Picking up John McCoy on bass guitar and Steve Byrd on guitar, the band’s debut album could only find a distributor for Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but the album sold so well in the UK as an import, backed by positive reviews, that a further distributor was found for Europe for the follow up album, which became “Mr Universe”. For this album guitarist Bernie Torme came on board for Byrd, while Gillan’s former band mate in a band called Episode Six, Mick Underwood, came in to play drums. This line up, of Gillan, Towns, Torme, McCoy and Underwood came to be the best-known formation of Gillan.
“Mr Universe” re-recorded several track from the debut album, in order to give them exposure to the European market who may have missed that album, which meant the Australasian market got a slightly different format of this album. The follow up saw the band reach its zenith with the release of “Glory Road” in 1980, and album that not only showcased the best of the individuals in the band, but it also reached #3 on the UK charts. On the strength of this the band toured the US, and despite what was described as a long and difficult tour, they were unable to crack the US charts or draw the kind of reaction that they were back at home in the UK.
Everything was moving quickly for the band. Just five months after the release of “Glory Road”, the band returned to the studio to begin work on their fourth studio album, no doubt hoping to strike while the iron was hot, at least on the home front. The result was the only 8 months after their previous album was released, Gillan came out with a new album that they no doubt hoped would continue their successful rise, one with perhaps a title that foretold of this, by the name of “Future Shock”.
The opening of the title track is a frantic fast paced frenzy, kicking off the album on the front foot. The keys-soaked beginning that gives off a sci-fi effect to the track is hardened up by the great drum and bass guitar rhythm, which allows Bernie Torme to offer his class on the guitar to take control of the track. This is added by Gillan’s amazing vocal, doubled to add some urgency to the style at the end of each verse and into the chorus. The lyrics offer a dystopian tech-obsessed future for all, much as described in the book the album gets its name from by Alvin Toffler. At three minutes it is here and gone before you know it. “Night Ride Out of Phoenix” seems like a song lyrically at least that has its germination during the band’s US tour of the previous year before recording this album. Gillan offers his usual offbeat style of lyrical content here, mixing his descriptive pieces of the landscape with his visions of the wildlife and people taking their journey there. Though there is a blues feel to the track, Towns’ keys and synth keep it well out of that territory, and Torme’s solo is more authentical hard rock. This is followed by what has to be an autobiographical song “(The Ballad of) The Lucitania Express”. It a rollicking hard and fast paced tempo from the outset, perhaps matching the speed and bounce of the train ride being described in the lyrics. John McCoy’s bassline through the song comes through wonderfully well, offering a great context to the guitar and keys of the song. Torme riffs his solo from the hilt, almost gunslinging his way to the end of the song. This barrels along and is one of the highlights of the album.
“No Laughing in Heaven” drops things back a couple of pegs and gives off that blues barroom again in mood, piano keys and blues guitar. It also pushes Ian back to the front vocally and has him completely taking the wheel of where the song is heading, in his finest traditions of being able to tell a story in the middle of a song without skipping a beat. And lyrically it is superb. Ian tells his story over four verses – the man who ignores the warnings of living a bad life and heading to hell, to reforming to ensure he goes to heaven, to arriving in heaven and being arrested for being in the wrong place, to wanting to be having a good time in hell and not being able to get there. It is solidly tongue in cheek, skewering religious hypocrisy with humour, offering a song that is part-sermon, part stand-up routine (think George Carlin). It’s a great fun song performed in a way only Ian Gillan can. This is followed by “Sacre Bleu” with Gillan switching the story around when it comes to girl and boy and the consequential results, with another round of fast bursts of speed throughout the song. The first side of the album then concludes with “New Orleans”, a cover version of the song that was originally recorded by Gary U.S. Bonds. So this is where I question what is going on. This is an early 1960’s song, and this definitely sounds like it. And yeah, the band plays it well, and Gillan just riffs off and obviously loves the track. But I question why the band would have done so much terrific stuff here to this point in time, and then though that this was a good track to throw on here. Especially to complete side one of the album.
