In March of 1987 Deep Purple where winding down the first leg of their European Tour. It was anounced that they would do 2 shows in England and my friend Dave Phillips and I scored two tickets to this much in demand show. ( I believe the reformed Purple had only played in England once before this at Knebworth) We were both into THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHT, and off to the show we went.
BAD COMPANY was the opening act. They put on a good performance, Mick Ralphs even played the riff to smoke once to get us going.
Deep Purple hit the stage with an excellent version of HIGHWAY STAR, then right into STRANGE KIND OF WOMAN, complete with JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.
Ian did the welcomes, this was the final night of this leg. They were going to the States after this. THE UNWRITTEN LAW was awsome, IP's drum solo was nothing less than electrifying!!!!!! The light show was the best I had ever seen, and the sound system was loud & clear.
During DIFFICULT TO CURE, Richie gave a laser projectory of Beethoven the bird. The group seem to be in high spirits and the show moved at a break neck pace. The Guitar solo of SPACE TRUCKIN' was done in quad-sound.
Overall I thought the show was well worth the six hour drive and thirteen year wait. Thanks guys for a great show & to Ian Gillan for smiling when I snapped his picture during SMOKE (Some jerk stole the picture from me)