Saturday 18 April 2009

DEEP PURPLE - CAIRD HALL - 1974


On this day 35 years ago, Deep Purple were in town.
There was a real buzz around the Dundee gig because this was the first night of a brand new UK tour after having a huge success touring the States prior.
Deep Purple also had 2 new members making their British debut live on stage, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.
This in turn attracted the attention of the national music press, the show ending up receiving major coverage in both the NME and Melody Maker the following week.
Both music papers go into a lot of detail behind the scenes while following the band around. Interviewing them in the Tay Hotel for example.
I've chosen to showcase an edited extract from the MM write-up which concentrates just on the gig itself.
You can click on the review above to read the enlarged version.
Both Deep Purple and the Dundee crowd are highly praised on the night!
Incidentally, support band from New York, Elf, were also making their UK debut on stage.
Although I wasn't at this concert, word next day in school was that Deep Purple were so loud, chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling!
I do remember buying their single "Fireball" in 1971 when I was 13, after seeing them perform on Top of the Pops.
You don't usually think of such monsters of rock having been in the pop charts!
The singer in Elf was Ronnie James Dio, who a year or so later teamed up with Deep Purple guitar legend, Ritchie Blackmore to form another rock outfit, Rainbow, who I did manage to catch live at the Glasgow Apollo.

9 comments:

  1. yet again a classic ! gillan became "gillan" and dio became "dio" and blackmore put vincent price's hat on and became "blackmore's knights" you can't buy this stuff !

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  2. David Coverdale was the singer in the band in the 1974 Dundee line-up. He went on to form Whitesnake later. You're right about Gillan, in fact the Ian Gillan Band played at the Caird Hall a few years later.
    I also recall, the remaining members went on to become Paice Ashton & Lord for a short while in the mid 70's. Ah yes it's all coming back to me!!

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  3. Saw "Purple" first time round at the Caird Hall , Black Night was in the charts but this was an era when bands never played their hits live. Can you imagine today's beat combos trying to get away with that? Anyhoo walking home that night we got a lift from some boys who had just been to the Union (or The Dines as I'm sure it was known).They'd seen an upcoming band called Yes and were raving about them. So Yes and Deep Purple same night in Dundee

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  4. if that's true 50/50 how good would that have been ?

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  5. great website - cant believe Dio played Dundee all those years ago - i have seen him many times elsewhere - great singer. By the way, i remember seeing the poster for the Deep Purple Burn tour displayed on a billboard down or very near Lorimer Street near the Rockie High School.

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  6. This was the BURN tour with Coverdale and Hughes new to the line up !! A great night and Purple played well featuring most of the Burn album !!

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  7. great concert even though I could not hear for a week afterwards. If I recall correctly part of the ceiling fell down during one of Ritchie Blackmore' s guitar solos. I believe that the section of celing was made into an award and presented to him

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    1. I was at a Deep Purple concert in Dundee at the Caird Hall 1971 I think it was. Support band that night was Sleaz Band, a Dundee Band, formerly the Renegades. Brothers Phil and Clark Robertson were in the Sleaz Band line up. Clark was a pal from school days at the Morgan and had sent me two complementaries. I think it was their first professional gig after they turned pro. I remember I thought my car had broken down as the starter had apparently conked out and there was silence when I tried to start the engine. It was while I was sitting trying to work out what was wrong that I noticed lights on on the dashboard and realised I could feel vibration through the steering wheel from the engine running! I was deaf for about two days from being 20 feet away from a huge bank of speakers at the concert. But a great night of rock that I'll never forget.

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  8. Was at the 74 concert and boy was it loud! Coverdales voice was brilliant. Never thought Purple be as good without Gillan but accompanied by Glen Hughes it was mindblowing. Oh and loud lol

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