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Loosely tight
Another online outfit Sleaze Roxx pays tribute to Come Taste the Band on the occasion of its roughly 50th anniversary.
While featuring a loosely tight Deep Purple from start to finish, it could be said that Come Taste The Band is a tale of two album sides. Side A is a funk fortified groove fest and the flip side is full on blues rock and roll not too far removed from what Coverdale would put together down the road in the early days of Whitesnake. Maybe it wasn’t for fans of the band’s most classic era of just a few years earlier but some pretty damn choice rock and roll indeed. On record, Paice keeps the foot tapping throughout while Lord pumps it up along the way. Bolin delivers masterfully on his lone appearance on a Deep Purple album but maybe the true star with this one is Hughes. Not only does he hold his funk own on bass with Bolin, he also draws a vocal line in the sand that at no time on this record does Coverdale come close to crossing over.
Read more in Sleaze Roxx.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Jon Lord playing fretless bass? Tommy Bolin on lead vocals and poor ole Cove’s relegated to just ‘vocals’. Even Hughes sings more lead than Bolin. Well at least they mentioned it was good for some ‘foot tapping’ from Ian Paice. From toe tapping swing to foot tapping funk in a hard rock band. No wonder Ritchie scarpered, he he he. Anyway, I enjoyed the opening rave, ‘a funk fortified groove fest’, I like that. Uwe would be pleased with the emphasis on Glenn Hughes and his bass guitar playing. At least that may keep Uwe quiet for a few nano seconds. Cheers.
November 10th, 2025 at 08:16I like side two better
November 10th, 2025 at 12:52That is a nice review too. Ian Gillan once stated that, unlike Burn or Stormbringer, he had dared give CTTB a good listen once – the absence of his nemesis Ritchie enabling him to listen to it without too much inner turmoil 😂 – and “was stunned by the funk thing” (though at the time his own IGB wasn’t that funk-removed either).
Love Child was a great number but already back then DC was pinching his balls in Robert Plant fashion to sing it, it was the peak of his natural range (though not as nonsensically high as his Still Of The Night yelps).
As for the age-old Coverdale vs Hughes vocal controversy and who is better, Coverdale himself has always freely admitted that technically Glenn can sing circles around him, but DC’s voice had more calm authority and can project more emotion while doing less than Glenn. There is always a bit of craftsmanship to Glenn’s singing, he knows he’s good and he flaunts it. Glenn is incessantly busy with his phrasing, DC sometimes does very little and just lets his sheer vocal tone do the job. Together they of course sound great.
November 10th, 2025 at 15:09I missed it at first, but I have a theory where that “fretless bass” credit for Jon comes from – though Jon could neither play guitar nor bass, he was strictly a keys-man. Maybe someone mistook the smooth sounding Moog bass synth on This Time Around for a fretless bass and wrongly deduced from the credited fact that Jon played “all the instruments” on This Time Around that he was the one to play the apparent “fretless bass” too, but there is no electric bass guitar on the song (fretted or fretless) at all, it’s just a very smooth sounding and tastefully played Moog bass synth.
More famous bass lines than people think emanate from keyboards, the popular “fretless bass” intro line on this song?
https://youtu.be/tT4d1LQy4es
It’s a synth. Just like great parts of the bass on WS’ 1987/Serpens Albus are played on synth bass by a keyboarder (not Don Airey) and not Neil Murray whose work was apparently wiped in places.
Re Glenn’s bass playing on CTTB, curiously enough I never found that as decisive on its own as on Burn and Stormbringer. Why? Because Glenn and Tommy are this tightly meshed funk conglomerate on CTTB, basically everyone plays a bit funky on that album whereas on Burn and Stormbringer, Glenn was a counterpoint to the more rigid Ritchie which often made his bass lines stand out more. I guess by CTTB and the departure of Ritchie, Glenn had won the funk battle! 😂 That said, there are a ton of good bass licks on that album and all three songs Glenn sings or co-sings (Dealer should have been a fourth one and was already recorded by Glenn, but DC oversang it in Glenn’s absence for whatever reason) really stand out (not that DC sings a bad note on that album either).
“Loosely tight” is a great way to describe how Bolin played on that album and how he especially gelled with Glenn’s playing, those two were made for each other (if not perhaps for Deep Purple).
But Bolin not only rubbed off on Purple, the opposite was true as well. Post Toastee on Private Eyes had a strong Purple vibe and saw a Hammond way upfront, something Tommy’s previous music had not featured.
https://youtu.be/A7FOTBdbPN8
November 10th, 2025 at 23:35Often articles from CTTB may be new remastied?
I single out 3 or (4) of my favorite songs from CTTB
1.”Comin’ Home” –
Traditional (1970-1975) A1 DP has a strong opening song. When I hear Coverdale ( old Cove) in this song, my heart always beats harder (for the difference in the 2015 version… my heart almost stopped working
Melodic guitar riff, Bolin’s best solo on the album, so close to Ritchie (I immediately want to hear and see”Under The Gun” final 2 long solo, Ritchie’s best performance from Paris in 1985. Bolin was so talented. Jon Lord from the background, wonderful logistics on the piano, Paice in his element, why didn’t the Paice-Bolin intro end up on the album?
2/3This Time Around/Owed To ‘G’
It doesn’t work without Jon, but Glenn is his best creation in DP, with a lot of feelings. So what if he sings like Stevie Wonder? or George Michael ? that shows what kind of vocal range he has.
At the Celebrating Jon Lord concert with “This Time Around” he overshadowed everyone that evening, including Big Ian (I hope Karin doesn’t get mad at me, Ian could have responded with the song Over and Over… but he didn’t sing) a great emotional moment of the concert and a tribute to maestro Jon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDx_x7Igqhw
Glenn proves that Deep Purple had the best vocalists in the history of rock.
