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Review

From Blackmore's last show with the band, 11/9/93, Birmingham NEC, UK (approx. 2 hrs). Includes some fun, insightful interviews with Glover, Gillan, Lord, and Paice (no Ritchie).

When I first put this video on, I thought this was a show done WITHOUT Ritchie - between the lack of Ritchie interviews and the first two minutes of "Highway Star" sans Ritchie, I had feelings of "oh no" written all over me... Then, Ritchie appears from behind the amps to do a too-early-in-the-song solo [It only appears that way because the first half of the song was edited out. Ed.], plays one run a little off key as he becomes distracted by a cameraman, then procedes to throw a cup of water at him/it! Other than the fascinating interviews, the first part of this video is pretty uninspired (due largely to Ritchie's 'moodiness'). That said, it is strangely compelling for the tension in the air: You can almost feel the other band members trying to carry on as if all is well, while Ritchie continues to either A) not play at all, B) play half-ass accompaniment, or C) attempt to screw Ian Gillan up by playing a lead guitar section right when Ian is to start singing the first line (now we know where Yngwie learned that trick he used to play on Graham Bonnet...)!

Right when you think you've seen it all, things change gears: Ritchie and company get inspired: "Anya" is simply awesome, even better than the studio version, as is "The Battle Rages On". "Lazy" has some fiery lead guitar lines, very inspired (seems the real Ritchie decided to show up after all, as the previous cuts had him on auto pilot). Other than an insipid "Child In Time" (as compared to the studio version, etc.), Ian Gillan doesn't sound nearly as bad as this reviewer first thought - although the high range is not quite there anymore, his voice is still pretty darn good, especially on "Anyone's Daughter", "Anya", "The Battle Rages On", and "Smoke On The Water". As I said previously, Gillan's voice is in that Robert Plant-Rod Stewart-Steve Walsh mode these days: Not what it used to be, but, in its own right, quite good and still better than a lot of other singers out there.

Vince Palamara