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Glenn and Lita steal the show
Glenn Hughes is currently touring Germany with the Rock Meets Classic package. Here is some video evidence of the proceedings and a brief witness report.
Excerpts from the show in Ingolstadt, April 5, 2025:
Burn from München, April 6, 2025:
Our contributor Uwe Hornung reports:
I was at the Frankurt date two days before and could contribute a bit. Glenn sang
- Stormbringer
- Might Just Take Your Life
- Mistreated
- Close My Eyes Forever (with Lita Ford as a duet)
- Burn (not contained for whatever reason in the excerpts from Ingolstadt)
- backing vocals for (the unavoidable) Sweet Home Alabama
The format is of course pure cheese, and some of the singers of dubious credibility as regards their ability to “represent” the bands they once played with (Randall Hall for Lynyrd Skynyrd and Mal McNulty for Slade were real nadirs). But it has to be said: Glenn and Lita were the two most rock’n’roll artists and Glenn, his voice well-rested, sang extremely well — he also sports a new hairdo (bit Dusty Springfield style with a bouffant back head) and hair colour!
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
To my defense: I’ve been to one of those Rock Meets Classic revues only once before – one with Ian Gillan and Dan McCafferty plus Lou Gramm and Les Holroyd (the curly-haired one of Barclay James Harvest) – to subsequently swear to never go again, but Glenn in that kind of an environment made me break my oath (though I prefer him with a bass strapped over his shoulder).
It seems that the concept is coming to an end in any case: At the start of the Frankfurt show it was announced that next year (apparently featuring Michael Schenker) would be the last round, after which the show would be totally revamped conceptually. The reason given being that it was harder and harder to find heroes from the 70s and 80s as biology takes its toll (and the audience ain’t getting any younger either). That said, the Jahrhunderthalle was sold out (roughly 3.000 seats, there was no standing) and Glenn hasn’t played in a hall this size in Germany since his Mk III heydays.
There must have been some last minute reshuffling in the bill: Initially, ex-Lynyrd Skynyrd Randall Hall was announced and supposed to be the main attraction, he was one of LS’ three guitarists from 1987 to 1994, but in Frankfurt (and as far as I’m aware everywhere else), Glenn was the main act. It can’t have been for the Mk III material Glenn mainly sung which outside of DP circles is hardly as well known as Sweet Home Alabama or Free Bird in Germany, but had the sequence stayed as announced, Glenn’s energy and vocal prowess would have pinned poor Herr Hall against the wall (rhymes!). Randall, it has to be said, performed as if they had not only brought him out of retirement, but straight out of a retirement home. 😑 His vocals are close enough to what the Van Zant brothers do if you don’t listen too closely, but the man didn’t play a single lead guitar note during the whole gig! 😏 Call me old-fashioned, but if you invite a former lead guitarist from Skynyrd I expect him to do just that. Instead he played a lame and simplified rhythm guitar. In LS circles he’s generally regarded as the weakest guitarist the band ever had. Apparently, he only got the job because one of the shareholders of the LS Brand – Allen Collins, one of their original guitarists, who was however already in a wheelchair due to a car accident when LS reformed in 1987 and did not want to perform anymore – placed him there (Randall and Allen were close friends). And after Allen died in 1990, the other LS members sure enough rowed Randall out and got Rickey Medlocke instead (who became the main man in the band pretty soon). To Randall’s defense, he seems to suffer from a pinched nerve that makes lead guitar playing for him difficult these days.
No such physical inhibitions for Glenn though who did his Glenn-thing as usual. But the man had real zest and you could see the house band pick up more than a notch as they played the Mk III chestnuts with delight. Alex Beyrodt, one of the two guitarists (the dark-haired one on the right) and a DP-nut in his own right, deserves special mention, he really gave Mistreated a Ritchie feel. He’s a German heavy metal scene celebrity of sorts, his day jobs (besides countless sessions) are with bands like Primal Fear (who owe a lot to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUISvCi3hyA
(the blond guy on the left – playing left-handed – was the second guitarist at Rock Meets Classic, so the band actually featured two guys from Primal Fear)
and Voodoo Circle (who owe a lot to early Whitesnake).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ05TMMQ3VI
Lita Ford only had three songs as special guest (Cherry Bomb from The Runaways, Kiss Me Deadly as her own hit and Close My Eyes Forever as the duet with Glenn), but was surprisingly good. Her music isn’t the most cerebral on earth, but it at least had some raunch. And she and Glenn had real chemistry going [even though it was Ritchie who dated her for a while in the mid-70s while she was still a Runaway – she was an absolute Blackmore fan driving all the other Runaways nuts, especially Joan Jett (incidentally another Long Island resident) who wanted the band more punkish].
