Lichfield cathedral is beautiful. I grew up a few miles from it but this
is the first time I have been in it for years and I forgot how good it is.
For some reason it's never mentioned in the same breath as the country's
more famous cathedrals, but it should be. Everybody should go and see it.
Especially when Jon Lord is playing there.
The band played on a raised stage in front of the main entrance (so all
the seats in the nave faced west). The stage was a good idea (the
orchestra in Durham Cathedral for the Dunrahm Concerto was on the floor
and therefore invisible) but still not *quite* high enough. Because all
the performers were seated, I rarely saw more than their heads (though
some trick of the crowd gave me a perfect view of the first violin!).
The band came on at 7.35, played a 55-minute first half and a 75-minute
second half after a short interval to visit the "wine tent".
And the band was:
Drums - Steve White
Double bass and electric bass - Don Richardson (I think - the programme
listed Guy Pratt but it wasn't him)
Keyboards - Nigel Hopkins (I think - again, the programme listed Hannah
Vassanth but I'm pretty sure it wasn't!)
Vocals - Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska
Flute - Bruce Martin (I think - not mentioned at all in the programme)
String Quartet (The Badke Quartet)
Piano and Hammond Organ - Jon Lord
No guitar player! This was an unusual move, but I think a good one. As
soon as you put an electric guitar in a band, it dominates it. Removing it
gave the piano a lot more prominence, and also gave the srings more room
to breath.
Let's see how my dodgy set-list memory manages with mostly instrumental
pieces (I started writing it during the intermission, so it should be
pretty accurate). First half:
As I Walked Out One Evening
De Profundis
Miles Away
Sarabande
Pictured Within (Steve Balsamo vocal)
From the Windmill
The Teleman Experiment
"As I walked Out..." is new and is one movement from Jon's tribute to John
Mortimer. It is played by piano, strings and flute, and the sweeping,
melancholic string melodies are immediately recognisable as a Jon Lord
composition.
The sound in the Cathedral is perfect for the instruments and although the
band is amplified, the instruments are in perfect balance. This wasn't as
true on De Profundis - as soon as the drums came in, they tended to swamp
the strings. As the concert wore on, this problem seemed to be ironed out
so it wasn't really a big problem.
You will see the pattern in the set... pretty much one soft piece followed
by one up-tempo piece. It worked really well and showed off the range of
styles Jon works with.
Throughout the first half, Jon played the piano (and conducted the band),
ignoring the Hammon sitting next to him. Oh, I think he played one
solitary organ chord at the end of, I think probably De Profundis, but
that was all.
Second half:
Evening Song (Kasia Laska vocal, and she is exceptional. You can hear a
very faint hint of a non-English accent in her singing, which just makes
it sound better, and her emotional delivery is achingly beautiful.)
Bouree
Air on a Blue String (This is the first performance of a new piece. jon
introduced it as having the idea of "Bach meets the Blues" but I must be
honest, I couldn't hear a lot of blues in it. Or a lot of Bach, for that
matter. But I did hear a lot of Jon Lord, and that's good enough for me.)
Unsquare Dance (The Dave Brubeck tune, with Jon finally playing a long
Hammond solo - standing up, naturally!)
When Jon introduced the next song as something written by Ritchie
Blackmore and David Coverdale, I almost fell out of my seat. Never in a
million years would I have expected (wait for it...) (make sure you're
sitting down...)
Soldier of Fortune (Steve Balsamo lead vocal, backed by Kasia Laska). I
don't know what to say about that. I still can't believe it. And,
honestly? When Jon Lord's got a band that can play an arrangement of
Soldier of Fortune as beautiful as this one, nobody in their right mind
should be asking for a Mk 3 reunion.
Gigue ended the main set. You might wonder if this could be an anticlimax
after that last song, but it actually might be the highlight of the show.
It shows off the versatility of all the musicians, including a long and
brilliant drum solo and, yes, some superb Hammond playing. If anybody ever
asks you what sort of music Jon Lord plays, play them this arrangement of
Gigue and you might get somewhere close to an answer.
Then a couple of songs as an encore:
Wait a While (Kasia Laska)
The Sun Will Shine Again (Kasia Laska again, backed by Steve Balsamo)
And...
What is the one song you always want to hear at a Deep Purple concert?
Child in Time.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting this. You can't do Child in Time without a
guitar player, can you? But I got goosebumps as soon as Jon said "1969" in
his introduction and I knew there was only one song he could do. When he
played the first three notes on the Hammond, I... well, you know what it's
like.
Steve Balsamo sang the verse and Kasia Laska joined him on the screams.
She hit them effortlessly, which wasn't a surprise, but he hit every one
too -- was this the same man who had just sung Pictured Within and
Soldier of Fortune? That's an incredibly versatile voice. I was hugely
impressed with both of them.
And how do you do Child in Time without a guitar player? You put a
five-minute organ solo in the middle. Go on, admit it, you wish you were
there.
The whole show was so good, I would be telling you it was the best concert
I have ever seen even if they hadn't ended with Child in Time. But they
played my favourite song, and they played it in a breathtaking
arrangement, and I thank Jon Lord eternally for that.
The venue was great, the band was exceptional, the atmosphere was
wonderful, the musicians' respect for each other and for the different
styles of music they were playing was obvious, the music was perfect
throughout the two(+) hours, and they ended with my favourite song.
Of course this was the best concert I have ever seen.
--
David Meadows
http://www.heroes.force9.co.uk
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