Queens Purple Rangers
Deep Purple conquered Lille yesterday. There was hardly any resistance: most of the approximately 2500 fans seemed to enjoy the skills and following victory of the Purple opponent.
Already in the opening tune of the battle that was won on forehand, Ian Gillan broke his silver necklace and threw it behind the stage of the scenery. In the following song, the man decided to disappear off stage, by walking off behind Steve Morse. He just keeps on singing "Strange Kinda Woman" and finally appears at the other side, next to Roger. The venue has a relatively small stage and a very big balcony. Maybe it was this that gave the show a clubfeeling as I experienced it.
Gillan was in a great mood. He started about "...Something that is so good, it will influence the rest of the evening. But more about that later...." (or something to that extend). Later Gillan explains what's making him so happy:
Queens Park Rangers: 2 - Bolton: 0!! His favourite (2nd division?) football club won. He rambles on dedicating a song to them, as it was the biggest moment since 1967 or something.
The setlist remained the same as before the band's two weeks off, and everybody has the battery fully loaded again. Unbelievable. The new songs are sounding more and more like classics to me. It could be me, but watching Ian's mouth during "Watching the sky" it looked and sounded like he was singing "...and the fury, and the fatness..." several times.
Jon (wearing yellow-framed shades) his solo is great and forces Ian Piace to stop the intro to Lazy he already had begun to shuffle.
"The next song we recorded in the middle ages. It's from an album called Queens Park Rangers and the song is called Perfect Street Rangers".
Speed King not only features the "Aunt Nelly" verse, but also has the band doing a miniature version of "Lucille"! Good to see that stuff.
The intro to Highway Star reminded me of the Brixton 1993 one, as Rog and Ian keep on going with the intro while Steve has troubles with his (replaced) guitar. Hardly noticable this delay he starts imitating the meanest machine you've probably ever heard.
Thanks guys!
PS Ian had a remark about a certain Cliff, like he was apologizing for the day before. He closed his monologue with something like "but was that you wife on Collins knee?" :-)
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