From: Uwe Koppelt 
Date: 6 Jun 1996 07:49:55 GMT 
Subject: Esbjerg concert; 31 May 96 

Hi folks,

I am probably not the man to give you a good review of the concert, but what I can give you is the set list and a few memories.

Deep purple was the head liner of the friday evening show of the Esbjerg rock festival, while on saturday evening Meat Loaf was the head liner. I can not say anything about the other bands, because I arived late.

There were a lot of people in my age and older, some with their kids. The show started, if I am not mistaken, about 22:15 with

(1) Fireball

probably in order to indicate that something happend with the band leading into a different direction. The next song was "about a friend of us"(I. Gillan)

(2) Vavoom: Ted the mechanic

This could have been a good opener too. Both songs were quite close to the original or studio versions. After the short b-solo in

(3) Pictures of home

(one of my favourite songs) the audience gave a lot of applause to Roger Glover. When I was a kid, we recorded a lot of songs from the radio ( I come from East Germany). At that time this song was one of the so--called recording--killers, because there is a break before the final chords come over, and most kids switched the recording of before the song was complete.

(4) Black Night

seemed to me like a live version of Rogers remix on the new In Rock album. Although it was not meant as a sing-along version as on previous tours (see and hear Come Hell or High Water), most of the people sang to it - me too. The second song (out of 5) of the new album was

(5) Cascades: I'm not your lover now

including a longer g-solo. Steve Morse was really choice: He stays on stage the whole show, he smiles (!), he plays a wonderful g. After that there were some problems with the g. so Ian Gillan had to give a loooong introduction to

(6) Sometimes I feel like screaming

(for me the greatest song on the new album). Steve and Roger took the backing vocals. When Ian Paice started the next song, the 2nd Ian called "Oh, no no!". But after a look on the set list and a short discussion with the men behind keyb and dr, the song started:

(7) Woman from Tokyo

The audience was really amused by this short break, but I think I know a man who would not be very happy about that. In case he would be still a member of the band!

The next song

(8) Bloodsucker

is not one of my favourites, but live it sounded quite good. Then Ian Gillan took his very special instrument (not the one you can see, when he is wearing close trousers) and played the intro to

(9) Purpendicular waltz

(a great song, live it is even much better than the studio version). Steve gave a very gentle introduction to

(9) Smoke on the water

Most of the people screamed the lyrics. I think that they changed the style a little bit, but I am not sure about that. To me it sounded different, but great. To many people, i believe, this was the real highlight of the show leading to Jon's

(9a) keyb-solo

It was different from the one I heard on the Come Hell...-video (its a pitty that it is not included on the CD). At first he showed how Deep purple could play live without the man on the g (e.g., if he is not willing to come on stage and play with the others, or if he is not able for some reasons - as it sometimes happend in the far past-> listen to: Last concert in Japan). The main part of the solo was a piano like blend of classic (rather romantic) and jazzy parts - very very nice. It colled down and lead the audience to

(10) When a blind man cries

They worked out the song, it is far better than the original. It sounds rather sophisticated, and more like the version I heard on Gillan's Toolbox-tour (but Deep purple was always better than its particular musicians with their own bands).

The end of the regular set was marked by a song which was introduced as a "slow" song. And at that moment most the people knew that is:

(11) Speed king

A larger instrumental section was included, really nice. But I was not able to follow it, because two fat girls standing next to me started to dance around. As we already learned in physics: where there is one body, there can not be a second body. So I had fight (but not too hard, I do not really fight with a woman) a little bit, to keep my "place in the line".

The encore section started with

(A1) Perfect strangers

(I love this song!). It sounded just as usual. But what can you do with a perfect song? There is no way to make it better. The only thing would be to enlarge the instrumental parts.

(A2) Hey Cisco

rushed over the audience. But I do not remember anything special about that song. At this moment the audience was caught. Everybody was swinging, dancing, or maybe even singing (at least those who knew the lyrics).

As it is written in the bible "the first will be the last", so

(A3) Highway star

marked the end of the show. It was a really good opener, but it is very good song to end a show. People were really exhausted after that.

In order to summarize me feelings: this was the best party I joined since many years. The band as well as the audience were very relaxed. Moreover, I never thought that Deep purple's music could be so stimulating in the sexual sense, I always thought this is only a field for all those ballad-bands. But there were a lot of pairs around me, doing things I would not expect them to do on a hard rock concert. So you know what to do, "chose the right gift for [your next date - - the author]"(Ian Gillan).

I was really happy that they did not play Child in time. It is not that I do not like this song, I love it. But during the last years I had the feeling that it was a rather heavy weight, especially on the shoulders of the singer. When a blind ... is a good alternative.

Four years ago, I saw them on tour with Ritchie. He walked off the stage during two or three songs, and looked rather ... "black". The rest of the band tried to make the people happy. And most of them were happy to see the band. But it was not really relaxed. The main surprise at that time was Anyones daughter "... with special guest Elton John"(Ian Gillan, while pointing on Ian Paice).

If you have a possibility to go to one of the shows, you should do it. At least to see how things developed since that. Moreover, after approx. 10 years of hearing the same set list + a few new songs, this is something new. And its quite funny, they seem to have a lot of fun - and will have it too.

That's all. Sorry folks for that bad english. I tried to do my best.

Uwe

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