Right to Deep Purples 30th anniversary, the “30 : very best of” birthday compilation hits the stores. (Anyone took the time to count how many collections are already out there??? :)

Instead of featuring just several tracks taken from two or three albums, this one tries to give a view over 30 years of Deep Purple in rock. Of course there are dozens of tracks that should be featured on such a compilation - and I’m also sure if you tell ten fans to write down the tracks that should be included in such a release, ten different tracklists will come out - because everyone has his own favorites that stand for his personal meaning of Deep Purple - but as CD space is limited, you have to make a selection.
And so also Nigel Reeve, who compiled this release, had to make his selection. A selection that - when first looking at - annoyed me a bit. Where’s “April”? Where’s “Anya”? Where’s “Knocking At Your Backdoor”? were the first questions that popped up in my mind.

In my eyes the tracklist looks a bit unbalanced. There are three tracks taken from the “In Rock” era and four tracks from “Machine Head” but nothing from “Deep Purple”, “The Book Of Taliesyn”, “The House Of Blue Light”, “Slaves and Masters” (yes, “Slaves and Masters” - maybe not the best, but a part of Deep Purple history) and “The Battle Rages On”. To make 18 tracks fit on one single CD, Nigel Reeve also had to take a lot of single versions and edits instead of “full album versions” - a fact that leaves me with some mixed feelings - “Child In Time”, for example, sounds way too short in the single edit.

So who are the people to buy this CD? Sure not the ones who already have most or all Deep Purple CDs in their collection (even if some collectors just might get it because of completism). It’s a collection for those knowing some songs of Deep Purple but never bought an album - and for newbies, as it’s at least an equal route to Purplemania as “Deepest Purple” is.

The Setlist remains the Same - Deep Purple live in Karlsruhe

First of all a big “Hi” to the internet people I met before and after the show… ‘hope to see you all again soon!

The venue was a small hall in Karlsruhe (about 4000 people), which offered a poor sound and really two (TWO!) small doors to let the crowd in…

Opener were German metal band Rage together with a “chamber version” of the Lingua Mortis Orchestra - which featured only 3 of normally 22 people. They played a good show with only two problems:

• the orchestra-people were way too low in the mix

• the setlist - I really don’t understand why they only played songs out of their actual CD “XIII” and a cover of Rolling Stones “Paint It Black”

Purple entered the stage at about 21:20 and played for less than two hours. The band was in a fine shape, especially Big I sounded better than on last tour… A disappointing fact was the setlist: where were the surprises that make a concert exciting? Instead of keeping “Into The Fire” in the setlist (only played once in Germany) and digging out some never-played-live songs, they re-introduced live standards like “Strange Kind Of Woman” and kept songs like “Woman From Tokyo” or “Speed King”.

To sum up: it was a bit like a movie featuring some great actors - but with a script you always have the feeling you know what will happen during the next 5 minutes…

Deep Purple live in Karlsruhe 1998-06-17

Just coming back from the show in Karlsruhe….

Opener were German metal band Rage together with a “chamber version” of the Lingua Mortis orchestra (only 3 people of normally 22). Bad thing was these people were way too low in the mix and Rage played only songs from their actual CD “XIII” and the Rolling Stones cover “Paint It Black”…

Purple entered the stage at about 21:20 and played for less than two hours. The band was in a fine shape, especially Big I sounded better than on last tour…

A disappointing fact was the setlist: where were the promised surprises? Instead of keeping “Into The Fire” in the setlist (only played once in Germany) and digging out some never-played-live songs, they re-introduced live standards like “Strange Kind Of Woman” and kept sogs like “Woman From Tokyo”.

To sum up: it was a bit like a movie featuring some great actors but with a script you always have the feeling you know what will happen in the next 5 minutes…

Tataaaaaa, here it is: The 25th anniversary release of one of the best live recordings of all times - Deep Purples “Made In Japan”.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect: “In Rock 25” set a level that seemed impossible to top for further releases, and “Fireball 25” finally showed me how brilliant the “Fireball”-recording really was. First problems IMHO came up with “Machine Head 25” - the anniversary release of the Deep Purple “hit album” and mega seller - it was nice to get it in excellent sound and also to get the different mixes; but I was missing the things that made “In Rock 25” and “Fireball 25” so exciting - all that stuff that has never seen the light of being published over the years. And now “Made In Japan 25”…!? I already have the original CD release, the “Live In Japan” 3CD set - and now again a 2CD set ahead to buy… sounded a little bit too much to me…

But finally I got the CDs - a typical EMI promotional release - so I can’t say anything about artwork, booklet, etc. The first CD features the original “Made In Japan” in digitally enhanced sound whilst the second CD offers “Black Night” and “Speed King” from Tokyo (17th August) and “Lucille” from Osaka (16th August), all labeled “previously unreleased”.

