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Blen Blen,Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil - workshop with Ian Paice
September 8, 2003

Deep Purple is going to perform on september 20th here in Sao Paulo and last night we were lucky enough to welcome Ian Paice on a very exciting night for drummers (and anyone else interested in rock).
The place was a small but there were no chairs or tables, so there was room for a lot of people. It started without delay and the night was opened by a local MTV VJ. He informed us about how things were going to happen and that Ian needed our help to make the evening pleasant.
There was a translator to help with the Q&A and Ian told us how things weren't going to be planned, that what he was going to play would definitely be improvisation and that a local band would join in the end to play some music with him.
The questions resulted in some very funny stories... He talked about the early Purple days, about his life, drums (of course), and lots of things that I already knew from interviews, DVD extras, and so on... The one worth mentioning would be the story about the outfit he was wearing the first time he met Jon: silver boots, lemon-yellow leather pants, turquoise-blue shirt, and a pink scarf, and the place was crowed with "homos", just to quote him. It wasn't long before we was approached by a very big one who came and said: "hello little boy!"
There were other funny moments when he talked about David Coverdale and some stories of Whitesnake.
During the questions he would eventually go to the drums and explain things while playing it... the intro on Fireball, UFO 101, etc...
The jam with the band was very good but there was also a drummer in the band, and I honestly would prefer to hear just Ian. The other guy was very good but Ian's style and technique were definitely superior. They played Black Night and a couple others, and that was it.
It took me about an hour to get my Made In Japan album signed and he seemed to be growing tired of doing it, although the line was almost over. I didn't stayed to see if he kept signing until the last one.
A very exciting evening and it sure added to the expectation of the concert that is going to take place in about two weeks.
Fernando d'Avila

Ian Paice arrived in São Paulo Sunday, September 07th, Brasil's Independence Day. Exactly three years after the first concert on the Concerto Tour here in São Paulo. At this same day, he was invited to be the guest at "Backstage", the most important heavy/hard rock radio show in South America. I can say it was not an interview. It was a chat between friends. Some Deep Purple rarities were on the track list during the interview. I was surprised to know that Paice doesn't know anything about early days albums releases... He was afraid to listen to them, and he laughs a lot.
On September 8th, there was a workshop/workshow/drum clinic at the ridiculously named night club, Blen-Blen. This workshow (that's the name I will use now) was divided in two parts. The first one started with a four-minute drum solo. After that, Ian answered audience questions. There was many interesting and funny stories about his life as musician and his life as a normal human being.
Between questions and answers, Ian played the intro from You Fool No One, Fireball and Chasing Shadows. At the end of the first part of the Workshow, Ian did another four-minute drum solo, but more powerful than the first one. At the finale of this second solo, he showed his very well known one-hand drum roll trick.
At the second part of the evening, Brazilian drummer Paulo Zinner and his band joined Ian Paice. It was very nice to see a big fan playing together with his idol, and great to hear two drummers, even better if one is Paice!
The first song was they played Living Wreck. In 99, asked about which song they would like to play live, Big Ian said Place in Line, and Ian Paice said Living Wreck. I know it was not Deep Purple playing it, but I am sure he was really happy for that chance. LW was followed by a seven-minute jam. Maybe it was not a jam - I just can't remember the name of the song if it was a song. A one-minute band intro, a foyur-minute drum battle and again the band to end it.
The third song was Fireball with Paulo Zinner doing the intro. Very nice version of this song, with the traditional Into the Fire's intro at the end.
To end the night they played Black Night (more than 10 minutes long) with another four-minute drum battle.
A wonderful night we had. Very exciting!
Marcel Vinicius de Morais