Deep Purple - Cambridge, Corn Exchange UK
Saturday, 24 February 1996
The Venue
I'VE NEVER SEEN the Cambridge Corn Exchange so full. It's unseated
downstairs with seating upstairs. I'm standing centre stage about
half way back. The stage is fairly spartan. Set up as per previous
reviews: guitar extreme left, keyboards to the right on podium, congas
in front, drums to the right also on podium, bass extreme right.
Wafts of illegal substances!
Gave Pan Ram a miss.
The Set List (from memory. Apologies for any errors! - start 20:45, finish
22:55):
- Fireball (ending with Into The Fire riff)
- Maybe I'm A Leo
- Vavoom: Ted The Mechanic
- Pictures Of Home
- Black Night
- Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
- No One Came
- Woman From Tokyo
- Mary Long
- The Purpendicular Waltz
- Cascades: I'm Not Your Lover
- Smoke On The Water (Roger with Rickenbacker - Lord solo)
- When A Blind Man Cries
- Rosa's Cantina
- Somebody Stole My Guitar
- Speed King
- Perfect Strangers
- Hey Cisco
- Highway Star
The Songs
It's loud :-)
Nice mix of old and new. I'm glad that "CiT" has been dropped.
Delighted at the choice of older songs. Fireball is a good opener
allowing the band to loosen up very quickly. The Purpendicular
repertoire includes most of the weaker songs with the exception of
"Sometimes" which is quite superb. Only "Ted" comes over as better
than on the CD. The others chug along satisfactorily. I'd like to
have seen "Soon Forgotten", "Loosen" and "The Aviator".
It's very hard to pick out the highlights as there were so many, eg
Leo, "WFT", "Mary Long", "No One Came", "Speed King", "Sometimes".
But the crowning glory was "Perfect Strangers", an absolute monster of
a song and a great start to the encore. I liked the shorter "Smoke";
it's weird to hear it half way through the set!
The Band
It has to be said that the star of this show was Steve Morse. I must
admit that I'd never heard of him before he joined Purple but this guy
is AMAZING! He has such a clear, clean sound. You can hear every
note. He plays the old stuff with great aplomb and is obviously
sensitive enough to stick to the original licks where appropriate and
then add his own interpretations when it feels right. He has a
permanent grin and is clearly enjoying himself. His interplaying with
Jon was breathtaking. Those two sound as though they've been playing
together for years. Thanks Steve! Does anybody else think he sounds
like Gary Moore and looks like Kurt Cobain? Still better that than
the other way round :-)
Jon was stood on his podium as though conducting his orchestra (which
of course he was!). He was on good form though I was a little
disappointed with his solo which seemed (relative to his incredibly
high standards) badly thought out and meandering. Of course he got
thunderous applause :-) As I've said his playing with Morse was
superb. Jon's great skill is his support playing and he always seems
to know exactly what is required to 'fill' the sound (okay, so I'm not
a musician!).
Little Ian looked totally relaxed (as did everybody else for that
matter). He just makes everything look so simple. No solo this time
round. A great shame because I *like* drum solos! His bass drum was
very high in the mix (as was Roger's bass); I've got the dents in my
skull to prove it! Still the best around.
Roger seems to be becoming more and more the main force behind Purple.
His bass was right at the front of the mix and was literally driving
the band along. He joined Steve on acoustic guitar on "Sometimes" and
the pair provided (inaudible!) backing vocals at times. This guy is
having *fun*. Roger somehow projected an immense feeling of pride at
was happening on stage. Rightly so.
Big Ian was also on good form. By and large he kept within his
current vocal range and it was great. When he did stray, it showed!
His inter-song banter was confined mainly to "This is a true
story...". Often the band didn't wait for him to introduce the next
song as he was taking so long! "Here's a song about.." Bamm, we're
off! He kept apologising for mixing up the new and old. I sometimes
get a bit irritated with Ian's tomfoolery, does he really not know
what the next song is? But I'd much rather that than "Ere's a song
for ya!". He looked remarkably slim too. Nice to see he maintains
his dreadful dress sense!
The Crowd
Yer average Cambridge people; you wouldn't really get much idea who
they were going to see. I saw Jools Holland here a few months ago
with much the same audience. I didn't see one embroidered jean
jacket! The average age seemed to be mid-thirties. People were more
familiar with the older stuff than _|_ though "Sometimes" got a big
cheer.
The Reviewer
I've got flu but I wasn't going to miss this for anything. I doubt
whether we'll see them again in Cambridge and I know that if a certain
guitarist was still in the band we wouldn't have had this honour.
Apologies to anybody who's coughing their guts up because of me!
(what does he want? sympathy?! )
The Conclusion
This was pure pleasure from beginning to end. The band look *so*
happy. Long may they continue. Steve Morse is a godsend, I hope he
sticks around. I didn't miss Blackmore one bit, in fact I'm so
pleased he's gone. If people think this isn't Deep Purple, well I
don't care. This band comprises four guys who I've admired and
followed for 24 years plus one hell of a lead guitarist. Whatever
they call themselves they are simply the best!
Simon Dickens
Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Cambridge/UK 24/2/96 - Review
From: dickenss@logica.com
(Simon Dickens)
[ Purpendicular | Rosa's Cantina ]
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