Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but in place of a lotta shouting from the rooftops and dancing in the streets I seem to have detected - from punters as well as press people - a feeling of caution, of guardedness, an attitude of 'OK, big deal, so you've reunited - now get on with it and show us what you can do'.
Well, Messrs Gillan, Glover, Blackmore, Lord and Paice did just that, and a couple of weeks back released their comeback album 'Perfect Strangers'. As I mentioned in my review last issue, the LP is a safe solid effort, neither mindblowingly magnificent nor trite, tedious and interminable.
Maybe there should've been something more, I don't know, but with repeated listens I've grown to kinda like the record. While it hasn't quite excited me enough to take the dust covers off my twin-neck squash racket, I have grown to admire the sheer quality of the music on display. Purple makes it sound so easy: with a minimum of fuss and bother, they've fallen right back into the 'Machine Head' groove. 'Perfect Strangers' is sophisticated rock played with virtuoso ability. It's Purple back at, if not their very best, then certainly Goddamn close to it.
Like you, no doubt, I had my misgivings, my reservations about the Mark Two Purple reunion, let alone their right to exist at all in the synth-swamped, pop overkill world of the Eighties. But after talking to the guys I couldn't help but be mightily impressed by the high level of wild enthusiasm and total commitment on display.
The five of 'em are back together and, really, the overriding feeling I get is that it's like a family meeting up once again, after spending a decade apart. Money may well be a big reason why this reformation came about, but there are several other big reasons as well. There's the burning desire to inject a bit of class into rock'n'roll. There's the will to prove that they can still cut it as musicians after all these years. There's the great feeling of meeting up with long-lost friends after a long time spent apart. And, above all, there's the sheer joy of playing together once again.
In this, the first part of a major series of interviews with all the members of the new/old Deep Purple, I talk to keyboard player Jon Lord, drummer Ian Paice and singer Ian Gillan. Bassist Roger Glover and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore will follow next issue.
My first tree conversations took place in an odd little rehearsal room situated in the town of Bedford, of all places. Apparently, the band wanted to start putting their live show together in an out-of-the-way location, away from a big city tinderbox atmosphere.
The room itself was a kinda olde worlde wedding reception-style annexe to a wine bar, with plenty of mock Tudor beams, horse brasses and paintings depicting hunting scenes on display. Thick blankets shrouded the windows to soak up the sound and also keep that pesky daylight at bay.
On the door leading to the rehearsal area was attached a plaque, on which was inscribed, in medieval script: 'The Antico Room'. The cynics among you might say that, bearing in mind Purple's less than spring chicken status, the fact that they were occupying a room with that particular is more than somewhat apt...
Anyway, on with the interviews. I've basically let Jon and the two Ians speak for themselves, with a minimum of interjections from yours truly. Lord was, as ever, the lucid, articulate gentleman. Paice was more brisk and efficient; it was obvious he had more than half a mind on the England-Finland football match, which was being played even as we spoke. And Gillan was... well, very wary, very defensive. You'll find out the reason why a little later on...
[ JON LORD | IAN PAICE | IAN GILLAN | PART 2 ]
Transcription and HTML by Benjamin Weaver