So I put CD1 into my CD-player, set the amp to “give the neighbours what they deserve” and enjoyed a really blasting version of the original “Made In Japan” set. I haven’t compared it to the mixes on “Live In Japan”, so I can’t say anything about further enhancement or things like that; but I can say for sure that it sounds damn fresh for a 25 years old recording.

Then it was time for the second CD. I was a bit disappointed when looking at the running-time: only about 22 minutes - so it has just the usual Maxi-CD problem: you put it in the player, press “start” and don’t need to walk away very far, because you have to change the CD soon again. So I set my CD player to “loop mode” and what should I say? I didn’t change the CD during the next 2 hours. This CD really rocks! “Black Night” is a really nice take of that song - same goes for “Lucille”; but the real highlight is “Speed King”. Not only that is is a very electric and dynamic version of that song - it also captures a moment when something within the audience seemed to go wrong. I can’t exactly say what it is - maybe a struggle between the audience and security which Ian Gillan tried to solve - hopefully the booklet of the final release will tell us more.

So at the end there are just five words to say “Buy it, you won’t regret!”

Deep Purple in Ulm (12/03 - first) and Hanau (30/03 - last gig in Germany) or “Who needs Ritchie Blackmore ???”

As I was just there to enjoy the music, I’ve made no notes and therefore here are only a few thoughts about both gigs:

the venue:

Both venues about the same size. No controls of the audience in Ulm, each one was searched in Hanau. “No Smoking!” in Hanau - this must be the real spirit of Rock’n’Roll. :-)

the audience:

Typical Deep Purple audience in Ulm - people of all ages, well mixed. In Hanau the average age of the audience seemed to be lower - more younger people than at the other DP gigs I’ve been.

the support: Pan Ram

In Ulm, I thought that I was one of the three or four people who enjoyed their show. The main part of the audience seemed to dislike them. In Hanau, their performance had become a little better than in Ulm. Also the acceptance by the audience was way better than in Ulm. No “Deep Purple” cries during their show, no whistles.

the sound:

Not so good in Ulm, but very clear and well balanced in Hanau.

the merchandise:

Partially cheaper in Hanau than in Ulm. I really don’t know why. I’ve bought a t-shirt, a mug and the yearbook, which is really great. Merchandise stand in the middle of the hall in Hanau, directly behind the mixing equipment.

Deep Purple:

Really great at both venues - they really blew me away. The set included “Purpendicular Waltz” in Hanau, which was left away in Ulm. Ian Gillan changed his clothing from his well know jacket in Ulm to a Purpendicular T-shirt in Hanau (where he was also wearing a grey hat, a grey pullover and a DP shawl from time to time). Roger was wearing a blue scarf in Ulm and one with Yin/Yan in Hanau. Steve used his wolf-T-shirt in Ulm and a multi-colored one in Hanau. Jon and Ian Paice desssed the same at both gigs.

Instead of a detailed review of the musical performance just one quotation of a guy who has seen them first back in ‘72: “The best Deep Purple I’ve ever seen! - Who needs Ritchie Blackmore?”

summary:

I had an absolutely great time - ‘hope to see them again soon …

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Deep Purple! Pünktlich zum 25 jährigen Bandjubiläum hat man dem auf dem letzten Album nicht sehr überzeugenden Joe Lynn Turner die Koffer vor die Tür gestellt und sich des besten Sänger erinnert, der bei Deep Purple jemals das Mikro in der Hand hielt. Dieser ließ sich dann auch (glücklicherweise) nicht lange bitten und so kehrte Ian Gillan - zumindest vorläufig - wieder ans Mikro zurück.

Daß sich der Sängerwechsel gelohnt hat, müßte dann spätestens beim Erscheinen der Vorab-Single “Anya” auch dem letzten klar geworden sein. Während sich der letzte Weichspüler “Slaves And Masters” anhörte, als hätte man es mit den reformierten Rainbow unter falschem Namen zu tun, hört man auf “The Battle Rages On” wieder deutlich, wer denn hier zu Werke geht. Deep Purple beleheren all diejenigen eines besseren, die sie nach dem letzten Album schon abgeschrieben hatten. Dabei herausgekommen ist ein ziemlich abwechslungsreiches Album, bei dem man sich eher an alte “Fireball” oder “Machine Head” Zeiten erinnert, als an “The House Of Blue Light”. Was soll man zu so einem Album noch sagen ?? Wer’s schon zu Hause stehen hat: anhören, wer nicht sollte diesen Mißstand schnellstens beseitigen!

Überragend (16/20 Punkte)

P.S: Leider gab es bei Deep Purple mal wieder eine personelle Umbesetzung. Saitenhexer Ritchie Blackmore verließ pünktlich zum Ende der Europatour die Band, die sich als Ersatz für die folgende Japantour Flitzefinger Joe Satriani angelte, mit dem, wenn man verschiedenen Gerüchten glauben darf, auch noch eine weitere Worldtour folgen wird.