Live at the Mars’ Fields, Wroclaw, May 1st, 2009.

I must admit that although I do not support Mk VIII in their approach to the live shows, I certainly enjoyed going to their gig in my hometown.

I went with no expectations to be surprised or thrilled at all, which is in a way typical when you go to the tribute band concert. And this is certainly The Best Tribute Band in the world that you ever can go to see. So it was quite a bit of fun. Good to listen, lovely to sing and jump around to the beloved songs.

Capable of making the die hard Purple conservative enjoying himself for some moments.

Overall impression: A decent show, if only you can go for it leaving any expectations for being thrilled, excited or surprised in your home. Or if they just stumple upon your city – when they’re near – you could go, see them and have some fun.

Would I recommend anybody going to see them to score the musical and spiritually exhilarating experience? By any means no. Those days are over now. Lot of fun for the casual audience, nothing to brag about for the long time follower.

I decided to group my observations in the plus (+) and minus (-) – easier to put it down this way.

[+]

– “Rapture Of The Deep” – this always reminds me of a”Stargazer” a bit and live it really sways. Great live staple off the last album.

– “Wring That Neck” had a little extended bit of Airey – Morse duel in the middle, probably to help Gillan to catch more breath as his voice was struggling. I guess they learned the trick during Sunflower Jam, can’t be sure ’cause I only have read the reviews. Nothing stunning craftwise, but it was a nice reminder of a good times 10-11 years before, when they used to mess around some songs a minute or two.

– “The Battle Rages On” – slowed down in pace to the typical takes, it became a monsterous crawler. Amazing, ripping into the ground, truly hypnotic. The biggest highlight of the show. Stunning.

– Don Airey’s solo spot – wonderful, even if totally predictable. Lovely portion of the spacey Moog, a lot of Chopin bits on the coloured piano, some boogie, national anthem and no Star Wars (yeah!!!). Just perfect, appreciated by the crowd and yours truly.

– “Smoke…” – the ending with Airey having a solo – nice reminder of the best Purple live album.

– “Black Night” – this is always exciting when the 10.000 + throats sing it around. A showcase track for Glover and Morse, a lot of good playing and bits of improv – Steve even threw in a chorus from Queen’s “We Will Rock You” – it took a few bars for the crowd to recognize it. Plus a great audience – Steve duel for the very end.

– spontaneous reaction of the crowd; typically those who drop in to Purple concerts ocassionally were stuned with what they saw and heard.

[-]

– Ian Gillan’s voice, between song banter and stage antics – below any standards as for him. He did his best to hide the bad throat day, but it was obvious that he will suffer on this four nights in a row string. Perhaps the days of saving the voice are over. All in all, this is just another ‘The Best Of Tour’. The banter forumula is ‘play one -> repeat’ CD programme, some of the stage moves show that his libido might be very unfulfilled. Not a very inspiring shape of the legend really.

– Don Airey’s solos in-songs: no improvising, just copying Lord’s parts from records. In the context of Purple praised live formula this is the hardest crime. Sound of the Hammond was, especially at the start, very thin, but luckilly got improved as the set went on.

– the selection of material from the Morse’s era was apalling. If “Things I Never Said”, “Contact Lost” and “Wrong Man” are the most representative tunes for the 15 years period of Steve’s tenure in the band – then passing on the condolences to the band is really worth a thought.

– “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” still suffers from the slaughtered ending. Even the single edit from 1996 had a better arrangement. Shame.

Set List:

Highway Star
Things I Never Said
Wrong Man
Strange Kind Of Woman
Rapture Of The Deep
Fireball
Contact Lost – Steve Morse Solo
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Well Dressed Guitar
Wring That Neck
The Battle Rages On
Don Airey Solo – Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Smoke On The Water

Southern Rock Wobble – Hush – Paice Solo
Glover Solo – Black Night

There was a time before Ritchie went from being evil to mediæval. The time was 1988 and the place was Frankenstein Castle in Germany where Deep Purple were having Nobody’s Perfect release party.

Read the contemporary report with more (bordering on hilarious) pictures at the Stars and Stripes archive.

