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When all the real "appreciators" of the Concerto
came to the Royal Albert Hall in September 1999
from ALL OVER the world to see it again after 30 years, we didn't even dare
dreaming to ever see that wonderful piece of music on stage again. But, luckily
for those who missed this event, they decided to go on tour with it this
year. Whether or not that was a good idea, I'm not sure yet for several reasons.
I might be throwing in some of my thoughts here, but I must say that my opinion
about that is still very split. On one hand I'm glad that the Concerto was
brought to a wider audience, on the other hand, the appreciation, due to
mis-promotion, was different at some places. Noisy audiences hurt the feelings
of the musicians and the composer with their attitudes. I have a nose that
this will be a frequently discussed topic in the future, but I don't want
to stretch out your patience with that here.... |
| Let me now give you some pictures and infos of the gigs
that I witnessed on that tour, namely Straßburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart
and -coming later- Dortmund, plus some information about some other ones. |
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I knew Steve wasn't from this world....
:-) |
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We started our little "tour" in
Straßburg, France, on Oct. 14, 2000. First thing we realise there (besides
the fact that our city map must have been about a different city) is, that
there are no announcements whatsoever. Not even the front door of the hall
was holding a single poster of the event. Instead, there's elderly, well-dressed
people all over the place and some Oompha band members...
"Are we really at the right place here?" we think. We sneak around the
hall and find some "familiar faces", enjoing their catered dinner. Alrighty,
if we're wrong here, at least they are too....
Well, it turns out that there are different happenings at the hall and
Purple is playing there tonight. It is a very intimate atmosphere,
the hall isn't too big and it is constructed to be a real concert hall with
great acoustics. Absolutely unlike the rest of this tour, it's far from being
sold out. (No wonder, with no promotion at all, duhhh....) Well, we're lucky
to be seated in second row, that's why you once more find some decent pictures
here, despite the old little tourist's camera.
Let me first, before I go into gig details, give you the setlist of
the gigs we are discussing here. It was pretty much the same all the time,
although I hear that at different places (countries) it was changed
spontaniously, due to audience "response" (rather:
ignorance/dis-response).
Setlist:
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Pictured Within (sung by Miller Anderson)
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Sitting In A Dream (with Ronnie)
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Love Is All (with Ronnie)
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Fever Dreams (from Ronnie's "Magica")
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Rainbow In The Dark (Ronnie and Purple doing that great Dio
classical - WOW)
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Wring That Neck (Ian and the brass section)
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Fools (without orchestra)
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When A Blind Man Cries (with orchestra)
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Ted The Mechanic
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The Well-dressed Guitar
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Pictures Of Home
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Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
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The (complete !) Concerto
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Perfect Strangers
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Smoke On The Water
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Encore:
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Black Night (not in Straßburg)
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Highway Star
Miller started with Pictured Within from Jon's recent solo album and
he sings it as beautiful as in London, puts so much emotion in it. Too bad
that folks are still walking around, trying to find their seats....
Although this was Miller's only solo song, he was present during the
whole gig, either singing with the female background vocalists or playing
the semi-acoustic guitar.
Next guest was fabulous Ronnie James Dio, who received a very warm welcome
by the audience. Of course he was singing the two songs of Roger's Butterfly
Ball before we got some "extras" this time: "Fever Dreams" of his recent
solo work "Magica" and the classical "Rainbow In The Dark". One of the highlights
of the evening, if you ask me. It's needless to say that he still has
his amazingly powerful voice, only this time he had extraordinary musicians
behind him as well. What a pleasure to watch and listen! Steve did a very
personal solo in FD, dropping this one very special lick, but he put real
power into the song and RITD got the crowd electrified. Nobody would have
minded to see more of that great fusion of one of the greatest voices and
the greatest band.
Wring That Neck was pretty close to the London performance, only the
horn section wasn't as strong and maybe a bit out of tune.
Then came some things different to the RAH shows: First was Fools, which
I personally saw live for the first time in Montreux, and I'm very happy
that they added it to the setlist. Great song with lots of room for improvising,
still as fresh as it was in 1971. Unfortunately the orchestra did not play
on this one, although the rumor mill had it that they would, sometime later
during the tour. Well, I did not eyewitness that, if it happened. Next was
WABMC, with the orchestra, another song which I'm very specially connected
to. I cannot describe my goosebumps here. "Thank you, guys!" for adding this
one here with the orchestra, it made me extremely happy. |
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The Maestro |
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Love Is All |
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Obviously enjoying themselves |
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Miller Anderson and Steve |
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The drums go classical |
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Get two great voices for the price of one
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 More
pictures of the Straßburg gig |
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| Next was "Ted", not too different to what
we know from the CD. Up came another surprise: a song that they say Steve
wrote on the airplane. During the beginning of that tour the song changed
its name every night, but it seems to be "established" now as "The
Well-Dressed Guitar". It is a Bach-influenced instrumental song, based on
unbelievable runs up and down the neck by Steve, involving him and mainly
the string section, but actually the whole orchestra. A great piece. I wonder
if we'll "see" it again elsewhere, like maybe on the new CD?