“Bite the Bullet” opens the second side, and returns to the rollicking style of most of the album, a tight and riff‑driven gateway. The rhythm section of Underwood and McCoy shines here, pushing the track forward with precision. Gillan’s delivery is sharp and urgent, matching the song’s theme of grit and perseverance. It moves in waves that grow and widen before crashing through the speakers. This is followed by “If I Sing Softly”, the album’s ‘as close as you can get to a ballad’ track. Slower, melodic, introspective. It barely sounds like Gillan singing in the first verses, until he breaks out into the chorus. He showcases that he still has the ability to sing this kind of track. It certainly isn’t “Child in Time”, but it differs from everything else on this album in that it offers the other side to his vocals. It’s fine, but I’ll take the faster songs on this album every day of the week.
“Don’t Want the Truth” - well, I just gave it to you, but in this case I am talking about the title of the next song – is a return to that more fabled style of music, the place where hard rock meets heavy metal with the heavy synth influence. Gillan gets forceful in trying to push away what is coming for him, and is helped along the way by that solid rhythm and Torme’s great guitar solo that is backed by the keys from Towns in a Deep Purple adjacent manner. The album then is brought to its conclusion with the atmospheric stylings of “For Your Dreams”. This acts as an attempt to draw a different mood to the closing track, one that moves through different styles, with Gillan’s vocals holding the key. It feels almost like a curtain call of a stage show. There is a progressive sound here, leaning more on the keys banging away. Perhaps it works, perhaps it doesn’t. I am still very much on the fence as to whether or not I like it or think they may have overstepped the mark.
My history with this album is, as it turns out, very short. I had known of Gillan the band, but had never really listened to them at all. I loved Ian in Deep Purple, and had his solo albums “Naked Thunder” and “Toolbox” from when he had been on exile from Deep Purple from 1989 to 1992. In fact, I had seen him live on the solo tour to promote “Toolbox” in Wollongong at Waves in February 1992 (where he played almost the entire “Toolbox” album, and also “New Orleans” from this album, which I remember to be the worst song of the night) and had even had two beers with Ian after that gig. Now that is a great story, but one for perhaps another episode. So I knew Ian Gillan and his solo albums well, but pretty much nothing of his career between his Deep Purple gigs of 1973-1983. So a little over 12 months ago I decided I should start tracking down those albums and start listening to them. Because, come on, its Ian Gillan. They can’t NOT be good! I initially found a copy of “Glory Road” at that time, and just adored it. And about six months ago, I also found this album, an original print, being sold on eBay for 20 bucks. Thank YOU!
I can therefore confirm that my history and listening numbers of this album does not correspond to the 45 years since this album was released. Trackify tells me I have listened to it 8 times at work over the last week and a half, and I know I have played the album 3 times at home in the Metal Cavern in that time period. Before that, when I bought it, I listened to it another three times. So that is 14 times in my life, all very recently. So as an album as a part of a podcast titled Music from a Lifetime, this one has been listened to less than once for every year of its existence. And to be fair, I could easily have bypassed this album on this run through, and perhaps caught up with it in five years time on its 50th anniversary (assuming this podcast is still running then). But I think this album gets a unique point of view for me, because it really is almost like a new release album. I have had only tens of listens, not hundreds, over a period of years. It is all quite fresh, without the ability for me to have my opinion fester over that time. Perhaps my opinion would change over the next five years – and maybe we’ll find out then. For now though, I like this album. Not as much as “Glory Road”, I think that is special, but for the most part, as you will have heard, this also stands up well.
More change was to come for the band following this album, another very quick follow up album, and then the journey into a new band that no one ever expected Ian Gillan to head down. But for now, Gillan was proving to be a force in the UK music world, and it gave everyone the chance to continue to hear those amazing vocals of Ian Gillan soar.
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