Did They Take It Too Far?

[Charger]

I was at the gig in Birmingham, which remains the worst gig I have ever been to. Basically they played as a 4 piece band. If Gillan was on stage, Blackmore walked off, while if Blackmore was playing Gillan walked off. On three separate occasions Blackmore's amps were switched off. He was left strumming on stage with no sound at all. He ended up playing most of the set sitting on a chair behind the amps. We had a restricted view ticket at the side of the stage, so at least we saw him. He returned to the stage front to play Smoke On The Water, but his guitar amps were switched off yet again. He just shrugged his shoulders, walked off and never came back.

Welcome on board! Thanks for the insight on the concert....yeah things were really bad in the band at the time. Ritchie was being Ritchie with a capital dick...and it really made things difficult for everyone...tensions were really high...and the break up was the best thing that ever could have happened. Ritchie was totally fed up with rock anyways and wanted to go to a different direction and he got the chance to do that with Blackmore's Night and Deep Purple got the mojo back big time with Steve and actually became a band again instead of an altar of egos.

[nutzrocker]

As a new member here it's nice to see a few familiar faces. As a fan of Deep Purple since watching them do Black Night on Top Of The Pops I was, like many other fans, very excited when I heard they were about to reform with the MKII line up. The first album from the reunion was great but I was a little disappointed that they only did one show on home turf during this tour. I was at Knebworth and saw an amazing show.

By the next tour the cracks were already starting to show. The new album was not as good as the last for sure. I saw them at Birmingham and you could tell that Blackmore looked very uninterested at this point and his soloing had become very boring at times.

How on earth the rest of the band allowed Blackmore to replace Gillan with JLT Is beyond me. JLT is a great singer but for Deep Purple he was completely wrong. This was a massive mistake, proven by the fact that Blackmore had to accept Gillan back as singer.

When Blackmore left everyone thought this would be the end. He was and still is an amazing guitar player. How wrong, it was a new beginning. With Joe Satriani and then Steve Morse things just got better. The thing with these line ups I liked the most was all the songs they played that had never been played before or had not been played for many years.

Unfortunately, for me, the band over a number of years now has just become too predictable again. Ever tour they do now is just a few new numbers with the same old oldies in the set as last time.

The new album I thought was the best thing they have done in many a year but I just can't get enthusiastic enough to see them live now. As soon as I saw that set list for the tour I just thought, how predictable.

Been a Purple fan now for 48 years. I still play the music regular, I still love it, I still think Blackmore is one of the greatest guitar players ever but, I think they have had their day now. Gillan can hardly sing now, time to call it a day while they are still regarded as great.

[Sabbabbath]

As a new member here it's nice to see a few familiar faces. As a fan of Deep Purple since watching them do Black Night on Top Of The Pops I was, like many other fans, very excited when I heard they were about to reform with the MKII line up. The first album from the reunion was great but I was a little disappointed that they only did one show on home turf during this tour. I was at Knebworth and saw an amazing show.

By the next tour the cracks were already starting to show. The new album was not as good as the last for sure. I saw them at Birmingham and you could tell that Blackmore looked very uninterested at this point and his soloing had become very boring at times.

How on earth the rest of the band allowed Blackmore to replace Gillan with JLT Is beyond me. JLT is a great singer but for Deep Purple he was completely wrong. This was a massive mistake, proven by the fact that Blackmore had to accept Gillan back as singer.

When Blackmore left everyone thought this would be the end. He was and still is an amazing guitar player. How wrong, it was a new beginning. With Joe Satriani and then Steve Morse things just got better. The thing with these line ups I liked the most was all the songs they played that had never been played before or had not been played for many years.

Unfortunately, for me, the band over a number of years now has just become too predictable again. Ever tour they do now is just a few new numbers with the same old oldies in the set as last time.

The new album I thought was the best thing they have done in many a year but I just can't get enthusiastic enough to see them live now. As soon as I saw that set list for the tour I just thought, how predictable.

Been a Purple fan now for 48 years. I still play the music regular, I still love it, I still think Blackmore is one of the greatest guitar players ever but, I think they have had their day now. Gillan can hardly sing now, time to call it a day while they are still regarded as great.

Welcome! :-) I am happy to meet you here. Thanks for telling. The predictability issue was one of the decisive factors for me to not attend any of the recent Sabbath tours. Sad to hear it became similar with Purple.

[Zzzptm]

Part of the predictability is the baggage a band has to carry in the form of its classic hits. Fans expect those as part of a standard show.

