Rapture of the Deep’s third passage in my city. We all thought that would be nothing really new besides Mary Long and The Battle Rages On, but… here it is (read the comments after the set list):

Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said
Into the Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Mary Long
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Contact Lost
Steve Morse Solo
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Steve Morse Riff Parade
The Well Dressed Guitar
The Battle Rages On
Lazy
Don Airey Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Morse/Glover Jam
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water
—-
Hush (+Ian Paice Solo)
Roger Glover Intro
Black Night

– Pictures of Home: a powerful music to start with, but the highlight was that they played the final part of CHILD IN TIME solo… I mean… that part just before it gets slow again… wonderful to hear this alive!

– Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming: this is the most successful song from Morse era here in Brasil, and the last time that was played here was 2000 at the Concerto tour. Well… just after Contact Lost and his solo, Steve Morse started his riff parade with SIFLS… the audince got crazy and Gillan came back from the back of the stage, whispered in Morse’s ear and signalled for the band… so the song was played!

I think big Ian just wanted an extract for the song, but the band continued to play… the end of the song and the structure was diferent… Gillan forgot some lyrics… so the song was played in a very improvised way, but very authentic… a unique moment! I confess that I cried a little bit… That was exactly what I love in Deep Purple. Thank you guys!

Steve Morse/Roger Glover Jam before HS and Glover Intro before BN: I know these have been played for a long time… but now it’s longer and more elaborated… it’s fair to be listed separated at the set list!

Ian Paice solo: his solos in 2003, 2005 and 2006 were really short, but today he did a long and powerful one, just like the best days!

The Riff Parade: Sweet Child O’Mine as usual, but I got surprised to hear Crazy Train, from Ozzy… Don Airey run to play it too, but when he got at the keyboard, Morse stoped =P …Paranoid was played too!

Men In Black: I need to mention this… at some point of the show, the band (I think Big Ian) asked to get out all the security guys between the band and the audience! 🙂

Well. This was my 15th concert (not counting rehearsals in 2000) and my seventh concert with Don Airey… I can say this was the best with Don, since 2003. No doubt about it. Perfect night!

Cheers!

Marcel Vinicius

Photo by Carlos Coca Junior

Hard on the heels of the successful auction of Jon Lord’s Durham Concerto CD the Linda McCartney Cancer Centre will again be the beneficiary of the sale of a Deep Purple-related item, this time a poster from the Gillan’s Inn tour in 2006 signed by Ian and the band. If you are interested in bidding, then head to eBay UK.

Thanks to Lesley Worrall for the info.

Talk about hard touring band…

We’ve just received tour dates for the October/November Deep Purple tour of Germany. These are preliminary dates, they come from the site of promoter Klaus Bönisch, and at this point are very unconfirmed and subject to change.

Deep Purple have never been strangers in Germany and tour there almost every year. The country was skipped in the 2007 schedule, but it looks like promoters and the band are making up for it this year with two tours — one in the summer and one in the fall.

Prost!

Thanks to Akiko Hada for the info.

More Black Than Purple will be hosting a Purple convention on May 3rd in Bedford, UK:

Wymer UK is pleased to announce a Deep Purple convention celebrating the momentous occasion of forty years since the inception of this classic hard rock band with a 12-hour marathon of all things Purple.

The event will be held on Saturday 3rd May at Esquires Club in Bedford, just 40 minutes from London St Pancras railway station.

Unlike most conventions we are also pleased to announce that there will be appearances from two former band members:

• Glenn Hughes will be making a personal appearance with a Q and A session as well as doing a unique acoustic performance of classic MKIII and IV songs.
• Original Purple bassist Nick Simper will be performing with his band the Good Old Boys.
• Rounding off the live music will be a set of Purple classics performed by Burn, with Nick Simper joining them for some MKI numbers!

In addition to this there will be guest speakers including Ian Hansford (Purple roadie from 1968-73) and Ritchie Blackmore’s former personal assistant, Rob Fodder.

During the day there will be video screenings of rare material, plus competitions, trade stalls and of course topping it all off the live music (as listed above) in the evening, finishing around midnight.

