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UK reviews 2002 (rescheduled)
 

Unforgetable lads

This being only the second time I have seen Deep Purple live, the first being on the Purpenicular tour at the same venue, my mind was again blown by the sheer genious of all the band, Steve Morse in particular. Having never heard The Well Dressed Guitar before, I was totally awe-struck by that superb riff, not to mention the lead - it was out of this world. I found myself shouting at the end of it "I`ll have some more of that!"

One of the highlights of the evening was when Don Airey ducked down behind his keyboards and up popped the fantastic Jon Lord to start off Perfect Strangers. To have Jon and Don playing the rest of the gig between them was such a treat, although I can`t help feeling Jon Lord has the edge on Don Airey (as good as Don is).

Ian Paice was his usual precise self , never missing a beat, the intro to Fireball still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Roger Glover put on a good show with a cracking bass solo in Speed King, the song lasted about 15 minutes with a medley of various songs from Elvis to AC/DC in the middle - excellent!

Ian Gillan's voice held up well throughout the gig, he still reaches the high notes and the screams when he needs to. I was a little dissappointed not to hear Child In Time as previous set lists I had seen included it, but that didn't take anything away from it all the same.

Over all it was an unforgetable night, they had a packed house, captivated and wanting more. Great gig lads, keep it up.

Mark Dixon

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