![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride5.jpg)
Georgia is on their minds
On November 16, Deep Purple have played their first gig in 5 months, and that happened in Tbilisi, Georgia. Several pieces of video evidence have already surfaced on them intertubes. Here is what appears to be a complete show. The quality is not bad for an audience recording; starts a little shaky, but get better as the gig progresses. Check out Gillan’s headgear on the encores.
Setlist:
Intro tape: Mars, the Bringer of War (Gustav Holst)
Highway Star
A Bit on the Side
Hard Lovin’ Man
Into the Fire
Guitar Solo
Uncommon Man (Dedicated to Jon Lord)
Lazy Sod
Lazy (with extended keyboard intro)
When a Blind Man Cries
Anya
Keyboard Solo
Bleeding Obvious
Space Truckin’
Smoke on the Water
Green Onions (Booker T. & the MG’s cover)
Hush (Joe South cover)
Black Night
Thanks to Bootlegs In Purple for posting the video, and to Ivica for bringing it to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Looks like Ian Gillan had his head stuck in the fairy floss machine. Maybe he needs a little sweetening up. It’s Bleeding Obvious, a great song, progressive rock rules. More in that vein for the next album, here’s hoping. Not too many cobwebs to shake off it seems. Unless that was what Ian had his head stuck in, cobwebs. Cheers.
November 18th, 2025 at 06:31I have a friend in Georgia, who attended the concert, and she says: it was the best she had been to 💜
November 18th, 2025 at 08:21So happy for them 😊☺️🌈
Next friday I’ll leave Venice-Italy with a friend of mine to Kuala Lumpur to see the guys. Paicey gave me the backstage passess so we are ready to Rock’n’Roll!!!
November 18th, 2025 at 10:11Excellent Show!! Gillan starts off a little rough but who cares!! He gets better as show goes on!! The band are firing on all cylinders!! Saw a few posts on other sights about Gillan retiring!! I hope not!!! Most likely rumours!! I still think he has a GREAT Voice!!!
November 18th, 2025 at 11:55Gentlemen, just read a funny thing at FaceBook: Ian Gillan was interviewed by RockFM in Spain, and ohhh it was a fun read! Among other things he said: Ritchie is the ex we don’t want back 😄
Don’t get me wrong: I’m with you guys who would love the Mark ll lineup again. But according to Ian that will never happen. And I guess according to Ritchie’s current health status that will certainly not happen.
I do love Ian’s approach, even the most difficult situations are dealt with smiling and making a bit fun.
November 18th, 2025 at 13:51As a decades long fan, I cannot watch this anymore. Believe me, I tried to watch but some of the vocals are just not what they use to be. He is getting too old. It is time for Ian to retire and move on. I can do without another album or concert from DP with Ian onstage. He should bow out like DC recently did with honor before he becomes like Ozzy and they wheel him on stage to sing Highway Star.
November 18th, 2025 at 15:15But how can someone with only 30% vision move around on stage without falling or tripping over cables? And always find the microphone?
November 18th, 2025 at 16:42Waow, Gillan si VERY impressive here.. Those screams! People are applauding him even during the songs now… Incredible performance
November 18th, 2025 at 16:44@7: There are hardly any cables on a stage these days. The goal is to keep the performance area free of cables, no matter how much the artist can see. There is also usually plenty of flourescent tape on the floor marking dangerous spots. You probably see them even with 30% vision. But now we know why he doesn’t have lyric sheets on the stage floor any more. 🙂
I remember Alex Van Halen saying he was deaf on one ear and had 30% hearing on the other. He could still play. 🙂
November 18th, 2025 at 16:56Sure you can still maneuver on a professionally tidy stage with only 30% central vision though the combo with Ian‘s lack of feeling in his legs is worrisome. But he‘s been moving more carefully and altogether less on stage for a long time now, gone are the little dances he used to do too.
A (even one-off) reunion with Purple is at this point totally out of the question. It wouldn‘t be good for Ritchie, it wouldn‘t be good for the band and – believe me – it wouldn‘t be good for us fans either. Listen to the MiJ remix instead and don‘t tarnish a legacy.
November 18th, 2025 at 19:00Gillan will a great job there. Cellphone video does it no justice. I hope his health hopes up, vision loss or not. Blackmore’s Night just canceled the rest of the shows on its tour, which had just begun, due to “medical reasons.”
November 18th, 2025 at 19:45Playing completely safe on the set list, I see. This is how you get the rocker-by-numbers as time passes by. Hey “Mr Grover and Mr Gillian if you really earned a million….” – do you remember how you wanted this music to challenge and surprise you in 1972? And now when there is so much to choose from the vast catalogue and not be limited to three albums, the further it goes, the more the set is fixed in the stone. Shame!