4 “You Keep On Moving”
November 11th, 2025 at 09:18The best song on the album.Coverdale and Hughes composed the song back in 1974 before Bolin joined. Outstanding singing and musicianship with solid harmonies, too bad the guitar solo at the end isn’t longer, a beautiful Hammond organ solo from Jon Lord.
I recall back in 1993 aged 14, not too long after I discovered Deep Purple. I first stumbled across this LP on a record stall that I used to frequent at a flea market.
Intrigued, I picked it up and glanced at the songs and credits on the rear sleeve.
Where was Ritchie? Who is this Tommy Bolin guy? In my immature, teenage mind without even giving it a second thought, I came to the conclusion that it must be crap because Richie wasn’t on it.
No Ritchie, no Purple in my book! That was my way of thinking at the time. To me, Blackmore was a God- still is to this day. However……..
After hearing three tracks on the CD anthology set some time later, I decided to take the plunge and purchase it.
Wow! What a revelation it was! How wrong and stupid was my judgement?
The whole album blew my mind. Still does to this day. It remains in my top three Deep Purple LP‘s.
Even my teenage daughter adores it, and has it in her collection amongst stuff like Pink Floyd, K-pop, Lady Gaga, and The Who.
Dare I say that this is the Deep Purple album I listen to the most?
I won’t get lynched will I?
On a different note, I believe it’s 50 years ago yesterday since Rainbow played their very first gig in Quebec, and Saturday just gone 50 years ago, MK4 played their first ever gig together in Honolulu.
November 11th, 2025 at 10:37If only a professional recording would surface of them early Rainbow or mk4 dates……..
Yes the so called ‘fretless bass’ cameo from Jon Lord is comical really. I can just picture him, guitar in hand. Well not really. To put that in print and also to ‘negate’ Coverdale’s lead vocal listing says a lot really. The reviewer appears to be a Glenn Hughes admirer to the point of, well we read it didn’t we. My memory of the three Deep Purple albums featuring those two singers is both of them getting the appropriate listing, in regard to what songs etc. At least with MK III. But let’s not start splitting hairs again. Cheers.
November 11th, 2025 at 20:53I find Time Around a banal song sung well by Glenn, but it annoys me because it shows off a Soul interpretation and I don’t feel it as natural.
so for me one of the worst songs of CTTB.
instead Owed To ‘G is a great piece of music!
November 11th, 2025 at 23:07Returning to the subject of the sleeve, it seems pretty apparent to me that Glenn’s portrait to the far right was not photographed at the same session the others were, but stemmed from a different source!
https://joesiegler.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/tastetheband-scaled.jpg
As a photomontage (as the process was called in pre-photoshop days 😎) job it’s actually pretty appalling and not very well aligned at all! They should have called in experts from the USSR/CCCP where the art of picture manupulation had already peaked many decades before …
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0347/9647/0405/files/lenin-stalin-photo.png?v=1656915964
November 11th, 2025 at 23:19(Lenin and Stalin never sat together like that, the picture is a composite to make it appear that a in 1922 already frail Lenin saw the Georgian as his natural succeessor when in fact he distrusted and disliked Stalin.)
Allen…no lynching here… It is among my all time DP favourits too.
November 12th, 2025 at 00:00Keeping a watchful eye here on the sartorial affairs of living and passed DP guitarists I would like to add lest it be forgotten: Ritchie was always a sharp dresser, but even he never had a red velvet jacket with feathered shoulders straight out of a Roxy Music/David Bowie stage wardrobe container like Tommy had! That has to count for something. Tommy was the DP member with the most far out dress sense, especially for an American, where we have other, somewhat less flamboyant examples within the family too, I’m of course not giving any names …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV7dfATZLJE
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/612c1572453ce14034c4389f/6570ca43ab3b5944607c139f_Radio-City.gif
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/612c1572453ce14034c4389f/65154c42d95a9f04fb9363a2_red.gif
You try getting one of these at a gas station sale in Florida! 😂
PS: Karin, if you really want to inherit that Paicey drumstick one day, you better render me some support on this. I shall wear it always!
November 12th, 2025 at 04:12Nice to read your commenta about this album, my friends. but…since we’re on the subject….can anyone light me up about Come taste the band (and Burn and Stormbringer if you want) official promo posters issued in those times? Does anyone have a spare copy UK or USA, for sale or trade? Or…where can I search them? Thanks.
November 12th, 2025 at 10:46Ritchie was never a debonair dresser. Smart yes, but no frills and not a lot of colour, if you know what I mean. Ok, Uwe will probably dig something up from somewhere. We have to remember that Ritchie was ‘the many in black, nobody knows why he came, the man in the black, does anyone here know his name’. Although this song does remind me more of Lee Van Cleef, the wonderful actor from so many of those older classic Western movies from America. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCcw9rBORkA&t=1s
November 12th, 2025 at 21:18@11
“PS: Karin, if you really want to inherit that Paicey drumstick one day, you better render me some support on this. I shall wear it always!”
– OF COURSE I support you! 🙏🏼
We all know that dressing up is way more important than talent….
Oh, wait, now I’m all confused here (drumstick vs integrity……integrity vs drumstick, this is hard!) (😂)
I just know Uwe that you’ll outlive me, and therefore I will never get that coveted drumstick! But hey, that’s a good thing for you 😄
(For me? Nah I better buy a vase and out my flowers in there!)
Btw: can we at least agree that this:
November 12th, 2025 at 21:27https://youtu.be/u1kZ9zYr7kk
is WAY better than the BN’s appearance you made available in here in another thread?
@13
Dear MacGregor 😊
Do you remember we once talked about these guys, and I had read they preferred drinking tea at their sister’s?
https://youtu.be/v2AC41dglnM
Well, yesterday I saw this at yt:
https://youtube.com/shorts/22s2ygm2N1E?si=DhhcUI60HEucviDl
I have to say: this is cute and adorable 😄 my motherly heart is deeply touched!
