/9n-hyA2-FDg?is=ylJPBe6aSbCIfWi4
Face it German man! Ian loves rock… yes I know he has been with the Javlins and who can ever forget Episode Six? But please! He loves rock.
The man defined the early start of hard rock (yeah yeah I know: BS and Led Zep were also there, but for me Purple are the only band that really counts 😍)
And before I’m hanging on a thin thread here, let me by all means put in another “pick me-up”:
https://youtu.be/jh184k5Tzg8?is=oA_zUFyN0r7S03i5
(Funny mistake: I have always thought it was ‘Hungry days’ instead of ‘Hungry Daze’… could have read the sleeve notes I know, well, but I didn’t 😄 but I imagined he described the period of his youth where he was so poor he had to eat dog biscuits to survive 😭)
Ian is the voice of rock (for me at least) and yes I look forward to dwell into IGB, but when I need to be cheered up a bit, it is Purple and/or Ian I go to, I mean who can go on being depressed listening to this:
https://youtu.be/R7BLoW0f2d4?is=vY9GTDufkdSMv-WN
Since we just celebrated the 8th of March (International Women’s day) (well since no one else seemed to remember mentioning this very important day, I will not go on…) I think we deserve a little extra from the fine men of Deep Purple:
https://youtu.be/Hpl6DYMM9Ko?is=tXHXqz6GYtcbZ63v
Thank you and may warm and decent coffee follow all of you in here 😃
March 11th, 2026 at 17:32I hear you Uwe in regard to thinking, “I will catch them next time”. Rainbow in ’76 and Rory Gallagher in the early 1990’s are two missed concerts and regrettably so for me. Sonically speaking there is no doubt the IGB albums sound so much better than the Gillan band albums. I am only hearing the IGB online and that is a much better sound and it is very obvious. That ‘garage’ band attitude to the Gillan band was a disappointing aspect to it, but that was what they were into at the time, partying and the ‘there is no tomorrow’ attitude to it all. There was a lot less booze consumption with the IGB I would presume, unlike a few years later with Gillan. Also the financial situation as you said would have lead to that Gillan band attitude and everything else that goes with it. I am looking forward to owning these IGB discs and I am really looking forward to Karin’s review of them too, he he he. I actually looked up Ian Gillan and his foray into Denmark recently. Outside of Purple and he seemed to go there a little more during the early 1990’s, more than other times. Also a little more after the 2000’s. Not a lot with the Gillan band though from my memory. In some ways I think he has probably been to Australian just as much. Work than one out. @ 8- Karin I am not sure what you mean by that, I certainly don’t know anymore than most people do about Deep Purple or anyone else. And I definitely don’t collect memorabilia etc at all. In my teenage years I had a poster or two, but they are long gone, same as the posters of a few other rock bands from that time. And I definitely NEVER had posters above my bed on the ceiling. Oooops, just joking. Cheers.
March 11th, 2026 at 19:44My room was plastered with posters, there was absolutely no wallpaper and no ceiling left! 😂
International Wimmin’s Day? Darn I missed it …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM1MftCtIlg
I mean I could have really contributed! Maybe another time. I’m never afraid to speak up for good causes, giving my measured input.
Karin, of course DP is Big Ian’s spiritual home, but IGB was together with Black Sabbath his most interesting musical sojourn from the home base.
And as for Noel G commenting on the virtues or non-virtues of Jazz … well never ask a mole what he thinks of sunlight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgbHZyXSs_A
What’s next, Big Ian and Steve Morse giving joint fashion advice?
PS re booze consumption, Herr MacGregor: Ironically, John Gustafson was a real riot within IGB, he could drink (and tolerate) copious amounts of alcohol and liked to take hotel rooms and backstage dressing rooms apart in alcoholic stupor. He was apparently one of those people who can get totally hammered on a night out and then catch an early morning red eye flight the next day and look pristine.
John died of unspecified cancer in 2014
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/whitstable/news/friends-and-family-pay-last-24138/
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the pancreatric one that also got Jon Lord, Trevor Bolder and John Wetton, paying the price for the grand English heavy drinking tradition.
March 11th, 2026 at 23:42@14
Sorry MacGregor, but this Italian gentleman contacted me at YouTube (yes, that is apparently a feature in there now, we can chat there too, should anyone like to 😊) and he is interested in posters with Purple.
Roberto mentioned you and Uwe, so I imagined that you might have been talking about this subject before I entered this exciting place of my Purple heart-beating 😊
You do not collect memorabilia?
March 12th, 2026 at 00:16Too bad, because I have a mug, where the handle is broken off.
I am not sure if it was Ian who broke it off, but it might have been – isn’t this how catholic relics are made up? Someone may have seen/heard/touched… 😁
Well, it could also have been broken off during the manhandling postal officers ☺️
But let me know if you wanna trade it for a meet and greet with Ian 😃😆
Just discovered the Live at the Rainbow is the previously released 34 minute concert minus the Twin Exhausted intro & no additional tracks? Surely they must have taped the whole gig (if not at the Rainbow a different venue)? Equally why ‘use a whole cd’ to put 34 minutes of music on it? PJ
March 12th, 2026 at 07:36@4 see Karin, no one come…MacGregor, Uwe….tell me about the poster situation….maybe starting with: have you ever seen a promo poster, from any country, realized by the record company promoting Child in time? And anyway, in UK at least, what IGB or Gillan album came out with the support of an official promo poster? Can you show me someone here, or with a link, or directly tò me? Here’s my mail: vavooom99@gmail.com.
March 12th, 2026 at 11:36Thanx to anyone would reply.
