When it comes to live albums from the seminal era of Deep Purple, this one rates in the top echelon. It does in fact cover two separate concerts in two eras of the Mark II line-up, both with their positives and negatives.
The first disc is from 1970, with the second from 1972. The recordings are just wonderful, capturing the full array of musicians in full flight and at their theoretical peak. Ian Paice’s drum work along with Roger Glover’s bass lines work magically together. As per usual, the duelling between Jon Lord’s keyboards and Ritchie Blackmore’s guitaring is the driving force behind the show, while Ian Gillan’s vocals soar just as magnificently live as they do in the studio.
As with all of their live shows in this era though, there is a lot of freeform instrumental breaks within the framework of most of the songs. While this was a popularist thing to do in the era, it does tend to get tedious after a while when you are listening to live albums. I can appreciate the cleverness of it all, but I’d much rather just hear the songs being played as they were written!
Outside of that issue, this is a joy to put on and listen to. The songs are some of the band’s best and the performances are outstanding.
Rating: Purps in their element. 4.5/5
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