Right its Monday night, time to rock. Here’s my fave live Deep Purple LP, sadly inherited from my NWOBHM uncle, but very happily enjoyed tonight.
Released in 1980 Deep Purple In Concert, pretty much does what it says on the cover. It’s a compilation of two live sets recorded for the BBC ‘In Concert’ series in 1970 and 1972 respectively; essentially In Rock and Machine Head*. It is beautifully recorded using all the mighty resources of the British Empire, before a small audience who don’t do anything troublesome or annoying like making their presence known at any time during the proceedings.
The vinyl version of this LP comes wrapped in some great photographs of the band, particularly on both inner sleeves – if you’re a real Purple fan I’d urge you to get it just for that photo of Ian Gillan seemingly in his underpants/loin cloth on stage at Leeds Town Hall in September 1972. That and Jon Lord’s ‘tache generally. Word up.
Deep Purple In Concert monkeys about with the song order to shoehorn as much as they can onto this archaic outmoded impractical format I love so much. The 1970 gig is represented by three over 10-minute tracks and its only ‘Speed King’ that lets the whole side down by clocking in at a Napalm Death-like 6:20.
Opener ‘Speed King’ seemingly hovers over the stage via some keyboard atmospherics before the band detonate into it. This take is pretty raw from the off, Gillan taking (a very understandable) line or two to really hit his stride. And what a stride, there have been very few rock screamers who could ever hold a candle to him in his pomp. I enjoy the gentler jammy interior of the song, Gillan offering some great harmonies before it all explodes again towards the end.
Then we’re in real fan favourite turf with an 18 and a half minute version of ‘Wring That Neck’. I absolutely love this one, which lets face it is a lengthy piece of sodding about in excelsis. If the band were even an iota less talented and fiery than they were it would simply be interminable, as it is its an exhibition of some incredibly fun virtuosity; Purple always are a huge amount of fun at their best. I assume Ian Gillan was able to pop home during this number, put some laundry on and make himself a nutritious casserole for later, before unhurriedly walking back to the gig, possibly taking in an art exhibition on the way. Meanwhile those guitar necks were well wrung, Lord and Blackmore trading notes will never get old for me.
Still in 1970 we go from ‘Child In Time’ into the rocking, lengthy ‘Mandrake Root’. The former is a really gorgeous version of it, again the production is just superb, all the subtlety and spaces of their playing laid bare. Roger Glover’s contribution really stands out here as does Ian Paice’s deft drumming while the sturm und drang rages overhead. ‘Mandrake Root’ tops out at 17:30, which is a bit wussy in this company. It’s a lot of fun but in this company the song’s hippy slip is showing and some of the psych flourishes sound a tad old hat. You can see why the band replaced their older material with their newer stuff as soon as they had written enough of it.
It is the 1972 set that gives Deep Purple In Concert its historical interest. Seven tracks in Deep Purple played ‘Smoke On The Water’ for the first time ever live**, the first time ever, ever. This being 21 days before Machine Head was released nobody knew the behemoth it would become and you can hear Gillan losing his timing slightly towards the end and I enjoy the ad-libbed ‘Break a leg Frank’ comment too. It is a great, historical occasion, a sacral moment for hard rock.
And it isn’t on this LP. Bear in mind that Deep Purple In Concert was released in 1980 … wtf! We could easily have lost the version of ‘Lucille’ that closes the album to accommodate it^.
We have to content ourselves with a rocking, but not yet fully pulverising, version of ‘Highway Star’. Blackmore and Lord trading lines on this one thrills me as much now as when I first heard the studio version 42 years ago when my mate David lent me the tape. In fact Lord is generally more prominent on this live version than on the studio cut.
‘Strange Kind Of Woman’ comes and does its thing without making too much of an impression, overblown at 8:34. ‘Lazy’ and ‘Never Before’ make their live debuts, the latter is I read the only known live recording of it and it swaggers well. The former is, as always, another fun workout for everybody’s fingers and I enjoy Gillan playing harmonica.
Which leaves us with ‘Space Truckin” (and ‘Lucille’ which is something and nothing) which weighs in at only 22:14 here^^ – get out of here Made In Japan with your puny 19:54 version! It is another great workout, Blackmore in particular absolutely smokes on this one.
I rate Deep Purple In Concert pretty darn highly. I like the way it shows their transition from proto-hippy-rockers into real hard rockers, with enough heaviness along the way to keep us headbangers shaking our lovely long locks along the way. As said above, the band are all at the height of their powers here and this is a brilliantly recorded and mixed live album.
Plus it is good to get value for money in this day and age, the LP proudly boasts on the back cover
Total playing time of 2 record set 108 minutes 47 seconds
1328 Down.
PS: there are some interesting sleeve notes, although this being the 1980’s (i.e pre-internet porn) they are in far too small a font for anyone to read without using a magnifying glass.
*the second gig coming a couple of weeks before Machine Head was released; but more of that later, reader.
**I am given to understand they have played it a number of times since.
^it is available on the CD/streamed versions and was also released separately as a 7″ single later. Incidentally the other versions of this gig add the inane, irritating introductions by John Peel and Mike Harding; I loved John Peel but we don’t need the man here. It also restores some crowd noise after tracks too.
^^which converts to 1.3 Van Halens.
