The event I have been waiting for for two years happened. Deep Purple came to Yekaterinburg again.

We were lucky that the band arrived on the day before the show, on Sunday, the 15th of October. So they were not in a hurry and had some more free time than they usually have in tours. My dad, his friend, my sister Irina and I came to the hotel where the band was going to stay. We met Deep Purple there when they’ve just arrived.

The band was in Yekaterinburg two times before, in 2002 and 2004, and I met them and was at their show both times. Therefore when I met them this time Don Airey recognized me, which was really amazing. We greeted each other like old friends. I gave him some photos from the last meeting. At the same time Irina greeted Ian Gillan, who was also very nice and kind to her.

Then we met Roger Glover and Steve Morse. I gave them photos too and Irina presented to Steve a picture she drew herself with the image of a wolf (we can often see wolves on Steve’s t-shirts and so on). We took some photos with them again, as Roger Glover said “for the next time”.

After this short meeting the musicians checked in the hotel. Later on they went to the lobby a few times and we had a great chance to speak to them. First one who approached us was Roger Glover. He came and said that he has some presents for us and gave us postcards with his photo. We asked if he could sign them, and he said “I can do that”, taking his pen he had in his pocket.

So he sat on the sit where we were sitting in the lobby and asked us to tell him our names to write them on the card to each of us. That was very nice of him. Thank you, Roger. After that we had a very interesting and long conversation with him. We had rock encyclopedia with us which we give to every band we meet to sign the page with the discography of this band. Don’t know why, but we didn’t have autographs of Deep Purple members there yet.

So first of all we asked Roger to sign the page with Deep Purple’s discography. Next we asked Roger to sign the pages with the bands he have been playing in or the bands he produced. So we marked a few more pages we wanted him to sign (like Rainbow, Nazareth and some others). It captured Roger a lot and he began to look for other bands he was working with. In particular he signed the page with Judas Priest (he produced the album Sin After Sin) and Michael Schenker Group (he produced the album The Michael Schenker Group), and some others.

At the same time we had an exciting conversation. For example, Roger said that he designed the cover of Fireball album. He also said that he knew George Harrison very well and looked like John Lennon when he was young. Also he told us that a few weeks ago he met Jon Lord at his house and they had some tea together. It was a big pleasure to talk to Mr. Glover. He is a very open, kind and energetic person.

Very soon after we talked to Roger Glover, Steve Morse came downstairs to the lobby. So we took a chance to chat to him a bit too. He also signed Deep Purple’s page in the encyclopedia and the page with Kansas. He played with Kansas at the albums named Power (1986) and In The Spirit Of Things (1988). I also asked him to give his autograph on the covers of a couple of albums of Steve Morse Band and Living Loud. He was surprised that I am interested in his other music too.

Apart from music we were talking about his family. He showed us the picture of one of his sons and told us that he is playing guitar too. Steve teaches him. He said he is a very talented young man. Maybe we will hear about him sometime. It was very nice to talk to Steve again in such informal situation. But as he was a bit busy, we didn’t keep him very long talking to us.

A bit later Don Airey came out. He approached us as we arranged to meet later in the lobby with him. We also asked him to sign our encyclopedia which took him quite a long time too as he took part in so many bands and projects. [He must have signed every page in your book! 😉 Rasmus]

After talking a bit with him and the other fans my sister and I joined Don in the café and drank a cup of tea with him. It was very nice of him to invite us. We were talking about many different things. Don told us that he is working at his new concept album at the moment. He said that he will continue his work after he come back home from Russia.

On the next day my sister and I came to the hotel in the afternoon again. We met Don Airey again. At that time he told us that in St Petersburg (the last Russian city in the tour) famous Austrian-Russian violin player would join the band during Rapture of the Deep song. I was very excited about that, though I was not going to go to St Petersburg and couldn’t see it. Later after St Petersburg’s show I’ve heard that Deep Purple played two songs with her: Rapture of the Deep, as Don Airey said, and Black Night at the end of the gig. That was really something new. It’s a pity I couldn’t see it…

At 4 pm Don Airey and Ian Paice went to the concert hall for the sound check. My sister and I had a great opportunity to go with them. We saw how Don was rehearsing wearing headphones. It was an important moment. As always Don was going to play something local in his solo. One of the journalists and a big fan of Deep Purple who followed the band on their tour gave him a score of the local Urals song called “Uralskaya ryabinyshka” earlier. Don was also given a CD of this and a couple of other songs by his fan from Yekaterinburg. Later he played exactly this song at the gig. The crowd was elated.

