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Ringing the Bell Centre
Deep Purple live at Bell Centre (Montreal, Canada 2024-08-27)
WoW!! What energy!! Its not often that one witnesses a group in a state of being reborn?! That’s what it felt like and that’s what it sounded like.
From the epic sound of Mars, Bringer of War to the final cheers and shouts of more! end the end of Hush, the band did not disappoint. There was a definite new energy on that stage last night. Big Ian`s voice was strong and as smooth as a 78-year-old can sound after years of rocking out. Steady Roger Glover held his own and as my son said, Ian Paice made the drumming look like it was just another day at the office; effortless, smooth and fantastic! Don Airey’s keyboards never disappoint. During his intro to “Bleeding Obvious” , he tossed a little nod to Montreal’s Leonard Cohen by playing a well acknowledged snippet of “Suzanne”.
And if he hadn`t by then he certainly won the crowd with “ Les Gens du Mon Pays” for the predominantly French crowd – that may have cemented their status
in Montreal forever!!
A word or 2 on Mr. McBride; Way back when Steve Morse joined the band , I had a hard time with the new Purpendicular album. I needed a few shots at it before some of the songs “clicked” for me. But with Simon, smack in the face, hit me in the head, I immediately enjoyed the #1 album and thoroughly enjoyed his on-stage presence. His playing technique and his confidence at stepping into the guitar shoes of his predecessors makes him a natural Purpler (Purple-ite?).
The audience was enthusiastic and very welcoming to the new songs and those on the floor stood for most of the show. Cell phones repeatedly lit up when the classics were played ( Into the Fire, Lazy, Space Truckin and of course the legendary Smoke on the Water – let’s face it, it IS arguably one of the best-known rock songs) and the many of the next generation fans (and there were many!!) responded to all the music in the manner that the world’s greatest band deserved.!
It appears ,based on the Toronto review , that the Montreal show dropped “Hard Lovin Man” and “Black Night”. Oh well.
One last comment, I feel one or 2 more songs from the gone but not forgotten Morse era would have been nice additional icing to the Purple cake.
This may have been the last time we see them on this side of the ocean – last time in Montreal was 2018 and if it takes another 6 years Mr Gillan and Mr Glover will be 84 – But then again Willie Nelson is in his 90`s and still going – So you never know!!
YES led off the evening and without being too negative, I think they`ve had better days. Either that or they weren`t in the mood to play. The sound was muddled and “crowded”. They restricted their musical adventure to their earlier songs reaching as far as “Going for the one”. I saw them many years ago and this seems a like a shadow of what they were. This was the 1st time I saw Steve Howe’s version of Yes, and I expected more but his playing made little
or no impact on me.
Gary Poronovich in Montreal
review by Gary Poronovich
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Vive le Québec libre! 😂
https://youtu.be/8H7s7gmF9Ng
There we have it, conventional wisdom now seems to be that Simon joining was a good thing for our motley crew of senior citizens. Since no one does it, I will herewith pat my own back exuberantly and point to my prophecies of the past: I KNEW IT!
When in 2022/23 this forum of fora was swarming with the faint-hearted doubting Simon’s guitar prowess and, notably, his ability to write songs, I already flew the Northern Irish flag. I had bought all his solo stuff when he officially joined (actually already before because I had a hunch Steve might not come back from caring for Janine) and listening through his work thought: This might very well work. I had also already seen him a couple of times with the Don Airey Band and knew he could be refreshingly cocky on stage.
That really needed to be categorically stated, vielen Dank. Further future prognosis services at my usual hourly rates.
August 30th, 2024 at 13:57A very fine review Gary Poronovich. I was at the Bell Centre too and was impressed with how well Simon McBride has integrated into the band. I absolutely love his guitar playing….the biting tone, the attack, the attitude, the swagger – it’s obvious (bleeding)….Simon has definitely rejuventated the Purple machine.
Ian Gillan’s voice was strong through the entire show….at times he strained to hit some of the higher notes, but considering he is now 79 years old, his efforts and achievements were mightily appreciated. The Glover / Paice rhythm section were rock solid as ever, and Don Airey put on a masterclass of keyboard wizardry. Indeed, his renditions of Suzanne and Gens de Mon Pays went down well with the local crowd.
And YES….I was very pleased with Howe & company’s performance, especially the opener Machine Messiah as well as the insertion of Siberian Khattru into the set. I believe Purple shaved off Hard Lovin’ Man and Black Night from their own set in order to accomodate Yes’ additional songs.
The show was very well attended. Bell Centre’s Seating capacity is 21,000, so cutting off the area behind the stage and the empty seats in thetop rafters level, but adding 3,000 to 4,000 seats on the floor, I estimate there was at least 15,000 people at the event, give or take a couple thousand.
