Glenn Hughes

26th November 2019

Ironworks, Inverness

I really could have done without the three-hour each-way commute required for this one, but Glenn Hughes, having been touring his Classic Deep Purple show for the previous two-and-a-half years was finally winding down.  And had only two further dates to play after this one: in Middlesbrough and Birmingham.  So, for me, it was Inverness or never.

Hughes' band were a disparate looking bunch indeed.  Strikingly handsome Danish guitarist Soren Andersen enjoyed a few cliched metal axeman poses from time to time, but his frequent grins made it clear he did not take himself too seriously.   

Drummer Fernando Escobedo was, by contrast, a grizzled dervish of hair and tattooed arms, whilst to Hughes' right sat a dignified looking old geezer (even with his bunnet on backwards), who we learned had scored one of the Rocky movies, plus some Transformers kiddies' cartoon.  He did his best to recreate Jon Lord's parts, but Vince DiCola's piffling little modern keyboard was never going the match the power of The Beast. 

Hughes himself looked almost disgustingly healthy; having grown his hair back to Purple-length, and had clearly spent a fair wodge of his cash contributing to his orthodontist's pension fund.

Glenn Hughes

Soren Andersen 

Fernando Escobedo

Vince DiCola

Glenn Hughes - Inverness - November 2019

But they were a pretty decent outfit, for all that.  Stormbringer and Might Just Take Your Life, which opened the show, may have each sounded just a bit muddy as the mixing guy got to grips with the hall's acoustics.  But once we reached Sail Away, the band sounded tight as a bell and clear as a drum.  Or something.

You Fool No One, as it had back in the day, featured a lengthy drum solo.  Now, as a general rule, I cannot abide drum solos, finding them all so....well....unstructured.  But that is, I am sure, at least in some way due to ignorance on my part.  For I freely acknowledge I could not tell you the difference between a para-diddle and a bucket-of-fish, and would equally struggle to identify 5/4 from 7/8 time.

But here it was all rather entertaining, for I found my internal metronome could sort of follow things.  And also Escobedo injecting a bit of liquid humour into proceedings did not hurt.

Following Hughes giving the briefest of nods in the direction of that rather ropey Come Taste The Band album, I was a touch surprised to be presented with Mistreated.  For not only is this a song which the bassist played little if any part in writing, but it is the sole track on the Burn album (the instrumental 'A' 200, apart) which David Coverdale sang alone.  Hughes, to be fair, made a decent fist of things this evening, but it did feel a touch like we were entering Tribute-Act Land at this point.

This suspicion was soon confirmed when, after a few bars teaser of the Lazy riff, the band thundered into Smoke on the Water.  Written and recorded long before Hughes' tenure with the band, I can only assume he felt it OK to include this one, as it had been included in the live set during his time.  

What I am sure DP never did with Smoke though, was have the outro morph into a soulful rendition of Georgia on my Mind.  Now that was surreal.  

But I suppose using the tag-line “Performs Classic Deep Purple”, to help attract folks along made SotW, and the evening closer Highway Star, pretty much obligatory.  As for me, I think I should have preferred Hughes to have been a bit braver, and given us Love Don't Mean a Thing and, my personal DP mk3 tune, Hold On.


Set list

Stormbringer
Might Just Take Your Life
Sail Away
You Fool No-One/Highball Shooter
You Keep on Moving
Gettin' Tighter
Mistreated
Smoke On The Water/Georgia On My Mind

Encore
Burn
Highway Star

Keyboard player Vince DiCola had some intriguing looking sheet music for Smoke on the Water.
I wonder what was scribbled out.

Glenn's roadie got a chance to join in the fun during Highway Star.

Glenn Hughes - Inverness - November 2019

The evening's support had been Piston - a Midlands-based quintet of (mostly) hairy guys of middle years, who strutted and posed their way through a mainly forgettable set.  Unfortunately, as I witnessed the lads sledge-hammering their way through Proud Mary, the two words which found their way unbidden into my head were “Spinal” and “Tap”.

Piston - Inverness - November 2019