SMOKE ON THE WATER Stories 3
The Master
As you might imagine Deep Purple have been popular in Russia right back to the Seventies, even though at that time their records were not available officially. This eventually led to the infamous Russian Deep Purple compilation in the 1980s which was much coveted for a time and we’ll explain some time.
I know nothing about Russian rock music, but Aleksey Kononov tells me the group Master (MACTEP), formed in 1987, have covered three Deep Purple tracks – “Maybe I’m Leo”, “Into The Fire” and “Smoke on The Water” – on stage. Sort of thrash-metal style, but not in a mad way, their line-up has chopped and changed over the years but they’re still going. They have supported some European bands touring there, and one of their previous singers even got to reprise Ian Gillan’s role as Jesus in a Russian touring version of JCS in 1991. They’ve been bootlegged too, but the only official release of their version of Smoke was on “Live” in 1995. It does sound weird hearing it played at a much faster speed, but once the singer kicks in it makes more sense and it does sound quite hip when you get used to the more modern percussion approach.
The band have a dedicated website which is in Russian if you want to investigate further, with links to listen to more tracks and check the albums out.
I’ve not been able to find a legal audio clip of the 1995 version (the search started bringing up a load of unwanted material!!), but this video someone posted from a show in 2004 gives some idea though it’s not nearly so well recorded. If anyone has a better version let us know! The singer even looks a bit like IG in some shots.
The Mister
This is how Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow shows were being advertised recently, with a cute little “Mr ‘Smoke On The Water'” circular logo!
The Breitling Jet team
This advert for posh watch maker Breitling shows their display jets over a lake and so gives a great excuse for the Smoke On The Water tag line. The Swiss national display team did do a display over Lake Geneva in 2017 to mark the anniversary which was very awesome but frustratingly I cannot find any clips of this online.
Iggy
Iggy Pop claimed he had Smoke On The Water as his mobile ring-tone in an interview not so long ago… has anyone ever heard it going off in the middle of an Iggy show and can confirm?!
The Fast Show
Finally got around the picking up a box set of the Fast Show comedy series on DVD, and enjoying all the characters all over again. We’d forgotten how many everyday catch-phrases we still apply that came from this ground-breaking series. I had also forgotten the wonderful Channel 9 spin-offs, including this rare music CD which includes Trudi (alias Arabella Weir) covering Smoke On The Water. So far I’ve not been able to find a copy for sale, not so much for Smoke but the rare cover of Boutros Boutros Ghali. Clip clop.
Medicinal
I have no idea what this is all about, I thought it was a real shop at first but a closer look suggests it’s a computer rendered illustration. Some pot head pixie fantasising perhaps? Old Bruce will be wanting his 10% if they try it on!
darker than blue 