The Other Gary.
August 30th, 2024 at 15:46With you Uwe- I got his latest Cd not long after he joined our group- had a feeling he would do well. Didn’t know it be great.
August 30th, 2024 at 16:27.thankful for that!
I’m seeing them on 7th & hope big Ian is up for as this will
Be the third night in row for them !
Fingers Crossed!
Know the music will be great !
Cheers!
@ 1 – Do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on Uwe. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, there is that alleged crystal ball again folks. The one I mentioned a while ago here somewhere. Cheers.
August 30th, 2024 at 21:02Simon has a great tone and his solos on =1 make a statement. If only he would start to improvise a bit more onstage. This would add more nerve to the proceedings. Reproducing his solos note for note, night after night, is an unusual approach and especially in a band like Purple, whose reputation was built on their ability to improvise.
August 31st, 2024 at 05:49I dare say that this is perhaps a generational thing, Daniel, I‘ve noticed this with a lot of younger players, they are technically superior to many 70s players, but there is a general reluctance to improvise, that is perceived as “OK Boomer”ish, the younger generation believes in replicating reliable perfection as opposed to “let’s see where this now goes …”. You not only see it in music but also the amount of perfectionist care that is meanwhile invested into entertainment choreography.
It’s, to quote Robert Calvert, “the spirit of the age”. You don’t want algorithms to “improvise” either, you want them to execute perfectly every time.
https://youtu.be/vSR5TnNGKmo
August 31st, 2024 at 14:39The Spirit Of The Age indeed. That infamous line ‘your android replica is playing up again & it’s no joke, when she comes she moans her mothers name, it’s the spirit of the age’. Classic & so true. Cheers.
September 1st, 2024 at 01:36@5 & 6…
There are other concerns here too…
1. They have limited time to get through all the tunes.
2. They’ve only been playing together a few short years, & are likely still feeling-themselves-out as a working unit.
3. A band with 5+ decades of music already delivered has already been through all-of-that improvised 10-minute plus songs. With the time allowed, you have to deliver short & sweet across 20+ albums of tunes.
And much of the improvised “stuff” was done in the early Mk-II days simply because they didn’t have enough tunes that worked live, so they extended the tunes with jams, & with some Mk-I stuff too. When they did have enough tunes together, it was only ever SKoW, with its IG & RB interplay, CiT, that was always a 10-minute tune, & ST was then relegated the jam-tune…The rest were pretty much standard fare, but perhaps played differently because RB couldn’t remember how his solo’s ever went…
Mk-III didn’t have enough of their own stuff that worked live, so carry-overs from Mk-II tunes were the long-plays generally, with YFNO becoming the new long-play, along with ST.
Mk-IV didn’t really have any major developments as far as long-jam-tunes went, but solo spots were appointed & generally well-delivered by members in-between songs to take if they chose to… Or terrible, even disturbing addendum by GH was to be sadly endured that ultimately killed the band in the 1970’s…
The reunion of Mk-II saw really only the band at times trying to rehash unsuccessfully the times of old imo, but soon they introduced Rainbow highlights with “Difficult to Cure” & Jon, with a 5-minute keyboard interlude…
From here on, you did get extended solo passages from both Jon & Steve of the new material, but there was already a large back-catalogue of tunes amassing that “had” to be played also, & so ate into concert time.
In today’s world, when IG states that “DP were always an instrumental band”, all he means is that each tune will have a solo of some-sort within it. Most tunes heard on the radio today don’t, or don’t have a full passage of music for an instrument to solo through.
Peace !
September 1st, 2024 at 05:42Yes, but personally I don’t want “perfect execution” in DP. There are other bands for that. If Toto improvises a lot more than DP, and they do, then there is something wrong. Hopefully the others in the band will gently bring up the subject with Simon.
September 1st, 2024 at 06:06Yo,
@9…
I don’t really know Simon’s full career history, but certainly he’s a”gun for hire” & truly in a league of his own, like Steve, but in a different way. I think if you let the reigns loose too much with him, people might start complaining about too-much-guitar lol…
Someone like RB was very temperamental each night, & he’d need some time to “tune-in” to deliver something special, or simply “tune-out” & go through the motions. He needed some space & time to hopefully find a different angle to the solo, which is why the tunes were generally longer live back then. Plus when you throw-in-the-fact that Mk-II had already played the songs over the decades countless times, everyone was looking for a way to play them a little differently.
Once again, this is a new band, & with enough time granted, maybe some more new approaches to the tunes will come through with the solos, but there’s nothing wrong with delivering the goods 100% each night, as that makes you very dependable.
