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Striding in style
Louder Sound reprints a feature on the events that precipitated the demise of Mark II, the formation of the Mark III, and the creation of Burn. Penned by Geoff Barton, with input from Ian Paice, Glenn Hughes, and David Coverdale, it was originally published in issue 72 of the Classic Rock magazine, dated November 2004.
[…] The trail of circumstances that led to David Coverdale – and also bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, let us not forget – becoming Purple people began in December ’72 when Ian Gillan gave notice of his intention to quit the band in six months’ time. Gillan had decided to offer advance warning so that “nobody will be able to take unfair advantage of the situation,” he stated cryptically, more than three decades ago.
David elucidates: “The weirdest thing is that when I started to crack America [with Whitesnake] hardly anybody knew I was in Deep Purple. Of course there was a huge lack of homework on the part of journalists I would talk to – and I was quite happy just talking about the ’Snake.
“But it was always a surprise for me to get back to Europe and the first question somebody in Romania would ask would be [adopts bizarre Eastern European accent]: ‘Zo Davi-i-id, how vaz it in Deep Po-o-orple?’ Because in the US Led Zeppelin were like the Pope, but Purple were the Pope in Europe. That was always fascinating to me.”
Read more in Louder Sound.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Yes, Deep Purple is the Pope in Europe – and I’m Catholic, nuff said, Roma locuta, causa finita! Let the pagans dance around the bonfires of blind worship for their false idols in Kashmir and the lands of ice & snow, doomed souls all of them …
Where were we? Ah, yes, very good article that was. Nice to see Little Ian giving Glenn some credit for influencing his playing – that ties in nicely with Glenn’s one-time answer to the question what he thought his greatest contribution to DP was: “Bringing the funk out in Ian Paice.” And it is true, if you like me think that Ian’s drumming peaked in the period between Burn and PAL’s Malice in Wonderland (Paul Martinez’ bass style was very similar to Glenn’s minus the drama), then realization is near that without Glenn Ian wouldn’t have developed in that direction.
Speaking of whom: I’m set to see him tonight. No, not the Pope, but close: I will be at Glenn’s Cologne gig (incidentally a very Catholic city) in a few hours! Wetting my panties as I write, I last saw him 2018 and am suffering heightened withdrawal symptoms!
April 17th, 2024 at 12:28Pure nightmare!, DP in his best years 1972/73/.That’s unbelievable!.A competent management like Peter Grant wouldn’t allow that..”slaps both Gillan and Blackmore and the boys continue..happy with the conditions.Which Rodgers? which Phil? , looking for a new frontman next to a singer like Ian Gillan, in 1969-1973 ? IG had a voice, stature, charisma… Ritchie, Jon Roger and small Ian too. Gillan’s departure. A gunshot to DP’s leg, DP survived but bled until March 1976
April 17th, 2024 at 13:14Peter Grant would have indeed set Big Ian and Ritchie straight in no time with a few of his gorillas (“You do want to continue playing guitar with those slender and delicate Fingers, Richard, don’t you?”) plus sent them off for three months of Hawaii after the threats (stick & carrot, always a good recipe). Plus shipped Phil Lynott off to some remote prison island, Tasmania perhaps? 🤔 Irishmen do travel a lot.
April 17th, 2024 at 15:06Looking forward to read your Köln report, Uwe.
April 17th, 2024 at 18:28@ 1- “Yes, Deep Purple is the Pope in Europe – and I’m Catholic, nuff said, Roma locuta, causa finita! Let the pagans dance around the bonfires of blind worship for their false idols in Kashmir and the lands of ice & snow, doomed souls all of them …
April 17th, 2024 at 21:33Well well, it does look like those lyrics from the past have finally had a profound influence on Uwe, good to see. Mysticism, Occult, Folklore & Idol worship I love it. When can we expect some more Uwe? Maybe something to rival The Lord of the Rings perhaps. This is grand indeed, I am impressed. Cheers
@2 said…
qt.”Gillan’s departure. A gunshot to DP’s leg, DP survived but bled until March 1976″…
Yes indeed, Roger & Ian Gillan moving-on was tragedy indeed, & many would have thought the band was crippled & done-with once Ritchie moved on…
But once Tommy Bolin arrived, it was a new & exciting band with purpose, hope, & sublime, cutting-edge music, that deserved a few more albums to set the stage for the future of heavy music & dissolve shyte like punk to the weeds…Alas however, we lost a major player in Mr.Bolin.
