25 Sep 99 London Royal Albert Hall
For this concert, I went together with my wife, Gina and youngest (9) daughter Maaike to London for four days (Friday till Monday afternoon); not to see Big Ben, nor Madame Tussaud's and such; but to "see" Oxford Street, Harrods and the lot. (So Gina could not complain too much, her first time in London). Moreover, I had an appointment with Johan Van Ryckeghem, my usual concert-mate, on Saturday at the Goat Tavern where all the Net-people should meet.
Pre-show
In London, we took the bus and walked and walked and took the bus, did some shopping and window shopping and shopping&. Saturday we had a little walk through Hide Park, to check the RAH out (our hotel was on the other side of that park). At the RAH I noticed that I had forgotten my camera in our room. So back to the hotel (20 minutes to and 20 minutes fro), in the pouring rain; all this to take a pic of the outside of the hall, and one of the poster hanging in front of the hall (the only posters to see in London of this gig!). We could hear the orchestra rehearsing. "What shall we do while you are at the concert?" Gina was wondering; "maybe we should go in as well?" There were still seats available; but Maaike, a big Spice Girls fan, did not want to. So, back to the shopping routine. At last! It turned 4 PM, we back to the RAH, this time the whole band was rehearsing, and it sounded the same as 30 years ago! After buying 2 more tickets for the girls, (AND THEY HAD BETTER SEATS THAN I HAD!!!! I bought mine a month before the show!) Up to the Goat Tavern! Johan already sat in front of the window, waiting (and tasting) for us to arrive since 3 PM. Before we settled ourselves down, a waiter came to "throw" Maaike out; no children under the age of 14! Those F£*$#@G English rules! So out they went, shopping again! (Quite an expensive stay in London it became!)
I had to be the only one in The Goat Tavern wearing a Deep Purple T-shirt, because on several Internet platforms, I wrote that I will the one wearing such a shirt; The F***** place was full of them! I saw some familiar looking faces, some I've seen before live and some I've seen on pictures. Everybody was talking to everybody. Two things stroke my attention: most of them seem to recall me because I am a chief cook in the army! In addition, the other thing was that everyone was congratulating me because Maaike's first concert would be a Purple one. There were people from all over the world (Canada, Brazil, Belgium (only 2), Finland (hi Tero), lots of Swedish people (hi Svante, Matz, and all the others). We were like a real family! I had about 10 visiting cards with me, but they were all gone very quickly.
Around 19:00 most of us walked to the hall. There was no body search (but I did not gave it any attention at that moment); and as a good citizen I handed in my camera at the cloakroom. After a first check, we traded our places with the ones Gina and Maaike had. Ours were closer to the stage, but higher. My neighbour wanted to switch places with Gina, but what about Maaike? After checking out the merchandise: my second disappointment: there were no special T-shirts. Only the purple one that I had already (and which I like very much) with a small note on one of the short sleeves. I did not bother buying one, though I collect (and wear) Purple and Rainbow T-shirts (anyone???????). To get the new programme you had to buy the "old" one too. Johan did, but later that evening, a beer under my seat (how did that get there?) was spoiled on that, so he bought a new one.
The Show
At 19:26 some musicians of the orchestra entered the stage; someone was playing a few notes of "Smoke" (on a kind of bass-guitar?)
19:33 Applause. Four Scottish Dances. It were 4 short pieces of music. The second one sounded like "Peter and the Wolf." Again very short, but very nice. Then something like "Morgenstimmungen" by Grieg. I was really sitting there flabbergasted, listening to this kind of music; this was my first live classical concert. I sometimes - a few times a year - listen to classical stuff (I have 3 CD's with the originals on which some Deep Purple and Rainbow songs were based - "Classics for Heavy Metal Kids." Great stuff.) The following piece I did not like that much.
After this, the conductor, Paul Mann, spoke to us: "30 years ago, where were you?& Sir Malcolm is not well enough; he sure wanted to be here and we will miss him& Now two numbers of his new album: Pictured Within' (applause). One of the most beautiful people I know: Jon Lord!" Who received a standing ovation.
Pictured within. It sounded a bit like "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Neil Diamond. Great! Loved it. Maybe because this was only one song of this CD, cos I have to admit that I find his latest CD boring (sorry Jon). Miller Anderson sang a word that really jumped out: "Rainbow." Lot's of pictures were taken. "Hey?! That is not allowed!" Maybe I'll get my camera later. The Albert Hall is a real nice venue, very chique and what a splendid acoustics! The performers received a big applause.
Sam Brown entered stage to perform Wait a While. Which I did not like very much, a good time for trying to get my camera. Which was no problem at all!
I am afraid that I forgot most of the first song Sitting in a Dream done by Dio.