November 18th, 2025 at 20:08@ 5 – Karin that old as the hills rubbish talk is just that. Ian Gillan will always say that as he has for decades on end, especially when asked by interviewers. Cheers.
November 18th, 2025 at 20:44To the people complaining about Gillan’s vocal’s, I respect your opinion but, he appears to be enjoying himself and the audience certainly seem to be loving the show!! He’s 80 years old and certainly cant sing like he did in the 1970’s but, he can still carry a tune and adjust his voice as needed!! He is simply outstanding on “When a Blind Man Cries”!! I don’t want any other singer for Purple!! When he does decide to call it a day, and from what I hear in this concert, that is a long way away, then the band should also call it a day!!! He, to me, is the Greatest Rock singer of all time!! He may not be flashy, but who cares!!!!
November 18th, 2025 at 21:10For Uwe and especially Karin and any other Pink Floyd aficionados lurking here. The Floyd have released the new remix in stereo of Shine On You Crazy Diamond in its entirety, 25 minutes of Foydian bliss. Finally a crisp clear mix of their masterful album and doesn’t it sound superb, and that is online too. Cannot wait for Santa this xmas. This new release as well as a blue-ray with 1975 concerts on film and I surround and the proverbial Atmos, will weigh poor Santa down no doubt this xmas. I hope he makes it all the way to Tasmania. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd-qu_ErkbE&t=1526s
November 18th, 2025 at 21:24@11 I think its time for RB to hang it up. Another health issue and quite frankly he didn’t look well on the recent video clip – I know he had some recent issues the past 18 months.
RE: IG sounded pretty good as did the band. I liked the video. That being said it also sounds like Ian’s ailments – leg and eye issues are catching up. I think its time for him to call it a day. Be like DC – have some dignity. Enjoy the retirement, spend time with the family and at their ages they should because time is irreplaceable and they can still interact given their age(s). I think 2026 is the finale for DP and RB. Father time is undefeated.
November 19th, 2025 at 00:40I ordered it long ago! 😎
November 19th, 2025 at 03:00Surely the new album must be out by summer/fall next year, as I don’t see them doing the arenas again with the exact same set list. Even by DP’s standards, that would be odd. The tour poster has no mention of any new album, but maybe they simply needed to announce the tour.
November 19th, 2025 at 04:53@13
Oh MacGregor, you don’t believe it’s true?
Well what do I know?😃
Have I mentioned that Purple come to Denmark next year? In October 💃🏼🤩
November 19th, 2025 at 07:25@ karin 19
November 19th, 2025 at 13:42They’re also coming to Milan in October, but at almost double the price of the #1 tour. Absurd. I don’t think I’ll go.
If they get ALIVE in October…
For some reason, Ritchie has me more worried than Big Ian. I think he’s made from tougher cloth than his banjo-nemesis and rolls with the health punches better.
But things are generally drawing to a close no doubt. Living, not loving on borrowed time indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qacgcV_5HE
November 19th, 2025 at 15:05Gillan sounds good enough to be still on stage in my opinion, it´s a special band with a history and the fans and the band are having fun – i´m a fan i understand why he is still on stage and it´s ok and wonderful!
November 19th, 2025 at 19:07Ritchie was childish, spiteful, respectless and needlessly abrasive in the way he left DP in 1993.
And Ian was just as childish and dismissive in the way he has for three decades held a grudge about it. The Ritchie Blackmore of today isn’t the same person who acted like an ass back then. Yet Ian has cast his – at one point certainly justified – grievances in amber for longterm preservation. The ex-wife comparison reveals more about him than it does about Ritchie.
But at this point it is all water down the bridge in any case – the only reunion we will likely ever still see between the two is after someone mixes the contents of their future urns together. And knowing them, not even their pulverized bone fragments and respective charred wood particles would get along, you would have to make the Gillanmore joint urn escape proof and heat-resistant for both of them.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71393LdDztL._AC_SX679_.jpg
November 19th, 2025 at 23:03#23: “We’re in communication now,” Gillan continued, elaborating, “We’ve solved a lot of difficulties that were nothing to do with the direct relationship — old management problems that were dividing us and things like that; boring stuff, but important nonetheless within the group. So that’s all been solved now. So there are messages going back and forth and I can sense goodwill much more than in the past.”
https://loudwire.com/deep-purple-ian-gillan-ritchie-blackmore-made-our-peace/
November 20th, 2025 at 08:04@20
AndreA – they will be alive! At least some of them…😅
I agree completely about the price range. And I was tempted to sell my coffeemaker to afford it, but nah 😄 I wouldn’t be me without serious amounts of coffee 😜
I don’t care (for once) about the price, because it’s the first time I’m attending a concert with Purple (embarrassing I know, but I just lately discovered FaceBook, and just found this site (thanks to Nick) last year.) So whenever they came to Denmark, I knew about it after the concert…🥺
I will be dancing and singing my head of! 🤩🤩🤩
November 20th, 2025 at 09:07@21
Exactly Uwe! Ian is much tougher, and do you know why?
