You can find my review of DP’s gig in Linz on my weblog. It’s the second entry on the February page.

Stefan Baumgartner

Audence: 14.000 people

Here’s the set list:

1. Pictures Of Home
2. Things I Never Said*
3. Wrong Man*
4. Vavoom:Ted The Mechanic
5. Living Wreck
6. Rapture Of The Deep*
7. Before Time Begin*
8. Mary Long
9. Contact Lost
10. Steve Morse Solo
11. Well Dressed Guitar
12. Lazy
13. Don Airey Solo
14. Perfect Strangers
15. Junkyard Blues*
16. Space Truckin
17. Highway Star
18. Smoke On The Water
* * * *
19. Hush
20. Roger Glover solo
21. Black Night

Ondok Patrik

To live in Poland and to miss a Deep Purple gig in Katowice is like to be in Paris without visiting the Eiffel Tower:). Spodek is still exciting and so are DP gigs there.

The show started with one of our best progressive rock group. I always liked SBB, so I was happy to see the band live. Their first song were fragments of “Memento with a banal tryptych”. This time it was dedicated to the victims of the recent tragedy in Katowice. It’s a pity only the musicians were almost invisible because of numerous cameramen. They still look and play cool. I liked all songs they played that night.

Deep Purple were very punctual. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with their equipment. The speakers were droning a little. Also I wish the band played “Junkyard Blues”. Why did they take it out from the setlist?

Ian Gillan’s voice was great. “Before Time Began” was very well sung. Yes, sung, not spoken. It sounded so nice, I was surprised. But I wish he thanked us in Polish, too. We aren’t worse than German or French people. I know he can speak “Dzieki” because I heard it many years ago.

“Things I Never Said” came out beautifully as well. I hope the band will never take it out. It’s a very tuneful song.

Also Deep Purple dedicated a song to the people lost in Katowice. I knew the band would do it because I read on Ian Gillan’s website they will, but many people didn’t know about it. Steve Morse played “Contact Lost” unusually beautifully. We all were moved.

As for another piece for Poles, Don Airey played one of Chopin’s mazurkas which I like very much. I think he still likes Chopin.

Nice gig again. The show was cool though too short as usual. Too short for fans, of course:). I even think Deep Purple played better than in Berlin. I enjoyed so much that I’m thinking of going to Rostock in June…

Joanna Ostrowiecka

That was my 3rd DP gig. I saw them in 2003 in the same venue, and then half a year later in Warsaw. It’s hard to tell which gig was the best. All of them were absolutely amazing.

“Spodek” (“Saucer” – named after it’s UFO-like shape) was (almost) full this friday. Hardly any seat empty and the standing area was also full with people. I came a little bit late (during the 3rd song of the support band) and therefore couldn’t get to the very first row, but anyway I managed to stand about 2-3 metres behind the first row, to the left of the stage (from the audience’s point of view) so Roger was the guy who was performing amost right in front of me.

SBB (polish progressive rock band known all over the world among the older fans of such music) was the support band. Although many younger fans surely didn’t know much about them (hell.. i am 23 myself, but i’m a strange case and i prefer bands from 70’s 😉 ) they went through their set with energy, feel and they got a lot of aplause from us.

Then the lights went out and we could see the video on both screens (well, actually it was hard to see it clearly for us right in front of the stage, because those screens were almost in the same line as we were, but still, it was possible to see something). I knew the most probable setlist before so it was of no surprise to me that they started off with “Pictures of Home’. IMO it’s a great opener, maybe even better than HS. As usual on this tour, the first part of the gig was put together of new tracks and some oldies that were not played for some time before. The link between Pictures of Home and Things I Never Said was great. I thought they were playing some extended outro to Pictures and it turned out a second later that it is already the next track. The song itself is a good one, but as i have heard it for the first time, i don’t remember much of it at the moment (i will have to get some bootleg’s to get to know it better).

Some new and some rare tracks followed (wrong man, living wreck, ted the mechanic, mary long) and then we reached the first highlight of the gig – Rapture Of The Deep! This song is absolutely fantastic. I think that this song will soon get a status similar to Pictures Of Home or Sometimes I Feel Like Screamin’, that is a classic Purple song. Before time began is also great but i’m not sure if it’s good live song. At least for a hard rock gig. But it was received great anyway.