When they did Love is all; (joined by Eddie Hardin on piano, and all the others, of course) everybody on stage had great fun, during the dancing-part of the song you had to see the choir, real amusing themselves. I noticed that Ronny James has very skinny legs (like I have, only my belly is a little more showing - but I am a chief in the army, remember?). Johan gestured to me that Dios voice was great and powerful. This song was rewarded with another standing ovation.
Roger Glover: "Here is a bunch of people I know since the early days." Gillan, wearing a golden jacket on a white long shirt and white trousers, received a great laugh from the crowd. Via Miami. There was a lot of ambience on stage, but the audience seemed quite quiet, maybe they did not recognise the song from "Accidently on Purpose"). Again Johan gestured "great voice." When Big Ian throws off his jacket, it caught on Little Ian's mike stands. He then told us something "about lost luggage and That's Why God is Singing the Blues". Nice and quiet stuff between Steve Morse and Steve Morris. A woman is coming front stage to take some pictures, and nobody is stopping her?! "Muchos gracias, that was TWGISTB. It was always my great pleasure and honour to introduce our guitarplayer Steve Morse!"
Who did a few notes of "Stairway to Heaven," which drew wild response from the audience, so he did another short tune by the Zeps. Then his first real song: Nights Meets Light. Nice drums with some quiet cymbals (normally I don't like cymbal-work, but this was good). I did not know the song, but it was definitive the Steve Morse sound. It sounded a bit like Focus (an old Dutch band, with Thijs Van Leer and Jan Akkerman - I think Ritchie likes him), but it was definitely Steve's sound, including that tiny bum note. Again the drummer took my attention, a real good player! The orchestra fitted also nicely in. Yeah, I think I forgot to mention the orchestra who was doing fine work. Horns and sax came on stage. This thing included some "Sweet Home Alabama."
The next song Take it off The Top was much heavier, Johan really freaked out on this one. It was done without the orchestra, but a blinder!
"Thank you very much& now there is a lot of music tonight, so to close up the first half half half of tonight, I would like to bring up Ian Paice with his Jazz Orchestra (Jon Lord, Roger Glover, the sax things (The Kick Horns) and Graham Preskett, a violin player). Wring That Neck. For a moment I thought it was "Lazy." Beautiful (though jazz is one of the few genres I don't like), except the violin replacing Ritchie's guitar; that was something that was not working to this ears. In fact I shouted "rape" to Johan. But who am I? (A chief cook in the army). However, The Lord of the Hammond was as phenomenal as in his early mark II days! "Hey! I don't like jazz!!" A very short drumsolo (I thought this had to be Ian's spot; but he sure will have that later in the main part of the show) and it all ended very bluesy. The whole place exploded with applause. I forgot to check the hour when the first part was over (something I always do).
During the break I went to see my girls, they both liked the show so far. Maaike recognised "Peter and the Wolf." We saw Tim, the former chairman of the former German fanclub. Who told us that Dougie White was performing the day before in London with his new band: the Barn Stormers. Real sad I did not know that! Shame on you Dougie, why didn't you notify us all?
At 21:00 the tuning started, so we hurried back into the beautiful hall (until now only seen on the tele and the covers) and at 21:03 a big round of applause (see this time I did not forget to jot the time down). Steve Morse was sitting on a stool, Glover on a chest and some morons were shouting.
21:04 First Movement Exactly the same as on the LP (without the scratching). Unbelievable to witness this live!! There were no video cameras in the hall - at least not officially ;-) I thought they were recording both shows. Occasionally one could hear some small differences in the playing, but one must listen carefully to hear these. When the band joined in - which really got the crowd excited - one could hear clearly the different styles between Blackmore and Morse. It was different, but not worse, not at all! However, this afternoon the guitar playing was exactly the same (or were they listening to the CD to learn?). Steve's solo was completely diverse. On one hand that was a bit disappointing, but on the other hand: now Steve IS IN the band and not Ritchie anymore! (Now I am listening to the first movement on CD; it really makes my neckhairs stand up) The clarinet played an amazing quiet thing, only to be disturbed for a short while by a shouting idiot. The place went nuts, and the players received again a standing ovation!
Then the shouting started all over again. But he got quickly a straight answer from Jon Lord: " May I have a word with you? I know you had a great time in the bar. But please shut up. People are trying to listen." That was awesome, and very ad rem.
