Intro., Speed King, Strange Kind Of Woman, Child In Time, The Mule (incl. drum solo), Space Truckin'

Bonus dvdr, "South Bank Summer", Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, England - July 28th, 1970:  Mandrake Root

King Of Scream is Darker Than Blue's version of the San Bernardino tape that surfaced a couple of weeks ago.  It is astonishing how fast they produced this title, almost as astonishing as the tape itself.  The taper is very close to the stage and is able to capture the very loud concert in a clear and powerful recording.  There are occasional conversations between the taper and his friends about when to change the tape (with a tape flip at two minutes fifty two seconds in "Strange Kind Of Woman") and the tape runs out about seventeen minutes into "Space Truckin'" eliminating the rest of the track and what was left of the show.  It's impossible to determine what songs are omitted but "Fireball", "Lucille" and "Black Night" were the most common songs used to close the set around this time.  We can hear the tapers talking about changing tapes and putting in a new one and it makes me wonder if the rest of the show is extant.  There are no other editions of this tape on commercial bootlegs and no tapes from this short tour in common circulation either so this provides a rare glimpse into a very obscure period.

Surprisingly the set opens, after the people by the recorder damand it, with "Speed King".  Machine Head's "Highway Star" was employed as the set opener dating back to the previous autumn and why it isn't played in this show is not known.  "Strange Kind Of Woman" is introduced as a "true story...about an evil woman"   "Strange Kind Of Woman" gets so intense one of the tapers can only respond with a "God damn!" while Gillian and Blackmore go back and forth.  "This is a song off of In Rock about a loser...'Child In Time'" before a moody version of the piece.  Before the final track Gillian says "this is a futuristic rock and roll number, lyrically that is."   This version of "Space Truckin'" is several months before the release of Machine Head and is close to the studio version.  Gillian throws in some screams from "Bloodsucker" and the band jam on the instrumental portion of "Mandrake Root".  Jon Lord plays the Sabre Dance from Aram Khachaturian's Gayane suite before Blackmore comes in and plays a delicate theme which morphs into a fuge with Glover on bass.   

The initial run of this title comes with a free bonus dvdr from the BBC program "South Bank Summer".  This footage is more than thirty-five years old and looks very dated and faded.  It is very clear though and enjoyable, great to see more footage of vintage Deep Purple.  It is said this was filmed on July 28th, 1970 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.  Deep Purple didn't play on that date however.  They did play that venue on May 25th, 1970 so that must be the correct date, and this broadcast comes from the BBC on September 5th, 1970.  It is unknown if the entire concert was filmed but all that was broadcast was "Mandrake Root" and it is a great piece of footage.  Blackmore tramples his guitar and Paice destroys the drum kit in a spectacular display of rock and roll theater which played very well on television.  Since there is so little Mark II footage in circulation it is a minor miracle this exists and is a great bonus by Darker Than Blue.