Ian Gillan (of Deep Purple) Live at Birchmere (VA)

[HWright]

Since there are some Deep Purple fans here on the board, I thought I'd tell about how I saw DP singer Ian Gillan's concert at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA (near Washington, DC) last night. The Birchmere is a great, intimate venue with food and drink. It's inside a kind of bar and grill, at least that's what it looked like (I'd never been there before).

Gillan is currently touring his new album "Gillan's Inn" with his "Smoke This" tour. The band features:

Randy Cooke - drums

Rodney Appleby - bass

Michael Lee Jackson & Dean Howard - guitars

Joe Mennonna - keys & tenor sax

The band played a mix of Gillan solo material and Deep Purple favorites.

The Deep Purple tracks included:

Into the Fire, Wasted Sunsets, Not Responsible, When a Blind Man Cries, Smoke on the Water and Knocking on Your Back Door.

The Gillan solo material(which I don't know very well, so some of this may in fact come from other sources) included:

No Laughing in Heaven, Have Love Will Travel, No Worries, Unchain Your Brain, Hang Me Out to Dry, Men of War, Sugar Plum, Moonshine, Bluesey Blue Sea and some tracks I don't know the names of.

In addition they did an instrumental jam, a song about Texas by the musical director and rhythm guitarist Michael Lee Jackson from his new album and during the encore they played Elvis' "Evil" ("If you're lookin' for trouble you came to the right place).

Ian looked great (in bare feet) and sounded good too. He was in very good spirits and the crowd was feeling good. The band was loud (good thing I had earplugs) and tight. In between numbers a model in short shorts, heels and a bikini top came out on the stage carrying cards with the song titles. During Smoke on the Water two contest winners came on stage and played with the band. One was a guitarist and the other was a therimin player.

In related news, AP reported yesterday that Gillan is writing a novel called "Wessex" (nothing to do with Thomas Hardy apparently though..) and "Gillan said he also signed a deal last week with a British company to remaster and re-release the five solo albums that he produced during the 1970s and 1980s. This should happen later this year."

Edited August 28, 2006 by HWright

[7/4]

I love the new album, don't listen to it enough.

[HWright]

I love the new album, don't listen to it enough.

I don't have the new album yet but based on what I read about it on Ian's website, a good portion of the concert came from it (the arrangements of the previously recorded tunes, that is).