Simon Rushworth
43: Gun – Inside Out (Gizzi/Rankin) b/w Back To Where We Started (Gizzi/Rankin) 1989
While the wider population will always remember Gun for their smash hit cover of Cameo’s Word Up! the rock fans among us will probably point to the brilliant Better Days as the first time this Glaswegian quintet came to our attention.
Harvested from the superb Taking On The World album it burst into the Top 40 and secured the Scots rockers support slots with the Rolling Stones and some serious music media attention. But if Better Days broke the band then Inside Out was the better song.
Not the heaviest song Gun ever penned it does, nevertheless, stay true to their hard rocking roots. A blinding hair metal riff leads into a Thunder-esque tune and there are clearly elements of Hysteria-era Def Leppard. No wonder the Lepps, like the Stones, opted to take Gun along for the ride on the UK leg of their Adrenalize tour.
Back together again in 2009, with former Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson on vocals, there is talk of a new record and a new deal. Two pre-Christmas live shows whetted the appetite and there’s no doubt a reformed Gun would be a welcome addition to a burgeoning revivalist scene.
Inside Out is just one of five or six outstanding slices of heavy rock on the band’s magnificent debut (check out Money and Shame On You if you want more proof) but it just happens to be our favourite.