November 20th, 2025 at 09:08Because of his positive mind 😃🤩
Sad and mad people don’t tend to live long…
@6: “It is time for Ian to retire and move on. I can do without another album or concert from DP with Ian onstage.” I remember I read the same sentence around 30 years ago … And not only once.
November 20th, 2025 at 13:38I think that is diplomat speech, Daniel. Nobody communicates with Ritchie via email, it‘s all filtered by Candice and her mom Carole. There is an interview with IG where he says that his manager Phil Banfield sent an email to Carole Stevens offering Ritchie to play SOTW with DP at the RRHoF and that Ritchie claims he never received that message. I believe that Ian and Ritchie haven‘t spoken since 1993.
November 20th, 2025 at 16:23@28 – Seem to recall DP super-fan and author Marcelo Soares writing that IG and RB have in fact spoken on the phone since Blackmore left the band?
Re: the RRHOF kerfuffle, would tend to believe Blackmore. He made his public statement that he would have attended the ceremony, had the band’s management not made it clear that he would be unwelcome, almost two months in advance.
https://loudwire.com/ritchie-blackmore-forbidden-attending-rock-hall-of-fame-deep-purple-manager/
If the band DID want him there, they had ample time to straighten things out, and would have made more effort than a single email to his manager / mother-in-law.
“Goodwill” between DP and Blackmore at this stage may merely mean that there are no longer any ongoing lawsuits.
November 20th, 2025 at 23:50@2
November 21st, 2025 at 01:55Karen, do you mean me? 😘 I confirm: it was a wonderful concert. What surprised me was that just as we were remarking on Don’s magnificent form, they brought him red wine and his hands were shaking so much he could barely lift the glass to his mouth, but he still played like a god. They are very old, and I am so glad they can still work so hard and give so much joy. 💜
I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that no one in the DP camp has spoken nor met RB since Helsinki 1993. It ended on bad terms and they were partners/colleagues first and foremost. The combination of going medieval, both musically and mentally for RB, and being replaced by others performing material you’ve had a big part in writing, probably added to the distance between them. Add the management issues to the mix and you have a communication breakdown.
November 21st, 2025 at 07:21@30
I do indeed Nino 🤗😘
And I thank you so much dear Georgian friend to share your experience with us ❤️
Have I btw mentioned that Purple come back to Denmark October next year?
November 21st, 2025 at 07:56Can’t wait to bid them very welcome in my tiny country 😍
I also remember Ian Gillan saying that he had a talk with Ritchie on the phone. Possibly about 15 years or so ago, maybe a little more. I am sure it was when Jon Lord was still with us and I remember thinking, did Jon who Ritchie was seeing occasionally when dining out, say something that might have helped. Anyway, Gillan did say that he and Ritchie were both responsible for different things that created issues etc and everything was now fine between them. From my memory of what I read. Cheers.
November 21st, 2025 at 09:16Ian is 80 and still doing an excellent job. Those of you who compare IG to DC didn’t see either one in concerts recently. DC took the right decision, IG too 🙂
November 21st, 2025 at 11:28@23
“And Ian was just as childish and dismissive in the way he has for three decades held a grudge about it. “
– Uwe, I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said here.
And please listen to me with an open mind 😊
Can we agree that most people are very fond of Ian? (Not just wimmin!)
And – can we agree that Ian are very friendly and kind to most people?
Well, I feel a bit like Miss Marple, who solved all kinds of crimes, because she could compare other conditions with those she knew in her small town of St. Mary Mead! – not that I’m suggesting any crime has taken place 😊 (yet..)
Well, I guess that Ian knows that his former relationship with Ritchie, and Uwe they were quite good friends in the beginning (and no I don’t have any links, just believe me…I remember Jon Lord said a lot about this in an interview) became quite toxic.
And here I draw on my own experiences from my small life in my small country:
Some people are in some constellations pure poison to you! In other constellations those people are pure candyfloss and sensible, but we have to acknowledge that chemistry between persons can be very different.
And I guess that Ian and Ritchie have tried to mend things between them (I know for a fact that Ritchie asked Ian to sing in Rainbow, I know they have met up drinking a beer together etc) but Ian has concluded that they are both best off not having a friendship!
