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Other viewpoints – the UK tour
I guess sometimes you have to be there to know. However here’s a couple more reviews from the UK tour, covering both sides of the coin….
Purple returned to Glasgow on the back of the great new album and we were intrigued to see how much they would change their set to accommodate it. We need not have worried as they surprisingly started with Après Vous and it was immediately clear that the new material had reinvigorated the band. Steve Morse and Don Airey traded licks throughout the show and the band were really enjoying themselves.
Ian Gillan was in the best form I’ve seen for years and his voice soared into the stratosphere at the end of Vincent Price. More surprises were to follow, not least when the Mule was resurrected complete with a classic Ian Paice drum solo.
Well worn favourites such as Highway Star were cast aside in favour of Hard Lovin’ Man and Into the Fire but this was not an issue as the ecstatic crowd lapped up the virtuosity of the frequent jams. Don Airey and Steve Morse excelled and did their predecessors proud. The band played Above and Beyond in tribute to Jon Lord and Ian Gillan put his heart and soul into the vocals.
The encores of Green Onions, a Roger Glover Bass solo and Black Night rounded the night off with a bang and the abiding memory is of Ian Gillan sitting on a monitor enjoying watching Morse and Airey blazing away in another guitar/organ duel.
A fantastic concert and we can only hope the success of this tour will tempt them into the recording studio again soon.
Andrew Jones
Stilton is a Mature Cheese that can go Off
Having been a fan for the last 45 years and seen the band many times over the years ( see earlier reviews) I was looking forward to the bands return to thr UK since I last saw them on their orchestra gig at the O2.
I had great tickets centre stage 15 rows back and was right in the middle of a great mix. We had been entertained by the unusual Rockbox who did a very good covers set with an unusual instrument line up.
After the anticipated warm up of the orchestral “Mars Bringer of War” they opened with Apres Vous. Now before I go any further I have mixed feelings about the new material and whilst the songs are well produced I dont feel the energy or exitement with any of the tracks that I could honestly say are classic purple and feel the album to be quite average and uninspiring.
Not a classic opener therefore but I appreciate they are promoting the album after all. Now Ian has always been my favourite rock vocalist but it would seem age is taking its toll and attempting numbers such as Into the Fire and Hard Lovin Man were painful for him judging by his grimacing and the resultant sound was sad for me to watch.
The band were in essence superb with a good mix and the usual solid tight sound. However, even the classics have become a little jaded and predictable. The new songs didn’t really do the band justice and Vincent Price sounded like a pet shop boys cover.
They finished with SMOTW and BN but why Ian was wearing a lurex jacket as if in some vegas tribute pastiche was embarrassing. I have adored this band for many many years and have all of their material and it was disappointing for me to leave the show without the warmth and satisfied excitement I have always felt from the band having watched their shows all around the world. The musicianship is still great and the classics are what they always will be but like a good cheese such as Stilton it can go stale after too much maturity.
Dave Bonner
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
You say Tomatoe, I say Tomatto…….
Not all taste is good taste. Some taste buds are less reactive than others. Some are more. Either way, who would have thought we’d be here in 2013 able to enjoy the powerful music of DEEP PURPLE in it’s present form. Not from the past. The past has long gone. This is who they are today and all I know is, I’m glad as hell they continued on and brought us another great album and are touring it. It’s way Above and Beyond my expectations. One more album while they are riding high and happy with this last one would be crème de la crème. This too will be the past eventually. The longer they keep it up, the more music from the past we will have to enjoy….
!Ch-BeerZ?
October 29th, 2013 at 00:03To my ears Ian is now a lot more comfortable singing in the lower register in comparison to the last tour where he still had to adjust. He sounds entirely different now, as do the songs. One has to like that or not. I guess the guys who are stuck with the 70ies/80ies Purple won’t stop complaining anyway. In my mind it would be more interesting if Ian did something similar to Robert Plant’s Strange Sensation. I don’t think that Ian’s voice is suited to sing the heavy Purple stuff for the next years to come, the songs really don’t do him justice anymore (except the ones from Now What?! maybe). On the other hand I’m not sure if he could pull that off because you have to have completely different singing qualities for that context. In that regard Robert really moved on and developped further. But who knows …
Don get’s better and better in contrast to Steve, IMHO. He really delivers, especially when he plays Lazy – just outstanding. All in all I’m missing a fast song; the rhythm section is tight but there’s too little space for them to show off. I’m missing the fast hard rock tunes and Ian’s virtuoso drum fills. There are too many midtempo songs.
October 29th, 2013 at 12:57They are far to safe these days. Even the new numbers are without power in attitude. It looks very much like – OK another day in the office. We smile – we like this – we play loud – we play great – but we do the same over and over again, so we have lost the Purple magic, which was the trademark of Deep Purple. That left with Ritchie.
