Gillan's Inn [DualDisc] - Ian Gillan

...careful.

OK. Gillan's Inn.
Well, I saw Gillan at a very small venue (Healey's in Toronto) while he was recording this album. We were about 6 feet from the stage and he was nothing short of exceptional. His voice range and power undiminshed by the ravages of time so I had high hopes for this album.

The album is basically a collection of Ian's favourite songs from down the years re-recorded with some of his mates. ...
...- its on Amazon etc.) Sounds like a great concept and should have been great fun for him to make.

Unfortunately the fun element doesn't seem to have come across in the recordings. Its essentially a joyless listen. The mixes are poor with too much of Ian's vocal often and an uncohesive sound from the rest of the band. I wonder if this is because it seems that the album was recorded in many different takes in many different studios?
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First of all, what is 'dual disc'?
Well its a double-sided disc with a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. Neat. Except some players cannot play it. Its slightly thicker than either a standard DVD or CD so if you have slot-in loading system rather than the more traditional slide-out tray you could be out of luck trying to play a dual disc. Be careful.

OK. Gillan's Inn.
Well, I saw Gillan at a very small venue (Healey's in Toronto) while he was recording this album. We were about 6 feet from the stage and he was nothing short of exceptional. His voice range and power undiminshed by the ravages of time so I had high hopes for this album.

The album is basically a collection of Ian's favourite songs from down the years re-recorded with some of his mates. (I'm not going to put a track list/personel list up - its on Amazon etc.) Sounds like a great concept and should have been great fun for him to make.

Unfortunately the fun element doesn't seem to have come across in the recordings. Its essentially a joyless listen. The mixes are poor with too much of Ian's vocal often and an uncohesive sound from the rest of the band. I wonder if this is because it seems that the album was recorded in many different takes in many different studios?

Now, this is not to say that there are not some great performances here. Jeff Healey on 'When a Blind Man Cries' is just incomperable. A truely sublime performance from a guitar great (blind, no less) and a real classy gentleman who will be sorely missed in the T dot - R I P, Jeff.

Also any of the tracks with Jon Lords keyboards on are lifted from their surroundings by his truely accomplished Hammond skills.

With the list of Guitarists seemingly eager to play on here, I thought it would be a guitar fans dream. But to my ear, none of them stand out. The solo's on 'Smoke on the Water' sound like they were recorded in a bedroom by a bunch of teenagers. (Having seen Steve Morse live, I wasn't expecting too much of him. He ruined the last 'Purple tour in my opinion). But what about Satriani et al? What a let down, is all I can say.

So, what about the DVD content?
Oh dear. Don't get your hopes up.

Its just the same audio as the CD with a few pictures going round in a loop for each song. Yes there are bootleg videos but they are bootleg quality (awful!). There is a 'making of', but nothing too exciting. DVD quality video during each track was what I was expecting, plus all the extras. At least the Audio is in DVD quality, I guess.

So overall, what do I think?

Dissapointed.
But there are the few performance mentioned above which are exceptional (Jeff Healey and Jon Lord) but you can hear both these guys excelling elsewhere. So is 'Gillan's Inn' worth buying? I would say "yes", only if you are a mad Deep Purple fan who must own everything related to them (expensive!!).

Otherwise its a definite miss.

(I also saw Gillan on the promotional tour for this album and he was terrible. Clearly under the infuence of something/s and unable to hit the notes or put out anykind of a decent performance. So different from the Healey's night. Sad). 

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