Just before the show my family (mum, dad, two sisters and I) and some other people, including people from the local parliament who love Deep Purple gave them some presents. They were given vodka “Deep Purple” made especially for them, and we gave them handmade glasses cut from the Urals stone. After this ceremony we took a picture with the whole band and they hurried to the stage. The audience was already waiting for them.

The concert
There are only a few things I want to say about the show. My family and I were standing just in front of the stage on the side of Steve Morse, so we could hear only his guitar best of all. We could hardly hear Ian Gillan’s voice, which was a pity. It was also very difficult to hear the rest of the musician’s instruments. Some people told us that the best place to hear the gig was the middle of the concert hall where the sound was balanced. I know that the same thing was in the other cities, so I hope the sound tech will do something with it in the next tours.

Here is the set list of the gig:

Pictures Of Home
Things I Never Said
Into The Fire
Strange Kind Of Woman
Rapture Of The Deep
Fireball
Wrong Man
Steve Morse guitar solo
Well Dressed Guitar
Lazy
When A Blind Man Cries
Don Airey solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke On The Water

Encore:
Hush
Black Night

We were glad to hear both the new songs and the old great hits. I wish I could hear Clearly Quite Absurd live, as I love this song very much.

Ian Gillan was in a very good shape. He kept a good feedback with the audience. Unfortunately I can’t say anything about his singing as I almost couldn’t hear him…

I was impressed by Steve Morse’s solo. I enjoyed every sound of his guitar. As always he played a part from Stairway to Heaven and some of his music.

Don Airey’s solo was great too. I can’t stop admire his playing. This time he didn’t play the theme from The Star Wars, but as always he played some classics and I think a couple of chords from Mr. Crowley and, of course, the Urals national song I was talking about.

Roger Glover was as always cheerful and funny. It’s a pleasure to see how he works.

Ian Paice’s playing was incredible as usual. His technique is still amazing.

The interesting thing was that when the gig was just finished Ian Gillan very quickly put on his shoes and went directly to the hotel, so no one could see him.

After the gig my two sisters Irina and Yana and I went to the hotel to meet the musicians again. We had a great opportunity to join them in the bar. Ian Gillan and Ian Paice came to the bar earlier than we, so they and managers were sitting a little bit away from us. Steve Morse went to sleep after the gig.

As before, we had very exciting conversations with Roger Glover and Don Airey. We were speaking about music, arts and many other things. My sister Yana (a designer, who likes to paint and draw) and Roger (who is a wonderful artist too) held a little drawing competition where my sister won as Mr. Glover said. That was so much fun. We spent an unforgettable night out with Deep Purple.

On the next day I came to the hotel again to say goodbye to the band. It was quite a sad moment for me, as I spent a few wonderful days with these very kind and outstanding people. I hope it was not the last time when Deep Purple came to Yekaterinburg and I’ll see their live show again.

Thanks a lot for being such a wonderful people who make other’s people life happier.

Julia Akhmetshina

We were so glad to hear SBB (Search, Break and Build) live again. The guys were awesome as usual. Józef Skrzek and Apostolis Antimos are indefatigable!

So is our band. The musicians must have been magicians. We were surprised by such good acoustics of the Torwar hall. How did they make it better? All our former gigs there sounded awful.

Deep Purple show started with “Pictures of Home” – and you should have seen Mr Gillan then! He raced onto the stage, run up to the audience, and suddenly jumped back as if something gave him a fright. Maybe somebody wanted to grab him by a leg. But he came back soon and started to give a five to everybody who could reach his hand. Unfortunately we were sitting too far from him.

He must have been in high spirits. His joyful shouts, as “unbelievable”, “you’re fantastic”, “we love you” etc., sounded again and again.

The band was in top form. No false notes, no dissonances. No instruments were drowning out Ian’s voice out. The vocalist sang much better than in Katowice on 24th February. During “Fireball” he screamed like he did in the old days. Unbelievable indeed.

The gig was great, although I’m fed up with “Smoke” and some other “Machine Heads”. By the way, once I asked Ian to sing “Wasted Sunsets”. And yes, he did it. In the United States, during his “Gillan’s Inn” tour. How about such tour in Europe, Mr Gillan?
Happily the band added one more “Rapture” song to the setlist. Thanks a lot! We like “Wrong Man” so much.

