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Tribute to Funky Claude

View of downtown Montreux

In a recent interview to Russian newspaper Kommersant Ian Gillan mentioned, among the usual, that the band is contemplating a special tribute to Claude Nobs during their visit to Montreux (they perform at the Jazz Festival on July 19). One idea being touted is to skip Smoke on the Water from the setlist on the main festival stage at the Stravinsky Hall and perform it separately, on an open air stage on the Lake Geneva shoreline, with fireworks and other bells and whistles.

Thanks to CV3591 from deep-purple.ru forum for the info.



31 Comments to “Tribute to Funky Claude”:

  1. 1
    HardRockPete says:

    What a great idea πŸ™‚ Claude Nobs, or Nibs if you like πŸ˜‰ , played an important part in the bands history, and the way he left was beyound tragic πŸ™ I’m sure he’s up there with Lord, Bolin, Hendrix, Gallagher etc. promoting a heavenly great Jazz Fest πŸ˜€ Thank you Claude! I didn’t know you personally, but I felt that I knew you through your outstanding work for great bands, artists and music. May you rest in peace, beauty and music πŸ™‚

  2. 2
    Tracy(Zero the Hero)Heyder says:

    Great idea. Plus a long ‘sing along of…. “Smoke on the water, fire in the sky”. Funky Claude will be there in spirit as will the smoke from the fireworks… Brilliant!

  3. 3
    MacGregor says:

    This will be the first Montreux Jazz festival since Claude Nobs unfortunate passing, & no doubt it will be an emotional one!
    We all know no one lives forever, (well not physically anyway), but we have lost too many icons recently! RIP!

  4. 4
    MacGregor says:

    If bells & whistles are involved in the proceedings, Blackers may appear mysteriously! That may summon him from the dark side perhaps?

  5. 5
    cyclone says:

    let’s not forget a hero too…wish i could be there..

  6. 6
    purplepriest1965 says:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBLc6uPG9B8

    I hope THIS was not a tribute to Claude.

  7. 7
    errolarias says:

    according to this web site :

    http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/deep-purple/2013/mawazine-festival-rabat-morocco-bd9954e.html

    The only song from the new album in the setlist of this concert in Mawazine (Morocco – May 30,2013) was “Vincent Price”…….. WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT !!!!!

    Give a look to this setlist… What do you think ?

    I think is time for the band to start playing songs from Now What…because i fear that with this EXCELLENT new album they will do the same they did to bananas,abandom or rapture…just one or two songs in the set and the rest will be the same old songs of the blackmore era.

    Come on guys ! Is time for a balance ! After almost 20 years with the band Steve deserves more thar “well dressed guitar” !

    “Now What ?!” is an excellent album,maybe one of the best in the vast purple catalog, why dont you act like the others bands that play an important set of songs from the new album during that album tour ?

    I was planning a trip to Europe with my family to watch a DP concert,but i do not want to spend an important amount of money to see them playing the same old number they have playing over all this years…. We want to listen Weiderstan,Uncommon Man,Out of hand,Apre Vous and others live..I want to feel the new DP spirit that they magically showed us in NOW WHAT !

    Here in Thehighwaystar.com we told them the songs of the new album we woukd to listen live…. Did they listen to us ? I am afraid they did not.

  8. 8
    lahorapurpura says:

    Why did they play only one song from the New album? Do they pretend to give us just one song from the New album during the NOW WHAT tour? Or maybe the reason is that Gillan cannot Sing such songs alive? I really don’t know, but is quite strange because any other artist would play songs from their recent album alive! And is specially strange if you consider the level of promotion DP is giving to NOW WHAT…Can someone explain this behaviour?

    I saw DP in concert during the RAPTURE tour and,as far as i remember,they only played two songs from the album “ROTD” and “Wrong Man” would be a pity if they decide to do the Same with NOW WHAT

  9. 9
    Scott says:

    Watching that YT clip should be indication enough as to why they aren’t playing a lot of material from NOW WHAT?!. Gillan was even having trouble singing SOTW.

    I hate to say this being one of many diehard Purple fans but this better be it for them.

  10. 10
    al says:

    @8 the album is successful so far man,so I’m pretty sure they will play songs from the album,of course in different nights,they will alternate.They will probably see the reaction of the audience to the songs….Vincent Price will be one of them,Above and Beyond has potential and is a tribute to Jon,Out Of Hand and Hell to Play could be good live numbers as well.

  11. 11
    ErikL says:

    Oh ye, of little faith!

    We will see what happens today in Bulgaria. But I don’t think there is any reason to worry. They played, for the first time ever, in Morocco to 80 000 people, almost none of which have ever been to a Deep Purple concert. That is not the time to launch new material.

  12. 12
    Svante Axbacke says:

    Excuses, excuses. There are always excuses. There will be a lot of festivals for Purple this summer, that means they can use the old excuse of “not everyone there to see the band, festival audience wants to hear old hits”. Then they go on their own tour and then they can go back to pretty much the same excuses but substitute festival audience for “most of the audience”.

    ​I wonder why other bands with an old baggage of songs, many of them with a whole bunch of SOTW’s in their past, still manage to play new songs even though they also must notice the lack of interest in the new material compared to the new songs?

