On June 26 Episode Six had their reunion at the Sheila Carter’s house in England. Later that day, the Roger’s sister Christine 60th birthday party witnessed a reunion of Roger’s very first band — The Madisons. Roger writes about those days:

The three of us needed a drummer and a singer and so we approached Harvey Shield, who could often be heard rehearsing drums with the pipe and drum school military band. The conversation went something like, “Ere, Harvey, ‘ave got your own kit?” Having replied in the affirmative he was duly invited into our fledgling enterprise. Mike Duvall was good looking, played pretty good piano and also sang so he became the last one to complete our line-up.
We settled on the name because American pop music was far cooler than its British counterpart and one of the few American names we had heard of was Madison Square Garden. Of course, we would never consider having the word ’square’ in our name – it was a very powerful word describing anything that was uncool – and so we became The Madisons.

Rad the whole story of the slightly Dickensian school days in Harrow, the mesmerized teenager, The Madisons, which eventually merged with another local band The Lightnings, which eventually became Episode Six, on RogerGlover.com.

At last Deep Purple play Belfast. Unfortunately, due to the financial collapse of the promoter, the show was moved from the outdoor Custom House Square to the nearby St George’s Market.

The market, a working market for much of the week and across the road from the Waterfront Hall, does not share it’s neighbour’s fine acoustics. In fact the sound is possibly the worst in any venue I have been to with harsh reverberations and howling feedback.

Gillan and Morse particularly seemed to struggle initially to hear themselves; the singer walking almost off stage at times during the opening couple of songs in an apparent attempt to hear himself and the guitarist suffering tuning problems necessitating several changes of guitar.

The Belfast crowd however were pleased to have the band here at last and sang along throughout. And, despite the poor sound, the band were on fantastic form. Gillan was in good voice; Glover was clearly enjoying himself; and Paicey proved again that no-one can touch him.

Don Airey seemed less of a hired hand than I’ve seen him before. But this was definitely Steve Morse’s night. He was superb – firing picks into the crowd while rattling off amazing riffs and solos. He has been in the band as long as the man in black was and is as key as his three longer serving bandmates.

Hopefully DP will return. And hopefully they will get the venue they deserve next time.

Setlist:-
Highway star
Ted the mechanic
Strange kind of woman
Maybe I’m a Leo
Rapture of the deep
Fireball
Contact
Sometimes
The well dressed guitar
Mary long
Lazy
No one came
Don airey solo
Perfect strangers
Space truckin’
Smoke on the water

Green onions
Hush
Black night

Deep Purple make a long overdue return to South Africa after a 15 year break. They were last here in March 1995 just before the release of Perpendicular.

The concert was kicked off by Wishbone Ash and Uriah Heep doing short sets before Purple hit the stage at approx 10pm. Having last seen them live in Holland during the Bananas tour in 2004 at the Bospop festival, I was eagerly anticipating this show having missed a couple of other opportunities of seeing them in the UK more recently.

The venue was great, sound & lighting excellent but the organisation of food & drinks were a shambles. Gillan looked a bit tired and didn’t have much inter song chat as usual but he still has a great voice. Roger was as solid as ever and seemed to be enjoying himself as usual. Ian Paice was rock solid and got rave reviews from some of my drummer friends.

Don Airey was brilliant and had that Hammond screaming at times. His solo and build up to Perfect Strangers was fantastic. Steve Morse was really enjoying himself out there and most of the comments I have heard post-show were about his amazing ability & tone.

Set List as far as I can remember :-
Highway Star
Things I never Said
Strange Kind of Woman
Maybe I’m a Leo
Rapture of the Deep
Fireball
Contact Lost / Well dressed guitar (morse solo)
Sometimes I feel like screaming
Mary Long
Lazy
No one Came
Don Airey solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Trucking
Smoke on the Water
Encores:
Hush
Black Night

All in all a great concert and hope we don’t have to wait another 15 years to see them again in South Africa, unlikely as that would be as Gillan & Co. would be in their 70’s by then!!!

Cheers,
Dereck

Almost 1 year ago I told you the story, how hundreds of Georgian fans travelled 2000km to see Deep Purple’s concert in Istanbul and to meet Ian Gillan personally.

Now I tell you, how 1,000 Georgian fans travelled to Armenia for Purple’s concert again. We all rented 5 buses, several mini-buses, taxes, personal cars and trains to arrive there from Tbilisi. The way to Yerevan was kind of boring, because the transport was movi8ng slowly. But it doesn’t matter, we watched DP DVD-s at the bus, so, we were at the right mood and totally ready to rock.

I had one more reason for being exremely happy: a planned meeting with Ian Gillan. Of course, there was Sally, Gillan’s P.A. (probably one of the lovelyiest girl I’ve ever met); there was Bron, Ian’s beautiful wife, there were we – 5 Georgian fans and IAN. The meeting was very emotional and after that, we had left nothing to do but waitting for the concert.

There was NO standing tickets for the show, all seated. What an annoying decision for the rock concert.but there was a big space left from the first row till the stage. Georgian fans agreed before the concert that we would fill the space, so that to make an unofficial Front Of The Stage STANDING situation. And we did. from the first second of Highway Star, the crazy crowd of 200-300 Georgians rushed into the front of stage, including me.