When I was a teacher, I treated my profession like a performing art. I had some standard stuff, but I wanted to mix it up over the years, with some things in common with many classes, but not all of them. As the years wore on, I would start to get requests for stuff I'd done with other classes that I hadn't done with the current crew. I started to understand the gramps with amps better, how they have to keep a large percentage in permanent rotation in their setlists. They simply don't have the freedom they once had when they were starting out.

Then there's the age factor... how much of the predictability is due to band members having slipping memories? Gillan's already infamous for botching lyrics - I saw him open "Woman from Tokyo" with the *second* verse and then realize his error and laugh it off. That was back in 2001.

[Axefiend]

It's too bad that that so many of our favourites are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. So many will take a bathroom break when they slide in a new song, yet they disappoint their core audience, if they don't change it up enough. At least with Purple, they probably still very much enjoy what they do, they knew that a new album wasn't going to be a big seller, but they probably figured, this is what we do! A lot of other bands out there are probably still going on because they don't want to ask, "you want fries with that?".

[Charger]

Welcome on board Nutzrocker!

I do agree with what you are saying for the most part but for the current tour setlist...well yes they could dust off some rarely played material, especially from Purpendicular but if they were to do that in expense of songs like Lazy, Black Night, Strange Kind Of Woman people would go nuts. And it's not like they are in their 50s anymore so they can't really do over 2 hours sets every night either...

They did dust off two tracks again for this tour though...Bloodsucker and Knocking At Your Backdoor. So they do still do that too. I would love to hear Anyone's Daughter again too...

And Axefiend! Good to see you here bud!

[Zzzptm]

One thing to their credit, DP actually made an at least better-than-average album that has tunes that work on stage for this latest run.

HOBL, though... I want to start another thread on that platter of paradox...

[Billy Underdog]

Isn't it time for Gillan to let Coverdale and Hughes come onstage to do a handful of numbers?  It would be good if they start sharing their common heritage...

[Zzzptm]

Isn't it time for Gillan to let Coverdale and Hughes come onstage to do a handful of numbers?  It would be good if they start sharing their common heritage...

The Gillan fan in me wants to say:



But the DP fan in me says, yeah, it's about time. If Aria can do it, so can DP, even if only for a few nights at the O2 in London.

[Charger]

Well Coverdale did that whole Purple tour thing with Whitesnake a while back it was pretty horrible. Frankly I would be okay with him never doing a Purple song as long as he lives.

[Billy Underdog]

Well Coverdale did that whole Purple tour thing with Whitesnake a while back it was pretty horrible. Frankly I would be okay with him never doing a Purple song as long as he lives.

Him and Hughes doing Burn again? Could be cool...

[Charger]

Him and Hughes doing Burn again? Could be cool...

Nah...Granted Hughes has got more of his "voice" still left but that's not really saying much.

[Zzzptm]

Him and Hughes doing Burn again? Could be cool...

Nah...Granted Hughes has got more of his "voice" still left but that's not really saying much.

Over in the DP thread, I posted a vid of Coverdale and Hughes doing "This Time Around" together recently. It really was an amazing performance in my view.

[Sabbabbath]

At least the last time I watched some relatively recent live footage of each of those 3 guys, Hughes' voice live on stage was a Billion times better than the other two's. I mean, it was really good, and the other too sounded really bad. Could be a little embarassing for them... Anyway, I will have to check out some newer stuff.
But wouldn't that not be too many egos on the same stage anyway?

[nutzrocker]

Unfortunately, David Coverdals voice has gone the same way as Ian Gillans. The inevitable effects of age have affected both of them. Neither of them can get anywhere near the heights they used to be able to reach. Not a criticism, just a fact of life. We are all getting older. Glenn Hughes has a great voice and does seem to have weathered the effects of getting older much better than the other two. I just wish he could cut all the screaming and wailing.

There was talk of some shows with all the ex members playing a part some years ago. Even Blackmore said he would do it. With the exception of Tommy Bolin, all ex members could have potentially taken part. I think it would have been a great project at this time but unfortunately, the time passed.

Since then Jon Lord has sadly passed away. The singers have all lost a little more of their voices and if Ritchie's last Rainbow project is anything to go by, he has obviously lost a lot himself. I thought the latest Rainbow was very lightweight.

This is coming from a lifelong Purple fan, I still love them but you have to face facts, they are all getting older. As much as I would have loved to see a show with all the available ex members, I think the time for this kind of thing has sadly passed.