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| DEEP PURPLE SMOKE ON FORT CANNING
The Straits Times
By Jill Alphonso
April 12th, 2004
CLASSIC rock, apparently has a mixed following. Guitar star wannabes who could not have been older than 16, groupie woman in their early 30's, and toothless old men in their late 60's all began cheering when Deep Purple appeared on stage at Fort Canning Park last Saturday.
Beginning with a new hit, Silver Tongue, the band segued into the well-known Woman From Tokyo. They performed new numbers, like House of Pain and Bananas, the title track of their latest album. But it became obvious that the crowd of 7000, was there for the songs Deep Purple has made a name on. While newer songs had a lukewarm reception, people sang along and danced wildly to songs like Perfect Strangers and Highway Star, causing lead singer Ian Gillan to remark: "You're singing well tonight." And though he punch the air with his fist to the beat he goofed around by playing "air keyboards", wriggling his fingers whenever keyboarrdist Don Airey had a solo. The crowd lapped it up, mimicking his movements. Bass guitarist Roger Glover had a grin on his face as though to say, "I've done this a thousand times, and I'm still loving it." And though Steve Morse, the youngest in the band at 49, swung his dirty blonde locks to the beat, he, too, had a grin plastered on his face throughout the whole show.
The show was marred by a technical difficulty halfway through - half the equipment had blown a power plug that took 15 minutes to fix. Morse provided momentary entertainment by grabbing a blow-up beer can that had landed onstage and mimed opening and chugging it. The band came back, thanked the crowd for its patience, and ended the show with the famous Smoke On The Water.
"More Come back, baby!" yelled the toothless old guy behind me. And I wasn't about to disagree. During a three-song encore, the crowd danced to Hush, the band's first hit, sang along to a cover of Hit The Road, Jack, and sang out the beginning riffs to Black Night. "Thanks for being fantastic," said Gillan, panting a little by the end. You've been an inspiration." As the crowd filed out of the park, sweaty, sated, and Deep Purpl-d out, one 1pxg was obvious. The band still knew how to rock.
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