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Ian Paice
Tommy Vance: It seems that we are at a period in rock music when things are going back to where they where when they were new and fresh, but with a lot more power.
Ian Paice: I think what we have is a situation, especially in the last two years, where there's, excitement-wise, not a lot going on. There's a lot of bands coming up trying to create what was created a decade ago, and not quite making it, on the rock'n'roll level. On the pop scene we have nothing going on at all. I mean, we have a fashion show going on which has nothing at all to do with music whatever. What I hope we can re-inject is a little bit of thought, a little bit of class into heavy rock'n'roll. Because I think it's time that somebody actually said: 'Come on! There's more to it than just making a loud noise and playing at 300 mph for two hours, (215k) there's more to it than that.' That's a very important part of it, but that's only one part of it! And to think of full circle is correct.
Things go through a series like a doldrum period and they go through high points, like the late sixties going to the seventies was a high point and the mid-seventies was a low point. We seem to be coming to a high point again were rock'n'roll music can be exciting again. We've got some exciting bands, but speaking as a British or a European, it's a bit annoying because all the exciting bands seem to be coming from America at the moment. And that's not the way God intended it, you know. (116k)
TV: But to continue the excitement you need the continued excitement of an audience...
IP: Agreed, yeah! If there is a gamble, that's it. I believe it will work because all we ever gave in the old days was excitement and quality, and that's all we can ever give now! I believe that the things that were important then are still important now. (149k)
TV: But you can probably give it to a much greater extent now based on the experience that you've had since the time Purple broke up. Because the experience that every member of the band has had, has been phenomenal!
IP: Yes, but! None of the experience that's happened since, has been on the same level as Purple was. All we can do is what we did then and realize that we have to be in the eighties now and not in the seventies. I wouldn't say we actually play any differently, but we have to realize that the needs are different now. For instance, I don't believe you can do 15 or 20 minute drum solos. I don't believe you can leave the guitarist on his own for half an hour on stage, you can't do that. Then you could because then you were breaking down all the boundaries and all the things that people said you couldn't do, we said: 'Yes we can! We can do what hell we want!', you know, 'It's up to you whether you like it or not but we will do what we want.' (149k) That's been done, the boundaries have now been broken down. I think we all realize that and that's why I think it will work. I don't we're trying to sell them 1972 or 1973 again. That would be criminal!
TV: But they are going to call for the 1972 and 1973 tunes.
IP: And they're going to get a lot of them, too! Because just in the week's rehearsal we've had, they're a lot of fun to play again. There's a lot of good 'physical' quality in the songs we made. More so than there ever was on record, I mean the songs on record were OK, but on stage they were brilliant! And it's still that way. (165k) They're much better to play live, even to ourselves, than they ever were on record. And when you put them in front of an audience, especially a big audience, they're that much better again.
[ Jon Lord | Ritchie Blackmore | Roger Glover ]
[ Ian Paice | Ian Gillan ]
Transcription, sound clips and HTML by Benjamin Weaver