Canberra was the last stop on the Australian part of the tour. Opened by Mandrake, then Status Quo, who put in a solid performance.

Then Deep Purple came on. And it was fantastic. Opened with Pictures of Home and rocked from there. If they resent playing so many of their earlier works, it didn’t show – the sound was fresh, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the audience certainly was.

Perfect Strangers and Rapture of the Deep were both performed. Amazing solos from Don Airey and Steve Morse.

Worth every cent and then some…

Erika

This is more a comment than a review. Do with it what you will.

It is with interest that I have read the poor reviews coming out of Australia. I would like to state that in no way do I speak for the band and can only comment on the Brisbane show on the 7th May which I attended.

I was backstage after the show and got to speak to Gillan, Morse and Glover. But more about that later.

I watched the show side stage left, standing at the monitor mixing desk, so I had a perfect view of the boys at play and they seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

At the time the show seemed very pedestrian and some what disjointed, but I put that down to where I was watching the show from, and not getting full impact of their glorious sound, but my wife commented on how lacklustre the crowd was in response to some of the songs (full house-6000+). It was very loud, (what else would you expect from Deep Purple?) even from backstage, and friends that were out front commented they wanted to leave because of that fact. (And we have all seen Motörhead at some point in our lives.) It didn’t bother me when I went out front during the encore, but I was already pummelled into submission.

The bouncers were over bearing, stopping people from even standing, and this was a great cause of disgust for the band. Talking to Roger after the show he told me the centre management went to the FOH sound desk and asked the band be turned down. Can you believe that! I doubt this is a first, but highly unusual.

From my point of view this is what I believe to be the problems from the early part of the tour:

1. Status Quo.
It looks good on paper, Purple/Quo, but in reality it is not a good pairing. Status Quo did nothing for me after 15 minutes, and from other comments on this board I’m not alone. They should have been restricted to 45 mins tops instead of the almost 90 they played in Brisbane. They are a cabaret act for crying out loud.
They played a tourist resort the night before for $35.00 a ticket, where the usual performers are Elvis impersonators and washed up country artists. They don’t belong on a Purple tour. I would have preferred to see a young up and coming Australian band, who would have brought in just as many people and had the flow on effect of a new generation of Purple fans.

2. The age of the crowd.
While there were a lot people in their 40s-50s, there where also a lot touching 70! I kid you not there was a guy and his wife and friends, front row, centre who must have been over 70. They left half way through Purple’s set, leaving four vacant seats front row, centre, This must have an effect on any band, Don’t care who you are.

3.Shorter set.
Due to Quo running over, Purple’s set was rushed (90 mins incl. encores). Not enough time for Deep Purple. Almost everyone here has seen a full blown Purple show, two hours minimum, and it is a beautiful thing.

I saw them last year at Milwaukee Summerfest (USA) and they blew the roof off, and that was an outdoor gig! 10,000 mad Americans went away truly satisfied, and they played 2hrs 15 with two encores! Two days later, from all reports they blew them away at Live 8. That was less than a year ago. Now we see our heroes doubling up with second rate cabaret acts, and hear of people walking out of shows?

I could go on, but what I would say to those who felt cheated in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, is Deep Purple will be back in Australia. Everyone is entitled to a perceived bad week, even if you are Deep Purple. From all reports the Sydney, Newcastle and Canberra shows were great. And let’s face it an average Purple gig is still better than anything else going around!

Pete Schuptar

Last night in Canberra was Deep Purple concert number seven and Status Quo concert number four for me.

Staus Quo have still got it after 40 years. Purple must have loved having them as the support act for the Australian leg. From the first song people were on their feet. Well done guys.

Purple were also good, but…

Steve Morse is a brilliant guitarist. No question there. And I am well aware that he is not Ritchie Blackmore. And I also know that Steve Morse has his own style. But, for me, I found that on some songs, HS and SOTW in particular, the balls the guitar sound needs just weren’t there. They are both songs that are a hard driving guitar riff based songs and that’s what was missing.

This was their last Australian show, and it showed. It was like they just couldn’t wait to get off stage. Everything seemed to be done in a rush.

I saw Don Airy with Rainbow and Whitesnake and he is a much better keyboard player than what was seen last night. Roger Glover is himself. Always solid, always stable.

Ian Paice was solid but looked like he had had enough and just wanted to go to the horse races.

Ian Gillan is like the rest of us who were there for the Fireball tour, just getting on in years.

Was I disappointed? No. Was I over the moon? No. Have I seen worse performances?? Yes. Have I seen better?? By Purple, Hell yes.

All tours these days seem to be focused on stadiums. It is nice to see that there are still some honest down to earth musos who still do it (or appear to) for the people that matter the most, the paying public.
Will I go again? I honestly don’t know.

James Livingstone

Awesome! What a weekend that will go down as. Me and my son can not speak highly enough of this show, and of the members themselves.

