Venue: Mediapark / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 21.11.2006
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: 4.990,00 SIT
A Glenn Hughes show is always the kind of event you absolutely must not miss. And yet, with the Mediapark hall poorly attended again, Slovenes have of course let everyone down once more and proved that we’re simply not a rock ‘n’ roll nation. Or maybe we have no ear for music and were born only for country wedding bashes. Plenty of the crowd came from Austria, Italy and Croatia. The Glenn Hughes show in Zagreb, Croatia, the day before was canceled, and some dates in Germany got scrapped too, while Austria didn’t even invite him onto its stages this time. What can I say? We’re lucky the show happened at all, since according to some hints, the first signs of weak ticket sales had it heading for Orto Bar, and by the gloomiest forecasts it could even have been called off because of the disinterest of the stay-at-home crime-show fans from Ambrus (read: loafing & gorging in front of the TV, watching the weekly news shows, requiem masses, Mexican “damn-it-all” soaps and the rest of the junk).
Glenn Hughes is a real human being, one of the few rock musicians today who gets called a legend, and his voice still shines so well-preserved that it’s like he was singing with Trapeze just yesterday or standing shoulder to shoulder on stage with the unforgettable Ritchie Blackmore. A man known for giving of himself without holding back, with energy, warmth and feeling, which (today!!!) is no longer a trait of rock musicians of his generation, he hit the stage at around 8:30 PM! He opened the show with a track from the current album “Music For The Divine” (2006), Valiant Denial, followed by Orion (“Soul Mover”, 2005). The start wasn’t all that promising, or rather it was a bit reserved, as if the band were feeling out the situation. Even Glenn Hughes himself reined in the power of his pipes a little. In the mix, too, the vocals were pushed somewhat into the background and sounded way too quiet. Then came Land Of The Livin’, and suddenly the show took a noticeable step up in atmosphere, performance and sound quality. That was heralded by a short solo intro from the superb guitarist Jeff Kollman, who joined Hughes on this tour. Jeff left an indelible mark on Glenn Hughes’ solo studio album “Songs In The Key Of Rock” (2003), which Glenn also gave an enviable amount of space in the chosen setlist. A good chunk of it was Glenn’s own material, which hadn’t exactly been a given on his earlier tours, despite the excellence of several of his solo records, so on that front the guy definitely owed us big time. Well, here was his chance to pay that debt off.
The fourth song, as expected, was a calm one, and it was none other than the legendary The Moody Blues hit Nights In White Satin, which also appeared in Glenn’s version on the current studio album “Music Fof The Divine”. Glenn introduced it as a track he recorded together in a Los Angeles studio with Red Hot Chilli Peppers members, guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith.
A longer guitar intro from Jeff Kollman after Black Light announced the fantastic stuff we’d been quietly hoping for. But let’s go back to Jeff first. Jeff stuck diligently to his Les Paul, but for Black Night and the closer (Burn) he strapped on a modified Gibson, a sort of “crossbreed” with a Flyin’ V body and a guitar neck that was “metal”-pointed at the end (insider Vene told me the neck is from a Gibson Explorer model). Anyway, in that Les Paul solo section he showed what a gift he has. His control is outstanding. He steered brilliantly through soft, delicate, thin note-picking that sounded close to the softness of Gilmour’s intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond. A master of devilish pull-offs, he often served things up with just his left hand, no picking at all. With a special wah wah effect he kept a tight grip on the intensity of the struck notes, their fading and swelling in the solo. And then? The shift into Mistreated. That’s always one of the absolute peaks when you find yourself face to face with Glenn Hughes. Glenn showed the sheer greatness of his one-of-a-kind “falsetto” range already during Nights In White Satin, in some of the improvised spots. A group of eager Italian fans in the front row kept accompanying his top-notch strolls through the tonalities, over several octaves from the depths to dizzying heights, with a large sheet of paper reading “Coast To Coast”. Glenn ruled Mistreated once again. This time he saved his soul contribution for the very end of the song, where we could only stare with our mouths open as the man moved the microphone to different distances and controlled the intensity of his vocal soul tricks that way. Even a meter away from the mic he screamed a few times with such power that goosebumps crawled over us with zero resistance and our skin bristled like a chicken’s.
