Q&A section in Berlin, 3 December, 2001

This is an edited-down version of my nearly complete transcript of the Q&A.

Paicey tells the audience to start asking them questions... No one does for a while, then someone near the back says "I have a question".

Q: Have you recorded the (DP's) new album yet?

IP: No, not yet. The ongoing news is that we took 2 weeks last month and did some more writing, and that was very good. And that was all five of us, Jon Lord was there too. He's ok now, and everyone was very happy, the music was good. But for the first time in many years we don't have a deadline where we have to rush to make the record. We have so much live work at the moment, and it's more fun playing to people than it is to make records. So we're trying to fit the recording thing in with the live work. When the record's finished and we think it's good enough, then we'll give it to you. But it's coming along? good. [Applause from the audience.]

Q: Do you still think about Tommy Bolin?

IP: I don't think about Tommy every day, but every now and then I see the record, and... we've had some very funny times. Tommy was a wonderfully cooky, strange little guy, and he did very many strange things. And we knew it would be impossible for him to get to be 40-years old, we knew he'd do something stupid and finish it early, you know. And he did. But... I'll tell you, this is Tommy: we'd flown over from Los Angeles to München, to do some recording at the Musicland Studio. We only had 2 or 3 days to make some music. And you know, there's a 9-hour time difference, (we had) a jetlag, so we'd arranged with a very friendly doctor, who needed to give us 5 little tablets, which would make sure we'd sleep ok and then work the next day. We were in the studio, just listening to some demos to see what we were going to do. Tommy, of course, went straight down to the clubs. Gone. We didn't see him again. So at about 2 o'clock, we're just finishing up, and Tommy comes rolling into the studio. And he has two of the most beautiful, giant, big, blond deutsche ladies, one on each arm, holding him up, like this [gestures - laughter from the audience.] And he's obviously got a great night planned, you know, he's going to have a great deal of fun with these two ladies. But he sees these five tablets, five pills there, and he just goes "woooompf!" [grabs those imaginary pills in one big, fast scoop, then throws them into the mouth all at once.] And then he says, "what do these do?" [Big laughter from the audience.] And we said to him, "Tommy, you're just about to sleep for about three days now. No chance." [More laughter.] But 5 minutes later he's still talking to those beautiful ladies, saying "oh, no..." So, yes, Tommy was like that.

Someone at one side of the venue starts talking to Pete "Pete, it's good to see you... are still alive!", and Pete answers "oh, thank you!", causing the audience to burst into laughter again. The guy talks for a long while, about the last time he saw/met Pete some years back, somewhere... IP grabs a mike and comments, "this is a very long private conversation!", and everyone laughs and whistles, so the guy finishes quickly. Pete answers "thank you very much, it's very nice to have a friend here - we have about ninety-thousand Deep Purple fans here, and at least one friend for me..." [A huge laughter from the audience again.]

Q: Ian, show us your roll.

IP: It'll cost you 5 Marks. Everything is 5 Marks today. [Another huge laughter.]OK? That's 5 Marks from everybody. I mean, come on... OK. [He walks to his drumkit.]

PY: I'd like to introduce you to something you'd never see... This is a circus tent here [note: the venue is in fact a big, permanent tent], and what you're about to see... [gets distracted by Paicey bringing his snare drum and banging it down in the centre of the stage, next to where he's standing.]
There was a point where Mr. Ian Paice would do this on a trapeze while he swang across the arena, but we're going to take it easy now, because you wouldn't see what he was doing. Tonight, he'll do it the easy way, just sitting here onstage, performing his astounding feat.

[As Paicey sits down to demonstrate his roll, the guy who had asked him to do so adds: "very slowly please!"]

IP: OK. Well, if I do it slowly, it won't be a roll. [General laughter.]

[Paicey plays about 15 seconds of roll just with his left hand. Towards the end, Pete walks up to him and pulls his right arm up, so that the audience can see he really is doing it just with one hand. A big applause at the end.]

IP: OK, so that's how it is. Obviously, it's an illusion, and it's very painful [shakes his left hand - the audience laugh.] You have to have a little bit of technique to make it work. I'll show it to anybody, but I don't tell people how to do it, because then the magic goes. But you can see it and you can work it out. [Applause again.]

