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UK reviews 2002 (rescheduled)
 

Roaring approval

I've seen Deep Purple a few times now and the Friday night gig in Hammersmith was exceptional. I was eager to see what Don could do on keyboards and he got a lot of airplay early on, which was very impressive, the crowd loved him.

Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themeselves, even Steve was getting a bit animated. Talking about Steve, I've always looked at him in Blackmore's shadow, however after this gig - who's Blackmore?

About four songs in I began to wonder if Jon Lord was going to make an appearance, as I would have expected to see him by now, and just then the lights went down and a keyboard intro started and then bang, the lights came on and Don had turned into Jon Lord... the crowd went crazy! Jon, as always, was superb on Speed King and it was nice to see Don come back out and join Jon for the rest of the gig.

After an encore including Black Night and Highway Star, Jon stepped forward and took a bow in front of an energetic crowd, shook hands with Don and waived goodbye.

Anything bad to say - no, not really. The inclusion of Child In Time would have been nice, along with a couple of new tracks, but overall this was the best gig of my life - so far.

See you next year lads!

Dave Lomax

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