Glenn Hughes Wins Over Cvetličarna Again! (2008)

Over the years, Glenn Hughes has quietly grown into a kind of hidden institution of rock & roll. First as the “kid” of power trio Trapeze and a bit later of British hard rock giants Deep Purple, he carries an enormous body of work at the highest level behind him. The years of course fly by too fast, and plenty has changed since those “golden days”. The Mk3 days are long gone, and unlike his old buddies Blackmore and Coverdale, who later found solace in Rainbow and Whitesnake respectively, Hughes, “freed” of his notorious status, simply can’t be tempted into lounging on the laurels of his solo achievements in music.

With Glenn Hughes, then, things get a little more complicated. These days his path is best described as something alternative. In his battle with the demons of the past, Glenn found solace in the care of higher powers, which shows in his performance practically at every step. Glenn still comes across as incredibly vital, and his voice remains a stunning instrument of expression, whose force, much like the man’s overall output in music, doesn’t fade as the years go by. Quite the opposite: in support of his just-released album First Underground Nuclear Kitchen, Glenn is currently roaming concert stages around the world, and we can be more than happy that his travels have once again led him to the sunny side of the Alps. At Cvetličarna, compared to his last visit, he was met this time by a somewhat more modest crowd of about three hundred souls, who, strapped onto the rails of a two-hour funk carousel, got to know the great musician in his most emotional mood yet.

One of the virtues of the greatest musicians is surely not looking back, whether the aftertaste is bitter or sweet! In that respect Glenn Hughes belongs in the category of the toughest old birds. Okay, the old man more or less skipped the goings-on of the ’80s thanks to indulging in assorted opiates, but what stood out most on Saturday was a completely overhauled repertoire, which, apart from the obligatory Mistreated and Burn, and with the exception of the high-flying Soul Mover and the soulful Don’t Let Me Bleed, rested entirely on the new material from First Underbround Nuclear Kitchen! Glenn’s total confidence in presenting fresh ideas was backed up by a nicely rounded, deeply felt and, in short, convincing performance that squeezed the last atoms of power out of the Marsh/Maldonado guitar duo. It was a mind-blowing duel between two fantastic guitars, flawless vocals and a playful bass, with Anders Olinder more or less picking up the crumbs.

Glenn attacked immediately and head-on, with a poker hand of new tracks that do their job superbly live. Cvetličarna welcomed with open arms especially Never Say Never and the poisonous funk-rock stampede Love Communion, which, given that most of the crowd surely hadn’t yet had a taste of the (legal) charms of the new album, is certainly an enviable achievement. The band came across as tight the whole way through, as befits top-class musicians, with enough flexible control to allow a heap of humorous melodic intermezzos as well as outbursts of compassion, with which Glenn at one point reminded us of the cruel fate that recently befell his gravely ill buddy from the Trapeze days, Mel Galley.

So Glenn Hughes didn’t disappoint. Those of us used to his music, including the suspicious exhalations and the related “baboon-like” hollering, got to enjoy yet another triumph in the legendary musician’s long string of them. Glenn says he’ll be back in Ljubljana next year, which of course should be taken with a grain of salt, especially given the proverbial reserve of the Slovenian — or in this case better said Ljubljana — audience, which didn’t spare even the open heart of Big Poppa! “You guys are really a strange bunch,” Hughes preached every quarter hour or so, full of the zeal of an enthusiastic teenager! What wouldn’t we give for his puberty not to have passed so quickly.

Words: Daniel Pavlica
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik