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NEC 1993 withdrawn by BMG
We have reported yesterday that Gillan is unhappy with BMG re-releasing the Birmingham NEC 1993 show on CD. The plot thickens. In an interview conducted by BBC he said that the album was re-released without his knowledge. BMG immediately announced that they are withdrawing the album, all the grand total of 2,000 copies that were printed and distributed.
Many questions remain unanswered as to why nobody protested when the NEC show was released years ago as the Come Hell And High Water video (so in fact it’s a re-re-release). But the cynics between us say that the UK tour is coming up and Gillan has his own DVD and solo album re-releases to sell.
And there’s no such thing as bad publicity…
UPDATE: You can listen to the whole interview in it’s entirety from the BBC here. Two points there:
- Gillan’s position makes much more sense than his individual comments taken out of context and plastered on the net (like we are guilty of doing ourselves). He also categorically denies that this is a publicity stunt designed to attract attention to the upcoming UK tour.
- Our own THS editor Rasmus Heide was interviewed alongside Big Ian. Cheers to Rasmus!
We will try to negotiate with BBC to be able to post the interview here.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Ian Gillan has turned into an egotistical ridiculous flaky old joke. I never thought my favorite rock singer would turn out to be as crazy as David Lee Roth and Michael Jackson combined. Every time I turn around he’s either saying he is singing better than ever, which is totally insane, that Ritchie is an “asshole”, or that the current line-up is the best ever. What the hell is going on in his mind?
February 28th, 2007 at 03:47I completely agree!!!!
February 28th, 2007 at 13:18And I know about madness…..
How to better the situation?
Maybe Ritchie has to kick him in the head like before?
You guys are just jealous, because Steve Morse completely blows away Ritchie!!! And that’s a fact Jack!!!
February 28th, 2007 at 21:51Got the cd and dvd and I agree with Gillan. Blackmore is missing notes all over the place.
on the dvd they’ve edited 1.30 mins out of Highway Star because of this, didn’t realise till I heard it in full on this new cd, theres an extra Jon Lord solo filling in for Blackmore!
Releasing again is taking the piss.
Gillan has always been a bit crazy but still in touch with reality unlike Blackmore.
February 28th, 2007 at 22:50I wouldn’t have bought it anyway since I like the new stuff far better.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:32Gillan is not singing better than ever, but certainly better than in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Listen to Gillan’s Inn to hear the proof of that.
I bought this CD! It is not the best Deep Purple concert ever, but is still DP.
March 1st, 2007 at 13:09I can’t understand Ian! It is part of great Purple history.
All Purple concerts are magic even the “worstest”.
It will be a collector’s item in the future I guess, so Dr. Robert has something special now!
I already have the Come Hell or High Water video, and that is fine with me. All DP concerts are great indeed, but I like the more recent ones better, because, like Chris99 already mentioned, Ritchie Blackmore missed a lot of the notes. In fact, he was off stage during 50% of the shows. Jon Lord had to fill in a lot of the guitar parts and that is why I like the live stuff with Steve Morse so much better… he is there and plays all the notes!
I’ve got the feeling that Ian Gillan feels the same way and it is a quality issue for him. Why bother listening to 80% performance in 1993 instead of 100% (or even more) in the 21st century. I fully agree that is not necessary to reissue this concert.
We’d better look forward to new stuff!
March 1st, 2007 at 13:42If there’s such a problem with the “Blackmore legacy”…well, there doesn’t seem to be a problem playing the songs that Ritchie wrote and collecting all those royalities. Problem cashing in those residuals from SOTW, Ian ? Doubtful.
Ritchie’s work on this tour was stunning (NEC notwithstanding), and like it or not, he is integral to DP’s history, and you guys wouldn’t be where you are today had it not been for him.
March 1st, 2007 at 22:29I wonder why BMG re-re-released this concert. “Come Hell or High Water” wasn’t enough? As far as I know. it was a big shame, mainly because of Mr Blackmore, and only thanks to Mr Gillan’s wife it wasn’t a scandal. Yes, Ian Gillan is too conceited, but I have the impression that BMG wanted to wrong him releasing such a trash before his film’s promotion….