Other than that John Elefante (who sang with Kansas in the 80s in the line-up preceding the first return of Steve Walsh + Steve Morse coming into the band along with him) still has fine pipes (he sang mostly Walsh material), but also a strong limp that looked painful.
Fran Cosmo was more than decent too (though he can’t match Glenn’s range these days and had to ‘cheat’ a little on some notes), but he’s not Brad Delp.
Let’s not even talk about Mal McNulty, the man who had the unenviable job of first being the Brian Connolly in Andy Scott’s Sweet and then for a longer time the Noddy Holder in Dave Hill’s Slade II. His version of Slade’s great ballad My Oh My was awful, singing it as he did one octave below Noddy’s fog horn blare (Holder is a terribly underrated and very tone-accurate singer) in a MOR crooner’s fashion – yikes!
April 9th, 2025 at 05:04Glenn looks good and has a great vibe, but his voice is straining.
April 9th, 2025 at 07:51Music is out saviour in the current world of doom and gloom.
April 9th, 2025 at 08:28Peace ✌️
I could never get into Lita Fords music just not for me. I much prefer Doro. And her with Glenn just doesn’t work together for me.
April 9th, 2025 at 12:21Frau Ford remembers starstruck encounters with a novice cellist:
https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/lita-ford-runaway-rocker
QUOTE
GM: You toured with Rainbow in the early ‘80s and got a chance to spend time with Ritchie Blackmore, one of your heroes. Did you ever jam with him?
LF: He was a huge influence on me. Actually, Kim Fowley gave Ritchie my phone number because I was in love with Ritchie. I was like, “Oh my God, I love this guy!” I loved Deep Purple, the whole band was just phenomenal. And, of course, with Ritchie being the lead guitarist, I was fixated on him. Kim Fowley knew this, so he gave Ritchie my phone number and Ritchie called me. I swear I just about crapped my pants. I get this phone call and he says, “Do you wanna come over?” (laughs) I was like, “What? Is this really happening?” So I went to his house and we played guitars and he showed me a few things, one of which was what he called the “Snake Charmer.” That was a minor scale, slinky, sexy, evil-almost sounding. Very cool stuff. I still apply that today to some of my own stuff, but I do it in my own way. I don’t want to rip him off. I try to play like Lita Ford not Ritchie Blackmore. (laughs) But he taught me a lot; he pulled out a cello and played for me.
UNQUOTE
In case you forgot what Snake Charmer sounded like (it featured some of the best bass playing EVER on any Rainbow track, courtesy of groovemeister Craig Gruber and is one of the deep tracks on the Rainbow debut):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coZVchUjb64
Remotely related in a roundabout way: The novice cellist being helpful to a headless bassist … 😁
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJ0gySEPnsRm0lcRwzIn2-uN_aY4AkezQ9MOayUZVCOKMFzamD
April 9th, 2025 at 13:13@3
“Music is out saviour in the current world of doom and gloom.”
So are the very good danish coffee my dear friends!
And chocolate!
And candy….
April 9th, 2025 at 13:33Timmi, my countrywoman Doro has a heart of (heavy metal) gold and I really like her as a person, but she has a range of something like three half steps which never changed (i.e. improved!), Iggy Pop is Freddie Mercury compared to her. 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DguMk2Hze1E
She’s even less a singer than Lita (but again: I really like her as a maternal figure of the heavy metal community). Not one of the Runaways girls ever had what you would call a golden voice, not Cherie with her harsh half-talking glam sneer, not Joan with her mock-punk bellow and certainly not Lita who in the Goldmine interview reveals that singing never came naturally to her and that it was hard work to even get it as far as she sounds today. Their voices were all thin with little elasticity, not all women are naturally gifted singers.