@18
Roberto, Uwe and MacGregor are, well not exactly old men per say, but I have discovered now and then that they need to be wound up like an old-fashioned cuckoo clock 😄😄 without any other comparison 🤭
Give them some time, be very patient and hopefully they come through 😃
Sadly I don’t have any posters.
March 12th, 2026 at 17:57I do have certain memorabilia but they are almost sacred to me, and kept in a fireproof safe, where even I have forgotten the combination to open it 😁
@ 19- we are growing older Karin and that rocking chair beckons………..it is hard to keep focused when looking at a poster as that chair does rock and roll and we end up feeling rather giddy. Thanks for the compassion and empathy, it bodes well for us all, well for me at least as I cannot speak for anyone else in that regard. Cheers.
March 12th, 2026 at 22:53Roberto, Karin has raised a valid point …
https://64.media.tumblr.com/08ef29e70b86b66d8b928e31710119ff/tumblr_o8owkwaz2r1u75p2ko1_400.gif
… but sure there were promo posters and advertisements for IGB back in the day, let me throw some of my magic dust …
https://i.sstatic.net/0cKoP.gif
https://i.discogs.com/7o0SCcszfwlzBDQBKCIczaWOJrGOABUFPozrnI6rXok/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:594/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ2MzI2/MTQtMTUwMzIxOTEz/Mi01ODgyLmpwZWc.jpeg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/RuUAAeSw4GxpPx4y/s-l1600.webp
https://de.rarevinyl.com/cdn/shop/products/ian-gillan-child-in-time-plus-pp-uk-promo-vinyl-lp-album-record-1976-804342e.jpg?v=1685052182&width=760
https://de.rarevinyl.com/cdn/shop/products/ian-gillan-child-in-time-plus-pp-uk-promo-vinyl-lp-album-record-804342d.jpg?v=1685052182&width=760
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSkY5zdxOUaFN1xJGrWIHV3Yu3NqjQAYsbV1w&s
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/4hwAAOSw5h9jveRT/s-l1600.webp
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1595137796/ian-gillan-band-poster-1977-original-nme
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PhkAAOSwiQljveRS/s-l1600.webp
https://rayfenwick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/gillane77.jpg
https://www.japanrockarchive.com/cdn/shop/files/gillanian7804ra_1024x1024.jpg?v=1715567393
*************************************************************************
RPJ @17: They even filmed (and recorded, albeit only in mono) the opener Strapps at the time, the producers for the IGB feature wanted to test the equipment and Strapps were only too happy to oblige:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Hz-wKuT5w
So yes, more material of IGB from the Rainbow should exist, but I’ve never seen or heard any of it.
March 13th, 2026 at 02:54@20
MacGregor, you are all very dear to me in here! 😃
But now and then I feel the urge to wake you up a bit! Because if I don’t, all you can gush about is the excellences of Dio! And I mean, come on! He is certainly no Ian Gillan 😄
Well never mind, I don’t have any posters of Purple, not even a tiny pic of Ian, so I couldn’t be helpful but I know you dear gentlemen in here go out of your way to help out when ever you can 🤗
March 13th, 2026 at 09:45@21
Thank you Uwe, an accurate research of advertising. Most of them are adverts from press, something from the record company, and a proper colour japanese poster for the official live Budokan albums. So, at the end of the day, we can assume that the record company did promote Child in time, the first album, paying space on some newspaper, sometimes full page, but NEVER realized a proper colour promotion al poster for Child in time. Is it correct? Nobody here in HS ever seen, or is aware of, the existence of a real poster (not a press advert) for Child in time. Right?
…and if you ever have time, I will be happy to know, and maybe see with some links, about Gillan promo posters for official live or studio albums. Not press adverts, not tour posters, but promo posters. Thank you very very much!
March 15th, 2026 at 08:55When Child in Time came out in Germany in the summer of 1976, Roberto, it was actually quite a thing, Ian was still beloved (and DC still perceived as in his shadow, Mk IV had just split) and Polydor was no small record company. The album was reviewed in all major music papers and even on radio shows. It did not get panned, but people were somewhat underwhelmed by it, it wasn’t chest-beating metal like Rainbow Rising released a few months before, yet it wasn’t something entirely new either.
The fusion influences on the debut album were still comparatively mild (Colin Towns wasn’t yet in the band) and Ian’s voice of course immediately recognizable. The general sentiment in the reviews was “Ian Gillan still sounds very much like he did with Deep Purple and the new Child in Time is nicely polished, reminding us all how stellar he once was, but times have moved on.”
I’d say that in Germany at least, CiT saw a lot more promotional effort than either CAT or Scarabus which had almost zero promotion, Island as the new record label seemed to be at a loss at what to do with IGB. They didn’t know how to promote their other rock signing – Rough Diamond with David Byron and Clem Clempson – either. Which was a shame, especially since Rough Diamond were far more accessible than IGB to the average hard rock and even AOR fan.
https://youtu.be/Dg9hvA_H2bk
But Rough Diamond at least received an opening slot with Peter Frampton while IGB were incongruously paired with acts like Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Nazareth, Thin Lizzy and Ted Nugent.
March 16th, 2026 at 04:38Missing from the rarities section are three final IGB demos sung by John Gustafson: “Vindaloo”, “You Get What You Ask For” and “Raped By Aliens” (the latter co-written by Gillan and the band members), which were featured on the CD Rarities 1975-1977 released by Angel Air in 2003. A missed opportunity to cover the entire Ian Gillan Band catalogue!
March 16th, 2026 at 12:40