March 2nd, 2007 at 08:57I think there have been worse DP shows than the NEC show.I know I have seen one or two over the years.
March 2nd, 2007 at 16:17It is certainly not the worst gig they ever did. It’s okay for us fans, and the problems with Blackmore makes it even more interesting.
March 4th, 2007 at 22:34But try to change perspective and see it with Gillan’s eyes. These gigs were an awful experience. There’s certainly reason enough for him (and other band members) to be upset.
All I can say is that even after all these years, it must still hurt – badly.
I do have my issues with the timing of the release and the comments that got reported. How selective were they? Who is pushing who’s buttons here?
All in all, a big shame, when he should be looking forward to getting his new DVD out. Love him, like him or loathe him, he does have an interesting story to tell. For example, pity there’s no footage from his band’s trip to Armenia, Georgia and Chechnya from back in the days of the old Soviet Union. That would be special. As I said, a very interesting story……….
PAL to all!
March 6th, 2007 at 12:46I love “The Battle Rages On” on the recording/video of that concert, Gillans screams during that song are really heartfelt for me. I think the’re all enjoying playing those new songs instead of the old stuff. I don’t know why the are re-releasing it, because the whole show has been released just 1 year ago on the Double-Live Album “Live in Europe 1993”. But, if Gillan really complains, I can understand that. He really suffers on that recording and his self-confidence just seems not to be the best during that concert and presumably the whole 1993 tour. I feel the same for Ritchie, though sometimes twinkles up his genius. I think his playing has bettered dramatically since he’s out of Purple. And Gillan’s voice as bettered dramatically since Ritchie is out of purple. The last concert I saw Ian was at the Nuremberg show on the ROTD tour in early 2006 and it was just awful, Gillan’s screams: gorgeous. If it has been recorded, release it !
March 10th, 2007 at 22:50Ian, sorry ! I really meant awesome not awful, really !
March 10th, 2007 at 22:54Scott’s right!
March 22nd, 2007 at 09:53Everybody knows about the love-hate relationship between Blackmore & Gillan since the early 70’s.
For sure,Blackmore’s behaviour wasn’t correct at the NEC and band problems should always be solved behind the scenes and not on stage but nobody knows the complete story as everybody wants to be the nice guy. The fans are the loosers in this case as they paid quite some money for the tickets but this isn’t the problem right now. Gillan might tell whatever he wants about Blackmore,fact is that Deep Purple wrote their biggest hits with the MKII where he was involved.He never made that success with the Gillan band and all the MKII band mates,Gillan included are still making millions with these songs,so why spit in the soup like this?Even today,with Steve Morse,the main part of their show consists of old Purple songs. If everything would have been so bad with Mr. Blackmore from the start on,then go your own way,but don’t say he’s an assh… and you still play the songs where he was involved and make lots of cash with an everlasting Revival Tour !
Regarding the NEC record it’s strange to me why Gillan wants to get it off the market as the video,DVD and the 4CD boxset with the NEC & Stuttgart gigs are already on the market for quite some time.On the other hand why should BMG reedit something which has been already published?
But maybe this is an opportunity for Gillan to stay in the tabloïds and get some free publicity in making people react on this ?
You can throw bricks and stones on the Birmingham 1993 concert, but gems like the solo of guitar in ‘Child…’ and the rave funk passage in ‘Knocking…’ have never ever happened again anywhere. TMIB could’ve been freakishly mad this night but he still cut out diamonds there.
And I hope Gillan lets off on the BMG 1993 concerts releases, especially if he can’t live with the fact that Stuttgart night was probably the most genuine night of all the tour and one of the best Purple gigs ever. You got doubts about that? Then show me a better and more frenzy take on ‘Speed King’ than Stuttgart. Bet’cha don’t have one.
IG might be self-critical about his own appearance on that tour, but greedy hands off from others performances. The core band tolled their absolute peak on many nights – to point out Essen, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Paris, Bruxelles, Rotterdam, London #2, Stockholm and Helsinki alone! How come he claims the tour was disaster? First take a listen, then throw your stones.
January 29th, 2009 at 19:57