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Well this was an interesting road trip. Drove from Sydney to Adelaide to see Mr Jon Lord. 1,400 kms of mindnumbingly boring countryside across a sun burnt country to see a man who was still scorchingly hot.
The ASO (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra) conducted by Benjamin Northey, performed the Concerto for Group and Orchestra with Jon Lord doing the organ bits, and The Zep Boys (Adelaide based Led Zeppelin cover band), Steve Williams – guitar , Vince Contarino – vocals, Warwick Cheatle – bass and Mark Chewey – drums, filling in for Messrs Blackmore, Gillan, Glover and Paice. Jon did a brief introduction talking about the clash between the orchestra and band in the first movement, the more melodic second movement and the coming together in the third movement. Overall it (the concerto) was very good, orchestra did a great job, the drum solo (Mark Chewey) was outstanding, the only negative was the guitar tone. I had thought that it was an attempt to mirror the seventies but when it was the same after the interval then I realised it was just ill-suited to Deep Purple’s music. Had Steve Williams even watched the Classic Albums DVD – the making of Machine Head?
After the interval there as a succession of Deep Purple songs, all but one arranged by Justin Kearin. “Speed King”, “Woman from Tokyo”, “Space Truckin'”, “Black Night”, “Never Before”, “Smoke on the Water”, “Strange Kinda (sic) Woman” and “Highway Star”. The big disappointment was that there was no Jon Lord for these songs. It took the full orchestra to replace Jon and boy didn’t the violinists get a work out in Highway Star!
Any disappointment was extinguished when Jon stepped to the stage to do “Child in Time”. Just to hear that introduction, just to hear this great song from “In Rock”, just to see a very humble Jon Lord play one last time was absolutely fantastic. Who cares it was “ripped off” from a band that I have never heard of (It’s a Beautiful Day), I had tingling goose bumps on my goose bumps. To meet him afterwards at the stage door was a pleasure – he really is a “jolly nice bloke”. The signed programme will hold pride of place amongst my other Purple memorabilia.
review: Graeme Milton
PS Vince Contarino did a creditable job with Child in Time. |