After Mistreated it was keyboardist Anders Olinder’s turn, and with his Hammond sounds he seasoned an improvised funky feast with Glenn Hughes. That was the intro to In My Blood, and after it Glenn took some time again to introduce the next song. He explained that when he was 12, riding in a car with his mom, he heard a song that was getting played on one of the radio stations back then, in the distant days when rock was far more welcome and friendly. When little Glenn heard it, he promised himself he’d become a musician. Whiter Shade Of Pale (Procol Harum). The opening Hammond melody was carried by Kollman on his Gibson Les Paul. A kind of warmth and serenity, I’d even say a solemn feeling, filled the hall at that moment. The band was on fire with its tightness and its control over the material it was serving. A show packed with bluesy jazzy detours and hard-hitting funk rock attacks in Glenn Hughes’ unforgettable rock’n’roll form was therefore amplified into something unpredictable, often with a touch of spontaneity. Hughes didn’t hold back and showered the audience with his “heavenly madness” on vocals. The band wrapped up the regular part of the show with a dedication to Tommy Bolin, You Keep On Movin’ (orig. Deep Purple) from Glenn’s time in Deep Purple (the closing “blackmoreless” Come Taste The Band era), with which Glenn built a close (if “white”-tinged) friendship bond with the sadly far too early departed guitarist Tommy Bolin. Here the hall rewarded Hughes with superb singing of the song’s chorus, which thrilled Glenn himself. That Glenn was greeted in Ljubljana by a genuinely devoted crowd of fans, small as it was, was also confirmed by one inconsolable Hughes fan who tried imitating Glenn’s screams in the breaks, which got a few laughs from the band too, and Glenn answered that bit of cheek with compliments.
A show of emotional eruptions was over too fast. After You Keep On Movin’, Hughes and his band left the stage. After a short bout of the audience’s “whining and the standard nagging”, they came back and blasted through Burn, with the crowd happily dancing away, and on stage keyboardist Anders left a special impression by playing Lord’s parts perfectly calmly. He didn’t even blink. He just barely moved his hands and laid them on the keys. Lord would have been going nuts by now, but the Swede stayed ice cold and still brilliantly stepped into Lord’s shoes.
The band said goodbye. After only 11 songs. A few moments after they were gone from the stage, there was a minor incident. This time there were no security guards behind the barrier, which I forgot to mention. They’re always below the stage, but at Hughes they weren’t there. Some “stinker” managed to climb onto the stage unhindered and yank the picks off the mic stand. Of course one of the roadies chased the culprit off the stage. It was too late for anyone to hand him a few corrective “mason’s specials” (read: slaps), because that “sneaky weasel” slipped away, crouching, and galloped out of the hall. I’d have gotten my hands on that guy myself right then…. I hope he’s reading this, so he’ll rather steer clear of concerts in the future. What happened next? A possible reason for the show being cut short by at least one song. One of the “supervisory” crew, or part of the technical staff accompanying the Glenn Hughes show, signaled with a firm gesture (he swept both arms out sideways twice) that the show was over. Right after that he stepped forward and collected all the setlists. That very moment the lights came on and the background music (Grand Funk Railroad) started.
All told, 1 hour and 35 minutes! You could somehow accept that if Hughes had an opening act with him, like The Lizards, say, last year around Europe. So was it some kind of collective punishment? Basically, after that “management” gesture it was clear how Balkan countries are still treated differently on tours, compared with, say, if we had spent this evening just 180 km away in Graz.
What lesson did we learn? Next time Glenn’s on tour, we’ll definitely go see him abroad, even if he does come to Slovenia, which I strongly doubt he ever will again. Without the setlist cut by one song, the show would have gotten a spotless rating, because in performance and atmosphere Hughes and company came across even more convincing than a year and a half ago in Treviso (Italy).
Simply put, anyone who loves vocal acrobatics got a proper brain-rattling, no detours. The sound in the first three rows (up front) was a bit crippled, too loud… but just a few meters back, the sound picture hit the right balance of its individual ingredients. The volcanic voice of the venerable Glenn Hughes, we finally got to experience it on home turf at last! During the show Glenn expressed huge thanks to the crowd for the support that let him play in Slovenia for the first time in his career. Unmatched excellence, even with one song less in the setlist (Soul Mover), but the revamped live lineup, with the standout Jeff Kollman on guitar, put on a new Glenn Hughes show, which once again was driven differently. Poppa Glenn with the wrecking power of his voice made a small crowd of enlightened souls happy that evening. This show was one of the absolute highlights of this year’s concert calendar in Slovenia. By the way, David Coverdale can only hide his face next to Glenn’s Mistreated these days! Whitesnake had better not try to play it anymore – not a chance!
Setlist
1. The Valiant Denial
2. Orion
3. Land Of The Livin'(Wonderland)
4. Nights In White Satin
5. Black Light
6. Mistreated
7. In My Blood
8. A Whiter Shade Of Pale
9. Don’t Let Me Bleed
10. You Keep On Movin’
—encore—
11. Burn
