This was quite a highly anticipated show for me. Last year down at the Hard Rock in Biloxi, we saw Purple and was able to chat with Roger and Don after the show.
Don revealed to me that he really wanted to play a gig at the historical Ryman Auditorium some day.
I remember posting this in my review last year and making points at how strange it is that Purple never plays in Nashville.
Especially now that they had recorded NOW WHAT with Bob Ezrin in Nashville it seems even weirder.
Well Don’s wish came true this year and we were there to witness it. Finally, Deep Purple plays a gig in MUSIC CITY.
I was able to contact “Stoffer”, another Purple fan whom contributes here at THS and we actually met up before the show.
We shared in some brews and food at a Bar and Grill just down from the Ryman on Broadway called “Rippy’s Smokin’ Rib House”. Good music, beer and food.

We still had some time before the show and headed across the street to “Tootsies”.
Another popular watering hole where another band was playing that included a killer young female violinist who rocked the house.
Well it was time to head to the Ryman after throwing down a few more brews. Stoffer holding his and his wife’s tickets, ready to rock.

I then checked with ‘Will Call’ for a possible envelope for me and my wife containing some Guest Passes.
YES! Roger came through for us again. 2 passes for the after show Meet & Greet.

We entered the main door of the Ryman and parted ways. Stoffer and his wife headed up to their seats on the Balcony (gotta love the name).

We went to ours on the main floor at row J over to left of center toward Rogers’s side of the stage.

7:30 rolled around and the opening band started playing right on time. A 3 piece band that really was good called SIMO. See picture below.
They were a hard driving jam band with a sound that combines with Mountain, Govt. Mule, Cream and maybe Led Zep. There are some good
clips of them on YOUTUBE so check them out. Great opening act for Purple. They played around 45 minutes then Purple was to go on at 8:30.

At promptly 8:30, the lights went down and intro began…. HERE COMES DEEP PURPLE!!!!!
They opened with a cranking rendition of Highway Star from Machinehead. The band had a couple of days off before this gig and it showed.
They were well rested and ready to ROCK the Old Opry House Down. Gillan came out balls to the wall and truly has taken back command of his voice.
He put on a few pounds also which I think is helping with his energy. Truly impressive.

Next was Après Vous from NOW WHAT. This song really does work live and they did a great job with it.

Next up was Hard Loving Man. They did another stellar performance of this old classic from In Rock.
Gillan brought out his GONG as usual and though I have seen this done a couple of times now, it is quite funny and the crowd loves it.

Strange Kind of Woman from Fireball followed and Gillan really shined on it with a great vocal/guitar battle with Steve Morse.

Back to NOW WHAT with Vincent Price. It has really become a great concert song and they have arranged it really well. Great reception too.

CONTACT LOST from Bananas came next. This song was originally about 2 minutes long but has now progressed into a 5 minute
intro into another NOW WHAT song… Uncommon Man which is a tribute to JON LORD and combined is really heart felt. CHILLS.

WELL DRESSED GUITAR from Rapture of the Deep followed. As much as I had grown a little tired of it, it has evolved into quite a crowd pleaser.
This is one song that fits better and better and the band has taken it to a much stronger level than when first introduced years back.

Ah yes, The MULE from Fireball along with a very well executed drum solo from IAN PAICE including his lighted sticks in the dark.

The loud growl of the Hammond from Don Airey lead into LAZY from Machine Head. The band really kicked in on this one.
Love seeing Ian Gillan break out his harmonica. He should re-establish use of the bongos too. Maybe some day.

Yet another tune from NOW WHAT…. HELL TO PAY. This has actually become one of my favorite Live tunes. It has great energy and vibe.
Especially the middle of it where Don Airey takes off really gives it some punch. Awesome to see and hear the crowd interact on it also.
“GONNA BE HELL!” This would have been a major hit in the 80’s. Gillan raising his fist…. “Up the revolution…..”. GREAT STUFF!

This leads into an awesome solo by Don Airey including some very touching Piano work that you just didn’t want to end.

Then came the intro to PERFECT STRANGERS from Perfect Strangers. Another great crowd pleaser and never tiresome. Great rendition.

