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UK reviews 2002 (rescheduled)
 

Never-ending... end!

This morning it rained heavily and we thought the second gig would eventually be cancelled! Fortunately the rain stopped at noon and the sun appeared again. So at about 19.30 we were at the theater, after searching in the local market for rare DP items, that we can’t find in Thessaloniki.

So at 19.35 Deep Purple appeared on stage with an excellent Fireball. Gillan’s voice once again was brilliant and some little problems with the sound were soon solved, before the end of the song. The set list was the same as yesterday’s with the same highlights (Black Night and Hush played in different order). Steve’s solo during Mary Long was great once again and Gillan’s improvisation in Space Truckin' was very good.

Before Speed King Gillan asked Roger to… marry him, joking about yesterday’s event which happened at the same point in the concert. Little Ian’s solo on the drums was outstanding and better than yesterday’s.

Don Airey in his solo played Weiss Heim and parts of the same Greek songs. The Star Wars theme was there too and his performance throughout the gig was really good.

Morse was a little better (how good can he get???) and in the riff raff before Smoke On The Water he played Beatles, Zeppelin, AC/DC and Stones with words from Gillan again, Animals and more. Glover once again shocked me! What a bass player!

Before leaving for the encores Gillan said that this was the end of a very big tour and he thanked the road crew one by one and all the fans. He didn’t make the same mistake in Smoke On The Water like yesterday and his voice was in a great condition.

In conclusion this gig could not have been better. Yesterday I had a better time because of meeting Roger but today the gig was a little better.

Unfortunately these two days full of Deep Purple are over and with them the never-ending world tour. Tomorrow I will have to travel back to Thessaloniki and to my school. I can’t wait for the new album and to seeing them again!.

Panagiotis Papapanagou

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