Hi again everybody,
I went to the concert on Saturday night, which formed part of the opening of the Rand Show (general huge expo of anything you like, held over two weeks around Easter). The concert was held in a 12,000 capacity sunken arena (picture a mini grass terraced circus maximus). I arrived about an hour before the concert as they opened the gates and the 2 queues were about 500m long. I managed to get in to within 5m of the stage.
T-shirts, bandanas and badges were sold out before the show began.
The local band (who also supported the other shows), I eventually found out (becasue they announced them this time), are called Jack Hammer, who aren't bad at all.
UH were as good as the first time in Pretoria. They have added a couple of extra numbers to their set and they played for 1h15m.
DP started up at about 9h00 and played to 11h20.
Here is the play list. With some interesting variations!! to the Pretoria and Durban sets. (Anyone know what they played in CT?)
1) Fireball
2) I think I'm a Leo (I think thats the correct title)
4) The Battle Rages On
5) Woman from Tokyo
6) Perpendicular Waltz
7) When a blind man cries
8) Perfect Strangers
9) Pictures of Home
10) (Keyboard Solo)
11) Knocking at you back door
12) Guitar solo into + Anya + guitar solo
13) Lazy + Drum solo
14) Space Trucking (short version 2min)
15) Speed King
Encore
16) Highway star
17) Smoke on the water
They came on without a word and played 3 songs in a row before saying hello. It got the crowd going. No 2 was something I've never heard of them playing live before. It took me a while to recognise it, very enjoyable though.
Gillan was in top form with meaningless comments: He introduced about 5 different songs with "Here is an Italian song". He also went off about "This song was written by a friend of ours (Blackmore!?), I think he writes poetry now". I didn't catch the rest of it. He also said at one point "Tomorrow (final show in SA) we will be playing a completely different set", at which point the rest of the band objected and called him over, "We do this a lot", he said, "we used to play in bars." After a huddled discussion he comes back with "OK, we'll only change KOYBD tomorrow".
Conspicuously missing was Child in Time, which I suspect they put back on Sunday night.
When a Blind Man Cries was the highlight with a solo from Morse to make anyone cry, 20-20 vision and sight impaired alike.
Lord's solo was longer than in Pretoria, with variations of the same tunes (Fur Elise etc). Paice outdid himself and nearly fell off his chair with speed and enthusiasm in his solo.
KAYBD was extremely well done, a lot better than the Knebworth Version which is the only other live version I've heard. As someone said the other day, these guys are playing the best music of their lives. See them if you can.
Morse again did the haunting intro to Anya with a long, blistering solo to finish it off as well, his best playing yet. It was a different solo to the Pretoria concert. The rest of the band must have said "Stevie, its okay if you want to stand centre stage and play your own thing for 5 10 minutes, while the rest of us take a break and stand around encouraging the audience to clap for you, because they will be to stunned with you guitar mastery to do anything other than stare mindlessly at you."
I think Morse couldn't believe how fast he played on Speed King, which was the fastest I've ever heard a guitar played, by anyone, ever. Glover, may not be the worlds best bass technician, but he is also very fast. Morse and Glover set off on a race, which Morse eventually one when Glover gave up. Great to watch, DP really know how to have fun on stage.
Space Trucking led straight into Speed King. ST was short, about 2 minutes, definitly not a "Made in Japan" version.
Other facts: Morse held a guitar workshop on Sunday afternoon, which I was unable to attend, must have been excellent though.
Morse seems to have been given a lot more liberty, which makes him appear more relaxed (than in the Pretoria show). I didn't even miss Blackmore.
I'm starting to get used to the idea of a DP concert once a week, I just hope my budget can support the travel expenses.
Cheers,
Michael
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Michael Robinson - "I have one thing to say, climbing whysterias" Ian Gillan
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