PY: Ian Paice and the one-handed roll! That is one thing, I promise Ian, that is one thing which I will not reveal in my drum book, the Pete York drum book, which is for sale, zu verkaufen, Ende dieser Vorstellung (on sale at the end of this performance). The Pete York drum book, which goes under the title of Harry Potter and the Mystery of Schlagzeug. [Laughter & applause.] Take a look at that later. There are all the secrets of drumming inside, except that one.

IP: The next edition will though, I bet!

Q: Ian, do you remember Preussenallee?

IP: Preussenallee? Yeah, I went to visit it last time. Maybe you don't know - when I was a little boy, I lived in Berlin, and my flat was in Preussenallee. I went back to see it last time, it was like being a little baby again. It's all nice and bright and happy now, when I was there there was all this grey and... I always remember that part of my childhood very happily. It was a great city then. It's a great city now, it's just that bit in the middle, it got a bit confused, you know, with those silly people putting this thing around it. But there we go, that's all gone.

PY: I'll ask you a question. When you were playing here first, when Purple was beginning, shall we say, can you remember the little places you played here? I'm just trying to think of places I've played here... Joe's Bierhaus. The smallest place I've played was Joe's Bierhaus.

IP: Well, the smallest place I've played was Deutschlandhalle. [Everyone laughs, Pete and Paicey included.] I've missed all those good pubs, I've had to suffer the big places.

IP:In those days, you had a rock concert and a riot at the same time. It was always the same. It was very... sort of left-wing politics going on, and... it was great, there was this movement that music should be free. And people who didn't want to pay for it used to break down the doors and come in, because they wanted free music. [Laughter from audience.] Which really pissed off the people who bought the tickets. [More laughter.] But... there was a band called the Edgar Broughton Band. Remember Edgar Broughton? Edgar Broughton used to go on, [in a loud voice] "music should be free!" And he'd go off before the encore, but he wouldn't go on again until he got paid. So music should be free unless it was Edgar, Edgar to be paid. A little bit of a history there...

Q: [The question is not audible, but I think the guy asked something like "are you planning to play Burn in future DP sets?"]

IP: No. We have a big problem with Deep Purple, so many people being in the band. [Big laughter from the audience & someone whistles as well.] The biggest problem, of course, is Ian Gillan. It is a glorious problem, which is a problem. Now, Ian Gillan cannot remember his own lyrics, there's no way he can remember David Coverdale's [again a big laughter.] Every time we go onstage there's a new song. It's an old song, but it's a new song [laughing - the audience as well - and IP 'sings' a nonsensical series of sounds in a IG sort of muttering way, in a not-really-a-melody melody, which causes even more laughter.] When you see him looking at a book, because he really doesn't know the lyrics, you know. He's just thinking of new things all the time.

PY: You know this problem when we get old... You're quite right there. I have to tell you this, it might surprise you: ich bin über 40 Jahre alt (I'm over forty years old). [Huge laughter] But it's true. In fact next year I'm going to be 60 Jahre alt, but it feels strange, because in my Gehirn (brain), [pointing to his head], in here I still feel 10 Jahre alt. [Big applause.] It's very... komisches Ding hat mir passiert: ich war zu hause (funny thing happened to me, I was at home), and I thought I'd go upstairs and take a bath, in der Badewanne (in the bathtub), in the Badezimmer (bathroom)...

Q: ...once a year!

PY: Huh? Once a year? How did you know?! Listen, sorry, you're not that close to me... [pointing at the distance between him and the guy.]

IP: That's why I'm standing over here [ie. about 3 metres away.]

PY: I got into the Badezimmer, I took my clothes off, looked in the mirror and had a good laugh [Pete laughs, and the audience as well], I filled the bath up with water, I put one foot into the heisses Wasser (hot water), und ich hatte gedacht, moment, was mache ich jetzt? Steige ich in der Badewanne rein, oder steige ich aus der Badewanne? (and I had thought, wait a sec, what am I doing here? Am I getting into the bath, or am I getting out of the bath?) (another huge laughter from the audience.) I couldn't remember! So I 'schried' down the Treppe an meine Frau ("shout"ed down the stairs to my wife), she was in the Wohnzimmer (living room), and I said, 'darlinglein! Komme her! Ich habe ein grosses Problem in der Badewanne' ('little darling, come up! I'm having a big problem in the bathtub!') and she said 'oh, no, not that problem again!' [Another huge laughter.] And I'm standing there, with one foot in the bath and one foot out of the bath. I said 'come on, help me!' 'Yes, I'm coming, ich komme, ich komme!'. 5 Minuten, and she still didn't arrive. So I got out of the bath, I went and looked down the Treppe, and she was halfway up the stairs. 'What's the matter?' She said, 'I can't remember whether I'm going up or down!' [Big applause.] That's what happens to you...

