Date: 2011-06-08
Venue: Bushnell Theatre, Hartford, CT, USA

I’ve been reading a lot of negative comments regarding the US tour. Well, I’ll tell you this my fellow dp friends/fans. These guys put on one of the best performances I have seen. And I’ve seen DP with the banjo player and with Steve several times.

The concert rocked from start to finish. Rapture of the Deep was great. No One Came – fantastic. I spoke with the band after the show and they said this was the best crowd response yet. I had 6th row, floor seats. The crowd rushed the stage by the 2nd song. On our feet the whole time. Mixed age’s. Packed house. Everyone was spot on!! Ian’s vocals were terrific, Steve’s guitar playing is second to none. Roger, well is Roger. Always having a blast!!

Don’t miss this show people, you’ll regret it. Long live the Morse Era!!

Date: 2011-06-06
Venue: Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada

I attended the Deep Purple with orchestra show in Montreal with family and friends last Monday. On the way to grab a quick beer and some food with my nephew before the show, our route took us right beside the Place des Arts venue. As I was stopped at a traffic light I looked towards the venue just as Roger Glover was exiting a vehicle and heading inside. Cool… had to be a good sign.

Eddie and the Automatics began their set at 8 pm sharp. Two former members of Boston in this group and the 9 minute Boston medley was outstanding. Deep Purple took to the stage at 9 pm. The set began with the 20 something piece orchestra playing and then the band began with Highway Star. They looked and played with great energy and, as usual, great proficiency. I had thought the orchestra might take the edge off the sound a bit but I was wrong. The songs were tight and the orchestral accompaniments were well timed and sounded great. The venue, normally reserved for jazz and classical music acts, provided a great setting for the show. The capacity for the arena was around 3000 and the show was sold out.

We met the band after the show, thanks to Roger Glover, who I first met in 1982. Everyone came out except Ian Gillan. We talked about touring (the guys have been out for 10 months now), Roger’s latest addition to the family, Colin Hart’s new book and what it was like to play with an orchestra. I spoke to a few of the orchestra players and they were thrilled to be a part of the show. In all the years I have seen this band, I am really happy that they are still having fun with the music and that they can still bring it night after night. If you get a chance to see this tour I highly recommend you do. It was nothing short of magical.

Date: 2011-06-18
Venue: Ravinia Festival
Highland Park, Illinois, United States

Me and my wife ventured on a 9 hour trek to see our heroes. We stayed a few miles away from the Park, in the Marriot Courtyard Hotel. They offered a shuttle service to and from the event for the Hotel Guests. Upon climbing aboard the van, with a few other concert goers, we began chatting about the upcoming show and I had also made mention that I had just seen ‘Black Country Communion’ at the Pageant Theater in St. Louis, Missouri. Then, a dude in the back of the van asks…. ‘Are you Tracy Heyder aka Zero the Hero?’ I turned and acknowledged as so, and it turned out that the Dude was none other than ‘Stoffer’ whom frequents THS and that I have had many a correspondence with there. With him was his wife and son. What were the chances of that meeting taking place? AMAZING!!! We chatted on the way and got some pictures together. Still can’t get over the chances of that taking place.

The show was to begin at 7:30 pm with an opening act…. “Ernie and the Automatics”. We didn’t see much of them due to taking in the park, eating their fine food, and drinking their beer. We did decide to go ahead and take in the last few songs though, and it turns out, they were quite good. A mix and match of some old veteran rockers. The original drummer for Boston and also Barry Goodreau from Boston. Didn’t catch who else was in the band, but they actually were quite good. They played some Boston tunes and others from the bands the others were from.

What a great venue this is. They have 3 concert stages. Purple played in the ‘Pavillion’. Perfect size for some good viewing and listening, no matter what seat you are in. The park is scattered with high tech speakers throughout, so you can hear the music anywhere in the park with super high quality sound. Amazing. They allow you to bring in your own food, blankets, booze, whatever, and sprawl out just soaking in the music and festivities. In our case, we had pretty good Comp. tickets and also after show guest passes, thanks to Roger…..

Now for the review…..All I can state here is…. “YEEEEOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!!”

