The Beat Surrender

“Gillan’s Inn” is a ‘career retrospective’ and the latest solo album from Ian Gillan, vocalist for legendary rock band Deep Purple.

Musically, this is a slick rock product. Take a look at the long list of musicians that play on the songs (Joe Satriani, Jeff Healey and Tony Iommi to name but a few) and you will see why. Mr Gillan has made some famous mates during his forty years in the business and they all seem to have a bit of a go on his album somewhere. As a result of all these accomplished musicians playing away, you can’t fault the music. It’s probably not as raw as some of the younger music lovers out there would like it, but it’s good to hear talented musicians being skilfully produced from time to time – give it a go, you might learn something.

Track ten is “Smoke on the water” – no review would be complete without a mention of this cover. I did think I would look cooler not to mention it, but then thought I would not be doing my job if I didn’t say anything about it. “Smoke on the water”, after all, is an iconic song in rock music – everyone knows it – so what’s Gillan’s new take on it like, compared to the original? Well, it’s not much different, it has to be said; after all Gillan sang the original on 1972’s “Machinehead” by Deep Purple.

I’ve always said if you’re going to do a cover it has to be a completely different take on it or very much the same otherwise you’re going to wind your audience up; fortunately for Gillan this ‘cover’ (is it a cover if you sang the original?) sounds very like the first – just better produced with more depth and musicianship going on. Probably how they would have wanted it to sound if they had 2006’s equipment available back in 1972. Another cover that I found quite entertaining was the bonus track “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”. Originally a Bob Dylan song, Gillan enlists Joe Elliott of Def Leppard to make this a more lively song than the Chris Rea version you may have heard.

Vocally, Gillan reminds me of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden fame. He certainly has Bruce’s enthusiasm and you can tell he enjoyed recording this album, from the way he laughs and sings his way through the songs – in fact everyone is having a good time by the sounds of it.

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