[ d e e p P u r . p l e ) The Highway Star

Sweden Rock Festival June 12th 99

Just back from a little trip to Sweden and Denmark to see a couple of Purple gigs.

"Sweden Rock Festival" was a great festival, indeed. First time I've been there and the vibe was excellent! Next year I'll join both days.

Saturday was Purpleday. Fantastic warm up by Dio. Didn't have that much belief in his act after having bought the live cd, but I was put to shame! Great, great gig with "Stargazer" as the biggest surprise. Just fantastic. Do _not_ miss out on this show!

With Purple just having had 3 nights off, my hopes for a Gillan on top form were big. He did not let us down. The setlist was the same as before:

The Boys are back in Town
Pictures of Home
Ted
Strange Kind of W
Bludsucker
69
Woman from Tokyo
Sometimes I feel like going down to the Reception and have the Message Translated
Watching the Sky
Space Tr
Guitar solo
Lazy
Smoke
Keyboard solo
Perfect Str
Speed K
----
Highway S

Show lasted 1h 50 min. About 15000-20000 in the crowd. I barely survived right in front of the stage, only a few meters from Gillan, Glover and Morse.

"Boys Back" was only first verse and chorus.
PoH had a long jamming middle section, wich kind of set the standard for the evening.
"69" contained hints and bits of "The Mule" and "Paint It Black". Didn't work that well this night.
It started raining just in time for WtS.
"Space Truckin'" turned out really well. Good to have it back.
"Cascades" ending to the Guitar solo as always these days.
Great "Lazy". Nice intro by Lord.
Steve's intro to "Smoke" had riffs from AC/DC, Hendrix, Cream and a lot of others. Paice and Glover joined in on the first two or three.
The keyboard solo was short this night.
"Speed King" pretty "short". Great solo by Glover. Paicey seemed tired, short but effective solo. No onehanded drumroll.

Only one encore. Gillan could very well have pulled off a fantastic Seventh Heaven this night. Someone else must have been tired. Beats me.

Morse was great as always. His guitarsound has gotten pretty dirty by now, which is a good thing.
Lord seemed not to be on top.
Sound was ace.

My voice is still recovering. My neck still hurts. My pants will never recover, nor will my shoes.

Anders Hustveit


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