![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan8.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey.jpg)
Monsters of Rock 2008
Deep Purple will headline the Monsters of Rock festival on July 11, 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain. Other bands on the bill include Twisted Sister, Ted Nugent, Saxon, Thin Lizzy, Pretty Maids, Candlemass and Rage.
The band is announced to return to Spain on September 13 this year to perform at the Big Twin Espana festival, an international annual biker meeting, convention and show, which is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary.
Thanks to Miquel Fos Camarena for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
DP, Twisted Sister, Ted Nugent, Saxon, Thin Lizzy, Pretty Maids… isn’t it the 1985 edition? 😀
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:14Well download 2008 has Kiss, Judas Priest and Motorhead so that must be the 1981 version, Monsters of Rock 1985? Remember it well ZZ Top, Marillion, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Metallica and Magnum, it was a bit overshadowed by events at Knebworth 2 months earlier, now that WAS a show and half, MOR 2006 was ok too, disappointing attendance but great day out!
April 23rd, 2008 at 14:04why cant this be held in the us 🙁 im tired of waiting so long to see my idols !! caught them at ruth eckerd hall and i cant wait to see em again ! but n e way .. twisted sister ? saxon ? ted nugents OK but jesus if it werent 4 DP this would be a joke
April 23rd, 2008 at 15:35Well Patrick
In the US you could have attended many gigs for 3 centuries with bands who did NOT come to Europe, so…………..
I missed out on HEART, BOSTON, FOREIGNER, Y and T, Journey, Kansas, Sammy Hagar for years.
yeah, since a year or so they are there on the bill but
1) 25 years too late
2) I don’t like festivals. Too overcrowde, less intimate, OverDose of everything .
I prefer the club circuit. Luckily I did have the opportunity to see Y and t, “Foreigner”……in the years since 2003.
But still…………
Realise…………a shitload of bands that did tour the States relentlessly are /were reluctant to go here.
April 23rd, 2008 at 21:42I hate Festivals..I love little crowd,until 7/8000 people..no more..no more money…I hate concert under the sun…I am happy to have seen a concert 2 evening ago in a little club.. (DOWN,P.Anselmo),big intimate,hand to hand..eyes to eyes,rock in my vein..
April 24th, 2008 at 09:23Purple Priest, Yeah but we got Lynryd Skynryrd, Peter Frampton and Styx supprting DP in recent years (albeit not with Blackmore!), We got Ted Nugent and Journey on the same day at MK on the same day in 2006. Didn’t USA get DP with ELP and Dream Theater about 10 years ago? Now that’s a line up I’d love to see this side of the pond! I am not a massive fan of festivals but Knebworth 85 was something else and apart from DP, Blackfoot (another band I saw close up a couple of years ago) stole the honours that day!
I don’t think a lot of American bands are reluctant to tour Europe but financially it is probably not feasible, look at Rush (yes, I know they’re Canadian, no offence meant) for example, a few arena dates in 1992 then nothing for 12 years, this from a band who used to regard UK a almost a second home.
Sadly ,decent rock music is virtually taboo in UK, it gets so little media and radio coverage that we are thankful to see anyone over here!
April 24th, 2008 at 15:40only gigs i want to catch are DP , blackmores night,steve morse band ,dio … the usual stuff 🙂 and its like they never come to florida
April 25th, 2008 at 01:32I think I saw ELP in 92(The Hague) and in 95(Amsterdam). Both in small venues like it always should be………..
Bigger halls are only good for the wallet, but not good for having a great evening………
Over the years I tried to stand in front as much as possible, but you know………….
Sometimes it’s getting hard to make all that effort……….
Waiting in the cold outside (security often seem to push the clock just to let you OUT as long as possible. LET US IN! We’RE NOT TERRORISTS!)waiting after you get in, waiting because you very often don’t like the support act, waiting after that………..
Sometimes they have the sadistic idea to give you more than one support act.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, my God, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!
Espescially when you get blasted DEAF by the volume, another great mystery to me. WHY HAS IT TO BE SO ****ing loud?!
