The Unwritten Diaries: Deep Purple Revisited

Well, Deep Purple made their second visit to Bangalore in the last five years on Sunday. I heard it was a good concert and all that, and really wished I was there. Of special mention, my sister was at the show and at around nine in the night (which would be 9:30 am US central time) she gave me a call from her mobile when they were in the middle of "Highway Star" so that I would get to hear it, as she had promised. But of course, I was sleeping like a log at the time. I was conscious of the call for a second, then the next moment I ignored the phone and effortlessly returned to my sleep. However, her efforts were not wasted after all. In all the din around her all she could do was shout "Can you hear me?" a couple of times. She obviously thought I was on the line, as it appeared that way on her cell. So, when I finally dragged myself out of bed and checked my phone, I found a new voice message. I played it, heard her voice and then the familiar Jon Lord keyboard run followed by "Nobody gonna take my car...". It came out pretty clearly, and cost my sister quite a bit of currency on her cell in process. At the same time, it brought the memories back to me all at once. Love you Kets!

As a Bangalore resident I have been fortunate enough to attend quite a few concerts over the last few years, including Roger Waters, Joe Satriani and AR Rahman (for a really good account of our Rahman experience, check out my friend Akar's blog, entry dated October 27th 2005 http://tastepeatka.spaces.live.com/?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=blogpart&partqs=
amonth%3d10%26ayear%3d2005). However, the Deep Purple concert of 2001 will always have a special place in my memory bank. It wasn't the first live show I attended - that was actually a Michael Learns to Rock show in 1996 (which was admittedly good, but that's a different story). By 2001 I was a more conscious music lover so this was for all practical purposes my first real concert experience. This seems like a good time to consult the unwritten diary in my head, and rewind to April Fools' day, 2001: Deep Purple's show in Bangalore, and the events that preceded it.

The first time I heard Deep Purple was in Class XI. Mohan and Suhas Noronha used to bring a lot of their stuff (ie. cassettes) to school, and the Anthems compilation tape I borrowed from had Purple's "Smoke on the Water" on it. Sometime after this, I heard Highway Star, identified it instantly as a tune from an old Philips ad which ends with "Why did you turn it off?It was so nice.." Later, in Class XII, Noronha recorded a copy of 30:The Best of Deep Purple for himself. I borrowed it on a couple of occasions and remember being hooked on "Strange Kind of Woman", partly because Channel V was playing a contrived video of it as the soundtrack to the Om Puri Film "East is East". I liked the stuff I heard a lot, but was simultaneously discovering so many artists so I was in no way a huge fan or devotee of the band as yet. Enter 2001 and the class XII boards were fast approaching. On January 31st, in a comfortable little break between the end of the prelims and the start of my study hols, I took out the 125 bucks I had saved up with great difficulty, and headed for a music store down the road. On a whim, I decided to buy the 30: Best of Deep Purple tape as a study break companion for the next few weeks. By now I had grown to appreciate these guys and the music they made. Little did I know I would be seeing them very soon!

The schedule for the ISC Boards, which began on march 1st, was quite crazy. I had taken up Computer Science as my fifth subject in the science stream. While the Biology guys were done by the 19th of March, there was a week's gap between that day (the day of the Physics exam) and the day Comp paper. This would be followed by the Comp Pracs paper - on the 30th of March. So we were having to deal with a critical set of exams for an entire month, which was pretty exhausting mentally. In the middle of this period of the longest days of our lives came a real bolt from the blue. Bangalore Times, the notorious supplement, carried a small feature about Deep Purple coming to Bangalore on the first of April. Their show would raise funds for the victims of the quake that had occured in Gujarat early in the year. Schoolboys we still were, but the cynicism had already crept in. We initially dismissed it as an April Fool joke, noting that it was so characteristic of BT to try and pull a fast one on the readers. Deep Purple? The Band? The guys who wrote Smoke on the Water? It couldn't be. Then, joy arrived as the low profile coverage of this event-to-be soon gave way to some space in the papers and on TV. BPL was to sponsor it, and they put on an ad for the event, with a suitably purpled background claming "The Gods of Rock are coming....Be there, get blessed."It was too good to be true. Finally we had a legendary band coming to Bangalore and the timing couldn't have been better - 2 days after the boards ended. I chatted non stop with it about Mohan, Suhas Noronha and Kary, none of use were missing out on it. We each had separate plans though. I would be going along with my sister, cousins Kartoon, Chitz, Bharat and Anant. Chitz had come down from Hyd along with a friend of hers, Vini and was providing the transport. Kartoon had purchased the now seemingly mandatory copy of 30: Best of Deep Purple (which was hurriedly reissued at 150 bucks with a lyrics booklet and selling like crazy once the announcement had been made). I, by now the knowledgeable music fan, was happy to play mentor and guide him through the track list. These days, he plays mentor and tries to guide me through his favourite Death and Black Metal bands, but finds an unappreciative ear. Anyway, the event was now upon us and high excitement was in the air. April fools' day had arrived. The tickets were a mere 250 bucks. There were still lingering doubts whether we were bakras or not for an April fool joke. Until I saw the band onstage, I vowed, I would not believe...

