"LIVE IN CONCERT 1972/73"

This is history. A few weeks before the release of "Machine Head" Purple will play a fabulous set for the Danish television. The crowd is made up of very young kids (completely remind me someone of that age in 72...).

Purple is in top form, enthusiasts, smiling, having a great time on stage. The audience is just discovering some tracks (three) of one the greatest hard-rock album : "Highway Star" (which Gillan will introduce as "a song that will be the opener of our concert for the next year or so". Actually, it is still one of the highlights of their concert today ! "Lazy" and "Space Truckin' " (absolutely crazy version, as always).

We'll have a magic "call & response" during "Strange Kind Of Woman". IMO, only Page-Plant were able to be on par with Gillan- Blackmore. Incredible and impressive. Even if hard-rock is not your fave music genre, you should at least SEE this number once in your life. A great experience.

When Purple plays such a tracklist, there is only one thing to say : extraordinary. The band also seems to be physically great. I will see them live (Forest National, March 1973) performing almost the same setlist (except "Fireball" actually). But by this time, they were exhausted by an extremely long tour.

You can see this actually in the second part of this DVD recorded in New-York (April 1974). You can see the physical changes of Gillan for instance. He has a completely different look. The "call & response" sequence is as much fun as two years ago, Gillan smiling almost throughout this exercise.

When you see him during the intro of "Space", it is hard to believe that he will leave the band a little later. The first big clash (but not the last one) in the Purple line-up. During "Space", Ritchie will already set the stage on fire; I guess that it was a kind of rehearsal for "California Jam" another must own actually.

I can only STRONGLY recommend this document of rock music. If ever you are looking for some prog moments, you won't find any. Dynamite (like "Live At Leeeds - The Who) all the way through. A great hard-rock MONUMENT.

Five stars.