We’ve seen a few videos over the last couple of years where technical hitches have caused Simon’s sound to drop dead mid-song / solo, & he doesn’t seem too upset when it happens, & just gets on-with-it when the ball starts rolling again.
Perhaps, towards the end of the tour, should IG’s voice become less than 100% & require more rest time, is when you’ll see less songs played from the set-list, & extended solo time with the ones that are played, but they’ve got the routine pretty-well covered. They seem to fly in private small jets with themselves & crew only, so there’s only limited time to be exposed to colds & flu’s at the airport.
Peace !
September 1st, 2024 at 13:59“That infamous line ‘your android replica is playing up again & it’s no joke, when she comes she moans HER MOTHER’S name’ …”
https://media.tenor.com/J01oRa0lbOcAAAAM/freud-tellmemore.gif
Mother’s son MacGregor, how shall I put this gently … but it seems to me that we are deep in psychoanalytical territory again … You really need to work on those lingering matriarchal issues, most normal people hear those lyrics as :
‘Your android replica is playing up again
Ah, it’s no joke, when she comes she moans ANOTHER’S name’
A Freudian Slip, no less, alas!, how our pasts come back to haunt us …
https://giphy.com/gifs/hoppip-art-film-CiZB6WIjaoXYc
September 1st, 2024 at 17:23“Someone like RB was very temperamental each night, & he’d need some time to “tune-in” to deliver something special, or simply “tune-out” & go through the motions. He needed some space & time to hopefully find a different angle to the solo, which is why the tunes were generally longer live back then.”
That’s a beautiful description of what made Ritchie special (and sometimes unreliable) within DP, Doc Gregster!
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExd3c0cmJwa3R6aGlwYnQxemZjNXQ5YXl5Zng5ZTl4YXplZHZwNDh6YyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/7bumBQjZX8BgaE2zjv/giphy.webp
September 1st, 2024 at 22:36“Mk IV didn’t really have any major developments as far as long-jam-tunes went …”
Doc Gregster, be fair!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8KjLhGsPmc
14 minutes of Gettin’ Tighter with extended synchronized bass and lead guitar lick trading like I’ve never heard with an other band (at 05:37) qualifies as improvisation in my book. The whole track is one funk rock jam fest that even today would turn the Red Hot Chili Peppers green with envy. I understand your issues with Glenn’s various addenda, but Gettin’ Tighter is in a very different league.
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“In today’s world, when IG states that “DP were always an instrumental band”, all he means is that each tune will have a solo of some-sort within it. Most tunes heard on the radio today don’t, or don’t have a full passage of music for an instrument to solo through.”
That’s true, but there is an additional aspect. DP’s music is so riff- and small detail-infused plus has +two lead instruments (not just a lead guitar, but also a lead organ – a rare commodity these days – and let’s not forget prominent, busier-than-most drums), there is always something going on behind the voice track. Most DP tracks wouldn’t sound empty or static without Gillan’s no doubt enhancing vocals, that sets them apart from hearing a U2, Coldplay or Kings of Leon track played with the vocals silenced out.
September 1st, 2024 at 23:14I think Simon, born 1979, is simply a new experience for DP because he’s several generations removed from anyone else playing the banjo for them before: Ritchie was born 1945, Tommy Bolin 1951, Joe Satriani 1956 and Steve Morse 1954. Everyone of them could have been Simon’s dad.
When Simon started playing, he had the benefit of not only being able to listen to Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck but also Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Steve Lukather, Eddie van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Michael Schenker, Steve Vai, Tom Morello etc (not to forget all the DP guitarists before him). Plus he had instruction VHS tapes, DVDs, blu-rays and later on the internet at his disposal; that is a completely different immersion into different styles and influences available to him than to his predecessors.
September 1st, 2024 at 23:37I guess young musicians today identify virtuosity and top-notch musicianship with something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JNmz17gnMw
Mind you, that is skillfully played music, so skillful that I seriously doubt you would have found musicians in the 70ies anywhere to replicate it. I’m not knocking it. But it leaves zero room for improvisation, it is like the solemn recital of a classical piece of music.
