LIVE AT THE OLYMPIA 96

REALLY: 4,87 (ESSENTIAL!!! Masterpiece Of Prog Music!!! ESSENTIAL IN EVERY DISCOGRAPHY!!!)

Here a live of today in a position of to fight with the sacred monsters of the 70's! "Live At The olympia 96" has all the cards in rule to be large. In fact: 1) Emotion really a lot; 2) There are all of the classics with Gillan at the voice; 3) steve Morse does not do to regret Blackmore; 4) The songs of "Purpendicular" are of the true jewlery. Besides I saw the concert of Pordenone and I should say that with that staircase not could not do a disc so! How does it say itself... "One cherry pulls the other!" because here a song pulls the other! According to alone to "Made in Japan"!

This double CD set is form their "Perpendicular" tour. It has been called an "official bootleg". It was issued short after the tour probably to by-pass the parallel market. Good idea.

It was recorded at the Olympia in Paris (mythical concert hall where Hendrix started his continental European career - November 1967 - amongst zillions of other great bands) This live set is absolutely no filler in your Purple collection. It really belongs to the best of their "offical" live repertoire. What's interesting to discover is :

1. Some tracks from "Perpendicular" which was really a good album.

2. The fact that they will play some very old tracks which were little performed at the time of their release.

The opener "Fireball" is one of them. It is one of the fastest number in the whole hard rock history. It ends with the riff from "Into the Fire"'s intro (from "In Rock"). Some words in French from Ian which is always nice to hear while playing in France. I guess that the Purple wanted to thank their older fan database by including less known number form their glorious Mark II era like "Maybe I'm A Leo" (from "Machine Head"). This song was my least preferred from the studio album but it is always nice to listen to it as a "souvenir" of my youth (I was eleven when I discovered the Deep (in 1970).

It is rather interesting to hear "Ted" just after this one because there are some similaraties although both numbers are separated by twenty-four years ! This one is also not my first choice on "Perpendicular". I would have liked them to play "Loosen My Strings" but this one will remain a hidden gem (like "Flying Of The Rat" and "Hard Lovin' Man").

Another fabulous song is "Pictures Of Home". IMO, the second best on "Machine Head" (after "Highway Star" of course). These songs are pretty similar in their struture. "Pictures" being more melodious. This live version is SUPERB. Morse doing an excellent job during his solo. A highlight.

I have already said my meaning about the current format for "Black Night" and "Smoke" : the audience participation just bores me to hell (even when I attend). So, no variation here. Both tracks are great as long as the audience is not involved. Jon Lord will perfrom a very good keyboard solo during "Black Night". The last two minutes are absolutely not worth and dull (you'd better edit them), even if Gillan is saying "Magnifique" after the track... (referring to the audience's performance).

"Cascades" was a good number from Perpendicular. This live rendition is almost double in lenght. We have the first "weird" sounds which will accompany several tracks till the end of the concert. I refer to a trio of trumpets, trombone and saxophone. What the hell is the need for this ???

In this song, they are not so present so it is not as annoying as in others. Morse again is brilliant. The mid section is incredible : you would say that Howe and Wakeman are playing with the Purple ! This part truely belongs to the Yes repertoire (as incredible as it might sound). Quite interesting. We'll get back to the hard rock side after four minutes or so.

The intro for "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" is quite funny. Gillan describes this feeling as follows : "At times, you ordered something from the room service, and one hour later they still haven't delivered. So, there is only one cure for this : it is to go down at the bar, have a few glass of whatever it takes you fancy together with your friends and it's called "I Feel Like..."). This is not the first time that Purple's lyrics refer to the life of a band while touring. This rendition is at times harder than the studio one but the end of the song is quite emotional during Steve's solo. Wonderful.

"Woman from Tokyo" will finally been played in its full version ! It is only justice for this great number. During the supporting tour for "The Battle Rages On" they will shorten it to about ... two minutes. So, here we have the full version which is great.

Another very old one from "Fireball" : "No One Came". I liked (and still do) that song pretty much (as the whole album by the way - I rated it four star). The problem here (and it is more noticeable than on "Cascades") are the brass. Absolutely out of purpose. Are we at a Vegas show or what ???

