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

DP concert in Dresden, Germany on June, 8th 1999

It was a great concert. All of the band were in great form. The show started with Thin Lizzy's 'The Boys are back in Town' as intro and went to "Pictures of home" with a powerful Lord/Morse sound - excellent, including solos by Lord, Morse and Glover. Followed by "Ted the mechanic", "Bloodsucker/Bludsucker", "69"...a wonderful homogenic band with a great typical sound. And a clear one, not too loud and in a good balance of all the instruments (although the equipment was late). And in this perfect way it continued...

Although the posters are showing a longhaired Gillan, he came with a very short hair (Optic: Who is this guy? But the voice proofed, it is Gillan...and like everyone of the band in best form.) During the first part Gillan was telling a lot between and about the songs etc. And during the songs he went to ecstasy.

There were 2 solos by Glover, all the other time he and Paice were the stable part and gave the perfect rhythm. Of course, there were a drum solo and lots of organ and guitar solos, single or combined, for example the start of "Lazy" (including "Für Elise") or a guitar inferno which was interrupted by themes from Purple songs, played by Morse/Glover/Paice.

The concert ends with "7th heaven" and "Highway Star" around 11.30 pm. And due to the audience it would not be finished until now...

To choose my favorite Purple concerts: this one in Dresden 1999 and another one in Hanau in 1996...

By the way: the new band of the ex-Kingdom Come frontman (don't ask me the name) was a very good opener. Starting with a delay of half an hour and even with technical problems the band gave a very good debut in Dresden. The band played a mixture of older and later songs, where the new CD is recorded in German language. And so the latest songs were German. Interesting and no reason to say "Excuse me for using German language" as it was said...

Bodo Hoffmann, Dresden


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