Ian Gillan
The Greatest Rocksinger

Ian will celebrate his 62th
birthday on 19-08-2007 !!

The nineteenth has been a long and pleasant day so far. I spent the morning reading sack-loads of birthday greetings from all over the world. I can't tell you how much it means to me on this my sixtieth birthday. You are all so generous and I want you to know that I have read every word apart from the attachments - so, just a reminder to embed any text in future. I would reply individually if there were enough hours in the day, but there aren't so everyone please accept this thank you, thank you, I thaaaaaaaaaaaaank you all.

I am staying with Deep Purple's manager - Bruce Payne - for a week or so. See the first couple of paragraphs in DF 21 October 2001 for an autumnal view of his back garden.

I find that one of the very few negatives caused by near constant touring is keeping up with those bits of maintenance required for the continuing efficiency of my body. I'm on first name terms with many dentists around the globe but now it's time to have a ten million mile overhaul so I can be in good running order for the Rapture tour, that will last for a couple of years.

This afternoon I have been speaking on the phone to various international media types, about the new record. Someone asked me 'Why doesn't Deep Purple tour any more?', I replied 'Well we can't really can we - I mean if we toured any more we'd have no time off at all.' Apart from that the interviews went well and I got some good vibes from those who had heard advance copies of Rapture of the Deep.

After typing this I'm going for a few laps in the pool and then get ready for the evening. I have a dentist appointment at 7pm. After that I'm going to throw a couple of drinks down my neck - literally. It will be my pleasure to watch the local reaction as my numb mouth fishes in vain for the contents of an upturned glass.

So, thanks again for all the good wishes, I am truly overwhelmed. Tonight I will raise a glass to you all.

Er wordt aan een nederlandstalige
versie van deze pagina gewerkt !!

Helaas zijn de geluidsopnames niet super van kwaliteit, was de apparatuur op het podium niet geweldig afgesteld (af en toe sikkeneurig gezicht bij mr. Gillan, hahaha), en was helaas ook heer Ian Gillan niet heel goed bij stem die dag. Maar toch mooi dat deze opnames nog te vinden waren. P.s. : AOL heeft de opnames helaas niet meer beschikbaar.

Ian Gillan is the singer who introduced himself to thousands of Deep Purple fans when he joined the band back in 1969. Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, who replaced Rod Evans and Nick Simper, helped pushing the band into an heavier direction, which opened the door to fame and stardom. The band became world famous. The saga started with "Deep Purple in Rock", which in my opinion is one of the best albums made ever. It's raw, exciting, complete, and definitely mighty rock 'n' rolling. All members of the band were very eager to be something, which is easy to hear. The band became very successful indeed but guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan, who didn't get along very well, started to cause trouble. The last album by the Mark II incarnation was "Who Do We Think We Are", which they promoted with a full world tour. The tour came to a halt when Ian had had enough of Ritchie's behaviour (although the split also was a result of different ideas on which musical paths one should choose, with Gillan/Glover on one side, and Blackmore/Lord/Paice on the other side) and the stagnation of the band (IIHO = in Ian's humble opinion). He flew home from Japan without a cloud on the horizon. Deep Purple continued with David Coverdale (who worked in an English trouser shop during the days, and sang with local acts during the nights) and Glenn Hughes (who played in a band named Trapeze), and became the biggest selling act of 1974, which resulted in a performance at the Ontario Motor Speedway near Los Angeles, CA in front of 300,000 people on April 6 the same year.

Ian decided to abandon the music business and transformed into Gillan - the business man. During a couple of years he was busy running a hotel, a company devoted to motor bikes and engines, etc. Eventually, Ian realised that he was better off sticking to the microphone instead of the business suit, as his companies went bankrupt and the urge for singing returned bit by bit. He struck back with full power in 1975-76 when he formed the Ian Gillan Band with a couple of friends. The band was into fusion jazz, and the first album, "Child in Time", marked a true difference musically from Ian's contributions to Deep Purple earlier. A couple of jazzy albums, "Clear Air Turbulence", "Scarabus", and "Live at the Budokan" followed, but after the band had split up Ian cut a long story short by saying that he thought the band had been making good music. All guys except keyboardist Colin Towns got the walking papers and the personnel changed quite dramatically as Gillan, the band, saw the light of day. Ian had returned to his roots, he was rockin' and rollin' once again.