We both had a great time. We think it was the best DP concert this year. What’s more, we managed to meet almost all guys after the show. We got many autographs and took a lot of pictures. Thank you very much and please visit us again!

Joanna Ostrowiecka and Zenek kolota

For the second time this year I was lucky enough to see and hear one of the greatest bands in the history of music. This was my fourth DP gig overall and I will surely see them again if they come back some day.

The setlist was no surprise – the same as during the first shows on this leg of the tour. The only difference is that there was no ‘Kiss tomorrow goodbye’. Adding ‘Into the fire” and “Fireball” was a great decision, so was ‘When a blind man cries’ – my personal favourite from the show.

A shame Steve did not play ‘Contact Lost’ – it was a special moment for me during every DP gig I saw, but instead, we had a riff parade incl. ‘Whole lotta love’, ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Voodoo chile’ aaaaaaaaand …. ‘Sweet child o’mine’ which was a great surprise and I enjoyed ii very much, as Guns n’ Roses are probably even higher in my personal ranks than DP.

Ian looked great in his tight jeans and white shirt – better than during the previous shows. They were all in great form. The only problem was the sound. After this gig, I know every DP bass line by heart, because bass and drums were so loud in the area where i stood (that is approx. third-fourth row on Roger’s side of the stage), that at times, we could hardly hear Steve and Don. I know that this problem was non-existent for people in the back or in the middle of the standing area, but it was quite annoying for us at the left side.

Another problem was that the tickets were quite expensive for most of Poles. They were like 50% more expensive than two years ago. That’s why there was quite a number of empty seats and the standing area was not as tightly-packed as during their previous gigs with the venue being smaller than before.

I think the attendance was around 5000-6000 people. But as usual, we were very, VERY loud and I think the band liked it 😉

I thaaaaaaaaank yeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuu again. 🙂

Jakub “Bizon” Michalski

I am still under strong impressions after yesterday’s Deep Purple concert in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I saw them four times before and they were always great – and also yesterday!

In spite of their age and long lasting tour, they acted very fresh, relaxed and full of energy through the whole show.

The big Tivoli hall was full of fans despite relatively expensive tickets and the fact that they performed in Slovenia three times in the last three years. It was nice to see people enjoying the concert and singing along, there were at least three generations, from 16 to 60+.

Set list was predictable, some new songs, only one from Bananas, no Purpendicular or Abandon song, and a lot of older classics, including Lazy, Highway Star, Strange Kind Of Woman, Space Truckin’, Hush, Pictures of Home, Fireball, Black Night and of course Smoke On The Water.

The only drawback was a weak sound, but all in all I am very, very glad that I saw them again.

And I was lucky enough again to get a photo pass. Believe me, it is hard to take photos if you are a great fan, but still I managed to take some decent shots.

Thank you Deep Purple for a lot of happy moments!

Janez Pelko

Check out Janez’ excellent shots.

As a huge fan of Deep Purple I couldn’t have missed the first concert of Deep Purple in Slovakia. Apparently, so couldn’t many other people as well, from 10-year-olds to grey-haired band’s coevals – the place was pretty full.

After a lukewarm support band the Purples fired it off with Pictures Of Home, Things I Never Said and Into The Fire played without a break. The guys were relaxed, Steve smiled all the time, Ian and Roger communicating with the audience as always. Steve’s amazing solos hit the roof as well as Ian’s everlasting vocals. Don showed himself off in his traditional keyboard solo, playing extracts from Star Wars.

The show was getting better and better with each song, can’t say there was any weak point. People were enjoying it pretty much and Space Truckin’ followed by Highway Star almost made us boil.

It amazes me how these gentlemen still have so much energy after so many active years and still love to share it with people. Unbelievable performances, great sound and a two-hour gig left deep impressions in me and, for sure, in any of the audience. These guys rocked Bratislava!

Pictures Of Home
Things I Never Said
Into The Fire
guitar solo
Strange Kind Of Woman
Rapture Of The Deep
Fireball
The Well Dressed Guitar
Kiss Tomorow Goodbye
When A Blind Man Cries
Lazy
keyboard solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke On The Water

Hush
Black Night

Tino Vrzba

I have been a DP fan for more than 30 years now and must admit that when talking about DP, I always had Mark II in my mind at the very top of the list. Of course I followed all other line-ups and bought all the albums but always having MKII as the benchmark. After yesterday’s performance I must admit that Mark VIII is now sharing that leading position in my ranking of favorites.