I really didn’t know what to expect. I had my reservations regarding the Orchestra thing. I was afraid they were going to water down the songs. Man, was I wrong!! They used the Orchestra just as I had hoped. They came in with the right stuff at the right time. Nice soft nuances during the suttle parts and booming in during the heavy parts. Truly a welcome addition to the show, and they also seemed to enjoy themselves.

Set List:

1. Orchestral Intro with Short Smoke on the Water

2. Highway Star

3. Hard Lovin’ Man

4. Maybe I’m a Leo

5. Strange Kind of Woman

6. Rapture of the Deep

7. Woman from Tokyo

8. Contact Lost – with Morse solo ending

9. When A Blind Man Cries

10. Well Dressed Guitar

11. Knockin’ at Your Backdoor

12. Lazy

13. No One Came

14. Don Airey Solo

15. Perfect Strangers

16. Space Truckin’

17. Smoke on the Water

ENCORE

18. Hush – with Going Down intro

19. Black Night – with Glover Solo intro

The band was on fire. They played as well as I have seen them play and changed up many parts of the songs regarding solos and structure. Ian Gillan was in amazing form. No kidding!! He hit the high marks very well and also did an outstanding job holding notes longer. Really did sing his ass off. Don Airey finally seems to have taken hold of his position. He stood out big time. He even got all animated and pushed the Hammond around during the solo and intro to Perfect Strangers. His rendition of Lazy was as fine as any I’ve heard, even from Lord. Don thoroughly stepped up and is not laying back anymore. The Best I’ve seen from him Period. Steve did the same. It’s as though after all these years, he has decided to step out of the ‘shadow’ and make these songs His. He showed his prowess and did so with a Hard Rock feel I haven’t heard from him till now. Roger and Ian were as usual…. the steady backbone and typical familiar rhythm section that defines Purple. Roger did quite a nice solo before Black Night. Ian did a short, but sweet solo halfway through Hush. One very cool thing that took place was the Conductor joining in at the finale of Lazy with a fantastic Violin Solo and Jam with the band.

My only complaints….

A little too short and hardly any songs from the Morse/Airey era.

The show clocked in at 1 hour and 50 minutes. Not too bad…. but I still think 2 hours should be the bare minimum.

Rapture of the Deep, Contact Lost and Well Dressed Guitar were the only songs from the Morse/Airey era. This is totally unacceptable. There is absolutely no reason for this. This is where the added time I expect would come in. Take the 10 or 15 added minutes, remove a couple of the Older songs and add 5 or 6 songs from the Mk7/8 albums. Half and Half would be awesome, but at least a 3rd of the songs should be from Mk7 and Mk8.

After the show, we got to go to the meet and greet for just a couple of minutes. Roger and Don were the only ones whom came in before they were rushed out by the management of the venue whom wanted to shut down and go home. For the few minutes we had to chat, they both expressed the fact that they have some songs put together and some jams that are in working progress. They both stated an album Will be out next year. Don seemed disappointed in the lack of an album for so long. Roger just basically confirms that they don’t rush these things and it’s something that they do when they feel ready. According to him…. they are ready now.

Aside from lack of MK7/8 songs, a fantastic show, and I am truly glad to have witnessed this performance. Don’t miss the chance to see these guys. They won’t be around forever, though the way they are playing, you wouldn’t know it….

Cheers,

Tracy Heyder aka (Zero the Hero)

On June 10, Roger Glover and Steve Morse stopped by the studios of the WAXQ-FM / Q104.3 radio station in New York City and joined Gerry Martire for a special Live At 5 before the band’s show at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. Differences between Concerto and current tour, having a little jam in G, chasing Ritchie with an armchair leg in hand — all that and many more in this entertaining interview:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Second part of Ian Gillan’s interview to the Artisan news Service:

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Black Country Communion 2 was released last week in the UK and is enjoying chart success. The Official Charts Company reports that for the week ending June 25 it has topped the Rock Charts and is at #23 in general Album Charts.

Polish documentary on the life of Frédéric Chopin narrated by Ian Gillan (which we’ve covered previously) has been completed. It’s got a new title — Chopin’s Story by Ian Gillan from Deep Purple — and will be aired Polish channel Discovery Historia on June 21st. The documentary was produced by TV Project and directed by Jerzy Szkamruk. So far the film has won four international awards, the most prestigious being ‘Best Documentary’ award in Florianopolis, Brazil, in 2011.

