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Group presented with CDs from shuttle
disaster
 A
strange twist to the tale - astronauts have been taking music into space
with them for many years. When the Space Shuttle Columbia burned on re-entry
in 2001, Deep Purple CDs were burning along with it. Gruesome I know,
but several years later, NASA recovers what is left of the CDs and returns
them to the group.
There were a lot of astronauts on
that mission, and each one takes music up with them I assume, so why NASA
returns the Purple CDs to the group, I don't know. That reminds me of
the 1986 shuttle disaster - those astronauts took music up with them as
well, but thinking about it now, I realize, absolutely nothing survived
that explosion. And with this disaster, maybe the Purple CDs were the
only ones recovered.
 Columbia
Astronaut Kalpana Chawla actually took several CDs with her on this mission
- they included Purple's 1996's Perpendicular, and I assume Machine Head,
because she also liked Space Truckin' - and she also took Rainbow's Down
to Earth - that connection is obvious.
A special note here in case you didn't
know - Steve Morse wrote a piece of music in honour of the lost astronauts
- it is called Contact Lost, and is on Purple's latest release Bananas.
Anyway, on to the @#^())^$# story - toward the end of a
concert in Mexico, NASA officials presented Deep Purple with what was
left of the CDs - I will let this tidbit from the group's
website tell you some of the story:
"After Smoke on the Water Deep Purple received three
CDs that were recovered from the Space Shuttle Columbia that broke up
as it descended over Texas. An astronaut’s husband told us that the
astronauts in space used to hear these CDs before going to sleep. The
CDs were Machine Head, Purpendicular and Rainbow's Down To Earth. NASA
recovered only a piece of two CDs, but one CD is almost complete. Then
Contact Lost was played again to remember the astronauts.
The music was excellent! I will be waiting for Deep Purple in Mexico City
again..."
Thanks to Edgar Alvarado
A little more here....(edited).
"Tonight I had the privilege of attending the
last concert on the initial leg of the Bananas world tour. Due to a timely
phone call to Ticketmaster just as tickets for the concert began to be
sold, I was lucky to be "sitting" (actually I stood the whole
time) where every fan wishes to be: front row center! And it was an awesome
experience.
The setlist was pretty much the same as has been reported for the Brazilian
shows, but I will comment on some highlights and variations.
Kicking off the concert with "Highway Star" has proven (since
the "Made In Japan" days) to be an amazing way to instantly
get the crowd's attention, and tonight was no different. "Woman From
Tokyo" is always a welcome classic with a beautiful quiet part in
the middle. "Silver Tongue" was well done, but there are several
other songs from the new album which weren't played and which I consider
to be much better (such as "Razzle Dazzle," "Doing It Tonight,"
"Bananas," "Walk On," and "Never A Word"
- in other words, most of them)!
"Contact Lost" followed immediately by "Haunted" is
a nice combination, and both of them include some great guitar playing.
Sometime during "Space Truckin'" Roger Glover looked in my direction
and threw me (at least I like to think it was intended for me) a guitar
pick (bass pick?), but unfortunately it landed in front of the guy next
to me and he got it in the end.
"Knocking At Your Backdoor" is an excellent and in my opinion
very underrated song, and did not disappoint, except for the fact that
the opportunity for an orgasmic guitar solo (such as Ritchie Blackmore's
on the version which appears in "Knebworth '85: In The Absence Of
Pink") was glossed over in tonight's show.
Don Airey's keyboard solo showed he's a maestro in his own right, and
he was nice enough to incorporate bits of two Mexican songs ("La
Cucaracha" and "El Jarabe Tapatío," known colloquially
in English as the "Mexican Hat Dance"), in addition to several
tunes from Bach, Mozart, and other classical composers, the introduction
to "Mr. Crowley," and some great music from "Star Wars"
(I don't care if many other people out there have complained about it
- it's good music and that's final).
Sometime during "Perfect Strangers" a Steve Morse guitar pick
thrown into the audience came very close to me - enough for me to get
my little finger (which was almost broken in the process) on it for a
brief moment before it was won by a large fellow to my right, so again
I missed out.
Following a brief applause-filled pause after "Smoke On The Water"
a barefoot Ian Gillan introduced the next event in the evening: Jean-Pierre
Harrison (I think that’s his name), the husband of astronaut Kalpana
Chawla from the Columbia Space Shuttle mission, which burned on re-entry.
He presented the band with the framed remains of three CDs that they had
previously signed and presented to his wife for her to take aboard Columbia
with her. The three CD's were "Down To Earth" (by Rainbow, signed
by Roger Glover and Don Airey, who were in that band when the album was
recorded), "Purpendicular," and "Machine Head" (both
signed by the current members of Deep Purple who were involved in those
two projects).
The first CD was recognizeable as such, the other two were deformed and
partially destroyed, and all were accompanied by a certificate of authenticity
signed by the Head of NASA, their Chief Astronaut, and a few other people
(I'm sorry the details were too many for me to be able to memorize).
It was a touching moment, though it was marred by a few idiots in the
back interrupting with some yelling which I hope the band did not understand.
On behalf of all Mexicans I would like to apologize for their existence.
I would like to thank the band, NASA, and everyone else involved for honoring
Mexico City with this special opportunity. The only thing is that next
time I'd like to volunteer my translating services - the person that did
the translating was quite inept, and in addition I wouldn't have to ask
for the album names to be repeated each time they were mentioned like
she did!
After this moving interlude "Contact Lost" (the song on the
new album dedicated to the Columbia crew) was played again, and then the
"traditional" (for this tour, so far) encores of "Hush"
and "Black Night" rounded off an excellent evening lasting a
total of 105 minutes.
The only member of the band I haven't mentioned yet, Ian Paice, provided
a consistent aural backdrop to the rest of the instruments with total
mastery, as always. Everyone on stage and in the audience seemed to enjoy
him/herself thoroughly! All in all an amazing experience."
Thank you to Andrés Gómez de Silva Garza
The boys in the band look a little grim getting their CDs back.
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