DPAS REVIEW

Ian Paice
Birmingham NEC 'Drumfest'
July 27th 2003

Gentleman Ian

Just saw Ian Paice at the Drumfest in Birmingham, Sunday 27th July. Ian came on stage at 4.30pm and after completing a typical Paice solo answered questions from the audience. I managed to ask him two, the first was whether he could demonstrate the one handed roll that he had used in recent drum solos, he duly obliged. He was then asked to repeat it by another audience member and he again performed the roll!

My second question concerned Bananas (the album not the fruit) and he explained the album cover and the story behind the name. He said that the album is very much a Purple album, although a couple of numbers are not in the usual Purple style. He appeared to be very happy with the album.

Other questions concerned the Blackmore / Lynott line up, Sir Paul McCartney, Montreux and Jon Lord. Ian answered everything, and threw in some other amusing stories. He also demonstrated the openings to Fireball and You Fool No One.

My 2003 summer tour programme now has Ian's autograph in it, my son Lee fetching it for me while I watched Gregg Bissonette. I did take some photographs and got the chance to go up behind Ian's kit prior to the show starting, which you can see here!

review & photos: Paul Johnson, Grantham

click the photos to enlarge