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12 Oct 98 Rotterdam
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I could not be at the concert in Brussels on 24 Sep.
Because our manoeuvres started 1 (one!) day earlier. (I made a
"review" of how I would have liked the show, it's a nice reading. If
you want it, just ask it). Second disappointment: couldn’t get no holiday on 7 October for the Düsseldorf
gig, because there was a military ceremony; the captain allowed my holiday –
because I’ll miss the Belgian show, he knows what a big Purple fan I am –
but the major refused it. So it was Rotterdam instead. reasonably easy. We (or rather I) could park the car very close to the entrance; because we were so early and there was no parking lot attendant, it was free. When we arrived, Saxon was already doing their thing on stage. Neither one of us was much interested and stayed in the entrance hall, but could not spot anybody familiar. We went a few times into the hall: too hot and too crowded. That was promising! They finished at 20:55. I've heard some good remarks about their gig. When everybody left the hall to have a pee, we went in. I could make my way till the ± 10th row. Most of the Dutch people are bigger than I am (1.73), even the girls. As usual, the bigger ones try to stand in front of me. 21:10; the roadies finished setting up Purple's gear. When the lights went down at 21:15, a few guys started fighting, security was there very quick and removed them from the hall. I took advantage of this to wade through a bit more onto the stage. First one on stage was Gillan; followed by Paice, Lord, Glover and Morse. Jon started a thing, first I thought they were doing Any Fule… but it turned out as TED THE MECHANIC. The superb sound was the first thing that strokes my attention. The first Morse solo of the evening; many would follow. Gillan's voice sounded still great. After reading all the reports from the US about his voice going down… STRANGE KIND OF WOMAN. Gillan went regular backstage (behind Jon's amps) to drink something. His high tones sounded beautiful. Steve made a little mistake. We had our first great Lord solo too, during which Gillan was gone again. Steve even helped Lord playing some notes on the organ. "I thaaaank you! Superb! Great welcome! This song has been new twice, once…(the usual introduction)" BLUDSUCKER. Gillan was standing and singing a lot at the left side of the stage, where I was; maybe he saw a beauty? Amazing interplay between Lord and Morse, who was aping Jon's gestures on the Hammond, inventing a new instrument: air-organ. And even a duel between Steve and Little Ian: supreme! By now we had a third fight in my surroundings; hoped that this would not be the fact all evening. But again I took advantage of it and was now in the 6th row. Pity Jon's splendid solo was very short. PICTURES OF HOME. Gillan had some difficulties with his voice, but I don't think many have noticed. Morse was again very impressive. The longer he is in Purple the better he gets, and the better they play together. In fact, Deep Purple is more becoming the Gillan - Morse-Band? But I am not complaining. Hope next CD will be as good as tonight's show. Because Abandon was not thàt good in my opinion (many do agree with me). It was a stunning performance, although this is not my favourite song; I don't know why but I seem to like it less than most of the other reviewers do. "Superb, you're fantastic! This is a song about our direct position, as we have our first drink of the day: ALMOST HUMAN" A Fabulous guitar introduction, a bit of country and western (though I am not into that kind of stuff). Gillan received some laughing: by now he had his hair tied in a ponytail. Steve's solo was magnificent, Big Ian's conga's - as usual - inaudible; Jon's solo was one of his lesser, but it had a good rhythm. WOMAN FROM TOKYO really got the crowd excited. During the quiet bit Gillan (now without ponytail) was helped a lot by the echo unit. This song was one of the highlights of the evening and received a huge applause, the excitement was hardly discribable. "You're standing next to yourselves…"WATCHING THE SKY. I must say that I am having a great time; this must have been one of the best concerts I've been to. Everybody was smiling, on and off stage. Brilliant! Gillan found a plectrum on stage and gave it to Morse: "I believe this belongs to you". FINGERS TO THE BONE. One of my few favourites on Abandon. The intro was good, but on CD a little better (which reminded me of Blackmore's Night). Oops, Gillan was out of tune; but that's part of a live performance, isn't it. The Lord of the Hammond played something nice. While Gillan was saying a little poem: the intro to ANY FULE KNO THAT, he was again behind Jon's Leslies, who came looking for him. Glover bumped his bass several times into his speaker, using it as a percussion instrument. Wow! Gillan looked at me! Hoped that was not the reason for his coughing. They've done a lot of the new ones in a row, and had another blinder from Steve. Jon started another solo, Steve joined him. It was heavier than the intro he played in Paris; now you could hear easily how he was working his way into Smoke. Played a little Satriani; a bit of FÜR ELISE; a bit à la Pink Floyd; something without his hands, with a look on his face going: "help, without my hands, how do I have to stop this?!" This 9 minutes-solo was jaw dropping good, he played like a god (and this written down