Deep Purple Live In Malaysia
As a die hard fan of Deep Purple since 1969 when I first heard "Hush" at age ten, I was lucky to catch the concert on May 1st. 1999 at the Shah Alam Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The band's first visit to this country was eagerly anticipated and enthusiastically appreciated by the 20,000+ fans who turned up.
The show kicked off with a blistering rendition of "Ted The Mechanic" and did not let up for the next two hours. The sound system was excellent with nary a gremlin or troll lurking to do mischief to the sonics. The exceptional sound had the crowd of boys and girls from 15 to 55 rolicking in the aisles.
The band played all their classics, relying heavily on material from "In Rock" and "Machine Head". Each member took a brief solo that went down well with the crowd, especially Jon Lord whose unaccompanied rendition of "Soldier Of Fortune" on his Hammond had the crowd singing along. Steve Morse played excerpts of classic material from the likes of Led Zep ("Moby Dick") and Jimi Hendrix ("Voodoo Chile") before launching the band into "Smoke On The Water".
Deep Purple were 30 years late coming here, but it was worth the wait.
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