My 9-year-old son is a huge Deep Purple fan, so the two of us went to the Saturday night show in Melbourne. We had tickets in the first couple of rows, so were really excited about the show. We want to thank the ladies again in the very front row, who grabbed my young bloke, and put him right in the front with them. Thank you ladies, if you happen to read this!

The day got off to an unbelievable start when we walked past the Palais Theatre to see what was happening in the afternoon, and were fortunate enough to meet Roger, Paicey, Steve and Don as they left the sound check. I can not complement them enough on what great people they were! So friendly and down to earth. They were happy to sign items and pose for photos.

I have read mixed reviews on the show itself, but let me tell you, as far as my son and I are concerned, the show was red hot! To me the guys seemed to be in unbelievable form, and seemed to be enjoying the show themselves so much. Ian Gillan made my son’s night when he leant over and shook his hand! We got guitar picks from both Steve and Roger, and I even caught Rogers towel when he threw it out at the end of the show.

Personal highlight of the show for me was Perfect Strangers. I have always loved this song, but Steve’s guitar work to the song adds a new dimension to it, it just goes off!

They’re absolute gentleman each and all, and we can not wait until the next Deep Purple tour!

Danny & Josh O’Sullivan

I was so disappointed I wanted to walk out like the 20 – 30 other people in the audience who did, but I had told my husband we were here to see the greatest band ever.

Shame that Ian looked like he’d fallen out of bed ten minutes beforehand and put on the gardening clothes. His mimicking an ape to a security guard who had been doing his job showed his utter lack of respect for anyone who has to do a real job, and probably used to buy his records, what a pretentious ass he has become…. or was he always such a dickhead, I can’t remember!

Don Airey, Ian Paice and Steve Morse rock, Mr Glover is supreme, Gillan should eat a bit of humble pie and remember his roots, he is not the man he once was.

Maggie Perry

Let me preface this review by saying that I love this band. I have been a Gillan fan since I can remember and enjoyed Gillan’s Inn in the last week (thanks Amazon).

I finished work on Friday and made my way down the highway to lovely wollongong. Some Thai food, a flirt with the lady at the next table and off to the concert. Not much of a Status Quo fan so I wasn’t that
keen to have to sit through their final 30 minutes.

OK, lights go down but amazingly the crowd doesn’t seem that into it. I flash back to my last few years of living in the U.S and watching the crowd go crazy when the main band hits the stage. This is freakin’
Deep Purple people!

The band flies into Pictures of Home and I am impressed. Mmmmm, Ian’s voice sounds great tonight. From there it didnt seem so good. It was a flat performance and the band lacked energy. I know this sounds bad and I want you all to know that I love this band. I guess an off night happens to the best of them and I often have off days at work.

To the band, I thank you for still being relevant. To Ian Gillan, the new album is wonderful. To Don Airey, sorry, but we are going to smash England in the ashes this year (hee hee). To Steve Morse, loved Contact Lost.

Everyone, get behind this band. They might just become something! (As Ian Paice said in the ‘Come Hell or
High Water’ DVD: What have we got to compete with these days… Nothing!)

Darren Nicholls

Didn’t bother to see Swanee. They were never a band I listened to anyway.

I preferred to down a few beers across the road trying to keep my heart palpitations down to a reasonable level before I entered the Pavillion to listen to Quo and DP.

Quo used to be one of my fave bands but I grew out of them 20 years ago, and I know why. One song sounds just like the second and then the third and so on to monotony. Yes I should have stayed at the bar across the road for a few more beers. For a support band they went on far too long and I almost gave up and throttled some Quo die hard in front of me who rebuked my brother for yelling out what we all wanted to say “Bring on Purple!”

Quo They finally got off stage and took their ridiculously tight black jeans and skinny legs with them.

The Purple road crew are so professional I blinked and the next thing they were on stage belting out Pictures of Home. Was that Ian Gillan or was I seeing things. His personal trainer must have worked wonders because he looked and sounded like a 20 year old but then again I was sitting somewhere down the back. I think for a DP concert that’s not the place to be as the acoustics weren’t the best and I didn’t have the feel of previous concerts. I couldn’t believe that for a ROTD tour they didn’t play Rapture which is clearly the classic on the album.

They didn’t play SIFLS either or anything from Bananas or Purpindicular which was a bit disappointing.

Too me the whole affair seemed a bit rushed, maybe because that other band stayed on stage too long boring the crap out of me, or maybe because they wanted to start the post-concert party early.

No Steve Morse solo – very disappointing. Yeah sure he did a nice lead into “Well Dressed Guitar” after a very short version of “Contact Lost” but where was he all night?

No, this was not an atypical performance from what I consider is the best band of all time. Maybe I and many like me have been spoilt by the consistently high level of live performances by these guys. Maybe they have too much good material and they find it hard to fit in to a one and a half hour concert (way too short) by the way.

I seriously think DP don’t need a support band. They are supposed to whet the appetite for the main performance but I prefer to listen to DP for a couple of hours than allow a bunch of has-beens like Quo to drag on into the night.

