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Why such poor reviews?
This is more a comment than a review. Do with it what you will.
It is with interest that I have read the poor reviews coming out of Australia. I would like to state that in no way do I speak for the band and can only comment on the Brisbane show on the 7th May which I attended.
I was backstage after the show and got to speak to Gillan, Morse and Glover. But more about that later.
I watched the show side stage left, standing at the monitor mixing desk, so I had a perfect view of the boys at play and they seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.
At the time the show seemed very pedestrian and some what disjointed, but I put that down to where I was watching the show from, and not getting full impact of their glorious sound, but my wife commented on how lacklustre the crowd was in response to some of the songs (full house-6000+). It was very loud, (what else would you expect from Deep Purple?) even from backstage, and friends that were out front commented they wanted to leave because of that fact. (And we have all seen Motörhead at some point in our lives.) It didn’t bother me when I went out front during the encore, but I was already pummelled into submission.
The bouncers were over bearing, stopping people from even standing, and this was a great cause of disgust for the band. Talking to Roger after the show he told me the centre management went to the FOH sound desk and asked the band be turned down. Can you believe that! I doubt this is a first, but highly unusual.
From my point of view this is what I believe to be the problems from the early part of the tour:
1. Status Quo.
It looks good on paper, Purple/Quo, but in reality it is not a good pairing. Status Quo did nothing for me after 15 minutes, and from other comments on this board I’m not alone. They should have been restricted to 45 mins tops instead of the almost 90 they played in Brisbane. They are a cabaret act for crying out loud.
They played a tourist resort the night before for $35.00 a ticket, where the usual performers are Elvis impersonators and washed up country artists. They don’t belong on a Purple tour. I would have preferred to see a young up and coming Australian band, who would have brought in just as many people and had the flow on effect of a new generation of Purple fans.
2. The age of the crowd.
While there were a lot people in their 40s-50s, there where also a lot touching 70! I kid you not there was a guy and his wife and friends, front row, centre who must have been over 70. They left half way through Purple’s set, leaving four vacant seats front row, centre, This must have an effect on any band, Don’t care who you are.
3.Shorter set.
Due to Quo running over, Purple’s set was rushed (90 mins incl. encores). Not enough time for Deep Purple. Almost everyone here has seen a full blown Purple show, two hours minimum, and it is a beautiful thing.
I saw them last year at Milwaukee Summerfest (USA) and they blew the roof off, and that was an outdoor gig! 10,000 mad Americans went away truly satisfied, and they played 2hrs 15 with two encores! Two days later, from all reports they blew them away at Live 8. That was less than a year ago. Now we see our heroes doubling up with second rate cabaret acts, and hear of people walking out of shows?
I could go on, but what I would say to those who felt cheated in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, is Deep Purple will be back in Australia. Everyone is entitled to a perceived bad week, even if you are Deep Purple. From all reports the Sydney, Newcastle and Canberra shows were great. And let’s face it an average Purple gig is still better than anything else going around!
Pete Schuptar
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing