Deep Purple

e Montreux Jazz Festival 2000 – Deep Purple - Last Night Explosion

 

 When you have attained the heights of emotion it is a long way down and I am still falling.

 

Fresh from a little diversion called Alice Cooper in Nottingham on the way to Luton – well life is too short to miss any more of  these golden moments – I was wondering if Deep Purple could really live up to my memories.  Last September’s superlative performances at the RAH were a distant dream. Was it all in the mind?

 

I shall set the scene because Montreux is a very special place and I feel privileged to have been there for one of the famous jazz festivals. We met our first Purple fans (two men from Portsmouth) in the Easyjet check-in queue at Luton.  I wonder why the plane wasn’t full of DP fans – it’s cheap enough. They did not know about Steve’s broken wrist and looked so perturbed at the news that I was sorry I had told them.  Emerging from the gloom of an English attempt at summer, it was uplifting enough to bathe in the sunshine and clear Swiss air without the further exhilaration of a Deep Purple concert to spur me on. 

 

We spent the first day exploring.  Apart from posters in shop windows in the town centre you could have missed the fact the Festival was on.  The only CD shop had one Deep Purple album and that was a ‘best of’.  We finally unearthed it on the promenade running from the Freddie Mercury statue to the Stravinsky  Auditorium with stalls selling anything from ethnic clothing, silver jewellery, furry toy monkeys and dried fruit to aboriginal instruments and a tantalizing display of salads.  Alarmingly the Swiss drink nothing but Heineken and you don’t get very far on that.  The main problem was the insistence of stallholders on only accepting Jazz money.  You had to change your Swiss francs for coins with a hole in the middle before you could spend.  Well it guaranteed them income I suppose but I tried only to change as much as I needed and spent far less than normal..

 

There were free concerts at several points throughout the festival area.  We caught a jazz band - Freyia - with four excellent vocalists, a blues band along the lines of Cream who did a unique and unrecognizable version of Light My Fire.  The vocalist introduced it as being different and it was. Also caught the Pamberi Steel Band from Trinidad who played a variety of numbers inspired by many artists including Pat Metheny.  The Sara Wheeler Band were worthy of mention.  Sara is a singer songwriter - who isn't these days? - in the folk rock tradition with a voice alternating between Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.  Not outstanding but good enough. Certainly it was all perfectly acceptable from the vantage point of a sunny grass bank, even if it were only Heineken in your plastic cup.

 

And so to Saturday.  We duly lined up to collect our tickets at 4.30 at the designated spot.  Montreux was a saga of exchanging one identifier for another.  Francs for Jazz money, e mail note for tickets swiftly followed by tickets for bracelets which had to be cut off afterwards they were so secure. I met a couple from Manchester and talked Deep Purple and concerts in general to them. (We'd even been to the same Yes concerts earlier this year - so sad we are!) The queue was very slow and we soon found out why.  The clerk was telling everyone about the change to the evening, not the fact that Purple were second on and not closing the event as expected (we had already found this out), but that Van Morrison was not appearing and had been replaced by this band called Deep Purple. Well what a shame.  I had not even realised this was the case.  Obviously there were people who had booked to see Van and were going to be disappointed - no how could they be?  They would be getting a vastly superior set of performers.  How the Rollins Band expected to follow Deep Purple I do not know.  Bet they were mad about that. Did we want to change our standing tickets for seated?  That appealed briefly until we saw they were all on the second tier.  No we would battle bravely in the scrum.

 

Back to the hotel briefly to prepare for the evening.  Returning at 7 to another queue but this time at least we were practically at the head of the queue so should have been right at the front of stage, but after some very sexist searching of handbags while the men simply passed through unmolested, we had to race up the stairs and found a full line of people in front of us.  We picked a spot near centre behind some rather tall men who looked amiable enough.  Big mistake, but, once made, impossible to rectify.  We were standing on a metal grid which did separate us from the rest of the audience and that helped to some degree.  All around us were French, German and Italian accents.  The only English we caught was a Scottish accent from a small curly-headed lady in front and to the left of us.   We were glad we had not chosen the seats as they were empty apart from about half a dozen people sat in the middle.

 

The Lovebugs were first on, a Swiss band from Basel. I'll try to be generous about them.  This was an important night for them it seems.  Maybe their biggest gig - who knows. They were a mixture of pop/punk with a  bit of glam rock thrown in, the glam being Sebastian the bass 'player'.  He certainly had a bass but one with three redundant strings.  To save himself the bother of having his skinny torso tattooed his t short was tattooed instead, patent leather trousers and a load of silver eyeshadow.  He spent most of the time upstaging the lead singer, pouting and posing for the camera.  His slightly spiked hair was soon plastered to his head with sweat which rather spoiled the effect.  He seemed to be older than the rest of the band, perhaps he was a relic from Marc Bolan days after all. Without him the band was instantly forgettable and the music made no lasting impression on me.  Nevertheless I think they need to lose him. They sang in English so obviously hope for a wider market.  The camera panned on to us for the last number.  Think they might have to edit that bit as we all looked bored stiff. They did have some fans to be fair and they seemed to enjoy it.

 

Then the heavy equipment began to roll on and things began to take on a more solid look and feel.  My feet, which I had decided to save after some brief jigging around during the Lovebugs set when I tried my best to get into their music, were now beginning to throb in earnest and I was almost doubting I would last the course.  It was unbearably hot.  I was glad I had drunk plenty of water before we got there as there was no way to get out and drinks were not allowed in.  