I don’t have words to describe how well the guys performed. Even though English is not my mother tongue, I doubt that in Spanish I should be able to find the exact word to express how did I feel yesterday and how do I still feel now.

The venue was absolutely packed with people everywhere, at least that was what I could see from my second row standing in from of the stage. After 30 minutes of an opening local Slovak band, DP hit the stage at 9 o’clock and the crowd went crazy. Not only “mature-middle age” people like me but also a lot of youngsters-teenagers really enjoying and chanting all songs, which is spectacular. It means that DP is much more alive than ever before… great!

I cannot remember the set list since I did not write it down, I was so concentrated enjoying the show that did not even think about doing it.

Anyhow I guess that was a wee bit different from the reviews I had read about previous shows. Three or four songs from Rapture of the Deep (Rapture of the Deep, Wrong Man, Kiss tomorrow goodbye and guess there was a 4th one but honestly don’t recall).

Into the fire was a huge and amazing surprise since I hadn’t heard that songs for some time now. When a blind mind cries thrilled me to the marrow, honestly. All time classics Lazy, Perfect Strangers, Space trucking’, HS, SOTW and Hush and Black Night as encores all of them performed in a superb way completed a marvellous and unforgettable evening.

To remark the revamped and revitalized starting of HS with an outstanding jam between Roger and Steve that really made me take some time to recognize that my all times ever favorite song was coming….gorgeous indeed!

Individually all the guys performed superbly with a lot of energy and power, the rhythm duo was extremely solid (as usual), Steve Morse incredibly robust in his role (nothing to envy to RB), Don very good on keyboards but for my taste his introductory solo to Perfect Strangers was too long (must admit am not a great fan of any kind of solos) and nothing new to say about how great IG is, not only as lead singer but also as a front-man, idol!

Final words to praise the personal and professional attitude of the guys on stage. It is amazing to see how genuinely they enjoy while performing and that feeling is transmitted to the audience and of course the crowd responds accordingly.

In short, an evening to remember forever and really looking forward to a next opportunity hopefully within shortly.

Long live DP.

Enrique Cotado

Reports are coming in that merchandise sold on the current Deep Purple tour includes a Machine Head t-shirt with Ritchie Blackmore’s face missing from the album design. And thanks to Luke Antosz we can now show the infamous t-shirt.

Now you see him – the original Machine Head sleeve with Ritchie Blackmore:

Now you don’t – current Deep Purple tour t-shirt:

But he used to be on that t-shirt! This one was sold on the last Mark 2 tour in 1993:

So what happened?

According to some, Blackmore’s current management sued Deep Purple for use of his image on the t-shirt.
According to others, the band simply doesn’t want to be associated with Blackmore anymore.

If you know, please let us know too – rasmus@thehighwaystar.com.
Continued…

Ian Gillan has kindly donated a signed copy of his yet unreleased book “Smoke This” and a signed 2006 Tour Poster to be auctioned to raise vital funds for The Linda McCartney Centre. Both items are signed by Ian Gillan, Dean Howard, Michael Lee Jackson, Randy Cooke and Rodney Appleby.
For more information, visit  Linda McCartney Centre (in the news section under the heading “The Voice Of Deep Purple”).

A charity art exhibition has been organised to raise vital funds and awareness for The Linda McCartney Centre in November. The exhibition will be taking place between the 20th and the 24th November in the main entrance of The Linda McCartney Centre based at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in U.K., from 9am until 5pm daily. A painting for the exhibition has been kindly donated for auction by Roger Glover. For more information, visit  Linda McCartney Centre (in the news section under the heading “Charity Art Exhibition”).
Thanks to Linda McCartney Centre and Lesley Worrall for the information.

The authorities in Munich, Germany, have taken imprints of various entertainers and athletes who have performed at The Olympiahalle. When this venue was built at the start of the seventies, Deep Purple were the first band to play there (January 21, 1973). When Deep Purple played there the last time (February 18, 2006), Deep Purple stuck their hands into the wet concrete. See the picture.
Thanks to DPAS and The Aviator for the information.

Vigier Guitars has released the Excess Roger Glover signature bass. The bass features an Excess alder body with a maple top, phosphorescent dots on the fingerboard (available in rosewood or maple), phosphorescent contours around the knobs and a brand new three-band EQ electronic designed by Glockenklang amplifiers. See the photo.
Thanks to Vigier Guitars for the information.