"LIVE IN CONCERT 1972/73"

This is a nice set to have if you enjoy Made in Japan and would like to see what the band would have been like to see live in 1972-3. The sound is not as good as the famous live album but with the visuals, the songs still have quite an impact. The Copenhagen concert takes up the majority of the disc. It is in black and white, but was not edited so we get a full concert of the Mk II line up. The audience is full of young boys, 11-15 with those early 1970s Brit pop star hair cuts; Carl Palmer had one. I think for many of us who were between 11-15 in 1972, a Deep Purple album was one of our first purchases and we certainly all knew how to play the Smoke on the Water riff; there is a bit of nostalgia here. The disc includes footage from Hofstra University, on my home ground of Long Island NY, with an older, college crowd. This was filmed for in 1973 in color for ABC tv's In concert, which aired Saturday Nights at 2:00am. I think it was In concert that filmed Cal Jam. It has been edited down to a twenty-five minute segment and though the full concert was taped, it no longer exists.

Deep Puple is an extraordinary group and the energy of the live shows was something that was hard to capture in the studio. They often went into long improvisational sections. Jon Lord's keyboard work is similiar to that of Keith Emerson's aggressive Hammond playing: guitar-like triplet runs, and quotations of classic and other assorted musical works. Ritchie Blackmore's guitar playing seemed to really develop over the course of this two year period and this is captured in the videos. It is becoming cleaner and more deeply felt. Ian Paice is quite an accomplished drummer; his solo on The Mule captures the hard rock drumming in its infancy like that of Appice or Bonham. The video also captures the demise of the band as one can see the distance developing between Gillan and Blackmore. On the Denmark concert they are doing an intimate call and response. During the Hofstra concert one year later, Gillan goes to the other side of the stage during the call and response. Gillan had already given his notice and two weeks later Roger Glover was axed, as well. The video includes Burn from Cal Jam '74, which is also available on dvd in its entirety. New bassist, Glenn Hughes has quite a voice, more in line with Gillan's soulful, operatic screaming than Coverdale's, more cautious lyricism.

The video has invaluable historic importance and is a must for any Deep Purple fan. Anybody who was twelve in 1972 might find it possesses value as a piece of their personal history, as well.