The 10,000 capacity indoor stadium Demirchyan was sold out!!! From the first second of concert I thought: “oh my god, did Purple guys find the elexir of constant youth?”. They were in at least 2-times better shape than in Istanbul last year. Gillan was screaming out the arena. He hit all those high notes in Highway Star, Fireball and Space Trucking. Yes! he did that.

During the Fireball I thought that I was living not in 2010, but somewhere in 1972-73. They did a BOMBING version of Fireball. My personal highlights were… amm… actually there was not particular highlight at the show, because THE WHOLE SHOW WAS A ONE BIG HIGHLIGHT ITSELF!!!

oh, and yes, A HUGE THANKS for thehighwaystar.com as I met one Iranian fan who I knew from here. They (Iranians) were three – all of them rocking and rolling like crazy people – with us.

This is how Deep Purple had one eye to Asia (on the last tour), and another to Caucasus. I met Kate, probably the hardest-core DP fan you could imagine EVER! she’s a [maybe] 25 yrs old nice girl from Germany and she has attended… hold your breath – she has attended more than 150 Purple concerts, another 40 concerts from upcoming European tour already booked.

P.S. When I first started listening to Deep Purple, my first thought was “will I ever be able to see them live?”. Now I’m 21 yrs old and have seen them for 2 times.
Attending Purple show isn’t my dream anymore. I have another dream right now: to attend more DP concerts than Kate has done ever 😀 haha

Setlist:
Intro – Romeo et Julliet (by Prokofiev)
Highway Star
Things I Never Said
Maybe I’m a Leo
Strange Kind Of Woman
Rapture Of the Deep
Fireball
Contact Lost
Steve Morse Solo
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Well Dressed Guitar
Mary Long
Lazy
No One Came
Don Airey Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Trucking
Smoke On The Water
——————
Hush
Black Night

The Deep Purple Hub, the fan-forum and show resource website that has grown steadily since its inception a few years ago, has taken the next logical step in that growth: a domain name and their own server. You will now find it at http://deeppurplehub.com.

An Irish site dedicated to promoting independent bands have published nothing short of a glowing review of the June 30 show in Cork:

Deep Purple are considered one of the founding fathers of heavy metal. Once crowned the loudest band in the world in the Guinness book of world records, Deep Purple blazed a trail from the early seventies with their unmistakeable combination of blistering guitar licks, fuzz-fuelled keyboard solos, space-high vocals and accomplished rhythm section. They captured the minds and the ears of audiences with unforgettable riffs such as “Smoke on the Water”, “Black Night” and “Woman from Tokyo”. But today Deep Purple is a well-travelled band who has undergone more changes in their 40 years than our fluctuating economy…

Continue reading at Musicnews.ie.

Thanks to Mike Quinlan for the info.

Several Deep Purple archival (re)releases are currently in production due for later this year:

1. The 35th anniversary edition of Come Taste The Band with the album freshly remixed by Kevin Shirley and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
2. A blue ray edition of Rises Over Rapan with 5.1 surround sound and a newly produced documentary showcasing the Mk4 period.
3. A 30th anniversary edition of Deepest Purple with an extended track listing and bonus DVD featuring newly created from archival footage music videos for Child in Time, Woman from Tokyo, Stormbringer and Might Just Take Your Life.

As for the current lineup, performance at the Caribana Festival in Crans-près-Céligny, Switzerland on June 9th was recorded in 3D video.
<speculation>
We have no further info. Just a sneak suspicion that a certain Funky Claude, who was always quick to embrace new technologies, might have been involved. Once the technology settles in, the show might be released in whatever will be the format of the day.
</speculation>

The album is released by Mascot Records in the UK and Europe on Monday September 20th, followed by a North American release via J&R Adventures on September 21st.

After the Deep Purple’s Joensuu show has been cancelled a few days ago, we now have received news that Turku show is cancelled as well. YLE.fi speculates that both shows have been cancelled due to poor ticket sales caused by competition:

The Deep Purple shows likely suffered from competition from two big rock festivals, this weekend’s Tuska in Helsinki — starring Megadeth, W.A.S.P. and Testament — and next week’s Ruisrock in Turku, starring Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, the Specials and Canned Heat.

This caused a slew of cancellations and shifting the gigs to smaller venues. Other affected artist include Beach Boys, Green Day, Joan Jett, Nick Lowe, Dr John, and Good Charlotte.

Thanks to YLE.fi for the info.

Roger Glover writes in his first (and hopefully not the last) installment of Road Life notes:

A few years ago, I had descended from my hotel room a trifle early before a concert. I was sitting in the bar having a swift half when someone recognized me. “Aren’t you excited?” he inquired excitedly, quivering with his own. I politely asked him what about. He stared at me incredulously, “Tonight, the concert is tonight.” “Oh that, no, not particularly excited,” I replied, rather too nonchalantly. That’s when it struck me – how accustomed had I become to the world of industrial-strength touring that what to many would be a high point of the week, month or year was to me merely a date on the calendar – another city along the way? There was a time when the thought of getting a gig at a local pub sent me into spasms of exhilaration and the anticipation had my blood thumping. Have I become so inured by the sheer volume of years on the road that I have lost that simple pleasure? What happened to the boy that worked so hard at the paper round, patiently saving his precious cash so that one day, maybe, he’d have enough for a down payment on that red Hofner bass guitar that shined so alluringly through the dirty window of the local music shop?

Read the rest at RogerGlover.com.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.