UK Tour - 1st Leg - Big Breakfast/Wembley/Birmingham
Tired, lack of sleep, but three Deep Purple shows in two days is something that doesn't come around too often. It was also great to meet so many internet people and be able to put faces to names, along with meeting other friends who go way back to, as Ian called it, "the Middle Ages".
From a 2am departure and after finally finding the Big Breakfast's studios - no thanks to their directions or the locals who don't seem to be aware of it - it was an almost surreal feeling to be stood in a garden amongst 200 fans watching Deep Purple playing live for UK TV on the patio outside a detached house. [What next? A gig in my back garden?]
There's still the video to watch, hopefully next week.
Wembley that night was incredible - even better than when I caught the Brussels show last month. Birmingham last night, although getting off to a so-so start, somehow surpassed the previous night. I suppose front row centre stage helps ;-)
Black Night as first encore Wednesday, Seventh Heaven in its place for Birmingham.
Filmed in part IIRC for Channel 4 and a cable TV channel were also doing interviews backstage.
Autographed tickets and album posters (and a tour poster four times the size of that!] added to the experience.
Arriving home in the early hours of the morning, to find in the mail complimentary promos of both the single and double CD's of the 'Best Of' compilation and a USA promo of Episode Six's 'Lucky Sunday'/'Mr. Universe' single completed a remarkable two days.
Two more shows to come at the weekend, can they still get better and better? On this evidence, it wouldn't surprise me.
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