It's always a joy to hear Ritchie playing, and for that nobody was deceived in the audience, I think. Nice solos, especially during "Long Live R'n'r", and, as usually, the new songs are much better on stage than on lp. "Temple Of The King" is a real wonder, but I missed Turner songs (only "Spotlight Kids") and, why not, extracts from "Slaves & Masters"...
The musicians are OK, but there's no complicity like there was in Purple with Jon, for example. Ritchie improvises alone, only Doogie seems to follow him!
Minute after minute, the atmosphere changes. "Since You've Been Gone" is truncated, and after a very good "Hall Of The Mountain King", the dark. A tape plays "Over The Rainbow" and after that, the lights comes back! No "Burn", no "Ariel"... It's no technical error, just a way to say: the show is over! The audience becomes angry, the poor roadies are insulted when they unplug the wires, and someone says to one of them to bring him Ritchie to break his face!
Possible reasons: During the show, there was a continue pogo near the scene, maybe Ritchie didn't like that? The keyboarder made also two little mistakes, which made Ritchie upset, maybe?
Svante Pettersson 27 january 1996
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