"Nice first show of the tour with two changes on the set list: Strange Kind of Woman (presented by Gillan as "this song is about my first girlfriend") & Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming ..." Misael Núñez 
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"It was an amazing, hugely enjoyable show...! From "Bananas" they played Silver Tongue (to which they added a little section for solos...), I Got Your Number (powerful), Haunted (ok) and House Of Pain (this one really rocks live...)... They also played The Well Dressed Guitar, with Airey ably filling in the gaps... although, as much as I like it, I could have done without this one.... And then, you know, the usual old stuff... Hush, Lazy, and a thunderous Space Trucking... No matter how tired I might get of Smoke On The Water, whenever it's played live, I sing along and enjoy it like you wouldn't believe...!"
full review by Javier De Las Heras

"Es war wenn ich richtig gerechnet seit 1985 mein 27. DP-Konzert. Ich habe schon etliche Höhen und Tiefen durchgemacht, aber Wien war meiner Ansicht nach ein Tiefpunkt. Vielleicht aus der Tatsache heraus, daß "Bananas" so groß angekündigt worden war. Ich will und kann nichts beschönigen, wenn es aus persönlicher Sicht objektiv so empfunden wurde. Ob diese Review nun anderen zugängig gemacht wird oder nicht stellt sich nicht unbedingt, doch hatte ich meine Eindrücke einfach los werden müssen."
Photos + German language review by Gerhard Jahnel

"Although I belong to the camp of the setlist-sceptics I went home satisfied. First of all they did a nice Bananas which brought the total of new songs to 5. Out of 15 songs that ain't bad. More important is that the show didn't lose momentum as was the case during some of the Abandon songs and The Aviator a few years ago. On the contrary, the new songs were dynamic and fitted in the rest of the program very well. Also the old songs got some little changes here and there which was a plus. The sound was very loud, especially the guitar. Ian Gillan was coughing, but didn't sound bad. Don got more space in my opinion than a few months ago, he did well, especially in Hush and Perfect Strangers. And Roger, thank you for the plectrum... " Frank Van den Broek
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"Due to the internet you are never really surprised anymore, as you know what to expect - a blessing or a curse? Still, even if it wasn't a surprise I was very, very pleased to see them play a good share of new material. I wouldn't mind the addition of "Picture of Innocence" and I could certainly do without the reanimation of "Strange Kind of Woman", whereas "Black Night " as an encore is a fine chance to get to the car before anybody else does... "   full review by Thomas Max...

"Looking at the performances: Roger Glover: perfect as usual. Ian Gillan: wow - the best performance I have seen since 1985, if not voice-wise then certainly as an entertainer. He really enjoyed it!! Don Airey: brilliant. Ian Paice: A bit weird, he played straight but it felt like he was miles away during the gig. Don't know what's going on, no drum solo, just a few smiles.... Steve Morse: I was somehow disappointed. Lousy timing. He played good solos but he was really out of sync in places. I love his work (especially from Kansas days) but this wasn't his day!! ... "   full review by Jan Thielking...

"Contact Lost was followed by an interesting bridge, which I expected to lead into Haunted, but was surprised as Morse´s soloing got faster, harder and more intensive: which wouldn´t fit if the intro to Haunted was to follow. It was something new, the live premiere of Doing It Tonight, which proved to be a very entertaining live song that sent good vibes to the crowd. IG sang the bridge very well and without taking a breath he managed to get properly into the third verse. At the point where it usually fades out in the studio it went on, and they ended it with the last few bars of Picture Of Innocence." Milan Fahrnholz
full reviews...

"The best of the older songs were Lazy, The Well Dressed Guitar and Hush, which featured some marvelous keyboard playing from Don Airey. Highlight of the new songs was House Of Pain, I really rate this song, what a rhythm! Haunted was skipped and replaced with Doing It Tonight. Just before the encores Ian Gillan announced: "before the rest of the guys come back, I'll give a tambourine solo", one touch later the band was back and they kicked into Hush, cutting the tambourine solo short! ."
full review by Peter & Jeffrey Rossen      

Deep Purple's show at the Festival Hall, Basel on November 14th was recorded for Swiss TV show "AVO Sessions". Both Purple and support act Thunder's sets were apparently to be broadcast all across Europe via TV, radio and the internet. According to Thunder's website "The show will air on TV in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland (chain Swiss Television DRS / TSR / TSI / 3sat), and on Swiss Radio (DRS / RSR / RSI)."

Further to this report we have heard from 3Sat TV, who say that "the concert is not going to be shown live, but it is going to be recorded and broadcast next year. We don't know the date yet.."
However, the full show can be viewed online at www.avo.ch/onair     Gerhard Jahnel

photo: Daniele Purrone.
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photo: Michael Richards.

"Steve Morse held a guitar clinic at Helsinki Pop & Jazz Institute at 15.00. The auditorium was full (around 300) mostly with music students.

