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DEEP PURPLE in Ulm, Kloster Wieblingen 28.06.2026
“Can I have 5 beers please …”
It was hot. But thanks to the buildings of the beautiful Kloster Wieblingen and the slowly setting sun most of the audience had a place in the shade. Nevertheless those brave parademics had a lot o do obviously. We could see them rush from one end of the audience to the other end quite often. Deep Purple started spot on 8 o’clock. A pretty nice video (if a little kitschy) that contained AI generated hints of every cover in their history (including Mark III et al) accompanied the bombastic intro tape. A few bars into Highway Star the band had made clear they were here to reallly show’em. Ian Gillan was the surprise of the evening. He sang good for the most part, gave it his heart and soul it seemed, he screamed every now and again – but most of all: he did talk again! Gilllanism is back! He was joking, talking nonsense like he used to back in the day. The last times we had seen him he seemed to take care of his voice, hardly talking at all. This time he was very lively, looked great and even screamed for no particular reason while announcing a song …
You may have heard about the setlist. Arrogant Boy and Diablo went down really well live. So did A liite Bit on the Side and Lazy Sod. Rapture of the Deep was a very welcome deep cut for us but it was the song Ian struggled the most singing. All in all the band was on top form. Simon sounded confident and I liked his playing and solo spot much more than the first time I saw him with the Purps. And I totally get what the band mean … he brought a rock’n’rolll edge back I had missed for such a long time. Fun fact: We noticed more younger folks in the audience than at every other Purple show we have seen (and it’s been a few) in the last 2 decades. Usually they get dragged along by their fathers – not this time. (With the exception of my poor boy of course! But in a bad case of Stockholm syndrome he loves to go see them …and after all he’s not THAT young anymore …) There was a girl in front of us … her jaw literally dropped during the solo section of Hard Lovin’ Man (you know those eerie keyboard sounds), she shook her head in disbelief …and she danced for the rest of the show, smilling, cheering. Fair enough as the band was really groovy. Sometime during the proceedings IG waved to the caterer and shouted “Can I have 5 beers please … and whatever the other boys want…!” At the end of the show, after the last chords of Black Night had echoed from the walls of the monastary he sang “Good Night, Irene” … all by himself. I have never seen him doing somethingf like this before. Oh, and there was a storks family watching the whole show from the roof of the monastary. Seems they enjoyed it. We certainly did.
Max
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Pre gig I had wondered if there’d be showers or water tanks or something — given the heat. Did not see anything like that. All I heard was that a small bottle of water would cost you a 5er … that’s about 30 times the price you pay for it at the groceries … At a Duff Mckagan show in Mannheim he had his staff hand out bottles to the audiences and even the man himself climbed down from stage to provide water … nice touch. But ok … it was a club gig. The band’s not to blame here of course.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:05awesome, thanks for the concert review, it’s raising the Purple fever here THS!
June 30th, 2026 at 13:15Father & Son!
June 30th, 2026 at 14:52Great concert review. Thank you Max.
June 30th, 2026 at 16:50