Description
UK radio station album from BBC Transcription Service with two BBC radio recorded live shows.
Gillan – Oxford Polytechnic, 18th of February 1981
Although his solo career never reached beyond a cult-sized group of Deep Purple fanatics in the States, over in England, singer Ian Gillan enjoyed chart success in the late ’70s/early ’80s with a string of hard rock-based solo outings. For the proof, just check out the amount of “Gillan” patches you spot on longhaired headbangers’ denim jackets entering the Hammersmith Odeon to see Iron Maiden (in 1982) on Maiden’s The Early Days DVD. And as evidenced by this recording, Gillan certainly had a top-notch rock band to back him up on-stage during this pre-Purple reunion era. The show was recorded during Gillan’s Glory Road Tour at Oxford Polytechnic. As always, Gillan’s voice is in fine form (does the man ever have an off night vocally?), and he even shows off his bongo skills at various points of the performance. But as mentioned earlier, the Gillan band was one fierce rockin’ beast, and comprised of some unforgettable characters. One prerequisite of just about every single hard rock/heavy metal band of the era was for all bandmembers to have shoulder-length hair, and bassist John McCoy flips the bird at conventionality here — by having shaved half his head bald (and wearing a ZZ Top-ish beard). And on guitar, you have Bernie Tormé, who sports a look best described as a “glam rock pirate” (one black shoe, one white shoe, a white ruffled shirt, and a tattered jacket, as well as a thunderbolt painted on his face and multi-colored long hair). But forget the looks for a second, the fact of the matter is that Tormé was one of the most underrated guitarists of the era, and his over the top six-string heroics show why Ozzy Osbourne tapped him to be Randy Rhoads’ initial — albeit short-lived replacement — in the Ozzy band. The set opening, Motörhead-esque barn stormer, “Unchain Your Brain,” is a definite highlight, as well as the Spinal Tap-esque “Mutually Assured Destruction on the Rocks” (a little ditty about nuclear destruction…did every bloody metal band of the early ’80s have a song about this topic?). All in all a faithful and fitting reminder of the oft-overlooked Gillan.
Iron Maiden -Castle Donington 20th of August 1988
‘Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son’ was Maidens’ first concept album. This wasn’t the original idea at the outset, but in writing and followed by rehearsals it seemed the material had a common theme running through out. The first single ‘Can I Play With Madness’ went to No. 3 in the UK Charts and was followed by 3 other singles from the album all reaching the Top 10 – quite a feat without Radio support. The album was a major success and so was the ‘Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour’. The tour highlight was the headlining show of the legendary ‘Monsters Of Rock Festival’ at Castle Donington. Iron Maiden headlined with support by the likes of Kiss, Dave Lee Roth, Guns and Roses and lablemates Helloween, they played to an all time record breaking 107,000 fans.
Track list:
1. Gillan -Unchain Your Brain
2. Gillan -No Easy Way
3. Gillan -Trouble
4. Gillan -M.A.D.
5. Gillan -On The Rocks
6. Gillan -New Orleans
7. Iron Maiden -Moonchild
8. Iron Maiden -Wrathchild
9. Iron Maiden -Infinite Dreams
10. Iron Maiden -The Trooper
11. Iron Maiden -The Number Of The Beast
12. Iron Maiden -Iron Maiden