They were especially very popular in the U.K. and the Far East, and did actually headline at the Reading Festival in the early 80's. Due to different reasons, depending on whom you ask, the band split in 1982 and played their final show at Wembley in December. In 1983 Ian joined Black Sabbath and they recorded the "Born Again" album. The band did a world tour, but in 1984 Ian came back to a reunited Deep Purple and they made the highly successful "Perfect Strangers" album. Five years later Ian went on with other projects, since he had been fired from Deep Purple to be replaced by former Rainbow singer, Joe Lynn Turner. Deep Purple was no more. Their new name was Deep Rainbow (not! :^). He continued solo most of the time until 1992, when he once again was a part of Deep Purple. Blackmore quit the band in 1993, with Steve Morse replacing him permanently. The Man In Black's departure was a good thing for both parts. Steve brought the fresh blood back into the band and one thing's for sure. The battle is definitely raging on ...

Mijn Favoriete Songs
van Ian Gillan / Deep Purple :

No more cane on the brazos
Haunted
When a blind man cries
That's why God is singing the blues
If I Sing Softly
Bluesy Blue See
Clouds & Rain
South Africa
Gunga Din
Gillan & Pavarotti - Nessun dorma
Gillan & Michalis Rakintzis - Get away
Gillan & Michalis Rakintzis - I think I know
Ian Gillan - Jesus Christ Superstar(Gethsemane)
Child In Time
Dead of night
Smokestack Lightning
Perfect Strangers
Apathy

Fame & Fortune: Deep Purple's Ian Gillan

Interview met Ian Gillan 6-1-2006

He won't mind his own business

By Larry Getlen • Bankrate.com

The legacy of Deep Purple runs far and ... well, deep.

The band has been around, on and off, in one form or another, since 1968. While the roots of their family tree could reach to China, the lineup that made the greatest impact was their 1969-1973 incarnation, which included Ritchie Blackmore on guitar and Ian Gillan on vocals. This lineup became one of the best-loved hard rock bands on the planet, elevating the band members to legend status with the 1973 hit "Smoke on the Water." Since then, the band has broken up, reformed and swapped members with other bands more times than one can count. As for the power-throated Gillan, he left immediately after "Smoke" hit big. He played in solo bands and ran some nonmusic-related businesses for 10 years. He spent one year in Black Sabbath in 1983 before leaving to join Purple again for five years, leaving again for three, then finally rejoining for good in 1992.

Now, Deep Purple has a new album out, "Rapture of the Deep," and despite several more lineup changes (Blackmore left for good in 1993 and was replaced by Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse), the band still has the same rocking crunch and swagger that has defined them for more than 35 years. Bankrate spoke with Gillan about the new record and the business travails of a rocker who doesn't care about business.

Bankrate: When you're writing new material, is there a sense of preserving the band's legacy, or is every album a fresh start?

Ian Gillan : It's completely fresh. In fact, this is one of the most enjoyable records, in a creative sense, we've ever done - very similar to how we worked in '69 and '70. The band was very hot, and there was not a single note or word written or preconceived notion of how the album would be.

Bankrate: As the music industry changes, is there ever concern or dis­cussion about where Deep Purple fits in with what's happening today?

Ian Gillan : You come to a time in your life when you realize you were never in this for a game. If you try to be fashionable, then tomorrow, by definition, you're going to be unfashionable, so we might as well stick to what we do and maintain that incredible audience we have. Our crowd is not the slightest bit fickle. They've been incredibly loyal over the years, and they breed new generations. The average age of our audience outside the United States, internationally, is 18 years old.

Bankrate: Are you received as well in America as you are overseas?

Ian Gillan : Not really, no. We have some fantastic fans in America, but there's an industry thing in the States called classic rock. If you were a success in the '60s and '70s and '80s, you fall into that bracket, and consequently you're considered to be dead and buried. You're a historical event rather then a contemporary act. Whereas around the world, we tend to be viewed more in the context of the current, living, thriving Deep Purple.

Bankrate: You have several potential income streams, including publishing from the old music, touring, and sales of new records. What is the most lucrative for you?

Ian Gillan : The biggest income we make is from live performances, without any doubt. That's about a 4-to-1 ratio from anything else.

Bankrate: I'm surprised. I'd figure publishing on the old stuff would be more lucrative.

Ian Gillan : You may be right if you're talking gross amounts, but what winds up in my account is definitely, on at least a 4-to-1 ratio, the live music. My first contract was in 1965. There were six of us in this band -- my band before Deep Purple -- six in the band plus management, and the entire royalty rate was three-fourths of 1 percent. So things took a while to pick up. When you were a kid, you walked in and they said, "Sign here, son," and you signed there and that was it. Now, of course, when you try and adjust it they say it's too late. There's too many years gone by, you can't really bring this to court. We've had some very understanding record labels and publishers over the years that have made adjustments, shall we say, but my personal income is at least 80 percent from live work. We get paid very well live, and we do a lot of it.

Bankrate: When you got into the really heavy success in the '70s, were any of you business-savvy?

