![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse3.jpg)
Far from being finished
Blue News reviews Deep Purple’s appearance on the 2026 edition of Montreux Jazz Festival:
On Monday evening, the Stravinski Auditorium was transformed into a rock temple. That may sound like a cliché—but for someone who isn’t very familiar with this genre of music, that’s exactly how it felt. After an explosive opening act by Danko Jones (see box), Deep Purple took the stage.
At 9:59 p.m., the lights went out. On stage, the large screen came to life. The show began with a sequence reminiscent of the opening credits of “Star Wars”: Against a space backdrop, the band members’ heads appeared first, followed by the letters “DP,” and finally the band’s name, which lit up in flames. When the musicians took the stage and the first notes of “Highway Star” rang out, the audience’s cheers knew no bounds.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
https://youtu.be/SFBiwSlK2jA?is=lir8CzaW_1W_uVS8
And here is a clip of said concert ….how does Don the robot remember to play exactly the same notes and arrangements every single night !? Lol 🤣🤣🤣
July 15th, 2026 at 03:53@ 1, Steve – LOL
Only True Masters can do that – weren’t you ever told of this? What’s the fuss??? 😀
setlist.fm claims that Montreux saw the live premieres of “Only Horse In Town” and “Scribbling Gibberish”. So Deep Purple – up to their usual standards – pick up for the live set the new album tracks I like least. Oh well, no surprise – I had two decades to adjust to that trend… I can now give myself a certificate of a “deep album cuts” lover. For me the finest is what they choose not to play.
“Rapture” is out as well, so Steve Morse era is out of Deep Purple concerts as for now… and that really HURTS.
July 15th, 2026 at 12:46“Rapture” is out as well, so Steve Morse era is out of Deep Purple concerts as for now… and that really HURTS.
My condolences, Beate!
But don’t say I didn’t warn you! When I made the innocent comment of everything Morse being phased out after Simon joined, pyres and stakes were once again prepared for me by the (justly?) enraged townfolk!
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTM0OGFmM2ItZTY4Mi00ZmRhLTkzMzUtODJkZGE1NzI4MjBiXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg
July 15th, 2026 at 15:28Currently 15.7. setlist.fm just shows a tracklist of 15 songs – actually Vigo minus Rapture… don‘t know whether that is really trustworthy. Would have liked to hear a live rendition of „Only horse“ but I agree with Thorsun and rate „Scribbling“ as a deep cut. Maybe somebody was attending the Montreux show and give us some more details. To be honest whether they play Morse era material (yes there a couple of great songs too, always loved „Sometimes I feel like screaming“) or not – for me that‘s not really important. I like a good portion of the =1 and Splat! songs and if they change the setlist it‘s good to infuse some fresh blood. But as always with setlists, no setlist will ever please everybody.
July 15th, 2026 at 19:06#1 Steve:
The introductory video with the sequence of all the album covers is already a dream journey in itself!
#2 Thorsun:
I too find myself among those who are rarely satisfied by the Deep on the songs of the new albums….but by =1 they had satisfied almost all my preferences (apart from Lazy sod)
Unfortunately, as Uwe says, it was predictable that they would cut the entire Morse era, even in the past they cut a lot from the more recent albums.
I hope they take Anya out for a new song or something PS at least, the 80’s have pretty much disappeared for a long time
July 15th, 2026 at 22:07@3
July 16th, 2026 at 15:04Yes, I was afraid that this would happen. But it’s unfair to skip Uncommon Man, because it always was a song in memory of Jon!
Uncommon Man was played the last time live end of October (if I remember it correct 23.10.2024 Munich) the other tribute song for Jon Above and Beyond was also dropped from the playlist in late autumn 2024. Both tracks have been live staples for several tours, the release of =1 obviously made it easy to decommission the Now What? Songs. Imho understandable for a band still releasing new music and honestly I like most of the songs from =1 and Splat!
July 16th, 2026 at 19:52