Artist: Gillan, Ian
Label: Virgin Records
Release: 1981
With Double Trouble, Gillan’s little sparrows take their first step into the so-called post-classic era of the band, which after Bernie Torme’s departure first pinned its hopes, temporarily, on a greenhorn most of you now know well by the name of Janick Gers. Understandably, a fuming Bernie got sick of Ian’s financial wheeling and dealing after a good three years of hard graft. The friction eventually led to a total shipwreck of relations between singer and guitarist. Gillan, of course, wasn’t about to let such “trifles” bother him. With Double Trouble we find him steadfastly loyal once again to the brazen rocker parading of the previous albums.
I’ll Rip Your Spine Out proves that Gillan’s sense of humor hasn’t abandoned him yet. This sharp rock buzzsaw can be slotted without hesitation into the catalog of Ian’s finest creations. Dig through his offerings and you’ll soon stumble onto Men Of War, the definitive Double Trouble favorite. Making sure it doesn’t all run quite so smoothly is Sunbeam, a strange Gers creation that misses out on the status of a promising songwriting contribution from the newcomer thanks to its own naivety, maybe even shallowness. Overall, Gers remains the biggest Double Trouble riddle throughout. With few exceptions, his presence can only be felt as cautious accompaniment to Towns’ rhythmic-melodic variations on assorted, often jazzy-tinged themes. By total contrast, the self-confidence with which Colin shoulders the band’s instrumental burden is downright astonishing, though what pushes into the ears even more than that is the lack of chemistry in his relationship with the apprentice on guitar. And vice versa!
After the lively but pretty average Hadely Bop Bop and the slightly meatier Life Goes On, Ian carries on his tradition of tackling apocalyptic themes with Born To Kill. Thanks mainly to the tireless Colin Towns, the track takes some interesting swerves away from conventional rock frameworks, which gives the tune flexibility, ranging from heavy metal all the way to some listenable, so to speak, experimenting with pop motifs. The all-encompassing drama gets the right tone from Ian’s reliably delivered vocals, which at the close of the album’s studio half are once again successfully chasing the vocal standards of the famous Deep Purple days, after a long time away!
The second half of Gillan’s “trouble” brings a live experience from Reading, specifically from August 29, 1981, the fourth visit to that beloved hangout of heavy metal fans, which, despite a colorful bunch of enviable rock & roll maneuvering, leaves a bitter aftertaste too often. A lot had changed since Ian’s debut on this once-prestigious rock festival. Besides the personnel shuffles, we can’t get around Ian’s noticeably worn-out voice. In what used to be his most reliable ranges, it often rather tastelessly succumbs to that famously rasping falsetto, whose roughness Ian has by now successfully upgraded into an ear-piercing mass of asthmatic coughing! There’s still plenty to be happy about here, though. No Laughing In Heaven and Mutually Assured Destruction brim with that trademark Gillan magic, while the only word for Ian’s by far most recognizable bluesy experiment, If You Believe Me, is magical. As a kind of “black sheep,” that recording is the only one taken from a Rainbow show, on March 4, 1981, so in the final days of Bernie Torne. The difference is obvious. The famous Torne/Towns package sounds tighter, sharper and incomparably more inventive. No wonder that next to the Rainbow gig, Gillan’s boys on the Reading stage look like local stars whose sun has slowly but surely started to set.
Lineup
Ian Gillan: vocals
Colin Towns: keyboards
John McCoy: bass
Janick Gers: guitar
Mick Underwood: drums
Bernie Torme: guitar *
Production
Steve Smith
Track list
1.I’ll Rip Your Spine Out
2.Restless
3.Men Of War
4.Sunbeam
5.Nightmare
6.Hadely Bop Bop
7.Life Goes On
8.Born To Kill
9.No Laughing In Heaven
10.No Easy Way
11.Trouble
12.Mutually Assured Destruction
13.If You Believe Me*
14.New Orleans
Album length: 77.06
