[hand] [face]
The Original Deep Purple Web Pages
The Highway Star

Echo of a point in time

Eager to see how does the band sound after yet another hiatus, and with a new guitar player? You’ve come to the right place. Live in Israel, May 22, 2022:

And a 55-minute collection of bits and pieces from throughout the set:

Perhaps here would be a good place to remind everybody about sharing a review of the show you’ve been to. They don’t appear on our site out of thin air, y’know 😉

Thanks to AvnerM, and DeepPurplethebest for the clips; to our co-founder emeritus Trond Strøm, and tomko30 for the heads up.



21 Comments to “Echo of a point in time”:

  1. 1
    Peter J says:

    Waow impressive.

    Gillan is sounding amazing… And so does the rest of the band

  2. 2
    Hans says:

    Simon, an amazing player. Gives some of the old DP sound to the fans …

  3. 3
    Tom says:

    you more than welcome to post mine too:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaHTAvCjDxs

  4. 4
    Kalle says:

    55 Minutes of Tel Aviv in awsome Quality. Snippets from every song. Compliments to Simon McBride.
    Thanks to the filmer in Israel.

    https://youtu.be/BaHTAvCjDxs

    And yes, “Nothing At All” was played. A favourite of mine.

  5. 5
    Heycisco says:

    Fantastic guitarist. Morse is in a league of his own so it’s not really fair to compare Simon to him. He stays much closer to originals than Steve. All in all he’s more traditional sounding guitarist. I hear a lot of Gary Moore influence in his playing. Respect to the guy. Big shoes to fill and he did great.

  6. 6
    mike whiteley says:

    55 minutes of MkMcBride clips…..and it’s GOOD !!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaHTAvCjDxs

  7. 7
    Ivica says:

    Tel Aviv Concert Setlists
    1 Highway Star 2 Pictures of Home 3 Strange Kind of Woman 4 Nothing at All
    5.Uncommon Man 6.Lazy 7. When a Blind Man Cries 8.7 and 7 9. Throw My Bones 10.Time for Bedlam 11.Keyboard Solo 12.Perfect Strangers
    13.Space Truckin’ 14 Smoke on the Water
    Encore: 15Caught in the Act 16.Hush 17 Bass Solo 18. Black Night

  8. 8
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Loads of Gary Moore influence, but it doesn’t distract. Gillan in fine voice, the band still a little concentrated and not fully flexing their muscles in abandon, but all very promising, worthy and interesting.

  9. 9
    Rodolf Kaado says:

    They are awesome.

  10. 10
    Adel Faragalla says:

    To be honest I am really shocked how well Simon performed as he was just cool calm and kicked some ass.
    That’s not because I am negative expecting him to fail but the guy made a huge statement and he is just not filling a two hour gap on stage in the band, the guy blended well and the chemistry was amazing.
    The problem is we all love Steve so loving Simon even as a temporary thing still feels like a bit if betrayal.
    And to be fair all other 4 guys were so good so let’s not just focus on Simon as it’s amazing how the band sounded so fresh and full of energy.
    Peace 👍

  11. 11
    peter lotz says:

    SIMON MCBRIDE RULES – INDEED !!!

  12. 12
    Thorsun says:

    Simon is most beautifully re-validating the elements of guitar playing in Deep Purple that have been for more than two decades skewed and tarnished by Steve Morse on stage. Take “Perfect Strangers” alone – this is how you play the riff – long, dense, let-ring notes – this is what makes it majestic. Not the sonic hysterionics with squeaks, dive-bombs and staccatos that were abused for years with no reMorse, killing the eastern spirit of the song. Or “When A Blindman Cries” – where Simon swiftly reminds us what light and shade is and what a FEELING in the notes he’s playing can do. McBride knows what he’s doing and he’s not intimidated with the setting he got himself into. He does seem to understand owing to the Blackmore-Paice-Lord sonic fundament that built the band, while clearly playing rightly the Mores things. My hat is off in a deep bow to Simon. I wish the band kept him until the end, the boy is just marvelous, spot-on for his job. I hope he plays autumn leg in Europe too, this will be the first time in 6 years I will consider to go and see the band – just because they now have the banjo player who get things right. I really hoped he would piss the hell out of Ian Gillan – wearing to the stage a black suede jacket and black body-white plate Fender Stratocaster. Just to remind the Vets (including Purple’s own Volodya of last two decades) – who and what formed the Deep Purple visually and sonically in the first place.

    Other than that – there could be some fuss thrown about the setlist, usual DP concert related topic. 6 cuts from Machine Head with 55 years of career to chose from over 17-18 tracks in the set? Why insist on “Uncommon Man”, when there is so much good stuff from Morse era of the band? “Fingers To The Bone” or “Loosen My Strings” would not be a lessen tribute to Jon Lord. Just far more interesting tracks to hear.