by a Blackmore fan!). Pity there were some jerks in the audience whistling all the time during the quiet bits. Then the others joined in and finished this unfuckingreal solo which became a piece of CASCADES. Sadly he did not continue this thing right into the next song, the crowd pleaser: SMOKE ON THE WATER, but received first an applause for this very majestic performance. Of course the first notes of their most known song drew wild response from the audience, some of them wearing bandannas too. I liked the red lights when Ian sang "a few red lights…". Jon's solo sounded like his new album: "Pictured Within" (I had received a tape of it: something completely different than his other solo projects: no organ in it, just piano, and - on 3 songs, I think - a bit of singing. All very relaxing, but a bit boring after a while: it sounds like it all is the same song. But back to the concert). Of course his solo was much too much too short, all in all maximum 3 minutes (did I mention already the feeling of it being the "Gillan-Morse-band?). This short solo turned out to be the intro of LAZY. Maybe my most favourite song of the Purps. Again Gillan was wearing that hat, like he did in Paris - hoped that this song would be as breathtaking good as it was in Paris, and I would like to know the reason for that hat during this song. I had a feeling he had a different way of singing it. Still awesome, but Paris was better; in fact the best version I've ever seen and heard live (since '85). Is the band running out of money? Gillan did not throw any mouth organs into the raving crowd. "This is the title track of an album, the album's called Perfect Strangers, the song's called PERFECT STRANGERS". The band really is smoking by this point. During the whole concert they were laughing, joking, talking… and playing their spine-tingling music. It is really some kind of miracle that out of this little machine - the organ - we can hear that powerful sound. Gillan interviewed Lord:" Well now, Mister Lord, what is your favourite colour? This is an early get up in the morning thing: SPEED KING" (at last: a different introduction). Including a swell bass solo by Roger (who else?), and the best - though short - solo by Little Ian I've seen. I don't like drumsolo's very much on tapes or records, the attraction when you see it is more gigantic. Gillan went up to him to tell him "well done". The Gillan-Morse duel included some kind of "digidigidown"-stuff. During his singing-shouting the place went nuts, this time his shouting was done without the echo-unit: impressive. He even helped Steve playing a few notes on his guitar. At 22:51 they started throwing generously guitar plectrums into the audience, Steve was even dancing. During the very short break, the crowd went into overdrive: they were even louder than when Purple was playing. They played loud, but it did not hurt, like it used to do before. 22:52 Paicey returned, followed by the others. Hey, what's this?! The intro to "Long Live Rock'n'roll"?! (And I was not the only one who heard it! Some others I spoke afterwards thought so too). The whole place exploded when they recognised BLACK NIGHT! Steve's duet with the public was longer than usual. The motor-sounds of Steve's guitar (how does he do it?) introduced HIGHWAY STAR. It was probably the best version I've heard lately. At 23:05 it was all over. We did not care to stay long in the arena because tomorrow work was calling! And for me that meant: a run for 15 Km; part of being a soldier (master warrant officer, but my main job is cooking). All in all a marvellous concert with lots of highlights, they are getting better and better every time I see them, though not so good as last time in Paris. Gillan seemed to remember his lines, I caught him only once looking at the floor. His voice was great. Pity that everybody has to write in their reviews that his voice was fine: that should be normal, isn't it? ;-) Terje Winther - and some others, like Mike Collins - wrote (about an other show) that "there were some annoyed persons…because they were just standing still, while he was rocking, dancing, singing/screaming along, and just digging the whole show". I do have a little comment to that: I am a "standing-still-person", all I do sometimes is playing a little air-guitar. But that does not mean that I don't like the show, on the contrary, I do am excited, sometimes I can even be in something like a trance, especially during a breathtaking guitar solo, like TMIB does when he is in a good mood . Maybe I'm getting too old (40) for jumping around? And it annoys us to have some morons around you jumping, bumping and shouting like it was a Sepultura concert. I often had to protect my glasses. Once I had just the time to catch them before they were on the floor. But everybody was having a far out time, and that is the thing that counts! (discussion closed). The Abandon stuff on stage was much much better than on the record, which I was not too fond of. But I must say that I prefer it this way, than the other way round! The
next day: luckily I had 2½ hours time to do the 15 Km. It went like this:
looks focused at infinity, intellect on zero, and the walkman with Live in
Japan. I am the contrary of a sportsman, but I've succeeded with ease, I even
had 15 minutes left. But I have to say that during the last 6 Km I did not care
whether it was Purple or the Spice Girls in my head phones.
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