November 13th, 2025 at 08:38Well Ritchie dressed the part for his stage shows really, black satin and platform boots et all. And he stayed in shape, his attics were almost acrobatic at times. But if you look at random pictures from the studio or on tour … he wore buttoned business shorts with football shorts and socks and what not. Could have come from Ian Gillan’s little horror shop of wardrobe really…
November 13th, 2025 at 09:59Before he augmented his hair, Ritchie began to look more and more like Lee Van Cleef to me with his scowls and all and I loved that. A little mean ‘n’ nasty.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSep5YU6m2W_2DLFCAUgSIHNZB_63PFFv1wbfM2J3Jwitb6yK-UhxqU-4Q&s=10
If Blackmore would have been an actor, he would have always played one of the villains. Much more entertaining.
November 13th, 2025 at 13:38That BN performance of Hush is indefensible, the less said about it, the better. That song needs some vigor when played or it sounds utterly silly.
https://youtu.be/_Z54oQfYGPY
November 13th, 2025 at 13:47@16
“Could have come from Ian Gillan’s little horror shop of wardrobe really…”
– 🤣🤣🤣
Mac, you and Uwe agree on many things!
I love Ian’s clothing and I tell you why: I really never notice what he wears because I’m way too busy to listen to him 🥰
November 13th, 2025 at 17:14“I have to say: this is cute and adorable 😄 my motherly heart is deeply touched!”
In that case, why not teach your son to not stick out his naked butt in public for starters?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRg-7-9ijlw
November 13th, 2025 at 23:18“I really never notice what he wears because I’m way too busy listening to him …”
Interesting, Karin, but I’m the other way around. When I see a woman naked, I never notice what she says, I’m too busy looking at her …
Like Ritchie, really.
http://www.deep-purple.net/thirty/Kursaal2.jpg
http://www.deep-purple.net/thirty/kursaal1.jpg
November 14th, 2025 at 01:17@20
“In that case, why not teach your son to not stick out his naked butt in public for starters?!”
– Uwe, he did not show anything but a very nice pair of AC/DC underwear 😄
I saw it while drinking my morning coffee, and I wasn’t even alarmed 😁 (I mean: the coffee stayed in the mug!)
MacGregor, excuse me for the next video, please don’t look!
Uwe, do you know this band:
https://youtu.be/sEXHeTcxQy4
The vocalist, is he related to this guy:
https://youtu.be/ggcmeXlfBGM
And yeah, I have googled it…. Couldn’t find anything though!
They look a lot like each other!
November 14th, 2025 at 07:05@21
“Interesting, Karin, but I’m the other way around. When I see a woman naked, I never notice what she says, I’m too busy looking at her …”
– well Uwe, I guess that’s the big difference between you and me!
Re the last link: why isn’t anyone of the guys looking at the poor woman lying there on the floor in what seem to be some heart attack or maybe epilepsy!
I’m outraged! At least they could have called for a doctor 😨
I have yet another little question re Status Quo:
November 14th, 2025 at 07:16The drummer, in this:
https://youtu.be/a7mVI-cWeKU
Is that the same guy:
https://youtu.be/iYrSs-51pUA
(Except for the hair!)
And the bassist, I know the cute sleepy looking guy attended in 1985 (or am I completely wrong here?) and that last link is ‘91, so the bassist should be the same, but certainly doesn’t look the same. Or maybe I need stronger coffee this time of the day 😊
Karin, the two drummers in the Quo vids are not the same, the one with curly hair in the 1991 vid is drummer no 3 (Jeff Rich, their hardest-hitting one), who retired in 2000, the guy in the other one from 2006 is Matt Letley , his successor. Meamwhile, Letley has been replaced by Leon Cave.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Status_Quo_members
The bassist in both vids is John “Rhino” Edwards, who has been forcefully playing with them since 1985.
*******************************************************************************
When I saw AC/DC in the 70s and 80s, Angus still showed his sweaty and pimply ass at every gig thus giving the term “rim shot” new, non-percussive meaning. Australians, what can I say?!
*******************************************************************************
Yeah, I know The Fratellis, they’ve always had a glam rock influence, but Marc Bolan’s and Gloria Jones’ only child Rolan (Rolan Bolan, geddit?) has nothing to do with the band, he’s a black man by appearance.
https://i0.wp.com/img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09_03/bolanDM2009_468x634.jpg
(Rolan, Gloria & Marc 1975)
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1241248508/de/foto/new-york-new-york-rolan-bolan-and-gloria-jones-from-the-film-angelheaded-hipster-the-songs-of.jpg?s=1024×1024&w=gi&k=20&c=9-ajm1qHO3UACq6I0pZ1WmA6KdkOMaS2_ctG_b2d7Ow=
(Rolan & Gloria 2022)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx1UZg0Px8Q
********************************************************************************
It is to this day unresolved whether the enthusiastic female dancer at the gig in Southend was indeed an overexcited fan or secretly hired by the management to spice things up a little. It wasn’t Stacia from Hawkwind though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdTFeW8FCto
who was prone to sometimes also relinquish her wardrobe in moments of great musical ecstasy. The young man singing is btw Lemmy, liebe Karin, in pre-Motörhead days.
Ritchie’s then wife Babs might have been watching so he perhaps deemed it wise to not appear too distracted on stage. You know how women always misconstrue things.
November 14th, 2025 at 11:52@16
So happy you mention this Max, because I do have a question re Ritchie’s behaviour at the stage, please look at this:
https://youtu.be/WZupw1nllFs
I think of 9:05….
What is he doing to Roger?
I guess it was pure fun, (I really really hope it was 😳) but was it normal behaviour?
Please remember I have never seen Purple live, so I don’t know their schemes 😃
This:
https://youtu.be/zi3lxg9SX28
In the beginning of this FABULOUS song (I really love it 😍😍) Ritchie acts like he is getting ready for the Olympics, or sum’fin, or maybe he was just so incredible happy that Purple was together again 😃
Well, what would our lives be worth if we couldn’t get amused over our singing and playing heroes in Purple (yes yes, including the branches..)
