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Freight train and a bird on a wire
About a year ago Joe Bonamassa has posted an almost two hours long video of Black Country Communion live. In the spirit of better late than never, here it is.
There are no indications of the original source and date, but Glenn at one point mentions that “it’s good to be home”, which narrows it down to either Los Angeles or somewhere in the British Midlands. Year can be guesstimated from the Glenn’s ever-changing hairstyle. Any takers?
[Update 2026-04-29]: The first 4 songs (until 0:29:20) are from January 2, 2018, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, England. The rest is from the 2024 Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruise, that sailed on March 18, 2024. That performance took place on the Pool Deck @ Norwegian Pearl, it’s a full show recording, missing just the final few seconds.
Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up, and to Hornoxe for identifying the dates.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
BCC are the most boring band of the entire Purple family, maybe because of the too heavy drums, and even the guitar itself….flatness…
I don’t know if there is an acoustic live show, the songs would have more breathing space and dynamics
April 29th, 2026 at 07:15@..1. Wrong, the live stuff is killer!
April 29th, 2026 at 12:19“Too heavy drums” – yet Glenn loves Bonham junior for exactly that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” hereditary style. Go figure 1
But we live in a Bonham’esque drum style world, it grieves me how much more of an imprint Bonham senior has left on by now several generations of drummers. Go figure 2.
Paicey is of course recognized as a great drummer, but how often in the last 40 to 50 years have you heard a younger drummer name him as a role model? I can remember exactly one: Denise Dufort of Girlschool
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who in an 80s interview shot back to the question of a journo whether she had patterned her drumming after Bonzo: “Why on earth should I want to sound like John Bonham? Everybody wants that. My hero is Ian Paice, I want to sound like him!”
April 29th, 2026 at 12:49Maybe it could be Wolverhampton (dated January 2, 2018) judging by Glenn Hughes’s jacket…
April 29th, 2026 at 13:13Cheers from Rome
The first 4 songs (until 0:29:20) are from Jan 2, 2018 – Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, England
and then the rest the 2024 cruise, Mar 18, 2024 – at Pool Deck @ Norwegian Pearl – full show of that, missing just the final few seconds
Video and audio not release-ready, but Pro. Cruise a bit rougher SBD.
April 29th, 2026 at 17:08I like it! Great show!
April 29th, 2026 at 18:54BCC didn’t live up to the expectations… I think so too. As is often the case with so called supergroups, isn’t it. After giving their albums another spin I found some of the songs likeable…. for me it’s one album’s worth of strong material. The last one though is mediocre from start to finish for my liking. I prefer Hughes’ solo stuff. And I cannot help the feeling none of BCC brought their best songs to the table. It was just a project I guess – not a band.
April 29th, 2026 at 19:04I find it immensely helpful how Glenn’s hairdo rollercoaster helps us all in placing him in various eras – with Ritchie this is somewhat difficult, I believe we can all agree that since 1977 his hairstyle has had a – how shall I put this? – somewhat static quality to it? [The advent of men’s tights in his sartorial catalogue does help discern the DP stint(s) from later BN and Reunionbow periods though.]
Anyway, back to Glenn, I’d say this particular hairstyle in the vid places him firmly in the MK III Revue era when the boy from Cannock thought it would be cool to look like at California Jam all over again, minus the sweat and the sniffin’. ☝️🧐 He did not go as far back as here (local boy in a photograph, top right):
https://www.instagram.com/p/DSMPwPJDRCe/
My hunch is that the gig was recorded shortly before the last BCC studio output cam out last year and Glenn subsequently suffered that terrible weaver bird attack.
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April 29th, 2026 at 19:34Have to disagree Uwe. Of course you can tell Ritchie’s reunion, well, hairdo from 1984 from the one in….say…1991 (where JLT and him seem to have gotten 2 for the price of 1!). Just check the pictures from those days.
April 30th, 2026 at 06:19@3 I think Bonzo is so influential among the modern day drummers because people tend to confuse things. They love LZ as a package and their affection for the music extends to the musicianship of the individual band members. So they say that such and such is the best player of his instrument in the world. It works just because LZ is infinitely more commercially successful than DP. But the best musicianship is not necessarily the case there. All of the LZ’s four were great musicians but none of them was the top of the class, even at the peak of their game. Another factor in favour of Bonzo’s legacy is his showmanship. He played in a frantic way to please the public and the public appreciated that. But if you pitch Paicey and Bonzo against each other in a drum-off, Paicey will be the clear winner.
Paicey’s things are precision, lightness and taste, which perfectly suits Purple classic and jazz influenced brand of rock. But then Bonzo’s drumming works best for the rootsy blues-funk-folk-country-whatever-the-snobs-from-the-Rolling-Stone-prefer-tinged rawk.
And just in case, as if anybody is interested, if I were a proper drummer, my style would have been a cross between Paicey and Vinnie Appice.
April 30th, 2026 at 08:54Thanks for this. BCC a beautiful tribute to the greatest achievements of rock (Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin) and blues the best period from half a century ago.Fantastically well-coordinated musicians.Phenomenal hard -blues -funky rock,for a pleasant aging.I love that band.