IP: And then she said, 'who are you?'

PY: Did you know, incidentally - it's awful when you have these problems - did you know, Beethoven war so taub, dass sein ganzes Leben lang er hat gedacht, er war ein Maler (Beethoven was so deaf that, he all his life thought he was a painter.) [More laughter.]

Q: [Someone asks about the possibility of a new edition of Superdrumming.]

PY: Only if the Moderator (presenter) of the Superdrumming is Jenny Albers, and... I don't know what. Fernsehen heute (television today), it's a mess, right? [Some more whistling from the audience.] I bet you all agree on that. Es ist, ich glaube, unmöglich, dass eine Fehnsehfirma (oder) eine Produktionsfirma macht so ein Programm wie wir gemacht haben, Superdrumming. Because heuzutage sie denken nur von Einschaltquoten, und das natürlich (weil) sie müssen Programm machen für (das,) was sie glauben sind die Massen. (It is, I think, impossible for a TV company or a production company to make programmes like the one we did, Superdrumming. Because nowadays they only think about the viewing figures, and of course that's because they think they have to make programmes for the masses.) But we're the masses, for Christ's sake! [Huge applause & whistling.] And also... the other thing that really pisses us off is that these people who control the media - I don't care any more, because I'm that old so I don't need to, but - the people who control the media, they have, usually, sie haben so viel Angst for ihre Jobs, dass sie nur machen das, glaube ich, ist absolute sicher. Die Leute, die nehmen Risikos, sind leider Räritäten heute. Das meine ich in Filmproduktion, in Plattenproduktion. Sie folgen alle in Linie, das sie glauben, kann schnell verkauft sein. (They're so worried about their jobs that they only do kind of things they think will be a sure success. People who take risks are rarities today, unfortunately. And I also say that about film production and record production. They all follow whatever line they think can be quickly sold.) I go into a shop, if I go into a Plattenladen, and I'm sure, viele von uns machen dasselbe: ich suche was Gutes aus, in neuer Produktion (many of us do the same thing: I look for something good, something recently produced), I can't find anything. So what do I do? I buy old stuff. Because I know, I can trust the old songs and old artists, because they were very, very good. I was one of them - haha! [Waving in Paicey's direction] the same with him. [Another big laughter from the audience.] But we know we could trust that. And the problem is, ich weiss auch, weil ich spiele sehr viel mit jünge Musiker, wir treffen jünge Schlagzeuger, andere Musiker, Teenagers, (Leute in ihren) 20 Jahren. Sie können wirklich spielen, sie spielen nicht nur in Gruppe, sie spielen in Big Bands, in Orchester - in klassicher Orchester - gute Musiker. Aber sie haben mit was passiert heute kein Zukunft, because es ist niemals unterwtützt von der Media selbst. (I also know, because I play a lot with young musicians, we meet young drummers and other musicians, teenagers and people in their twenties. They can play really well, they don't only play in groups but in big bands or in orchetras - classical orchestras - good musicians. But with what's going on now, they have no future, because they never get any support from the media itself.) Once in a while, somebody comes along, a pretty girl who plays the violin, and you may, if you're lucky, get a Vanessa Mae. Or something, whatever. They promote this person and she gets very famous. But I... [Someone whistles really loud. Pete points in his direction] You see, here's a guy. He can pfeif (whistle) so loud, he should have a Plattenvertrag (record contract)! [Pete holds his thumb up, applause from Paicey & the audience.]

Q: Can you tell us something about your bass drum technique?

IP: Er... [looking in Pete's direction] bass drum technique... [Pete nods, to say Paicey should go ahead and answer.] For me, it's a new Duracell battery every night. 9 volts in there [holds his left leg up, bent at the knee] and it goes 'bzzzzzzzzzz' [shaking his raised leg. Huge laughter from the audience.] Er, I think... We're very lucky, we come from a generation of players, where the patterns of the rhythm were really important. So you learn to blend in with the bass line, so it becomes one instrument. If you're playing bass in disco music [stamps his foot loud in simple bum-bum-bum-bum rhythm], you don't have to think too much. But if you've got bass players, say, like Jack Bruce, or guitarists like Hendrix, where it's all rhythmic patterns, the bass drum has to fit. So you learn to make these different ??? notes, and you learn to play double and triple notes. It's a musical thing, it's not a technique thing. If you don't do it, then the music doesn't sound right. You have to blend in with what surrounds you. That's how I feel. [To Pete] what do you think? [Pete is about to go up to the mike again, when someone in the audience comes up with...]