Ian Gillan : Not really, no. I think that's why we're still going, because the only thing we really cared about was the music. We talked to a tax inspector in the UK who was retired; he worked as a consultant for us for six months. He said, "I will never go to court and say this, and you can never quote me, but I've been through the paperwork. As a tax in­spec­tor, all I can say is, you guys were screwed royally." So there you go.

Bankrate: When you left Deep Purple the first time, in the '70s, you actually tried running a few businesses. Tell me about that.

Ian Gillan : In both of my autobiographies, I've detailed those misfortunes in great lengths. I wasn't trying to run a business. I was just trying to occupy my time. The thing is, I'd spent almost my entire adult life in hotels, and I kind of felt lost without one, and I like building. So I found this derelict building and turned it into a hotel. It's only when I opened it as a hotel -- this beautiful thing -- that I realized I'd better get somebody to run it. And that's when I lost it. I had it one day and the next day it was gone. Somebody else has it now. There you go. I had a recording studio because I like music. I'm not very good at running things, the business side of it. I had a motorcycle business because I like racing motorcycles. We started designing and developing motorbikes, but I had no idea what was happening on the investment end. It was just about the time of the Japanese invasion on the small bike market in the UK, and they wiped us off the map. But we had a lot of fun doing it.

Bankrate: Have you done any investing?

Ian Gillan : No. I never had a share in my life, or a stock, or whatever you call them. I don't even have a bank account. I have a couple of credit cards, and I have some cash. My office in London keeps tabs on my household expenditures and stuff like that. They pay the bills. I'm really hands-off in that area. The reason I don't have a bank account is because no one will let me have a checkbook.

Bankrate: What do you do with your money, then?

Ian Gillan : I don't know. I don't know. I never seem to have any, so ... it doesn't bother me a lot. I get to pay my bills, and that's it.

Bankrate: Do you own any real estate?

Ian Gillan : Real estate? What do you mean? I've got a house. I've got no investments or anything like that. I don't own anything. I've got a house and a 30-year-old Land Rover.

Bankrate: Who is this person back at the office handling your money?

Ian Gillan : My manager. He talks to my wife when she needs clothes and when the electricity has to be paid. I don't know. I've never seen one of those things.

Bankrate: So as far as you're concerned, the farther away that stuff is the better.

Ian Gillan : If I had to deal with it, then I'd have to be spending my time doing it, probably badly because my mind isn't built that way. I'd have to stop doing the stuff that does earn the money, which is the creative side. There's two ways of building a business, I suppose, and that's where I made my mistakes, because I should have got a businessman involved. It seemed to me all the creative ideas were good, but you need more than that to run a business. But I spent all my life creating things, so that's what I love doing. I'm a writer and performer, basically.

Bankrate: What are the most important lessons you would impart to a younger musician about the business end of the music business?

Ian Gillan : Well, it's very good to be well-rounded in the modern world. But if you're going to be a musician, the music has to come first. Otherwise, you're going to be putting money in the bank for what? From where? If you want to be a businessman, then be a manager or agent or something. It's good to keep your eyes and ears open, it's a big, bad world out there, but you have to have fun. That's the most important thing.

Deep Purple is op 17 januari 2006 gestart met de nieuwe "Rapture of the deep"-worldtour. Hieronder foto's, interviews, recencies etc


Foto's Deep Purple in Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall,
op 26-01-2006

Mash (who thought the show was ok).
Posted in 2006-01-17 Astoria, London, UK, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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It was wonderful - London January 17th, 2006
Whatever you think of the album, it was really good to hear so many new songs. Put into the context of a live show (and without Michael Bradford’s production!) they sounded fine - fitted in really well. With a bit of luck, Mr G might have learned the words (to some of the old ones as well!) by the time the tour comes to you.
The first part of the show was all “What’s coming next?” - and I’m talking about the guys on stage there. For those of us in the audience it was wonderful. I confess that I was so surprised that it took me a while to realise that it was “Living Wreck” that I was hearing.
Things became a bit more predictable after Contact Lost / WDG. But they still managed to squeeze in another couple of new ones. WDG really has become a crowd-pleaser - not as much as the Machine Head numbers, but not far off.
The three front men were all in fine form, and clearly enjoying it. Don was excellent, with big Ian encouraging us to play “Air Hammond” during his solos.
Paicey - well, I wonder if the years are finally beginning to catch up, and if he was being more economical at first. But I’ll leave that to the drummers amongst you. He always looks so agonised anyway, and certainly by the second half of the show he was really into his groove. Maybe I was just so stunned by the opening sequence that I wasn’t paying enough attention to him.
Ian G said that they are going to be on the road for “two years” - a daunting thought at any age.
Liked the stage set - two racks of lights on the back wall on either side of the album cover backdrop, plus a couple of vertical rows on each side of the stage. The lights were much brighter than they appear in Stephen’s photos - multi-colours, abstract patterns, animation - clean , modern, complemented the music without being obtrusive.
Oh yes - Roger’s Rickenbacker came out for “Smoke”.
Summary - a great start to the tour. Things can only get better as the gremlins and uncertainties are ironed out. Hope they retain the adventurous setlist - seems to me to be a good compromise between playing new/obscure material and playing the crowd-pleasing old favourites.
There is a new tour programme - we only realised this when we were outside afterwards and saw others with it. At a glance it looks good.
Good to meet some new faces and catch up with some old ones - sorry I didn’t get a chance to chat.
Enough from me, I think.

