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

Deep Purple and Don Airey's Danish triumph

I just wish I had a camera. That was one great show. OK, it was all oldies, but considering the circumstances that was cool.

Don Airey did a terrific job. He was NOT a backup musician. Of course Don is not Jon, but I'll never forget. Steve was so tense, and so was Roger. I think it's one of the best performances I've seen by Roger.

To be honest I can't remember how Ian Gillan introduced Don. The Don-Steve duel in "Speed King" was awesome. Don had a few solo's throughout the show. More than one time during the show, I could see Gillan, Morse and Airey make this "Yes it worked!!" attitude to each other. And it worked. Unfortunately the only MkVII song they played was "Ted". It ended much too soon. 1 hour and 45 minutes - as I recall. The guys really went all the way.

Now the bad part:

Sometime during the show an ***hole starts yelling Jon Lord. [Maybe he hadn't heard Jon wasn't coming? Rasmus] During "Fools" someone throws water at Steve, and he just continues to play and smile. Ian Gillan was getting water too on several occasions. WHY???

Please stay home if you don't like the music!!!!

Anyway, here's the setlist (as I wrote it down)

Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Mary Long" - keyboard solo
Lazy" - with long keyboard intro
No One Came
Fools
Perfect Strangers" - another great organ solo
When A Blind Man Cries
Vodoo Chile" -
Smoke On The Water
Speed King" - great organ/guitar duel, fabulous RG solo, no IP solo -
Highschool Hop
Hush" - with another great organ solo
Highway Star
Black Night

Michael F


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