October 29th, 2013 at 13:36I hate to say it, but I prefer to see Purple on DVD/Blue-Ray these days, and cant wait to the new DVD.
Have to love the pure magic that continues from Purple Day One and gained steam back in ’94….
Ridiculously great album in this here year of 2013.
Wave those magic wands boys!
Peace,
October 30th, 2013 at 14:21Ted
Long live the Morse Era! I love the new material.. We need more tunes from Purpendicular and Abandon, two outstanding records. Hope they hit the USA!
October 30th, 2013 at 16:18Birmingham – having seen DP 18 times, including once at a warm up gig in Devon under a different name and a ‘crowd’ of 12 or so, I have, on various occassions been thrilled, disappointed, moved, rocked and very very occasionally left feeling something was missing when watching my all time favourite band live (think NEC). However, this gig was simply great! The band clearly enjoying themselves, IG on good form vocally and with his humour, the new songs fitting well amongst the classics – they are amazing virtuoso mysicians but as a band they now seem to not only have a sense of the past, but a love of the present, not something I have felt at every gig, especially the last tour with Ritchie…… Their sound has changed, but then so has my life, I have grown older with them, I will hate the day I can no longer look forward to the ‘next time I see them’. One more album? I doubt it, but I’ll settle for another UK tour or two!
October 30th, 2013 at 19:35Mark @6;
Really good points overall. A perfect example of what happens when one goes to ‘numerous’ live shows of any band they are a fan of. Especially a band such as Purple whom have been around so long, gone through so many changes and known for their individual virtuosity. True fans of Purple tend to be very critical and very tuned in to the performance of the band and the individual players as apposed to just listening to and liking the music and rocking out as most casual concert goers do. Purple are under the fan’s microscope with each album and each concert gig and each fan has his own focus of attention he or she is tuned into, resulting in a multitude of passionate positive or negative viewpoints on the same event. Especially if the fan has experienced not only many concerts, but also concerts over the years and various MKs. The last 2 line-ups (Mk7/8) are the longest running line-ups of the batch. MK7 from ’94-2002 (8 years, 2 albums) and MK8 from 2002 through the present (11 years and going, 3 albums). The longer a MK lasts, the more time and events there are to scrutinize or evaluate that era. All the previous MKs had the luxury of being short lived and escaped a lot of the ‘over exposure’ that results in a longer term. MK1 (2 years, 3 albums), MK2a (4 years, 4 albums), Mk3 (3 years, 2 albums), MK4 (2 years, 1 album), MK2b (5 years, 2 albums), MK5 (2 years, 1 album), MK2c (1 year, 1 album).
So, all of this leads to what Mark @8 stated in a nutshell above, and with the realization that there have and always will be ups and downs throughout the years, gigs, albums and songs. What is so moving and profound are his last 2 sentences…. “Their sound has changed, but then so has my life, I have grown older with them, I will hate the day I can no longer look forward to the ‘next time I see them’. One more album? I doubt it, but I’ll settle for another UK tour or two!”
How long has it been that most of us have been feeling there would be no more albums and no more tours? Yet here we are many years later still being graced with their new music and upcoming tours in promotion of it. Yes, unfortunately one sad day, it will end. But then, didn’t it actually end each time there was a new MK? Yes and no. Being that they carried on as they did under the same moniker, it all melds into an evolution of one huge organism that has left a ‘true legacy’ of mountainous proportions for us and future folk to enjoy from now on. They have done their job for over 45 years and still going. I have been there since 1969. It has been an incredible ride going through the changes, the disbandment in ’76, the reunion in ’84 and the continuation until today. An emotional ride. The great thing is that if and when Purple pulls the plug, there will still be music offered from many of the individuals afterwards as when they quit in 1976. I remember frantically searching for anything that came out from them individually after that up until they reunited in ’84. The band was gone for 8 years, but some incredible music came from that period, never believing they would reassemble. Even as with their separate efforts still today, we are blessed with so much Purple related music that is in itself amazing. Hell just recently… BCC and Flying Colors. There will be Purple related music for years to come. The “Family Tree” will flourish on and continue to drop seeds that sprout up and grow into their own related entity. More like a ‘Vine”‘ than a ‘Tree’. A Purple vine that runs along, twisting and turning with branching protrusions along the way, all connected and related by the foundation of that original MK1 seedling that rooted in so ‘Deep’, that ‘Purple’ has lived on and grown all these years and will continue to do so in many shapes or forms for years to come through the continuation of past and present members due to their own separate gift of talent. That is “DEEP PURPLE”.
!Ch-BeerZ?
December 14th, 2013 at 17:10