Garry Smith
Posted in 2006-01-17 Astoria, London, UK, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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A promising thrill - London January 17th, 2006
I was at the opening date of the Rapture Of The Deep world tour and things seem promising.
The band were a little loose, on several occasions they had to check the sequencing on some tunes to make sure they got it right! Gillan frequently consulted a folder of lyrics placed on the drum riser. But they were still belting!
The band was class, and it was great to have it in-yer-face, instead of the arena I saw them in at Wembley. It was bloody loud (a v.good thing) and the mix was generally very good.
It was certainly a thrill to hear them storm on with ‘Pictures of Home’. Gillan manged to get through a plethora of microphones early on. The set list took me by suprise, less hits and lots of Rapture material, which I enjoyed immensely but which pissed off others. Didn’t think they’d do ‘Back To Back’ or ‘Before Time Began’ and was a bit suprised to hear ‘Ted the Mechanic’ and ‘Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming’, though they didn’t quite pull off the latter.
‘Living Wreck’ was a real highlight too. Again, there was little respect shown to the intro for ‘Lost Contact’, which was sad. Steve Morse enjoyed a lot of showcases in his inimitable style. He’s a real mastery of his instrument. The only quibble I have is he didn’t really nail some of his own distorted riffs, marring the glorous lick to ‘Perfect Strangers’ and ‘Space Truckin’. Still, I don’t mind Morse taking risks and it will get better as the tour progresses.
Airey’s keyboards have become integral to Purple and were very inventive, but his solo was too brief and Paicey didn’t get one. Roger Glover did and displayed his class, playing fingerstyle occassionally and melodic nouse. ‘Highway Star’ was perhaps the highlight, with the whole band rocking out at the front and headbanging in time to the music.
The usual features of a Purple gig were there, lots of smiles, air keyboards, general mucking about and throwing picks to the crowd.
As a tour warm up, it was fantastic, with a crowd full of all sorts of people. Lots of kids my age, 17-20 year olds. Pretty girls too! As the tour progresses, they will be sensational.

Sam Knight, London
Posted in 2006-01-17 Astoria, London, UK, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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Genuinely delighted - London January 17th, 2006

4 stars [out of 5]

The T-shirts are out tonight - if they don’t list previous tour dates of Deep Purple, they’re for Iron Maiden or AC/DC. Over the decades, these bands’ public standing has gone from lock-up yer-daughters shock to a fond nostalgia. But Deep Purple’s fan base is so dependable, despite the band having lost their guitarist and co-founder Ritchie Blackmore over a decade ago, that tonight sees them beginning a two-year world tour.
Perhaps its the breadth of their style that has served them so well. Certainly, the guitar solos are there, superbly managed by the hands of Steve Morse, but it’s the piano and organ solos that really capture the imagination. Don Airey plays his keyboards with a gorgeous lightness, sometimes delving towards honky tonk and funk, raising a laugh by leading from an epic solo into a few sneaky bars of Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner.
Like a Barbara Cartland novel, the music of Deep Purple contains a lot more build-up than climax, although Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming, with its vocal lead, reminds us that they can also do pop. Lemmy from Motorhead has said he gets so bored of singing Ace of Spades that he often changes the words, but there’s no such tricks from Ian Gillan, who seems genuinely delighted when they end their set with their classic Smoke on the Water. His whole band are incandescent; men reunited with the thing they love the most.

