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30 Years On -

The Paradiso Concerts in August 1969

Deep Purple's gig at the Paradiso on the 24. August 1969 has, in retrospect, turned out to be a rare chance for fans to get a glimpse of what the band sounded like in the early Mark 2 period. For the first time, here's the chance to read bassist Roger Glover's own notes from that period.

Heavily sought after by fans, the LP became a rarity, as the legend claims the bootleggers were raided in one of the many bootleg raids around the period. Some copies evidently survived, though. The LP was later used as basis for many of the first Deep Purple bootleg CDs.

For years there were speculations about the source of these tapes, until a couple of years back, when a guy working at the Dutch radio station VPRO contacted the staff at the official Deep Purple WWW pages, asking where the track "Kneel and Pray" was originally from, as he was going to play a live recording of the track, but couldn't find it on any studio album. Indeed he couldn't, as the song had changed its title to "Speed King" when it was released on "Deep Purple in Rock" nearly one year later.

I quickly realized that this meant that the master tapes of the recording could still exist, and that it indeed was a proper recording for radio, not just a very good audience recording or a tape sneaked off the soundboard. I contacted the guy in the Netherlands, and learnt that yes, the radio station had the complete tape, indeed they had the complete night on tape.

The discussions with the representative from the radio station revealed that the recording is indeed from the 24th August 1969, the second gig at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. They recorded all bands on the bill, and the inclusion of Humble Pie and Brian Auger's Trinity pinpoints the date to the 24th of August. The complete set was the songs included on most bootlegs, except that "Mandrake Root" is recorded in full, of course. (This song is cut short on all bootlegs, although some releases have tagged on the instrumental section from a later recording to make it look like the complete performance.) There were no encores played that night due to it being a festival with several bands, and the complete set list was;

• Kneel and Pray
• Child in Time
• Wring that Neck
• Paint it Black
• Mandrake Root

Anyway, enough of the anorakisms. The recording shows the still young and fresh Mark 2 lineup as we've never heard them later. Ian Gillan and Roger Glover had joined the band in June that year, the band were still jamming out and recording the material for "Deep Purple in Rock" in between the touring, and the vitality and joy these musicians feel from playing together is evident on this recording.

The show, being Mk2's seventh performance ever, starts with a blistering, noisy "Kneel and Pray". This is basically what later would become "Speed King" with more blatant lyrics. The sound is a mess, Ritchie's guitar is missing halfway through the song, and the whole stage seems to be in a state of general mayhem. According to Roger Glover, this is due to the fact that this song was what Deep Purple's unskilled roadies/"soundmen" would use to try to adjust the sound.

Amsterdam does have this notoriety for being the pot smoking capital of the world, or something to that effect. After this blistering opening, you'd expect to hear the crowd going wild. What we do hear, is thundering silence, some people applauding politely, and an insecure, baffled Ian Gillan saying "Hello, we're Deep Purple" ... [takes a deep sniff...] ... "Smells good!" He later goes on to comment on how nice and comfortable everyone is looking, sitting down.

"Crash Landing" uses a poor quality tape

A really moving take of "Child in Time" follows - the sound now has settled, and the band is giving a blistering performance. The audience seems to be warming up, and after an impressive take of the instrumental "Wring that Neck", the audience finally seems to be conquered.

The album closes with Deep Purple's frenetic take of "Paint it Black" - mainly a vehicle for Ian Paice's drum solo - and "Mandrake Root", which sadly has most of the solo cut of because of the limitations of playing length on the original LP.

Before the source of the recording was revealed, there was wild speculation about where it was from and how it was recorded. No radio broadcast was known at the time. I contacted Roger Glover to clear things up. Roger was aware of the recording, and easily settled that it actually is from the Paradiso in Amsterdam.

"On the road to Paradiso Back of your head, got to pay some dues Rugged looked down as the Thames swallowed His life at the Boathouse, Kew Hot girls, no AC, cheap TV, sleep on the floor Hallelujah what's a roadie, hush my baby sleep no more" - This period as recollected in the song "'69" on Deep Purple's 1998 album "Abandon".

Furthermore, he actually unearthed his old notebook from yonder days. So, here follows an unique insight into the early days of Deep Purple.

Article written by Trond J. Strøm
Special thanks to Nigel Young for additional content, and of course to Roger Glover