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BN 18 Sep 97
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KÖLN 16.12.97
The
announced concert on 18 September was postponed, due to Blackmore’s health
problems, till 16 December. We
drove for about 3 hours before arriving in Ehrenfeld. Thanks to the correct
driving directions we’ve received from Liberato. There was plenty room to park
the car at 16:00. So we (Johan Van Rijckeghem - the one and only, who else –
and I) went for a walk to Köln centre. First we tried to nick some posters, but
they were glued too well to the wall, or hung too high. We saw very few posters
(2). After an hour walk through the freezing cold, we bought some postcards for
those who stayed home. In one of Johan’s many, world-wide regular pubs we had
supper, very good and spicy (goulash) including the needed drinks. We still had
an hour to kill, and as I could not drink much (being BOB, in Belgium that’s
the one who drives and doesn’t drink – at the most 2 beers), I’ve left
Johan at the pub and visited the infamous Köln Christmas market. There I bought
a few presents for the misses, as result: half of my budget was already gone. At
19:30 there was a long cue at the entrance of the Live Music Hall, too long for
our liking. So we drank something (lemonade, at least I did) in the little
restaurant around the corner. There we saw some familiar faces, but I couldn’t
say who they belonged to, Johan thought one of them was Rob Fodder. The
bartender informed, but we were wrong. The
small music hall, capacity ± 600, was overcrowded: we estimated 800 men (and
women). The support act should have fitted nice during Joe Lynn Turner’s AOR
Acoustic Night at Vosselaar. The English guitarist-singer, who talked great
German, said it was a problem being support act to Ritchie Blackmore, so he
started playing mouth-organ. It was since my first Purple concert in Genk ‘85 that I was thàt far away from stage, and most Germans are bigger than I am… But in front of the mixing desk there was a railing, were I could sit on and could look over everyone’s head. At
20:50 we heard a CD with a swell
Christmas version of “The Clock Ticks On” interpolating some Purple tunes
(Black Night, Smoke,…) The
very beautiful Candice sang, almost a-cappella, merely accompanied by Ritchie,
the first lines of “Shadow Of The Moon”.
At first she was hard to hear, but that improved quickly. They were assisted by
a female guitarplayer, who also was doing the backing vocals. Drums, keyboards;
and a bassplayer wearing a witch's hat (as Ritchie’s roadie wore in Brussels
’93). There was a camera in the hall. On stage (not between Black+ and the
audience!) were 2 more. Ritchie was noticeable in a very good mood: already
shaking hands with the public; Candice thanked us in German. During “Be
Mine Tonight”. the drummer was playing the tambourine with big
gestures. Ritchie waved and said
there were “familiar faces in the audience.” “Play
Minstrel Play.” (Ian Anderson was good imitated on the keyboards)
got a huge applause. ”Ocean
Gypsy” was graced with some clavecimble. “Minstrel Hall”
had a witch dancing on stage, her dancing reminded me of Kate Bush. Candice
announced her as “our house-witch”. Then
we had “a new song, not appeared on CD yet, except for the bootlegs.” She
distributed the lyrics. But, as I’ve written before, I was way back from the
stage, so I could not grab one. “Under
The Violet Moon”, which will appear on the next Blackmore’s
Night CD. Hope they will be all of the same niveau! At last Ritchie played a
beautiful – though short – solo. This song was awarded also with a big
applause. Blackmore’s knee bendings and gestures reminded me of his first
Rainbow period. Someone near the stage (not Johan – he was at the back at the
bar, where else could he be?) shouted at Ritchie to poor some beer at the
camera. But he pored – very gentle – some drops at the audience. Candice
explained that “he’s known to poor some beer at the camera” (Yeah???) Then
it appeared that there were “some royals in the audience”. Candice asked to
put a spotlight on them, but I don’t know who they were. Someone in my
surroundings, shouted at Candice: “Ich will ein Kind von Dir” (I want to
make you a baby) at this moment she said “OK”; of course to much bemusement
of those who heard the first remark. “Once
upon a time, there was a band called Rainbow, did you know this? And was run by
an evil wizard”. Huge applause: Temple
Of The King.” Which blended superb with the voice of Ritchie’s
fiancée. The dancer was wearing an ugly black short which did not fit under her
medieval dress. Again we got a
great solo from the Master. The only minor point of this song: it was 15 minutes
too short. When someone shouted: “Ritchie Ritchie!” he answered cheerfully
“Yeah!” Candice
asked “any requests?” someone from the bar (ahum!) shouted:
“Mistreated!” But she announced “a song original written by the Spice Girls (“Yeah! Came out of many throats): “16th
Century Greensleeves” Here I missed the strength of Dio’s voice.
