Great Rock Albums of 1981: Gillan- Double Trouble

Not content with putting out one great album in 1981, Ian Gillan and his band went out and released another one. “Double Trouble” was the follow up to the fantastic “Future Shock” album they released earlier in the year. What was different about “Double Trouble” was that it featured two LP’s, one was studio recordings and the second disc was all live recordings. It is also the first album with future Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers as Bernie Torme was fired from the band when he did not want to participate in the playback TV performance of “No Laughing At Heaven” on “Top of the Pops.”

When you visit two albums that were recorded by the same band in a short time frame, it is very difficult not to compare and contrast the two. Therefore, I have to admit that of the two, I would say that “Future Shock” edges out “Double Trouble.” That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the latter album. It does go back to the more progressive sound of “Glory Road” but there’s nothing wrong with that and there is still some shining hard rock moments on it. “Sunbeam” comes to mind here. Furthermore, the live recordings of some of the past songs are excellently done and give me the regret of never having seen them live. “No Easy Way” is a good example of this. One thing I can say is that while there are many studio/live albums out there, “Double Trouble” is NOT one of those were the artist just thinks, “I’ll just throw in some live tracks here.” The live tracks are well preformed and the live LP is very well thought out. Full marks here for the entire album.

Tack Listing:

Studio LP

1. I’ll Rip Your Spine Out

2. Restless

3. Men of War

4. Sunbeam

5. Nightmare

6. Hadley Bop Bop

7. Life Goes On

8. Born to Kill

Live LP

1. No Laughing at Heaven

2. No Easy Way

3. Trouble

4. Mutually Assured Destruction

5. If You Believe Me

6. New Orleans

Gillan (from this album)

Ian Gillan- vocals

Janick Gers- guitars

Colin Towns- keyboards

John McCoy- bass

Mick Underwood- drums

Usually YouTube is very good at allowing me to listen to albums I never got the chance to back in the day, like all of the Gillan albums I’ve covered so far. This time, it was a bit of a struggle. YouTube wouldn’t play tracks, “I’ll Rip Your Spine Out” and “Nightmare” so I can only speculate they were as good as the rest of the songs here. Whatever the case, with two great albums in the same year, Gillan must have been riding high.

Next post: Journey- Escape

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