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Stadio Comunale, Sarroch, Cagliari, Italy
June 7, 2003

1. Highway Star
2. Mary Long
3. I'm Alone ("an obscure b-side, the album rejected it" according to I.G.)
4. Pictures of Home
5. Haunted
6. Speed King
7. The Well Dressed Guitar
8. Lazy
9. I've got your number
10. Perfect Strangers (Don's intro including again the Italian song he did during the earlier shows in Italy)
11. The Guitar Battle/Smoke On The Water (the Battle included if we remember it right a.o. All right now, You really got me, Honky tonk women, Stairway to heaven and it ended with Here comes the sun)
12. Space truckin'
13. Hush
14. Fireball
15. Black Night

Purple on Sardegna
Holidaying on Sardegna, my wife and I were still enjoying the feeling of having seen the first show in Belgium on Deep Purple's summer tour - which was a short show but with surprises like the two new tracks of their new album - when to our BIG surprise we spotted a guy putting up posters for a Deep Purple concert there on June 7! Our immediate thought was: Wow, two concerts 1600 kilometers from each other in three weeks. Would it be possible to get tickets for the show which was only four days away? Yes, we managed to get tickets (and a poster from the friendly man).
Sarroch is a little village in the deepest south of Sardegna and the show would take place in the Stadio Communale, the soccer stadium, so an open air concert.
We arrived just before the moment of opening time of the doors and there were about 300 people! We wondered this can't be all, but the group ended up being a total of about 1500/2000 people.
We think it could have been cancelled easily due to heavy lightning and some rain, which started about 20 minutes before the beginning of the show. Happily enough they decided to go on and so the show started 11 minutes late at 22.11 pm and took all of 97 minutes. During the show the lightning kept coming but the band kept playing. The rain came back during the encores but severe rain came only after the show had ended.
We loved the new songs, which could become a new two-song cd single as far as we are concerned! In comparison with the Schwung concert, the band played the songs with more confidence.
The old songs were - like in Belgium - played with new energy. The advantage of the show in Sarroch being also no festival stress and no support act, just Deep Purple.
We feel Don Airey has reached his destination. Thank you, but also a big thank you to the other guys. You brought us again so much pleasure.
And ..... See you very soon in our own little Holland!
Dirk de Hen

Last night I went to Sarroch to see Deep Purple in concert for the second time (the first time was in Cagliari in 1998).
Yesterday it was a very strong concert. In my opinion it was greater than the one in Cagliari, perhaps because the great Steve Morse appears to get used to the show; five years ago he seemed to be a little out of his element. Now he is almost the frontman of the group.
I like Don Airey very much, even because I know very well Rainbow. His piano solo was perfect and he also played a typical Sardinian song, very cool.
They began the show with Highway Star and they continued with Pictures of Home and they finished with Black Night after two hours of an astonishing concert.
It was the second time I saw them and if they will return for the third, I'll be there for sure.
Thank you
Alessandro Romano

Grandi Grandi Grandi ... sono stati grandissimi...
Perfetti in tutto.
Una chicca: durante l'assolo di tastiera hanno inserito un pezzo di "Nanneddu meu", canzone sarda tradizionale, resa famosa dai Tazenda...
Incredibile quando, finito il concerto, in attesa dei bis, la folla ha cominciato a urlare il riff di black night.
Grazie, non lo dimenticherò mai.
Alessandro

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