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Daniele Purrone's photos

Campo Fiera, Treviso, Italy
June 1, 2003

First of all I have to say that it was my fourth Deep Purple gig,and I had good time as always. To me they are the best live-act actually,without any doubt!
The set-list was the same of the Belgian gig three days before.
HIGHWAY STAR to me it's always a great opening song and the rest of the concert was a great hard rock party for all....
The new songs: Sincerely "Haunted" didn't sound to me very Deep Purple,a ballad - one that I need to re-listening to be sure of my opinion,but "I Got Your Number" really rocked me down!!! Now I 'm very excited to hear the new album (called "Bananas").
A special mention goes to "I'm Alone",a very special gift for the hardcore fans like me.
The band was great as always (if you ever seen a DP show you know what I mean!) but yesterday night my attention was above all for Mr.Don Airey. Well, great job, Don! In his solo he passed from classical piano to a bluesy Hammond so easily, and he played very succesfull the Star Wars them too!
It was a pity that LS weren't of the game, but Steve and his Ernie Ball Music Man reminded them to us with the intro of their hit "Free Bird" before going crazy with the Master of all Rock riffs......Smoke on the Water.
Another great concert from my fovourite band of ever... and looking around last night I got to say that I'm not alone.
Cristiano Vicini

We drove 450 km from our home town to see DP on their 2003 tour. And it was worth it! Do you want to know why? To witness this historical event.
The crucial point of this gig was - oh, my God - thay played I'M ALONE! Among all other hits they chose to play one wonderful b-side, the secret song from Fireball. Really extraordinary. Young listeners on the concert were quiet and they were thinking: another new song?
We also heard two new songs - one called Haunted - slow, nice work and a second classic new DP song.
All in all - an enjoyable evening. Thank yooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...
Ivan Kirigin

On a hot Sunday evening in Conegliano we were in for a treat. Seeing the band playing and obviously enjoying themselves on the stage that night made me forget the fact that Jon Lord wasn't there to share the music with us. Mr. Airey did a really good job and the crowd showed its respect for the new member.
Deep Purple opened with Highway Star which was an amazing way to start the show and Gillan seemed to be in a pretty good mood.
I was surprised to hear "Mary Long" and "I'm alone" (which was introduced by Ian G. saying :"We were looking for something obscure and we found this b-side song to play for you.") It was great to hear such songs at the concert, alongside "Smoke on the water", "Lazy", "Space Truckin'", "Speed King" (which was I think again opened with a comment from Ian, saying after Haunted that "here comes yet another ballad," but was then stopped by Paice who gave rhythm for Speed King and made Gillan smile).
I have to mention "Perfect Strangers" which just perfectly adjoined the coming storm and lighting in the sky before the stage. I could not help thinking how even more beautiful this must look to the band on stage, as they see infront of them such a large gathering of youth and their own generation in one place with a sky behind that seemed to know what was going on that evening. Fire in the sky.
Steve Morse and Mr. Airey seemed to work well on stage, the exchanging solos between them were admired by the crowd and especially the solo work of Mr. Airey on his keyboards with the Star Wars theme proved to be a good way to introduce a new man to the fans.
The band also gave us two new songs, called "Haunted" and "I've got your number", the latter one being a real hard rocker, which won me over after the first listening. "Haunted" on the other hand is a ballad with strong keyboards and not as catchy, but maybe it takes some time and a good listening.
All in all it was a great evening, with both crowd (they were amazing during "Black Night") and the band enjoying it, with all the essential and "obscure" songs on a silver plate just for us.
As I was returning back home from Italy, watching on a video a concert of the band back in 1972 and hearing a certain song, I was wandering whether some of the fans were right when saying after the show, that all this concert was lacking was good catharsic 20-minutes of Child in Time. Maybe, but I have to say, during the show I didn't miss it that much. They played plenty of other cult songs to bring it close to the catharsis.
Zeljka Medic

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