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They may not have the same veteran status as the headliners of this show, but Reef are celebrating 30 years in the business this year. No mean feat, with founding members Gary Stringer on vocals and Jack Bessant on bass. Amy Newton (guitar) and Luke Bullen (drums) completed the line up.
Photo by Paul Clampin
I last saw this lot back in 1997 at Glastonbury and then, as now, the album ‘Glow’ featured heavily. Stringer’s voice has always been powerful and the hall was pretty full to witness that it was wearing well. ‘Consideration’ brought those pipes under the closest of inspections and ‘Place Your Hands’, an enduring anthem, was delivered with plenty of verve, bringing the crowd to life.
Photo by Dave Atkinson
‘Refugee’ packed a sharp riff and a bubbling, funky bass. ‘I Would Have Left You’ and ‘Summer’s In Bloom’ harked back to those golden late 90’s days, but the repetitive throaty lyrics were just a touch overdone.
A cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ was a surprising but entertaining and edgy closer to a good set.
Photo by Paul Clampin
Deep Purple ambled on stage with a minimum of fuss, in contrast to the fire and brimstone of Holst’s ‘Mars’ pumped through the PA and some striking imagery on the big screens.
‘Highway Star’ quickly restored the power balance. It was a stirring version and immediately Simon McBride caught the eye. Picking up the lead guitar baton last year in a stellar Deep Purple relay, his youthful (comparatively!) energy and confident demeanour gave this track, and indeed the entire gig, a shot in the arm. His solos here were note-perfect, faithfully reproducing Blackmore’s scintillating studio-cut lead breaks.
The new material made an early showing. ‘A Bit on the Side’ from ‘=1’, the first album to which McBride has contributed music, fared well and hit home. The sound was lush, rich and full.
Without a break, ‘Into The Fire’ burst forth and was the first real test of Ian Gillan’s 79-year-old voice. He passed with ease, visibly setting himself for the final top-end refrain and landing the beast with barely a screech. And we were treated to another smooth solo from McBride, together with interplay with Don Airey behind his keyboard stack.
Photo by Paul Clampin
Relatively early in proceedings, Gillan introduced McBride’s extended solo spot. With the rest of the band off stage, he made the most of the attention, mixing pyrotechnics, effects and harmonics. Ian Paice came back to build some rhythms and slowly we were into a keyboard riff, reminiscent of ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ that hailed ‘Uncommon Man’
Photo by Paul Clampin
This is such a good track and ably demonstrates how strong the run of albums has been since Purple’s first collaboration with Bob Ezrin on 2013’s ‘Now What?!’, from which this comes, through to the latest release.
Gillan gave a subtle look to the sky and a blown kiss in the song’s final moments before a more formal (and regular) dedication of the song to the band’s long-time keyboard legend, John Lord, who died in 2012.
‘Lazy Sod’, was introduced by Gillan as not being about climate change, but about a house fire. His pronouncements from the stage all night were at the more esoteric end of the scale. It wasn’t obvious that he was fully engaged with his audience, but it did not impinge on the quality of his performance at all; and indeed the rapport with the band was very strong.
The track featured some deep, fruity and powerful riffs from McBride and there was another segue into more solid hard rock moments from the latest release, courtesy of ‘Now You’re Talking’. Airey and McBride traded instrumental blows, but overall the new material emphasised the shorter, sharper and tighter side of their oeuvre, packing plenty of zest and oomph (to leave the thesaurus aside for a moment!)
And then the contrasts again, one of the bands hallmarks, as another rambly introduction from Gillan gave way to Airey’s gorgeous organ solo for a superb rendition of ‘Lazy’. High comedy was in evidence as a waiter-roadie brought out a tray holding a bottle of red wine and a tumbler. Don leisurely poured himself a glass of plonk and drank deeply whilst his Hammond issued a long-held single note. Much merriment around me. And surely a reference to the apocryphal story of Rick Wakeman receiving a take-away curry on stage during a Yes musical detour.
The track was a highpoint of the set. Airey superb throughout, like he owned the song. But then Gillan delivered a spine-tingling cameo on the harmonica, followed by a swaggering McBride who smashed out an incendiary solo. So not the Airey show at all. And in a nutshell this is why Deep Purple are still so good.
The crowd were in the band’s thrall by now and as the blues came calling with ‘When a Blind Man Cries’, the reaction was visceral. A superb change of pace.
Maybe that was the moment to keep the classics coming, so ‘Portable Door’ excellent and full throttle though it was, might just have been one track too many from the new platter. Especially as next up ‘Anya’ was another nose-bleeding high point in the show. The descending guitar riff, beefed up by grinding keyboards provided a powerful intro, setting up a rollicking, iridescent version.
Don Airey’s set-piece keyboard solo was a well received, if eclectic two-minute mash up of baroque, honkey-tonk, jazz, popular classical and a few other genres in between. The words to ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ flashed up on the screen for those that wanted to sing along. Plenty did.
Photo by Paul Clampin
Gillan was at the top of his game for ‘Bleeding Obvious’, one of the best from the new one, displaying great diction with the witty lyrics.
Then a pair of bona fide classics to end the main set. ‘Space Truckin’’ saw Roger Glover centre stage pogo-ing (albeit briefly for this long-time pensioner!) with Simon McBride. Ian Paice was simply brilliant behind his drumkit: economy of movement that delivered the unmistakeable guts of this tune. I spotted the evening’s first and only evidence of headbanging in the front rows of the crowd.
And so to ‘Smoke on the Water’. That beautiful crunching riff delivered by a confident, nonchalant lead guitarist out front, exactly where he should be; that bass line arriving like a freight train; that full-throated audience sing-a-long marking shared ownership of a rock community song.
‘Old Fangled Thing’ kicked off the encore with some old fashioned rock’n’roll, Glover again on-point, powering the track with a delicious bass groove.
‘Hush’ was an extended version with more vibrant, sharp guitar lines from McBride and a call-and-response section with Don Airey.
‘Black Night’ brought the show to a close, again drawing on the individual talents of this collection of very fine musicians for instrumental passages. If McBride was faithful to Blackmore’s solos on ‘Highway Star’ at the top of the show, in closing out the set, he wheeled out guitar effects, tones and playing styles that stamped his own qualities all over the track.
Review by Dave Atkinson
Photos by Andy Nathan (except where stated)
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