"Rosas Cantina" was one of the weakest song from "Perpendicular" so I do not know why they included it in their tour. Useless. "When A Blind Man Cries" is a lost gem from their "Machine Head" period. It will be released as B-side for "Never Before" and "Lazy" (edited version). It is a fabulous rock ballad like the Purple will release very few (too few actually). I do not know if Steve Morse was involved in its inclusion in the set list for that tour, cause maybe it reminded him a bit of "Dust In The Wind" (although he was not yet with Kansas at that time). The Wakemanesque intro is a wonderful moment. The whole track is just splendid, but so different from the usual Purple catalogue (that' s probably why they did not release it on "Machine Head" although it deserved it with no doubt.

Next song will be introduced as : "A ballad for you, and it's called ...". We get some nice little classic notes from Jon and then the monster starts : "Speed King". No intro as is the European release of "In Rock" but we are turned immediately into this crazy Purple tune. This version is quite extended. It is quite jam oriented for about three minutes, then we get a good drum solo from the master for about 1'30", then back to the jam. It reminds me more of the early days of Mark II, when jam was a second nature during Purple's concerts. With "Speed King" this tendency will last quite a while : I attended one of their concert in September 1998 and it lasted at least for fifteen minutes. But, I'm not complaining. This was the last song of their show. Gillan will say : "You've been fantastic, even the cool ones".

The first encore will be "Perfect Strangers". It's a bit a pity that so few songs from their reunion album (already twelve years old, of course) will be featured. Actually, there was unfortunately never a promotional tour for this album (lack of confidence maybe) ?

When the band comes back on stage, he will mention that the Olympia is quite a special place for them. They came to Paris a few months before (in March 1996 at "Le Zenith") but were asked to come back and perform at the Olympia. And they said "Yes". Who can refuse to perform at the "Olympia" ? "Hey Cisco" as the second encore works pretty well. Hard rocking like hell. It is a marvelous song. Full of power and dynamics.

Before the last encore, Ian will start trying some French exercise but will leave the floor to Jon. Still, he wil start in English and after a few words he will switch to French to introduce the three French guests who where on stage (trompet, sax and trombone). You can realize he must know some good French since he will say in his speech : "A gauche, mais pas si gauche", which is a play on word to say : "On my left, but not as awkward".

Purple will close the show with the best song of the Purple's entire catalogue (together with "Child In Time" of course) : "Highway star". Is there a best way to close a Purple concert nowadays ? I do not think so.

The sound is great. The track list is great. The Purple was in a great shape. In terms of prog, there were about three minutes of it during "Cascades"and twenty seconds in the intro for "Speed King" and a minute or so during the intro for "When A Blind Man Cries". The whole rest of the album is 200% hard rock like Purple will always deliver in their live sets.

Four stars.

Another in a long line of live outings from Deep Purple, this time featuring the Mk 5 version of the band (Mk 2 with Steve Morse on guitar instead of Ritchie Blackmore). It was recorded on the Purpendicular tour at the Olympia in Paris.

There is a great mixture of the older classic songs with selections from Perpendicular. Things start off magnificently with Fireball a great driving version of the song. By the time we get to Ted the Mechanic they are firing on all cyclinders. Pictures of Home is truly majestic and Morse sets up good audience interaction with a sing-along section on Black Night (this section is superb). The extended workout on Cascades is also mind blowing, Morse again showing his mastery on guitar. A brass section is also featured on some tracks and this works very well on some but not so good on others, Woman from Tokyo and No One Came are brilliant, but Highway Star is a bit of a disappointment. Lord also noodles on at the end of Smoke on the Water and this spoils their signature track - pity.

Morse stamps his authority on all the classic era songs and this ensures that they are refreshingly different than the Mk 2 versions. Perfect strangers for example is so much more powerful than the studio version, and When a Blind Man Cries is also is greatly enhanced by Morse's emotional playing.

All in all this is an exceptional release and a good companion to any live album featuring Mk2 Purple.

Very, very overated live album...compared to any other DP live album this lacks so much excitement and fire, only Woman From Tokyo is worthwhile because you hear the whole song live for the first time.

well..a good live double album..the voice of ian is still good on this album,but not very good as before...the good thing about this one..is the guitar men in front..Steve morse..all the solos that he play are very good,in my opinion is better than blackmore,and he creates good solos along with Jon Lord...i think that pictures of home in this live album is Amazing...simply perfect..and the part of the bass is also very good..on Smoke on the water i say that they can do it better...just a good,but not good as the studio release... in general,this album is good,and have a lot of good songs of deep purple...and too the new ones...if you want something better of a album live of deep purple listen the Made of japan....is still better than this one...

Keep on the good work..

