Guitarist Simon McBride recently gave an interview to TC Electronic, where he spoke about his stage experiences with Deep Purple. During the chat, he recounted his first appearance with the band at the Menora Mivtachim Arena in 2022 and then opened up about feeling anxious sometimes. The guitarist said:
“It was my first gig I did with them in May; we were in Israel. It was a funny experience because I hadn’t done a gig in two years because of Covid. Everybody was sitting on their asses at home, doing nothing. And my first gig back was playing in front of 10,000 people with Deep Purple, and I was like, ‘Oh crap. Oh no.’ [Laughs] And then I had to go play ‘Smoke on the Water.'”
Explaining the reason behind his anxiety, he went on:
“So, I was a little bit nervous. I don’t normally get nervous for gigs, but that was an [exception]. I played it with Ian Gillan before and with Don Airey. But the first time with these guys, all of them together, it’s like… I have to pinch myself sometimes. It’s like, ‘Am I actually here?’ [Laughs] But it’s an amazing music experience.”
According to an interview that McBride joined shortly after the said gig, his bandmates were ‘fussy’ about the way ‘Smoke on the Water’ and some Ritchie Blackmore solos were played on stage. But he had his own plan when it came to playing those tracks, as he told Louder Sound:
“You can’t get away with playing anything else. But I don’t try to copy how Blackmore or Steve [Morse] played. You just take the concepts they used and put your own thing to it.”
In the videos below, you can check out Simon McBride’s chat with TC Electronics and part of his first show with Deep Purple.
