Ian Gillan
with the Don Airey Band and Orchestra - Contractual Obligation BluRay
Review by Larry Toering
Ian Gillan with the Don Airey Band and Orchestra’s Contractual Obligation on BluRay is a special show to go with the three-disc album set which contains other shows. This one is from the performance at The Kremlin Palace in Moscow Russia, November 15th, 2016. So, it is a few years old now, but just recently released. US fans should take note that it is only sold so far for PAL region players, so the computer drive users with all-region can always watch this great show that way until it comes out in NTSC, if it ever does.
The performance put on at this concert is amazing. If you are a die-hard Gillan fan you might enjoy his choice of songs on that tour, or you might find it too adventurous for this type of thing which is prog through and through by nature, even though not every song fits that tag prior to be performed with an orchestra like this. The players used for this are second to none and pulled off great performances in their own-right. Those musicians include Gillan’s daughter Grace Gillan on backing vocals. She is a great jazz singer herself, and the show even includes her on a lead spot doing a father-daughter duet on “You’re Gonna Ruin Me Baby.”
I plan to review the 3-disc audio set of other shows, but this BluRay covers a good show until I have the chance to hear properly those vinyl albums. Watching this will hold me over until then, as I’m sure it will anyone else in the same situation. That’s especially true for those if who crave live Gillan material the way I do. And to be as unbiased as possible, I’m a big critic of anyone who I am a big fan of. So rating this high being as easy as it is, that’s because it pulls no punches with a warts-and-all product delivery of which any fan would approve. This brilliant show has many hits of the past as well as some more obscure tracks for the hardcore fans.
This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2019 Volume 5. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2019.
|