A worldwide DVD release is also in the works, with release dates to be specified “in the nearest future”. The documentary itself clocks around 23 minutes, plus there’s a 10-minute bonus interview with Ian centering on his involvement in the project. One of the proposed DVD covers can be seen on the right.

Quoting back cover of the DVD:

The movie is about the rise of extraordinary artistic genius of Frederic Chopin and documents his Polish years. Ian Gillan, the singer of rock band Deep Purple, takes you on the journey around Poland to show how his home country and the local people helped creating one of the most prominent artist in the history of music. The movie is contemporary take on how a piece of local culture morphed into beloved treasure of European heritage.

For further info visit the movie’s official Facebook page.

Thanks to Marcin Rybacki for the info.

Here’s a little roundup of the North American press coverage for the tour that was not featured elsewhere on our site.

The Examiner has a positively glowing review and slide show of the first night at New York’s Beacon Theater on June 14:

Rock music has evolved dramatically since the heydays of the 60s, with grunge, indie, heavy metal, and thousands of sub-genres offering a rich tapestry of audio brilliance. But every one of those bands, from Megadeth to Nirvana to Arcade Fire, any band that has ever written a riff and said “hey, this rocks,” owes something to Deep Purple and its distinguished lineups over the years. That made last night’s show all the more enjoyable, beyond its raucous, two hours of straight up hard rock music that made heads bang and fists pump. The members of Deep Purple are class acts all the way, even taking time to sign autographs for fans waiting on the 75th Street stage entrance, and will serve as shining examples of how rock n’ roll is done for every future rock star to come.

Read more in The Examiner.

MLive.com has an interview with Roger Glover promoting the Detroit show on June 17. He explains how the idea of an orchestral tour came around:

We tour constantly all around the world. We have high profiles in most of the places. In America, it’s dipped a bit. We thought, ‘What can we do to say hello?’ Our manager approached promoters and someone came up with the idea of extra musicians or guests or something like that. The promoters really went with it. They believed in it so we thought, ‘Why not?’

Read more on MLive.com.

Across the river from Detroit, The Winsor Star has interviewed Don Airey:

Just spoke with Jon recently. He heard we’d added Hard Lovin’ Man to the set. He told me to play the organ line just as loud as I possibly could. He also said never get in the way of Ian Paice’s (drum) fills.

Read more in The Windsor Star.

Before the start of this tour Roger Glover did an interview for The Aquarian. This one is rather interesting as it digs a tad deeper than your usual tour-promotional fare.

How is the writing going? When did you start?

In March, we all convened in Spain, at a studio in Spain, up in the mountains. Quite idyllic. We spent about nine days, just jammed every day and got a whole bunch of ideas down.

And we’ll continue working on it later this year, probably—September, October—and it’ll be out next year. I can see into the future.

I hope the world doesn’t end before it comes out.

No, no, no. I know the date the world will end and it’s not the one they say. But I’m not telling you.

That’s fine. I’d rather not know anyway. Are you writing all the time still? It seems kind of strange to get together once, then tour and go back to writing. Is that just everyone’s schedule, or do you prefer to work that way?

Well, a lot of bands kind of write on the road. They actually work as a band. We don’t actually do that. We work as five individuals, most of the time, and writing sessions have to be orchestrated almost as closely as a tour. We all have to fly in somewhere, we’ve all got to stay somewhere, etc.

We all live in different parts of the world, so you can’t exactly call someone up and say, “I’ve got a few ideas, come on over tonight.” It’s got to be a different way. So writing tends to get done in small batches as far as the band’s concerned, but individually, we’re all writing all the time anyway. That’s what we do.

Read more in The Aquarian.

After Phoenix Rising was released in Europe, several people have complained (despite our warning) that the European DVD would not play in North American DVD palyers. Well, the domestic release did not make wait long — it’s due on June 28 via Eagle Rock Entertainment. Three packages will be available: DVD+CD, CD+DVD and blue ray. We’ve covered the details earlier. We are being assured that the contents will be identical to the European releases, but we could not get a firm responce about all the extra booklets.

Order from a store near you:

DVD+CD

CD+DVD

Blue ray