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Reviews, Europe 2003

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Hovet, Stockholm, Sweden
November 24, 2003

Highway Star
Strange Kind Of Woman
Silver Tongue
Knocking At Your Backdoor
House Of Pain
Lazy
Bananas
Contact Lost
Doing It Tonight
Space Truckin
I Got Your Number
The Well Dressed Guitar
Perfect Strangers
Smoke On The Water

Hush
Black Night

I can honestly say that I didn't know much about Uriah Heep before this evening. I had only heard a couple of songs. They started the show exactly on time with the smash-hit Easy Livin'.
They surprised me and my friends with a whole bunch of energy and every song they played this evening was great. So all I have to do now is to get my lazy buttox down to the record store and get me some of them Uriah Heep CDs!
As expected, Deep Purple kicked off with the classic opener, Highway Star. I had the setlist from previous shows on this tour pretty much printed in my head, so the start wasn't at all a surprise. The energy on stage was as great as ever. The band seemed to enjoy being back in Sweden again. The show went on as I had expected. My friends didn't know of the previous setlists so I didn't want to spoil it for them.
The show was indeed great and with songs such as Highway Star, House Of Pain, Perfect Strangers and Lazy, you just can't fail. My two favourite songs for the evening was Perfect Strangers and House Of Pain wich both was excellent and somehow furious.
The encores, Hush and Black Night was great. One funny note I just have to add is that during Hush, someone messed up and there was a bit of confusion going on there on stage. But there was no hard feelings as they laughed the mess away. Good to see that a professional band can mess up with a glimpse of humour in their eyes...
If you plan to see the band on this tour, please have fun and stand up even if you're in a seat. The audience tonight was, to me, crap as no one seemed to want to stand up at any point. Me and my friends stood up almost throughout the whole show and loved the band, singing with the band, etc.
Thank you Deep Purple and also thanks to Uriah Heep.
Hope to see both of you again in a not so distant future.
Nanne Andersson, Sweden

I enjoyed it very much. I 'm 17, and I 've now been to two Deep Purple concerts - and hopefully more to come.
The evening started off at 19:30, when Uriah Heep (also a great band) took the stage. They played their classics with great energy. Usually warm up bands get like 30 min tops, but these guys played for well over an hour. Talk about warm up, I even got a little bit tired after all of that. But these guys are great, also been around for very long, 33 years. and they stay in great playing shape too. The singer doesn't seem to have lost any voice. Simply great performance. I hope I 'll get too see them once again, they did say 'we'll see you next year Sweden!' I hope so!
Deep Purple, the greatest band in the world. And then they came, starting off with Highway star. Very powerful performance of this song, just great. Then they played another classic: Strange kind of woman. But then they played some songs off the new album. I think they have found a nice sound for the new album. I enjoy the songs. But people didn't come to this concert to hear new stuff, they came for the classics! They came to hear the hard rock pioneers that did so much for rock music. But everyone listened to the new songs patiently, and I hope most other people enjoyed it as much as I did. After Doing it tonight came Space Truckin', which they played very nicely, probably the highlight of the show. It was the beginning of the end of the show, after all the new songs - just room for good old classics, and Space Truckin' got everyone in the mood.
Steve Morse did his Well dressed guitar performace, which is awesome. Then the keyboards player, Don Airey, did his little solo performance and made the crowd cheer because he played bits of Sweden's very best ABBA. He also played parts of old classic tunes, and the Star Wars theme. Very entertaining...
Then came the intro to Perfect Strangers. One of my favorite DP songs, and one of their best live songs. Truly great!
Straight after that came Smoke on the water, what all the not-so-dedicated fans were waiting for! I'm possibly one of the biggest Deep Purple fans, at least for my age, and I must say, Smoke on the water is a great hit, but not their best song. But it's what everyone knows, so everyone got up, and started singing along. Great performance.
Then they thanked everyone and left the stage, after Steve Morse threw another couple dozen guitar picks into the crowd.
People wanted more, "Purple, Purple, Purple" everyone yelled. And they came back, with football shirts on and began to play Hush. Lots of jamming during this song, at least five Morse solos, and at one point, Ian Gillan even forgot what song they were playing, he started singin "Hush, Hush" too early. But it's all good, he smiled, not everyone noticed, and they continued. Then came more solos from just about everyone, and afterwards they began the final song for the night, Black night - also packed with Steve Morse solos.
The gGood things about the show: great energy, great band, they still rock! I have so much respect for them, so no matter how old they get, how much voice they have left, what music they write, I will always love them.
Some little dissapointments: They didn't play one of the best live songs, Sometimes I feel like screaming, which is a favorite of mine.
There was a bit too much Steve Morse showing off, lots of jamming and solos. Personally, I dont mind, better that than a shorter show, but I heard people talking, and lots of people thought it was too much. But I say: Hey man, if the guy can do it, why not show it? He's one of the best guitarists in the world, and it's not every night you get to see him play.
Another thing, Gillan just can't fully sing those old 70s classics anymore. He still does it well, but just not those high screams, they sound more like hoarse yells now. But it's not something to ruin the mood, the music is great, the band is great, the concert was great. It's as simple as that for me!
Hope you find this review useful, im not sure if it's a good one.
Thanks,
Eugene Eroshenko