RIP Tommy.
Have a fun night Leiber Uwe.
Peace !
April 18th, 2024 at 12:07“Daniel says: Looking forward to read your Köln report, Uwe.”
You mean here, Daniel? I wanted to do it in the Events Section, but I guess given the Mk III and Burn anniversary connection this place is as good as any …
Given the Scandinavian content of the band, it was an ÅWÆSØMELY spirited gig, those hotblooded Danes getting carried away …
Where to start?
01. IT WAS BLOODY LOUD – and I’m no sissy, generally concerts were louder in the 70ies than they are today, but this approached the good old times. The sound in Club Volta (filled to the brim with about 500 people, most of them old enough to have bought the original Burn vinyl) would have likely benefited from a little less volume, but – volume is it’s own excitement, gigs that aren’t loud enough are terrible to me – I’m not complaining.
02. SET LIST: Stormbringer – Might Just Take Your Live – Sail Away – You Fool No One (interpolating the High Ball Shooter riff and chorus) – Drum Solo (a very entertaining one!) – Mistreated – Gettin’ Tighter – You Keep On Moving – Burn (encore) – all jammy extended with regularly a keyboard and a guitar solo. You’ll notice the absence of any Mk II material, seems like Glenn has taken some criticism of that onboard, but if truth be told: I would have liked to have heard an Mk IIIish SOTW, so there! I even liked the way Mk IV did it.
03. IT WAS RAUNCHY & NOT ALWAYS PERFECT: This wasn’t a band with so much the vibes of seasoned pros, more like a young band presenting their fresh new album where the renditions are more enthusiastic than perfect. I actually liked that. Søren Andersen – Glenn’s Danish axe murderer of choice – is a real showman and very physical. There are probably people out there who can emulate Ritchie and Tommy better, but Søren is just fun to watch, kinda Janick Gers’ish. Glenn even sang a couple of bum notes, but no matter rock’n’roll doesn’t need to be perfect.
04. YES, THE NEW KEYBOARDER – BOB FRIDZEMA – SHARES RV’S NATIONALITY ‘VAN DUITSEN BLOED’, BUT LET THAT NOT SPEAK TOO MUCH AGAINST HIM!!! The guy is great and a real find. The originally Amsterdam boy lives in Copenhagen by now, hence the contact to Glenn’s Scandinavian musical entourage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXf3t5Wu7mU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JwjqeOxNjM
https://rockzeit.dk/interview-med-bob-fridzema-fra-gleen-hughes-band/
(For the non-“strange German medieval dialect”-speakers among us, the interview with Bob is in English, just scroll down!)
05. GLENN IS BEGINNING TO PACE HIMSELF, we’re all not getting younger. Much less vocal gyrations than he used to do say 10 or 15 years ago. He still does the really high yelps – he has those down pat -, but all the other high stuff is very much cut down. In part that has to do with him having to sing primarily DC’s vocal parts (Glenn’s harmonizing was often only complementary) because they were more dominant and while Glenn’s baritone has gotten stronger and more self-assured, he’s not DC in his prime.
HIS BASS PLAYING IS UNDIMINISHED: Raunchy and gung ho, less distorted than I heard him at some recent gigs. I’m personally not a great fan of the ultra-overdriven Orange Terror Amp sound he’s fallen in love with for a while now. His sound with DP over the Hiwatts was never THAT distorted.
