A very nice three-CD box set of John McCoy’s music given the treatment by Cherry Red Records who do excel at these box set retrospectives.
John of course being the larger than life in more ways than one character who formed and played bass with Gillan – the eponymously named band fronted by a post-Deep Purple Ian Gillan – and many others over a long career.
Although it is well over forty years now I do still have memories of seeing Gillan in concert with John’s commanding state presence and fine bass playing. An unmistakable character with his height, bald head, huge beard and dark glasses.
We all know from our rock music history that things did not end well for Gillan. Splitting up after a handful of albums with stories about much animosity. Best left there I think…..
After the Gillan implosion, John went on to form his own also eponymously named band – McCoy – roping on ex-Gillan bandmate Colin Towns and the excellent and much missed Paul Samson from, er, Samson.
The Samson connection going back to John producing and playing some bass on their debut album as I recall on which Towns played some keyboards.
The first disc in this set is the mini-album released by McCoy in 1985 and also Think Hard. Excellent hard rock worthy of wider attention indeed. Check out the video for example:
The third disc in this set is perhaps the most interesting. A live performance from way back in 1977 with John joined by Paul Samson and drummer Roger Hunt with a set of raw power including some songs which would later find their way on to Samson’s debut album.
Check out other stuff John did back in the day such as the excellent Mammoth with vocalist Nicky Moore. The band taking their name from their – ahem – weight. John and Nicky not being not exactly lightweight.
Mammoth didn’t last too long and after that John went on to mainly producing working with any number of bands and artists.
This three-CD set is a fine retrospective for a very talented musician to whom there is much more than being the big bloke who was in Gillan.
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