    All in all – it’s great though to see that with Gillan and Glover reaching 77 on the counter – they sound so good as they do. Ian Paice and Don Airey – as amazing as they always were together – since they firs met on stage with Gary Moore in 1982. And Simon to cap the cake with the spirit ladden cherry – not much more to ask for. Power to true spirit of Deep Purple!

  13. 13
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Thorsun, that’s a very good analysis, but don’t be so tough on Steve. There is a certain way Brits (including Northern Ireland for sake of argument here) play and another one how Yanks do it. Steve opened doors for Purple compositionally, but his job description never was to sound “Brit grit”. He’s indeed very American sounding, just like Tommy Bolin was.

  14. 14
    Dick Pimple says:

    How anyone can think Gillan’s voice is good needs their hearing tested. It’s more of a whine these days. Shame, age catches us all. McBride on the whole does a good job. I’ve followed his career for a while and his gig with Don Airey in Germany is well worth checking out

  15. 15
    Petr says:

    1.) Simon is great guitar player – and for first gigs – hats down! Congrats!

    2.) However there are moments when time is going to be needed. When A Blind Man Cries “drags” a bit – he does great guitar solo, but during verses I have a little problem because I miss “vocal – guitar” cooperation in the song. How Steve “answered” to Ians vocal line during verses is missing – and it drags a song a bit.

    3.) Perfect Strangers – song which was made great live by Steve…. I never liked Blackmore´s sloppy and somewhat subdued live interpretation of the song. Its huge studio song – and when DP with RB played it live, I felt its lacking something – with RB live it sounds almost like unfinished demo which needs to be finished. And now, I´m talking about shows where RB played, I´m not talking about shows like Sydney 84, where Ritchie just did not play. Strangers with RB has always been simply “empty cold and bare”.

    Steve came and basically “rewrote” the track and I love his job. I have never heard better live take of Strangers (from live records) than Melbourne 99 – pure perfection. Steve´s job is atmospheric, played with care, in cooperation with other guys (once he “answers” to Gillan, other time he replies to Jon….

    Simon will get better, but Steve is missed (absolutely no disrespect to Simon here) – and I hope that once with happy ending of his wife treatment, he is going to come back on stage with Purple – where is his place!

  16. 16
    Peter J says:

    #15 : I agree with you but I think Satch did find the basis of Perfect played live even before Steve developped it with taste.

  17. 17
    MacGregor says:

    @ 14- I agree regarding Gillan’s vocal, he sounds like he is struggling big time. Father time knows when to put out the cat doesn’t he. Or does Gillan need to warm up a little more I don’t know. I always respect how difficult a job the lead vocalist has in a rock band. It is a tough gig indeed. Especially as they get older, or have a cold or flu symptoms, sore throat etc.
    @ 15 – The song Perfect Strangers isn’t meant to be busy & a more guitar happening thing, that’s one of it’s charms, less is more. No one captures that ‘eastern’ spirit & sound & feel that Blackmore has. Steve Morse is a mighty guitarist indeed. I have many of his Dregs & solo records & well before he joined Purple. However his interpretation of PS is, well I had better keep quiet about that.
    In regards to the song When A Blind Man Cries, it isn’t a live song, unless it gives fans time to relieve themselves etc. Or have a snooze perhaps. A terrible choice of song to play live, it is a nice song on the album, just not for a live setting at all. At least it gives Gillan a chance to ‘rest’ his voice for a few minutes. Cheers.

  18. 18
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Hey, I always thought WABMC a highlight of the set – with any incarnation. I like Purple doing ballads, so there!

    Steve had/has a wonderful, dexterous style all of his own which made Mk VII and VIII sound the way it did, very tasteful, intricate and fun to concentrate on. He just wasn’t/isn’t gritty – the way you are if you were born and raised in Belfast.

  19. 19
    Elprupdeep says:

    Guys who are talking about big Ian voice should go and see the bye-bye tour of MTV Snake. DC is younger than Ian and cannot even sing one full phrase of a song. That, is bad… Lucky is a farewell tour for DC as he is pitiful… … He was great but now he is not…. I would have been very upset to go to one of these english shows as he cannot sing a song anymore.
    So be happy with big Ian , at least he is singing , not the fans.

    Long live DC and DP family.

  20. 20
    Peter J says:

    Absolutely agree with Uwe, about Steve and about WABMC.

    Just seen some videos from Istanbul and Gillan’s definitively VERY good so far. Struggling yes, but he has for years… And what comes out of the struggle is still quite impressive.

  21. 21
    stoffer says:

    DP has been vert fortunate to have AMAZING guitarists since ’68. Blackmore, Bolin, Satch, Morse and now McBride. They’re all different and all good. I don’t give a shit what continent they’re from… they are DP, whether full time or just filling in so lets just enjoy and try not to overthink every tne! The band sounds great and will get even better as the tour goes on. Thanx for the clips, it’s so good to see them back!!

Add a comment:

Preview no longer available -- once you press Post, that's it. All comments are subject to moderation policy.

||||Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
© 1993-2024 The Highway Star and contributors
Posts, Calendar and Comments RSS feeds for The Highway Star