O6. THE DRUMMER, ASH SHEEHAN, IS A RIOT !!! 🤣 Looking a bit like a homeless person passably groomed for his parole board session,
https://tprs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/glennhughes-17.jpg
his drumming has punch, humor and technique, he’s also no shrinking violet on stage.
07. WHICH BRINGS US TO THE NIGHT’S CONFÉRENCIER, Glenn all shiny California teeth (he can never go on a safari, poachers would shoot him to extract the ivory! 🐘). He was in elated spirits and his usual “I’m playing this joint like it was California Jam all over again!”-attitude. Talkative too, not only did we learn what a great place Deutschland is and how it is the spiritual home of all things DP for which he is eternally thankful, best audiences blablabla, but also that “Mk II were great, such power in their music!” “However, Ritchie, wanted something a little different, more bluesy, that is why David and I joined.” And it was revealed to us that “No one in the band knew that Ritchie was gonna smash a perfectly fine TV camera and blow up the stage at California Jam, he hadn’t told us. You can see on the film just how surprised we were when everything went up in flames. It was great!”
08. SONE SONIC IMPRESSIONS FROM THE GIG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ilNtLFOCTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DstwcDV_aZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8P2H47Y8Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdjPx7W6Xj0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as7WApQka-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqWvqtBeBQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q0mYfMI0CE
09. Am I released now, Daniel? 😉 I’ll see him again next month in Mannheim.
April 18th, 2024 at 20:50I thought the Viking invasions finished eons ago, seems not according to Uwe, he he he. That drummers image, classic indeed. Nice to hear there isn’t any MK2 in the setlist. Hughes focusing on what he was a part of is much more positive me thinks. Singing a few ‘bum’ notes, what?????? surely not in this day an age. These old rockers need to learn from the younger newer generation rockers in how to ‘manipulate’ the audience. Pitch correction on the vocals please, so everything sounds real shouldn’t it be. Seriously that is good to hear Uwe, a rock ‘n roll show as it should be. The Cal Jam comments are classic Blackmore, not letting on to what his mischievous mind is up to. Thanks for the comments. Cheers.
April 19th, 2024 at 23:14Thanks for the review, Uwe. It will be interesting to see if Glenn can keep the attendance figures up when he drops the DP moniker next year. Hopefully, as there is lots of other material waiting to be represented. Mk 2 and 3 sell tickets for DP and GH respectively, but living in the past is not really what they should be about, not even when approaching their mid 70s and early 80s in DP’s case. Paicey remains the member most difficult to replace. Ash Sheehan makes it his own gig, which is probably the only way to go about it, but appears to have more in common with punk music than Ian Paice, so something still feels a bit off for me personally. Soren plays a lot of notes but it’s only when he slows down, ie the blues segment, that I really listen. I wish he would do that more often. Lord’s shoes are big to fill but I have no reservations about Fridzema. It’s a good thing if Glenn shows more restraint like you say, even though I still thought he overused the falsetto at the gig I saw one year ago. Would be so much more striking if he used it sparingly. Also, Mistreated comes to a standstill on three separate occasions, with Glenn addressing his “woman…” in every one of them. To me, these moments stick out from the song itself, and not necessarily in a good way. Two showcases would have been sufficient. Also, when the main guitar melody in Mistreated is first teased mid song by Soren, Glenn is quick to go to the mic to instruct the crowd to sing along, when it would have been more powerful to just stand back and let the guitar do the talking. These are small objections overall but things I would have liked them to address. There are still examples from fairly recent times when Glenn gets is just right. His vocal in Love Communion from FUNK being one example.
April 20th, 2024 at 05:45Another “recent” example of Glenn dialing it back in the vocal department is Voodoo Hill’s Waterfall album from 2015. It shows he can sing with more restraint if he wants to. His work on that album is more reminiscent of his melodic singing of old, even though the songwriting is not particularly memorable. It’s available on Spotify.
April 21st, 2024 at 08:50