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Much older tours...
1968-1995

Deep Purple - Aston Villa, UK

Monday, 26 February 1996

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HOUSE LIGHTS SUDDENLY go off, lots of purple spots switch on and that famous drum intro thunders out and we are off into "Fireball", what a fantastic opener! We where stage right and so I got a good look at Rog who is looking more and more like Willy Nelson every day, maybe they will go country :-) He played a bass with a tremolo system, weird!

Then straight into "Maybe I'm A Leo" which I'd seen Ian perform on the Thunder tour, again excellent and the band seem to loosen up a bit after the first song. Then the first of the new songs "Ted The Mechanic" and the band really come alive, as with the rest of the night they play all the material well but I got the feeling that they really enjoyed the new stuff. Afterwards Ian explained that that song was a 'true story' except that his name wasn't Ted and he was an electrician and it was in a bar not a strip joint:-) The first of many bar references that night.

Next neglected oldie was "Pictures Of Home" which was introduced as the song about 'emptiness, eagles and snow', slight cock up by Steve after the ascending bass line and he half smiled/half grimaced at the rest of the band. Then a cracking "Woman From Tokyo" followed by "Cascades" which segued straight into "Black Night" small sing along here but not drawn out for half an hour like the Rainbow gig at Hammersmith.

Another fantastic oldie with "No One Came" (a personal fave) then "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" which was introduced as about a dusty bar in Mexico at the edge of the desert called Rosa's Cantina, the band then pointed out that this wasn't what they were about to perform because the acoustics had been brought on for SIFLS and Ian joked with the audience that they usually followed the list on the floor but not tonight, the next song was now introduced as the one about a dusty Mexican bar....but was "Rat Bat Blue" before "Rosa's Cantina" finally made an appearance(with suitable introduction).

So it finally came to that time of the night how was Steve going to stamp his mark on the mother of all bar room standards, so we got the squeally pig intro to "Smoke On The Water" although not as long as Gillan's Reading Festival appearance. One thing that I noticed was that Steve really grinned maniacally when he played "the biggies" ie Smoke ,Speed King and Highway Star it was like he was living a boyhood dream. There then followed Jon's Organ Improvisation, with the usually mix of classics and throw away lines all played with great gusto.

This was followed by an atmospheric "When A Blind Man Cries" which featured some great soloing by Steve very Dave Gilmour-ish IMHO. This was followed by "The Purpendicular Waltz" which was possibly the least memorable tune before another true story "Somebody Stole My Guitar" were Steve and Rog sang back-up in the chorus. The last tune of the main set was "Speed King" again a great tune played very well.

Encores were "Perfect Strangers" a great "Hey Crisco" and finally the 'finale' "Highway Star".

Somewhere in amongst these was a great solo by Steve although slightly ruined by a fight breaking out nearby. The highlights included "When A Blind Man Cries" and the other previously neglected tunes. Visual moments came when Steve would get on the same riser with Jon to do battle, Steve and Ian dueting and Jon's Leslie speakers revolving like crazy in his solo moments. Only a few low points, the fight and Ian's mike making humming noises and cutting out, oh and he had trouble with his conga's as well (very painful I believe :-)

One thing I did note was that there were no band intros, I would have liked Ian to introduce TMITD (The Man in Tie-Dye) so we could all give him a rousing cheer. If DP is to continue without the stroppy git RB, Steve needs to be fully integrated into the group remember the Mark IV line-up fell apart when the English crowds heckled Tommy so he needs support.

Ross Emberton

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Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Aston Villa/UK 26/2/96 - Review
From: galvinr@ee-wp.bham.ac.uk
(Ross Galvin)



[ Purpendicular | Rosa's Cantina ]