Classic MKIII UK debut tour
Strange animal, me. I confess to love original line ups, but I tend to have a love for the second or even third replacement singer/line-up. For example, Black Sabbath with Dio, Dream Theater with Jimmy The Cheese, Journey with Steve Perry, and in this instance Deep Purple with David Coverdale, and to some extent Glenn Hughes who in the classic MKIII line up acts as a co-vocalist in my estimation (he's that good!).
'Live In London' was recorded at Gaumont State, Kilburn, on May 22nd 1974 in support of the recently released 'Burn' LP. This was a part of Purple's only UK tour, having been promoting Burn in Europe and America to record breaking audiences. Keen to transfer this success to their home audience, Deep Purple emphasised the MKIII line up by playing most of the Burn LP and not relying on the old stuff. The gig was following on from the infamous California Jam set which was complete with explosions, broken TV cameras and a truly spectacular set. As part of this tour Purple played 3 separate gigs in London within a two week period, and with London being the epicentre of the music industry, they were determined to put on a great show Seven/eight tracks in total, disc 1 being mostly in support of 'Burn', with disk two being typical of Rock Gods of the seventies having just two songs weighing in at the best part of 52 minutes.
Opener 'Burn' was an instant classic and still is to this day, and is still one of my Desert Island Disc tracks and I never tire of hearing the different live versions. Glenn Hughes handles the screaming, wailing and general high notes without any problem whatsoever, and Coverdale being, well, Coverdale.
Blackmore sticks to the script unusually for him and plays the solo almost note for note. In the live arena Blackmore always experimented and changed the songs musically, which as a fan you either love to hear the original or hate any deviation. Deviation is part of Blackmore's psyche, God love him for it!
Typical Coverdale/Hughes vocals follow and prove to be a great snapshot in time of how great this line up was. Rhythm section is superbly taken care of courtesy of the impeccable Ian Paice. This is a very 'honest' recording, couple of stray vocals on 'Lay Down, Stay Down', and later, on 'You Fool No One', but in the main very few can sing perfect pitch.
'Mistreated' is great to hear again after quite some time, it going to the point of overkill for me as I'd heard it played too often over the years, and played by too many bands live. This is a very similar to the version played by Blackmore on the Rainbow tours, and complete with between the song narrative seldom heard on live albums courtesy of 'Rick Emerson!' aka Jon Lord
'Lazy/Smoke...' brings the first disk to a close with Blackmore's usual guitar foolery on Lazy before hammering into 'Smoke On The Water', banned in every guitar shop since 1983! Traditionally a Gillan masterpiece, both DC/GH stamp their own authority over it, with some Glenn Hughes gospel singing to boot
CD2 brings us back to a Burn track and 'You Fool No One', fast, frenetic, full of individual soloing from Blackmore, Paice and Lord, before segueing into 'Blues' which has been a trademark piece for Blackmore over the past few decades.
'Space Truckin'' finishes off the set, with a 2001 Space Odyssey inspired intro, and a very long instrumental section, but this is one song which doesn't suit Coverdale's vocals when compared to the Gillan version. The whole CD would have been better suited to being all MKIII material, but cannot be expected with only one album under their belt.
My only disappointment is that they didn't do Sail Away, which can be found on other recordings from around this period. I only have the promo but the finished article will have extensive sleeve-notes and slipcase, and is a must for your Deep Purple collector.
Production and re-mastering is pretty damn good for a concert recorded initially for radio 33 years ago. All instruments can be heard, nothing is lost in the mix. At the end of the day it's a live album complete with tiny imperfections, with no overdubs, which is how it should be. Now you can't say that of a Girls Aloud album!
It's not 'Made in Japan' but it pisses all over 'Made in Europe'