Arrived a little late but caught the end of Thin Lizzy’s set. Don’t know what to say really, all talented musicians and everyone seemed to enjoy them but they really are a covers band aren’t they, albeit a very good one.

Tommy Aldridge is always good value for money and my 19 yr old son loves watching him (it’s animal off the Muppets!). What he lacks in subtlety he makes up for in enthusiasm and effort.

Next up were Styx which surprised me as I thought they would’ve been first on. I did buy an album of theirs in my younger days (Pieces of eight) but don’t hold that against me as we’ve all got some skeletons.

Typically American, (We got us a rawk show!), my youngest son would have loved them but he missed the show due to falling ill on the day. More surprisingly my son who did come and is into Nine Inch Nails in a big way turned to me at the close of their set and said “I really enjoyed them!”

At last Purple hit the stage to the sound of Pictures of Home. I was crestfallen as one of my favourite songs was ruined by a crap mix. Sound was also much quieter than the support acts. This got sorted from Things I never said next up.

What was clear was Gillan was in fine voice much better than last time at Cardiff. To be truthful I didn’t think he was capable of being this good any more. He excelled throughout struggling only with Into the Fire.

Set list was as described in other reviews but lots of highlights for me – SKOW, Space Truckin’, Rapture, Hush, Lazy were all superb as was The Battle rages on. I’m not leaving much out am I? Yeah they were that good tonight.

For me the momentum was lost a little with Steve’s showcase spot and as much as I appreciate his skills he lacks in charisma for me. I ended up wishing time to go quicker to bring the band back in.

There’s still an air of trying desperately to gain even more acceptance of Steve from the crowd with Ian constantly cajoling the crowd to cheer him on. Not really necessary in my opinion.

Don on the other hand is sensational and now oozes confidence within the band baiting Steve to duel with him on several occasions. As much as I loved the set I’d have loved to see Before Time Began especially and Money Talks in there.

Noticed Ian’s wife Bron and possibly his daughter sat on the edge of the stage with a few others and they were really into it. Paicey was on the money as always and Roger looked to be loving being back in his homeland.

They finished with an excellent and REALLY loud Smoke and Black Night before they were gone again. Gillan gave a long and emotive goodnight which had me wondering if I’d see them back in Wales again? On this showing I certainly hope so!

Kev Roberts
South Wales

We arrived at 7.30 anticipating a look at Thin Lizzy who we remembered as a great warm up on the USA tour in New York at the Beacon in 2004, but were really disappointed to find they had been and gone!

The Cardiff International Arena is not our favourite venue, I must say, with literally over the top security and poor crowd organisation. The venue was packed and you seem to be herded like sheep wherever you go, doors locked, barricades up… A sign of the sue you mentality of the world we live in.

Anyway after getting our extremely over priced drinks we mingled to take a look at Styx who, whilst having a good sound, made us look and listen to the most unendearing patronising American boy next door pastiche and cliched antics, especially from the keyboard player (I love me, who do you love?)… Awful!!

Once they had gone we waited for a quick turn around as the crew worked excellently in setting up Purple’s gear. At approx 9.45 the band hit the stage with Pictures of home as they have done for most dates on the tour.

Sound is good from where we are (centre stage, 25m back). The first three nuumbers are turned into a medley before Ian says hello. They are all looking happy and are enjoying their’ third gig here in five years.

The set list is the same as in Manchester… A superb Into the Fire. How does Ian manage those screams at 61? He looks a little tired but still manages to sum up the stamina and deliver amazing vocals.

Steve is on form, the crowd enjoying his solo piece and Roger and Ian provide the usual solid rhythym laced by Don’s melodic tinkling on the Hammond and synth.

The set is too short for me (75min) but that is due to having three acts… obviously a commercial decision.

Since this is a Rapture tour I was disappointed that the band had dropped Junkyard Blues and Wrong Man which we felt went down so well in Paris (January 24 2006 see review) and it was nice to see The Battle Rages On but Perfect Street Rangers was sorely missed.

Let’s have a return of numbers from Purpendicular, Abandon and Bananas, songs like Screaming, Watching the Sky and Ted and House of Pain which they played so well in Denmark 2003.

They finished with the usual Machine Head numbers and an encore of Hush and Black Niught before the house lights signalled the end of another solid performance from a band who arguably are the best at their trade in the world today.

Dave Bonner

Just a quick one to say I really enjoyed the Deep Purple gig at the Arena in Newcastle.

A few moments of uncertainty at times but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the gig and the band looked to be enjoying it – smiling at each other at any such moments of hesitation.

I think the chemistry is undoubtedly still there with this band – both in the studio and live – a brilliant combination of talent, musicianship and rock’n’roll spirit, it really is a joy to behold.

I’d maybe have preferred to see the band at the City Hall but having said that it’s just superb to see this greatest of rock bands again anywhere and this was a cracking gig for me.

