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Deep Purple rock The Regent
September 20, 2002 14:52
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| Deep Purple on stage at the
Ipswich Regent |
Deep Purple at the Ipswich
Regent.
WHEN it comes to heavy rock, there is no
one in the world that can deliver quite like Deep
Purple.
And last night they showed, after 35
years in the business, the band can still provide
power-packed rock to delight their audience.
Two
hours of supercharged and superloud music sent the full
house into ecstasy – and had those of us lucky enough to
be there recalling the old Wayne's World chant: "We're
not Worthy!"
Several people at the show had made
the difficult – not that difficult, most said – decision
to come to the concert rather than the football at
Portman Road. We clearly made the right
choice.
From the very start the band was clearly
out for a good night. Lead vocalist Ian Gillan has
strong Ipswich connections – he mentioned his friendship
with Paul Mariner and spoke about watching a Van
Morrison concert when it was the Gaumont.
That
enthusiasm for the place spread to the rest of the band
as they belted out their early numbers including the
classic Space Truckin'.
The audience had waited a
long time for the concert – it was postponed in March
after Gillan suffered a throat infection – and during
that time Jon Lord has retired from the band and been
replaced by Don Airey.
But last night, following
the pattern of the rest of the British leg of the tour,
Lord was back making a "special guest" appearance – in
fact playing for more than half the set!
He was
the last to leave the stage at the end and got an
emotional farewell from the crowd in the
theatre.
The concert was a great mixture of old
classics and newer material which only the die-hard fans
were familiar with. There was also a brief taste of a
track from next summer's new album by the Deep
Purple.
Of course the best was saved until last.
"Smoke on the Water" was the finale for the main
set – but we hadn't heard Black Knight or Highway Star
by then so we were all fairly confident they'd be an
encore.
When all six came back on stage we were
treated to another 20 minutes of musical perfection,
culminating in Highway Star to send us home
happy.
A truly wonderful evening.
Paul
Geater.
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