I like heavy music, ofcourse……….Don’t get me wrong.
But after all those years still the misconception that it should be loud as **** as well? It’s beyond me………
But still, gigs can become a great experience………….
April 25th, 2008 at 13:48Hey Priest, tell Patrick where Perihellion was recorded (sure it was Florida) by the way, I have been there on holiday and it was great for me when I found out all the 7up, Coke, pepsi, fanta, DR Pepper etc was FREE in the hotel 24/7! Any chance of a free supply of Tennent’s super next time?
April 25th, 2008 at 13:53Priest, Remember the KISS motto ‘If it’s too loud, you’re too old’? Have you seen DP’s Myspace were it says ‘Everything louder than everything else’…also a Meat Loaf track from when he still made rock albums (segue into am I the only person who enjoyed his Knebworth set and ‘Bad Attitude’…(no,not the DP track) album?
Are you ready for the bath salts, slippers, and Richard Claydermen yet?
My hearing only kicks in at 100db, amazingly I had a medical recently and I was classed as A1, with years of no exercise, loud music, junk food and daily alcohol intake.
I should have been a rocker……
April 25th, 2008 at 14:09First : I still do not own Perihelion, I think………….Maybe a copy stashed somewhere under the old newspapers of…….erm………2001?
Secondly, I like some of KISS, espescially their live albums(Rumours about it’s being live or not though).
BUT……….
To pick Gene Simmons , the biggest whore of all as a guideline?!
The man acclaimed the tile hardrock Beatles for KISS. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, don’t think so…………..
But ofcourse, KISS is larger than life and filthy rich, so why not pick them for a quote?
I don’t think DP themselves were very happy with the etiquette “loudest band’.
Meatloaf made a song about DP “Rock and roll Metcenaries”, implying they did it for the ……
And so you could go on for hours, picking quotes selectively……….
Btw, I m not so sure about Clayderman, but I am very fond lots of different music, including Classical Stuff from Bach and Chopin, since I was about 14 years of age.
So if you think you will stay cool and young by becoming deaf, loving louder and louder volumes, excluding softer music………..
Be my guest.
I have not seen DP MySpace yet, I think.
April 25th, 2008 at 14:18Probably because the incarnations with Morse gets overrated there as well……………
i was at perihelion 🙂 problem is i had to wait 5 FREAKIN years juss to see em again at ruth eckerd hall …. after the show i waited out back and caught them leaving and they all came over and i got there autograph and i asked big ian .. “when are yall commin back to florida ?” he said we love it here in florida and we’d love to back , as long as they call us . whatever that means ?
April 25th, 2008 at 15:16kiss should be charged with crimes against heavy metal also ted nugent … there the original destroyers of good british hard rock aka yes , pink floyd , sabbath,purple,zepplin, do you brits agree ??
April 25th, 2008 at 17:28meatloaf should be thrown in the garbage heap of history along with moldy bread and rotten spuds if u ask me
April 25th, 2008 at 17:31Why has´nt anyone thought of putting an festival together with the ultimate name…..”OLD FARTS FESTIVAL”!!! Being one myself (45) I´d include myself on the spot!!
April 25th, 2008 at 23:42Patrick!
I agree about Kiss and Meat Loaf….don´t know about “The Nuge” though! I kind of like some of his views on life…for example some of his slogans & stickers say:”I love animals…they´re delicious” or “let´s go commie hunting…priceless!I´d just love pissing McCartney and other vegan fanatic morons off with a statement like that.
The music? Not to bad…love his lyrics and his views on polital correctness!!!!
April 26th, 2008 at 00:43I think the animosity from Meat Loaf stems from Knebworth 85, he was third on the bill and played quite a good set, unfortunately a lot of the audience didn’t seem to like his music and he and his band were pelted with bottles containing stuff that wasn’t designed to be drunk throughout the entire set! He wasn’t impressed and recorded with John Parr a song slating DP! I used to quite like Meat until he started sounding like he belonged on the Las Vegas crooner circuit, Kiss? pure entertainment! Bands like W.A.S.P, Motley Crue etc are not the kind I would buy any of their albums but they are good fun at festivals! The Nuge? Great music, but come on, you don’t think he’s serious most of the time do you?
