IT was the album that put Glasgow rockers Gun on the map.

But the band's Dante Gizzi has recalled that he had to conquer his nerves before making their debut record Taking On The World.

The album was re-released yesterday in a deluxe format, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and the band will play it in full as part of a special series of King Tut's shows starting on November 9.

Dante, the band's bassist and now their singer, had to overcome the jitters though.

"I'd only picked up the bass a couple of months before going into the studio and it was daunting for a 16-year-old," recalls Dante.

"The band gave me a shot at doing those first two tracks on the record, but I was just too nervous to get them right.

"But I was determined to do the rest of the album, so I just went home, got a drum machine out and played and rehearsed those songs 10 times a night.

"When we got back into the studio, Kenny (Macdonald, the album's producer) was quite a fearsome character - there was no telling with his facial expressions whether he thought a take was good or bad, and I remember putting handsoap on to stop my hands getting too sweaty.

"Being so nervous didn't matter, because I got them in one take."

The record, which included the band's breakthrough hit Better Days, established them as one of Scotland's hottest bands, and now they'll revisit it in full at Tut's.

The following two nights will then see them run through their second and third albums too (1992's Gallus and 1994's Swagger) while a bigger show at the Barrowland is pencilled in for next March.

That gig will be in support of Gun's next album, due early next year and their third record since the band reformed in 2008. For now, though, the band are looking to their early work, which saw them crash into the charts and be picked to support the Rolling Stones on their Urban Jungle tour.

"The whole experience of doing Top of the Pops and playing with the Rolling Stones, that was unbelievable," says Dante, who took over as the group's singer in 2010.

"There were about 60 bands that the tour came down to, and it was Mick Jagger himself that chose us.

"I asked him one night why he'd picked us, and he said 'You remind me of us when we first started out' and you can't beat that for a compliment.

"We were in a bar at the time, and I said 'Thanks, I'll buy you a pint'. He said not to bother, because it was a free bar…"

Revisiting their old albums for the upcoming Tut's triple-header has presented some problems for Dante, though.

"You're obviously worried that some of them won't sound as fresh," he says.

"All of the singles like Better Days we know about as we've still been playing them a lot, but songs like Girls In Love from the first album, you're not sure about - but after playing them in rehearsals these songs still sound great live.

"The struggle for me is trying to remember the words to every song…"

It's not just the past that has taken up the band's time, though.

They've spent over a year working on a new record. Dante reckons the record will still have a classic Gun sound running through it.

"It's easy to say this when it's a new album, but we're dying to let people hear the new material," he adds.

"It's still very much guitar based, but also along current music lines and I'm really excited to hear it all together.

"We've been recording it over the space of a year and a half - sometimes you think 'Will the fans like this one, this is a good one for the fans' and you kind of get lost in that a wee bit.

"It's important to go with your heart and what you want the album to sound like."

That means a March 28 return to the Barrowland is already circled in Dante's diary.

"I can't wait already, " he says, "the first time we ever played there was back in 1990 as a headline act and it's such an iconic venue, it's just one of the best places to play in the world."

l Gun, King Tut's, Nov 9 - 11, £15. Tickets for the Barowland gig on March 28 go on sale this Friday.