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Stathis N. Panagiotopoulos

Daniel Bengtsson

John Garmland

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Jerome Niquille in French

Garry Smith saw the show

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Highlights in Realaudio 3.0

Review of Live At The Olympia '96

By Daniel Bengtsson

Well, it has finally arrived; LATO'96 - the new live album from Deep Purple, recorded live at The Olympia in Paris on June 17, 1996. The album, which is a double-CD was supposed to be released here in Sweden on June 9, but it arrived on June 11 to most of the shops in Gothenburg. I bought it at a prize of 169 SEK, which appr. is 17 pounds or 25 dollars. Enjoy this review...

CD 1

1. Fireball The album starts with a very enthusiastic audience which screams loudly when the guys enter the stage. Suddenly, you hear the famous intro to Fireball, and Paicey starts rolling powerfully. The rest of the band comes in and it gets heavy. It's so tight, and you can truly hear that the guys enjoy themselves. I love Ian, who sings like a god. The song ends with the "Into The Fire" riff, and Steve starts racing along the neck of his guitar!
2. Maybe I'm A Leo Paicey starts this song, and the band comes in for the riff. The first verse begins and once again Ian is there with his wonderful voice, he has such a feeling. After a while, it's time for a very tasteful solo from Steve and the band jams in the background. Oh, what I love this song!
3. Vavoom: Ted The Mechanic Ian announces the song in such a cool way, but I will not quote it, so you'll have to discover it by yourself. Ian is truly a master with the words! Steve does the magnificent intro (how does he do it?), and it's once again so heavy when the other guys join. Great performances by all! Steve's solo is incredible, does he realize how fast he plays, it's unbeliavable!
4. Pictures Of Home This is in my opinion one of the highlights of the evening, it's simply awesome. Steve (why didn't you join the band earlier :-)) plays so cool, and adds own notes several times. It's so nice, and it sounds so good! Oh, what I love this band. I can't describe this with words! You wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world - Deep Purple!
5. Black Night This heavy song starts directly after POH, and the audience sings along from the beginning. Jon and Steve start jamming together - once again mighty, and Ian sings again, before Steve get's the spotlight. He plays, and the audience repeats the notes. Awesome, what else! The whole song is magnifique, supreme and superb!
6. Cascades: I'm Not Your Lover Jon does the intro as usual with Steve, before the rest of the band and the horn section comes in! A mighty version is coming our way, with the wonderful duel between Jon and Steve in the middle of the song. They are musically made for each other! The end is very tight, and we get a fabulous solo from Steve! How does he produce the sounds! He plays with "himself" for a while, I would have done anything to hear Bernie Tormé of Gillan do a solo like that :-)!
7. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming Ian shows once again his other talent, when he's introducing this song! Starts with Roger and Steve on acoustic guitars, before Ian shows that he's the one and only! The rest of the song is extremely beautiful, and Jon adds nice piano bits together with Steve's clear guitar melody! Mighty!
8. Woman From Venezuela Now over to a Japanese song! Steve does the intro with the quite undistorted guitar sound, and Ian starts singing together with the rest of the band, who of course play their instruments except Roger who sings lead for a minute :-)! The quite middle section is as always beautiful, and the song ends with Ian screaming. But, Ian doesn't feel like screaming, and Steve has to help him out with his guitar!
9. No One Came This song includes the horn section, and it's as many of the other songs also one of the highlights of the evening! Roger shows what a great bass player he is, and the whole song is truly a funky masterpiece live! It only get's better with a heavy guitar solo from Steve!
10. The Purpendicular Waltz Ian takes care of the intro, as long as a solo, with his harmonica, and the rest of the band produces the heavy rhythm. Once again fabulous performances by all, including the horn section!

CD 2

1. Rosa's Cantina The song was on _I_ already cool, but live it becomes even cooler. Ian sings wonderfully and he adds delicious harmonica bits from time to time. I shivered when I heard the end. Pass me that cadillac, a lic a lac a lic a lac...
2. Smoke On The Water Steve does some cool guitar improvisation before the sound of the famous riff (this time very distorted, great) fills The Olympia with pleasure. This song is as good as always, with a short audience sing-along in the middle. Ends with a solo from Jon, where he first drives his Hammond crazy, before showing what a great player he is on the piano. The solo includes classical bits.
3. When A Blind Man Cries Jon plays an extremely beautiful intro, and I nearly cry. Can it really be more beautiful than this? Ian sings better than ever, you'll have to hear it to understand why Ian is my favourite singer. Every part of the song is so fine, and once again Steve adds new notes, which fit in perfectly. Definetely another highlight!
4. Speed King It's now time for a real ballad, SK. Michael Bolton will do a cover of the song on his forthcoming album :-). Heavy, heavy, heavy! Ian has a hard job to reach all the high notes, and sometimes he fails. But, what can you ask for, he's not 25 years old any longer and the show has nearly lasted 2 hours. Jon and Steve start a duel, and they play like they were chased by the fire! Magnifique again! Ian catches the spotlight with a quite short but good drum solo.
5. Perfect Strangers Jon, the conductor, produces the mighty intro, and the audience knows it's time for PS. I'll have to repeat myself, but it's extremely solid performances by all. I love the oriental guitar bits, which Steve adds. The break in the middle is as usual truly mighty, and the band finishes the song with brilliance! A monster of a song!
6. Hey Cisco Ian thanks the audience and it's HC time! Ian sings beautifully and Steve does some very fast guitar work, especially in his solo. Paicey shines like a diamond, he's really cooking! Jon is awesome. There's once again also a short but cool duel between Jon and Steve!
7. Highway Star Ian hands over the microphone to Jon, who introduces the horn section, which is included in this song too. Jon is COOL! Well, suddenly you hear Paicey doing the intro, while Steve does some mysterious guitar noises in the background. Jon does as always a very "tight" solo! Steve has of course also a solo, and he's such a god, it's brilliant! It's a mix between Ritchie's old work and new stuff from Steve. Roger does also a great job with a quite sharp bass sound. Ian sings of course also great on this one, but it's quite difficult for him to handle the screaming from time to time. The audience loves it!

Conclusion

This is without no doubt one of the best live albums released by Deep Purple! All guys are burning with energy, and it really shows! It's so tight, and it's so melodic! I would especially like to give Steve a big thanks for his playing, style, and attitude, I love him. He plays like no one else, and has really brought a new sound to Deep Purple both in the studio and live!

I must say that I'm not a big fan of TBRO, and I was very disappointed with Ritchie, who destroyed some of the shows with his silly behaviour! I love Ritchie, but let's face it, he's not the right man for the band any longer!

I loved _|_ the first time I heard it, and sure, this is the new Deep Purple, and the best Deep Purple in many years. It was a very good choice to bring up the horn section on stage, they did a wonderful job, but I agree with Stathis, they were mixed a little low from time to time.

I hope you liked this review, and YES, you should run to your nearest record shop ASAP, to get this lovely release!