1/ I'll Rip Your Spine Out, 2/ No Laughing In Heaven, 3/ Living For The City, 4/ Trouble,
5/ Ain't That Loving You Baby, 6/ Ain't No More Cane On The Brazos, 7/ I Thought No,
8/ Nothing But The Best, 9/ Let It Roll,
10/ Unchain Your Brain, 11/ I Can't Dance To That, 12/ No Easy Way, 13/ New Orleans,
14/ Lucille, 15/ Brazos (reprise).

Ian Gillan - vocals, Steve Morris - lead guitar, Mark Buckle - keyboards, Keith Mulholland - bass, Lou Rosenthal - drums, Harry Shaw -guitar

live at The Ritz, Manchester, May 16th 1989.

Deep Purple's reunion kicked off in 1984 with the "Perfect Strangers" album and world tour and over the next four years they gigged successfully, recorded a follow up album "House Of Blue Light" and by 1988 were making plans for their third. While that was going on, Ian Gillan, who'd spent much of the early eighties thrashing round the world with his band Gillan, decided to take something of a busman's holiday and mentioned to his mate Phil Easton, a DJ at Radio City, that he fancied doing a few live shows while the rest of Purple were taking a break. Easton got on the blower and began to organise a one-off show.

What fans attending these shows didn't realise was that Ian's days in Deep Purple were now numbered. Ian was seen as a disruptive element and Ritchie Blackmore made no secret of the fact that he wanted him out. In turn Ian felt the band were being lazy and unadventurous and when they shipped him rough demos of the new album tracks so he could start getting a few vocal ideas going, he struggled to get any enjoyment out of what he saw as second-rate Rainbow riffs. What's more, the fact that he was being asked to listen to the tapes in England rather than rehearse in America gave the impression that his presence was not sought. March Moonshiners dates gave all involved a buzz and so they voted to up the level and go for some bigger shows a little later in the year. In April, just as these new shows were being announced, Gillan flew out to America where he tried to get Purple to cut their new album in a rapid burst of energy at a top studio, rather than drag things out for months on end. A row followed and Ian returned home to find his P45 waiting. All of a sudden, the Moonshiners looked threatened to take on a more permanent aspect, which is not what they'd intended. Rather than give everybody the wrong impression, a London show at the Marquee (where the press might reasonably expect to congregate) was cancelled but the other May '89 shows were played.

It was during this set of dates that they decided to record one of the shows for a live album and video, the venue being Manchester Ritz. The video eventually came out to limited distribution but the proposed CD failed to materialise (except for two tracks which came out - strangely - on an interview disc). This release is thus the first time the recording has been issued officially and has been prepared with the cooperation of Ian and his manager, and guitarist Steve Morris (Steve has continued to work with Ian ever since, playing guitar on both "Naked Thunder" and "Toolbox", later helping Ian organise his Javelins reunion and then his solo album "Dreamcatcher". He also played at the 1999 "Concerto" Royal Albert Hall shows). To this material again the sheer enjoyment had by all strikes you right from the start. It's as if Ian had been let off the leash and he tears into the Gillan tracks at double speed. One of the show highlights is his version of a song covered by Lonnie Donegan, "Brazos", which he delivers in fine style.

The March '89 shows were over, Ian took time off to decide on his future plans and was eventually to form a band to record "Naked Thunder" issued in 1990. The Moonshiners made one more appearance in July '89 at a charity do in Liverpool, designed to raise money for victims of the Hillsborough football tragedy, before fading back into legend. In 1992, struggling to find their form, Deep Purple managed to persuade Ian to return and he's been there ever since. Back in 1962 Ian was playing in a local band called The Moonshiners, his first proper group. He enjoyed making up stage names for himself and decided he wanted to be known as Garth Rockett. That's what comes of reading The Eagle comic when you're a kid!,

'Live At The Ritz '89' can be ordered from the dpas online store.

purple records catalogue