We drove up to Palace Grounds and reached the place at 5:30. I recall being intimidated by the sheer mass of people there, for a relatively small venue. We made a wise decision to come early, the lines were long and slow moving. For all the time it took to reach the concert area, it was an amazing experience, just taking in the atmosphere around me. Having never been to a concert of this scale before, despite supposedly being a rock fan now, I got a look at the weird mixture of people you see at your typical rock show for the first time. Apart from familiar faces (Fittingly I met Noronha there; he too was with cousins), they were all there: The college crowd with black Maiden and Metallica tshirts, flashier guys with dark glasses accompanied by their damsels, the hip party set who were suitably (under) dressed for the April heat, some seasoned veterans in old faded Deep purple shirts, and also some pseudo-porki types who thought they were at some kind of dance show. I even remember a character who had painted the band member's names with the DP symbol on his plain white tshirt. All the while, we were slowly marching to the promised land (the concert area) and it felt wild. It felt like a pilgrimage of sorts. That was a short taste of what woodstock must've been like.

Finally we made it in. Stalls were all around selling rolls , pepsi and some souvenirs, bandanas and the like. No booze/cigarettes were officially allowed but most people managed to smuggle them in anyway. I remember a promotional flier handed out there, talking about Deep Purple and the arguments between fans over Purple vs Sabbath vs Zeppelin. I have a lot to say on that, but not in this post. As the sun slowly gave way, we had the opening act Thermal and a quarter on stage. Bruce Lee Mani and the boys did a pretty good job actually - I still remember them delivering "Brigade Street" with panache. Mani then prefaced the next song with "That was the upside of the city...now for the downside of the city" and waded into a dragging composition. TAAQ were in fine form, but they had clearly overstayed their welcome for the day, and the crowd was getting restless. As TAAQ meandered towards their finish, the doubts remained. Were Purple actually in town?

Then, it happened. A quick rearranging of instruments, a small soundcheck and the Gods surfaced. Murmurs from crowd all around. Then, i the most matter of fact way possible, without saying a word, the band launched into the opening riff which I (and, no doubt a good proportion of the crowd) recognised as "Woman from tokyo". Deafening roars followed - I shall never forget the screams of approval from the crowd. The next thing I knew me and Kartoon were 8 miles high in the air, hand raised, screaming in unison "Maaa Woman from Tok-ee-yow....!!!" It was as exhilarating as it could get.

For such an old band, they were in top form and ably assisted by the knowledgeable crowd. Some blistering moments followed with "Speed King", "Hush", and "Black Night". Ian Gillian was at his operatic best, and Jon Lord's keyboard runs were simply divine. The shoes of Ritchie Blackmore must have been tough to fill, but Steve Morse showed us he's a fine guitarist in his own right when he spat out a five minute medley comprising of ACDC's Back in Black and a couple of other tunes I couldn't identify. Meanwhile I was reveling in the innocence of my first show. All around me were couples on the ground making out (some of them right by my feet), and there was plenty of dope being passed around. It was a minor culture shock, I guess. But these sights and sounds have simply become part of the overall concert experience and the memories. So the junta had made it their woodstock after all.

When the instantly recognisable opening riff of "Smoke on the water" was sounded, the crowd fairly erupted. A while later, the band decided to call it quits, wished us a good night and told us what a tremendous audience we had been. Wait a second, we thought, wasn't this a bit premature? No 'Strange Kind of Woman'? No 'Child in Time'? And, no HIGHWAY STAR! Then, the chant came forth. Highway Star! Highway Star! The Gods obliged, and they duly came back for the encore. For one last time that night, we screamed our lungs out "I'm a Highway Staaaarrr...!" And the show ended as abruptly as it had begun. The stage was cleared in no time. As we trudged back, each of us individually sandwiched somewhere in the middle of the delirious crowd, we felt like we were in some kind of Zombie March. With great difficulty we got the car out and left palace grounds, tired out but totally satisfied. The Gods had indeed come, and we had been blessed.