Didn’t that older grandpa on the roof top play with Whitesnake once? 😁
September 2nd, 2024 at 20:21To improvise or to not improvise, that is the question. Good old shaky Bill, all those centuries ago & he was right onto it. A different era indeed it is in many ways as we often discuss here. The musicians from back in the golden era had much more ‘devil may care’ attitude about them, they were no where near as constrained as today’s players are. Less pressure to get it ‘perfect’ if any pressure at all. They had to do it the hard way also, all these scenarios to my eyes & ears are the difference & there would also be other reasons. Hendrix, Jim Morrison & even good ole Janis were leaders in the pack for improvisation & also many other musicians, too many to name. When they left the building others took over & then some. However as the 70’s closed & Keith Moon & John Bonham had left the scene, things as we know were changing fast, too fast some might say. 1993 & Blackmore leaves Purple sick of ‘rock ‘n roll & sadly Frank Zappa departs followed by Rory Gallagher. All these musicians were big name players from the more experimental era of popular music. Symbolically the 90’s was the last of it it many ways, from what I have heard at least. Rick Wakeman in Yes in the mid 90’s & again at the beginning of the century was the last of it for me, although Steve Morse in DP certainly had a go at times, especially while Jon Lord was there. Don Airey & Ian Paice are still there so that element of old school improv remains. Is Simon McBride of that ilk? Possibly, how much have we heard of him to ponder that. Time may tell, who knows. He is from the more recent era as we all know. A different approach indeed. Cheers.
September 2nd, 2024 at 22:48@ 11- well done Uwe, the Sentinel once again performs his task with aplomb. Yes indeed the correct lyrics are ‘another’s name’. However me being me I couldn’t resist adapting a long time ago when I thought I heard, ‘her mothers name’ & why not I say? Many young ladies aspire to be like their mothers just the same as sons do emulating their fathers. Not all mind, some do anything but that replication of their parents & for good reasons. However as Robert Calvert was alluding to androids & replication, I thought to myself, it is time to ‘improvise’ a little. Cheers.
September 3rd, 2024 at 01:06Yo,
Well said Herr Uwe ! The Mk-IV DP was an awesome band, A I knew they did have extended musical passages, but understood those to be within the confines of the studio & with once unreleased material. It’s good they delivered the goods live too on a good night, & a live album containing these performances would be incredible.
It’s true that Simon had some advantage with VHS tapes & TV etc to learn something from, even if only inspiration to pick-the-guitar-up & play. But there’s countless hours of hard-work & likely excellent guidance from a teacher involved too. Effort = Reward, & he certainly has put in the effort, as Steve has & continues to do.
Peace !
September 3rd, 2024 at 01:16Not disputing at all that Simon worked hard at his craft, just pointing out that he had exposure to a wide array of influences. Still, he was a gifted teenage guitar Wunderkind and probably quite rightly saw a great career laid out for himself as a reward for his toils in learning to play the guitar as well as he does.
But then it somehow stalled, playing with Sweet Savage in the early 90s and Andrew Strong/the Commitments guy, then Simon’s own blues trio and his work in the Don Airey Band to make ends meet (essentially a club venue side project of a DP-member), his short dabbling with Snakecharmer after Micky Moody had left, it wasn’t exactly all glamorous, was it? Simon getting “discovered” by Don by coincidence at a small scale blues festival and then – a decade later – him getting the chance to replace Steve Morse due to tragic circumstances only to totally rejuvenate DP and record an album with them that has seen the most media coverage of all their records since probably Perfect Strangers, that all is really “A Star Is Born” dream factory stuff. They could/should turn it into movie. Getting turned down for a job in a supermarket during the pandemic (to support a family with two kids) and playing in a name heritage band before tens of thousands of people a year or two later is quite the dramatic arc.
September 3rd, 2024 at 10:13Yo,
@19…Life has some strange twists & turns for sure, & yes indeed, Simon is quite fortunate. And though you could call him a “child prodigy”, his generation was 2-3 x decades too late when the world was appraising guitar-gods. His good fortune was that “the industry” found him, & came knocking at his door, not the other usual way around. (This is observation, not critique). And when you have a family to support, your responsibilities are to them first & foremost.
In fact, the 1990’s through to say 2010 had the recording industry not knowing whether to shyte or get off the pot with the internet affecting sales & introducing new markets. I don’t mean to bring-up “SpaceHog” again, but they are a great example of the instability of those times/ A great band & music that made it, but didn’t get looked after beyond the initial success. Like a perfect apple-tree that’s planted, sprouts, supplies plenty of awesome fruit for everyone, & yet no-one waters the tree…
I’m not sure there’s a viable movie script in there, but perhaps in good time, an autobiography will be plenty for the masses to engage with…Besides, you can write the truth without being censored in a book, or be concerned about how the film will be edited & graded lol !
With a little luck, the income generated from touring & record-sales will keep him well supported, especially with a new album to come, & likely a DVD / live album package too. When it rains it pours, & hopefully the storm DP have made will endure !
Peace !
September 4th, 2024 at 06:50