Glenn Hughes Russian Tour '07

Khabarovsk. Big Daddy blew up the cables!! 26-27.02,2007

2007-03-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

The gig started at 7:25 PM, 25 minutes later than announced. The sound was not very good.

Right in the end of the first song, Stormbringer, the music suddenly stopped, but Mark went on playing an amazing drum solo. Then a Russian promoter guy went out onstage and had to apologize for the pause, because as he stated: "The building of Music Comedy is very old and rock concerts are not good for it. The electricity had gone down". No doubt it had! That far east land had never seen Big Daddy kickin' ass! That was the first time a thing like that had ever happened in Khabarovsk. While the electrical tech was being awaited, some people started wondering if there're electricians in the crowd. Impatient fans moved from their seats сloser to the stage. After 15 minutes of annoying noises from the amps the trouble was fixed and the show went on with even bigger rush and great sound!
There were all kinds of music fans in the 60% packed venue, all of them rockin' out: mostly drunk well-on in life men dressed in straight jackets, but, well, youngsters too. Everybody was on fire and eager to get as close to the stage as possible. Sadly, only about a hundred people in the crowd knew the lyrics of "You Keep On Movin'" so they could sing along.

Glenn looked very energetic, Jeff was squeezing the guitar off and Mark played as if he'd had 2 sets of hands and legs!

The security was strict and pretty dumb, well, like elsewhere While Glenn was having a little break and drinking water, the promoter's representative called Alexey went out onstage to pass on some warm words from Glenn to the audience in Russian, so everyone could understand. Also, he apologized for the electricity troubles once again. Well the gig went on smoothly and was over in 2 hours.
Some fans who'd come to see the gig from Jewish Autonomous Oblast were let in the dressing room after a while and got to talk to Glenn and the guys despite their really poor English. He told them about the plans of collaboration with David Coverdale in the nearest future.

After 50 mins of waiting near the venue some other dedicated fans finally managed to see the idol a couple of meters far and get some stuff signed. Then Papa got up on a black jeep and went to the hotel for some rest.

Upd. April 15th
By the way, there was quite a big confusion at the Khabarovsk press-conference - there was NO translator at all! (What a shame, I should have been there). The local press' representatives had hard times remembering their English lessons in school.

The pictures below are the boys and the leader of the local band that was going to be the opening act for GH, but they ended up not being on the bill.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk 24-25.02.2007

2007-03-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, Glenn's concert has been a real sensation for the Sakhalin citizens as they rarely get big bands performing on the 'fish island'. Many of the residents only believed that Glenn was really playing a gig there when he and the guys landed on the island. Glenn was interviewed by some local newspapers to which he told that the guys are like a family to him.
A Sakhalin website fishisland.ru had put up a little simple quiz about Glenn. The winner got an exclusive Glenn Hughes t-shirt as a present.

Getting to the gig - onstage Glenn was wearing a black shirt and a purple waistcoat with golden buttons. In general, the gig went on great, and all the guys were kickin' ass. Jeff's solo in the beginning of the performance was very well recieved by the fans, as well as Mark's solo a bit later. People in the audience hardly believed anyone could play drums so fast.

In the end of the show the insatiable crowd stood up from their seats and yelled: "Glenn! Glenn!" That's success.
After quite a while the band was back onstage to play 'Burn' as the encore.

When the band finished the gig, a girl from the crowd managed to get through the strict security and get up onstage to give a bouquet of flowers to Glenn.
She obviously felt blessed to be there near the band, so she took her
chance and kissed everyone who was onstage before she got kicked off.

After the gig a bunch of fans bought some vodka, met the band and the crew in the hotel and had a good drunken night together. There were some random girls (not even fans) too. One of them later claimed that she can't understand how people can listen to Papa's music. Unlike the most of the guys, Glenn had gone to bed.
When heading to the next town, Khabarovsk, Glenn had a little trouble with getting through the metal detector in the airport, so that a female officer of the security control got a unique chance to 'touch a legend'.

