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Rocking Durban after 15 years
Deep Purple make a long overdue return to South Africa after a 15 year break. They were last here in March 1995 just before the release of Perpendicular.
The concert was kicked off by Wishbone Ash and Uriah Heep doing short sets before Purple hit the stage at approx 10pm. Having last seen them live in Holland during the Bananas tour in 2004 at the Bospop festival, I was eagerly anticipating this show having missed a couple of other opportunities of seeing them in the UK more recently.
The venue was great, sound & lighting excellent but the organisation of food & drinks were a shambles. Gillan looked a bit tired and didn’t have much inter song chat as usual but he still has a great voice. Roger was as solid as ever and seemed to be enjoying himself as usual. Ian Paice was rock solid and got rave reviews from some of my drummer friends.
Don Airey was brilliant and had that Hammond screaming at times. His solo and build up to Perfect Strangers was fantastic. Steve Morse was really enjoying himself out there and most of the comments I have heard post-show were about his amazing ability & tone.
Set List as far as I can remember :-
Highway Star
Things I never Said
Strange Kind of Woman
Maybe I’m a Leo
Rapture of the Deep
Fireball
Contact Lost / Well dressed guitar (morse solo)
Sometimes I feel like screaming
Mary Long
Lazy
No one Came
Don Airey solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Trucking
Smoke on the Water
Encores:
Hush
Black Night
All in all a great concert and hope we don’t have to wait another 15 years to see them again in South Africa, unlikely as that would be as Gillan & Co. would be in their 70’s by then!!!
Cheers,
Dereck
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