Short Reviews [Ian Gillan Band - 2022 - "Return To The Source"]

After Gillan left Deep Purple in 1973 he may not have formed another band immediately as he looked at what he wanted to do, but it was always expected that sooner or later he would come back to the scene, and in 1975 he announced the Ian Gillan Band. What was not expected though was the style of music, as he had gone both heavy and somewhat progressive with Purple (and would return to the heavy with Gillan), but here we were treated to jazz rock. I must admit I bought ‘Clear Air Turbulence’ when it came out in 1975, and really enjoyed what he was doing as it was so different from his previous releases, although it was not viewed as kindly by many other fans, which is why he eventually formed Gillan, keeping only keyboard player Colin Towns from IGB. This release is a compilation of rarities taken from the four albums originally released on Angel Air, ‘Live At The Rainbow’, ‘The Rockfield Sessions’, ‘Rarities’ and ‘Live In Hiroshima’ with liner notes from Chris Welch. In many ways this is a nice introduction to IGB for those who have never come across them before, as we have versions of some of their most well-known songs such as “Twin Exhausted” and “Scarabus”, while we also get some very different takes on classic Purple songs such as “Smoke On The Water”, “Child In Time” and others. Unfortunately, many people seem to pass this era of Gillan smartly by, but as with the much-maligned ‘Born Again’ there is some very good material to be discovered here. The sound quality of some of the live recordings are more like decent bootlegs than well produced items, but overall, this is a very enjoyable album indeed.