Issue 32 went to town on Knebworth and the rest of the European tour. Like many, one show was simply not enough for us. The fact that - Deep Purple's set aside - it was such a dreadful experience in many ways just rubbed salt into the wound, so we booked onto one of those organised coach trips - ticket, travel, hotel all included - to Paris. After we'd booked, we discovered they'd added a second show, so (when the organisers refused) we sorted this out ourselves thanks to dpas man Thierry Pierron. It was a bit of an adventure for me anyway as I'd never been out of the UK before! Or should that be allowed out?

Anyway, a much better experience than Knebworth (or Mudworth as it was now generally known) despite Ian being a bit rough. Instrumentally the second night was awesome and we were suitably humbled. Knebworth had been taped and aired by the BBC, though sadly they managed to lose a couple of tracks almost at once. It was some time before we could get this issued officially. With my new found reprographic skills I was able to drop in better quality photographs to the 24 page issue than before, whilst struggling to learn about dots per inch and screen sizes as I did so. Elsewhere technology had arrived chez Stannington Road with the delivery of a brand new Amstrad PCW word-processor which I'd invested in with the massive profits (!) from sales of the first discography. I'd lusted after the early Mac Classic but their first printer couldn't deliver any output sharp enough (laser printers were still not available). The Amstrad by contrast could take use-once carbon ribbons, and produce type suitable for reproduction in a magazine. Despite what would now be seen as a laughably slow speed, floppy discs which were unique to Amstrad, and a glaring green on black screen, once I'd seen what it could do I threw out the Snow Pake and didn't want to go back to a typewriter, so the mag was inevitably held up while I tried to master the technology. It was a huge leap though I had to spend literally hours waiting for the printer to churn out the columns. It also produced so much electrical interference that it upset the TV, which didn't go down too well!

Away from the reunion, the mag took in a look at Gillan's early career after we'd been contacted by the guitarist from one of his early groups who agreed to an interview. There was loads of vinyl to cover, including those ludicrous EMI reunion cash-ins, with me railing against the fact that my name had been added to The Anthology, even though I'd had nothing to do with it whatsoever! Meanwhile the reunion bootlegging scene was already so advanced (fifteen titles confirmed) that we began a rolling check-list to be updated over the next few years. Another check-list was a very detailed Perfect Strangers tour gig list, which was assembled with care and is still pretty accurate even today. Amusing to see in the video column that EMI were starting work on a Deep Purple video history - over eighteen years on we've got fed up of waiting so I'm doing it myself. The Deep Purple Rises Over Japan video had also just been cancelled despite full page colour adverts in Kerrang, but the 1973 ABC In Concert had turned up on Brazilian TV of all places. Elsewhere some folk were investing in home video cameras and shooting gigs from the balcony, so some pretty dreadful wobbly pirate videos had begun to appear, which gave the poor viewer serious migraine after about five minutes.

Other Purple players were taking time off. Whitesnake were still on hold while Coverdale looked for "young fresh talent" and then hired Aynsley Dunbar, who'd been recording since the sixties. We were bemused by stories that Glenn was joining Black Sabbath, and even more bemused when they turned out to be true. Blackmore fans missing Rainbow could find respite in a double compilation called Finyl Vinyl, which sadly seemed to rather cobble together bits of various live shows instead of try to make anything of them. The impact of 14 mostly new live tracks was lessened by the lack of anything pre 1978, meaning what most regarded as the classic era was left off, and the random inclusion of three studio b-sides. Still, quite a reasonable effort, even if we did confuse readers by running the cover picture sideways...

Well, they'd been and gone before we could wink an eye, at least it seemed that way as the fireworks exploded in the damp night air, and echoed across the surrounding countryside. As I looked around at the smiling faces in the crowd there seemed little doubt that against all the odds Deep Purple had indeed pulled it off, yet their set had seemed to flash past, and was over before you knew it. I'm not going to go on about the stupidity of putting all your eggs in one open-air basket; the decision obviously had little to do with what the fans wanted. I little thought when the reunion was announced that they would force us to go through what was for most people a very boring and squalid day, and my sympathies to those of you who suffered.

Purple then; impressive and, at times, extremely moving. To me the two real highlights were firstly Perfect Strangers, with a truly spine tingling performance from the band. This in turn was enhanced by the sudden burst of laser effects, and as the band romped on towards the end of the number, with the green shafts of lights bouncing around the arena area and off through the trees into the night sky, the whole feeling was really magical. My second moment of sheer joy came during Speed King when, for what seemed like an age, Messers Lord and Blackmore traded riffs like demons. It was especially pleasing to hear Ritchie getting into it, because this was one of the few times when he actually made a real impact. Blackmore played the whole set in wellies, a nice touch even if a lot of people further away missed the humour of it.

Indeed the rain had become so bad during the wait for Purple to come on that they must have been getting really worried. There was a waterfall cascading down from the inadequate roofing beside Jon's gear, which was covered in polythene for the entire show. As it began to darken, the smoke from dozens of small bonfires around the field began to drift slowly down the hill and off into the surrounding oaks. The large speaker towers looked like nothing so much as ancient siege towers stood on a medieval battlefield. The eeriest part of the day had to be the long trudge out of the site. In an effort to save a buck, the lights along the way had been turned off and it was a question of merely following the body in front, resulting in an endless stream of muddy bodies hoping that somebody knew where the exit was. Looking back, you could see hundreds of twinkling head-lamps, and Knebwortb House itself - no film maker could have created a better scene.