Q: Fireball is a great record!

IP: It's not bad, is it? Not bad, eh?

Q: Remember the notation I sent you?

IP: You wrote it down... Hey, look. You can write it, I can play it. [Big applause.] Shall I show it to you? I'll show it to you, see if you've got the notes right, OK? Yeah, sure, just the beginning.

Paicey goes up to his drumkit. Pete makes a sport TV type commentary about Paicey's every movement. Paicey throws his towel at Pete, then proceeds to play the drum intro to Fireball, which is met with one of the loudest applauses this evening.

IP: It's easy. And you drummers out there, you know it's fairly simple, that. What's important is that it fits the song. It makes a great intro to a good song. That's the most important thing about it, not if it's difficult. When you have the idea, to play is easy - the hard thing is making the ideas.

At this point, Paicey tells the audience that Pete is going to play a free-form drum solo. Pete then explains that they are going to play Norwegian Wood "because, in den letzten Tagen, wir alle denken sehr viel, natürlich, von den Beatles...bestimmt (of course, we have all been thinking a lot about the Beatles in the last few days.) It's actually a Waltzer. So if anybody wants to waltz, you're very welcome. I'd like to tell you something else: that a drummer should think about dancing. I'm the world's worst dancer, but I love to think about dancing when I play the drums, because that's actually what it's all about. It's about 'Dynamiks' (pronounced the German way but with the English "s" at the end ;-), and I'll try and bring in some dynamics into this piece of music which I'm sure you'll recognise.
And so Pete, Colin and Miller play a great rendition of the Beatles number, leading to an an extensive and spectacular drum solo by Pete. Then it's Paicey's turn to treat us to his equally energetic and wonderful drum solo.

IP: [Still out of breath] You've seen two totally different styles of drumming, with the guys appreciating what the other one does and how, when we play together, we can work in great harmony. It would be really nice if life was like that. That would be great. [Applause.]

PY: Thank you very much. I tell you, music is a wonderful thing, it would be great if all the politicians and generals of the world were musicians. We wouldn't have any troubles, I'll tell you that. Because when you play together, when two people live together, you have to compromise. Not exactly compromise, you do it, it's not a problem, you do it - you come together and play together because you want the partnership to work. And in a band, if you're playing in a band, the band cannot work if you have overpowering ego, an ego so big (that) it's just "me, me, me, me, me".

IP: [who brings his mic stand with him and stands right in front of Pete, then says] That's quite right, Pete [then turns around and runs off to 'his' side of the stage again.]

PY: ... it has to be a bit of give & take... [rushes to Paicey, steals his mic stand and brings it over to his side, then talks into both mikes simultaneously]... in stereo.

PY: But anyway, we're having a great time doing these things. We hope it's fun for you... (The idea about this was that) Ian hat mich angerufen und sagte (Ian rang me and said), 'Pete, let's go out and do something together, and we'll call it An Evening With Ian Paice & Pete York.' Wir haben solche Sachen privat gemacht, vor viele, viele Jahren, aber wir wollten das vor Publikum machen (we did similar things in private, many, many years ago, but we wanted to do it in front of an audience this time.) So we hope it's nice for you, and we hope it brings a little Inspi...Inspirieren ("inspiring"), shall we say, for musicians and people who love good music. We had a question last night, 'how do you learn, if you're a musician of anything, wie lernt man, verschiedene Stile von Musik erstmals zu geniessen und dann zum spielen?' The secret is really, really simple: you just have to listen, listen, listen. Listen to everything. Don't listen to Top 40 only, listen to everything - go and hear some classical music, go and hear some Greek music, go and listen to some Indian music, go to an island some place and hear what they're doing. Because there's music all around the world, music _is_ an internationale Sprache ( international language), and language of the Schlagzeug is one of the most basic languages there is in the human race. [Big applause.]

Akiko Hada

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