“The
next song was written by a very good, drunken friend, not far from here: Memmingen”
Too short again! Here he was assisted with “ah-singing” from both women. “Here
are some minstrels coming up for the next song”: a kind of bagpiper, Ritchie
on mandolin, Candice and the keyboardplayer on flute. The latter ones were
several times out of tune; especially Candice, and she knew it too. This as a
prelude to “Renaissance
Faire”. The bagpiper, who changed instruments, playing now flute,
counted for nothing: he did not know when he was supposed to play or not. You
couldn’t hear him anyhow. I did have a feeling a tape helped them with some
extra effects: flute, tambourine,… In spite of the fact that I was that far
from the stage, I started falling in love with the singer, who did not? I
had the Japanese setlist from Internet and hoped they would follow the same
list. They did, a bit in a jumble. But Ritchie still did not surprise me, maybe
because I had that playlist? The intro to “Mond
Tanz” was fabulous, but again too short! Blackers whispered
something to his muse, and she announced: “Ritchie wants to do something by
Motley Crue: No Second Chance” The “Ah’s” in the intro were a
bit aside the right notes, but what the heck, that was part the charm (or is
love making deaf?) My
behind started hurting, due to the narrow tube I was sitting on. “I’ve heard
some people screaming out for this song, from Strangers In Us All, so here it
is:” The intro to ”Ariel” was
slow and somewhat heavy. Here again Candice was not sure of her voice, and
Blackmore’s solo was too short. And we had a torch dance. I started to fear
that whoever saw more than 1 Blackmore’s Night show, was doomed to see every
time the same stuff, and this by Ritchie Blackmore!?! The band was introduced:
“Joseph James on keyboards, Jessie Hayes on guitar and vocals, Mick (?) on
Bass, John’OReilly on drums. On mandolin, electric and acoustic guitars and
your resident bartender: Ritchie Blackmore. On vocals: Candice Night” - in a
see-through-dress (Michel! Stop dreaming!) “Nicola (?) our dancer” (I could
not write the names proper down). “The
Clock Ticks On” A great apotheoses, including flute and mandolin.
But again: I had expected more improvisation from Ritchie’s side. 22:12
they disappeared from stage, to return 1 minute later to do the encores.
Producing very loud electric guitar tones, which were rewarded with a huge
applause from the now wild and frantic audience. Apparently everybody, including
myself, had been waiting for this. “Still
I’m Sad”: Candice was again hard to hear at the start, but this
was rectified soon. At first I had the impression that something was wrong with
Ritchie’s guitar, or that he couldn’t get the right feeling out of it. Fact
was that he, after an ultra-short solo (only a few seconds) signed to the
keyboardplayer, who was now wearing a stupid hat. I really hoped that a decent Blackmore-solo
would follow! The organ part I could appreciate, with some clavecimble mixed in.
Swell. “Writing
On The Wall”: the
climax of the evening? Probably it was. With a real Ritchie, the one we
all came to see. At last he could let himself go; the pleasure of playing oozed
from the sounds that we were hearing! Supposedly he himself had been waiting for
this moment. The audience, that stayed all night long quite quiet, changed in a
completely different seething crowd, as we were used to see at a
Blackmore-concert. I think everybody, including The Man himself, needed this. At
22:28 we were thanked again. As suddenly, a minute later Ritchie reappeared to
play “Man
On The Silver Mountain” (!) Everybody went wild. Jessie, the
female guitarplayer was allowed to play a – good – solo, Ritchie went along
with it. Again the band waved to leave us: “bye bye”, but you could see the
look on their faces: what will happen now? Yes, indeed: Blackmore started “Black
Night” This song was played, like the other encores, with lots of
pleasure and great devotion. Suddenly T.M.I.B. stops playing and leaves
everybody singing (shouting?): “Oh ohohoh ohohoh oh ohohoh” and applauding
and hoping. But this time the farewell was for real, as at 22:38 we heard “Oh
Tannenbaum” blazing through the speakers. Pity they did not perform “Greensleeves” Many
left quickly the hall. We hung around, as usual, hoping for a miracle or
something similar, so that we could go backstage, but in vain. At the mean time
I searched the hall for some acquaintances: Ad Van Noort, Ron Leder, Mechteld
Beks and known-faces-with-no-name. When I heard English talking, some with a
German accent, and a familiar looking face (from some pictures). “Bist Du
Helmut?” Indeed: Helmut Gerlach, with whom I’ve written letters and
exchanged video -and audiotapes. He, and most others I talked with, had the same
opinion as I: we all needed the encores. He told me that there would be a second
tour in springtime, but it would be more the other side of Europe (keep your
fingers crossed, Stathis!). I asked him if he did not know if Mark Welsh was
present, who wrote so in “More Black Than Purple”. He stood beside me,
together with the people we saw at the restaurant-around-the-corner. The Rob
Fodder look-a-like appeared to be Jerry Bloom. I chatted a little with Mark, who
refused to be introduced to someone we know. He told me Dr. Carl was here, but I
have not seen him, maybe he was already backstage? We also met Michael Wicklund
and another one from Sweden (with a very melodious Swedish accent). They do the
“whole tour”, and have seen the previous concerts in Stuttgart and Mainz.
They told me that none of the 3 concerts were the same (phew, sight of relief).
Again the proof that you must see at least 2 Blackmore concerts. But this time
there’s no chance for me. I was already very pleased that the manoeuvre, which
was planned, was cancelled so that I could have seen this one show. Johan and I
were surprised that we did not see Tim, the chairman of the German Deep Purple
fanclub. In fact, we have not heard from him since a long time. I asked one of
the cameramen for which channel this show was filmed, but it appeared to be on
demand of Ritchie himself, maybe to put on sale; let’s hope so. Everyone,
except the lucky BÅ$Ł@®ðŠ with a backstage-pass, was gently pushed out
using the barriers. Johan
only took 2 pictures (and for once he hàd a new film and batteries in his
camera): one from Mark Welsh and me and one of Mechteld (they can be ordered). On
the way back home, we listened to the best Deep Purple concert since the
reunion: Paris ’93. What Blackmore at the time did with his Fender, is beyond
comprehension, he also stirred the others up. For those who only wanna have 1
tape: this is the one! This may be on one of the special CD’s-for-fans-only
Simon promised us! At
03:15 I was dreaming of heavenly singing blond angels, wearing see-through
clothes. The day has been long and exhausting, but I would do it again, right
now!
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