Gillan - No Easy Way (Live Hammersmith 1980) (2023)

Ian Gillan had indeed made things tough for himself. Having helped transform a British band with little local support into superstars, in 1973 the frontman jumped ship for a solo career. He promptly fell flat on his face with his eponymous Ian Gillan Band. A change in musical direction, a shift in lineup, and a new name, Gillan, was better received. However, it took one final go for the singer to finally get it right. Gillan the legend was born, a seething monster of a band that sent the New Wave of Heavy Metal surging across Britain like a tsunami. Mr. Universe smashed into the U.K. charts in 1979, less than a year later the follow-up, Glory Road, stormed to number three, with a British tour that fall cementing their reputation forever. The two-disc No Easy Way, brings that legend back to life, capturing Gillan on CD and DVD swaggering across stages that fateful autumn. Gillan himself may have been the frontman, but it was the band's bear of a bassist John McCoy whose antics and ferocious playing inevitably catch one's eye. Mick Underwood attacked his drums with an equal, just less showy, passion, while keyboardist Colin Towns unleashed some of the most aggressive sounds ever wrung from that instrument. The vehemence of his playing provided the perfect foil for guitarist Bernie Tormé's punk bred/metal driven playing, and whose wild leads defined Gillan's sound. Running through a set list drawn heavily from Glory, albeit with a few Universe numbers thrown in for good measure, the band was on fire. Something even the occasionally muddy and naff sound (especially on the CD's bonus tracks) can't douse. Highlights include Tormé's blinding leads on "Mr. Universe" and his own "Torment" a twisted take on the theme to 2001 and "Smoke on the Water" which he virtually transforms. The DVD performances are just as riveting, and seeing is believing. This is Gillan at their mightiest heights.