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ATL Hall, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
September 16, 2003

Extraterrestrial Bananas
After the happenings last week (interviews, workshop, tv shows, etc.) I was going mad to see Deep Purple on stage. I didn't receive the money I was expecting so I could not go to Goiânia. There was no other way; "I will have to wait and go to Rio"- I had to put up with this.

I got the bus to Rio Monday night and at Tuesday morning I got my feet there. The bus station is very dirty and small (I can't understand why Rio doesn't do a new one), but when I got the local bus to go to the hotel, I forgot about the bus station... Looking to the right I could see Corcovado (Christ Monument), looking to the left I could see the beaches and Pão de Açúcar... everywhere you take a look, you can see a post card. I will never live there but it's a really nice city to visit.

At 8h30 I arrived at Sheraton Hotel, a wonderful hotel, without words to describe it. Changed my "crumpled" clothes and slept for a while, in front of the sea. At 9h00, Don came from the street, I think he went to walk a while to enjoy the sun, that was shinning that time (it was raining since Sunday and at 2pm on Tuesday the rain came back). Roger was enjoying the sun too, on the bar at the side of the swimming pool, reading a book. A couple of hours after, there was a few minutes press conference and an interview for Globo TV local report. My friend from Brasil 2000 radio here in São Paulo Vitor Bonesso got me at the hotel and we went to ATL Hall.

After this, the band went to Globo TV studios to record an special for "Casseta & Planeta", an witty TV show. The band will appear with Fucker and Sucker, caricatures from that north-Americans police officers we can see at the movies and sitcoms. At the scene, the two police officers were chosen to do the the band security here in Brasil, because they know how to speak English and don't need "dubbers" (that person who do dubs) hehehe, but they don't know really. Fucker and Sucker meet the band rehearsing, saying they are big fans from Deep Purple, but, when talking with the band members, they say they like Deep Purple because the band has the same kind of music of Julio Iglesias, Celine Dion and Bee Gees. Deep Purple members get angry and ask for some "dubber" to take the place from the two police officers. They played Smoke on the Water, and there will be legends in Portuguese saying "Não me chamo Walter", which can be understand as "I am not called Walter". Well... you need to see this entirely and try to understand, its very difficult to try to explain :-).
Because of this, the band didn't do the soundcheck. What a pity!! I was expecting to see that :-(

The venue was supposed to have tables to the audience. No way. We talked with Charlie and he asked the venue to take the tables off. I don't know exactly why, but It was very funny to see the people getting out all the tables very quickly. (The true is that I've been warning the local producers about that, telling them the band don't like this kind of thing here in Brasil, and got no answer - hope the had learnt know). Even though the chairs were on their place... they were ignored by the audience.

At 3pm, Bruce Payne asked for a support band, which was dislocated from São Paulo "per avion". The band is called Laguna, and its sounds like... nothing original, second hand pop.
There wasn't many people like Goiânia and Recife. One problem was the rain. Second, there was a Halloween concert at the same day. Of course Deep Purple is superior than Halloween, but I am sure that young that don't know about the power of Deep Purple playing live went to see the other concert.... They didn't know what they were missing.

After the Recife gig I wrote to Roger telling him about the many emails I received asking about the set list. Space Truckin' was one of the most requested songs and was never played in Brasil. The launch was aborted in 91, 97, 99 and 2000. So, that was time to the space truck's lift off here in Brasil.

I didn't take a look at the set list sheet, so when the show started I had no idea they had changed it. Highway Star was brilliant as ever and was followed by Woman From Tokyo. A funny introduction from Gillan to Silver Tongue which was not so exciting for the audience. The bands cant expect Brazilians fans will know all about the new songs. The album was just released, we didn't have much time, most of people will wait a while until buy the album, its not like Europe.

Don did a wonderful introduction to Lazy, followed by Contact Lost and Haunted as usual. After Haunted, Paice started to play something.... "Well, I know what it is... well... It could be Space Truckin?" And then, Space Truckin'! I was not believing. The audience got crazy!! It was a perfect set, Contact Lost, Haunted and Space Truckin, a perfect set as a tribute to Columbia crew members and personally to the Brazilians rocket engineers.

I had no chance to talk with Roger after the concert, but I heard Gillan talking about the inclusion of Space Truckin, due some emails requests and because they had never played here, so it was as new for us as Bananas could be. I missed the Bananas Morse X Airey duel, but Space Truckin is Space Truckin... thank you Ian you sung it. Thank you Roger.

The second surprise was I Got You Number, not anymore as a encore song. Its better like this. People didn't want to hear this song when the band came to the encore. This can be done in countries like German, which will have many dates. The audience here wants to listen to the classics before the new ones. Anyway, of course the new ones must be included, and I am sure many people will buy Bananas after the concerts.

Knocking At Your Back Door was very exciting too, but I think it was a short version, cant remember well now. Well Dressed Guitar still sounds brilliant, and was followed by House of Pain. The audience really enjoyed this one.

At his solo, Don played "Garota de Ipanema" and "Saudade" (I think that's the name for this Brazilian song) and others songs as usual (including Star Wars theme). The solo was an introduction to Perfect Strangers.

Steve introduced Smoke on the Water with the riffs from GnR, Zeppelin, AC/DC, Hendrix and some more, nothing new.

They left the stage for a few minutes, the audience was sing the Black Night "riff" and then they played Hush, with a minute Paice drum solo. The end the concert, after Hush, they played the same song as the Berlin launch Party (I forgot now about what is it) as an introduction to Black Night. In the middle of this song, they did a nice blues jam. It was a brilliant version of Black Night.

The concert was over. I had to pack my bags and got straight to São Paulo. Thank you everyone who supported me financially with anything possible!!! :-) tomorrow I am going to Curitiba, so I need to wash my clothes today and pack my bags again.

Many happenings this year were very special for me, very moving. Even though I am still unemployed, bad things from the last 2 years were left behind. I am a "aficionado" for the sky and everything we can see and feel there: clouds, wind, stars, planets, planes, satellites, space shuttles, Deep Purple, etc... As the band members, I was receiving the news (by NASA) from Columbia, mission STS107. I have not the talent of Steve Morse, but if I had a guitar that time I could have composed something like Contact Lost. I am sure that music didn't come from guitar techniques, it came from the heart. And last month, Brasil lost 21 engineers from our extremely modest space program when the rocket exploded on the ground.
So, I think you can understand how moving was to listen to Space Truckin in Rio. I am still thinking about the first notes of it.

Abraços a todos,
Marcel Vinicius de Morais