Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 03:06:05 
From: Fedor de Lange <f.delange@mail.uva.nl> 
Subject: Deep Purple, Ahoy, Rotterdam 21.03.96 

Hi All,
I just came home after another fantastic purple-colored evening. It's now 02:09 a.m., exactly three hours after the gig finished. Wow!

In the afternoon, I met my friends at the Hilton Hotel, where we should get together. I was a little late, and when I arrived, the band was just in. I missed all this, but I heard they had been jammed in traffic for about two and a half hour on the way from Dusseldorf to Rotterdam.

So, we left immediately for some fast food. BTW, Borussia Munchen Gladbach was staying at the same hotel. This was the team that had to play against Feyenoord, Uefa cup-soccer, this evening. As a result of that the centre of the city was crowded with fans. Purple fans and Feyenoord fans. Ok, I wont bother you with soccer anymore, as we've already seen the 'real thing' (Ajax) yesterday. ;-)

Almost before we left at the Hilton, Steve Morse left. He would do a guitar clinic in a small venue, called 'Nighttown'. We got there around six, and Steve was already on stage! What followed after that was a great 90 minute clinic. Altough it was mostly talking by Steve -very funny sometimes- the people that showed up enjoyed it. (guess around 80-100 people)

Steve said we could ask him questions, and he also could ask us questions. He started with: Are the traffic jams here always so long? - big laugh.

The talking mainly dealt about technique and practising, amps etc. He played two tracks tough, from the Steve Morse Band. One guy asked "Do you drink alcohol?" (Ok, it can be part of your technique too!);-)

And Steve answered with something like that he normally doesn't drink too much, and when he's on the road with his own band, he flies home after a gig most of the times. But, yesterday he had drunk two glasses of beer, explaining that two glasses to him was like twenty to a 'normal' guy.

Most enjoyable moment was when he was talking about delay, and to give an example of it he played the quit middle part of Woman From Tokyo, immediately followed by the riff. I got the impression of Steve being a very sympathetic guy, very polite and friendly. After the showcase, he even signed promo-photos at the stand of the local musicshop who had organized this, while the gig would start in about 90 minutes in the side of town!

Because of the guitar clinic, my friend and I were lucky to have missed the support band. Lights went out, and Steve was there again! This time with the guys I love to see him work with, Deep Purple. The show was great, very nice and tight versions of almost all the songs. It looked like they where a little bit more 'serious' than last week in Essen. I mean, the smiles were there, but not all the time. ;-) I think it might have been that the boys were tired too. Not surprising, being this the 4th gig in a row. Anyway, it was impossible to notice any trace of this in their playing. Gillan's voice was great, Roger had his Trace Elliot's at full speed, Paice was unforgetable so tight and loose at the same time, and Jon was in fine form. During a interaction with Morse you could see the sweat from his face. He gave it all. In Essen, it looked like Steve had some little problems with the fast guitar part of Cascades: I'm not your lover.

But tonight, he proved to be kinda perfectionistic to me. It sounded fantastic!

The only thing is, I would like to see more 'surprises' during the gig. I mean not the songs, 'cause they're all highlights. (Especially "No one Came", "Hey Cisco", "Bloodsucker", "When a blind man cries", "Speed King", "I'm not your lover", "Sometimes....", etc.etc.)

But sometimes I miss some improvisation a bit. A thing Blackmore always did. It's one minor point of giving a perfect show every evening; there's little of which you think "Wow! They did not plan this at all!" or something. For example, Gillan did something during the intro of Highway Star, which I didn't saw him doing in Essen. While Paice had started his drumintro, Ian Gillan started singing some Rock 'n Roll song. These are the things that make a concert extra fun! But, let's not get me wrong, again I had a great evening with a band who's only getting better. and better. They are my superband. Deep Purple. Thank you guys.

Cheers,
Fedor (who's going to sleep now)

PS Sorry when my rambling is very incoherent, and when I made a lot of mistakes in grammar, but I'm half sleeping.

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