Patti Smith, Castle of Udine June 28, 2005

Patti Smith’s concert started around 9:45 pm and ended around 11:15. Pretty expensive too, 38.00 Euros, for just 1.5 hours of music! Many in the crowd where 40 and 50 yr-olds. At 59 Smith packed a lot of energy and still had quite the nice voice. She played songs from albums such as “Horses” and “Gone Again” and also proceeded with some older hits such as “Because The Night” (co-written with The Boss), “People Have the Power” (written in 1988. I’m wondering if she got inspiration from Lennon’s “Power To The People” which was written about 11 years before?) and “Gloria”. At one point she sang a ballad and introduced it speaking about the war in Iraq and all the many innocent Iraqis that have so far died there. Smith also repeatedly yelled out during the concert “NO MORE WAR”! At one point, she also sat down at the edge of the stage and took off her boots and socks, not to mention spitting three times from the very same stage down below to where we were sitting (luckily, she didn’t hit any of us)!

She was backed up by four male musicians, one of them was Tom Verlaine. He and Smith go back a longgg way as in 1974 he was on Smith’s 45 record, “Hey Joe/Piss Factory”. Pretty good guitarist so it was indeed an honour to still see him on stage 31 years later. Looking at her with probably the same hairdo she’s had since moving from her native Chicago to New Jersey/New York in 1967, I couldn’t help but wonder just how many drugs she must have consumed in her life (ditto for Marianne Faithful whom I had also seen in Udine awhile ago), not to mention some of the stars she also rubbed shoulders with (Andy Warhol—she’s also a photographer and poet—Bob Dylan and Lou Reed).

And while listening to one of her “harder” songs I imagined her on stage with the following artists: the Sex Pistols and Keith Richards! What a trio that would make (all pics by M. Rimati)!

The Who, Arena of Verona, June 11, 2007

Freddy (Mercury) would indeed be extremely proud of Roger Daltrey (who?). Daltrey is none other than the lead singer of one of the world’s all-time great rock bands of the 60s, 70s and also 80s: The Who. And why would Queen’s former lead singer be proud? Because Daltrey held true to Freddy’s words, “The show must go on”! In Verona’s ancient Roman Arena your concert aficionado took in probably one of the most surreal concerts of his life (certainly after the one by Sir Paul McCartney INSIDE Rome’s Coliseum!): The Who’s performance under a torrential rainfall (the first time for me). Surreal because poor Daltrey, supported by his long-time companion and formidable guitarist, Pete Townshend (the only two surviving members of that band, the other two being bass guitarist John Entwistle and that mad drummer Keith Moon), virtually had no voice left by the end of the concert.

After only five songs into the concert and after a tremendous start, the concert was suspended for one hour as we were all hit by a violent thunderstorm and with some rather menacing thunderbolts too. I was personally optimistic that the show would go on. And it did but with one hitch: Daltrey's voice, as he himself admitted it, had become "cold" because of the long pause and the humidity provoked by the downpour. His voice literally cracked on certain songs and he was seen to be extremely frustrated and even argued with Townshend as he wanted to literally throw in the towel (it looked as though he had told Pete to piss-off, or rather f.-off!). The great professionals that they are, they decided, once the roadies worked to clear the stage of all the water, to continue with the show. They started with “Can’t Explain” and continued with some of their epic songs such as “My Generation”, “The Kids Are Alright”, “Baba O’Riley”, “Magic Bus” and “Pinball Wizard”, a song made famous also by Sir Elton John. But the best was yet to come as everyone in the Arena anxiously waited for perhaps their most famous song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again", a song that was wanted by Michael Moore for his movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11" (but which was diplomatically refused by Townshend). That same song came up awhile ago when a U.S. general, referring to the disastrous war on behalf of the U.S. in Iraq, made reference to the song as a way of saying, “Well, we got fooled into believing that the war in Vietnam had been a just cause, we ain’t certainly going to get fooled AGAIN thinking that this war is just too” (his words were reported in a Time issue).