Big Ian introduces the next tune, SPACE TRUCKIN’ from Machinehead and the crowd jumped up and got really involved.
Roger really let loose on this one. He even mimed playing the drum roll at the beginning. Big Ian got a kick out of it.

The final song of the main set? SMOKE ON THE WATER with a 1 minute long intro of a song by Steve Morse that I didn’t recognize but the crowd did
and were very responsive. SOTW might be old and warn out to me but the crowd loves it and brings the house down every time.

With a farewell and typical walk off stage moment, they waved in appreciation to the audience throwing pics and drum sticks out to the crowd.
Roger motioned and pointed to each of the band members and they acknowledged back while the crowd cheered for each.
They left the stage momentarily but returned quickly due to the roaring demand from a very engaged audience again with thanks from the band
for a blistering encore which began with a nice1 minute sampling of GREEN ONIONS which was the intro to HUSH.
Another tune that brought down the house including a great keyboard and guitar duel from Don and Steve. Nicely done for sure.

Finally and unfortunately, the final song of an incredible show beginning with a very well done Bass Solo intro from Roger.

which lead into BLACK NIGHT.

And once again, the farewell ensues and the band again graciously thanks the audience and waves, threw pics and drum sticks out to the crowd.

The show may be over, but the night is long from over. Time to head back to the Hospitality Room and chat with the band.

First of all, we spent some time with Roger whom came through again. The beer was flowing and there were a lot of folks back there so they
were spread pretty thin regarding one on one chat time. As usual though, they really try and accommodate.

Don Airey as usual is his delectable and distinguished self sipping on a glass of wine. CHEERZ DON!

Steve Morse had a huge crowd that he brought in from down in Florida, including Sarah Spencer whom he
recorded the album “Angel Fire” with, and it took him a while to get out and mingle with the rest of us but he did and shared a story with us
regarding the last time he played the Ryman with his band around 10 years ago and was sabotaged before the show by a rival guitar company.

Then my all time favorite drummer and drumming mentor. IAN PAICE approached. Man talk about a kid in a candy store. THAT WOULD BE ME!

Ian Gillan didn’t make it to the Greet. Based on how well he is singing, I think he is really taking care of himself on tour and cutting down on too much
Interaction with us Strange Folk. Less chance of catching a bug and also allows for some good rest. Wish he had come down though. Still have that
one of a kind album sleeve from his solo career that I am trying to get him to see and sign. Maybe next time. As a bonus, I was invited to hang out
with them the next evening at an Irish Pub along with some friends they made during the recording of NOW WHAT. So I did just that.
Don Airey and Roger arrived along with a local band that plays this pub and some other friends. I got to sit at the bar with Roger and Don chat and throw
down a couple of ales. Great little pub with some great food. What a great time I had seeing my favorite band in the world and being able to
Sit and chat with them also. Please don’t wake me from this lifetime dream I am living……

Well all I can say here is that I was truly impressed with the band and their performance. I remember 10 years ago when they finally came out
with Rapture of the Deep after almost 8 years since the previous album Bananas before saying, This is going to be the last time we see them.
But, every year they prove me wrong and hit the road again and each time over the last 5 years, they actually seem to be getting better and better.
Gillan really did surprise me with his energy and power on that stage. I have said it before and I will say it again….. GO SEE THEM! They are slated to go into
the studio around February and are pushing to get an album out before the end of 2016. Bob Ezrin was in attendance also here at this show.
Can’t wait for that and yet another chance to see them live. As with most here at THS, I would also like more songs from other MK7/8 albums.
Also it is time to exchange out a couple of NOW WHAT songs. Drop Après Vous for either Weirdistan or Out of Hand.
These are perfect live songs that have yet to be played. Still going to bitch here about the
the time frame also. No less than 2 hours should be played. 90 minute sets from a band like this is way too short and that extra 30 minutes allows
for just the right amount of time to really throw in some good obscure stuff along with the 5 or 6 staples that must be played. Yes I know, I am
a broken record regarding this issue but I know I am not alone in this. Most folks have to shell out lots of money and drive a long way to see Purple
because they only hit a small section of the States each time and like myself, the majority of folks go on a long road trip or fly to see them.
2 HOURS! PLEASE!
My buddy Stoffer is a perfect example. He drove down from St. Louis. When you are a band that draws in a fan base like that, you have to give back.
OK, I will get off the pulpit now and close with this. We are just 3 years away from Deep Purple’s 50th Anniversary. I feel fairly confident they have a
desire to be around for that so I am comfortable with the fact that there should be some more time to see these amazing players live over the next few
years. By all means go and see them as often as you can. When is over it is over. Don’t let a show pass you by if you can make it there.

