It's today. The big, outdoor festival that spanned the performances of many top bands at the time and went to a significant place in the history of the big rock' n' roll . The most remembered concerts come from Black Sabbath; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and finally Deep Purple.
Sabbs were doing their routine show promoting the highly acclaimed "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" LP. I've seen a bits of the footage and it's still hard for me to accept Tony Iommi's WITHOUT the usual mustache. A completely diferent man, looking without his typicall metal bite. Still they were playing good.
ELP - I also seem to remember seeing their footage once. In terms of a scale of the "pump and circumstance" involved up from some point it got really difficult to stand. As I was almost completely unaware of their catalogue by then - the only thing I remember was Carl Palmer ringing his bell set to emphasize the effect while Keith Emerson was receiving a heavy rotation, his body was stabilized to the furniture - axis-spinning piano. Complete maddness. Up to now I am not able to understand how can one provide any reasonable sounds in position like this.
And Deep Purple - the (in)famous flamers for the great finale. As it was a bit more than a quarter of the year from Mk III scenic debut, so the material was still in the stage of development. The concert itself was very good, but the feeling of excess finally took upon Blackmore. I can clearly understand him, I would tell the word or two myself if some stupid idiot would ride upon me with this camera stack every five minutes... The more you enjoy and concentrate on your music, the better you play, it's always been like this.
It is still a big enjoyment to see the Masters cooking, even after the years and being used to it (yes there were times when it was one of the very few live videos portraiting Deep Purple in action and I do remember these days!). 'Burn' is - as ever - a sensational opener, although it heavily suffers from lack of the front filming angle that could properly show Ritchie's hand during the masterful solo. Coverdale, still seeming a bit uncomfortable in the frontman's position manages to put a massive performance. 'Mistreated' is lovingly passionate, the whole band lets it rip, Blackmore's approach to the solo with the use of volume bar only is simply awesome, one of those most precious musical moments luckily captured on the film. And thre whole reendition with a rousing finale is monumental. Not long after Lord steals the idea of interploating 'Lazy' from Blackmore and puts it as a part of his monsterous introduction to "You Fool No One". It's again one of these moments that is simply unique, justyfying the endless praise to the art of improvisation, which he atops here to the delight of the audience. The review of most spitfiring guitar techniques by Blackers is carried later on and while the dramaturgy of the concert collapses during 'The Mule' and the first part of 'Space Truckin' - things get pretty heavy at the very end. And it's not only because it was the time of the peak for Lord's interest in stage experiments with Moog and synth pad sounds in his keyboard setting.
The bridge conducted by Blackmore to buid the tension between the quiet passage and the fierce part of his improvisation is lovingly enriched by 'Greensleeves' played on the volume bar again and from then on there is no mercy... As it was later described by Jon Lord reviving his sight of the amps exploding on the other side of the stage: "It looked like Ritchie was dancing forwards, he's not; he was BLOWN forwards by the force of the explosion... (...) Frightening". By that moment the hatered camera stack was already demolished by the bashes of his Fender guitar, of which he destroyed a couple on the night. As the remains of the blown equipment were kicked and pushed downstage, the close of the improvisation vehicle was chaotic, yet apcalypitic. The rapid flee of the guitarist to the helicopter right after leaving the stage was obvious in the context of almost guaranteed inprisonment for the stage behaviour and damages done.
Strangely enough it doesn't seem strange to me at all that after 35 years the flying Keith Emmerson is barely remembered for his 'stack-me-to-the-piano' stint, while Blackmore's tour de force is remembered as the one of the biggest stage affairs not only in the Purple career, but in history of the large festival events in general.
Surely it's worth to give these sounds a spin on the anniversary today!
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