(c) The Guardian, Sophie Heawood
Posted in 2006-01-17 Astoria, London, UK, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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Purple reflections - Barcelona January 22th, 2006

Reflections on Deep Purple, Barcelona 22 January 2006

The Pavelló Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, is a sports hall, built for the Olympics held here in 1986. Owing to a “crap promoter” (Ian Gillan’s words) the doors were late opening and there was no support band. Hence it was two-and-a-half hours after the advertised opening time before Purple hit the stage. In keeping with that delay, I would like to give a little personal history behind my interest in Deep Purple, before going on to the performance (or you can scroll directly to the concert).
I was just 12 years old when I first heard “Made in Japan” and I loved it. Like most kids of that age at that time all I knew of music was what I heard on Top of the Pops, Radio 1 or Radio Luxemburg. Deep Purple were so unlike anything else I had ever heard up to that time. With the combination of my hormones starting to kick in and the death of my father only six months before, Deep Purple filled a deep hole in my psyche that I am only now beginning to realise.
Back then, my older brother found the records and we lapped up the back catalogue: from “Machine Head” back to “Shades of” and the later “Who Do We Think We Are?” At the time, it was Ian Gillan who spoke to me (or should I say screamed), so when I heard that he and Roger Glover were leaving the band I was gutted. It was appalling news. After finding myself able to carry on without a father, I was deserted again by the surrogate that Ian Gillan and his magnificent voice had become to me.
The news that the band were to continue, but with new vocalists and bass player was something of a relief, though it was hard to imagine a suitable replacement for Gillan. “Burn” was released and I went to see them in Coventry in 1974. I was still only 13 years old. As one might expect, they mostly played songs from the new album and when it came to the classics like “Space Truckin” and “Smoke on the Water”, they just didn’t sound right. Whilst I enjoyed that, my first rock concert of any description, I would have had to admit it was a bit of an anti-climax.
Months and years passed and I went to other rock concerts and the memory of that first one faded a little. I kept listening to Purple, following their progress with David Coverdale on vocals and got to see them again when they came round two years later, this time with Tommy Bolin on guitar. Looking back I don’t remember much about that concert – my tastes had spread across the spectrum of rock and, if I am to be fair, this second performance was mediocre by comparison to other concerts. I got to see Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow twice and he seemed to embody what I loved about the band better than the MkIV Deep Purple.
The new wave of punk music followed and Deep Purple collapsed. I was amazed to hear they’d reformed in the eighties, but at that time I wasn’t listening to much in the way of “new” music – my tastes had gone back to the 60’s, with the likes of Dylan, The Doors and Hendrix. I paid the reformation no mind. I married and had two kids and, except for the occasional trip to Glastonbury my life as a rock concert-goer was essentially over.
The youngest of our kids was a boy and he showed an interest in rock music practically from birth, nodding along to the sounds of Led Zeppelin before he could walk or talk. But it wasn’t until he was 14 that he started taking a serious interest in my back catalogue of Deep Purple tapes and vinyl. With a brief view of them performing at Live 8, he was talking about wanting to see them live himself. As a family we had moved to Spain and the law prevents under-16 year olds from going to concerts. So when we heard that there was a new album and tour out towards the end of 2005 it didn’t take much for me to decide: we had to go and see them in Barcelona. I would treat him for his 16th birthday.
For myself, I didn’t have high hopes: the new album “Rapture of the Deep” seemed mediocre compared with the early stuff, though it had been growing on me with every listening, and I couldn’t quite get used to sound of the band without Blackmore, even though it was quite refreshing to hear Gillan again. (No offence meant to Steve Morse, a technically brilliant guitarist, but Richie always seemed more fluid, more natural.)
The concert
So when they finally hit the stage they opened with “Pictures From Home”, a song I had heard on the radio. It was quickly followed by a couple from the new album, which sounded much better live, and “Ted the Mechanic”, another one I didn’t know too well.
I was therefore dumbstruck when Gillan dedicated the next song to the aforementioned promoter: “Living Wreck”. Suddenly I felt rapture from deep within me. And there on bass, he who I’d almost completely ignored, was Roger Glover! Suddenly I was 12 again and I realised what was missing from 1974 onwards. It wasn’t just Gillan, it was Glover too. Blackmore may have been the author of some of the greatest riffs off all time and Jon Lord the most exciting keyboardist, but neither of them were there in Barcelona. The title track from “Rapture” followed, a song that is destined to be as great as any other Purple song, a couple more from the same album, Steve Morse’s guitar solo and eventually, “Lazy”. The crowd suddenly woke up. Don Airey’s keyboard solo followed, “Perfect Srtangers” and “Junkyard Blues”. Despite Ian Gillan’s explanations (in English) to the crowd about his frustrations when writing the next song, I don’t think there were many there who understood “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” like I did: as a British ex-pat invariably frustrated by the local customs!
Finally, the double pieces-de-resistances: “Space Truckin” & “Highway Star”. After 32 years of buried disappointment, I heard both songs played live properly for the first time since “Made in Japan”. Even if you couldn’t hear Gillan’s vocals on “Highway Star” thanks to the Spanish/Catalan crowd knowing all the words and belting them out, who cared! Glover’s performance was magnificent. It brought me to tears to hear it and it brings me to tears to write about it two days later. This was what was missing in 1974 and 1976. Coverdale was a great vocalist to equal Gillan, but Glenn Hughes: nondescript by comparison.
“Smoke on The Water” followed and the band went off. Back on for an encore, another new one and the final song: “Black Night”. This had never been one of my favourites, but once again, Roger Glover showed me why the MkII Purple were the greatest line-up of the band and why MkVIII can carry the banner and raise it high once again.
If I had any disappointment from the show it was down to wanting to hear some more of Ian Paice – where was “The Mule”? Gillan proved he could still hit the notes through the aforementioned classics but perhaps it would have been a scream too far for him to perform “Child In Time”. Shame, but no matter, we can’t have everything. The band showed they are tight performers, I didn’t hear a single bum note.