CH-BEERZ

Tracy (Zero the Hero) Heyder

Celeste Center
Columbus, Ohio
August 5th, 2015

Last night was my 6th Purple show and while they are always good, I can say that without question it was the best show I’ve ever seen them do. It wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close.
The venue was a 10,000 seat multi-purpose, for lack of a better description, metal barn. It had a low ceiling, small stage and had about 6,000 elevated seats with the other 4,000 being floor seats. I’d estimate the crowd to have been 6,000 to 7,000 people. It was a mostly older crowd with a smattering of youngsters.
Musically, the band was tight as ever and the guys really played both with each other and off each other last night. Everyone had a smile on their face and you could really tell that they were having a great time playing. Everyone had a solo break and for me, Roger’s bass solo was the most fun. Well Dressed Guitar was also a standout and got a great crowd reaction.
Big Ian was in rare form last night. He stayed on stage with fewer breaks behind the curtain than I’ve ever seen. He was engaged with the band and audience and sounded the best I’ve ever heard him. He struggled just a bit hitting the high notes in Highway Star but otherwise he simply nailed it all night. I did note that he kept the range lower in Space Trucking but I think he simply played to his strengths, while keeping his voice in great shape for the entire show. He can clearly still hit the highs and did a lot of call and response with Steve. I was truly impressed by the range and strength his voice had last night. Simply superb!
My only disappointment with the show was that this set had more instrumental sections than any previous sets. Again, this is minor as I love the show of musicianship, but I found the breaks to be a little more than I like. To me, they disrupted some of the pacing of the set. That being said, my guess would be that breaks gave Ian a few more minutes to rest is voice and if that’s the case, it certainly paid off. Beyond a doubt this was the tightest, best gig I’ve ever seen. These guys are still on top of their game and still seem enthused by the reaction to Now What?!
As far as Now What?! goes, four songs were played from it last night, all with good crowd response. Hell to Pay, while I’m not a fan of big chorus on the track, got a great crowd response with a lot of people singing it back to the band. I’d guess that song stays in the set for a while.
The band played for roughly 1:45 minutes last night. The set list was:
Highway Star
Apres Vous
Hard Loving Man
Strange Kind of Woman
Vincent Price
Contact Lost
Uncommon Man
Well Dressed Guitar
The Mule
Lazy
Hell to Pay
Keyboard Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Trucking
Smoke on the Water
Hush
Black Night

Would have liked to have heard something from Perpendicular but I have no complaints with the set list. I hope these guys continue on for a while longer yet. I can’t wait to see how they sound for my 7th show.

Deep Purple live at Hard Rock Casino (Sioux City, USA 2015-08-07)

Was all geared up to attend the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in nearby South Dakota when my biker buddy suffered a heart attack just three weeks prior to the event. Not being coordinated enough to risk riding a bike – I booked a flight to Sioux City and rented a car to meet him at Sturgis. Well, the “good” folks at the Buffalo Chip camp facility couldn’t find it in their hearts to either refund his tickets or transfer ownership of said tickets – they opted to grant him that very spot for next year. Lovely folks. Anyway, yours truly, being a Deep Purple fan, and unable to make the shows in California, purchased a ticket to the Hard Rock Cafe to see my heroes in Sioux City Iowa of all places. Granted, I, had a few days to kill and a rented car so I discovered a show by John Fogerty over in Bismarck, North Dakota and drove there to see him at the Bismarck Events Center. Lovely drive – lots and lots of corn. The Fogerty gig kicked ass – worth the trip just for that. Had two more days to kill so I drove to Minneapolis – lots and lots of corn.
Finally, Friday morning, drove to Sioux City, Iowa. You guessed it – lots and lots of corn. Checked into the Holiday Inn and found a pub that was serving all you can eat, fish and chips. A couple of beers and over to the gig. Coincidentally, John Fogerty’s gig, was a celebration of 1969 – the first time I saw Deep Purple was 1969. Worth celebrating, indeed! Black Oak Arkansas opened for Purple here in Sioux City – another coincidence, I saw Deep Purple at Winterland in 1972, and, yup, Black Oak Arkansas opened up that show, too. (For the purist- Bull Angus was also on that bill). Saw Deep Purple the year before and cringed my way through it as big Ian blew out his vocals in the first three songs. Glad to report that that wasn’t the case here. In fact, he sounded fantastic. Reminded me of the Bananas tour and those great gigs in San Francisco, LA and Las Vegas. A huge kudos to the sound guys – absolutely one of the best sounding gigs, ever! The stage setup, too, was fantastic and complimented the band, well. For those of us who have seen the band on multiple tours we can always debate the song selection – however, I totally get the need to play those “classic hits” for the US market. It is what it is. That being said, the lads played their hearts out and the audience in Sioux City responded in kind making for a magical evening. And, if this was Major League Baseball, they’d be testing Mr. Paice for steriods – kills on that kit like a guy thirty years younger. Whew!!!