April 26th, 2008 at 09:17I am still a lover of eating meat, although I tried to minimalize that years ago.
I still like some pepperoni on my pizza. Mind you, although fighting hard to keep down the weight my cholesterol is very low!
But I m a huge animallover too.
Calling one of the geniusses of the 20th century a fanatic vegan moron is beyond me. Why does he provoke such an extreme outing on your part?
I like Ted Nugent “Double Live Gonzo” but never got much further into his music.Yeah, when it was released I bought “State Of Shock”.
O hell , there’s so much……….
I m not so sure of Ted’s outings in other area’s. Like Gene S. he’s kinda “sexist”?
The view on the right to arms, etc…….
I don’t like in America, so what do I know?
Meatloaf thrown on some pile of garbage? Nahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I really like some of his music. Love the Wagnerian bombast, great vocal delivery…..
But THAT song kinda annoyed me….
In was in the days we were glad to have Mark 2(…)back among us.
And we already had to endure negative response in media.
Kinda ironic : I do remember a pic of RB taken at a gig during the PS tour and the reporter wrote : “RB, old piece of antique of DP”.
Never understood that. The Stones always got away with their wrinkles.
The REUNION!
Remind you, that was really something in 1985!
I had waited all of my life to witness that. Well, so it seemed. 7 or 8 years seemed a life time way back….
Now they flash before my eyes….
Way back we thought the reunion could be the LAST thing to witness from them.
I will not be surprised if they still are playing in 10 years!
Hopefully not with a complete “revitalised” line up.
But what a FUN game that is, speculating who will be in it!
Vocals – Gillian Glover
Drums- Jason Bonham
Keys-Still Don Airey.
Guitar- Jurgen Blackmore
Bass- Uriah Duffy
BTW. Candice Night will write the lyrics. RB will throw in some tunes.
“Sometimes it’s good to be bad. To the bone……..”
Take me down, slow and easy…………
April 26th, 2008 at 12:23what about another one in the UK
April 26th, 2008 at 14:15They Toured the States with Nugent and then with Thin Lizzy already more than once. The Nugent shows were cool because you got a great contrast of musical direction, but both very powerful. Come on, anyone who truly takes the time to listen to “Uncle Ted”, has to see that he has a great wit and is very sharp in his cut and dry ideals towards life. Truly a great Rocker. At least he continues to be creative and put out new material from time to time like Purple. Thin Lizzy on the other hand are just a Tribute Band. Not because Phil is gone, but because they only tour on the Old Lizzy Material. The only thing that truly legitimizes a bands status is the total of their effort. You can’t expect to be taken too serious if you put a few players together and call yourself “what ever” and don’t write material backing who you are. You can’t truly take the name if you don’t make the music. This goes for the present other incarnations of “Foreigner, KISS, Grand Funk Railroad, Steppenwolf, etc”. Bands that keep touring, under different members and spewing out old classics tunes and never writing new material are just “Tribute Bands”. If you are going to go out and take the name of an established band, just bacause you were a member for a time and are now laying claim to it, at least put out some material with “Your Names” on it. That is the decent thing to do and the proper thing to do. Otherwise again, YOU ARE JUST A “Tribute Band”. Can you imagine if DIO didn’t actually contribute his creativity to Black Sabbath, and they only rehashed the “Ozzy Years”? Even though Glenn Hughes and Gillan only were in Sabbath for short stints, they wrote and put out albums to commemerate their standing and they are now a part of history and great stuff to listen to. Otherwise they too would have just been “Tribute Acts”.
Now to put it into PURPLE perspective…..
How about if the various Deep Purple line-ups only played covers of the previous line-ups and never put out records representing their own group? In other words….how about if the last album to ever be written was “Who Do You Think We Are” from MK2, but all the same line-ups followed and only toured, playing MK2 and MK1 songs. How long would that last, and wouldn’t that pretty much end the true standing of the band? Of course it would and we wouldn’t stand for it as Deep Purple Fans either. That’s why you have to really respect Deep Purple all the way through to now. As long as they have been in existance, and as old as most of them are, they continue to “Legitimize” who they are by taking the chance and putting in the effort towards not only playing the standards, but writing new material for us to enjoy….otherwise they too would only be a “Tribute Band”. But they are far from that. They are DEEP PURPLE!!!
