Fireball / Woman From Tokyo / Mary Long / Ted the Mechanic / Lazy / Well-Dressed Guitar / When A Blind Man Cries / Space Truckin / Don's solo (& changeover) / Perfect Strangers / Speed King / Smoke On The Water / Hush / Black Night / Highway Star

I was trying to think of a good sub-editor's caption to start, but there are too many choices and too many superlatives.The show clocked in at roughly 1:45 each night. The set list was shorter than last time and less adventurous, but these were mostly positive changes. Fireball is a stronger opener than Woman From Tokyo, and kicks things off as they mean to go on. This is hard and fast Deep Purple. Space Truckin made a welcome return - I'd forgotten how much I like it as a live track. Brian Jackson

A powerful performance. Space Trucking had the PA shaking! From the enthusiastic reception it is evident that in late 2002 a hell of a lot of goodwill exists for Deep Purple. Whether this is mainly Lord / last tour related or otherwise I don't know. Attendance figures on the next tour will tell. I felt they could have played a few more tracks. No Child In Time / Fools for example. £28.00 for under 100 mins is a lot of dosh per sec.!

Dickinson, Gers and McBrain from Iron Maiden joined the boys for Smoke On The Water. Gers striking no end of Blackmore derived poses, throwing his strat in the air and round by the lead etc..... Peter Mair

Reviews (auch ein Kritik in Deutsch)

I needed to see Mr Lord one last time, and set off for the show asking myself if would it be worth it...well, of course it was! The band were very tight and Ian Gillan was in magnificent form, with When A Blind Man Cries the highlight of the first half, especially when Ian sang "from his soul". The whole song was just perfect Purple.

The arrival of Mr Lord was brilliant, coming after Don had done a reasonable solo spot (the Star Wars theme was a bit dodgy!).

I think it's now time to move on. Steve has been in the band long enough not to have to play a show comprising 90% Mark 2 tracks. Philip Bradbury.

Well, I'll put finger to keyboard soon (in proper style) over York and Bradford, suffice to say that last night blew York into oblivion, a blinder of a show crackling with energy- band and crowd well up for it (whatever "it" is). Right up there in my top 5 Purple shows ever, performance-wise. I'll skip out on commenting on the setlist too much, unadventurous but definitely high energy, very much a short sharp burst, but man of the match must go to Mr Morse for his sheer blistering performance and for not having a wobbly when big Ian sang the final verse of Smoke instead of there being a guitar solo. Imagine what petulance that would have precipitated 10 years ago....
Martin Ashberry.   photo, Michael Richards.

I have been lucky enough to see Deep Purple many times over the years, going back to the mk4 UK tour but I have NEVER heard them sound better. There were so many highlights it's hard to single any out, but I'll try. When A Blind Man Cries was magnificent. Jon Lord's appearance was a delight, and the band stepped up another gear. We were treated to a suprise when Steve started playing Love Hurts, and up stepped Dan McCafferty from Nazereth to sing the first few lines. Don's solo included We'll Take The High Road and I Belong To Glasgow (a nice touch). This being Jon's swansong in Scotland he seemed to be pulling out all the stops and really enjoyed himself (Don has a rather large pair of boots to fill).
As they say in these parts "haste ye back" (soon please! Charlie King