DEEP PURPLE
Japan Tour 1972
255 X 360. 24 pages (6 in colour).
Sold at the August concerts recorded for Made In Japan. 15 pages of photos (mostly from promo prints) and text, colour centre spread. Few pages of adverts inc. Machine Head.
Designed by Takahiro Nakajima.
NOTE : Gloss art paper with thicker card cover.
RAINBOW
Japan Tour 1976
255 X 360. 40 pages (8 in colour).
Sold at the Jan / Feb concerts. 30 pages of photos and text. 10 pages of adverts inc. colour centre ad for coffee.
Designed by T Okabe / Blacksmith.
NOTE : Matt paper, thicker card for cover and gloss for colour pages.

IAN GILLAN BAND
Japan Tour 1977
255 X 360. 36 pages (4 in colour).
Sold at the December concerts (some recorded for On Stage). Photos and text. 8 pages of ads.
Designed by Y. Suzuki.
NOTE : Matt paper with thicker card cover.

Japan programmes note:

The earliest Deep Purple related programme is for the 1972 Deep Purple tour. From this time until the early 1980s all Japan tour programmes were a large format with striking cover designs. They look impressive, but the content is usually rather sparse as they didn't have much original material to work from, and the photo quality can be poor at times.

The promoters then changed to an album sized format with more pages, and the content improved.

Inevitably these programmes are quite rare and expensive now, especially as some of the tours only had a few dates (by contrast the same tour programme might be sold right across Europe, so many more were printed).
RAINBOW
Japan Tour 1978
255 X 360. 40 pages (8 in colour).
Sold at the Jan / Feb concerts. 30 pages of photos and text. 10 pages of adverts inc. colour centre ad for coffee.
Designed by T Okabe / Blacksmith.
NOTE : Gloss paper and thicker card for cover and some pages inside.
COVERDALE PAGE
Japan Tour 1993
Approx 310 X 310. 28 pages. Glossy card cover. Full colour inside. Group biog. Colour and tinted colour photos. Printed in England.

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