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Live in London 2002
Another release in the Soundboard Series is expected on August 13, 2021 — Live in London 2002. This show, from February 22, 2002, at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, is infamous for a couple of reasons.
First, it was the last show that Jon Lord played with the band from start to finish. He submitted his letter of resignation the same night. He did appear with the band afterwards as a special guest, most notably on the autumn 2002 UK dates that were rescheduled from earlier in the year.
Second, the show was essentially an instrumental one. There was a virus making rounds through the band in that tour. That night it was Gillan’s turn to succumb to it and for all practical purposes he lost his voice. There were attempts to sing here and there, but not terribly successful. From what truly yours can remember of the night — after nearly 20 years of killing the brain cells — the band had to compensate for it with extended instrumental jams. Which makes it unique and kind of peculiar for the hardcore fans. The rest of the tour was cancelled, and… See #1.
Tracklist:
- Woman from Tokyo
- Ted the mechanic
- Mary Long
- Lazy
- No one came
- The aviator
- The well-dressed guitar
- Up the wall
- Black night
- Fools
- Jon lord’s key solo
- Perfect strangers
- Steve Morse’s riff parade
- Smoke on the water
- Speed king
- Hush
It will be available on 2CD and 3LP and is promised to be “carefully restored” from the original 48-track digital tape, mixed and mastered in April 2021. So all the zeros and ones should be in their rightful places /s.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I had tickets for the second night and got as far as the Dove before finding out it was cancelled. So I was at the rescheduled show with Don and Jon. Seems like yesterday.
June 24th, 2021 at 18:14According to setlist.fm they played “Highway Star” as the last song that night. Let’s hope it’s going to be included.
There’s even another concert set for release as part of the Soundboard Series: “Live In Wollongong 2001”
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/deep-purple-live-in-wollongong-2001/hnum/10575459
June 24th, 2021 at 18:49dirie:
June 24th, 2021 at 18:53Wollongong was previously released as a part of the original soundboard series box
https://www.thehighwaystar.com/specials/soundboard/
London 2002 has never been released
What ever became of the archives series from years ago….also what is the story with the Mark 3 box set that was talked about years ago 🤔
June 28th, 2021 at 23:14This Hammersmith show was also filmed for DVD release, but as Ian Gillan was suffering from a virus which affected his voice, it will probably never see the light of day. I’m surprised the audio is being released.
August 12th, 2021 at 08:30It’s a shame the recording is incomplete. Despite there being plenty of space on the 2CD set, Highway Star has been dropped from the release. It makes one feel cheated!
August 13th, 2021 at 17:44is this the show there’s footage of on the John Lord dvd, Pictured Within?
There’s a clip when he talks about how the flu went around the band and finally struck IG, at which point there’s a clip of IG clearly coughing and not looking too well on stage…
Enjoying the audio release a lot, for what it is. But this is for die hards only 🙂
I would love to see the dvd too, to have a visual document of John’s last leg as the sole keyboard player in 2002
August 14th, 2021 at 10:47This should’ve remained in the vault.
February 10th, 2024 at 17:41It’s of historical value. For completists, but nothing you will need to explain the DP phenomenon to someone else.
February 10th, 2024 at 22:54