Deep Purple • Live In Montreux 1996

FIRST IMPRESSIONS... CD

"The CD is a 24 carat five star must-have! They crash through this set with enthusiasm and panache, and even the very weird counterpoint on No One Came just somehow adds to the sheer fun of it all. Paicey is just loving working with Steve, and eveyone is jumping for joy.

Simon Robinson

"This is simply the Best Live Steve Morse era live recording available. Some may feel that "Total Abandon" is better but it doesn't seem to be available as a CD any more, at least not in the US. The mastering on this cd has a glorious crisp sound. Gillan hits every note, including the high note in the second chorus of "Woman from Tokyo", and he hits it good! Jon Lord is having a great night, very tight and fearless. Steve Morse is, again, very tight and fearless. Glover and Paice are clearly enjoying themselves as they swing through this thunderous set.

The DVD should be equally great. I have all of their live stuff from the Morse era ( the Bootleg Box , the Soundboard box and all the DVDs) and I can say that this tops all of them. Both the 1996 and 2000 songs are great. No cringing on these performances at all. Please do yourself a favour and plug this in, light up a cigar and let the speakers shake your house in glorious Purple fashion."

Andrew Wiechman (Jacksonville, USA)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS... DVD

"This DVD release is a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole it's one I've enjoyed, mainly for the sheer clobbering power of the '96 set. We caught the band right at the start of the tour and that was good enough, but six months down the line they have begun to really gel, breathing new life into the oldies and honing the Purpendicular material. The mix is great, even on the VHS viewing copy, with a nice balance of guitar and organ, and a great cugging bass/drum sound which was one of the hallmarks of the tour.

The filming is a pretty typical TV quality shoot; not too imaginative but it does the job, though the light levels are a bit low at times. The director gets the hang of it later so the pictures begin to match the vision and there are some great close-ups of Paicey and a wonderful sequence of Lord and Morse from behind the stage duelling away in Speed King. It's a shame this is a shortened set (it runs for an hour and a quarter), but it's much more enjoyable than the Polish set issued last year as Gillan is in fine form. We also get to see Claude Nobs introduced right at the end. The bonus tracks from 2000 are flatter musically, but the film quality is a lot sharper and clearer. There seem to be more of them than we were originally led to believe too."
Simon Robinson