To Lita’s credit, when the Runaways formed in 1975 she was 17 and together with drummeress Sandy West certainly the only ones who – measured by conventional standards – could really play. If you hear the Runaways albums, lead guitar and drums stand out from everything else, the rather hesitant contributions of the others make even something as rudimentary as early KISS from around the same time sound like the friggin’ Beatles! 😎 Of course, The Runaways were relevant for other reasons (including being LGBTQ icons – though that more than half the band were either lesbians or bi was a carefully guarded secret at the time, teenage boys’ rooms needed to be adorned with their posters), I’ve always had a soft spot for them. After seeing Cherie Currie last year or so, I only have Joan Jett now to cross off my bucket list. 😁
April 9th, 2025 at 14:26#1: Page 126 in Glenn’s autobiography: “Lita Ford is a really good friend of mine now, but back then (1976 – The Runaways opening for Trapeze) she and Sandy wanted to party with me. I actually went off with Lita first and then I went off with Sandy. Wow … it was fucking crazy.”
April 9th, 2025 at 16:03@ 5, I agree with you about Snake Charmer Uwe, it is the hidden gem on that album which never gets mentioned. and Craig’s bass playing is great on that song. I enjoyed his work also on the two ELF albums in which he played bass, Carolina County Ball & Trying to Burn the Sun. Cheers !
April 9th, 2025 at 16:13“I’ve always had a soft spot for them …”
Oops, now that came out misleadingly. Or a hard one, whatever.
Elf, especially the two later albums you mentioned (the debut one was still a little formative and had Dio on bass), Timmi, were a really good band with a great overall groove. Their work doesn’t nearly get enough credit, even here.
Daniel, yes, I remember The Runaways garnering quite some attention from various British rockers twice their age …
https://preview.redd.it/robert-plant-in-backstage-with-the-runaways-at-their-show-v0-fta0xaj8pskc1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=ac2f2ffedbbe23d5fa9b0907a9b2152c21b1cc44
April 9th, 2025 at 16:48How did Glenn’s set go down? His falsetto screaming has only increased with age and was an acquired taste to begin with. How did the average member of the Frankfurt audience react to it?
April 9th, 2025 at 17:40@3 Adel Faragalla
♡
About Lita and Glenn together, well: I think she makes a good performance, better than G.
April 9th, 2025 at 20:21I prefer this song with OzzY, it imore magical.
Karin Verndal @6
April 9th, 2025 at 21:19And a glass of cognac goes alongside nicely
Cheers
Peace ✌️
Percy looking quite confident there and so he should. The look on those girls faces says it all. Regarding Elf, the reason no one or hardly anyone gets into them is because of the poor songs. They are quite terrible actually from my memory. A guy I knew back then, (a bass guitarist and metal head) purchased their music (three albums from my memory) and regretted it. He was hoping as many would, that they would be at least ok-ish. Not to be. I remember hearing them at his abode and a couple of times since then online ( well some of it). Hoping against hope they might have something, somewhere, anything actually. Purely a ‘collectors’ item no doubt for any Dio aficionados out there. Bookends maybe, although that leaves one left over, hmmmmmmmmm, what to do with that one. Frisbee anyone? Ok I am being a little harsh and unfair, or am I? Each to their own as we so often say. Cheers.
April 9th, 2025 at 22:03@13
Indeed ☺️
April 10th, 2025 at 06:41My sweetheart prefers a single malt, and then hold the coffee as he often says 😉
Daniel, for the Purple fans there (there were quite a few) Glenn could do no wrong, after all he was together with Lita the only one singing songs he had originally already voiced.
For those who know Purple only on a more casual basis he was still the most electric, energetic and confident performer, especially coming after the rather low key and slightly bemused Randall Hall who likely hasn’t toured Germany in the last three decades.