 

10.30m came and went and all that appeared were bottles of water and more shirts - Ian's entire wardrobe would soon be hanging there - but they kept us waiting another 15 minutes. Somehow through sheer willpower we got through it and then Funky Claude was announcing Deep Purple. Ian wearing black trousers and long-sleeved track suit top, his feet bare, Roger with a spotted bandana, Steve looking cool as ever with sleeveless t shirt and trousers in a khaki green possibly, understated wrist support in place. I never got a good enough look at Paicey or Jon. Gillan changed his shirt about three times during the concert and his trousers certainly once for a light ivory-coloured pair.  It was so hot he was soon soaked again though. He did look very uncomfortable near the start until he changed into something lighter.

 

They all looked happy to be there. Ian did the usual introduction that they would do a mixture of numbers 'some of which you know, some of which we know' and then straight into Woman from Tokyo.  Difficult to pick out the vocals at the start but things improved.  I was disappointed they started with this as I prefer them to build up to it, so I don't feel it worked that well.  The Ian said that the next number would be introduced by the new skateboarding champion and Steve took us into Ted the Mechanic. Then 'one from a long time ago' Into the Fire with Ian screeching his way along the chorus. I expect that was deliberate as his voice was on the whole excellent that night.

 

Next up a song about some 'unusual times' that they had in Montreux - no not that one, the other one, Pictures of Home with Steve's guitar sounding particularly melodic.

 

Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming followed, again with Steve in impeccable form, the guitar notes soaring. Ian's 'Montreux' after 'the only thing I know is the name of this town', a poignant whisper.

 

And, daringly, a new song Long Time Gone followed.  My memories of it are not clear and Ian Smethurst said it reminded him of Painted Horse. Since then someone on amdp has said the same so it must be true. Ian introduced it as being about the afterlife but optimistic. With a guitar and harmonica intro it seemed to chug along quite 'bluesily', and fairly funkily.

 

Then a guest was introduced who, Ian explained, played the banjo very well.  He turned out to be a young French-speaking lad, called Nawefel, 14 years old from Morocco. He had apparently played recently with the French rock star Johnny Halliday . A very serious young man who has great talent - one to look out for surely. He obviously could play SOTW with ease and did.  The audience was in fine voice for this number also. It sat better here than as an encore.

 

Then a superb version of Fools slowed the pace, though not the emotions, briefly before it too exploded at the appropriate points.  Jon's solo formed a contemplative and spiritual passage followed by Steve sending the guitar notes wheeling and soaring into the heavens. Ian said they had not done that for a while - 'months' he chuckled.  I hope they keep it in.  It would be a welcome addition to the orchestral pieces on the Concerto tour. Ian referred to their spiritual connection with Montreux and said that we were sending out some fantastic vibes.

 

Then he introduced the 'laundry' song, 'washing' - sorry Watching the Sky. And indeed Steve sounded as though he was scrubbing with the guitar.

 

Next a song about an interesting sexual position - 69.

 

After that Jon's solo set the scene for Perfect Strangers which was followed by When a Blind Man cries with some particularly heart-rending playing from Steve.

 

They followed this with the one that's a mixture of oriental, Scottish, blues, Italian, jazz, skiffle - oh yes, Speed King complete with bass and drum solos, the duelling segments from Jon and Steve and then Ian and Steve.  And that was the last number. 

 

Of course they came back for encores of Lazy and 'a little waltz' with Steve  revving up into a growling introduction to Highway Star with screaming siren effects to stamp it with his unique style. 

 

Then they were off the stage again but soon returned with the crowd baying for Black Night. Ian called for his 'nephew' again and Nawefel had another taste of stardom. He strayed into Jon's part until Steve stayed him with a hand raised in warning and a smile.

 

And it was over.

 

We hobbled out of the hall with the crowd, knowing there was no way we would return for Henry Rollins.  Strangely I felt no pain while Deep Purple were on stage, I could have lasted longer but once they had gone there was no point.

 

Here is the complete set list:

 

Woman From Tokyo

Ted The Mechanic

Into The Fire

Pictures Of Home

Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming

Long Time Gone - the new one

Smoke On The Water

Fools

Watching The Sky

69

Perfect Strangers

When A Blind Man Cries

Speed King

 

Encores

 

Lazy

Highway Star

 

2nd encore

 

Black Night

 

They played for about 2 hours 10 minutes.

 

The highlights for me were SIFLS, Fools, the duelling on Speed King and Highway Star which was revitalized for me. Once again I am struck by how at ease they all are with each other, how happy they appear; it isn't only Steve that smiles, and how much they seemed to enjoy the show.

 

Steve played incredibly well under the circumstances. Maybe some of the guitar experts out there will have identified the lengths he had to go to to achieve this level of performance given his injury.  I was unable to tell . Maybe we didn't get some of his tricks, maybe it was not that kind of event anyway. Certainly I didn't feel there was anything missing. What a professional he is. I recollect some of his quotations at certain points but could not now tell you where they came or what they were.  At one point Gillan put a hand behind his back, perhaps showing that Steve could have played the whole thing like that and still produced a stellar performance. Apart from that and the reference to the skateboarding champion and the wrist support you would not have known there was anything wrong.

 

And the other memory is of our Italian friends. Now I know Deep Purple arouse the emotions to boiling point but this lot were more like a pack of frenzied wolves.  I cannot contend with 5 men around 6 feet, all flailing arms, stabbing elbows and stamping trainers.  And we had been ahead of them in the queue.  There is no justice.  It would not have hurt them to let us in front of them. We could not have blocked their view after all. One of them had managed to sneak a camera in - I said the search was sexist.  He also had the mobile phone to wave in the air to give his friends a sample of the sound during the encore only fortunately.  So we spent most of the evening ducking out of the way of the lethal limbs.  In addition of course the whole event was filmed and shown on monitors on either side of the stage and of course you can get it on the Montreux Live website. So go listen and watch if you have a fast connection.

 

I shall now return to plummet further in to the depths until I see them again.  Only 10 weeks away thank goodness.