Ian Gillan – Highway Star – A Life in Rock
(Universal – 2007)

 

This is a very close informative 2DVD set. The 1st of which features Ian giving you a large insight into his life through the years in and out of Episode Six, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Gillan etc showing priceless archive footage and interviews with members of Deep Purple past and present and even Colin Townes (of Gillan fame)plus various friends, family and tour crew– even his Mum, Ronnie James Dio, Joe Elliott, not to mention Pavarotti give you their view of Ian and even how he became to become part of the ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Production thanks to input from Sir Tim Rice. I suppose you get a little closer to understanding what makes Ian tick and strike on to provide another solid day and night of rock 'n' roll

The second DVD features life on the road and features footage from a gig on the Banana’s Tour at the Olypiahalle, Moscow, Russia with a major highlight being an extended version of ‘Speed King’ full of solos, and takes of rock n roll numbers like Roy Orbison’s ‘Dream Baby’ & Buddy Holly’s ‘Rave On’ before finishing on ‘Hush’, then onto St. Petersburg for some ‘Highway Star’ and ‘Space Truckin’ not to mention a bit of ‘Knockin’ at your back door’ as well. You get to see concert action from our own native land also that includes Plymouth, UK and Glasgow, Scotland as well. The extras are just brilliant – find out how much Ian can drink, the view of him from his wife and daughter and live on stage with Pavarotti performing ‘Nessun Dorma’.

Since his incarnation as a singer/frontman, this guy has been mightily busy. On this set there must be around 6 hours worth of footage – now that’s value for money !!

10/10

By Glenn Milligan