Skip to main content

Purple power


Wednesday was classic rock night in Cardiff, as M's treat we ventured to Cardiff Arena for Deep Purple plus guests. Unfortunate that it was the Arena - our moans about the acoustics are well documented!

Turned up a bit late, assuming the staff wouldn't be on time, but - horror -they were, and 1st band Thin Lizzy (yup, what remains of Thin Lizzy) were already halfway through their set. An example, perhaps, why longevity isn't always a bonus? I saw this lineup (John Sykes, Scott Gorham with Marco Mendoza and I can't remember the drummer - oops) in 20o3 at Sheffield's Leadmill on their own tour & they were excellent. This time, the atmosphere wasn't there and their playing, well, it was a bit loose and Sykes sounded tired. Compared to the tight sound & excellence of tribute Limehouse Lizzy - I know who I will see again! Limehouse Lizzy are, luckily, back in Cardiff later this year.

Main support Styx were on shortly afterwards, for apparently their first visit to Wales. Neither of us were familiar with their songs, & their sound was pretty much Journey but a bit heavier. Highlight for me was their cover of I Am The Walrus. This lot were, though, far more professional & did a great job, getting the crowd warmed up. Special guest was founder member Chuck Panozzo. Must mention here their singer/keys player Lawrence Gowan, with his rotating keyboard! Picture below. Styx have a proper website too!



The crowd were well & truly ready to rock when Deep Purple came on. This time, an improvement on last time - saw them in 2003 and was disappointed. There were a few new songs, which are ok but not a patch on the classics! Set included: Strange Kind Of Woman, When A Blind Man Cries, Highway Star, Space Truckin, Smoke On The Water, with Hush & Black Night for the encore. An excellent atmosphere (especially for the Arena), too! Lots of Purple-related websites for more info.




As an aside, Tuesday we tried out Jump at the Wales Millennium Centre, which was a highly entertaining martial arts comedy. A short storyline told through martial arts moves and expressions, including forays into dance (martial arts tango, anyone?), plus showcase moves to an instrumental rock soundtrack. We'd recommend this for theatre with a difference!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Angela Hewitt Week, 14th-20th May 2012

I just received information from a friend about Angela Hewitt Week in Ottawa, 14th-20th May as declared by Mayor Jim Watson. Ms Hewitt is performing with Chamber Players of Canada on Friday 18th May; there will also be An Afternoon With Angela Hewitt on 20th May at the National Arts Centre hosted by the Canadian Friends of the Trasimeno Music Festival .
Post a Comment
Read more

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Venezuelan maestro comes to Cardiff

A highly anticipated evening of entertainment for M and I, we headed to St Davids Hall to see the conductor of the moment, Gustavo Dudamel , conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra . Highly entertaining, too, and the place was pretty full, though possibly not sold out. We had anticipated the first piece to be Antonio Estevez' 'Mediodia en el llano', but a last minute change meant the first work was (I believe - the posters up in the venue were rather short on info!) Berlioz' Roman Carnival. Initially we may have been a tad disappointed but the replacement work was excellently peformed, cue many smiles. Unfortunately, the smiles soon evaporated, as the second, and for us, least interesting piece, was Mozart's Piano Concert No.17 K453 with Emanuel Ax on piano. M described Ax as mellow, I described him as dull. That may be because neither of us are really into Mozart, but compared to previous visits to St Davids Hall to see pianists Noriko Ogawa and Freddy Kempf, we really...
Post a Comment
Read more