    ​Even Kiss opened their show with a new song the last time I saw them two or three years ago. And I am sure Kiss fans have a million old songs they’d rather hear live. Opening with a new song must BTW be a pretty safe bet because I can’t see anyone go to the bar or toilet when a show starts. Everything is exciting when the house lights go down and your heroes hit the stage. Then you probably have to do a safe one as the second song. πŸ™‚
    ​
    As Gillan used to say, the old songs were also new once. If you never play them, they won’t get the chance to grow old. They will just be forgotten. And Gillan will be pissed off because people will label the band “classic rock”. What else can they do?

  13. 13
    Svante Axbacke says:

    @9: As the new material seems to be better suited to Gillan’s voice, I think it would be better for them to play more of the new material than he old he struggles with.

  14. 14
    cpt.hook71 says:

    @ 7 & 8: yes, Vincent Price was on live. if the set-list is correct, there was also Body Line! …but i have to admit, two songs from “Now What?!” is not enough!!! maybe it’s only the beginning and they will give some more songs a try and at least a permanent spot in the set-list.

    Smoke On The Water live at the lake Geneva shoreline… nice! …with Jon, Frank & Funky Claude watching from above. πŸ˜‰

  15. 15
    RG says:

    Actually, in Rabat we played three new songs… Vincent Price, All The Time In The World and Body Line. There will be more.

  16. 16
    Svante Axbacke says:

    @15: Cool. πŸ™‚

  17. 17
    Tommy H. says:

    @15: Uncommon Man would be an awesome live track – my favourite from the new record. And there’s so much improvisation within this song. I love the way it builts up and the middle section.

  18. 18
    ErikL says:

    @15 Great news. Hope to see you in August in Sweden.
    I used to spend two weeks per month in Rabat. Told my friends their to go. I have followed the Moroccan news, and the inclusion of their national anthem in Don Airey’s solo was much appreciated and is all over the local news.

  19. 19
    Giuseppe Colella says:

    Hello Roger,
    you check this blog?!….wow!!!
    then please Uncommon man to next song.. ^^
    thank u for all!

  20. 20
    CP says:

    RG,it’s a heck of an album. It’s hard NOT to want to hear them.

  21. 21
    gm says:

    Hi Roger! Great, great record, thank you!

  22. 22
    MrPtheDPfan says:

    Where can I find some kind of sample ?

  23. 23
    ao says:

    RG @ 15……New album is fantastic! Hope you guys tour the USA soon! I’ve been a fan since my older siblings were buying your albums in the early ’70s, even though I was merely a child at the time who only started attending concerts in the early ’80s. I’ve never had the opportunity to catch Deep Purple live, but if you do come to the states, I’ll attend as many shows within my region of the Great Lakes as possible.

    As evidenced in the Youtube video in response #6 above, the core members have a good 20+ years on me, and I hope I can rock out as well as they do when I hit that point in my age.

    The members of Deep Purple; Ian Gillian, Ian Paice and Roger Glover are timeless musical geniuses and having Steve Morse and Don Airey onboard are like the icing on the cake with the cherries on top! Brilliant!!

    Now What?! is an amazing album. Count me among the chorus for wanting to hear some tracks from Purpendicular, Abandon, Bananas and Rapture of the Deep sprinkled in.

  24. 24
    Steve B says:

    @15
    Big brother is watching us!
    Nice of him to wake up early to correct some doubters, I for one wasn’t expecting too many new songs at Rabat, so 3 is fine. I’m sure by the tine they hit the uk again it will be more like 6.
    Let’s just appreciate the album for now for being one of their finest ever.
    RG If you have any backstage passes for B”ham……

  25. 25
    purplepriest1965 says:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H5F0N7lV2VM

    I must admit I found this quite, ahem, acceptable.

  26. 26
    purplepriest1965 says:

    23

    All those years since the 80’s seeing shows but no Deep Purple?!
    And no time to skip the Gillian error?

  27. 27
    Anthony says:

    It would be a great idea. Paying tribute to Claude Nobs and Jon at the same time… All we need is a cease fire agreement between Gillan and Blackmore, clearly the main thing which explains all those tensions… We all know that the rest of the band except Morse of course kept in touch with Ritchie. Do you imagine the impact of such a reunion in our nowadays musical desert ? Personally it would be a tribute to my late father, born on a July 19th and DP great fan…

  28. 28
    Dave Smith says:

    Love how people get annoyed about the band only playing 1 new song,,,,,,,,when in fact they played 3!! Get your facts right before you write this rubbish… If you were there and didnt twig, thats even worse!!!
    Rant over

  29. 29
    Tracy (Zero the Hero) Heyder says:

    @27

    Actually, this is the first time I could see the possibility of Ritchie on stage with Purple, and much warranted. The two Purple Iconic figures whom have passed (Lord and Nobs) deserve a proper send off, and this would surely be a proper send off. Smoke on the Water came about due to the now famous event at the Jazz Fest. The band setting up on the shoreline and Ritchie stepping on stage with the band and his Strat, along side Steve Morse with an extended Hammond solo from Don Airey for JON. Man, what a historic moment that would be……

    Ch-BeerZ?!

  30. 30
    Rob says:

    A tribute to Claude Nobs? Does anyone know when they will play SOTW open air near the Lake Geneva shoreline, like Gillan said? Must see this!

  31. 31
    JimF says:

    Love the live the shoreline SOTW idea. Sadly, I think Ritchie burned his Purple bridges in 1993. Even if the band wanted to reconcile that, I can’t see Ritchie wanting to share his guitar stage. A possible workaround might be to arrange a second bass part (he did have that fondness for bass pedals circa 1980…) and have Steve play that. And I would REALLY love to see it !

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