Two Drummers and two Musicians

Went to Bamberg on a cold Sunday night with my friend Tommy to see what I think is one of the best drummers of rock - Ian Paice. Bamberg is a small town situated in the heart of Frankonia, the northern part of Bavaria (this note is for the Americans - he-he!), the country of the small breweries and, as IP puts it, Tony Ashton would have loved it. It was a small venue, packed with around 400 people, the mood was great and there where no hassles with security etc, so everyone was allowed and encouraged (by IP himself) to take photos and ask questions or get autographs after the show. The band consisted of Ian and uncle Pete (York) on drums and Colin Hodgkinson (bass) and Miller Anderson (guitar).

Setlist: start: 20:15 end: 22:15
I'm A Man (Chicago Transit Authority/Spencer Davis Group)
Sunshine Of Your Love (Cream)
Black Night
Two trad. work songs (circa 1930s)
Then one hour Q&A including Pete York drumsolo and Ian Paice drumsolo
Gimme Some Lovin' (Spencer Davis Group)
Smoke On The Water
Instrumental by Colin ("to let drummers have fun" IP)
encore: Instrumental by Colin

Somebody might not get satisfied with the setlist or anything else, but for me, having never attended to a superdrumming show it was just great to see the guys having fun. My personal highlight was the drumming (with low tuned drums) during the Cream song. For the two DP songs in the set I might have prefered anything else. And for Millers voice something from the DC-era would have fitted well.

The Q&A was also great, in terms to see IP close to the audience, being the really nice and friendly guy he is. There was no micorphone for the audience so people had to shout loud their questions and, smiling, Ian answered seriously. If any difficulties because of the language occured, uncle Pete was there to help out with his fine German.

Of course there was the inevitable fan of RB with some questions (when do you play with Ritchie again, or the like) but it was the only bothering case. (Imagine you go to a party and you ask your host about his previous wife - I guess I can understand how the DP guys feel whenever these questions come up.)

There where many questions which Ian answered with stories from the road about, e.g., Keith Moon, Tony Ashton, George Harrison, Jon Lord, Joe Satriani, Jim Capaldi and the like. No bloody news from the Purple camp, only comment about an interesting/promising session held in Florida prior that tour during November and if that continues it might get recorded at the end of winter to be released during summer (which year? - he-he).

After all was done, I was able to shake hands with Miller and Colin, get their autographs and go to the merchandise stand to see Pete and Ian signing, chatting and people taking photos.

By the way, there was no backstage area BEHIND the stage. The musicians had to attend the stage by walking through the audience. It so happened that they came by closely where I was standing and I had the chance to see IP eye-to-eye and gave him a hug on his shoulder. Afterwards I was not sure if I will ever wash my hand again... having touched one of my personal heroes was a wet dream of my long-gone teenage years.

Ben

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