![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse2.jpg)
Ladies and gentlemen, in the blue corner…
Back in November 2003 Deep Purple played a gig in Basel, Switzerland, about 60 minutes of which was broadcasted on Swiss TV, and became known as the Avo Session (after the name of the programme). Many a moon later, the Avo Session has become known as the Baloise Session, and a few days ago they have posted the complete concert, cleaned up and upscaled to the latest advances. Here it is for your viewing pleasure, with our heroes doing it tonight, a few years younger than they are today.
00:00:00 Highway Star
00:06:40 Strange Kind Of Woman
00:11:37 Silver Tongue
00:17:49 Knocking At Your Back Door
00:23:50 House Of Pain
00:28:02 Lazy
00:34:46 Bananas
00:40:14 Contact Lost
00:43:43 Doin’ It Tonight
00:47:40 Space Truckin’
00:53:30 I Got Your Number
00:59:57 The Well-Dressed Guitar
01:07:10 Keyboard Solo
01:12:24 Perfect Strangers
01:19:00 Smoke On The Water
01:27:40 Hush
01:33:50 Black Night
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I love all the songs, but ‘I got your number’ is very very very good 🤩
Thanks so much for the link 😃
October 26th, 2025 at 09:57Oohh, forgot completely: Hush is ADORABLE 🥰 😍😍😍
October 26th, 2025 at 11:15Thanks ! I love that era and that concert is very good even though the mix isn’t spectacular (Gillan’s voice especially). Nice to have Doing it tonight as we already have Haunted from the Berlin show (if my memory serves me right).
I still hope they’ll release a remix of Bananas (I know many of you are with me about that), now that the great ROTD is done.
Would also be great if a dvd version of the 2002 gigs with Child in Time, The Aviator and Fools was released some day (I don’t even ask the 2 former to be played again but I know some of us would love to hear Fools again one day…considering that songs like Fools or Never Bofore, Maybe I’m a Leo, Haunted, Wasted Sunsets would suit Ian’s voice nowadays).
October 26th, 2025 at 15:05what a treat
this was recorded two weeks before I saw the band for the first time
I remember getting this on a dvd, sourced from either a webcast or a vhs-tv recording perhaps?
This is obviously a major upgrade. I hope we can get an official release from the Bananas tour. This one, coupled with the Berlin webcast? Or Montreux 2004?
October 26th, 2025 at 15:10Were any other gigs properly filmed in 2003/4 ?
Too bad Morse and Blackmore’s age and arthritis have caught up to them to the point where they can’t play more than a few shows at a time. But I’m thankful they can still do that and their music will also be on vinyl and video.
October 26th, 2025 at 17:16Doin’ It Tonight is one of my Top 5 songs from the Morse era, how I wish Purple would have explored similar atmospheres more.
4 songs from Bananas in the set list, that was also an album that the guys enjoyed live performance.
October 26th, 2025 at 17:27I all for EU but still Bananas is such a great number.. 🙂 I wonder if big Ian is still for Brexit..?
October 26th, 2025 at 21:14Great show! An official release would be amazing – the same goes for the Montreux 2000 show.
October 26th, 2025 at 21:54Lovely, thanks so much for posting this.
October 27th, 2025 at 00:04Good energy, DP are better in smaller venues, good setlist.. and two of my favorite songs from Bananas, first
October 27th, 2025 at 11:07.”I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid”.wicked “Silver Tongue”
I guess I’ll do it tonight………. oh yeah… “Doing It Tonight ”
country-samba-hip hop-hard rock song …genius mix. I love that “small-unimportant” song in the entire history of DP, but…for me that guitar riff always rocks me, Big Ian is brilliant
and yes…Steve’s intro in “Space Turckin” I recognize the Chicago Band classic “I’m a Man” tribute to Terry Kath…super
#6 : 5 (or even 6 with Contact Lost) tracks 😉
=1 had 6 tracks played live last year too and I could feel that they LOVED performing those, more than the one from Whoosh or even Infinite maybe (and both had less songs played all at once). Just like the Bananas, Purpendicular or Rapture days yes.
I’m with you, great track Doing it tonight (even though Haunted was more spectacular live)
October 27th, 2025 at 11:12#11 Peter:
Haunted is perhaps the most beautiful ballad of the entire Morse era, Sometimes I feel like & Don’t make me happy are more complex and more dramatic, but I prefer the general atmosphere of Haunted, more poetic.
I don’t know why but next to Haunted I see All the Time in the World even if it’s a semi-ballad.
#10 Ivica:
exactly, Doing It Tonight is a salsa base on a 2-3 son clave rhythm.
a crazy groove,
and unfortunately I’m ignorant on the subject, but I would like to know some South American rock groups that use their rhythms in their songs….
even if (Karin mode on) I don’t think there is anything better than Doing It Tonight in South America!
I’m joking, eh?
https://youtu.be/Sv3jZjeHhgg?si=xqmrsB0N0sATkepw
October 27th, 2025 at 22:04