November 14th, 2025 at 12:34Karin, it was not before DP had disbanded that Jon Lord – having watched Rainbow live – said something like he hadn’t realised before what a great showman Ritchie really was. Sharing the stage with him he was busy keeping up with things but watching from the audience he saw that RB really put on a show. And he did. It totally flashed me when I was younger. But it was all set up…the cheap guitars he smashed, climbing amps, throwing poses. And Purple on a good day (Stuttgart 93 being one of their best as far as I am concerned) would fool around on stage like Ritchie and Roger do in the video. Funny dance steps, guitars stuck between legs from behind (Knocking at your back door) and behaving silly included.
November 15th, 2025 at 21:16The Stacia comment should be here and not over at the drumming article where I posted it. We drummers can be very particular about things being in the right place. Stacia was more ‘prone’ to remain in the upright position, from images and videos that I have viewed of Hawkwind in concert. Not ‘prostrating herself before thee’ as that lady appears to be doing in that Deep Purple image. As I said previously, maybe this lady was ‘possessed’ by the lead singer? A spell was cast and she loses all control. Cheers
November 15th, 2025 at 22:20@ 24- “When I saw AC/DC in the 70s and 80s, Angus still showed his sweaty and pimply ass at every gig thus giving the term “rim shot” new, non-percussive meaning. Australians, what can I say?” At least the drummer didn’t have to look at Angus ‘mooning’ the audience. In Australia we had outdoor dunnies, all the way down the back yard and we had to run the gauntlet of the weather, snakes and once inside, spiders of the ‘deadly’ variety. It was an endurance test at the highest level. Maybe Angus was still thinking he was outdoors or something, running the gauntlet. Although we did learn these sort of behavioural habits from our British teachers though, didn’t Ozzy do that as well? Old habits die hard eh? Cheers.
November 15th, 2025 at 22:39Ritchie always liked to throw shapes on stage and he was good at it. It’s something he learned with Lord Sutch way back in the 60s who would drag a shy young Ritchie by the scruff of his neck up to the front of the stage and tell him to put on a show for the audience.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG00yXcTqEYNlbgo7o_moTvaDqtwtb4fr9ZObEy2iOEGEkI6j_4evTupgxgH7UbTSEnICAo-vBbCUQLS4njeVAXtZu7r5kry1htNeujho3cGWe1dnzBsbi1BriOZCnC5oHHJK71cJbFV0/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/The+Savages+With+Ritchie+Blackmore,+May+1962+A.jpg
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/85514643/photo/photo-of-carlo-little-and-ritchie-blackmore-and-screaming-lord-sutch.jpg?s=1024×1024&w=gi&k=20&c=BkVrrVM6fjGUF9d3inc8FemOPQSK18ZW_Mb1f1YXtIk=
November 16th, 2025 at 04:15@24
Thank you Uwe, I appreciate it very much 😃
1) ok. So John Victor ‘Rhino’ Edwards played with Dexy’s midnight runners!
And the nickname ‘Rhino’ for being clumsy! (I’ve always thought ‘rhino’ was mentioned because of a certain nose feature!)
My mind is blown off! ‘Rhino’ is only 4 years younger than Francis Rossi! They appear more like father & son re age difference!
2) ‘Angus still showed his sweaty and pimply ass at every gig’
– well, maybe he had skin issues, some pimples need to get fresh air to heal!
‘what can I say?’
– well, I guess other nationalities have the same proud approach in trying desperately to be cool ☺️
3) ‘Rolan Bolan, geddit?’ – yes sadly I do 😄
I was of course not thinking of his son with Gloria, but you know kids have a way to be surfacing even out of wedlock….
And please admit Marc and Jon look very much like each other!
4) one comment under that video says: ‘no drugs were harmed during the making of the video’ – 😝😄
November 16th, 2025 at 06:16Ok Lemmy was, well, interesting….
@25 Karin
Thanks for the link to Gypsy’s Kiss… hadn’t seen that particular one before. That was a shit-hot version of that song.
November 16th, 2025 at 09:37@26
Ohh Max how I wish I had been there, Stuttgart ‘93!
Thank you for mentioning Jon Lord, he wasn’t keen on Ritchie, I remember from interviews (Re Hell or High Water, you know where Ritchie threw a tantrum and some water at the poor cameraman) so I’m really happy to know he found some joy in his former companion 😊
I am all in for behaving silly….
November 16th, 2025 at 16:27@29
Thank you so much for the links Uwe! 😃
They are unfortunately now stuck in my poor brain for ever and ever and then some more….
So whenever I wake up, screaming my head of because of a gruesome nightmare-terror, I know whom to thank 😄
Let me please know if I can retaliate the grand gesture 🥳
November 16th, 2025 at 16:31@31
You are very welcome Russ!
It’s one of my favourites.
And now I will reveal something quite personal so PLEASE don’t ridicule me 🤓
Ian’s voice in that particular song gives me goosebumps! And I can promise you the colours in my poor head: 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈💥🔥
How are the ‘fullskager’ coming along?
November 16th, 2025 at 16:39I would rather like to hear your critique before I flip up my toes for the last time ☺️
(Remember according to my ancient age..) (sorry Max wasn’t hitting at you here ☺️)
@32 Karin, yes DP 1993 in Stuttgart was one of the best times I ever had with my clothes on. I remember everyone I brought along was kind of drop jawed – most of them not even really DP fans but just curious.
Behaving silly cannot be taken serious enough. It makes everything much more bearable.
Jon Lord even mentioned RB and thanked him for the ‘long ago good times’ in the credits of his post DP solo album.
November 16th, 2025 at 19:00“Karin, it was not before DP had disbanded that Jon Lord – having watched Rainbow live – said something like he hadn’t realised before what a great showman Ritchie really was.“
I had to laugh so hard, Max, when I read that, you are evidently like me another former POP Magazin reader because that is the only source you could have gotten that quote from. I remember it, it was a a small caption with a pic of Ritchie and Jon’s quote. Good memory!
