Deep Purple

NEC, Birmingham

9 November 1993

(Written Thirty-Three Years Later)

Every Deep Purple fan understands the significance of this concert. We've all heard the recording and seen the film for Come Hell or High Water, and we've seen the interviews with the band. This was the night when Deep Purple Mark II collapsed. Perhaps it had been inevitable for a long time, but this was the night the audience saw it play out on stage. There's little I can say about it that hasn't already been said and dissected to death.

I can only tell you how I felt on the night. This was my fifth Deep Purple concert, and I had loved every minute of every previous one, even the ones that other fans will tell you were sub-par. This was my favourite band in the world, and on stage they were magnificent, a musical force of nature. They could do no wrong.

And that night it all went a bit wrong.

For a start, I didn't like, and still don't like the NEC. The tickets I had got were not great, and we were in poor seats off to the side and way back from the stage. And it was just generally too quiet. Deep Purple were the loudest thing I had ever heard in my life, and that night it felt quiet.

There was something wrong with Ritchie Blackmore. It seemed that he was spending a chunk of time not bothering to play anything. (Subsequent listening to the Come Hell or High Water live recording has changed my opinion of his playing that night. He actually sounds amazing, and the weak link in the band was Ian Gillan, whose voice was very rough, though I didn't feel that was a problem on the night.)

The flip side of Ritchie's can't-be-bothered attitude was Jon Lord stepping up magnificently to cover for him, sometimes literally doing the work of two men on stage. (That might have been the moment I switched from thinking the guitar was the essential ingredient in Deep Purple to knowing it was actually the organ, and that may have been partly why I accepted a replacement guitar player so readily. But I don't know, perhaps I'm being influenced by my memories of subsequent albums and tours.) But Jon was definitely the star of the show and saved it from being a complete disappointment.

Was it really a disappointment? Well, yes... but... no. It was Deep Purple, and I don't believe Deep Purple can ever truly disappoint me.

But it definitely was not the best concert I have ever seen.