The new rerelease of Gillan's third LP, Glory Road, arrived in my mailbox yesterday. What a great album. I'd heard almost all of Glory Road proper via live versions before (but almost none of the studio versions), and almost none of the For Gillan Fans Only bonus disc, so I've been enjoying listening to them last night and this morning. Gillan (the band) were definitely in top form at this point in their careers, and its easy to see how the UK fans rewarded them with the #3 spot on the British album charts. Hopefully Mr. Universe will arrive in a day or two. I'm already thinking I may not be able to wait much longer before I order Future Shock - thank goodness for these new rereleases!

I should also mention I love the packaging on this release. A nice slipcase design with some notes on the back, full liner notes on the inside, some notes from IG himself, lyrics, photos, press clippings (including some bad reviews!). I definitely give Edsel full marks for this job.

Another thing that occurs to me while listening to this album - it seems to me that during Deep Purple's hiatus from 1976-1984, the year 1980 may have been one of the best years to be a Deep Purple fan. More on that in an upcoming post.