Their fantastic performance of this song at the 1985 Live Aid concert at Wembley shows Daltrey reaching an incredible peak with his voice towards the end of the song. I personally thought, given the tragic condition of his vocal cords, that Daltrey would miss that peak in Verona. Instead, for the immense joy of all us present, Daltrey, no doubt totally exhausted, came through! No encores, no more songs as Townshend hugged his old chum as though to say, “Well, we did it, didn’t we”? Indeed a moving moment for us all as I would say 99% of us truly appreciated Daltrey's incredible effort. And not doubt also Freddy approved from rock and roll heaven. On a final note, another treat unfolded before our eyes as on drums was none other Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr's son! This was the second time for me seeing Zak beating away on the drum skins as I had seen him a few years ago playing for Oasis in Treviso. How ironic: it was Zak that once said that he didn't think that his father was a great drummer, but instead thought that Moon was much better! And here, almost 30 years after Moon's death, Zak pounded away at those drums in an impressive manner, a manner that also Moon would have appreciated. For me another special moment: it was 30 years ago that I saw the entire Who band perform in Canada shortly before Moon would die, and 30 years ago I had been in the same Arena for another great band: Chicago! Quite the (wet) night (all pics by M. Rimati)!

The Eagles, Rome’s Palalottomatica Arena, May 27, 2006

I must say that close to 35 years, if not more, flashed before my eyes at The Eagles concert in Rome. I say this because a few decades ago The Eagles had actually come to Winnipeg, but the venue for me was not only far away but in a lousy place, so I had decided not to go (if I recall it had rained and the area was full of mud, a sort of Canadian-style “Woodstock”!).

Frey, Henley, Walsh and Smith were all there in rather splendid form. They opened with “Take It Easy” and ended with “Desperado”, with all major hits in between, including the second-last song, no doubt their most popular, “Hotel California” and Henley’s “Dirty Laundry”. The concert was originally to have been staged at the Olympic stadium’s south curve but I figure that they didn’t manage to sell enough tickets, so the venue was changed to the old PalaEur arena, a.k.a. the “Sauna”. Some 8,000 people showed up.

The concert was nearly 3 hours long (the band took a 20 minute break). It was the band’s first-time ever concert in Rome, even though they had last played in Italy some 5 years ago. Bass guitarist Timothy Smith was exactly the same as we first met him 40 years ago—with thin long hair. I must say that Henley was a few pounds heavier whereas Walsh and Frey were in rather good shape. A special treat for me was when Walsh also sang “Rocky Mountain Way”. That song can also be heard as part of the “Spy Game” soundtrack with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt (indeed a great movie on the whealings and dealings of the CIA around the world!). Walsh also used the contraption which Peter Frampton and Bon Jovi’s lead guitarist have used: a tube connected to his mouth and guitar.

I always enjoy watching an American band who is against the current Bush administration: at one point Henley thanked the crowd for being there and then told some fellow Yanks in the crowd to lower the American flag as it was blocking the view of those behind them. Then he added, “We’re present enough in the world…”! When presenting the song which they had written on 9/11, Henley said: “And let’s hope to have wiser leaders in the future”! That was followed by a great roar of applause from the crowd. The band played practically three encores. Definitely a great concert for what we had paid (40 euros). All pics by M. Rimati.

Deep Purple, Palasport, Pordenone

Bass guitarist Roger Glover said the following in Deep Purple’s 2006 “Live At Montreux” DVD (where the band basically got it’s international fame due to the recording of their epic song there, “Smoke On The Water” which was part of their LP “Machine Head”): “We basically started as a jamming band”.

And that’s certainly the impression I got taking in their great concert on November 9th, 2007, in the small town of Pordenone. There were about 5,000 of us diehard Deep Purple fans on hand for a great little jamming concert by one of the world’s great former hard rock bands, the second time for me after their 2003 concert in Rome (see prior posting for more details).

Lead singer Ian Gillan at 62 years of age was in splendid form voice-wise pushing his vocal cords indeed to the limit (and once again he was barefoot too!). I was (perhaps) one of the few people in the crowd who knew of the significance of what he was wearing on his t-shirt: the red poppy which is a sign of respect for the fallen soldiers of the World Wars during the Remembrance Day holiday which falls on November 11 each year. The poppy is mostly used in the Commonwealth countries. Indeed a nice touch by Gillan.

Drummer Ian Paice (the first original member of the band I believe), while a few kilos overweight, was nevertheless worthy of the title of one of the world's great drummers, as was Glover's playing on the bass guitar (it is in fact Glover, upon waking up one morning in Montreux, who actually gave the title to the song, “Smoke On The Water”. To this day he doesn’t know if the words came to him in a dream or whether he had been influenced by the smoke that had hovered over Lake Geneva after the Casino had burned down there during a Frank Zappa concert in December, 1971). And Don Airey, Jon Lord’s worthy successor on the keyboards, was certainly NO amateur either that night. A nice touch on his part for Italian fans: during his solo he even played a few bars of “Nessun Dorma” which had been made famous the world over by Luciano Pavarotti (and his “Vincero’”)!