I’d have liked to hear some stuff like Battle Rages On having had my appetite whetted by other reviewers, but it was a real treat to hear Machine Head in its entirety, including one of my all time favourites, When a Blind Man Cries – I never get tired of them playing this one.

Maybe I’m a Leo, Highway Star, Smoke on the Water, Pictures of Home etc – unbeatable stuff.

Great to hear Rapture of the Deep live, and I really liked the opening salvo of Fireball and Things I Never Said – what start!

Encores of a brilliant Hush and Black Night rounded things off in fine style. I thought Gillan’s voice was in really fine fettle and it’s tremendous to see this band rocking live. They are truly the greatest. Long may they continue.

Andy Atkinson

I’ve been a big fan of Purple since 1970 and have seen them countless times, but the show in Manchester left me and my bro very disappointed.

We were at the front at Roger Glover’s side and I must say his guitar was cranked up so high it swamped everything else. All we could hear was bass guitar. I shouted to Roger about the problem and he suggested that we go stand on the other side (thanks Rog).

[It’s a well known fact that the front row rarely offers the best mix of the instruments – simply because you’ll be standing too close to one instrument. For better balance it’s always a good idea to stand further back. /Rasmus]

Ian Gillan said sometime ago that they were not a classic rock band because they we still writing happening music. Well they might be writing it but they are not playing it live! This is the Rapure of the deep tour and one or two songs just doesn’t cut it. The rest of the show is made up of the classics. Let’s get some more of the new stuff played live.

Now that I’ve had my moan, we’re off to Glasgow to see the band I love.

John Broadsword
life long Purple fan

The first of my gigs arrived and off to sunny Cardiff nice and early to get in the front row (I’m 50 this year, will I ever grow up? God, I hope not!).

Anyway – got in at the front slightly off centre on Roger’s side and eventually the lights dim and Thin Snake or is it White Lizzy come on stage – with Tommy Aldridge, Marco Mendoza and John Sykes I thought it might be a Whitesnake tribute band, but then I saw Scott Gorham and I suppose that gives them a little more authenticity.

Nothing to greatly impress me, but then I was never a big fan of Thin Lizzy even when Phil was alive. A mercifully short set from my point of view.

Once the equipment was rolled in it was lights down again and Styx took the stage. OK, I apologies to any Styx fan but seriously! I was in front of a demented Joe Pasqaulie(?) look alike with a revolving keyboard – gosh special effects too! There was also someone who looked liked RJ Dio disguised as Billy Connolly – no, on second thoughts he is too short! Adept musicians ’tis true, but leaves me cold, sorry! (I did get a Styx plectrum in the eye, which will see eBay very soon.)

On to the main event – the thrill of seeing the Purps assemble on stage just never dims – this, coupled with the ‘mystery’ of will they, won’t they do Machine Head as per the Classic Rock mailing?

Well an obvious no then, as they open with Pictures of Home. What followed was the same set list as Manchester – and every second was absolutely on the button. Gillan’s voice was spot on all night; Steve Morse just gets better; Don Airey is truly at home and desevedly so and Paice and Glover are the best powerhouse rhythm section on the planet…. bar none!

Highlights? Into the Fire was stunningly worked and a real pleasure to hear. Rapture of the Deep works so well on stage that perhaps they will realise that more Morse era stuff is really appreciated by the fans….. More Morse please!

Smoke on the Water featured a special appearance of Rogers trusty (and recently repaired) Rickenbacker bass – still a great sounding and lovely looking guitar. On a side note, I noticed his Vigier signature basses have luminous fret markers and knob surrounds (yes, I am sad; one day I may actually get a life!).

Lazy and The Battle Rages On were superb – I love the way both Don and Steve take the heart and feeling of the originals and fill them with new life.

The usual encores ensued – how about some different ones guys? (from Bananas or Abandon?) Still, Hush and Black Night are great songs and we all na, na, na’d and whoa, whoa’d in perfect harmony (ish).

Paicey’s one handed drum roll appeared in his very brief solo – I’ve seen him demonstrate this on the DVD with Chad Smith, but still cannot understand how he does it.

Another great night from a band at their peak and, importantly, happy in what they do – smiles all round continues to be a theme of this incarnation and it does filter into their playing and to the audience – long may it continue.

Incidentally, the gig looks like it has been filmed – a single camera was in front and I assume others elsewhere – it’ll be worth it if it comes out to see the front singing Smoke!

The downsides, apart from (or because of) Thin Lizzy and Styx, no time for between song banter and the encore was cut slightly short by some frantic off stage waving meaning they had to wind up when officialdom said so rather than when they (and we) were ready.

So Birmingham next week for the last night of the tour – Cardiff was great, here’s hoping the last night is even better.

Tom Dixon

Today, April 26, Ian Gillan appeared on BBC Radio 5 Simon Mayo show. You can listen to the show online here (RealMedia). Ian is interviewed by a political reporter in Cardiff, Wales. The segment of interest runs approximately between 0:48:30 – 1:00:00 into the show.

Thanks to Kevin Dixon for the info.