Karin, Ritchie and Jon were never close friends – too different – but neither did they hate each other, they had mutual respect for each other as musicians. That is good enough to create great music, friendship can only get in the way sometimes. Jon once described their relationship as not fire (Ritchie) & water (Jon), but more aptly as oil (Jon) & vinegar (Ritchie).
Re IG: I have no issues with how his voice has matured and aged, he’s a great raconteur, I don’t need any vocal acrobatics/histrionics from him anymore. In comparison, Ritchie sometimes seems helpless and strangely clueless of the impression he is giving.
November 16th, 2025 at 20:25Jon Lord and Ritchie had a ‘different’ connection as comrades it seems. They were there before anyone else in that sense in the 1960’s, treading the boards so to speak. That would have been why they ‘reconnected’ after the DP behemoth was well out of the way post 2000’s. They had a certain amount of healthy respect for each other. Cheers.
November 16th, 2025 at 21:20It’s a dynamic performance of Gypsy’s Kiss alright, but poor IG is so hoarse you might as well have put a saddle on his back. I remember seeing it on TV at the time and the general sentiment was: Couldn’t they have picked a show where his voice was less shot? That reunion tour put a lot of strain on his voice, it could in hindsight have been better paced but of course they were riding on the crest of success at the time and wanted to use the momentum.
November 16th, 2025 at 23:31Is that live Gypsy’s Kiss version from the Melbourne 1984 concert, the officially filmed one? If so those concerts were after Sydney and Brisbane. Gillan sounded better there (Sydney), well at least live in concert he sounded very impressive while you are there. Hearing a recording from a few days or weeks later can be different. Blackmore’s solo is one of those classic attempting to ‘play too fast’ moments and he is not particularly giving a f..k about it either. Pretty much the same attitude as to Ian Gillan’s with his vocal at times. Just keep going hard until something gives, rock ‘n roll eh? And who was it that said rock ‘n roll ain’t noise pollution? That’s right the very band that a few nights ago in Melbourne were so loud that seismologists picked up the vibrations on their equipment. And allegedly people app 10 kilometres away could hear them, AC DC. Who would have thought. Cheers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-13/acdc-concert-recorded-seismology-readings/106004408
November 17th, 2025 at 00:42@35
Hmmm, Max it seems to me you mention that clothes situation quite often…are you by chance in the nudist community with Ian? 😅
Back to business: are there any recordings of that show?
“most of them not even really DP fans but just curious.”
– did they become fans of the glorious band?
Re silliness: that why Monty Python (and a few others) have such a strong influence on me ☺️
I love to start each day with a big smile, so I don’t have to think about doing that again the rest of that day!
Btw: this guy, in ‘23 was a very interesting sight:
November 17th, 2025 at 04:38https://youtu.be/U-b5gDWVnps
Normally it’s not my genre at all, but ohhh man he is interesting 😃
@36
‘Karin, Ritchie and Jon were never close friends – too different – but neither did they hate each other, they had mutual respect for each other as musicians.’
– wasn’t that almost what Max said?
‘Ritchie sometimes seems helpless and strangely clueless of the impression he is giving.’
November 17th, 2025 at 04:44– exactly Uwe, and it breaks my heart a little bit.
I’m not saying he should hide away in his home, never to be seen…
Btw: at fb there was news about cancelled gigs with the former Purple guitarist. Due to health reasons…
@38
‘you might as well have put a saddle on his back’
– yeehaa….
I think his voice is absolutely amazing in this song 🤩
But Uwe, come on, what do you think of his outfit 😄 (psst: I like it…)
November 17th, 2025 at 04:48@37
‘They had a certain amount of healthy respect for each other’
– MacGregor, that isn’t bad at all.
Now I wonder if Ritchie had respect for the other gentlemen in the band.
November 17th, 2025 at 04:50@40
Now Karin, you be nice to Max. IMO, clothing is overrated.
November 17th, 2025 at 09:43@35
Dear Max!
Know what? I found the Stuttgart ‘93 😍
It’s here, if anyone is interested 😃
https://youtu.be/4DEktjve2E4
Enjoy the 2 hours of pure bliss 💜💜
November 17th, 2025 at 13:00Dear Karin, the Stuttgart show is out there as an official release: Live in Stuttgart. You can buy it on Amazon – as a stand alone 2 CD or in a 4 CD bundle with the Birmingham show called Live in Europe. (Not to be confused with Made in Europe)
The Birmingham show was filmed professionally – but it is much weaker. (You know the one with the flying water cup…and Ritchie turning.up late)
The Stuttgart one – as you know …you posted it here – is out there as sn audience recorded video only.
No nudist aspirations whatsoever.
November 17th, 2025 at 15:50Ritchie used to eventually get bored with people other than his wife. That is why DP and Rainbow line-ups, even BN ones were often unstable. He can respect you for a time, but you can also lose his respect again quickly. Examples are galore, he got Glenn into the band for Roger not being funky enough, two years later Glenn was too funky for him. He wanted Jimmy Bain for Rainbow because he had that punkish gung-ho aggression, a year later Jimmy‘s bass playing was all of the sudden no longer sophisticated enough. He liked Dio because he approached vocal lines differently as a singer, three years later he squeezed him out of Rainbow for not being conventional enough to be an AOR singer.
There are exceptions, I think that Jon Lord, Ian Paice, David Coverdale (never mind the animosity that prevailed between them in Whitesnake/Rainbow days due to a physical altercation in Munich after Ritchie had inadvertently scared David‘s wife Julia with occult scrawlings on a hotel room door where he thought only DC was staying) and Cozy Powell all garnered enduring musical respect from him. With Ian Gillan it was on and off, but I‘m not sure whether Ritchie ever really loved Ian‘s voice, he just thought it idiosyncratic, something that would set Mk II apart and modernize their sound for the 70s, but Ian‘s more unconventional take on melodies often rubbed Ritchie – who has an outright conservative taste as vocal melodies go – the wrong way, hence his disenchantment in 1973, 1989 and 1993.