Then the second important moment of the evening. I was waiting for it, i must admit. ‘Contact Lost’ is my favourite track song from ‘bananas’ and it almost makes my eyes wet everytime i hear it live. This friday was no exception. ian dedicated it to those who died in an accident in Katowice a couple of weeks ago when a roof collapsed straight into a big hall killing over 60 people attending some kind of a pigeon exposition. CL was connected with Steve’s cosmic solo and then it turned into “Well-dressed guitar” – my another favourite from the bananas era (although not released).

Lazy was a bit short, but we can’t expect them to go back to 70’s and play 20 minutes of solos. Don reinvented his organ solo a little bit for this tour, although he played again some excerpts from Chopin, Star Wars and Polish National Anthem. But the ‘adventurous, cosmic’ part was something new and it went great. Perfect Strangers for me the biggest highlight of the gig. I absolutely love this track and everytime i see the band, they play a breathtaking version of it.

Then for a while, we came back to the latest album. Instead of Junkyard blues, which was played during some recent gigs, we had to Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye 😉 It’s not one of my favourite racks from ROTD, but it’s definitely not bad and was played with a lot of energy. And them the hit-parade began. Space Truckin’ – Highway Star – Smoke On The Water with some fragments of Stairway To Heaven (i was not surprised but some people were completely astonished haha) and one more track (possibly one of ac/dc’s songs but don’t remember right now)… SOTW was (as always) sang… ekhm.. SCREAMED! by the whole audience (c. 9500 people IMO)… then the band disappeared, but of course they returned and played Hush and Black Night. BN was played without a Rn’R medley before but this may be because people were singin’ the melody from black night already and so no medley appeared. It was the same situation as 2 years ago in Katowice. Steve was playing with the audience and i can tell you all that we were bloody loud 😉 Then they said their farewells and left the stage going straight into that box again 😉

+ Great form of all 5 of them.

+ New songs played with a lot of energy and received very well by the audience

+ Some old classics played in a slightly refreshed way – new intro to HS, Stairway To Heaven before ‘Smoke’, Pictures of home linked with Things I Never Said etc

+ Great visualisations; puttin’ 2 screens was a great idea and some close-ups were brilliant, also some great images during contact lost or smoke on the water.

+ Great atmosphere – many teenagers, but also some rock veterans in their 50’s or even 60’s 😉 maybe the singin’ was not as loud as it usually is in Poland, because the older guys are not always eager to sing with us, but on the other hand, i don’t have to worry that i might get squeezed to death my some stupid people in my age that have way too much energy. With the average of age going up, it’s much safer in front of the stage 😉

– the only thing that i can put here is the setlist.. it’s not that it’s bad, but it would be nice to hear sometimes i feel like screaming, anya, tha battle rages on or when a blindman cries instead of e.g ted the mechanic or hush (which is a great song but i already heard that a couple of times)… also ‘clearly quite absurd’ or ‘money talks’ instead of ‘kiss tomorrow goodbye’ and ‘before time began’ could be nice… and i don’t even dream of hearing some mk3 of mk4 stuff (my fav. DP period)… well actually I think it’s a good idea not to perform those… with all respect to Ian – i can’t image myself him singing Burn or Stormbringer 😉 I’m gonna have to see Whitesnake or Glenn solo to hear those 🙂

But don’t get me wrong. The gig was amazing anyway even with this setlist, it’s just that every person attending a gig has always their favourite setlist somewhere in their head and that one was not any near my favourite one 😉 but that’s the only thing i could think of that could have been better. I hope it was not their last gig in Poland. I’m sure that they will come to us should there be another european tour, but they are not 20 anymore and we never know which tour could be their last. well.. i hope this one isn’t 🙂

a big eeeeaaaaaaaaaaoooouuuu to all people that were in Katowice on Friday. They rocked and we did as well 😉

Jakub “Bizon” Michalski

Andi Thul’s excellent shots of Alice C. and the Purple boys.

Ian Gillan’s concert from Edinburgh 1980 with his band “Gillan” will be released on DVD March 13. The DVD feature…
1. Unchain Your Brain
2. Trouble
3. If You Believe Me
4. Mutually Assured Destruction
5. No Easy Way

Bonus Archive Footage
6. Vengeance
7. Smoke On The Water
8. Sleeping On The Job

Bonus Features
1. "Cannonball"-G.M.T.-Bernie Torme, John McCoy and Robin Guynew track from ex Gillan members
2. In depth interviews with John MCcoy, Bernie Torme, Colin Towns and Mick Underwood
3. History of GILLAN by Joe Geesin
4. Photo Gallery

You can preorder the DVD in our shop.
Thanks toAngel Air for the information.

