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02 Nov 93 Brussel
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This was my third Deep Purple gig; this time -again- in the one and only Mark II cast, with the REAL Purple singer! I had a great sitting place: on the steps of the tribune, very close to the stage. Next to me sat Marc Brans, the chairman of the Belgian fanclub. The support was a Walloon band "Such A Noise". It was indeed! At 21:20 the introtape was started and the lasers conjured the Purple logo, through which the dragons of the ugly CD cover appeared. On the tone of "Highway Star" those dragons started a fight. Glad to see Gillan back and that Glover has his normal bass guitar back. But where was Jon's Hammond? It was replaced by an organ on "feet". Already during the first instrumental part, Big Ian was beating up his congas. Whilst Ritchie was soloing he kept changing his weight from one feet to another. Straight into next song "Black Night" which was greeted with great enthusiasm, the crowd was chanting along. During Jon's awesome solo, Blackmore sat with one knee on Paice's drumstand. Then he started duelling Jon, and they played the riff of "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll". As Blackmore returned to the Black Night riff, he pointed to the raving crowd:" I must hear you." During the whole concert Jon and Ritchie kept eye-contact and signalled each other with their hands. "Thank you! Thank you. Merci! Thank you very much! Thank you for your great welcome. Cheers. All right! Do you know..." (Roger was pointing at someone in the audience and Gillan answered "that's good") "Here is one that starts in your trousers. Talk About Love". At first I thought it was "The Battle Rages On". Between verses Gillan was coughing a lot. "Here is a story about 3 little pigs". Ritchie played something fast for a few seconds. "Twist In A Tale" Nice fast one; only a pity that there was no long solo in it. A few morons were crowdsurfing. "Thank you very much. That was a tale about 3 little pigies. Here is one...(inarticulate)". Jon started the beautiful intro to "Perfect Strangers" I do love this intro, but it is always so short! :-( The lasershow really fits this song; it has become a part of it. Gillan had difficulties with his high notes, which I have noticed in earlier songs as well. This song drew wild response from the crowd. Ritchie soloed in a white spotlight, then helped out by Paice and the others; this solo became the real intro to "Difficult To Cure" . The lasers drew the picture of Beethoven - as usual - Jon finished this astonishing song with his brilliant solo, gave Roger the thumbs up before the latter left stage. People were really celebrating this solo: clapping their hands, singing along... Of course he performed the obligatoire "Für Elise". A longer boogie woogie than usual. People helped him out singing a tune which he was playing, seemingly he enjoyed that, because he smiled and replayed it. He smiled a lot during the interaction of the raving crowd. He bowed a lot to us after it. Then he began his intro to "Knockin' At Your Backdoor". This intro was a wee bit different, during this he was stamping his feet to the rhythm of the music. Again Gillan coughed. Ritchie's quiet, breathtaking solo could have been much longer for my taste. Jon and Big Ian were even holding hands at one moment. Great song!
"I thank you! Here is another song about our 3 little pigies. On tambourine ... Sir Ian Paice! Thank you!" This can't be true: "Anyone's Daughter"! Great! Good to see Paice in front of everyone. After this fabulous song Jon chased Paice back to his place. "Wow! Where did he come from?! Thank you very much. I thaaaaaank you! Here is one." "Child In Time". Lots of applause and lighters. The back dropping showed us the cover of "In Rock". Everybody helped Ian - who had voice troubles again - singing the high notes. Ritchie started his solo with a bottleneck (or how do you call that thing?). During his solo, Jon was copying Ritchie's tunes, watching him all the time. During the second part of the song, Gillan lets sing the "aaahs" while he is coughing again. Next was Jon's harpsichord intro to another great new song: "Anya". Ritchie, who was standing near him, joined him with a nice, mellow tune. They were both caught in a laser beam. A real formidastic intro! This song has everything to become a new Purple classic. A genius solo, with a headbanging Blackers, the crowd went loopy for it. "And now the seasons changed. Oh yeah, we have plenty of time." Now Gillan is sounding very hoarse. The intro for the next song was very calm: The Battle Rages On". Good song. When Ritchie played a heavy intro to "Lazy" the crowd went ballistic. Again this was a faster version (like in 91). This still remains one of my all time favourites. Gillan stood very at ease, singing behind his congas. He threw his 2 mouth organs into the insane crowd. I do like Ian's powerful drumsolo, but I don't like it being part of Lazy. Big Ian jumped onto the drumstand, pointed at Little Ian, asked him if he was all right , shook his hands and shouted: "Iaaaaaaaaaan Papapapapaice!" Jon played a few
bars of a Christmas song ("Little Drummer Boy" I think). "I love
magenta, it's my favourite colour, a little R'n'R." The Peer Gynt song was
played by Jon and Ritchie - would love to hear them do this entire song, must be
furious). Someone threw a flag of Flanders
to Ian, who hang it on the drumstand (this must have pissed of the Walloons, I guess). "Space Truckin'" with a lovely stroboscopic effect during the first shorter instrumental part. They played quite a big part of "Woman From Tokyo" Then they went back to one of the encores they used to do in the beginning of the Purple days "Paint It Black" . Performed swell, but why bothering to do something by the Rolling Stones, when they have such a big back catalogue of their own? Back to Space Truckin' a real nice long version of this song. Pity that I have never seen Deep Purple in the 70's. Jon threw in bits of the Sabre Dance; they were really having a ball on stage, enjoying themselves. Jon proved again that he is "The Lord Of The Hammond", even Gillan made the OK sign, pointing at the band. When this song was over, Ritchie shook hands with the audience, Paice threw his drumstick into the crowd. It was now 23:03 During the break the lasers made the DP logo and the bands name. After a few minutes we heard the first encore "Hush". I thought Gillan did not want to sing songs by other Purple singers? He did forget some lines though. During Jones solo everybody stood beside him. We had a little "drum-intro" to Speed King". Genius duel between the two masters, including the Burn riff. Amazing stuff! I really am glad that I am a Deep Purple fan! Ritchie started a slow, sensitive, soft intro to Smoke On The Water". Very impressive! People were clapping their hands, totally out of tune. During the real Smoke intro, the whole place exploded. Ian was conducting the singing of the audience, silent and louder. During the "wild" part of the song, he was headbanging and waving his hands wildly à la Joe Cocker. At 23:23 It all was over. Glover gesticulated like he wanted to throw his bass into the screaming and clapping audience. This was definitely the best show of the 3 Deep Purple gigs I have seen so far!
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