The Deep Purple concert in the evening was great. Uriah Heep weren't too hot, but they did warm up the audience with a "best of" set. They played for over 80 minutes.

The Jäähalli was sold out... Bananas was high in our top 10 and also we had a Finland only Deep Purple double compilation CD in our top 5 six months ago. The sound system was the best ever in Helsinki Jäähalli. The song list was usual. My personal highlights were Knocking At your Back Door and Bananas.

This was my first time ever with a photo pass (thanks to EMI), and it was a strange feeling to be right in front of the band for the first two songs. We (the 'PSOF'': 'Perfect Strangers of Finland') met the band (minus Ian Paice) in a meeting room before the gig. There were many happy faces. It was very different from the atmosphere ten years and 4 days ago, when Ritchie left the band and didn't have an aftershow with the others in the hotel lobby bar. That was a sad night, as Jon Lord later remarked."

review: Petri Myllylä

"A pair of fur trimmed purple knickers is thrown to Gillan much to his amazement/amusement and he swaps them for his mouth organ to signal the intro to House Of Pain. Any doubters to the suitability of the Bananas material in a live situation should see the floor at this point, the standing area to the front of the Hovet is moving six inches in the air, the whole place is bouncing along and singing every word-I can't honestly remember the last time I saw Purple play new material and get this kind of reaction from the older fans and younger ones alike. There's an energy about the set, an enthusiasm and a setlist to allow them to exploit this to the full. Less oldies (no Speed King, Woman From Tokyo) but tighter and more energetic than ever before-and they just keep getting better."   Martin Ashberry

"The sound was thunderous and loud but still clear and well mixed (we could hear the Hammond!). And even the banana decoration on the stage looked good! The show was almost sold out this time, the '93 gig with Blackmore was in a half full hall - (it was the same venue). Even the newspapers here in Norway liked what they heard!! ."   full review by Eirik Solum      

"Nice to have "Highway Star" back as the opener (where it belongs...), but they could have played it a bit faster. "Strange Kind Of Woman" - always nice, but what's with the 16-bar blues thing in the middle? Not really suited to the song in my opinion..."

full review + photos by Rene Mikkelsen      

"The set list – no differences from the previous dates. A really excellent show. After having read many reviews from this tour I thought: "great set list". It was the excellent mix of classics with the fresh energy of the new ones, which really, really gave such a "wonderful explosion" on stage. The band actually put more enthusiasm into playing new "Bananas" tracks than the classics. Definitely, absolutely; they all were loud, clear, tight and powerful. Silver Tongue, House Of Pain, Bananas, Contact Lost as a quiet moment, Doing It Tonight, and I Got Your Number just after Space Truckin'.  Dominik Bednarski

full reviews by Dominik Bednarski , Pawel Sajewicz & Martin Karski...

"Deep Purple's first visit Zagreb since 1991, when Joe Lynn Turner was on vocals; and the third all in (1st was way back in '75 with David Coverdale). The concert took place in one of the halls of the Zagreb International Fair. It was very hard to tell how many people were there because it was THE first time that a concert had aken place there! I would say there were around 6 -7,000 people. The place was completely full! '.  full review by Sasa Jurisic

"We drove 450km from Sofia to Beograd. When we parked the car in front of the hall we asked a security guy how many people were expected to turn up. He said: "we're expecting 30,000 people". We didn`t believe him, but when we got inside ther hall there were easily 20, 000 or more. That was the first surprise.

Another was Gillan's voice, sounding the best it's done in 20 years. All in all this setlist is something serious - 7songs from Bananas, one from `2000, two from `84. The Band - reborn for the fifth time. I`m awaiting another tour next year. And I hope then to hear Highway Star replaced with Sun Goes Down, and to hear Walk On live. Thank you for the great gig, DP."  Vesko

review by Andrej Vidovic

click the pic for debrecen photo gallery

"After the concert in Budapest Arena, the band decided to do another Hungarian show, and ended the tour in my hometown, Debrecen. Thank you guys!!! The concert was held in the new Fõnix-Hall, in front of a near full house of 6 - 7,000.

At 19.45 a local band hit the stage (Pandora's Box). At 20.30 Purple started Highway Star, and the crowd went nuts. Gillan's voice was superb (big scream in Strange Kind Of Woman!), better than in the Budapest last time, and it was good to see how the band enjoyed themselves, smiling all the time.

The crowd loved the Bananas material as well as the classics, Highlights were Knocking At Your Back Door, Perfect Strangers (Ian Gillan dancing through Don's solo!), Smoke On The Water, Hush, and of course both Don and Steve's solos! Steve was great, he had a short solo spot before Space Truckin' and a big solo before The Well Dressed Guitar. Don played a fantastic solo, including Liszt, Brahms, and Star Wars. His Hammond sounded great!

review & photo gallery : Krisztián Szabó