Second Movement. Gillan came on stage very silently, and Paice signalled us to be quiet. He glued a long sticker on the stool to divide it in two; Steve's part and his. They both shared now the same stool. His singing was breathtaking, and with some extra text (something like "now I know when to stop singing my song, when it all starts going wrong")! After his first part, I caught one of the elderly, bolder violin players yawning. I started wondering how Jon would sound through the big pipes behind the stage. This should be majestic; don't get me wrong it WAS very impressive! And I really want to thank Marco de Goeij, the Dutch composer who worked 2 years on the score, from the bottom of my hart for making this possible! During the first notes of Jon's solo, which was very bassy, Ian's snare drums were "snaring." After his superb solo, while the violins were fiddling, the cellular of one of those modern juppy's went off. The applause after this brilliant Second movement was rather "normal."
Third Movement. After Ian's first strokes on his drums Steve sounded quite like his predecessor of this gig, but changed it soon to his own style, which was like his "Cascades" solo. The drumsolo was very very, disappointing short: only 2 lousy minutes! I always considered his Concerto solo as one of the finest he did. L The cymbalist is the same guy doing the xylophone. Steve's music standard has 2 parts: on the left the chords and on the right part the set list. This third and final part was also rewarded with a standing ovation (the public had a lot of work too, standing up to applaud after most songs). Steve loved the stunning performance by the orchestra very well cos he kneeled to thank them. Behind me a twat started shouting: "see ya in hell!" Later I found out he was sitting behind Gina and Maaike.
At 21:54 Ted The Mechanic: the crowd went loopy for it! The choir was again having a ball. Then I took my chance and I went to the first row, just aside the stage, I could even touch it. Great angle for taking pictures.
I was so excited I couldn't even remember they played Watching the sky! (And I left my notice book on the fifth row). Gillan came over to shake hands with us; hope the picture I took of this, works out fine: him shaking hands with me while I took the pic. I don't know if it will be allowed take pictures tomorrow, I think the flashes will disturb the video-filming.
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming, well just jaw-dropping good. Then I quickly returned to get my little book, my kind neighbour knew already why I was running back to the fifth row and gave me my Holy Scriptures.
Pictures of Home. The Orchestra started this song very calmly and nicely, then Paicey took over; followed by a marvellous Glover spot. Then it was Steve's turn with some fabulous guitarplaying. The orchestra fits in so beautiful, that you almost did not notice them, and I was sitting next to them! (By now it is 22:22).
Steve came over and handed (not thrown, but handed) some guitarplectrums over to Johan and me.
Then on came Dio, Steve Morris, in fact everybody. The place went nuts! Smoke On The Water. Played with 2 drummers (Paice and Van Romaine from The Steve Morse Band). Everybody went insane, the crowd as well as the performers! Dio sang the second verse, standing just next to Gillan; compared to Big Ian he is very very small! But what a great voice! Steve's solo is awesome! (I am afraid I am running out of exclamation marks!). This one really pleased the audience.
The applause was furious and went on for ages; some guy on the opposite of the hall, next to the stage entrance was whipping up the crowd, by gesturing that they came back. By now my arms and hands were really hurting caused by all that clapping. Then Ian came on stage to announce: "Thank you very much. I don't know what to say, we are finished, thank you!"
That was it! L It was astonishing, delicious, excellent, ingenious, gigantic, magnificent, superb, real spine tingling stuff & More! More! More! One of the security guys (if you can call them that) gave me a playlist that was attached to one of the boxes. In fact it were two of them taped together; I gave the other one to a very nice looking and very friendly girl, as well as my address (of course for the pictures; and, yes, Gina knows).
After show
When the girls and I met again (well we were only a few meters apart from each other), they told me they had really enjoyed them selves (the Spice Girl-fan, my wife is more into Eros Ramazotti and other popmusic). Gina said that Gillan was quite attractive and decent, not like the others like that guitar player with his long hair or the one with his bandanna (Roger). Everybody I saw outside was impressed with the supreme show they saw tonight; except for one Dutchman (Ron) who told us that he came to see Deep Purple and not that bloody orchestra! (Hey man, wake up! This was the concerto! When he is that a big Purple fan - and I know he is -, he sure must have known that there would be an orchestra tonight J ). We stayed talking a bit with those nice and friendly in fact, everybody was friendly - Brazilian girls (the blonde one looked like my first serious girlfriend). She told me that I sat next to Gillan's wife, when I was at the front; well I don't recall her, I was that excited by the things going on stage, that I simply did not notice. Some people who saw me taking pictures asked for my address, so they could contact me. Hope they turn out to be fine; this was the first concert I took pics of. On the way to the hotel, Maaike told me that she would write a review too! After a quick take-away Thai dinner (from the same restaurant we ate the day before (fingerlicking good!) I had some trouble falling asleep, when the whole gig passed my mind's eye. The thing that I felt that was a minor point, aside of the T-shirts, was the very short drumsolo. I wondered how "Perfect Strangers" would have sounded like tonight, should have been majestic! One thing about taking notes is that I miss quite a lot of the action going on on stage; but I like sharing my thoughts with other people, like I like reading other people's long reviews.