November 17th, 2025 at 16:03@ 47 – Is that what prompted the differences between Ritchie and young Coverdale? I do remember reading something about Blackmore allegedly grabbing Coverdale by the hair backstage, or something like that. It was a long time ago. I don’t particularly pay much attention to the tabloid gossip and alpha male ego clashes of some of my favourite musicians. It reminds me too much of being back at school. Regarding Ritchie possibly not liking Ian Gillan’s vocal, I do wonder at times if Ian had not screamed and hollered so much, if that may have been different. However, the alpha male thing is still ever present, irrespective of Gillan’s vocal antics or melodies etc. Cheers
November 17th, 2025 at 21:42#48 MacGregor:
If BigIan hadn’t had a broken voice in the 80’s and had been more professional (i.e. less drunk on tour) I think Ritchie would have seen it completely differently.
In THOBL interviews Ritchie also complimented Ian on his voice which was “so warm and round”.
November 17th, 2025 at 23:41(To tell the truth, Ian’s rather rough timbre on THOBL never convinced me, but Ritchie liked it, so he was right!)
@ 43 – I am not sure what you mean Karin. My comment regarding Jon and Ritchie ‘had a healthy respect for each other’ is a good positive thing. That is what I meant by that. Their ‘connection’ was different, going further back and whatever else. Regarding the other DP members, from a distance Ritchie would have respect for them we would think. I am not into speculating etc. It isn’t hard to read between the lines as followers of the band, however what do we really know? Cheers
November 18th, 2025 at 00:35A hiring criterion for IG in 1969 was – to Ritchie’s mind – that he could scream (unlike Rod Evans). They wanted to compete with Robert Plant. I think the fact that Ian’s emphasis when writing vocal melodies was not always the chorus chafed Ritchie more as time went on. Ritchie’s love for Child in Time and the Strange Kind of Woman vox/guit duel showed that he didn’t mind Ian’s screaming but saw it as a unique selling point of DP. Ritchie has also lauded Axl Rose’s singing – he is hardly a non-screamer. 😂
The Coverdale/Ritchie brawl … I’m piecing this together from various sources, so bear with me: It must have been in pre- or very early Whitesnake times when Rainbow had a Munich gig in 1977/78 and DC paid them a visit afterwards wanting to say hi to Ritchie, Ronnie and Cozy (at whom he had already thrown an eye back then). For some reason, the spouses Coverdale were staying in the same hotel and Ritchie who knew this had instructed one of his lackeys to apply occult symbols to their hotel room door (if as a joke or to protect Cozy from being poached by DC, who knows?). DC would have likely taken the joke, but his wfe Julia – at the time also pregnant with their daughter Jessica – saw them in his absence and was genuinely disturbed. So that is when an enraged DC made his way to Ritchie and his entourage and took him to task – ten years younger than Ritchie, more muscular and taller (add to this how Ritchie was no hero when it came down to physical altercations, maybe he feared fist fights would mess up his hands … 🤣). The two had to be torn apart by the surrounding crew.
I don’t think they ever spoke or met again after that incident though DC would much later on extend an olive branch to Ritchie via contacting Candice.
Anyway, Ritchie’s spell apparently did Jessica no long term harm.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQMhftJTPZUoOxY6fEsVPe28lzHBxtng5eZYg&s
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSAgEpL3kw40xs849TJamtT9PsfTEdQUcLJmFZCV636gq-Osn51Vp30mRV-AXqJcrbgSDE&usqp=CAU
https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/storage/image/8/6/3/3/603368_default_1ACZQZ_L9jn7R.jpg
She is today a member of German royalty and a baroness at that, Gräfin Jessica von Stauffenberg:
https://www.deepest-purple.de/index.php/Attachment/2428-Jessica2-jpg/
Yup, the same family that spawned tragically failed and executed Hitler assassin Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
https://image.stern.de/8177752/t/IS/v2/w1440/r1.7778/-/teaser-stauffenberg.jpg
And DC has at least one grandchild from her, likely more because royalty in Germany hardly ever sticks to just a single child. The joke in Germany goes that if you have six children you’re either white trash on welfare or part of royalty!
November 18th, 2025 at 01:35@44
“Now Karin, you be nice to Max.”
– I’m nothing but! Simply concerned for his health, now winter is coming near here at the northern hemisphere ☺️
https://youtube.com/shorts/3pL_fZnEUX4?si=5lnyHfC2dTbRbIII
November 18th, 2025 at 04:42See! Health hazards everywhere…
@46
Thank you so much Max 🤗
I found the 2-cd Stuttgart ‘93 concert at Amazon.de! (We don’t have an Amazon of our own…)
And as we speak (well..write and read 😊☺️) it’s now on its merry way home to me 😃
I have the ‘Hell and Hugh Water’ concert dvd, and it’s amazing 😍
Have I told you that we are awaiting snow in Denmark this week ☃️ 🥶
November 18th, 2025 at 10:11@53 My pleasure Karin! The health care in return is very much appreciated.
Come rain or snow you now can sit by the fireplace and listen to that Stuttgart show – and if you listen very closely… the one applauding between songs – that’s me!
DP have played the Schleyerhalle many times since that night – but never did they come close to the magic they created in 1993. And believe me there were some real good shows in the meantime, not one of them was bad actually. Sometimes I think Ritchie must have felt free and easy after having handed in his notice. So he played with passion and fun – or maybe he thought “I’m gonna show ’em!”. I don’t know what it was but they were all very good that night.
November 18th, 2025 at 14:35@54
Max, I will certainly listen for your clapping! Do you have a specific style 😄 you know like this: – – – – – – – – –
“Sometimes I think Ritchie must have felt free and easy after having handed in his notice.”
– Max this is news to me 😳 did he actually say in advance that he would split?
Woah!