Last year Roger Glover, the man of many talents, has donated one of his paintings to the Linda McCartney Centre. The painting was sold at an auction, raising £900 for cancer patients.

Taking advantage of a day’s break in the UK tour, Roger visited the Centre at the Royal Hospital in Liverpool and personally signed 100 limited edition prints to be auctioned off to raise money.

The prints will be available by calling (in UK) 0151 706 3153 or visiting www.yourcentre.org.

Coverage of the visit: liverpool.com, Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool Echo.

Thanks to Lesley Worrall and Alienor for the info.

This has been posted on Caramba!:

It has come to our attention that some of the copies of the Tour Edition of “Gillan’s Inn” have been manufactured with the wrong CD in the package.

Ian’s record label has looked into the situation and discovered that there was a problem in the production process – basically an early version of the master tape was sent to one of the manufacturing plants by mistake. This has been corrected but not all of the albums have the problem. If your copy has only 16 tracks on the CD with “Can I Get A Witness” as the last song instead of two live songs then you have one of those that were made in error.

We apologise if that’s the case.

Ian’s label will correct the problem. All you have to do is send an email to info@essential-music.com — give your name address and the UPC code of the disc you have (the number above the bar code) and immergent (Gillan’s Inn record company) will send you the correct CD. To make up for the inconvenience, you may keep the original disc in addition to the new one. The original disc is now a collector’s item as there are no legitimate “Gillan’s Inn” CDs that contain “Can I Get A Witness” – just yours!!!

Thanks to Steve Campbell for the info.

Fistly to set the scene of what DP were up against on the night. Due to the venue misinforming me and my mate about start times of the bands, we missed all but the last three songs of Thin Lizzy so I can’t really judge. It sounded from the crowd response that they’d had a tough time getting the part started. Last time I saw Mendoza and Aldridge playing together was in Whitesnake so it really looks like a covers band I’m afraid.

Then the atmosphere really took a nose-dive. There was some major failure in monitoring (so I was told) during the break between Lizzy and Styx. Took about an hour to fix (crowd were slow hand-clapping at one point), DP were obviously locked in to a particular start time which meant that Styx had to come on, perform three songs and walk off. They were apologetic and looked embarassed by the whole thing and I wouldn’t like to have been backstage with their tech crew after the show.

A shame as I’d seen Styx in Nottingham a couple of years ago and they were outstanding.

And so on to our heroes. Maybe they had been told about the earlier screw-up and wanted to give a bit extra in their performance or it was just one of those nights but it was one of the best DP gigs I’ve ever seen (there have been quite a lot) since my first in the 80’s.

I’m not one for scribbling down set lists so I looked back at the last few reviewed here and last night’s basically fell in line with that. One song that was obvious by it’s absence however was Perfect Strangers. I think they may have had to cut the set slightly due to the set timings going all to cock previously. I can’t recall the last time I saw them when it wasn’t played, and I missed it a bit.

But the rest of the performance was immaculate, everything seemed to just work. Didn’t realise that The Battle Rages On had come back, it gives a dose of menace to the set, something a little darker to counter the happy singalong stuff that songs like Black Night and Hush have become. Otherwise it is still a very Machine Head-laden set (Smoke of course, Lazy, Highway Star, Pictures of Home, Space Truckin’, Blind Man).

Lots of albums now get no representation. I wouldn’t have expected anything from Bananas, they toured with that all over the UK a few years back but now there’s nothing from Purpendicular either, along with Abandon, Perfect Strangers (maybe only for this show?) and The House Of Blue Light.

Gillan was singing better than he has for the last couple of times I’ve seen them. I saw them at Milton Keynes las summer and they looked jaded and a little lacklustre. Tonight the fire was there again and they really looked into it. Steve is always a joy to watch but tonight he just ripped into things and it all came off.

Don seems very much at home, he was even mingling in the crowd after Thin Lizzy were on. The engine room of Rog and IP did everything expected of them. The one stick drum roll still looks impressive.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable end to the night’s entertainment. If this ends up as my last DP show at least it’s one to remember.

Kevin Bailey

Took my lad along to see DP on Saturday night as he is a fan of Steve Morse. I have been an ardent fan of their music since way back in the seventies, and I have lost count on how many concerts I have seen over the years.

Normally, when I write a review it is usually because they inspired the rock lover in me, but this time I felt the band was a little flat. They just seemed to be going through the motions. Even Steve Morse hardly raised a smile and Ian hardly made any of his now infamouse quips.

I think the band played too much early stuff which Steve and Don were not part of. I remember when Purpendicular came out, the band played all the new songs with great zest and enthusiasm. Probably because Steve was made to feel part of this great group with his amazing contribution to the songs on the album.

Maybe this as why the band and Steve appeared to be flat this time, because not enough of Steves contribution to the newer albums was being exhibited.

What they did was still good value, in particular Space Truckin’ and Hush had the crowd wanting more. I am sure they will rock back, they usually do.

Keith Scoullar