Long live Deep Purple.

Kevin Allcoat
Posted in 2006-01-22 Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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What an Eiffel! - Paris January 24th, 2006

What a fantastic show!

This was a treat and a half for me. On my 47th birthday we flew into Paris on a cold afternoon, quick trip up the Eiffel Tower back to the hotel for a quick change and on to the Zenith, great auditorium, difficult to walk to!
We arrived at around 8.45 got in and settled right of stage near S.M. and within minutes the boys entered the stage following a pre run video of them arriving in a flight case.
I couldn’t ask for better than a track I consider being the best to open the show “Pictures of Home”, the sound is spot on and it’s nice to see everyone enjoying the show so much.
The set list follows the London gig apart from the dropping of Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming and adding Speed King/Black Night to encore.
The new tracks all sound so much better live especially Junkyard Blues which allows the band to feature the heaviness of their riffs which are usually best heard live. Production on albums can be sometimes squeaky clean and its nice to have the rough edges as can be heard on In Rock.
Roger lost his bass during Wrong Man but was quickly given a replacement Vigier. Ian’s voice was supreme, he clearly ehjoyed every minute and his screams were not stretched but sounding as if he was back in the 70’s with strength and harmony.
There was still a few spots of misunderstanding but hey this early on in a two-year tour. I have to say that of all the gigs I have seen (see reviews 1974, ‘85, ‘03) this was clearly the best. The show was an excellent mixture of old and new and came to a fantastic crescendo with Highway Star, Speed King and SOTW.
The lighting and video was superb and it was great to have the camera shots for specific guitar licks and drum fills.
The band did a solid two hours and enjoyed every minute. The crowd were aged between 17-70 by the looks of things with even the kids in the front crowd surfing to SOTW! A solid show and tour to better Bananas. Go and see, enjoy and rock out to the finest around.
After show the band took time out as always to meet the fans and it was nice to say hello to Ian Paice (thanks for the one handed roll!) and Ian G. who looks better than his age would suggest. Thanks for giving us the time and good luck on this fantastic journey that keeps getting better. See you in Milton Keynes in June.

Dave Bonner
Posted in 2006-01-24 Le Zénith, Paris, France, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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10,000 people conquered by the winning team -
Brussels January 25th, 2006

I’m just back from the DP concert at Brussels, and yes it was great! Better than the Bananas tour, but still under construction for some parts. Major mistakes in Before Time Began (in the structure), but I’m sure they’ll fix it by tomorrow. And Gillan will learn his lyrics. The tour is still young.
I saw the setlist posted on The Highway Star site, and already some (just a couple) of changes have been made.
Back to Back was dropped and so was SIFLS. Instead they played an amazing version of Speed King (with a short but efficient drum solo including the famous one-handed roll).
Most of the new tracks sound really great live especially Junkyard Blues and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, and although not on all versions of Rapture of the Deep, Things I Never Said is a wonderful warm-up, up-tempo track attached to the opener Pictures Of Home.
Also great to have Ted The Mechanic back in business…
Living Wreck was played, although, unless it rises a bit, I don’t think it will stay long in the setlist. Don’t ask me why, but I had the same feeling with I’m Alone on the pre-Bananas tour, and I was (unfortunately) right.
Funny little story on the side: Gillan introducing Space Truckin’ while the rest of the band looks at him shaking their head to disagree… And Gillan to reply said something along the lines of, “Okay, on our way to Space Truckin’, we decided to have some more metaphysical thoughts and went on for a Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.” This detail (and many others) shows how much the band is an entity and has a real good time on stage, spreading good vibes and a definite sense of humour among the audience.
The lights show and video screens make me believe they will release a DVD from this tour.
I still miss Jon Lord…

Philippe Joseph
Posted in 2006-01-25 Forest National, Bruxelles, Belgium, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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Magnificient - Brussels January 25th, 2006

A few years ago in Lichtenvoorde at the Arrow Festival I was hugely disappointed. A very obligatory set, no inspiration. I thought they had lost it, and told myself, ‘no more Purple concerts.’ I’ve seen them many times and it is enough.