On Saturday (at 18.00, local time), the Czech radiostation, “Radio Hey”, will broadcast interviews with Don Airey and Ian Gillan, done in Brno, Czech recently. For more info, check here.
Thanks to Sebastian Adam for the information.

After the Rocky Alice Cooper Horror Show we had to wait a little while. The tension was high.

And then… They started and the sold out Olympiahalle exploded. A few bars of Pictures of Home and we were immediately in. You could see them, hear them,feel their music: THE GODFATHERS OF ROCK.

Imagine: There is every week a young band, which tries to top them. Thirtyeight years now and no one ever could reach them. There were Glam Rock and Disco, Heavy Metal, Dark and Gothic, all the shit of Rave, Acid, House, Techno, Kozmic, all the Hip Hop and the Rap-nothing will remain, but the DP’s are immortal like Bach or Beethoven.

The program was quite similar to Berlin or Stuttgart; Ted the Mechanic and Wrong Man were brillant and powerful rock at its best, Living Wreck so straight that you got to know where the origins of AC/DC were, Rapture of the Deep and Before Time Began were not from this world.

All was perfect: An incredible light show in a new dimension, the sound clear, strong and loud-the bass went to the stomach, the Olympiahalle was vibrating… Motion pictures, to see every solo and great-inspired pictures to the songs: Marilyn, the man from the new cover, the third stone from the sun, fire and water… wonderful.

Mary Long, Perfect Strangers, Contact Lost, Lazy, Space Truckin’. All brillant – Steve and Don went to a big form, Paicey’s question and answer play was too complicated for the stupid Munich audience. Highway Star was better as the MADE IN Japan recording, I didn’t believe that I ever could hear this in my whole life. Thank you Steve. Smoke started with a gag: Alice Cooper played this best-known, eternal riff.

Roger Glovers solo – he well humoured like ever – led to the final pieces: Hush and the song about the lost socks: Black Night. A perfect show.

Ahh… did I forget someone? Ian Gillan. Ian Gillan, barefoot like Joss Stone, is the heart of Deep Purple. We are not in ’72, but he is the best living rock singer. His voice is better as ten or twentyfive years before. They all do a hard job. They do a great job. With every single note you can feel the joy of these gentlemen to make such good music. The harmony is perfect. There was magic in the hall that night and you got more for your money than you could expect.

Today it isn’t often so at rock concerts.. and otherwhere. After the show, inhaling the cold air of that February night I was sure, it was a great, an amazing evening.

Thank you Deep Purple.

W. Zacherl

I heard my favourite band in Spodek once again. Actually it was my third concert of DP.

The support band was SBB, polish rock dinosaurs. They warmed the audience quite well. The drum duet solo at the end of the performance was excellent. But of course everybody was waiting for the main dish.

The Purples started at 9 pm. I stood near stage so I saw clearly all details. On both sites of stage there were put 2 screens, in my opinion a little bit too low. But the idea was very good. As usually during current tour they began with Pictures of Home. It wasn’t a big bang opening track like mostly played on previous concerts Highway Star but enough well to introduce the right atmosphere.

The setlist was similar to other concerts playing on this tour. There were no surprises. The tracks from ROTD were accepted by the audience very well. Wrong Man and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye sounded very powerful. It was seen that band eagerly plays a new material. Other songs from the new album included title song aren’t big hits and sounded very heavily even sleepy. I don’t know why DP doesn’t play Money Talks or Clearly Quite Absurd. Lazy was a small dissapointment, too short, limited solos, I heard many better performances of this song. Perfect Strangers was played without striking refrain. Maybe I miss Lord’s organs. [Excuse me? – Rasmus] The concert’s impulsion were Steve Morse’s solos. The performance on Contact Lost was brilliant. His fingers were flowing on guitar’s strings.

Ian Gillan dedicated this song to casualties of disaster in Katowice when the roof collapsed. It was a very pleasant accent for us. At the end of concerts Steve played some rock standards for example Stairway to Heaven. It looks that he had got a big willingness to play more. Im a little bit dissapointed of Ian Paice’s solo playing at the end of bonus track Hush. Ian looked a little bit tired. Don Airey’s solo was very similar to previous polish concerts: of course Chopin, polish anthem and Star Wars themes.

Maybe it would be better to develope cosmic parts remaining tracks of Vangelis. The greatests performances were: Ted the Mechanic when the audience gathered in Spodek loudly sang TED! TED! TED! and closing classic track: Black Night. Roger Glover was raising on stage showing his acrobatic skills. Steve Morse leaded a guitar dialogue with singing people, that was a magnificent finish. I’m sure it wasn’t the best concert of DP, but nobody regrets that Purples came again.