@3 When they came to my country more than 45 years ago…I remember an interview with John Taylor(“Philthy Animal) and
April 30th, 2026 at 09:29Clive Burr(then the news young drummers strong force ,unfortunately they are no longer with us)..they says named Ian Paice as their role model drummer…Denise wasn’t the only on..haha
Well now I KNOW what to place on Uwe Hornung’s headstone. The tablature of the first few bars of Led Zeppelin’s mighty John Bonham’s drumming from When The Levee Breaks. Uwe’s son would surely agree and he would be ever so proud of his dad after such inspiration from him all those many years ago. Uwe will be oblivious to this tribute of course, until he arrives at the Gates of Hell. Let’ face it folks, he isn’t going to the Pearly Gates of Heaven that’s for sure. And when he arrives at his destination for all eternity, he will receive accolades a plenty from Beelzebub, Satan and all his cohorts. “Ah, a Bonzo geek, enter” they will say with a look of glee in their eyes. Uwe retorts vehemently, ‘I am NOT a Bonzo geek, I can’t stand him and all my life I have lamented his drumming haunting me to this day and unfortunately forever more by the look of things”. Not to worry Uwe, back on earth people standing at your grave will know who you are and what you stood for, musically speaking of course in the heavy rock genre. Cheers.
April 30th, 2026 at 09:52Led Zeppelin reached out to far more people Uwe. They mixed it up more than Deep Purple and were not as serious, in many aspects. Back in the day many music lovers enjoyed less serious music, they all wanted to have fun etc . Does anybody remember laughter? Indeed the ‘hippie’ movement and the care free approach to everything was what many people were attracted to. There are other acts that were popular for this reason too. “So I am packing my bags for a misty mountain, over the hills where the spirits fly”. So of course we have really popular artists being ‘more’ influential. Remember the Beatles. Even Elvis, Karin’s favourite is still alive to this very day. ‘I saw Elvis the other day, get outta here”. Georgivs @ 10- “But if you pitch Paicey and Bonzo against each other in a drum-off, Paicey will be the clear winner.” There are no winners Georgivs, it isn’t a competition and Ian Paice loathes comments like that. Each drummer had his niche just like many others. Cheers.
April 30th, 2026 at 19:30Clive Burr and Philthy? I didn’t know, but it makes sense that they both felt drawn to Little Ian. So did Rick Allen of Def Lep come to think of it.
Max, ok, so Ritchie has added a few alibi grey hairs in the last two decades …
April 30th, 2026 at 21:49#9 and #14: Glenn probably tops the list of number of hairstyle changes, closely followed by Paicey and then Ritchie. In that order 🙂
May 2nd, 2026 at 06:03Herr MacGregor, I found LZ much more esoteric than DP and their music as well as the attitude with which it was delivered much more serious-artsy (to the point of being pretentious). All that contributed to their mystique which DP so utterly lacked. DP were always blue-collar compared to Zep, closer to Status Quo, Foghat or Grand Funk Railroad than the exquisitely removed LZ in their own image Valhalla. In the creation of a lasting image setting them apart, LZ and Peter Grant were absolute masters.
May 2nd, 2026 at 14:4211: Ivica – read elsewhere that Philthy’s favorite drummer was Brian Downey. And that his love of everything Thin Lizzy was why Brian Robertson was invited to replace Fast Eddie.
Downey was an obvious Ian Paice disciple. Not surprised that Paice was also a direct influence on Taylor.
Taylor was an outstanding drummer himself, adept at all the rudiments from his early days in a marching band, and with a love of Motown that gave his playing a more supple feel than many other incessantly-pounding hard rock players. His hi-hat work was particularly outstanding.
May 2nd, 2026 at 19:03Brian Downey had/has swing, no doubt. Playing in Lizzy he had to because they had this habit of changing chords in syncopated fashion and that can sound awfully heavyhanded if you lack swing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6biQb3DpFk
May 3rd, 2026 at 16:49I bought their first two albums but soon I got bored. Lots of smoke and little roast, too many cooks on the grill..
May 3rd, 2026 at 19:51@16 The LZ’s esoterism, just like everybody else’s, has not aged well. I mean, when you are in your teen years and its the 1970s, it is cool to listen to a “mystic” band. But when you grow up and the world has moved on, continuing to believe whatever Mr. Crowley and his disciples said? Meh…
Purple’s own attempts at mysticism of sorts mixed with the sexual fantasies (Burn and Stormbringer) have not aged well, either. The music is awesome, the lyrics are pretty cringeworthy.
May 4th, 2026 at 14:03But I liked rhyming “devil‘s sperm”
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with “burn”, not to mention “the woman is damned” with “wave of her ha-and!” (or twirl of her future drum stick as the case may be)! 😂
DC’s demon in cheek reverse subliminal message of “Your mother sucks cocks in hell!” (don’t we all!) in the Stormbringer intro, a movie quote from a teenage Purple fan called Linda B
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was also in the finest of tastes. I know great art when I see it.
May 4th, 2026 at 17:34@21
“with “burn”, not to mention “the woman is damned” with “wave of her ha-and!” (or twirl of her future drum stick as the case may be)! 😂”
– very funny Uwe 😁
If I were you I would be very afraid, and look over my shoulder more than once! Just sayin’….
May 6th, 2026 at 12:58😈