From - Wed Apr 3 20:37:36 1996 From: Thomas Binderup Jensen Subject: PS Ian Paice interview Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 06:14:04 +0100
Excerpts from BBC Radio One Tommy Vance interview with Ian Paice for the Friday Rock Show. As heard on the PS/KAYBD 12".
TV : It seems that we're at a period in rock music when things are going back to where they were when they were new and when they were fresh, but with a lot more power.
IP : I think, what we have is a situation, in the last two years where there's excitement, but there's 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. I mean, on the pop scene we have nothing going on at all, we have a fashion show going on which has nothing to do with music, whatever. What I hope we can reinject is a little bit of thought, a little bit of class into heavy rock'n'roll. 'Cause 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 miles an hour for two hours. There's more to it than that'. That's a very important part of it, but that's only one part of it. And the thing of full circle is correct. Things goes through a series like a doldrum period, they go through high points, like the late sixties going to the seventies was a high point, the mid- seventies was a low point. We seem to be coming to a high point again, where rock'n'roll music can be exciting again. We got some exciting bands, but... speaking as a British and 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.
TV : But to continue any excitement, you need to continue the excitement of an audience.
IP : All 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, quality. And that's all we can ever give now. I believe that the things that were important then are still important now.
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 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, not the seventies. I don't say we actually play any differently, but we have to realize that the needs are different now. I don't believe you can do 15 or 20 minute drum solos, I don't believe you can leave a guitarist on his own for half an hour on a 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 the hell we want. It's up to you whether you like it or not, but we'll do what we want'. That's been done. The boundaries have now been broken down. I think we all realize that, and that's why I think it'll work. I don't think we're trying to sell them 1972 or 1973 again. That would be wrong, that would be criminal.
TV : But they are going to call for the 1972 and the 1973 tunes.
IP : And they're gonna get a lot of them. They're gonna get a lot of them, too. Because... just in the weeks 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. The songs on record were OK - on stage they were brilliant, and it's still that way. They're much better to play live than - 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.