I’m thinking about his early ABB standards, where he earned his reputation for the above the average ability, Uwe, not the Layla environment. He wasn’t hailed for his skills just because of how young he died, Layla sessions was a collaboration, and most of us know what mental shape Clapton was then in, hard to expect for others to be much better. And I’m sure that McGregor will remind you that Layla album is considered a stone cold classic of the era by now, despite the possible shenanigans it could have gone with it. But no, you will, by internal rule call it out as a miracle that wasn’t supposed to happen, because they weren’t so good, etc. As with undermining of Rainbow’s Rising.
The sloppiest slide player for sure was Bobby Weir…what we Deadheads had to endure when Bobby tried hard to get some tones right was no fun
The Layla album is - unlike Rising - great. They contained Duane’s contributions just right. Unlike Cozy Powell’s who was apparently allowed to do what he wanted. 
That said, I like the Allmans and on the jam-level there is more commonalty between them and early Mk II than most people from both sides would like to admit. But I also consider Derek Trucks perhaps the best dedicated slide player ever.
Moving back onto topic (see what I did there? ) I saw 5 shows in the initial European leg of the Abandon tour, 7 in the 2nd European led (including all the UK shows) , plus Malaysia and 6 in Europe in summer of 1999. These 19 shows are quite probably my favourite memories of Purple in 35 years of seeing them.
2 Likes
highly enviable!
What the hell were you doing in Malaysia?
Did you go specifically for the concert?
1 Like
Yes -ish. Friends, including a fellow THS editor, did some work over there, so when the gig was announced, I was told I was going 
I went again for the 2001 show, plus F1 Grand Prix, but by then had fallen in love with the country. I’ve visited another 6 or 7 times since. Sadly no more Purple shows. But that '99 show was special. At our suggestion, Jon added Soldier of Fortune to his solo (every Bar band had played it that week). Plus people were asking US for autographs as we were the long-haired 20-somethings rather than the “old men” sat next to us in the bar
It wouldn’t have too bad, except once the band had left the country, we were accused of being Metallica
2 Likes
Ha! In Germany people were asking myself for an autograph, thinking I’m in the band. Apparently, having long hair and speaking English is enough over there to pass for a rock star.
Including at least once with Roger quietly sitting in the corner and enjoying his dinner and a book… 
3 Likes
We had IG and RG at our table, and they were pissing themselves. Especially when the local fans refused to believe they were in the band
2 Likes
To Asians all Caucasians look alike and vice versa! 
I remember a hilarious piece about it in the GUARDIAN a while back where a black journalist lovingly described her mother always getting confused watching romantic sitcoms populated by Caucasian actors: “Now which one is she again?!”
Possibly - the official publicity was the usual then current photos. Everything else was photos from the 70s. We were the only long-haired Caucasian of that age in the hotel. Still doesn’t explain why we got accused of being Metallica later on in the trip. For a start, I’m a better drummer than Lars and don’t even play
3 Likes
Why do you say you were “accused” of being Metallica, instead of saying “we were mistaken for Metallica”?
1 Like
The waiter was very adamant we were. I have a vague memory of having to show my passport.
1 Like
In 2010 they played Almost Human. I was at the show in Munich. Nice setlist, btw.:
The House of Blue Light is the only album with Gillan as a singer whose songs they never played again after the promo tour.
1 Like
It should be this one:
1 Like
no one has realised that Cozy actually played the guitar, in any shape or form???/////
I don’t get it … Will you enlighten us?
Seems I’m a bit late to the party!
It took me forever to get into Abandon - all the slow to mid tempo songs around the same tempo made the album feel to slow and like it was dragging for me - I still feel this when listening to it.
I agree the freshness that occurred with Purpendicular had worn off, and I think the record suffers from the “we have to make the sequel as good as or better than the original” syndrome. That said, it is the absolute heaviest Purple record in existence - it is pretty much a metal album! I love Seve’s cold, snarling metallic tone, and these days I am closer to viewing it as one long, heavy slow burn of a record with a few fast tunes interspersed here and there. I also agree that Jon not being involved much in the writing caused the record to suffer a bit.
That said, there are some absolute gems on this record - Fingers to the Bone and Watching the Sky are fantastic, and Seventh Heaven is the heaviest and most fucking metal tune in the Purple catalogue, with those snarling pinch harmonics from Steve! I also like Don’t Make Me Happy and '69 - the live version of the latter at the 2000s Montreux fest show is great!
On the whole I feel Abandon is a good, solid Purple record lacking a bit of creativity and inspiration due largely in part from the pressure the band put on themselves to live up to Purpendicular and Jon’s absence during writing. If the boys had managed to get out of their own heads a bit, and Jon had been more present during writing, it would have been even better than it was, and what we got was pretty good in retrospect, all said and done.
1 Like
The idea that Jon is barely present it’s a common misconception about Abandon:
He exactly play 10 solos on Abandon, whereas on Purpendicular he plays 8.
except for Cascades and CFOR’s verse, they all seem to be mid-tempo songs on Purplendicular too…
2 Likes
You forgot Hey Cisco, although that’s an astute observation about Purpendicular and the tempo of the songs - for whatever reason, it feels faster as an album than Abandon, which feels sluggish by comparison.
The tempo of the songs never bothered me, what goes on on Abandon is musically mostly interesting, it’s just a darker sounding record and even Fingers to the Bone is anything but a happy or light song.
It’s also one of the few DP albums with a really good cover, that must count for somethin’!
Purpendicular was a band creatively liberated and with a fresh new huge influence in the form of Steve, but if we‘re honest with ourselves, the search for stylistic variety is generally not why people buy heavy rock or more specifically DP albums. I think with Abandon, DP set out to prove a point, namely that they could still knuckle down to hard rock. Maybe they overdid it a little, but overall I always thought the album a worthy representation of their work.
1 Like