Santiago Review

Well, after quite a few months following the PURPENDICULAR tour on the internet, the S.A. Tour dates finally came up. Back in 1985, I was arriving from my home town (Brasil-Rio) to Sidney Australia, where I would live for 2 years. Well, I missed the PERFECT STRANGER Tour, only for a few weeks. Back in Brasil, it was 1991 and the first tour in South America was anouced with King of Dreams. It was a great concert, except for Mr. Joe Lyn Turner (terrible performance). In 1992 it was the turn of Ian Gillan with the Ian Gillan Band; what a great show ! Now, living in Chile for the last 3 years would be the chance to see Gillan with DP for the first time. Also it would be a chance to have a close contact for the first time, since they would stay in the same hotel where I work.

Ian Gillan arrived one day earlier, together with Colin Hart. On the next day the first to arrive, very early in the morning was Roger Glover. Second to arrive was Steve Morse. Jon Lord and Ian Paice came in the afternoon. The next day there were several interviews with the local press with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. As there was no interpreters available I was invited to help. I will never forget it, specially the interview with Gillan.

Well, on Thursday the 27th of February I went home a litle earlier, got my 11 year old son and one friend of his and went to the stadium. The concert was supose to start at 09:30PM, so we arrived at 08:00PM (just in case!). The stadium was "PACKED" and the people went very wild all over, specially the teenagers. At 09:40 DP went on stage. A whole bunch of people run and climed the light tower. My son looked at me and said ...Dad, that thing is going to fall! I was expecting the concert to start with Highway Star, nevertheless a wonderful version of HUSH opened the night. Steve Morse, well you have to go and see. Morse gives back to DP the same creative atmosphere that was around back in the 70's with Gillan and Glover, after with the arrival of Coverdale, Hughes and Bolin on Mark III and IV and with the reunion of Perfect Stranger. Morse has a modern style that mixes a lot of influences. He is great with the new songs and fantastic on his own way to play the old and classic songs. Simply the best! Finally DP is not wasting time on trying to do the same things the so called "heavy rock" bands are doing now a days. Well, right after HUSH I thought that someone was going to stop the concert and get those people down, but it did not happened like that. The second song was on and the tower came down with a big "Uaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!" from Gillan. A big confusion! Police, firemen, ambulance, what a night! I was getting myself ready to leave with the kids when it was announced that the concert would go on. It restarted at around 11:15 with a preyty bad sound quality and a lot of riots all over the stadium. But it was fun anyway! At the end I felt like taking a plane and going to Rio de Janeiro to really have a chance to "Come and taste the new band"; with no accidents.

Renato de Mendonca

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