Gillan made me consider farming
This concert was the first of the four Scandinavian dates and the first with Don Airey replacing the mighty Lord.
During the intro of the first song ("Woman From Tokyo"), Ian Gillan walked on stage and said, "Hi, how are you doing? Jon Lord is in the hospital ‘cos he’s got a dodgy knee, so we got Don Airey with us tonight, thank you!"
With that out of the way the games could commence...
After "Tokyo" they went into "Ted The Mechanic" featuring Roger's bass setting out. It sounded like a problem with the wireless application to me but I guess these things happen. ;^) [Wouldn't it be worse if you had to both play bass and sing? Rasmus]
It looked as if the band were a bit nervous in the first couple of songs, but with a new man sitting in, who can blame them? It was extremely interesting to observe the way that Paice and Morse took care of Don Airey by cueing him, smiling, and in every way making him feel at home.
And Gillan.... (wait a minute, I have to stand up when I write that name)
And Gillan.... (wait a minute, I forgot to salute while standing up)
And Gillan.... my God what a night!!
I have never seen anyone so confident in what he was doing, it was like
every thing he said, did, touched, looked at, and of course sang, just worked
out. It was one of those nights that made me consider farming instead of
singing. [Now there's an idea! Rasmus]
Don Airey did a tremendous job. It was obvious that he had listened to Lord’s stuff on the albums to make sure he would get the mandatory things right, but I love the fact that he in no way tried to do every line that Jon does. He played Deep Purple the Airey way. Hats off!!
All together a very interesting, different and well played show - I wouldn't have missed it! (But it got even better over the next few days. :^)
The set on this fine day in Skanderborg was as follows:
Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Mary Long
Lazy
No One Came
Fools
Well Dressed Guitar
Perfect Strangers
When A Blind Man Cries
Riff Raff: Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Back In Black (AC/DC), Voodoo Chile (Hendrix),
Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
Smoke On The Water
Speed King
Encores:
Black Night
Hush
Highway Star
After the show, my Uncle Blues and I drove off to Norway to see the second of the four Scandinavian shows!! Review will follow...
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