LONG LIVE PURPLE
April 26th, 2008 at 17:27Hear, hear…..`Nuff said…..well done Tracy!!!
April 26th, 2008 at 19:13Well, ok…………..
I might try again this tour……….
But a intersting setlist would help.
See my other post.
Not that it will make much difference…….
Probably I can name about 8 songs already?
Namely :
SOTW
Lazy
Black Night
Speed king
Space
Highway star
Pictures of home
Hush
C, mon guys…………..show us you DARE.
April 26th, 2008 at 19:53Show me I m a cynical bastard.
I kinda like ya, Priest but this argument (and that’s what it ends up as) is futile and stupid, You want MK2? The rumours have been confirmed as just that…rumours, it will never happen.
I wouldn’t call anyone a bastard, but you are definetly cynical.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:02Well, I like no one, because I do not know ya at all! How can one possibly KNOW someone through this ?
No pun intended.
Read more care fully, I keep repeating……..
Yeah, I preferMK 2, but………….
If you would read less selectively you would know that :
1) I kinda like certain albums with Morsey
2) I suggested a setlist with lots of tracks from the last era.
3) I even admitted to have enjoyed myself on 1 or 2 shows with SM. Mostly I m getting annoyed and sad but still………..
4) I LOVE Mark 1 and 3. Where the **** is Rod Evans?!
I do not know abot the rumours. We’ll see…………
Again : I ‘m not losing sleep over it, on the contrary, I have certain “other things” that keep me awake.
Have a guess……..
“Cynical bastard’is an expression which I may have taken too lightly into the frame.
Exactly I m a warm and loving person, a softy, I m afraid.
My words may have a sharp outlook, I can imgaine that.
“Passionate man” is more acurate description, I suppose.
April 27th, 2008 at 16:17And desillussion within passionatye men often leads to sadness…………
If you want to bang your head on Gillan’s bongos during ‘Fools’ will it knock any sense into your head?
April 27th, 2008 at 19:00How unfriendly……
April 27th, 2008 at 19:20I’m a nice guy really, just a bit sarcastic at times, ask anyone! I should have been a sprinter because often people didn’t appreciate my humour and being a useless fighter I had to be a good runner, no you’re welcome any time to come round and have a few grolsches while we put ‘Perihellion’, ‘Bombay Calling’ etc on in the background! You might even enjoy them.
April 28th, 2008 at 08:13hey id like a grolsch rite about now
April 28th, 2008 at 15:14David Sanderson……
if you watch ‘Perihellion’, the guy towards the front of the audience, waving the white sheet banner is me. They pan on that throughout the show. If you check out the “Concert Review Archives” for that show, you can read my story of going back and meeting the band. It was a great show, and was the beginning of a true friendship that I now have with Roger Glover. I had met them prior, at “Pompano Beach Amphetheare”, and from that point on, I have been invited back to the meet and greet every time I go to see them. I’ve become quite the ‘Traveler’ since. I’ve since seen them in Texas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Illinoise, and Florida. I now have a home in Tennesse and will see the “Big Screen Version of the 2006 Montreux show” in Nashville. I recommend everyone go out and see it. Even if you you have to drive a long way. It is an hour and a half from my house, but I will be there. SUPPORT DEEP PURPLE ANY WAY YOU CAN!!!!! The best way is the obvious….Buy Tickets, CDs, and DVDs.
Patrick…..I don’t know what you are complaining about. I have seen Purple in Florida 6 times and they just were there in 2007. The problem is….there is poor promotion. You never hear anything about it on the Radio or anywhere else for that matter. The only way you will know if they are coming to town is by checking out the Highway Star Tour section or the Deep Purple Official website. That has been my main bitch about this band……POOR PROMOTING!!!!!!