review by Victor Martinez

Roger Glover was a guest of a recent episode of One On One With Mitch Lafon. The show starts with a chat with Alice Cooper guitarist Tommy Henriksen; Roger’s segment starts shortly after the 10 minute mark and although he sounds pretty tired, he soldiers for 30 minutes, talking about many things, from what he learned from Bob Ezrin, to waking up in a small town up in the Swiss Alps one day.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

The record company has published Space Truckin’ video teaser for From The Setting Sun… (In Wacken) and …To The Rising Sun (In Tokyo):

Both releases are due out on August 28 simultaneously. Both will be released in the following formats:

• CD+DVD
• Blu-ray (3D and 2D for Wacken, 2D for Tokyo)
• DVD
• 3LP
• Digital download

It appears that Wacken Blu-ray will be the first 3D video release for the band.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the video link.

Deep Purple live at Celeste Center (Columbus, USA 2015-08-05)

Last night was my 6th Purple show and while they are always good, I can say that without question it was the best show I’ve ever seen them do. It wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close.

The venue was a 10,000 seat multi-purpose, for lack of a better description, metal barn. It had a low ceiling, small stage and had about 6,000 elevated seats with the other 4,000 being floor seats. I’d estimate the crowd to have been 6,000 to 7,000 people. It was a mostly older crowd with a smattering of youngsters.

Musically, the band was tight as ever and the guys really played both with each other and off each other last night. Everyone had a smile on their face and you could really tell that they were having a great time playing. Everyone had a solo break and for me, Roger’s bass solo was the most fun. Well Dressed Guitar was also a standout and got a great crowd reaction.

Big Ian was in rare form last night. He stayed on stage with fewer breaks behind the curtain than I’ve ever seen. He was engaged with the band and audience and sounded the best I’ve ever heard him. He struggled just a bit hitting the high notes in Highway Star but otherwise he simply nailed it all night. I did note that he kept the range lower in Space Trucking but I think he simply played to his strengths, while keeping his voice in great shape for the entire show. He can clearly still hit the highs and did a lot of call and response with Steve. I was truly impressed by the range and strength his voice had last night. Simply superb!

My only disappointment with the show was that this set had more instrumental sections than any previous sets. Again, this is minor as I love the show of musicianship, but I found the breaks to be a little more than I like. To me, they disrupted some of the pacing of the set. That being said, my guess would be that breaks gave Ian a few more minutes to rest is voice and if that’s the case, it certainly paid off. Beyond a doubt this was the tightest, best gig I’ve ever seen. These guys are still on top of their game and still seem enthused by the reaction to Now What?!

As far as Now What?! goes, four songs were played from it last night, all with good crowd response. Hell to Pay, while I’m not a fan of big chorus on the track, got a great crowd response with a lot of people singing it back to the band. I’d guess that song stays in the set for a while.

