Thank you, Deep Purple!!!

This was my first Deep Purple concert. I have read about other Deep Purple concerts, but I can't even imagine they were much better. I can't explain all of my emotions in just a few words, but I'll try.

While the concert was delayed up to two hours and 45 minutes, it was a great show. It wasn't a show of different special effects or something like that. It was a show of excellent music by the greatest band. The show started at 21:45 Kyiv (Kiev) time and finished nearly at midnight. As usual, all the songs sounded fresh.

Don's solo before Perfect Strangers was very interesting . He started with Mozart, then something else and his own improvisations, a Ukrainian song Ti zh Mene Pidmanula, Gopachok, a Russian folk song Kalinka, some other improvisations and finished with Bach. I couldn't even tell when the next quote started.

The new version of No One Came was much better than earlier with Blackmore. Lazy was good too. I was really surprised by Steve Morse. Steve's amazing solos and improvisations make me admire him. Highway Star was as good as with Blackmore. There were some interesting moments when Steve played some melody, than Don played on keyboards and vice versa in Speed King. It was like a competition. The same competitions occured between Steve and Gillan. Speed King wasn't just Speed King at that time. During improvisations the band played and sang Elvis Presley's It's Now Or Never.

Steve's improvisations before Smoke On The Water was great, brilliant, excellent and amazing. He was starting one of the famous compositions like Hendrix's Voodoo Chile and then in a few seconds Roger and Ian Paice played together with Steve. It was great. Roger was good too. His solo was very unusual for bass guitar. I have never heard such bas guitar solo before.

Gillan was magnificent. His Child In Time was perfect. With one breath he sang for nearly half a minute or more in When A Blind Man Cries!

There was an interesting moment when Roger, Gillan and Steve sat on the floor together (left to right) during The Aviator. It seems that Gillan imagined that he was flying.

And now, a few words about Paice. His drums sound louder and faster than the southern fields of running buffalos. In his solo he played faster and faster, then suddenly he became slower and slower like he was dying. He even bowed his head. But then his sticks moved again. They moved faster and faster. Nobody could see them. One of his sticks flew far away and Gillan found it. Paice was brilliant like nobody else.

During Smoke On The Water the hall was singing with the band, me too. That's was great. There were a lot of other interesting things, but I can't talk about all of them because there's no words to describe all of what I have seen.

What can I say about Deep Purple at all? Just one thing: Deep Purple is Deep Purple.

The set list:
Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Mary Long
Lazy
Child In Time
The Aviator
Well Dressed Guitar
No One Came
Fools
Perfect Strangers
When A Blind Man Cries
Smoke On The Water
Speed King

Encores:
Hush
Black Night
Highway Star

I still can't believe that I was at the Deep Purple concert, and it was in Kharkov, my native city.

Deep Purple, you're always welcome here! We're waiting for you again and again and again… Thank you for the best music of the world. Thank you for amazing show! Thank you!!!

Yuri Puchkov

Back to reviews