Cheers
April 28th, 2008 at 15:44Absolutely correct about the poor promotion, Tracy. Very well said.
April 28th, 2008 at 20:29that was you with the mark 8 poster ? how’d u get that seat damit ! i was by rodger … but anyway … im complaining? its more like .. how could i say “longing” 🙂 i’v been a fan since probably the masters and slaves album – hey im only 24 gimmie a break ….. but i mean compared to even chile and hell and scandinavia and egypt it juss seems they never come to florida , luckly me and the parents went to charlotte and seen RB , that was after we got back from the muskegon ritchie being sick incident !!! anywho..yea your definitly rite about poor promotion , you would think they would step up there game .. but hey my dad seem them like 6 days before the osaka made in japan shows like june 16 73 and all there was back then in 73 was radio lol 🙂
April 29th, 2008 at 02:32we’v seen DP countless times meet em , chit chatted wit em and all but u kno wut 2 MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH !
April 29th, 2008 at 02:35Tracy, who was that nutter on Gillan’s site under the guise of a fan?
The ‘even bigger fan’? Who turned stalker and posted Roger’s home and mobile numbers online.
I knew it was a spoof, when it refered to Roger Glover as a ‘limey cocksucker’
No idea what Rog puts in his mouth but he’s no limey, he’s a taffy.
Made me laugh though,
April 29th, 2008 at 09:36I WANT TO SEE DEEP PURPLE PLAYING FOR A HUGE CROWD (LIKE AT CONCERT IN ITALY AT COLOSSEUM WHICH ATTRACT EVERY YEAR 500.000-700.000 PEOPLE) AND GILLAN WITH LONG HAIR SCREAMING THE HIGH NOTES.(LIKE EVERY CONCERT OF SUMMER 1998 AND 2005) AND REALIZE A DVD.
May 1st, 2008 at 20:48THIS IS WHAT DEEP PURPL NEEDS!
Forget about it since Jon Lord has left the band, they are not the same anymore. They used to be hard rock now they are like Van Halen. There last 2 albums are the worst , even Abandon sounds more heavy. Couldn’t belive how heavy they used to sound , have a listen to that live album that has 2 concerts from 70 & 72. If you want proper hard rock check out Black Sabbath or Heaven & Hell with Dio . Tony’s play’s the most aggressive riffs & Dio is still cool. Their new songs from 07 sounded much better than anything Purple has done in a while . The last really good album was the Battle Rages On .
May 7th, 2008 at 10:12More heavy is not more good.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:58deep purple is the best hard rock band due to his intelligence.many variations.
you forget the beatiful ‘purpendicular’,very different from’the Battle Rages On’ to but both are masterpieces
It is when the name is Deep Purple , my Dad’s In Rock & Machine Head tapes blew me away when i first heard them ! That’s the image i have of them an agressive band . That’s why i like the House Of Blue Light so much because it takes you back to Machine Head. Some of the songs on the last two albums are real duds . I ‘m not talking about Purple sounding like Pantera but come on there was some real shit song’s on the last two albums ! Purpendicular is nice & well constucted but the song’s are to soft & friendly . I prefer to listen to Rainbow’s Rising & Long Live Rock & Roll driving to work now your’e talking HARDROCK!
May 9th, 2008 at 13:31Purple Priest would love the band I’m going to see tomorrow night, it’s at the Yardbirds club in Grimsby and I think it might be right up his street!
May 9th, 2008 at 13:49to me rapture of the deep is the worst deep purple album ever.there are two good songs:kiss tomorrow goodby and girl like that, and one wonderful song:rapture of the deep.
May 9th, 2008 at 18:54the rest of the album is very mediocre.
‘bananas had very good songs:house of pain,sun goes down,silver tongue.the rest of the album is a little bit better than rapture.
‘purpendicular’ was brilliant and it had only two not good songs:the last two of the album.
It’s sure that everyone want an heavyer album with fast songs and high screams(like the last Gillan’s song ‘eternity’)
What’s up?
Am I supposed to say something?
I m in doubt if I should see Pinkpop Classic next monday…. with Mother’s Finest and Y and T.