The band played for roughly 1:45 minutes last night. The set list was:

Highway Star

Apres Vous

Hard Loving Man

Strange Kind of Woman

Vincent Price

Contact Lost

Uncommon Man

Well Dressed Guitar

The Mule

Lazy

Hell to Pay

Keyboard Solo

Perfect Strangers

Space Trucking

Smoke on the Water

Hush

Black Night

Would have liked to have heard something from Perpendicular but I have no complaints with the set list. I hope these guys continue on for a while longer yet. I can’t wait to see how sound for my 7th show.

review by Scott McNay

Phil Collen of Def Leppard fame has a side new project — a heavy blues band called Delta Deep. Their self-titled debut album sounds pretty good to these ears. But that’s not the reason we mention it here. And the reasons are twofold: first, David Coverdale had dropped by and sang on one of the tracks — Private Number; and second, the album closes with a cover of Mistreated (with guest vocals from Phil’s day job coworker Joe Elliott).

Delta Deep is Phil Collen (vocals, guitars), Debbi Blackwell-Cook (vocals), Forrest Robinson (drums, percussion), and Robert DeLeo (bass).

Thanks to Bengt Johansson for the info.

Back in 1970s Cliff Richard was hosting a TV show called It’s Cliff Richard. When the show was relaunched in September 1975 as It’s Cliff and Friends, the first episode opened with him performing Love Is All by Roger Glover and Eddie Hardin:

As you may have heard, Eddie Hardin passed away on July 23 this year.

Thanks to MrsPeetGallee for the video and to Nigel Young for bringing it to your attention.

This weekend the Rock Meets Classics performed at Wacken Open Air. Joe Lynn Turner was part of the gang, and they performed Stargazer in tribute to Ronnie James Dio:

Performers:
Joe Lynn Turner
Mat Sinner Band
Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Prague conducted by Bernard Fabuljan

Complete 86 minute performance of Rock Meets Classics will be available for your viewing pleasure from arte.tv until November (at least as far as my German goes). And I must admit, despite my scepticism towards these “cover bands on steroids”, it is a lot of fun. But then again, we already knew that Thunderstruck pretty much anything performed on cellos is a lot of fun, didn’t we?

Thanks to Martin Ashberry for the heads up.

Deep Purple live at Capitol Theatre (Port Chester, USA 2015-07-25)

My 21 1st Deep Purple show spanning 40 years this past Saturday evening at the Capital Theater located about twenty miles north of New York City. Offering a semi spoiler alert here. For those who wish to see the list see the Lewiston, New York review. Very good local three piece opening act came on at 7:55 and played strong power pop for thirty minutes. Our seats were next to the sound board so i asked the sound man ( who I had met two days earlier at the TODAY SHOW..more on that in a bit) what time Purple was coming on. He said 9:00. after a quick run to the mens room was back in my seat at 8:53 and the lights went down and intro music began at 8:55. Apparently I was not the only one caught by surprise. When Ian Gillan took the stage for Highway Star Steve Morse pointed to his watch and smiled. During the course of the first two numbers Ian shook hands with all of his bandmates, later explaining that he missed the ritual backstage hand shake they always do before taking the stage.
Having seen the set list in advance I have to say I was not looking forward to this as much as in the past, at least intially before the excitement built in the theater. Was very pleased that they did four songs from NOW WHAT, but would have gladly traded one of those for another Morse era song such as Ted the Mechanic or even The Aviator ( I don not count Contact Loss and Well Dressed Guitar as the are part of every show these days). The deep cut song was once again Hard Loving Man, and although it was a great performance, they did this number last year. Is it really necessary to do it two years in a row? Would love to have heard Flight of the Rat or maybe Place in Line or Rat Bat Blue.
All that said, it was a very energetic performance, more so than last year. Part of this might have been due to the proximity to Conneticut and having so many family and friends and management types there.
I was EXTREMELY fortunate to be one of the camera operators on the TODAY SHOW performance. A brief word about that. Was able to meet all of the guys there and they were VERY excited to play, even at such a strange hour, as Ian Paice said. They were thrilled with the set up and sound, and if you watch the performance you will hear an excellent mix ( and see some fine camera work:)
After the TODAY SHOW song was able to secure backstages passes for the Capital show ( we already had our tix). Talked to Roger briefly and my wife and I also had a lovely extended conversation with Steve, mostly about family and non musicial things. I did him about a future Flying Colors record and he said he would like to but it was a question of finding the free time for everyone.

review by Eric A. Eisenstein