Balanced Setlist, Good Performance

It seems to me like Deep Purple Mark II without Ritchie Blackmore. And I like Steve Morse guitar playing. It's quite surprising that this official bootleg has a good quality of studio and enjoyable to spin the CD. The first impression you might get from this live album is the setlist that combines nicely the old tunes as well as the new ones. From the opening part "Fireball" you might guess that the band still have a drive to play it after decades of the first release. The opening dynamic drumming work makes this song energetic and uplifting. It reminds me to the old days when the 70s music was in its glory days. It flows to the next classic song "Maybe I'm A Leo" which caught into my attention because I did not really pay into attention the original version of this song. But this song rocks! Ian Gillan plays it excellently on vocal part.

"Ted The Mechanic" is probably the song style that you would never find in earlier albums of Deep Purple. This song does not sound like Deep Purple but it's good that they explore the new boundary with music using horn section.Some friends of mine call that this is one of prog music by Deep Purple. "Pictures of Home", for me, is the best song of any Deep Purple songs. It has great composition and structure. When I say structure is how the band fills each segment different with the other in varied ways.I have to give two thumbs up for Steve Morse' own interpretation of Pictures of Home different than what Ritchie played in original album version. Both are enjoyable but Steve's is quite unique in style. The bass and drum parts also give the contribution beautifully. I also regularly re-play this song whenever I spin the CD.

It's also interesting to enjoy "Black Night" which is sung in modern equipment and a bit adjustment of Gillan's singing. "The Perpendicular Waltz" creates another music nuance which is very interesting to observe and enjoy.

On rarities, I have never found any Deep Purple "Live" albums contained also "When A Blind Man Cries". It would have been one of the band members was quite tired of distorted equipment. "Perfect Strangers" is a nice song, performed excellently by the band.

Overall, I find that this official bootleg album interesting and may be not well recognized by many people. But I have never been disappointed with this good performance by the band. On live vibes, it's not as good as "Made In Japan" but it's enjoyable. Keep on rockin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

This gig was recorded as part of their Purpendiculair Tour in 1996....Blackmore already left the band, again and so he was replaced by Steve Morse....as can be heard a we'll talented guitarist....but no matter how you turn it, Morse is no Blackmore and not a guitar icon and one of the last still standing greatest rocklegends in the world. This is shown in for example the lack of long improvisations, where keyboard and guitar are playing in on each other.....resulting in lengtly improvisations....and long jams...sometimes extremely long jams (songs of 5 are stretched out to 30 to 35 min. (as Wring That Neck, Mandrake Root Space Truckin'). Deep Purple now is a far cry from that.....but no matter how you turn it..this is still one hell of a performance.

The songs played are all played with great skill and dedication..resulting in powerhouse performances that are sounding very refreshing due the influwence of Steve Morse....I think the departure of Blackmore did the band good, but certainly also the fans...We get treated by goodies that were seldom or never played before because Blackmore was always holding them back.....not to play them...Like the incredible beautifull When A Blindman cries (beautifull introduced by John Lord by Samuel Barbers Adagio Fir Strings and ended by Morse with some truly amazing guitarplaying), that didn't made the Machine Head album..a fast track as Fireball (that sets the stage for the rest of the concert right away) or Maybe I'm A Leo. But also tracks from Purpendiculair like Sometimes I feel Like Screaming (what a beautifull intro on that accoustic guitar, and what a different Gillan) or a beautifull extended Cascades: I'm Not Your Lover, thats lasts more than double as long, due a very amazing intermezzo, where Morse is showing some really suddle guitarplaying......that eventually develops is some really nice soloing. Here you can hear a bit of the glamour that DP once was playing for and where guitar and Keys go hand in hand.....as Lord and Blackmore used to do in the old days....although ofcourse its much shorter. It reminded me a bit of the Live Across Europe box, where Blackmore is beautifully extending Anya into a very lengtly version....

Other older tunes are often played with different intro's and in more extended versions, like Speed King is extended with a lengthly drum solo)...But in general I think the set really is balancing quite heavy on Machine Head....which is a good thing. Its interesting to hear them in a different way / with different influence....However...the only song I do miss here is what I think is one of the al time classics of rock : Child In Time...why it is dropped from the set after 1993 is totally unclear to me, but it can have something to do with Gillan's health conditions and not being abble anymore to sing the higher notes and to do the screamingparts...Regretfull....but I think something we all suffer when we get older....Anyway...whats left is enough to enjoy....

As to add to your collection....with all that other stunning live stuff....I think its highly recomanded.