BOY, WAS I WRONG!

The album Rapture of the Deep was too good to be true, in fact, it is brilliant. And when opportunity knocked, I wanted to give them a chance, so I went to Brussels.

WHAT A SHOW!

I’m not going into detail, but every song was spot-on, lighting was just flashy enough, the sound was great, and Gillan sounded better than ever.
My favourites were Rapture of the Deep, Perfect Strangers, Highway Star and Junkyard Blues. And all the other ones were also magnificent. Keep up the good work, guys, and next time I will be there again!

Walter Coolen
Posted in 2006-01-25 Forest National, Bruxelles, Belgium, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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Really spectacular - Amsterdam January 26th, 2006

Yesterday I went to my first Deep Purple concert since the Concerto Tour in 2000. I was willing to see them again, just because I really admire the new album Rapture of the Deep, but also because I wanted to see them play in the Heineken Music Hall.
Everything was very, very good. The atmosphere, the opening act (really don’t know who they were, but they took their stand as warmup for Deep Purple, singing Iahan Gillàààn repeatedly. Funny guys from the south of the Netherlands) and of course Deep Purple. And it was loud! Very very loud. (one time it hurted my ears…)
The show opened on the two video screens left and right of the stage. Very nice feature, these screens. Just before the band came upon the stage there was a short film of a big trunk being opened by one of the roadies. The 5 guys we all came to see came out of the trunk and walked towards the stage door.
Then the show kicked of with Pictures from home, with the well known, brilliant Drum intro from Ian Paice. Very nice show opener, will probably remain the opener for this tour. It made everybody move, jump, swing, clap … have fun.
They went straight on with Thing I never said, what a great Rock and Roll song, I feel a bit pissed that it is not on my special edition, metal case cd… Very very good song, played at full volume …)
The whole show followed more or less the same setlist as the other shows. Back to Back was left out, and unfortunately we didn’t get to hear Speed King, but Mary Long and Hush were a real treat ! Absolutely fabulous.
Wrong man still appeared to be difficult for Ian Gillan. He started with the lyrics of the second verse, instead of “I wasn’t in the room when the action was going down … ” He still was paging through his textbook and yet made the mistake. Is he nervous? As the show moved on, he didn’t need the book anymore, and the performance of the new songs got better and better (if any improvement was still possible, because it was first class already)
Living wreck, complete with the fresh style of timing by Ian which I like very much, was real treat. It is nice to hear an old song being performed live in such a strong way. (did I already say it was loud?)
All the other songs were performed with splendid musicality, the titelsong from Rapture of the deep is not my personal favorite, but live it was taken to the level of Perfect Strangers. It is much better than on the album, in fact all the new songs have a much more energetic feeling ion their live versions. (This show calls for a live album gentlemen!)
Before Time began was also very nice and then Ian Gillan told the roaring crowd that we were left in the capable hands of Steve Morse. He played a beautiful version of Contact Lost driving up to The Well Dressed Guitar. Specially for these solo parts the video screens were superb, also because the camera work was done very well. Really like it!!
The Morse solo was highly appreceated by the crowd. At the end I jumped out of my chair to applaud as loud as I could. (Just like many others!) It took us to “Lazy”, one of my favourites. Execellent, brilliant, need I say more? … Loud maybe? (this is the song in which one chord of Steve really made me grab for my right ear, it hurted like hell for half a second…)
And then, the Keyboard Solo. Don really took over from Jon Lord in a very pleasant way. He’s got his own style and being a real Jon Lord fan I’m reluctant to say that I think Don Airey is more all-round. He was playing syths, moog, piano, hammond and another keyboard. WOW WOW WOW!!! He kicked off with a Lord-like classical piece of Beethoven, moved on, performed the Star Wars theme beautifully and even incorporated “Tulips from Amterdam” very funny sing-along song from the early fifties. It raised a big laugh by the audience. The solo could have gone on and on for ever, but took us to Perfect Strangers.
Yeah Perfect Strangers, it made full use of the wonderfull lighting kit. Sometimes so bright you could hardly look towards stage. Really spectacular !!!!!
Junkyard blues was introduced as a “true story” about an era where Ian had no money and had to sleep in an old car. Excellent live song.
Then came another surprise, Hush !! To me, this line up, with Don behind the keys, has given the best performance of that song I have ever heard. I did like the Kula Shaker version, but now we know how we really got to know it… Good chance for a chart single, a live single?
Then we were leaving the rock ‘n roll highway to go “up there” and Ian pointed to the ceiling… SPACE TRUCKING! It’s been a while since I heard that one live… wow… at that time I was hoping the evening would never end…
It was Machine Head time… we were also treated on Highway Star and of course, again with a roar from the crowd, Smoke on the Water. I think everything there is to say about these songs had already been said in the last 30-something years… I will remember the bass-solo and the drum solo forever. (What a beautiful Bass Guitar Roger. Very vintage, great sound.)
The fab five left the stage briefly, to return for the encores, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye and Black Night. The latter being turned int o a real sing-along by Steve Morse.
All the band members appeared to have a great time. And so did we.
The sound quality in the Heineken Music Hall is indeed splendid. No reflections from walls or ceiling, just music coming from stage. For the first time I could really identify every instrument. Specially the Bass made a great impression. (Hopefully my ear will recover, maybe it just needed some training… )

