''Mr. Universe'' is the second studio album by the British

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Gillan, and the first with the classic line-up with

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is a British singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan ...

Colin Towns Colin William Towns (born 13 May 1948 in West Ham, London) is an English composer and keyboardist. He was noted for playing in bands formed by ex-Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan, and later worked extensively in composing soundtracks for film, telev ...

, John McCoy,

Bernie Tormé Bernie Tormé (born Bernard Joseph Tormey; 18 March 1952 – 17 March 2019) was an Irish rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, record label and recording studio owner. Tormé is best known for his work with Gillan, as well as his brief stints wit ...

and

Mick Underwood Michael John Underwood (born 5 September 1945) is an English drummer. He first played drums at the age of 14 and was a professional musician by the time he left school. Underwood has collaborated with a number of notable musicians and groups, ...

. Released in October 1979. The album reached No. 11 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, and sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

Track listing

All songs written by

and

except where noted. ;Side one # "Second Sight" ''(Towns)'' – 2:33 # "Secret of the Dance" – 2:54 # "She Tears Me Down" ''(Towns)'' – 5:07 # "Roller" – 4:43 # "Mr. Universe" – 6:14 ;Side two #

"Vengeance" – 3:34 # "Puget Sound" ''(Gillan, Towns, John McCoy,

)'' – 4:23 # "Dead of Night" – 4:04 # "Message in a Bottle" – 3:09 # "Fighting Man" ''(Towns)'' – 7:28* * Recorded at an earlier session (July/August 1978) with a different line-up and can be found on the original Japanese version of the album '' Gillan''. Musicians for this track were

, John McCoy,

Steve Byrd Stephen John "Steve" Byrd (25 September 1955 – 2 October 2016) was an English guitarist and session musician who has worked with artists including Kim Wilde (from 1982–95), Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, ZZebra and many others. Initially a self-t ...

(guitar) and

Liam Genockey Liam Genockey (born 12 August 1948) is an Irish musician, who is the drummer with British folk rock band Steeleye Span. Biography Genockey was born in Dublin, Ireland. During the 1960s he lived in Plymouth, Devon, U.K, playing in local semi- ...

(drums).

Alternate (Original) version

An album released on September 20, 1979 in Japan by Toshiba-EMI's (

Eastworld Eastworld is a Japanese jazz and pop music record label owned by EMI Music Japan (former Toshiba-EMI), under Universal Music Group. Artists *Minako Honda *Jennifer Connelly *Marvin Peterson *Original Love *RC Succession *Sadistic Mika Band * San ...

) billed as Ian Gillan as opposed to "Gillan" and later in the year in Australia (Interfusion) and New Zealand (

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

). This release contained several tracks that were not on the album '' Gillan'' that came out in October. The track listing was as follows: ;Side 1 # "Vengeance" – 3:34 # "Mr. Universe" – 6:14 # "She Tears Me Down" – 5:08 # "Your Sister's on My List" – 4:09*** ;Side 2 #

"Street Theatre" ''(Towns)'' – 2:42* # "Roller" – 4:37 # "Puget Sound" – 4:26 # "Move with the Times" ''(Gillan, Towns, McCoy)'' – 5:00* # "Sleeping on the Job" – 3:34** Total running time 39:24 * These appear on the 1993 RPM release ''Gillan – The Japanese Album'', see '' Gillan''
** This version has not yet been released on CD
***Used as a B-side to the UK "Trouble" single and appears on the first release of ''

Future Shock ''Future Shock'' is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler, written together with his spouse Adelaide Farrell, in which the authors define the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. The ...

'' on CD as a bonus track

1989 re-release bonus tracks

In 1989 the album was re-released on CD by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

, produced by Ian Gillan and Paul "Chas" Watkins, and mixed by John McCoy and Watkins. It followed the original UK track listing and included six bonus tracks: #

"On the Rocks" (live) – 6:38** # "Bite the Bullet" (live) – 5:38** # "Mr. Universe" (live) – 7:20*** # "Vengeance" (live) – 4:42*** # "

Smoke on the Water "Smoke on the Water" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple, first released from the band's sixth studio album ''Machine Head'' (1972), which chronicles the 1971 fire at Montreux Casino. In a 2004 publication by ''Rolling Stone'' magaz ...

" (live) ''(

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar ...

, Gillan,

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Ro ...

Jon Lord John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep ...

Ian Paice Ian Anderson Paice (born 29 June 1948) is an English musician, best known as the drummer and last remaining original member of the rock band Deep Purple. He is often cited as one of the greatest drummers of all-time. He remains the only member ...

)'' – 10:10*** # " Lucille" (live) ''( Richard Wayne Penniman, Albert Collins)'' – 2:32**** Total running time 80:02 ** Recorded at the

Reading Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

, 29 August 1981 *** Recorded at the Reading Festival, 22 August 1980 **** Recorded at

Nottingham Rock City Rock City is a music venue and nightclub located in Nottingham, England. It is owned by venue operator and concert promoter DHP Family. It opened in December 1980, first hosting The Undertones, and has gone on to host some of the biggest names ...

, 4 March 1981, previously unreleased, in 2009 was included on ''Live: Triple Trouble'' album Tracks 11 - 15 appear as live bonus tracks on the 2007 Edsel Demon Music Group re-issue of '' Double Trouble''

2007 re-release bonus track

In 2007, the album was re-released in remastered format with new sleevenotes by Ian Gillan by Demon Music Group and one bonus track: #

"Smoke on the Water" (live at Kingsway Recorders) – 8:25 Total running time 52:34

Personnel

;Gillan *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

, producer *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

–

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, producer * John McCoy – bass, producer *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Production *Paul "Chas" Watkins – producer, engineer *George Peckham – mastering

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Universe (album) 1979 albums Gillan (band) albums