Two of my favourite bands, but money’s tight, I do not like festivals(Too long a distance from the stage to the toilets, too many people, too many bands, too long, ……and there’s the heat………
Nope, I ll probably go dive into the North sea to cool down my overheated brain…………
Think, think…………
What should I say?
Sundaynight it’s Roger Waters singing about my mental situation, I believe……….
Trying to give up drinking too much.
I thought wine is healthy but it fattens as well………….
So …………there’s nobody home on monday and my belly is acchhhiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnngggggggggggggg….
May 9th, 2008 at 22:15I am going to see Roger Waters too! Wine is ok, priest but I find white strips my throat and red makes me bloated, hence my preference for a cold beer on a hot summers weekend afternoon, by the way the band I am going to see tonight are called Pure Purple and only play mk2 material, are they hinting at something?
May 10th, 2008 at 08:31I don’t know
Ask them!
Alcohol dehydrates your brain and after almost 2 years of drinking about at least 2 glasses I thought : maybe it’s time to lose the habit?
Or drink lots of water extra?
I was always , sort of, a healthfreak, but you know what women can do with you………..
I m not gonna see any gigs right now, too hot!
Hope I get up without a headache before leaving for the beach in Hoek van Holland.
May 10th, 2008 at 20:34They were good, alcohol does dehydrate the brain, I went through a teetotal phase and I used to read a lot, everything from magazines to Nietchze, but now I can barely string 2 words together and I swear my memory is haphazard, health tip: drink tons of fruit juice and go for long bike rides, I am fortunate enough to live near the sea and plently of open woodland, I can’t belive that at Knebworth 85 I spent a full weekend caked in mud and alcohol, yet at MK 2006 I was eating salad sandwiches, putting suncream on and drinking litres of bottled water, I’m getting old priest and I don’t know if I could even survive a full festival in 25 degree heat! I hope the crowd at Zaragoza have fun but if Led Zep reform, please God make them play arenas!
May 11th, 2008 at 12:12Well I tell you what…………..never mind, I forgot.
Cheers.
May 11th, 2008 at 17:23As I was saying, anyway…
May 12th, 2008 at 07:59KIPPIS’ and ‘HÖLKYN KÖLKYN’ to you all!!!!
Must tip my goblet of medicine now……won’t you all join me?
Cheers
May 12th, 2008 at 20:01Not on this topic, but does anyone know WHICH IS DEEP PURPLE’S BIGGEST GIG EVER? I MEAN THE BIGGEST CROWD. Somewhere I read that in 2007 DP participated in some USA Rock Festival and the crowd number was 100 000. it’s just too much great number for DP in the USA I think…
May 18th, 2008 at 11:16I don’t know the official answer to that, but I do believe that their performance at “LIVE 8” in Toronto, Canada (DVD available at most music stores) had to be right up there with their biggest crowd. They performed “Highway Star, Smoke on the Water and Hush”. If not, then probably Cal-Jam.
cheers
May 20th, 2008 at 01:50Tracy, aha, but I mean Purple show. Live 8 wasn’t DP show 🙂
Cal Jam probably was their biggest show, with the crowd of 200 000.
an what about post-reunion era?
May 20th, 2008 at 23:01Given the state of music today, especially in America, we should consider ourselves lucky to have the line-up that we have on this Monsters of Rock bill. Just consider the alternative, sheesh…
A Saxon song comes to mind. “The music was loud…I could still hear the crowd from the gig that we played last night!”
T
May 21st, 2008 at 01:22The “Strong Arm” of the Law
I agree T. I can not stand seeing or hearing another gold toothed no talent spitting and spoofing on stage dragging knuckles to a distorted mechanical bass. Long live classic rock.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:19AS I REPORTED BEFORE(BUT I DON’G THINK THIS HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CROWD)….:(DOES ANYONE HAVE THE DVD OF THIS SHOW?)
DPAS LIVE REVIEW
DEEP PURPLE
Ionia Free Fairground
June 17th 2005
Musically, one of the better concerts I’ve ever been to was the FoxFest bash at the Ionia Fairgrounds in Ionia, Michigan, on June 17th, headlined by Deep Purple. Nearly 100,000 were in attendance, a mini-Woodstock.