You may have realised that the pictures switched to Frankfurt now,
just I thought I'd continue my review here. I don't see the point of separating
them. So, Frankfurt on Oct. 15th, being our next stop on the tour, was actually
my big worry. I know the "Festhalle" from several events, and, as nice as
the design of the hall might be, is as lousy as the sound can be there. It's
not a concert hall at all. If they'd asked me (which of course nobody with
his senses all together would ever do...) I would have recommended the "Alte
Oper" (old opera house) for this event. Anyway, to my biggest surprise, it
sounded great that night, at least from where I was. Big time compliment
to the sound engineers, that is very remarkable.
The orchestral overture and Ian's powerful kicking-in for Pictures Of
Home impresses me time and time again.
After Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming (guess it's all said
earlier about how great that works with the
orchestra), we got the complete Concerto. Lucky us. What a shame to drop
the second movement, or cut it, or whatever else they had to do on this tour.
This masterpiece of music, and that it is, can't be cut! Poor ignorants who
can't see. Well, fortunately on every gig I've been to, they played it in
full and how I did enjoy it!!! I am not exaggerating when I say: music cannot
get any better, more genious, more perfect than that. God bless Jon for bearing
that baby from his soul! What a gift to the world!
So, after we had to land on earth from cloud number nine, what could
come next? It was Perfect Strangers, fully orchestrated. Wow! Great idea.
Another Purple hymn brought to perfection with the addition of the orchestra.
Sure enough the hall(s) went wild over it.
Let me mention, before we move on to the Stuttgart show, that after
the Frankfurt gig I had the unforgettable pleasure to spend lots of time
with Jon and Paicey as well. Sure I asked them some questions, and (besides
of the off-the-record-stuff) I will pass on to you what I can. |
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Festhalle Frankfurt, Germany |
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Yes, Paul Mann was there, too. |
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C'mon an' groove with me |
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Rog, you're da man ! |
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Rev. Reg Goole again |
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I don't want to forget to emphasize how
impressive it was to speak to Jon. What a Gentleman he is! One of the things
we discussed was, of course, how he felt about the different experiences
on that tour, regarding the audiences. I know it was hurting him big time
what happened in Sweden, Antwerp, or South America, (Prague being the worst,
from what I hear) but, being the perfect politeness that he is, he said he
was growing a thick skin about that. Not one harsh word whatsoever (although
it would have been more than understandable....) but no, not from him.
Jon seemed to be very happy about the German audiences, especially the
Frankfurt bunch. He said they were quiet when the band hoped they would be
and also went wild at all the right times. He seemed to be very happy about
that gig.
Another obvious topic was, naturally, why they didn't take the chance
to play "April" on this tour, since the orchestra was there already,
"coincidentally". We all agreed that this would have been a nice opportunity,
but why exactly it didn't happen was something I couldn't clear up, most
likely due to Jon's discretion.
Well, one thing I can answer here is "the bee story". We all
saw Ronnie coming on stage and handing a toy or stuffed bee to Paul Mann
all the time. "What's that all about?", we asked ourselves until Ronnie told
us: He thinks that Paul looks like the late, great John Belushi, who, in
a skit from the American TV show Saturday Night Live, used to dress up as
a bee. That's why he showed up with bees all time, and each time they got
bigger and bigger, trying to force Paul into dressing up like a bee . Well,
Paul wouldn't go for it, but it was a nice thing to picture...
Back from rambling to my reviews....
Stuttgart, the next stop on our tour on Oct. 17th, was another
nice one. The audience being a little lame at first (but at least quiet)
woke up later and got really into the gig. I don't have any decent pictures
from there, I was too far away, sorry.
Well, to continue the story, after "Strangers", when the whole hall
was loose, running towards the stage to dance, came Smoke On The Water. Yes,
I do like the song again (if it's with a brass section and an
orchestra.)
Because we all were "good people", we got encores at all the venues:
In Frankfurt and Stuttgart it was Black Night (because the
crowd continued singing the riff line) and Highway Star,
in Straßburg it was only HS. |
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Fever Dreams in Stuttgart |
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Finally, a shot of Paicey's one-handed
roll |
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Sometimes Stuttgart feels like
Screaming |
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| My bottom line here is that, ignoring the handful of morans,
it was a wonderful tour. Just talking about the concerts, they all
were breathtaking and impressive. Where my personal experience is concerned,
it was even way better, but that doesn't belong here.... I'm really really
glad that I was able to follow that tour leg, wouldn't have missed that in
a million years, it gave me so much!
God bless you all, Ted (the Mechanic). |
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