Child In Time - connecting people

The show was superb. This was the best DP performance on Russian soil so far. Despite the recent illness, Ian Gillan's voice was in top form, Child In Time absolutely blew everyone away. Ian hit all the high notes with ease. During Child people took out their lighters and mobile phones (with glowing screens) and started waving them in the air. This song is a real anthem for our audience. DP had never played it in Russia before. And Ian's performance of When A Blind Man Cries sent tears running down many faces. He really sings this number with all his soul.

Paicey was amazing, his long drum solo during Speed King was great, absolutely flawless, many extatic fans described him as a "machine", which, of course, is a compliment. In fact both Ians can be named the stars of the evening.

Roger's bass was high in the mix and could be heard really well, his bass solo in Speed King was wonderful.

As for Don, I can say he's a very good substitute for JL. He did an interesting solo before Perfect Strangers with some Russian folk music, including the famous Moscow Evenings that Jon used to play every time he came to Moscow. Don worked on his solo so hard that at the end of it little Ian ran out onstage with a big towel and started waving it at Don as if to give him more air to breathe.

Steve also did a great job, The Well-Dressed Guitar and the voice-guitar duel in Speed King were brilliant. Mary Long sounds much better these days than it did on the WDWTWA album with Ritchie Blackmore.

IG had so much energy in him, he constantly jumped, danced, played his congas and tambourine, and during The Aviator even tried to fly (waving his hands like wings). I loved the live performance of The Aviator in Moscow. At one point the music stopped and IG, RG and SM sang the chorus a-capella together with the audience.

The venue was all sold out, full up to the last rows on the large balcony and side rows where it's even difficult to see the stage, people were sitting almost on the roof. This was a huge success, as there wasn't much pre-show advertising to be seen and the tickets weren't at all cheap. Big Ian kept repeating "you're fantastic", "thank you for sending us good vibes" and "superb", he was amazed that so many people came to see DP and that they didn't hold back their emotions in showing their excitement. The roar of the public before the encores and after the end of the show was thunderous.

I really hope the band can carry on for many years and that we will see them in Moscow again. Dear Deep Purple, we all here will miss you. Please come back!

The setlist:

Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Mary Long ("these two people have died and gone to heaven")
Lazy
Child In Time
The Aviator ("this song is about flying")
No One Came
Well Dressed Guitar ("or a well-dressed table")
Fools
Don's solo - Russian folk music, including Moscow Evenings
Perfect Strangers
When A Blind Man Cries
Smoke On The Water (with Guitar Parade including Stairway to Heaven)
Speed King (with It's Now Or Never, High School Hop, etc)

encores:

Hush ("this is the anniversary of this song, it was written exactly 100 years ago")
Black Night
Highway Star

Olga Davydova

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