[ d e e p P u r . p l e ) The Highway Star

One of my best experiences this year

I'm from the UK but have lived out in Hong Kong for the past seven years. Forgive me for being so out of touch, but here's my simple comments on last nights concert.

Last night was one of my best experiences since moving here. Deep Purple are touring Australia and Japan, and between the two they stopped off in Hong Kong for their first time ever to do a concert.

I saw them at Wembley Arena in 1987 but last night was better. Imagine Ian Gillan (now 55) with short hair and Jon Lord (nearly 60) covered in white hair. That's how they are now, and Ian Gillan has not lost his good voice (though they didn't do "Child In Time" probably because he can't sing it well any more). But they did do "Smoke On The Water", "Perfect Strangers", "Woman From Tokyo", "Speed King", and "Black Night".

The Hong Kong Coliseum has a close up VDO screen above the stage as well as good acoustics. It was almost full, 90% with Chinese whom I thought didn't like this kind of music. I didn't know that Hong Kong had so many secret Chinese headbangers!! Though they and the ageing Westerners there were much more mellow than if it were in UK. It's the first band I've seen since The Stranglers nearly 10 years ago. I hope more bands from that era will come out here!

Richard Langford


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