I have always thought he just didn’t come down for breakfast one morning, Roger ran up to his room to check on him, and could report to the other guys that Ritchie’s suitcase, hairspray and guitar was missing…
It certainly put him in a completely different positive light for me 😊
And it makes perfect sense that he felt free of the yoke.
(No no I’m not suggesting that Ian G and the rest of them were hard on him, but I guess he must have felt the situation unbearable since he just left.)
“or maybe he thought “I’m gonna show ’em!”
– well I read somewhere that Ritchie have said, or the rest of the band had the understanding that he left them hoping they couldn’t continue without him.
But that might just be gossip…
But thanks to Joe S they continued 😊
I promise I will sit in front of the fireplace, sipping my 15th cup of coffee that day, listening to my favourite band, smiling whenever I hear my HS-friend appreciate the best singer ever! And the rest of this glorious band 😍
Ohh did I mention Purple will visit Denmark October 25. next year? Ooohhh man I will celebrate 💃🏼 🥂🍾
November 18th, 2025 at 18:11For the first time in my life I know this in advance so I can get my ticket. All the other times I found out they had been here when it was over!
Max, had he already torn up his Japanese work permit dramatically before the band before the Stuttgart gig? I was under the impression that only happened later, but I’m not sure of the sequence of events anymore.
November 18th, 2025 at 22:17@55@56
I don’t know if RB had already torn his visa for the tour of Japan when the band played Stuttgart and I’m much too busy to check this right now. It was just a suggestion that he might have felt a kind of relief. And that could have been the case anyway because I’d think he decided on leaving before his dramatic exit. Be that as it may – it was a glorious night.
November 19th, 2025 at 08:34From faint memory, Karin:
– Ian’s return (and Joe’s ousting) in 1993 was against Ritchie’s will, but this one time Jon, Roger and Little Ian showed backbone and had it their way. Ritchie is not a good loser. Management and record company sweetened the deal for him by promising extra money and a record deal for a new Rainbow after his time with DP.
– Ian records his vocals over Joe’s and interim singer Mike DiMeo’s (penciled in as a potential successor to Joe and a preference of Ritchie)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RixCCyNpns
on The Battle Rages On demos and finished tracks. He doesn’t follow Joe’s or Mike’s ideas (even where Ritchie has requested thus) and some songs remain in Joe’s and Mike’s preferred keys and are not transposed to the keys Ian prefers/has an easier time with, so the process is somewhat strained and laborious. Roger stitches the scraps together in production like a Frankenstein monster’s body parts. Ritchie doesn’t like the finished product at all, believing that the Gillan treatment has made all songs less melodic than they were in the original JoLT and MDM versions. Not a good start.
– The tour lurches into gear. US and Canada ticket sales are so abysmal that 25 North American summer dates are cancelled and the tour only begins belatedly in Turkey in mid September, moving to Greece, Italy, Austria and a lengthy leg in Germany (13 dates). And while some dates in Germany are great like Stuttgart (the last gig in Germany on 16 Oct 1993), Mannheim just a day before was horrible (I was there, I guess I should have gone to Stuttgart, I was actually in two minds about it!).
– Anyway, it is during the German leg of the TBRO Tour when Ritchie (as usual he doesn’t show up in person for something like that) has the tour manager at his instruction read out aloud a letter from Ritchie to Jon, Little Ian and Roger (Big Ian is excluded, the letter is not addressed to him, whether this was intended as a slight by Ritchie or whether at this point IG wasn’t yet a full member of DP again and still in limbo probation status I dunno) where Ritchie hands in his notice for the end of the European tour and takes the other three members to task about the current, according to his view deplorable status of DP in a manner that even a diplomat like Jon finds insulting.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d5xZxQqLvII
– As the European tour lumbers on, Roger, the perennial social worker of the band is as usual begged by the others to talk the “banjo prat” over re the coming Japan dates. At the gig in Rotterdam on 3 Nov 1993, Ritchie, under pressure and in general a lover of great drama, tears up his Japanese work permit in front of the others to document that they have to count him out.
– Two days later the English leg of the tour begins, and you can imagine how everyone felt by then. At the Birmingham NEC gig on 9 Nov 1993 Ritchie throws another tantrum (even though he had agreed to the gig being filmed and even the placement of the cameras beforehand) and does his water sports aimed at the camera men (which only Candice thought funny, other DP members’ wives as collateral damage not so much). Bron Gillan is in tears; both Ian Gillan and Roger Glover want to beat Ritchie up for it, understandably so.
– I know that Stuttgart 1993 has by now gained no less than mythical proportions in collective DP memories (–> Stockholm Syndrome 🤣), but the fact of the matter is that Ritchie was (i) displeased with Big Ian’s return to the fold and being outvoted, (ii) seething about Gillan’s (mostly good-natured) little jabs on stage against him which His Dark Majesty found respectless, (iii) dissatisfied with the performances of the European tour pretty much across the board, and (iv) wanted out no matter what. And the band, its management and the record company were simply tired and exhausted of his destructive shenanigans and endless bickering.
I think the way Ritchie acrimoniously went in 1993 (much more acrimoniously than he did in 1975) has a whole lot to do with how Roger and Little Ian and especially Big Ian think about him today and the prospect of even a one-off reunion (when there was still time for it). Ritchie scorched the earth with the others in a ruthless manner. Some Blackmorites tend to make light of what happened and give him endless artistic license à la “Ritchie is Ritchie, how adorable that he does the things the way he does!“, but just imagine if it had happened to you at your workplace with a co-worker. I believe that would have diminished the entertainment value considerably.
November 19th, 2025 at 19:20Ritchie being Ritchie, what mood he is in on the day. Stuttgart was a good day. I thought it was up north when he tore up his visa. Near Denmark probably, we know how trouble can be around up that way at times, he he he. Seriously, it was around that time of the tour wasn’t it? Cheers.