But Mk III didn’t really have hit songs (and Rock Meets Classic is basically a greatest hits revue like Nokia Night Of The Proms), unlike Mk II they never even had freak hits in the singles charts, by 1974 Purple was solely focused on the album market and live tours. So to a minority of people, Stormbringer, MJTYL, Mistreated and Burn meant nothing at all. It’s not staple radio classic rock fodder like More Than A Feeling, Dust In The Wind, Carry On Wayward Son, Free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama. Add to that how Glenn’s part of the concert was also by far the heaviest (the band really leaned into the Purple stuff, it’s much closer to what Primal Fear and Voodoo Circle usually do than all the other songs that night), which left – dare I say – some of the female part of the audience slightly bewildered, Glenn was the only one to have people rise from their seats and headbang and play air guitar. So a few of the ladies took their hubbies for an early exit from the parking lot. But the overall sentiment after the gig was how well and forceful Glenn can still sing given his age.
April 10th, 2025 at 11:34Herr MacGregor, for a heavy metal nut like your friend Elf is of course anathema with its jaunty piano groove reminiscent of Southern Rock/Allman Brothers/Sea level, I get that.
But bad songwriting? How much heavy metal do you need to have heard to ruin your ears to such a degree to allow such an egregious misstatement? 😑🙄
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eFY5xBgwxA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ifvXsW_Ys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggxMorqbHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iV3ixpNcdU
I hate to say it, but there was more natural musicality in Elf’s later work than in half the tracks of Rainbow’s boneheaded Rising. Denigrating the Elf albums is btw also denigrating Roger’s work as a producer who hasn’t produced a bad album for another band IN HIS LIFE.
https://media.tenor.com/cvc9Fma0nQwAAAAM/pissedoff.gif
April 10th, 2025 at 15:22Glenn gets on my nerves with all this ‘ Milking’ Purple to death stuff and his constant name dropping …I’m sure he thinks he’s some sort of global , super rock star like Freddy Mercury or something
April 10th, 2025 at 15:29Way too OTT for me
Current DP uses Mk 2 as a crutch, Glenn Mk 3. I don’t the difference in approach. I also wish Glenn would scream less though. I prefer his more nuanced singing from the 70s, 80s and 90s.
April 10th, 2025 at 16:28Steve, Glenn is an original Mk III member, he sang, played bass and co-wrote on those records. Moreover, current Purple eschews any type of Mk III material (last Purple played Mk III tracks was 50 years ago in 1975 and the songs Burn and Stormbringer in 1976, ignoring their dragging out Burn as an opener with Mk V in the early 90s), so what is he unjustly milking? Burn was the second most successful DP album after Machine Head on a global scale, Glenn participated in that success.
Yes, he’s (too) grandiose on stage, but that was already his natural state in 1974 … I can’t take it serious, but I don’t find it harmful/despicable either.
April 10th, 2025 at 16:34@ 17- I don’t know if Roger Glover had anything to do with the songwriting on those Elf albums? So we are not sure what the producing has to do with the actual songs, as in melody, arrangement etc which is what I am talking about, not the production of the albums. The friend I knew back then was and still is a Glenn Hughes aficionado as well as DP, Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Zeppelin, Kiss and many other bands. Not just metal. He knows what good songs are in that sense. He was disappointed in those Elf albums, probably not as much as I am, although he was the one who took the plunge and purchased them. I have never been tempted to do that. Ronnie needed to stretch out a little more and evolve quickly at that time, and he did that as we know. He needed a decent co songwriter big time, hence his journey of success with Rainbow and Sabbath before he went ‘solo’. The Elf material is, well they have to start somewhere don’t they, in rock ‘n roll I mean. Ronnie as we well know was already treading the boards well before Elf. Those albums don’t get any recognition most probably because they just don’t float peoples boats, including Ronnie’s from what I have read. It is what it is. Cheers.
