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Purple’s eye to Caucasus
Almost 1 year ago I told you the story, how hundreds of Georgian fans travelled 2000km to see Deep Purple’s concert in Istanbul and to meet Ian Gillan personally.
Now I tell you, how 1,000 Georgian fans travelled to Armenia for Purple’s concert again. We all rented 5 buses, several mini-buses, taxes, personal cars and trains to arrive there from Tbilisi. The way to Yerevan was kind of boring, because the transport was movi8ng slowly. But it doesn’t matter, we watched DP DVD-s at the bus, so, we were at the right mood and totally ready to rock.
I had one more reason for being exremely happy: a planned meeting with Ian Gillan. Of course, there was Sally, Gillan’s P.A. (probably one of the lovelyiest girl I’ve ever met); there was Bron, Ian’s beautiful wife, there were we – 5 Georgian fans and IAN. The meeting was very emotional and after that, we had left nothing to do but waitting for the concert.
There was NO standing tickets for the show, all seated. What an annoying decision for the rock concert.but there was a big space left from the first row till the stage. Georgian fans agreed before the concert that we would fill the space, so that to make an unofficial Front Of The Stage STANDING situation. And we did. from the first second of Highway Star, the crazy crowd of 200-300 Georgians rushed into the front of stage, including me.
The 10,000 capacity indoor stadium Demirchyan was sold out!!! From the first second of concert I thought: “oh my god, did Purple guys find the elexir of constant youth?”. They were in at least 2-times better shape than in Istanbul last year. Gillan was screaming out the arena. He hit all those high notes in Highway Star, Fireball and Space Trucking. Yes! he did that.
During the Fireball I thought that I was living not in 2010, but somewhere in 1972-73. They did a BOMBING version of Fireball. My personal highlights were… amm… actually there was not particular highlight at the show, because THE WHOLE SHOW WAS A ONE BIG HIGHLIGHT ITSELF!!!
oh, and yes, A HUGE THANKS for thehighwaystar.com as I met one Iranian fan who I knew from here. They (Iranians) were three – all of them rocking and rolling like crazy people – with us.
This is how Deep Purple had one eye to Asia (on the last tour), and another to Caucasus. I met Kate, probably the hardest-core DP fan you could imagine EVER! she’s a [maybe] 25 yrs old nice girl from Germany and she has attended… hold your breath – she has attended more than 150 Purple concerts, another 40 concerts from upcoming European tour already booked.
P.S. When I first started listening to Deep Purple, my first thought was “will I ever be able to see them live?”. Now I’m 21 yrs old and have seen them for 2 times.
Attending Purple show isn’t my dream anymore. I have another dream right now: to attend more DP concerts than Kate has done ever 😀 haha
Setlist:
Intro – Romeo et Julliet (by Prokofiev)
Highway Star
Things I Never Said
Maybe I’m a Leo
Strange Kind Of Woman
Rapture Of the Deep
Fireball
Contact Lost
Steve Morse Solo
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Well Dressed Guitar
Mary Long
Lazy
No One Came
Don Airey Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Trucking
Smoke On The Water
——————
Hush
Black Night
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
George, looks like you had another great Purple travel…. as for the girl’s 150 shows, well I would guess she is the only girl to do that, but bar far many men have topped 150.
July 13th, 2010 at 16:16Thanks for this great review.
… german girl see more than 150 Purple concerts? Ohhh yeahhhh …
July 13th, 2010 at 17:54I was on 10 concerts …
Hey George …
Great review.
Now you feel like we all feel …
you feel the purple magic …
this is the same feeling.
You feel it with Blackmore´s Night …
with D.C. …
with Glenn HUGHES …
with OverTheRAINBOW …
and never forget with: RJD (now in Heaven) …
This feeling called:
*LLRnR*
PS.
That´s a very expencive wish to see DP for more than
150 times. Good luck to make it real. See you on the
next DP-concert in the north of Germany, when DP had
broadcast their new CD … in a few years …
-kraatzy-
July 14th, 2010 at 11:34Crimson, you lost 😀 because this girl has tickets booked for the upcoming 40 Purple shows. so, 190-200 all in all…
Dirk, Yes, DP show is always something more than just a show for me (as well as for many people around the world) 😀
July 14th, 2010 at 11:35Hi George,
July 14th, 2010 at 20:23exciting report from you again.Thank you.I have a ticket for one show in October and after reading this I am even more enthusiastic.
Thanks to all of you 🙂
Now I’m waiting to see DP in my hometown, Tbilisi. Uriah Heep already visited us, the show was recorded and is due to be released worldwide on DVD called “Uriah Heep – Live in Tbilisi”.
btw, Deep Purple is the most beloved and awaited band in Georgia…
July 15th, 2010 at 07:39Now if they would just pay a visit to the other Georgia I would be grateful. Steve lived here for years and he can’t get his band here more than 3 times since he joined the band? Purple has been here 3 times since 1976, and that was a disaster with a propped up Tommy Bolin. They canceled in 1987. I have to hop on planes or drive for hours to occasionally see them. Time to call the airlines again.
May 8th, 2011 at 05:32