November 19th, 2025 at 22:37Contrary to what most Anglo-Americans with their pittance of geographical knowledge think:
– The Netherlands are not part of Scandinavia (though they’d rather be Scandinavian than German).
https://www.routesnorth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Denmark_Netherlands_Locator.png.webp
– The people in Denmark are Danes, not Dutch, even of the lesbian population there only a fraction can be considered butch. That said, The Netherlands have many moist dykes too.
– It follows that Karin as a Dane does not wear wooden shoes and smoke pot all day, she is nothing like this,
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/522081182/fr/photo/dutch-woman-smoking-a-joint.jpg?s=1024×1024&w=gi&k=20&c=CrJ1kRU_zISIQdvLs0x6k6nIaGy5VYcNaoKyn8SCzFc=
but spends her leisurely days taking out Anton in perenially bad weather, preparing coffee or dreaming of her Ian in various colors if Ronan Keating doesn’t get in the way that is.
**********************************************************************************
No, it was Rotterdam where Ritch had the itch to practice wanton document destruction, the UK leg followed and the European tour concluded then in Scandinavia.
But I give you credit, Herr MacGregor, as an Antipodean you suffer from a distorted perspective of the world map, and being in a benevolent mood I could agree that The Netherlands are to the northwest of Germany and Scandinavia is up north. It’s not really any worse than saying that Tasmania got lucky not ending up as New Zealand!
https://preview.redd.it/i-noticed-that-new-zealand-is-bigger-than-tasmania-on-the-v0-b2n9mq6uzzxa1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=fc4605d80faee1ca9aa91b94fe63737f2b7e982e
November 19th, 2025 at 23:53@58
Thanks Uwe 😊
First of all: it’s completely cute that you end your post with:
“Some Blackmorites tend to make light of what happened and give him endless artistic license à la “Ritchie is Ritchie, how adorable that he does the things the way he does!”
And MacGregor starts @59 with:
“Ritchie being Ritchie, what mood he is in on the day.”
– 😅😅 love that!
Well, it’s very interesting that you write this:
“but just imagine if it had happened to you at your workplace with a co-worker. I believe that would have diminished the entertainment value considerably.”
– you’re right of course! I once worked at an office where a primadonna reigned harshly – (and no it wasn’t me 😄) and ohh man she was a pill!
Was I sad when she finally got fired? No! Not one bit…. Would I drink a beer or (more likely) a cup of coffee with her afterwards? I hope I would, but never met her again…
Uwe, Ritchie has this great thing going where people are very tolerant of him, I guess because of his brilliant work and his dark mood. Like you wrote re the Stockholm Syndrome.
People will do anything to make a sour puss smile or be a bit lighter.
And I guess that’s why Ian G doesn’t want him nearby. Ian does not suffer from any syndrome, least at all the famous Stockholm one 😃
I would have loved Ritchie behaving himself so Purple could have been intact!
But as my vocalist-hero says: it is what it is (he said that introducing ‘Talk about love’ at the ‘Come Hell or High Water’ concert) and no one can change another person unless that person wanna be changed. And I guess Ritchie always have been happy being him 😊 (or at least I hope so, because what a waste of life if he hasn’t been)
But working with a personality like Ritchie would tear me apart in no time. Walking on eggshells all the time, accepting unpleasant behavior all the time, not being able to speak freely…. No no no! I understand so very well that Purple didn’t miss him big time! (I HOPE he is a lot more nice towards his current spouse!)
I am not diminishing his ability to play the guitar, not at all, still gives me goosebumps listening to earlier recordings with His Dark Majesty (cool expression Uwe 😃) but being a God-given talent doesn’t give you the right to make everyone else’s lives miserable!
Have a very lovely day 😃 I will silently rejoice that I have got my ticket for next year’s concert with my beloved Purple 😃 no I won’t be silent! I will sing it out loudly, so be happy you don’t live nearby 🙉 😄
November 20th, 2025 at 07:30@60
“but spends her leisurely days taking out Anton in perenially bad weather, preparing coffee or dreaming of her Ian in various colors if Ronan Keating doesn’t get in the way that is.”
– 🤣🤣🤣
“It follows that Karin as a Dane does not wear wooden shoes and smoke pot all day, she is nothing like this”
– I certainly am not! 😄 you’re completely right there!
And I don’t dream of Ronan Keating either. I love this one song:
November 20th, 2025 at 08:58https://youtu.be/MlC7m7wPZp8
“I will sing it out loudly”
I do live nearby (about 60 k away) but that evening I will be in the very same hall.
Jeg håber ikke at du overdøver bandet.
November 20th, 2025 at 13:09@63
Oohhh you live so nearby Randers!!
60 km – north or south?
Overdøve bandet? Jeg kan love dig Jan at jeg vil gøre mit allerbedste 😄
November 20th, 2025 at 16:43@64
No, Karin, nearby(ish) Amager (Royal Arena). I live in Holbæk.
Jeg har ørepropper med.
November 20th, 2025 at 20:39Das war Dänisch.
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/die-sendung-mit-der-maus/maus-spezial-daenemark/kika/Y3JpZDovL3dkci5kZS9CZWl0cmFnLWI3OWE5M2Y1LTgxNDgtNDE2Mi1iMmUxLTMzMjY1ZGFjYmExYQ?isChildContent
November 20th, 2025 at 22:34Where do all these wild Nørsemæn and -wømæn all of a sudden cøme frøm?
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT28xkHookoBnyb8JUYosMX2Kvo__W6fc8PWg&s
Jeg er bange.
November 20th, 2025 at 23:20@65
Holbæk is a great city! 😊
You’ll bring earplugs! So you have heard me sing before 😄
You are a very clever man!
November 21st, 2025 at 02:31@67
“Jeg er bange.”
– 😂😂
Don’t be Uwe! I’m pretty sure every Danish woman and man would enjoy drink a cup of coffee with you, and not even beat you up afterwards 😄
No no, it’s only in football we have a few hooligans 😆
November 21st, 2025 at 08:03