![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan2.jpg)
The Mercury News carries a pretty scathing review of the band’s performance from September 5, 2026, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Deep Purple really had no business following Kansas and, not surprisingly, its headlining set felt quite anticlimactic. Even though it appeared (at least on paper) to have the most impressive lineup […]
Read more »KNAC.com has a review of the Ottawa gig from August 19, 2026: This would be my second DEEP PURPLE concert in which neither guitarist was Ritchie Blackmore(my first DP live experience being in 2012 when then-guitarist Steve Morse was in the band) but Simon was a consummate player in his own right. Sure, he could […]
Read more »Patch reviews the Deep Purple gig in Chicago from August 25, 2026: There are concert pairings that make perfect sense on paper, and then there are pairings that make even more sense once the music starts. Deep Purple and Kansas at Ravinia’s Hunter Pavilion was definitely the latter. On Tuesday night, two legendary bands separated […]
Read more »MetalTalk has an illustrated, but otherwise somewhat superficial review of the Deep Purple gig in Toronto on August 18, 2026. Closing out the night were none other than Deep Purple, and they hit the stage at full force, opening their set with Highway Star. The crowd excitedly sang along. It is hard to believe the […]
Read more »KNAC.com has an interesting review of the Deep Purple gig in Mansfield, Mass., on August 13, 2026. It is written by a gentleman who is self-admittedly a casual fan, and furthermore, had walked out of the band’s performances twice before: in 2002 and 2017. As I sat in the pit waiting for DEEP PURPLE to […]
Read more »BraveWords has a review of the Deep Purple gig in Montreal on August 17, 2026: Monday night on August 17, Place Bell in Laval hosted a triple bill of classic-rock royalty as Deep Purple brought their Splat! tour to town behind their new album of the same name: their 24th studio record and one they’ve […]
Read more »Long Island Sounds empathically reviews the gig on August 12, 2026, at the Jones Beach Theater: There are some concerts you attend. There are others you experience. Deep Purple at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater was very much the latter. At 80 years old, vocalist Ian Gillan is no longer the singer who effortlessly unleashed […]
Read more »Blue News reviews Deep Purple’s appearance on the 2026 edition of Montreux Jazz Festival: On Monday evening, the Stravinski Auditorium was transformed into a rock temple. That may sound like a cliché—but for someone who isn’t very familiar with this genre of music, that’s exactly how it felt. After an explosive opening act by Danko […]
Read more »EuroWeekly reviews the Deep Purple appearance at the Starlite Festival in Marbella, Spain, on July 9, 2026: McBride may be no Ritchie Blackmore, the famously enigmatic founding member who will always be the guitarist most associated with Purple despite Steve Morse having spent 28 years in the band, yet it immediately becomes clear that he […]
Read more »Metal Talk reviews the Deep Purple’s appearance at Hellfest from June 18, 2026: Is Gillan’s voice what it used to be? Of course it is not. But the man is 80 and still sounds very good. Also, new recruit Simon McBride (well, not that new) shows why they got him. He slots in impeccably and […]
Read more »
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing