 Hughes Turner Project
- "Live In Tokio" MTM / SPV 2002 It was a great idea to record a live gig after the release of a fantastic album. And the place to do it in was just right too. Japan. Actually, it could be called Deep Purple's homeground. A place where everything that has even the slightest relation to Deep Purple will be consumed instantly. So this album also means a special dedication to the Japanese die-hard fans. Hughes and Turner gathered the best Deep Purple "fakers" in the world for the occasion. Again, Japanese musicians. Eternally devoted to Purple's legacy. Everything is done so precisely. You'll be able to find this out at the very moment when "Devil's Road" opens the gig. The sound of a massive Hammond organ attack, rhythm beat with a fat and full bas line and a guitar sound that reminds of Blackmore's best days with Deep Purple or Rainbow, will at once grab you. Even the guitar solos are sometimes such close copies of Blackmore ("Death Alley Driver"). So this is actually a manifestation of how Deep Purple would sound even now days, when they have less than a half of their seventies and eighties unbeatable power on stage. The sound is fantastic and the instruments hang in pure balance. Both rock legends fit perfectly together in duets of songs from their project and also in songs such as "I Surrender" (orig. performed by Rainbow), "Dark Days", "Can't Stop The Flood" (both orig. performed by Joe Lynn solo) or "King Of Dreams" (orig. performed by Deep Purple) where Joe Lynn plays the main role on vocals brilliantly supported and backgrounded by Glenn in choruses or bridges. We are dealing again with a fantastic contrast in the style of performance of both singers. And this time "live on stage". "Stormbringer" will make you go mad. And the atmosphere here jumps even to a higher level. After all these years being in the rock scene, Glenn is singing the way we know him. With full force. But he always lets the emotions burst out, with a great feeling for improvisation, with a great feeling for the adaptation of the colour of his voice and its collision with the poetry and the compositions of songs. While we can only dream to hear and see Deep Purple playing stuff from their MK III. period live on stage nowadays, we can enjoy a really powerful performance of these songs here, without a single weak moment. I also have in mind, of course, another strong performance of "Mistreated". Here you have a direct proof, why David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes were fighting a war in Purple's times. Why were they at war? 'Cause Hughes could sing (and sound) like David. And still can. With a much larger and more powerful vocal range, one that David can only dream about. And once again, Glenn's performance is unbeatable shock therapy! Just let yourself go here! Hughes and Turner just can't disappoint. What they delivered us is a great live document of the past that still lives on. A live document about things that used to be and still are. Thanks to those two rock giants, we can still dream on.
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