Royal Albert Hall, 26th September 1999
Everyone knows the Royal Albert Hall in London, perhaps because of "The Proms" or some other event, but to me it will always be the place where the "Concerto for group and orchestra" was recorded way back in 1969. As soon as I heard about the Concerto being re-perfomed I sent for tickets, and was rewarded with an excellent pair of seats in the stalls. The concert was a full three hours of a variety of music from orchestral to rock and many things in between. This was my wife's first ever Deep Purple concert, I promised it would be an event worth seeing and was proved right. The whole concert was recorded for a future video/DVD/CD package coming out in January. The evening started with "Four Scottish Dances" composed by Malcolm Arnold, who unfortunatly was too ill to attend. He was of course, the original conductor of the Concerto when performed in 1969. These were short classical pieces probably suited to the average attention span of the rock punter. Jon Lord was greeted with much respectful applause and played two pieces from his solo work "Pictured within". This was the first time I had heard the material and Sam Brown sang like an angel, so that is another one to add to the "must get" CD list! Next we had Roger Glover's input with two songs from "The Butterfly Ball". Ronnie James Dio sang, it was the first time I had seen him since the days of Rainbow in the seventies but he did not look, or sound, any different. Ian Gillan appeared to much applause and played a couple of rock and roll songs closely followed by the Steve Morse band. The brilliant Steve played a number called "Take it off the top" which sounded very familiar. Was it the theme to Tommy Vance's radio show? [Yep, and now it is the theme to Vance's TV version of "The Friday Rock Show" on VH1 Europe. - Ed.] Ian Paice's set piece was a great interpretation of "Wring that Neck" in a Big Band Jazz style. Wonderful stuff.
After an interval spent crushed with the rest of the audience into a small bar trying to spend an exorbitant amount on a can of beer we were treated to the Concerto proper. How nice to hear it without the hiss and rumble from my old 12" album. Everone played perfectly with Purple all looking very relaxed. Steve Morse spend ages fiddling with the tuning of his guitar during the orchestral parts and gave his guitar a rub down with a towel as if the very neck was sweating, but he played every part wonderfuly. Ian Gillan joined the stage for the second movement and this produced a few loud comments from an otherwise quiet and respectful audience. Why does Gillan have this effect on people? (Answers on a postcard please!) Some parts of the Concerto had been subtely re-written, one part of the second movement gave Ian a few more lines to sing. A stunning performance and the icing on the cake was a small selction of up to date material from Purpendicular and Abandon, as well as my favourite, "Pictures of Home". Purple finally managed to notch the volume up to render a 120 piece orchestra inaudible with the encore "Duhr Duhr Duhr" that we all know and love. A fantastic three hours in surely the most impressive venue for this work. I only wish I had got tickets for both performances, and look forward to the release in January 2000 of the CD pack.
Genius is a very overused word these days but to write such original dynamic material that still sound fresh and exciting after 30 years takes a special talent, congratulations Jon Lord.
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