A comprehensive career review spread across two discs and with a running time of six hours this DVD pulls no punches in tackling some of the more thorny issues from Ian Gillan’s career. In particular his relationship with Ritchie Blackmore, the controversial demise of Gillan the band and his brief tenure as vocalist with Black Sabbath are all examined in some detail.

As is customary for documentaries of this nature a variety of “talking heads” are wheeled out to pay homage to the great man. These range from his Mum, his Wife and his Daughter to some of his more unlikely allies, notably Luciano Pavarotti and the late George Best, with whom Ian shared a close friendship. Ian’s formative career and life gets the story off to an interesting start; and the producers delve into the past for a look at his pre-Purple band Episode Six, who also included Roger Glover amongst their members. The black and white extract from their single ‘I Hear Trumpets Blow’ is reminiscent of The Thamesmen’s ‘Cups And Cakes’ and would not be the only time Ian’s career path seems to follow that of Spinal Tap…

The early Purple Mk 2 years are, as you would expect, covered in some depth with Messrs Lord, Paice and Glover chipping in with their own recollections from time to time. The Man In Black is conspicuous by his absence, only making fleeting appearances in some of the archive footage. After Ian discusses his departure and subsequent ‘retirement’ from music we then move on to the Ian Gillan Band / Gillan years. It is perhaps telling that the only former member to share his anecdotes is Colin Towns, and the contributions of the others, in particular Bernie Torme and John McCoy are very much overlooked. Where Ian does go into some detail is with the various financial problems that he was encountering throughout this period, and whilst there is obviously still some acrimony on both sides, he does at least give his version of events very clearly.

We then move onto ‘Born Again’ and both Tony Iommi and Ian give a frank account of his time with the band, including some of the notorious incidents such as the ‘devil baby’, ‘Stonehenge’ and Ian’s failure to get to grips with the lyrics for Sabbaths back catalogue. This is all really good stuff and so the story then moves on with the Purple reformation and the subsequent line-up changes. His whole career really is a fascinating story and one which is long overdue being documented in this form.

Disc Two concentrates mainly on live footage from Purples more recent tours, and also includes Ian going through his pre and post gig routines. The song selection is heavily skewed in favour of the early years, and both ‘Smoke On Water’ and ‘Highway Star’ appear more than once, but Purple fans will find little to complain about here.

All in all, a very worthwhile set.

‘Highway Star, A Journey In Rock’ is released via Universal on April 2nd and Deep Purple tour the UK with Styx and Thin Lizzy later the same month.

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