Advantages: Steve Morse’s solo, Ian Gillan palying harmonica, Ian Gillan’s short talks, strong bass of Glover, funny introduction of concert when on screen were showed members of band coming out of box and going to a stage.

Disadvantages: short drums solos, some tiring songs, polish accents, lack of ballads like Sometimes I feel like screaming, no surprises.

Przemek Zarubin

The performance was spotless. It was loud. The band is in a class of its own.

The Purps started about 9 p.m. But before Them we could hear the polish band SBB. With all the respect to Jozef Skrzek and the rest of musicians their performance wasn’t what I expected.. The sound was poor. Skrzek’s voice wasn’t clearly audible. The highlight was when Apostolis Anthimos changed the guitar to the drums in Walkin’ Around The Stormy Bay. It was nice to see the two drummers jamming together Last year in Plock it was far more better. That was the end.

The best was about to happen in fifteen minutes time. At 9 p.m. the lights went out. On the video screens some familiar guys were coming out from the big case.

They opened with a classic one. Pictures of Home. The audience gone completely mad what gave the positive vibes to the band. All the classic tracks were performed glamorously. Living Wreck was so passionately played. It was a real surprise to my father. I could see him spellbound when he heard the first note of it. Highway Star with a new intro shows that within DP there is always a place for changes even in the obscure stuff. Mary Long my beloved from WDWTWA was divine. What else can I write about such classics as SMOTW or Perfect Strangers? Maybe it would be enough if I write that they are refreshed and sound very well in comparison with the stuff from the new album.

Finally we move to the ROTD tracks. They sounded AWESOME. I love the new album and I wanted to hear as many as possible from it. Playing Things I Never Said during European tour is a fantastic idea. Many fans weren’t familiar with the song so now they may get a bit closer to it. It is a typical melodic DP which we all like. All the tracks were far more heavier than on the album and performed with such intensity that I felt like flying musical high. Wrong Man sounded like a thunder. The title track with Before Time Began are a good couple. They bring about this spiritual message. The songs are bound up by this spiritualism that is tremendously expressed by the mixture of music and words. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye was just terrific. We could hear a couple of the greatest riffs in rock history.

We have Ted The Mechanic back in the set list. Both with Wrong Man they create unity.
Boys ended up with Hush and Black Night. Superb, but I’d rather have heard Speed King instead of Hush.

Now the musicians. I’m not a musician so I’m not supposed to tell anything about the music itself. Their performance was very good. It really appealed to me. A tear appeared in my eye when Ian dedicated Contact Lost to the victims of the collapsed trade hall in Katowice. The worst disaster in recent Polish history. Don played a bit of Polish national anthem and he brought the audience to sing along. He got an enormous response. I love Paicey and seeing him in such a good shape made me extremely happy. Roger was all the time smiling and playing well. He’s my favorite bass player. The development of rhythm section owes him very much.
Nice to see your Rickenbacker coming out for Smoke, Rog!!! Steve’s playing was tremendous. His a fantastic guitar player. I feel he could blow away many other guitarists. Don found himself really well in Lord’s place and he played with his own identity. And finally Ian Gillan. Fantastic form, great voice. Number one rock singer. Maybe of all times? Who knows?

What struck me as odd were the people talking: “It wasn’t a good concert. We didn’t hear Child in time, Into the fire etc. Paicey’s solo was to short” and many more silly commentaries. Such things were said by people who didn’t come to contemplate music but to see the show. So I told them that if they want to see the show they should go and worship The Rolling Stones or some heavy metal clones. And in the reply to Paicey’s solo and Ian’s voice I exclaimed that when those “fans” reach sixty they won’t be able to walk properly not to mention singing.

The bunch of musicians, our band, are truly artists. There is no mark of empty stardom in their behaving on stage. The way they play takes me into a sphere where I’ve never been to. When I hear the guys I always discover something new. That music enriches my spirit and I feel closely connected to it.

Spooked was almost full. The audience was incredible. The band was warmly welcomed, as they are always in Poland, it reflected in the smiling faces of the Purps. I ‘ve never seen such happiness coming out from playing music. I feel that this is the best reward for being almost forty years on stage.

All in all, the gig was the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. It was one big musical orgasm. See You next time. Hopefully in a while.

Marcin Rybacki