"If nothing else you'll never see two shows the same, and this was a different kettle of fish from Knebworth. The set remained the same, still no Child In Time, but lan's voice seemed shot, whereas at Knebworth he'd fared OK. lan was most at ease on the newer stuff, it's a pity he has to live up to his screaming reputation.

In-jokes came thick and fast - the TV brought a forest of potted tree type plants, and lan gave all the songs tree type intro's much to the amusement of the band and bemusement of the crowd. Highlight? No contest really - Paicey's solo - it just left me mouth agape, he remains the best. Listening to him and Glover you've got a song in itself, Ritchie provides the icing on the cake. As the gig progressed the mood changed. Ritchie was off stage more, and to cap it all Jon rocked his Hammond once too often in Space Truckin' and it went phut! Ritcbie still managed a blistering solo to wind it all up. Jon on synth for Smoke On The Water didn't sound quite the same. Blackmore gave the crowd a thumbs down sign at the end showing his displeasure. It was a bit up and down. I bet they played a blinder the next night." Steve Grover

Radio and TV coverage of the European tour has thrown up a few interesting things. Firstly Knebworth. The festival was not filmed professionally. A local BBC news team did wander about with a hand-held camera back-stage, and this made BBC TV East's news prog on the 24th June - about 30 seconds of interview with Gillan, Glover and Lord, and 20 seconds of Highway Star (also filmed on the hand held camera), but this was all film-wise. Given the incredible atmosphere it seems a real pity nothing more was done.

BBC Radio One did record the entire festival. Around forty minutes worth of Deep Purple's set, along with some bits of interview, and numbers from some of the support acts was aired the following weekend. Then in October there was a special 'Knebworth Through The Night' programme, starting at ten in the evening and going through until some godforsaken hour of the morning when we were promised a full broadcast of Purple's set. As those of you who propped match-sticks under your eyelids found out, this was a little optimistic. The played most of Purple's set, but left out Under The Gun, Lazy and Woman From Tokyo. Curiously Lazy had been one of the songs aired first time around, but the other two remain unheard.

Rockpalast TV cameras were at the Paris shows on 8th & 9th of July. It was the second of the two nights which they chose to broadcast. The filming is rather dull, and loses much of the atmosphere. lan was having a rough night, though it was a humdinger from where we were stood. However a lot of this fails to come across on the screen. French TV declined to show it - though they did put it in their schedules. Instead they showed an interview with the band, and a complete Space Truckin. Much better quality than the Paris stuff, and more exciting. It would seem to be from March 5th show in Providence, Rhode Island, a gig filmed supposedly for an MTV documentary (which has never been shown).

Whitesnake have effectively had a year out as far as the concert circuit has been concerned. Replacing Cozy was obviously difficult (though for all ELP have done he might as well have stayed put!), and in the end Aynsley Dunbar was recruited. This rather throws David's ideal of young fresh talent out the window, as the guy has had a long career in the rock business. He spent the early 70's working with Frank Zappa, and then did several albums with Journey. Apart from this his session work covers people like David Bowie, Jeff Beck, John Lennon, Lou Reed and many more. Anyway, once he had been offered the job, Whitesnake got on with recording the new album which was done at the Little Mountain Studio in Vancouver in late 1985. Don Airey joined for the recording as we mentioned he might last issue. Originally titled Children Of The Night, it now looks set to go out as Straight To The Heart - c'mon, you can do better than that!

I'm really at a loss to know how the Phenomena project got as far as it did, you'd think someone would have had the kindness to point out just how dodgy it all was early on. The tunes aren't all that bad, just aimless. Glenn's voice is one of the saving graces, I don't think it has sounded better. Apart from the music, the illustrations about which so much was made are really laughable, though the sleeve design is quite classy. Not everyone shares my pessimism about the disc:

"'Kiss of Fire' seems to contain steals from Whitesnake's 'Gambler' but I like it a lot. 'Still The Night' is a good indication of what the second Hughes Thrall LP might have sounded like as it was written for that. 'Phoenix Rising' has a slow intro with some of Glenn's best singing on the LP, but the chorus lets it down, also true of 'Twilight Zone' where it gets a little bland. Overall I can recommend the album to any Glenn Hughes fan." Derek Rust

Next... a story which came over from America via the gossip columns which I refused to believe at first! Glenn Hughes joining Black Sabbath? Surely not. And in a way it isn't quite what it seemed. Glenn was due to do Tony lomml's solo album, something we knew about. However in a shrewd move, lommi bought up the rights to the name Black Sabbath, and is using that to launch himself. He is set to hit the road in America in March 1986 with Glenn fronting the band. Providing he keeps it together this time, it could work out quite well for Glenn. I've not yet got the Gary Moore album he contributed to, nor have we had a review, so this will have to wait until next issue.