P.S. I think it was at that party Ritchie first met a German folk band called Des Geyers Schwarzer Haufen and the seeds of what he is doing today might have been sown.

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited has done an interview with Gillan:

Jeb: Are you comfortable that your music makes up some of those deep roots?

Ian: I have constantly said, with the greatest respect to everyone, that you only have a very short time where you have any contemporary value. The rest of it is really your life’s work. We had that short window of opportunity with great commercialism; it was part of our generation. Contemporary art and music can never be judged from a different perspective because you have to be part of it to appreciate it and value it. The previous generation doesn’t like it. My uncle, who is a great jazz pianist, ran screaming from the room when he heard Deep Purple In Rock. He said, “This is a big racket. It is nothing but noise.” From where he was standing, he was right but from where I was standing, it was a glorious racket.

Read the interview at the Classic Rock Revisited.

German TV channel ZDFdokukanal is currently showing a documentary about Montreux Jazz Festival. From what we understand, the film includes an extensive interview with Claude Nobs and covers both the story of burning down the gambling house and the recent Deep Purple appearances at the festival. The documentary started airing on April 25 and will be shown again on May 1 at 12:00 and 23:00.

Thanks to Denis Zürcher for the info.

I discovered DP in 1972 thru the Machine Head album, I was 16, immediately I got hooked to these guys and became a DIE HARD fan till these days.

Never had the chance to see them in those days… until the dream come true on 1997 during the Purpendicular tour. Even though I missed Ritchie a lot, the band was superb. Power, groove, almost a perfect machine as I was used to. Then i saw them again in 2000 with the Orchestra, different show but still Deep Purple.

I was at the last show now in Buenos Aires, I have to say it was boring. Sorry for saying this but I left the venue (poor sound) lack of excitment and emotion. Sad is the true term.

My all time ROCK HEROES (they always will be no matter what) seemed to be just a bad copy of the originals. Big Ian fails with his screaming (he should stop doing it), Steve is not Ritchie and Don is not Jon. Only little Ian (god bless him) still keeps the sacred fire, but this isn’t Deep Purple anymore.

I am very sad and never imagined myself saying this but this is how I feel. Please guys, it’s time to retire and keep the glory alive. I am Daniel From Argetina, as I said I will love you all no matter what.

My TRUE respect and admiration for you guys. The best rock band ever in earth.

Hope you post this.
Thank you.

Musical tastes of the current Russian president Dmitry Medvedev have been well publicized. Undoubtedly, Finnish president Tarja Halonen was aware of this when choosing entertainment for the official state dinner this Monday April 20 in honour of Medvedev’s visit to Finland — she invited singer Timo Kotipelto and guitarist Matias Kupiainen (both from Stratovarius) and Jani Liimatainen (Sonata Arctica) to perform for the guests. After they performed two Stratovarius songs and a cover of Burn, Medvedev demanded an encore. Voice.fi reports:

Singer Timo Kotipelto performed yesterday to an influential audience. Renowned metal-fan, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev listened to Kotipelto’s gig with excitement and according to Ilta-Sanomat magazine didn’t let the man off the stage after three songs.

Kotipelto says, that an assistant gripped his sleeve when he was leaving the stage and asked for one more song. By then Kotipelto had already played Stratovarius hits Hunting High And Low and Black Diamond and Deep Purple’s Burn. According to Kotipelto the president wanted an encore and got Rainbow’s song I Surrender as an extra.

Timo Kotipelto got an invitation to perform for the president a week and a half ago. He committed to the unusual gig, if he only found a guitarist to accompany him. Kotipelto joined with former Sonata Arctica guitarist Jani Liimatainen and Matias Kupiainen from Stratovarius: “I thought, that lets do this special thing and play with two guitars.”

Stratovarius’ cover of I Surrender from their compilation Intermission (2001)
buy it from Amazon:

Thanks to Blabbermouth and Stratovarius.com forum for the info.

On arrival for the brief visit to Moscow, an extremely tired and jetlagged Big Ian gave an interview on April 17 to Nevsky Express TV. Here are the excerpts from his stream of consciousness on his solo album, quantum theory, religion and human nature:

Further instructions on operating nevex.tv’s player are just like before.

