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Sweden 1996
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"No one came from miles around..."

By Daniel Bengtsson

The band kicked off their Swedish tour on June 14 at the Karlshamn Rock Festival. The start could have been better. What would be Steve's first show in Sweden turned into a solid performance. However, the atmosphere was ruined by a few drunken morons throwing plastic beer cups onstage (with contents intact!). This particular festival has always had its fair share of drunk people, but word has it that this year was something else. Sitting back watching a bootleg video of the show, the first attack comes rather quickly. It narrowly misses Steve, who replies with a broad smile. Gillan's less satisfied with this audience member's way of showing his appreciation, and threatens to "rip his fucking head off". Rightly so.

Being the true professionals the boys are, the show goes on. There's moments of brilliance, but it's not one of the more exciting Purple shows, with the band seemingly going through the motions at times. The crowd certainly doesn't come across too lively either. Glover isn't satisfied after show, and rates the show as one of the worst ones since Steve joined. The band leaves Sweden by bus (heading for Schwerin, Germany), only to return for the remaining nine dates some two weeks later.

Overall, the second leg of the "Purpendicular" tour saw a somewhat shortened set compared to the more extensive one they had played on the first leg of the tour (some UK shows clocked in at around 150 minutes). The brief outings of "Mary Long" and "Rat Bat Blue" were long gone, and so were a couple of "Purpendicular" numbers. The setlist for Sweden looked like this for most of the time:

1. Fireball
2. Ted The Mechanic
3. Pictures Of Home
4. Black Night
5. Cascades -> Steve's solo
6. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
7. Woman From Tokyo
8. No One Came
9. Smoke On The Water -> Jon's solo
10. When A Blind Man Cries
12. Speed King

Encores
13.Perfect Strangers
14. Hey Cisco (played on and off)
15. Highway Star

Fresh from a couple of days off after a Moscow stadium gig, the band arrived in the fairly small town of Falun in the middle of Sweden, on June 26. Scheduled to play the local ski jumping stadium, this venue set the trend of how things were going to develop for the rest of the tour. The attendance for all dates was admittedly quite poor, so about 5,000 was a very good turnout considering Falun isn't exactly one of the higher profiled metropols in Sweden. The band delivered the goods for 110 minutes or so, and included versions of "Bloodsucker" and "Purpendicular Waltz", which were both dropped for the remaining dates. The main thing that separated this gig from the rest was the fact that there was a powercut just after having kicked off "Fireball". Unlike in Aarhus, Denmark 1971 when the same thing happened and Ian Paice did an impromptu drum solo (for reference check out the most excellent "Danish Yodel - Beware" bootleg), this time he opted to leave the stage along with the rest of the band. Steve remained onstage for a while doodling Jimmy Page riffs and then also disappeared. When the band returned after five minutes they picked up the song exactly where they'd left off!

The band travelled down to Stockholm for another gig the day after. Purple fans were kept busy all throughout the day, since Steve had made himself available for a clinic in the afternoon at the renowned music store "Estrad Musik" in downtown Stockholm. Having reportedly been a relaxed affair, it was followed by the evening's show at Östermalms IP (venue now burnt down to the ground - nothing to do with Purple). The size of the crowd could certainly have been better in Stockholm as well, but then again, there wasn't done much to promote the tour. And the choice of promoters and concert venues most certainly didn't help either. However, on the other hand, it made the settings for the shows very relaxed. Apparently another tight performance. Steve Morse later referred to the show in a guitar mag as "Oh, you mean the weird gig in that parking lot". Well, almost, Steve.

The band zig-zagged throughout the country and gigs followed in places like Umeå, Timrå and Karlskoga. The town of Uppsala hosted another event of interest. For the second time in history, Deep Purple and Glenn Hughes played the same town on the same night. (The first time was in Oslo, Norway, November 1993 when parts of the band turned up at Glenn's club gig when they'd finished their Spektrum show.) It's not clear whether the guys actually met (or saw each other's shows), but Purple fans were surely happy as the chance occurance provided them with the opportunity of running from one venue to another, catching two stellar shows, all within the time frame of just a few hours.

July 3 saw the band performing at Borgholm, a town located on a big island off the south-east coast of Sweden. Being an old castle ruin restored for events, it must have provided the perfect settings for Purple's show there. I'm told the weather could have been nicer, but the loyal few who'd arrived there witnessed a performance which didn't disappoint.

No sleep til' Smögen, where the band played their second last show on the tour (and the only one I managed to catch). Picture a small vacation resort by the coast, then picture a small football ground, normally attended by division four player. Then picture rain and lots of it. It had been raining quite heavily during the day, and there had apparently even been plans to try and find an in-door venue. This must have proved very difficult in that area, considering it is as off-beat as it gets in terms of concert venues etc. So, the show went on. The number of fans attending was once again scarce, and it was cold. The drizzle continued throughout the evening, but as far as I can remember, stopped in time for the boys to hit the stage.

This particular show featured one of the coolest onstage entrances you can imagine (although the band arriving by motor boat at Droebak, Norway in August 2001 is hard to beat!). There was this dressing room located on top of a small hill. Time was spent trying to stay warm when all of a sudden the door of the dressing room swung open, and the guys came out one by one. I remember thinking they really looked out of place there. Big Ian with his black mane, Jon being cool and Steve clearly up for the show, giving thumbs up to the crowd before starting to climb the ladder to the stage. Impressions that last to this day are many, but I remember Ian Gillan looking a bit uncomfortable at the start of the show, pulling hair from his face, straining at the higher notes and whatnot. What a difference from today's newfound stamina.

The other thing that struck me was how much they seemed to enjoy themselves up there, with parts of the band remaining onstage for Paicey's solo among other things. If you want to get a picture of how it all sounded back on that cold 4th of July, track down a bootleg by the name of "We Found The Guitar". I've never quite figured out what kind of message they wanted to convey with the title, but the performance is there in full glory and great sound quality. Ian sums it all up quite beautifully at the end of the show by singing out to himself "...and my voice was tired and worn". How true. On the other hand there's no doubt about the fact they won the crowd over by the sheer joy of playing together. The short video snippets I have of "Perfect Strangers" and "Highway Star" confirm my initial impressions. The broad smile on Steve's face and Gillan's sweaty "Purpendicular" tour shirt.

After the tour had ended, Roger replied to an email I had sent asking about his impressions of the show and the tour in general. He told me they had been riding on the bus for quite a long time prior to arriving in Smögen, and that they were all rather tired. Apparently, he felt that particular tour leg had been a tad too long, and that the size of crowds didn't help either. It was also indicated that no one were very impressed with Purple sharing the bill with Smokie for a lot of these gigs.

The Swedish tour ended the following day in Halmstad, a town located on the south west coast of Sweden. Here Steve did another afternoon in-store clinic, with Ian Gillan attending and watching intensely from the back of the small room. Svante was in attendance at that night's show and claimed he'd never seen Big Ian so animated, trying on hats, commenting on the beautiful scenery etc. All the usual signs showing Ian has a good time, that is. Following the tour, Gillan himself reported on his website that he'd never seen so many lupins in his whole life. That was probably one of Ian's most enduring memories of that tour. Others could be the joy of finding that ever so important spirit that separates the good shows from the bad. And believe me, there was lots of that stuff present at those ten Swedish summer dates. Although the tour certainly could have been a bigger commercial success, it featured some really inspired performances. Gillan remains an outspoken advocate for relentless gigging (in all shapes and forms!), and whether this policy was adopted by the whole band for this particular leg is unknown, but for me it remains a very poignant memory of a time when I was really starting to get into the band, their music, their clothes, their haircuts and whatnot. I became a fan.