To my mind the set-list was pretty great:

Stormbringer
Тhe Valiant Denial
Orion
Land Of The Livin' (Wonderland)
Mistreated + 3 minutes' guitar intro
Coast To Сoast
You Got Soul
Don't Let Me Bleed
You Keep On Movin'
Steppin' on

encore:
11. Burn

Photo upd. Mar. 28th

Vladivostok 22-23.02.2007

2007-03-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned above, Glenn and Jeff had to stay in Vladivostok for a day due to the bad weather before going to the first town of the tour, while the rest of the gang was 'chilling' in the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport.
They stayed in the 'Visit-Vladivostok' hotel, and had a meal at a restaurant called '12 Chairs'. As reported by local media the owner of the place is a big Deep Purple fan, so he laid quite a royal table for the guys with loads of seafood on it.
However, Glenn says he almost didn't eat anything on the first 3 days of the tour except breakfasts, so obviously the seafood wasn't as good as the locals think.
Meanwhile, having a day-off in Vladivostok, Jeff Kollman didn't find anything better to do then getting to know amazing Russian soul even better, as he was messing with local chicks he'd picked up in a bar.
On Thursday February 22th Glenn flew back to Vladivostok from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, bringing his wonderful European crew of 10 people with him.
The capital of the coastland is the second town Glenn's played during the Russian+CIS tour. Bringing 2 bass amps with him on the tour, Papa would kick ass every night.
Before the gig, on the 23th of February, Glenn was interviewed by a local radio station "VBC". A few fans who came to the hotel to get some stuff signed and hand their own CDs to him, were left with 'indescribable impressions' of Papa's outgoingness.The show itself started with just 10 minutes' delay and was warmly recieved by the local audience. The music drove the people crazy, and got them back into the 70s.Glenn presented 'Mistreated' as the song he had recorded with Ritchie Blackmore... You know it sounds breathtaking when Glenn sings it...
Plectrums were being thrown straight to the audience, though at most of the shows Glenn was dropping them down on the stage, and after the gig Pascal the tech was throwing them to the crowd.
This concert will surely take a considerable place in the heart of everyone who was there.

There's a 1-hour fan bootleg video of the gig including these songs:

- Stormbringer (the last verse)
- Orion
- Land Of The Livin' (Wonderland)
- Mistreated
- You Got Soul
- Might just take your life
- Gettin' tighter (the 1st and the last verse)
- You keep on movin'
- Soul mover
- Burn

As for the set-list, it was almost the same as the Petropavlovk-Kamchatskiy one. I am not absolutely sure yet, but to what I've heard the set list was like that. I doubt if there really were 'Coast To Coast' and 'Steppin' On' tho. I'll post the correct set list as soon as I know it.
Set-list:

Stormbringer
Orion
Land Of The Livin' (Wonderland)
Mistreated (incl.guitar solo)
Coast To Coast
You Got Soul
Might Just Take Your Life
Don't Let Me Bleed
Gettin' Tighter
You Keep On Movin'
Steppin' On

encore:
12. Soul Mover
13. Burn

The starting point. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy!

2007-02-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

The guys had some problems with getting to the starting point - Petropavlovk-Kamchatskiy, due to the weather, so having travelled via South Korea Jeff and Glenn got stuck in Vladivostok, and Mark and Anders had to stay on the Sakhalin island for a while before they all finally got to the place. Safe. While waiting for the right weather in Vladivostok, Glenn has been already recognized by numerous Deep Purple fans, and even interviewed for a local newspaper.

Here's the link to the article

The gig started 2 hours later than planned, but the audience sounds really excited. Well those guys are lucky in their own way, as they don't get to see such great people/musicians around so often, and now they've got the bonus - the whole Papa over there!

Set-list:

The Valiant Denial
Orion
Land Of The Livin' (Wonderland)
Mistreated (incl.guitar solo)
Coast To Coast
You Got Soul
Don't Let Me Bleed
Gettin' Tighter
You Keep On Moving
Steppin' On
Stormbringer

encore:

12. Burn

Let's summarise the statistics here:

1 Trapeze song
5 Deep Purple songs
3 songs from 'Soul Mover', 2005
3 songs from 'Music For The Divine' , 2006

The band is now heading back to Vladivostok to do their second show of the tour.

Let's wish them all the good luck!