Thanks to Tatiana Marshanova for the info.

A new attempt on the Guitar World Record will happen on the German TV show Fernsehgarten on May 10th. We have covered the previous two records, both set in 2007 and both featuring Smoke On The Water: 1,802 players in Leinfelden, Germany and 1,721 players in Kansas City, USA. The new attempt will be made on live TV at the ZDF-Fernsehgarten studio ground in Mainz. Ian Gillan has assured his participation by telephone call once again.

The organizers would like to invite everybody who can hold a guitar to come to Mainz on May 10th and participate in the new attempt at Guitar World Record by playing Smoke On The Water:

You are not only helping us to win the World Record, you also have the unique chance to be aprt of a live TV show, meet other stars and — if we are successful — you can call yourself a Guinness World Record holder afterwards.

The invitation is of course for all other guitarists as well. Please forward this message to all you know and who can play guitar or are at least able to hold a guitar correctly. This is not about perfection or beauty, it is only the registered number of people that counts. It is important to have as many participants as possible in Mainz, as on May 1st a similar attempt takes place in Poland during the “Thanks Jimmy” (Hendrix) Festival (but they play “Hey Joe”). The organizers already had more participants last year, but due to a formal mistake Guinness didn’t accept the record. This time they won’t do the same mistake again, so they are a real competitor (we don’t call it a threat but a challenge) for us, the founders of the GWR. And we are the ones that have the official support from Deep Purple. So we are reliant on every single participant, and on every promotion we can get, especially mouth to mouth propaganda. So please forward this to as many people as possible, even if you will not attend yourselves.

The TV show runs from 11am to 1pm, I guess, the record attempt will appen at about 12:30, before that the registration (plan enough time for that!)

The latest news about the GWR can be found on our homepage www.gitarrenweltrekord.de. There you can also download the tab of the new song. It is really easy to play (that’s what it was written for), wven for beginners (like me).

We would be really glad, if you would come to Mainz (together with a few mates). A DP fan meeting can be arranged.

Thanks to Helge Andreas Mayschak for the info.

And the prize for best Made in Japan choreography goes to (drum roll) Mette Ingvartsen. Her 50/50 solo performance is described as

…extreme and spectacular expressions as a physical practice rather than through psychological motivations. Movements deriving from clearly coded situations, like a rock concert, an opera or a circus number are processed until they obtain a certain kind of deformed expressivity. It looks like affects rather than emotions, except no one knows what affects look like…

And what better music is out there to epitomize a rock concert as “extreme and spectacular expression” than Made in Japan. How does it work for an avant-garde ballet? As difficult as it may be, try to keep an open mind and see for yourself (warning: the video is potentially not safe for work).

One this is for sure — you’ll never listen to that drum solo the same way again. 😉

Rockpages.gr has a rather interesting interview with Graham Bonnet. While undoubtedly it was prompted by his resurrection of Alcatrazz, a good half of the interview is about the Rainbow days:

Rockpages.gr: After a couple of solo albums you flew to France to audition for Rainbow. You got the job by singing the Deep Purple classic “Mistreated”. Describe to us the whole experience…

Graham Bonnet: I didn’t know about Rainbow at all…I didn’t have a clue about them! I knew Deep Purple but I certainly didn’t know about Rainbow at that time. Roger Glover got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to come to France to audition for the band. He added that they had already auditioned 79 singers (laughs)! I had nothing to lose…so I bought a couple of Rainbow albums and flew to France. I wasn’t into rock at that time…I preferred more R&B stuff…like Stevie Wonder and of course The Beatles…my favorite band ever. I wasn’t so much into Purple or Zeppelin because I preferred the singing side of a record and not so much the technical aspect of a song. Anyway, when I started singing “Mistreated” I was so loud they started laughing immediately because the microphone wasn’t even on (laughs)! When I sang a little bit with the microphone on, they said after a couple of minutes that the job was mine! It was that simple…

Read the rest of the interview.

Thanks to Yiannis Dolas for the info. Video is from Munich 1980, thanks to blackmore5555 for uploading.