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Melburn’ smokes Purple club
The Palace night club in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia has been burned down. Deep Purple played a concert there on April 27, 1999, writes George Fotis who was at the show then and saw the fire last Wednesday.
‘I happened to be in the area and saw a lot of smoke in the air. It’s next to the beach so Smoke On The Water came to my mind naturally.’
The fire was deliberately lit and the venue is now being demolished.
‘I never managed to get any photos of the place but I wish I had now, as I had some memories of a fantastic concert. I was in the front as it was first-in first-served so I jumped at the chance. The concert was so great the band were at their peak. I expected it to only be an acoustic type show because it was a small venue, but the band came out loud as. It’s a sad day for the people who saw concerts at that venue. Nirvana played there as well,’ writes George Fotis.
In 2006 Purple played another two concerts at the Palace Theatre next to the night club.
Photo is copyright onlymelbourne.com.au – click for story and full gallery. Thanks to George Fotis.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Hi Boys the show DP did at the Palace in 99 was a ripper: The night before Ian asked me what DP song I wanted to hear and I looked at DP huge set list and saw “Into the Fire” & “Bloodsucker” and said any one of theses two: Ian smiled and said I tell you something Chris what if we do both!
The main thing with the show was It was F*CKING LOUD! Like the OLD days my ears where ringing for 2 days!
The after party upstairs was great and we all had a ball!
July 20th, 2007 at 08:35RIP Palace!
cheers
PS I think the last person to play there was Alice Cooper about a week before it went up in flames!
Hi guys, the 1999 gig at the palace was awesome! I went to the show at the Rod laver arena a few days before which accommodated about 10,000 but the intimate but very loud gig for a few hundred at the palace was the BEST.
I had front row at Rod laver arena and managed to get a glimpse on the DVD that was released world wide but I have to say that the palace gig which was on my birthday was raw, loud and just what the doctor ordered!!!
It was the quentissential hard rock show piece
August 13th, 2007 at 12:02