Preferred to be in for some stick

Oh bugger, what can I say. First off what on earth were we all doing sitting down. The BIC (Bournemouth International Centre) is normally standing. Sorry to Deep Purple as the sea of grey hair in the audience seemed to be on Prozac.

Now for me, Deep Purple are the greatest, anything else comes joint second. It therefore gives me no pleasure at all in saying they were not up to their usual standard. First off you could hardly hear Gillan sing (bad mix). Second Gillan had a major sore throat and chesty cough. He was coughing and wheezing all night. He left out lots of stuff and rightly so I think. If his mike had been turned up he would not have had to try so hard. A couple of times he opened his mouth and nothing came out. Don't get me wrong I'm not pissed off (how could I be, it's The Boys) and I don't think the audience were either, I think we were all aware and very sympathetic. They just seemed a bit subdued when they came on.

It got better has the night went on, and thankfully we all stood up albeit for the two encores. Ian Paice did for me what I think was his best drum solo since Made In Japan. I can't remember Knebworth - will have to listen to the bootleg. I did enjoy it a lot and was pleased to hear Lazy, When A Blind Man Cries, Mary Long, Fools (Fuels as Gillan says) and Hush. The latter according to Gillan written a 100 years ago.

Smoke On The Water was really good but if you were at Albert like me, that's a hard one to top with all the atmosphere that was going on those two nights.

To cap it all off I made eye-contact with Ian Paice at the end and he hurled one of his drum sticks at me. I got it with one hand, and the only thing is my mate Bruce had it with two hands so I let him have it. B~#*"TURD!!! I was allowed to accompany the drum stick home but had to wave it goodbye. ARSE.

Can't remember the running order but it's the newer set they are doing now. Great to see them all again.

Cheers

PS Get well soon Ian. Have some honey, lemon and apple cider vinegar in hot water, my old mum swears by it...

Kurt N.

Kurt's mate Bruce has furnished us with a photo of this infamous drum stick...

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