Ian Gillan had a concert in Skopje yesterday and I went to see him, of course. When I was a young kid I was an obsessed Deep Purple fan(atic), arguing around the city that they were way better than Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath and dreaming that one day I’ll meet hem and discuss music. Over the years I lost my affection for Deep Purple and hard rock in general, started focusing on jazz and other unexplored (for me) territories. However, when I saw them in Bulgaria in the winter of 1998 (Jon Lord was still alive and in the band) the affection came back immediately - I had a wonderful time singing along the songs in the front lines, shaking my head and jumping up and down. They played the best selection from Deep Purple’s catalogue, especially the seventies period, for which they are famous and legendary. And that’s exactly what ruined the concert that Ian Gillan held in Skopje just yesterday - an awful choice of songs, a lousy repertoire. If you’re 71 (as he is) and come to Eastern Europe once in ten years, then you’d probably like to leave the audience happy by playing their favorite songs and not some second-grade songs from the new Purple albums or Rainbow-like jam sessions with Beethoven jumping from behind the guitars (“Difficult to Cure”.) Gillan never had a brilliant solo release, but he had some really good and memorable songs - yet, he chose “Ain't No More Cane on This Brazos” from his 1990 solo-album “Naked Thunder,“ a gospel song totally off from the other songs he performed. “Strange Kind of Woman,” “Lazy,” “Pictures from Home,” “When a Blind Man Cries” and “Smoke on the Water” were the only classics he performed… oh, and yes - he finished the concert with “Hush,” a song that he didn’t sing originally for Deep Purple (it was Rod Evans, on their debut album.) All at all, a big disappointment over Gillan’s poor choice of songs.
And now something about the lighter side of last night performance. First of all, I didn’t tell you that the concert was played by the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra alongside the band assembled by Don Airey. Unlike most of the similar fusions of bands and classical orchestras, the last night performance sounded excellent, both in terms of sound and of interplay. The arrangements were functional and the two groups of musicians complemented each other. Ian Gillan himself sang superbly, being my biggest (positive) surprise - I really didn’t expect from a 70+ rocker with decades of loud tours behind his name to give such a powerful performance. On top of all, Don Airey’s band was more than excellent - they rocked just like the Deep Purple I saw 18 years ago. But unfortunately, it was all overshadowed by the poor song list. Too bad!