Broken Sunday, a local band, played a surprisingly (first time I’d heard of them) good set from about 5:15pm-6pm under cloudy skies and 65 degrees. The crowd started to build for Blue Oyster Cult, who played an excellent gig that included a monster bass solo in the middle of Godzilla. I was disappointed B.O.C. only played for an hour, because they’re one of my favorite bands. They played, in no particular order: The Red & The Black, Don’t Fear (The Reaper), I’m Burning for You, E.T.I., Buck’s Boogie and Dominance & Submission, among others. It was superb, as always.
Then Kenny Wayne Shepherd took the stage. I didn’t figure I’d be into that band much, because I’m not really into Southern blues rock, although Southern hard rock like Lynyrd Skynrd, .38 Special, the Allman Brothers, Outlaws, et al., I love. But Shepherd was extremely good. Shepherd may be the best young blues rock guitarist out there, and that’s no hyperbole. The singer’s was kind of like a Southern-flavored Paul Rodgers, if you can imagine that. They covered a lot of vintage tunes, including a sizzling rendition of Jimi Hendrix’ Voodoo Chile. I will definitely buy their albums, now that I’ve been indoctrinated.
Then, on came Deep Purple. The crowd was so huge I couldn’t even see the back of it from up front, stage right. Ian Gillan recognized me right off and waved. The crowd went gaga. The set list was pretty much the same as in Pittsburgh earlier in the tour. Gillan and Morse seemed impressed by the tremendous size and enthusiasm of the crowd, based on their giggling early on. Or, perhaps it was the shenanigans in the crowd, what with an amazing amount of moshing and breast-baring, all of it, going on. Gillan joked that the breast-baring was what got him into rock ‘n’ roll. He did some Tai Chi-like hand movements and screamed his bloody head off. I’m just amazed that if you listened to Gillan circa 1988, his voice sounded roached, and now it sounds scintillating like the early ’70s, but he can’t scream or hit the high notes quite as consistently as back then. But, that’s no criticism: he still sounds phenomenal.
Don Airey played better than I’ve seen him play before, and that’s pretty darn good. He was extremely creative, especially on the solo stuff, and the variations from classical to piano and sound effects. Amazing. Purple has to get more creative at promoting itself in the U.S. (or their record company does). I’ve never heard one song off Bananas played on the radio, anywhere, in this country. The last time the band got any real airplay at all was with Ted the Mechanic ten years ago. DP has not really charted in the U.S. since the mid-to-late 1980’s, but is actually playing better than then. Fans know the old hits, of course, and that’s what brought them out to Ionia. But I think the trick is to get on network television, like Saturday Night Live, the Late Show with David Letterman or The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
review: James Gemmell, Grand Rapids, Michigan
May 22nd, 2008 at 19:07california jam wasn’t their concert but a festival.in fact the headliner were emerson lake and palmer + many others band.Someone say that there were 3-400.000 people.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:14I saw DP this past summer in Atlantic City, NJ to a sold out crowd in the House of Blues. The place was too small and the stage set up terrible. You couln not see Ian Paice, except for his hands hitting the drums.The band did not miss a beat and it appeared the front rows and Gillian/Glover having great inter-action. They did not disappoint. Gillian looked like Kurt Douglass(the actor in 10,000 leagues under the sea)with his striped shirt on. cool.
May 23rd, 2008 at 23:35Kurt Douglass?
That man is almost dead……………
Sorry, could not resist.
I prefer Michael Douglas……….
June 4th, 2008 at 22:17Mediocrity. Thats where the band is. Gillian’s voice is at a low that u wish u could do something about. Heading monster rock concerts is not as pivotal as getting that cutting edge back. Its time Gillan shed that mental-midget look of a garbage cleaner t-shirt. Pleeeeease, get a hold of yourself and remember what deep purple is. It is not a f***i*g gillan back up band. Live up to its name and approach each concert with imagination.
February 15th, 2009 at 21:31