The convention
Normally I did not plan to go to the convention, but it was the whole time on the back of my mind. After we had done some shopping (yes!!) at Covent Garden (nice) and been to the Chinese Festival at the Chinese district, I left Gina and Maaike to do some more shopping, and I walked to Imperial college. Where I arrived quite late: around 4 PM. The hall was filled with 400 + people, some of them I saw the night before, some new faces with familiar names (Yes, I am the chief in the army). Johan was waiting for me at the bar J . There were so many people, so many things to see, (great video's too) that I simply forgot (!) to buy anything, though I had brought some extra pocket money with me for this. I was real glad being there, talking to lots and lots of people, but far too little. There must have been some others I missed out. We (Johan and I) tried to work out the - very difficult! - Grand Deep Purple Convention Quiz. Shortly after that Johan had to catch his train, so he missed the next thing: suddenly, around 17:20 while I was looking at some posters, everybody rose up from their seats, "hey what's happening?" A tall man in a black suit came in:
Gillan
He got a huge applause from every person present. Simon led him in front of the huge video-screen (with a freeze-frame of Ritchie during a solo, which coaxed a smile from everybody). He answered willingly the questions some of us fired at him. It went roughly like this:
Why did you cut your hair?
I can give you some silly answers like it was always hanging in my beer, or it is silly walking around with your hair tied up in a ponytail (looking at Simon Robinson, who was wearing his hair in this style) But changes had to be done. I've met some German people today; who were wearing some clothes, real crap. They told me they did not like my clothes. The same to you I told them. But I really don't attach any importance at clothes.
Is Jon OK? (About that shouting the night before.)
He was really upset and emotional. This happened at a very quiet moment. We've sent a roadie looking for them; he found them and gave them &pund;25 (all 4 of them) and sent them outside.
Did you rehearse a lot?
We started on Monday with The Kick Horns and the choir and practised 10 hours a day. Friday we saw the orchestra for the first time at 15:00. The difference between now and 69 is like day and night. Conductors then were just waving their underwear, because they could not be in a band. The orchestra was going: "do we have to do this." Now it is completely different. Brilliant. Everybody was enjoying themselves, but everybody was nervous too. There were some Russian guys in the orchestra who wanted to be with us in the picture. Tonight we will be less nervous.
When can we expect the next album?
Within 6 months; there will be some radical changes. The honeymoon with Steve is over. Everybody is playing better than ever. (Someone shouted: "Your singing is better!") On the next CD our personality is coming back. We must broaden our horizons& (He went on for a while on this matter, I could conclude from this that the next CD will be something completely different with less (hard)rock! Hope it will still be the Deep Purple we all know and love!)
What do you think of Blackmore's Night's new CD?
I have lots of affectations and respect for Ritchie. He has a special kind of humour; everybody grew up, he did not. He IS a brilliant guitarplayer. We wish him well. He's brilliant. The wounds are over; after 5 years&. (He did not answer the question!)
Will you have him back?
Well, it is like when you have been through a divorce: the new wife will not like it.
Why isn't he invited?
Again I use the divorce: it's like inviting your ex-wife to your new wedding, he would be there frightening the kids.
After this it was time for the sweepstake. He drew some prices kindly donated by Roger Glover (some laminated and signed passes). Ian was thanked by Simon and tried to get outside the hall. Of course this could not happen without signing a lot of things. He signed the T-shirt I was wearing, and after reading it, he said it was very funny. (A cartoon of Beavis and Blackmore; designed by one of the Belgian fanclub members; lots of people at the convention liked it). BTW Did anybody happen to take a picture of Gillan signing or reading my T-shirt? Would love to have a copy from it; I had my camera with me, but the film was full.
Simon gave us (in a hurry, time was running out) the answers to the quiz. Well, I did have some correct answers (15/57!) 1 person had 54 correct! He told us also that it might be possible that there would be a chance that it could happen that tonight's show could have 2 extra guests: 1 ex-Beatle and some-one from Pink Floyd. But this was all uncertain. This was like a knife that went through my heart! As I could not be at tonight's show!
It was very nice meeting all those people you know from the magazines (hi Stathis, and others), Internet, tape-trading. Nice to connect names to faces. Pity I arrived very late at the convention so I did not see or speak to everybody I know. Again there were lot of Swedish, Finnish, Poles and even 3 (!) Belgians.
When I returned to my family's meeting place and we passed, around 19:30, the RAH again by buss, it really did hurt, seeing all those people queuing, entering or walking towards the hall, the faces I've seen the night before & I really envied them. But at least I had the consolation that we had a great Italian dinner and the others did not!
[ reviews | the highway star ]