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Highlights in Realaudio 3.0

DEEP PURPLE - LIVE AT THE OLYMPIA '96

Nice surprise, coming home from work to find the Deep Purple 'Live at the Olympia' CD on the doorstep.
The inlay gives us three pages of pictures , two pages songtitles and credits and two pages thank you. In the crew there's one Mickey Lee Soule, is this 'the' Elf Mickey Lee Soule?
Ofcourse songcredits also go to Ritchie Blackmore and it's nice to see his name on a Deep Purple disc. Although Steve Morse is great it's still very familiar to read: Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice. That was then and now is now..... !!
The album cover concept is by Roger Glover and he did a great job, the whole thing especially the front cover looks terrific.

The sound of the two discs is superb. I very much like the way the drums come through. As we all know some tracks had to wait a long time before appearing on a live album but now they're here: 'Fireball', 'Maybe I'm a Leo', 'No one came' etc. The only one I miss is 'Bloodsucker', that's one of my own favourites, but no complaining with this cd please.
The music on the cd is really stunning. Listen to Lord's wonderful work on 'Cascades: I'm not your lover'. Halfway the song vanish into silence only to reappear softly with beautiful sounds coming from Steve's guitar. Nice interaction between Steve Morse and Jon Lord. Just when you think they can't top that one it's time for 'Sometimes I feel like screaming'. Going back in time with 'Woman from Tokyo' - difficult to sing this one but Gillan not only shows what once had been but also what still is, he still has the voice. 'No one came' grows and grows everytime I hear it. A nice version of 'The purpendicular waltz' closes disc one. Quick, quick the next one...after some keyboards Roger's bass line leads us into 'Rosa's cantina'. 'Speed king' is...well it's 'Speed king'...need I say more? One highlight is followed by the next one. Glad that 'Hey Cisco' is here, love that one. Steve's again doing amazing things, he's so good! After hearing 'Highway star' and more then two hours Deep Purple there's only one thing to do, start all over again.
And remember the saying: 'This record sounds best when played for your neighbours'.

Tracks:
1. Fireball 4:48.
2. Maybe I'm a Leo. 5:18.
3. Ted the mechanic 4:21.
4. Pictures of home 5:58.
5. Black night 6:28.
6. Cascades : I'm not your lover 10:08. (With horns).
7. Sometimes I feel like screaming 7:03.
8. Woman from Tokyo 5:34.
9. No one came 6:03. (With horns).
10. The purpendicular waltz 5:02. (With horns).
    Total playing time 65:32

11. Rosa' cantina 5:53.
12. Smoke on the water 9:00.
13. When a blind man cries 6:54.
14. Speed king 9:22.
15. Perfect strangers 6:11.
16. Hey Cisco 5:50.
17. Highway star 8:50. (With horns).
    Total playing time 57:02

Buy this one and discover again how good they are.

Hans van der Meiden
Branding 38
2201 WV - Noordwijk
The Netherlands
E-mail: Cisco@Euronet.nl