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

DEEP PURPLE - Campo Sportivo di Pontoglio (Brescia) - July 18, 1999

Well, what can I say about this? This was a bit different than Milan, for a certain number of reasons.
First of all the audience was much younger, and so it was crazier and wilder. Second the security guys sucked a lot. They were used more to discos, and not to rock concerts, and they weren't organized at all about the whole event. It took more than 40 minutes for us to enter into the concert place, while in Milan everything was perfect and very fast.
As for the concert... Well, I still don't know if it was worse or better than in Milan! Surely this was absolutely great, too!
The fact is that Morse was a bit tired, and he wasn't as inspired as in Milan: his solos were shorter, and he wasn't as excellent as two days before... But the whole audience was entusiasthic about him, so probably it's only me who didn't like as much as before. He surely was brilliant, nevertheless!
As for the other members: the two Ians were even better than in Milan. Paice was astounding, probably this was the time I liked him more of all the nine times I have seen him live (7 with Purple, two playing with Purple cover bands here in Italy last month [Huh? Paice in a Purple cover band? - Ed.]). Gillan in Milan was great, but not as good as other times...
Well, tonight he was absolutely great! As for Glover and Lord they were at the same level as two days before (though I liked Roger's solo better tonight), if not better! Surely another great gig!
Personal highlights:
- as usual the "Parade", with Steve, Roger and Little Ian playing Led Zep's "Stairway To Heaven", Bob Dylan's (or Jimi Hendrix's, if you like it more this way) "All Along The Watchtower", The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" (with Big Ian joining the three from backstage to sing it... GREAT!), and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love"
- Ian singing some stupid child sing about "wanting to ride a bycicle" (very similar in lyrics to the Queen classic, but NOT that one) during "Speed King", and then, during "Black Night", he started talking to his congas (!!!) though none of us did understand a word of what he was saying! (BTW, from "Perfect Strangers" on, Ian came on stage barefoot!!!! What a guy! :-))
Okay, that's enough for now... And I won't be seing any more concert for a two months, so I'm going to have some rest!
What I have to say is, that, as usual, DEEP PURPLE RULEZ!
I saw Blackmore's Night a couple of weeks ago, and it was great. Ritchie's still the best, and he showed it one more time. But the other band members are just session men, and they can't be even, by far, compared to Purple. With BN I saw the best guitar player, and the best musician in the world. With Purple I saw 5 astoundin musicians having fun and playing greatly the whole time (and four of them actually are the best musicians in the world in their roles!). No contest!!!

Daniele Purrone


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