A splendid day is guaranteed for all Purple fans so come along, meet other like-minded fans and join in the fun. The Esquires club is an intimate venue and tickets are limited so order now to avoid disappointment.

Tickets can be ordered online from the MBTP Store.

For more information on the event check out the following link:
http://moreblackthanpurple.co.uk/convention.htm

More details will also be published in the forthcoming issue of More Black than Purple, which has been slightly delayed so all the latest on the convention can be included.

Thanks to Rob Fodder for the info.

Ian Gillan’s article about his experiences in Moscow Kremlin appeared today in online edition of The Sunday Times:

The Kremlin gig wasn’t as straight as all that. The younger guys and more junior staff were all up on their feet, although they were looking nervously over at their bosses to see whether they could loosen their ties. It was as if they were asking, “How much fun are we allowed to have?”

When we met Medvedev he had this stupid grin on his face because he was meeting his favourite band. We had a nice chat but we didn’t talk about politics. All of us in the band have such wildly different opinions on religion and politics that we never get into it.

Read the whole thing here.

Thanks to Blabbermouth.net for the info.

You may have noticed The Highway Star has a somewhat different look now. True. We have incorporated more content management software into the website, which should allow for smoother interaction between you, our readers, and back to us, the editors. A couple of improvements above the waterline are the new tour dates page and a new way of submitting your own tour reviews.

We have tried to retain as much of the old identity as we could. To do so, many of our pages have been revisited and converted to the new format. Some had to be moved around. It is possible things were missed or broken in the conversion, so please let us know if you find something that doesn’t work. Or leave a reply right here.

This upgrade is another step in our efforts to make The Highway Star an even more useful resource for you. We do have plans for more, bigger, and better things still to come. So if you have something in particular you would like to see us focus on — or just want to comment on the changes so far, please do. After all, The Highway Star is ‘made for the fans, by the fans’.

The 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival will be held on July 4-19 this year. Deep Puple are included in the preliminary festival program announced a couple of weeks ago. The program should be finalized by April 17th.

Our boys established a good tradition of coming back to the Lake Geneva shoreline every few years — they’ve played the festival in 1996, then 2000, 2004 and 2006. The 40th anniversary festival in 2006 featured Ian Gillan, Steve Morse and Roger Glover on it’s artwork designed by Julian Opie.

The Kremlin gig from February 11 was broadcasted today, February 15th on Russian ORT Channel 1. Smoke on the Water from Purple’s set was included in the broadcast:
Continue Reading »

A new interview with David Coverdale appeared this morning on several sites. He talks mostly about the new album, Good To Be Bad:

Would you say that GOOD TO BE BAD is a mixture between your blues roots and a modern attitude? Any other influences?

For me it has all the elements, all the ingredients that I enjoy about Whitesnake…It’s a very solid, muscular, melodic rock record with a couple of fine ballads, so, there’s a little tenderness when the moment calls for it…& of course the ballads help balance out the chest beaters! I find it a very complete piece of work, actually…It covers a lot of musical ground…A positive chapter in the Book Of Whitesnake… I’m able to sing from a whisper to a scream, with all points in between, very comfortably with the new material… We also tried some new musical keys for me to sing in…which made it very fresh, interesting & fun… When Doug & I sat down to jam on each others song ideas the structure of the album was evident pretty much immediately…it came together very naturally… There was never a danger of compromising the acknowledged identity of Whitesnake for the sake of trying to be modern…or fashionable… I’d say if there was any influence it would be all the previous elements that have come together to make what is Whitesnake, coupled with the very welcome fresh injection from Doug , Chris, Timothy, Uriah & Reb… Chris Frazier has brought a very Paicey feel back to the band…He swings, grooves, rocks & rolls…A very pleasing foundation to build from…Whitesnake’s got it’s groove back! As a band, these guys know how to tell the Whitesnake story very well indeed…

The interview was conducted by Matthias Mineur and appeared on a number of different sites. We are not quite sure who reprinted it from whom, so we’ll send you to whitesnake.com to read it 😉 — here.

Deep Purple are confirmed to play in London, UK on July 30 at the ExCeL. This is the venue for the British International Motor Show. Tickets can be ordered at www.seetickets.com and concert tickets include admission to the motor show during the day.