Anyway, in summary, it was a professional performance from DP but not one that will win them new fans for sure. The Jimmy Barnes touch on Smoke was great and Don Airey showed why he was the only man that could fill the shoes of Jon Lord. Paicey was a bit lazy at the back and Glover was in his usual perky mood. Morse has held this band together since 96 but I think he went walkabout here. A bit too rushed and not long enough summarises this concert, but I will be there again when they return for sure.

Charles Hili

OK, let me preface the review with this – Deep Purple were and just as importantly ARE the greatest band living or dead in history – period. Also let me say, this is as much about questions as it is about a review.

BUT – This night was the least impressive of the four times I have seen them. 1999, 2001, 2004 (best EVER!) and now 2006. Why was it less impressive? I should have known it would be right from the moment my tickets arrived in the mail. Firstly, it was a double header bill co-featuring Status Quo.

There’s only so much Status Quo I can take in one sitting and I found out 75 minutes is too much. My friend commented that they are the most perfectly named band in history – enough said. The second problem was that the promoters were exactly the kind of radio station that Gillan bemoans in the song MTV – a ‘classic rock radio’ station.

The beauty of the 2004 tour was that it was primarily a ‘Bananas’ tour (six new songs) with the classics thrown in for good measure, displaying the band at their living breathing CURRENT best. The 2006 tour felt like a greatest hits package with TWO songs off the new album, plus ‘Things I Never Said’ which is a below par song anyway.

I don’t want to see Purple going through the motions which is what they were forced to do in this tour. Cramped into a 75 minute set (90 minute inc encores) is simply not enough time for a DP concert to melt into your mouth. There was very little talking between songs, no percussion for Gillan, no drum solo (save for a brief interlude in the encores).

To be honest the entire night seemed like someone in a suit was standing in the wings tapping their watch with furrowed brow.

Song of the night was clearly ‘Perfect Strangers’ coming out of the keyboard solo. Don Airey has now officially gone from the second best rock keyboard player on earth to Sir to Jon Lord’s spiritual brother! I love this man! Perfect Strangers has become a modern masterpiece and is one of my 10 favourite songs EVER. Whenever I see them live and Gillan sings that great line of the second verse (‘a thousand warriors I have known’) and the lights come up I get shivers. It’s that good!

From the greatest high of the night to the greatest low – the ABSENCE of the title track of the new album! The song ‘Rapture of the Deep’ is an absolute masterpiece itself, an instant classic. How could this song be left off the set list on a ROTD tour and comparatively irrelevant songs like Things I Never Said and Living Wreck be played?

I have almost worn out my copy of ROTD and that song (indeed the whole album) is proof that Gillan has become a brilliant and insightful (some may say inciteful and some may say that would please him!) modern day wordsmith. Quite simply, the band is at its peak and I love the band. I understand they have to play certain songs every time (SOTW, HS, BN) but everything else can surely be worked around those. To NOT play ROTD on the ROTD tour is VERY disappointing. I felt like the whole night was off and that summed it up for me.

If anyone knows of the reasons – I suspect political reasons – why this gig felt rushed and ROTD wasn’t played, please let me know. Because as much as I love this band and enjoyed this concert, I know I ‘felt’ flaws that DP just don’t have!

To let you all know I haven’t gone crazy and jumped off the bandwagon, this Purple line-up are absolute guns and play together brilliantly – I love love love them!

P.S. Gillan looks more like Cary Grant every year!

Pictures Of Home / Things I Never Said / Wrong Man / Ted The Mechanic / Living Wreck / Before Time Began / Space Trucking / Contact Lost / Well Dressed Guitar / Perfect Strangers / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water / encores: Hush / Black Night

Anthony Emery

Never did I think I had to write this. Since 1968 in my youth days, I have been a fan of DP. We are all around the 60 years of age, and I have been to every concert after that here in Australia.

However, after the concert in Melbourne with Status Quo, I have to call for Ian to hang up his microphone. Totally out of tune for the first three numbers, and not really good enough for the rest of the concert! I ought to get my ticket money back for such a dismal concert.

Thankfully, Steve and Don saved the night! The best band in the world in my books for such many years, but the time has come for Ian to bow out gracefully before being thrown out.

And somebody ought to set up the other Ian’s drums a little better for the rest of the tour. Terrible sound, not what one has been used to over the years. Ian P. is one of the best, and still is, but the actual drum sound was dreadful.

I write this as some constructive criticism and hope next time down here all will be corrected.

Tony Lindhard

I took my family to the May 3rd concert in Perth. Now I sort of wish I hadn’t.

Status Quo were really good and kept the crowd going, DP started well with a song from Machine Head and it went downhill for the next four-five songs, all newer stuff (Ted the fitter, Bloke in prison, etc).

People were getting up and walking out. (They would have got their $80 parking tickets sooner.)

From Steve’s solo it got a lot better with a lot of older stuff, the crowd started enjoying themselves, my kids enjoyed themselves, I enjoyed myself.

This was my third DP concert over 30 years and will be my last if they don’t improve. Can you pass it on to somebody that might care, thanks.

Rodger