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My favourite Purple show ever

By Jay Pearson

Having been a long-time owner of "H-Bomb" (an alternate bootleg of this show), I was quite excited to finally get my hands on this remastered version. This show has long been my favourite Purple show ever, only the sound quality, especially Ian's voice, always had sounded so muddled. The sound improvement on this is enormous, and Ian sounds much better on "Black Night" (although still somewhat muddy). "Mandrake Root", which was not on "H-Bomb" (so my first listen here) is another story as far as Ian goes, but there's another 30+ minutes of music without him, so no problem.

The band performances are incredible, especially Jon (interviews from the time indicate that both he and Ritchie thought that this was one of their finest performances ever). By far my favorite versions of "Wring That Neck", "Black Night" and "Mandrake Root", all of which are better than "Scandinavian Nights" or "In Concert". "Paint It Black" is mostly Paicey, but a fun speedy run-through of the melody. Four songs, 72 minutes!

If you haven't ordered your copy yet, quit hoarding your money. This is one of the most bloody incredible shows in rock history and a great way to lead off the bootleg series.