April 10th, 2025 at 21:32Those third and fourth Elf songs you sent links to Uwe, ‘Wonderworld’ and ‘Happy’ sort of sound like some of The Butterfly Ball songs. Was this a prelude to some of the songs on TBB as the second Elf album Carolina County Ball was early ’74 and TBB later 1974. As we know two songs on TBB were co written by Glover, Dio and Soule, ‘Together Again’ and Harlequin Hare’. Hmmmmmmm, interesting indeed. Those two earlier Elf song links sort of remind me of ‘If You Don’t Like Rock ‘n Roll’, as in honky tonk rock ‘n roll. The first Rainbow album did get a little influence from Elf, in that sense. The huge difference in being Blackmore wielding his axe and also his composition influence with getting things a little more darker and also more European. I have continually forgotten about the ‘Deep Purple’ link to King Crimson with TBB album. Michael Giles on the drums. That DP tree grows ever wider and wider and it’s roots seem to keep penetrating further and further. Cheers.
April 11th, 2025 at 06:54Aber Herr MacGregor, Roger was more than an engineer, he left his handwriting all over on the albums he produced and took influence on arrangements and how things were played. In the second half of the 70s all the albums he laid hands on had a similar sound and feel: Nazareth, Elf, DC, Strapps (with Mick Underwood), Judas Priest (he saved their Sin After Sin from disaster), Rory Gallagher (with whom he butted heads in the studio re the music), Status Quo’s Wild Side Of Life (he plays bass on that, not Alan Lancaster), the MSG debut …
But you’re right, Ritchie made Elf sound darker and altogether easternish ‘Yuropean”, IYDLRnR was the only remnant of old Elf on the Rainbow debut (and incidentally the only song where Mickey Lee Soule was allowed to solo on piano a little), well, I guess Black Sheep Of The Family retained an Elfish sound too.
You can hold against Elf that they were too pop to be rock, yet too rock to be pop, that they really weren’t Southern Rock even though they had that type of a band groove, that they had a blues influence, but weren’t really blues rockers, and that their music was too hard for soft rock yet not heavy enough to please metal- or hard rock-attuned ears. They covered lots of bases but none of them completely. The artist their music reminds me most of is early Elton John, when he was still a rocking piano player and more experimental in his music, not yet as poppy or glammy, circa Honky Chateau and before. That of course had to do with Mickey Lee Soule being the main instrumentalist as the piano player, driving the band, and also the chief songwriter together with Ronnie. It was also his eventual downfall in Rainbow when he realized that Ritchie wanted an organist playing in the background and not a pianist driving Rainbow along. Mickey’s organ and synth playing on the Rainbow debut is tasteful, but it has none of the exuberance of his piano attacks while driving Elf.
I guess you can say that it exactly their eclecticism, which baffled a lot of Purple and Rainbow fans, that attracts me to Elf. I remeber buying LA 59/Carolina County Ball as a cheap cutout in 1976 and really appreciating – though not heavy – the music on it. I’m not one that wants a band doggedly committed to just one style, that is why AC/DC bores me after three songs. Variety and trying something else once in a while is alright by me.
And you’re also right with the similarities of the Elf music to Roger’s Butterfly Ball, that attracted me as well.
April 11th, 2025 at 10:54I can imagine that Rory Gallagher wouldn’t be easy to get along with at times, in regards to his musical vision. He was self motivated and very determined. I do own the Calling Card album on cd, not a favourite of mine although the song Moonchild is a good song. Maybe I need to listen to the album a little more. It was that ‘in between’ time for Gallagher moving from one band to another, so poor ole Roger Glover may have been caught up in that frustration at times with Rory. With his earlier 70’s work, my favourite is the Irish Tour live album, a good collection of his earlier songs performed live, wonderful. Calling Card sounds like the band had run its course, even the album before that, Against the Grain also did sound tired to my ears. After Calling Card he ended up letting go of the keyboard player and also the drummer to change direction somewhat, to his late 70’s power trio. The late 70’s are definitely my go to for Rory’s more rock driven songs. My two favourite studio albums of his are Photo-Finish and Top Priority. I agree with your sentiments on the Elf material being a little like early Elton John. The piano is a typical rock ‘n roller instrument in a ‘rock’ setting, Well most of the time it can be. Interesting that Elton John started getting in other keyboard players so he could just play the piano. Mickey Lee Soule would have definitely felt left out when the debut Ritchie Blackmore ‘solo’ album was being constructed. I also think of Procol Harum and Supertramp when I hear a pianist in a rock band also with an organist. That is most probably the best case scenario in that concept we could think. A bit of both at different times or together. There are a few other bands that employed that setup. Cheers.