Replacing Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, the author of the world’s most famous guitar riff (the one regarding "Smoke On The Water") was America’s Steve Morse who's been with the band now for several years. His solo also included some chords in honour of Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Sweet Home Alabama"), Led Zeppelin and Guns ‘N’ Roses, quite the original thing to do actually. After nearly 2 hours of solid rock’n’roll they concluded with one encore and “Tush” by Joe Smith (their first single in 1968) and “Black Night”.

At one point during the show you could see Gillan cracking up. I had found out later from one of their diehard groupies (who's only seen 80 of their shows so far on this tour!) that Paice had thrown his drumstick at his drum technician, only to hit him straight in the head! After so many years of being on the road, I guess for these "oldies" of the rock world, it's exactly the type of spirit to have, isn't it? And from some of the pics, you can really tell that they had a good time that night in Pordenone!

Walking away I would say that pretty-well all 5,000 present thought that the price of the ticket (35 euros) had been VERY well spent that night as Gillan and his old mates really put on a great show and made a fantastic effort to bring back A LOT of great memories of me growing up as a teenager and listening to songs such as "Smoke On The Water" non-stop on the car radio (as we'd go cruising around the city "trying" to pick up chicks"!). All pics by M. Rimati

Deep Purple, Centrale del Tennis, Rome 2003

Deep Purple was once part of the Guinness book of records as the world’s loudest band (I think that they were once clocked at 100,000 decibels)! Their epic album, “Machine Head”, which contains probably THE world’s most famous guitar riff (along with Jimmy Page’s opening bars to “Stairway To Heaven”), “Smoke On The Water”, came out in 1972. I still remember as a teenager going to my high school dances in Winnipeg at Kelvin High (the same attended by a certain Neil Young!) and there would actually be live bands that would (try) playing “Smoke On The Water”! It was kind of funny because the guitarists, younger or even the same age as me, couldn’t quite get it right. But they were always a zillion times better than me and my friends (as back then I certainly didn’t play guitar and I still don’t!) as we’d be directly under the stage and in awe watching these bands have a go at Deep Purple.

The band that showed up in Rome in 2003, perhaps the greatest year so far for me and concerts (Paul McCartney, Yes, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, the Stones, Jethro Tull and Procol Harum) consisted of lead singer Ian Gillan (all dressed up in white and barefoot!), drummer Ian Paice (who’s also played a few years ago with Paul McCartney and David Gilmour on Sir Paul’s “Live at the Cavern Club” DVD) and bass guitarist Roger Glover, some of the original members of the legendary band (Paice, Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore were there from the very beginning back in 1968). Lord and the author of that memorable riff, guitarist Blackmore, unfortunately weren't in Rome though. Blackmore's place was taken by the great Steve Morse (there’s also Don Airey on keyboards who’s also played with Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow and Whitesnake, which I saw at the Montréal Forum with David Coverdale who once sang with Deep Purple).

They played most of their big hits, including “Burn”, one of my favourites, and "Woman From Tokyo". At one point, towards the end of the concert, Morse started in with one of those strange guitar solos which no one present really understood. And then, all of a sudden and unexpectedly, he broke into the opening riff of “Smoke On The Water”, and pretty well all 15,000 of us present went bonkers! Nice to hear that in 2005 at Bob Geldof's "Live 8" concert in Barrie, Canada, 35,000 people showed up to watch Deep Purple.

Great memories of the 1970s and those high school dances in Winnipeg (all pics by M. Rimati)!

Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders, Rome 2003

A nice little concert in Rome's Centrale del Tennis. American-born Hynde played some of the group’s most famous hits, such as "Back On The Chain Gang", "I Got You Babe" (an old Sonny and Cher hit) and "I'll Stand By You". Hynde was also once famous for walking around without wearing underwear and was also married to Ray Davies of The Kinks (pic by M. Rimati).

Lucio Dalla

Dalla, an Italian singer, played in Rome’s Teatro Olimpico a few years ago. The concert? Nice. Some very good tunes for a musician who has been writing and singing since 1966 (pic by M. Rimati)