Newcastle -March 14 2001
I caught the Purple show at Newcastle on Wednesday night. The guys delivered the goods. The last time I saw them live was back in 1984 in Sydney.
Steve Morse is a very accomplished guitarist although I felt that the showmanship of Richie was missed in the live show. They dug way back in there set to include songs such as "Hush" and "When A Blind Man Cries" but they also belted out classics like "Lazy", "Woman From Tokyo" and of course "Smoke On The Water".
Ian Gillan's voice is still extremely powerful. At one stage he said to the audience "Guess who this is" as Steve Morse started playing "Greensleves", while they were all smirking.
At the end of the show they were joined on stage by Jimmy Barnes & Ian Moss. They belted out the old Easybeats song "Good Times". Then they stayed for a rousing rendition of "Speed King". Finally at the end of the encore Ian Gillan called them back out and they joined them for "Highway star".
Excellent show all round.
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