April 11th, 2025 at 23:39Rory, much against his nice guy, if slightly introverted public image, was a pretty dictatorial band leader – no one else was allowed to write – and very set in his ways. For years, his record company had pressed him to be more accommodating to the US market, getting Roger to produce Calling Card was another attempt. Rory didn’t like it (though Roger was his choice after having met him on a tour opening for Purple), but didn’t really speak up either, hence maybe the simmering conflict with Roger. At the time though, Calling Card was received well and – in my view rightly so – perceived as Rory’s most adult work so far.
So then came Notes From San Francisco with the Neil Young producer Elliott Mazer – it even featured horns. Rory, shaken in his confidence whether he was still current after having seen an incendiary gig of the Sex Pistols, hated it however and subsequently scrapped the complete recording which only came out belatedly a couple of years ago. I actually like the San Francisco (which ironically might have indeed helped him get long deserved US recognition), but then I like Calling Card and its predecessor Against The Grain best, the two albums you dismissed, Herr MacGregor, horses for courses, I’m such a wuss.
I also preferred Rod de’Ath as a slightly jazzy drummer to the more rock-conventional Ted McKenna. And I certainly missed Lou Martin on Photo-Finish and Top Priority, it’s the Purple kid in me, I just prefer (real) keyboards in my rock. I thought it unforgivable that Rory pretty much dissolved the original band in the wake of the scrapped San Francisco album, the power trio albums that followed weren’t bad song material-wise, but somewhat monochrome in rendition.
April 12th, 2025 at 19:25@ 25 – “but then I like Calling Card and its predecessor Against The Grain best, the two albums you dismissed, Herr MacGregor, horses for courses, I’m such a wuss.” I didn’t ‘dismiss’ those two Gallagher albums Uwe, I just didn’t get into them. You have been a lawyer too long, he he he. That word, dismissed……..Seriously though, I used to own his first two studio albums on vinyl, a different drummer Wilgar Campbell on those and some good songs here and there. The band that followed the initial lineup with Rod de’Ath on drums and Lou Martin on keyboards is grand. I probably play the Irish Tour live ’74 album more than any other Gallagher. There is some really good live filming of that lineup online. The later 70’s power trio was good for that harder rock blues to my liking and it is still played occasionally to this day. Reproducing that music live in concert would have tested the musicians. I have heard some live songs from those tours, it does need something extra at times. He went back to a keyboard player and I was always glad for that. I have a couple of his later records ‘Jinx’ and ‘Fresh Evidence’ and I don’t get into them that much either. I own the DVD live at Montreux and that is a wonderful powerful gig with a few guests including Claude Nobs on harmonica, 1994 I think that was filmed. Rory was much better live as most artists should be. I did read about that Notes From San Francisco scenario at his official site. Another artist determined to get things right, one way to look at it. It stressed his brother Donal out too, him being Rory’s manager amongst other things. How many of those musicians have we seen over the years, that end up stressed and throwing things away for different reasons and also burning their bridges. All part of that determination & drive and most probably the ‘moody’ side of their personality surging to the fore. Cheers.
April 13th, 2025 at 07:06Rory was habitually shy and withdrawn, not unlike Blackmore (who rated him highly). Never married, no steady female companions, but no womanizer or party animal either, sought solace in the bottle and stayed in hotel rooms. Ritchie could at least “switch on” a cordial and sociable side of his if need be. Plus Ritchie was always careful to polish his own mystique – Rory otoh was mostly just a loner, it wasn’t an image or an act.
I’ve read Gerry McAvoy’s book and the overwhelming feeling you get is that during ten or more years of international touring, no one in the band (and Gerry played longest with him) really got to know or close to him though they all adored him as a musician. Rory just wouldn’t let it happen and seemingly was lost in life without a guitar in his hands. Gerry eventually left when he couldn’t bear watching Rory drinking himself to death anymore (it was beginning to impact on performances), he was one of those “silent, but ultimately deadly” alcoholics.
April 13th, 2025 at 14:24