Thank you guys, keep on Rocking!!!

Robert Daems
Posted in 2006-01-26 Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Holland, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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Better with age - Amsterdam January 26th, 2006

Like wine – the older they get, the better they are!

It was a sold out concert in Amsterdam and it was a long time a go that Purple was here, according to Ian Gillan.
The set list was almost similar to Brussels. Compare with that list, they added the songs Mary Long and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (the song with a Bo Diddley rhythm as Ian said). Ian had still some problems to remember some words of the new songs. But that didn’t bother me, I was happy that they play a lot of the new stuff. And they play the new songs very well, heavier then on the album.
Some old songs had a new approach, so they sounded little different as we know it from previous tours. The instrumental break in Mary Long, I never hear it this way before, Highway Star had a different intro, the tempo from Space Truckin’ was slower then normal, so it comes closer to the original album tempo.
The encore was also a little different from Brussels, in Amsterdam they played Hush with a solo spot for Ian Paice, Yesssss!!! and closed it with Black Night.
It seems that the guys have a lot of joy on stage, a lot of smiling. So when the band is having fun on stage, then normally the audience is also having fun. I can only speak for myself, I had a fantastic evening with great music that was played with a fantastic spirit from Ian G., Roger, Ian P., Steve and Don.

Thank You!

Bennie Helmes
Posted in 2006-01-26 Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Holland, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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Purple rock the Heineken! - Amsterdam January 26th, 2006

January 26, 2006, cold outside, especially when you’re waiting!

6.30pm opening of the doors and the audience, a lot of “Too Old Too Rock & Roll, Too Young Too Die” but also younger ones, even children (begged by their parents to come with them*) all searching for a nice place.
The support-act in Amsterdam is the SQY Rocking Team, a band from the south of Netherlands with the mission to warm up the audience. A nice try, good music and a singer, who’s a party-animal too. Always difficult for a support-act and sometimes, there are fantastic musicians as I can remember Woody Woodmansey U-Boat, a support-act for Uriah Heep, long, long ago.
Light’s out at 21.00 and on two video-screens we can see the members backstage coming out of a box and going to the stage. The opening is an excellent Pictures Of Home, what an amazing sound! Their new flashing lightshow is really fantastic.
The sound in the Heineken Music Hall is perfect, the show’s fantastic, very loud, very clear!
The setlist is an historical tour of the classic Deep Purple combined with their today’s music, a lot of Rapture Of The Deep songs which come out in an excellent way!
Unfortunately no Bananas or Abandon and the only Purpendicular-track is Ted The Mechanic. It’s great to hear songs as Wrong Man, Before Time Began, the beautiful Junkyard Blues and especially Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is a superb live-track!
You can feel the happiness of the always friendly old men and they are still such great musicians. Steve’s smashing his guitarwork into the hall, Paice and Glover, the powerful engine of the band, Gillan’s fantastic singing and explaining about the songs, he’s great and Don’s work on the keys, which we cannot only hear but also watch his fingers on the video-screens is amazing, thanks Don, for the ‘Tulpen uit Amsterdam’, all amazing!
The well-known Highway Star, Mary Long, Lazy and this time Space Truckin’ and Living Wreck and of course, their signature, Smoke On The Water without an intro tonight.
An encore with the rocking Hush and Black Night and two hours later the show’s over.
As Ian always screams to the audience, we now can say to them: We Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank Yoooooooooooooooooooh ! ! !

Hans Stellingwerf
*(In the Saturday-newspaper one of the kids has written a letter: he reluctantly joined his father and it was his first-time-concert. He thought, why do I have to go to a concert of old men and their old-fashioned music but when he heard the first track, he changed his opinion: Dad, you’re totally right!)

Posted in 2006-01-26 Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Holland, 2006 Europe 1 | Comments Off
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