RAH Saturday Review
As I write this the whole event is now over, If you missed it then you missed a treat. The whole show was superb with everyone performing excellently. The set was pretty much as leaked with the exception that the expected two Deep Purple song closer became stretched to five songs. With the crowd begging for more for 15-20 minutes after the show had finished. Much of the crowd response and hopeful waiting was fuelled by a group of people who overlooked the stage entrance. Whenever it seemed the crowd were giving up hope these people would leap and point enthusiastically giving the impression that the band were there and due to come back on. In fact very few people noticed Ian Gillan walk on stage from the other side to announce that the show was over and there would not be anymore. Gillan stated that Jon was throwing up in the toilet due to the excitement of the whole event.
The hall acoustics are quite amazing, the sound travels so well, in fact I'm sure that if someone had farted the whole audience would have heard it! One impact of this was that the P.A could be heard hissing to itself during the quieter moments. So the bootleg hiss wont' be just due to tape quality, it actually sounded like that! Another impact of the acoustics was that when a couple of idiots shouted out for "Highway Star" and Black Night" during the performance this distracted the band and orchestra (surely they knew what tonight's performance was all about?). This delayed the start of the second movement and required Jon to ask for quiet, "time for rock'n'roll later" he stated. Unfortunately 3 people in the stalls opposite where I sat (Stalls L) continued to be noisy and were eventually thrown out. Serves them right.
The show started at 7:35 with many people yet to take their seats. The hall eventually filled to about 90 percent full. Which I think was good when you consider how late this night was added and that Sunday was sold out. The Scottish dances were well received. Paul Munn then informed us that Sir Malcolm Arnold was too weak to attend but sent his wishes. Paul introduced Jon to perform two numbers from Pictured Within, the title track and "Wait a While". Miller Anderson nervously fidgeted on stage until he began to sing a pretty much note perfect version of the track. Sam Brown then came down from the group of backing singers to replace Miller and perform a beautifully emotional version of "Wait a While", nearly bringing tears. After a standing ovation Roger, Ian Paice, Ronnie James Dio, Eddie Hardin and a horn section joined the stage. Ronnie sang excellent versions of "Sitting in a dream" and "Love is all". "Love is all" really raised the tempo and would have made a great closer for the first half of the show.
Next up was Ian Gillan, resplendant in white indian outfit and gold lame jacket, with "Steve Morse sorry Steve Morris" and horn section. "Via Miami" from the Gillan/Glover album was performed with the backing singers giving it an added dimension followed by "That's why God is singing the blues" from the Dreamcatcher album.
Now it was Steve Morse band time, Steve teased with Led Zeppelin intros before tearing into two tracks, the second known to many as the "Friday Rock Show" theme. Another superb audience rousing performance. This was to be a night of standing ovations. Steve then announced Ian Paice and Jazz Friends to close the first half (the friends being Roger, Jon and horn section). We were treated to the expected jazz version of "Wring that neck", a re-working that worked very well. Another ovation and time to fight to the bar for overpriced cans of drink.
After a short interval it was time for the main event, the whole Concerto sounded much fresher with Steve really adding his personality to the guitar solos, some of these were note for note as the original, other bits were altered by Steve to intoduce his own licks and techniques. It was great to hear this performed live and easily beat the recording of the original. One modern unplanned update was the sound of a mobile phone ringing part way through and the audience being overwilling to be heard. Ian Gillan tried his best to quell the applause as he entered the stage during the second movement. He then shoved Steve along on his seat to make space until it was time for him to stand up and perform. Ian Paice's solo in the third movement seemed a lot shorter than the original, I think it was better for this, sometimes quality is better than quantity. At the end Paul Munn skillfully milked the applause by drawing up parts of the Orchestra in turn until it was time for the next part of the show.
The final section opened with a straight foward "Ted the Mechanic" complete with backing vocals and horn section. After explaining that Edward wasn't a mechanic, Ian introduced "Watching the Skies", this time complete with Orchestra support, this was closely followed by "Sometimes I feel like screaming", which started with a short Orchestral lead in. Next up it was a song from Machine Head that Ian claimed he had always wanted to perform with an Orchestra, "this one's named after the contents of Roger Glovers pockets, its called Ball of String...Pictures of Home". For this track we had a longer Orchestra lead in that was burst into by Paicey's powerful drum intro. The song motored along and was very similar in structure to the version on "Total Abandon". The Orchestra tended to be overpowered by the band during these songs. It would be great to hear these released with the Orchestra sound more evenly balanced.
After yet another standing ovation it was time for the whole cast to join the stage for the last song, after Steve false started another Led Zep track he burst into the riff for "Smoke on the water", the crowd remained standing throughout. Gillan handed over to Ronnie James Dio to sing one verse before quieting the stage and leading the crowd sing along. Then at about 10:20 it was all over, drum sticks and guitar picks were launched into the crowd and after a few bows and thank you's the stage was emptied.
As previously mentioned the crowd stayed on stamping, clapping, cheering and chanting "we wan't more" all to no avail.
So at about 10:40 we left happy and satisfied that we were part of an historic event, exiting past the BBC outside broadcast vans (for the Sunday performance) and followed one member of the Orchestra down the Queens gate road towards our Hotel.
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