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

Helsinki Concert Sept. 29th, 1998

The Ice Hall
Classy place build for hockey. Home of the Finnish Championship League's IFK Helsinki. Capacity 8000, some 5000 turned up for DP. Bit bad on the acoustics (which was proved again)

The Band
Band can't have a better frontman than Gillan is, supremo indeed. Gave us few gillanisms with Finnish mobilephones "honey, it's under the stairs". Hitted all the high-notes like nobody's business.
The way I see it Jon Lord is a Heart and Soul of Deep Purple. His Hammond is what we know as Deep Purple sound. They can replace the guitarist but not the man behind keyboards.
Steve Morse just didn't fill Blackmores Wellington boots, he got his own pair and we must like him for doing that.
Roger Glover was, well...Roger Glover and that drummer is the man.

Brilliant bunch of lads. Chemistry is there and you can feel and hear it. I only hope that the guitar player don't quit, because that is what happened last time when they played here in the very same place. Well maybe not...

The Songs
Ted, SKOW, Bloodsucker, Pictures of Home, Almost Human, Watching the Sky, Woman from Tokyo, Any Fule, Lazy, SOTW, Perfect Strangers, Speed King ("Indian, Chinese, Faroe Island type of lullaby"), 7th Heaven, Highway Star

On a scale one to ten that gig went to eleven. Go and see them if you can!

Janne Puska


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