What you're getting is a dissection of a classic album. Martin Birch and Roger Glover sit at the mixing desk and twiddle some knobs. Jon Lord plays "The Beast" in his home. Ritchie speaks fondly of the others (!) and plays the "Smoke" riff on an acoustic guitar (he refused to play it on a strat apparently).

What you get on this DVD is about half an hour of extra stuff that wasn't shown on TV (including extended footage of 'Smoke On The Water' and 'Space Truckin'). What you don't get (why?) is any discussion about Lazy. It's as if it's not on the album, let alone one of it's standout tracks! Wonder why not???

Fantasmagoricle
Review date: 2002-12-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

The documentray DVD came out this week in the US and I picked it up yesterday. Wasn't sure exactly what to expect, the DPAS comments about not many rare clips and RB refusing to play stuff on electric guitar came across quite negative.

But it's very cool!

The coolest thing is that everyone is nice and complimentary about each other and the album. Almost no bitchiness, and the little that there is, is tongue in cheek (Ritchie channeling shortwave Bulgarian radio through his hat). Everyone praises the genius of Blackmore, and in turn RB is on his self-deprecating humour best behaviour - everything he says about Gillan is positive, and he gives credit to everyone as well as the album itself.

It's mainly individual interviews except the two Ian's are together. Both Roger and Martin Birch are in front of mixing desks, some very interesting parts where they play a song but then fade out all but one track (instrument) so you can hear what someone is doing individually.

Jon demonstrates some stuff on a Hammond, how he gets his sound etc - nice part where he plays bits of the Space Truckin' live improv. Ritchie plays stuff on acoustic but it sounds cool - talks about how he thought his chorus riff in Space Truckin' was too simple, but then Gillan took it and made it sound good with the right lyrics. They also interview a few other people, some guy from a guitar mag, plus Chris Welch and Chris Charlesworth.

One weird thing, as far as I can remember, Lazy is not mentioned or played one single time, even in the bonus material section. Smoke On The Water of course gets the most airtime with the Casino fire story which I'm sure none of us ever heard before(!).

Highway Star has the "written on the way to Portsmouth" story, Space Truckin' has Jon's bit as well as some goofing on the lyrics, Pictures Of Home gets a fair amount of time with Paice's drum intro and RB telling IG that "eagles" was OK to put in the words. Never Before was the "failed single", and there's a promo for it in the bonus section which is pretty obviously the band playing something completely different on video and the track put on the audio. Maybe I'm A Leo is only (I think) mentioned in the bonus material where Roger talks about how he came up with the riff.

Oh yeah, there's one part where they all talk about getting from the studio to the playback room at the hotel. Very funny with each member doing a line and then splicing the video together.

Definitely worth getting hold of. I guess it's on UK TV in the next week or so. Much more enjoyable to watch than say... Perihelion

Absorbing Purple!!!
Review date: 2002-12-01 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is what a lot of DP fans have been waiting for - all 5 mark 2 members being interviewed (not together mind you!) in a relaxed sort of atmosphere.
The DVD contains the full ITV broadcast from 27th of November as you are doubtless aware. However it does contain a whole lot more.
There are 9 additional interview sections a couple of which are very short but enlightening nonetheless.
Where this DVD is fascinating is the totally complimentary fashion in which all of the members discuss the other member's contribution to what is an outstanding album. They all seem to be wanting to give the the rest the credit. The interview sections with Blackmore and Lord demonstrating the riffs or instrumental constructions are particularly interesting. Ok there will be some diehards who will complain that all Blackmore's demonstrations are on an acoustic guitar but they will miss the point.

Sadly it also merely serves as an appetiser as it contains some great footage of DP in action in the US during the early seventies. Unfortunately, it is these glimpses of the band in full flight which attract the attention and leave one wanting more - a whole lot more! The downside being that the owner of the footage of the whole show is reluctant to sell it in its entirety (What a DVD that would make!).

The disc runs for approximately 100 minutes and it even kept my 2 year old son quiet!!!!

This is a must have for any Deep Purple fan!

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