You yourself have shown a formidable ability to forgive, forget and move on…. Which I admire very much, but I also understand that with some people it is al most impossible. And why not just protect your own sanity instead of keep trying to “make flowers grow where there is no soil” (my mums old saying😊)
Once I had this friend, we were very close. But what I did not know was that she was insanely jealous of me, even though she had so many good things going for her. I discovered she talked really bad about me, and to this day, whenever I see her, I am polite and very kind but no strong horse could drag me into a tete-en-tete with her EVER again. I simply wanna protect my sanity 😊
A conclusion could be: Ian is not holding a grudge so to speak, he is taking care of himself 😃
November 21st, 2025 at 12:47Here Ian recounts the RRHoF invitation for Ritchie @14:05:
https://youtu.be/lFgIFC9Ui10
It just doesn’t sound like he could have picked up the phone and asked him straight:
“Look Ritchie, we really would like you to join us on SOTW, I mean you wrote the darn thing, but is it an issue for you if Steve is on stage as well? He’s fine with it and has said he’ll gladly let you have the solo.”
More like that any type of communication between IG and RB involves deep prior breaths and walking on glass. BTW, I’m pretty darn sure that Ritchie would not have asked for the removal of Steve on stage (something Steve would even have done) and even offered him a second solo in the song with one of his trademark handsigns while playing it.
November 21st, 2025 at 19:22Karin, I agree that people can be toxic and Ritchie towards the end of his tenure with Purple certainly was. I don’t see a need for Ritchie and Ian to ever become “friends” again. I don’t even think that Ritchie has a friend except Candice, he has people who feel honored to be in his company, but not anyone on an equal footing with him. He has buddies, not friends. A lot of men are like that because they don’t invest in lasting friendships like most women do.
BUT: You don’t have to be friends with Ritchie to allow him to jam with “the living and breathing DP”, may it be at the RRHoF or at an encore of a regular gig (“We’re bringing out a chap here some of you might still know …”). That is just a recognition of his pivotal role with DP and doesn’t necessitate a rekindling of a friendship that to my mind only existed for a relatively short time in the 70s between the two. Ian Gillan is to all intents and purposes the spokesman and ambassador of the existing DP, in that role it is tasked upon him to sometimes remove himself from his personal emotions.
Do I think that IG is overall the nicer, gentler and more evenhanded man when compared to Ritchie? No doubt. Ritchie can be an pain and unpleasantly machiavellian.
PS: Ritchie inviting Ian into Rainbow was not a rekindling of a friendship, but an attempt to secure a business opportunity (Ritchie knew the 70s sales of Mk II and of Rainbow, the math was easy). And of course Ritchie would have attempted to call the shots. Likewise, Ian’s return offer for Ritchie to join GILLAN was a poisoned chalice one, he knew darn well that Ritchie would never take it and stand on stage with someone looking like John McCoy. The whole thing was a calculated game of chess between the two.
November 21st, 2025 at 19:52@37
“Ian’s return offer for Ritchie to join GILLAN was a poisoned chalice one, he knew darn well that Ritchie would never take it and stand on stage with someone looking like John McCoy.”
– this makes me so 😠 I simply hate it when people’s worth only are valued because of a nice exterior!
But I love that Ian was a bit evil towards such pettiness.
Yes! I’m on Ian’s side…
“A lot of men are like that because they don’t invest in lasting friendships like most women do.”
November 23rd, 2025 at 06:18– well you guys ought to! What if the spouse dies or divorces you?
Please find and keep dear close friends ❣️ they are more important for your wellbeing than most other people in your life. Especially long life witnesses to your life!
Ian doesn’t care how the people in his bands look, most GILLAN members, Chris Glen, Steve Morris and Leonard Haze all proved that point.
Ritchie OTOH is very image conscious – his repeated gos at an overweight DC and the butting-of-heads with Graham Bonnet re the latters refusal to conform to type speak volumes.
But even Ritchie is topped by how image-conscious DC became (after original WS had been quite a mixed bag)
http://www.deep-purple.net/tree/whitesnake/whitesnake-mk2.jpg
once he set up tent in the US of A
https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Whitesnake-1987-portrait-billboard-1548-1621524775.jpg
I read something like 10 years ago a quote from WS guitarist Reb Beach where, when asked if grey hair was an issue for him, he laughingly replied: “There is no grey hair in Whitesnake. David wouldn’t allow it with anyone ever.“.
November 26th, 2025 at 19:04@39
“There is no grey hair in Whitesnake. David wouldn’t allow it with anyone ever.“.“
– well at the little video where he says farewell, he has all kinds of grey going on 😄
“Ritchie OTOH is very image conscious – his repeated gos at an overweight DC and the butting-of-heads with Graham Bonnet re the latters refusal to conform to type speak volumes.”
– well, this I certainly don’t like!
November 28th, 2025 at 07:28A person’s talent isn’t placed in a stomach like a washboard!
And pardon my Belgian, but how does Ritchie appear these days? His little tummy does not make me say EWWW and persuade me to never listen to his god-given talent any more!