Associated album Deep Purple, In Rock End date 21 June 1970 No. of shows 127 | Start date 10 July 1969 Legs 11 | |
The Deep Purple European Tour was a year-long successful concert tour by British hard rock band Deep Purple, lasting from July 1969 until June 1970. The band played mostly United Kingdom shows, also covering Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. It was the first tour to feature the classic Deep Purple line-up: Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. It is considered to be the pre-tour for the In Rock album, as the band mostly played songs from the upcoming album.
Contents
Tour pre-history
In 1969, the band's founding members Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord decided to replace vocalist Rod Evans with Ian Gillan. Gillan himself declined to join Deep Purple without his former bandmate Roger Glover. Lord and Blackmore accepted him and in 1969 band was joined by Gillan and Glover, replacing Evans (vocalist) and Simper (bassist). This new line-up, known as MKII, immediately went on tour throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.
Setlist
During the tour, half of the setlist included MKI hits with the other half consisting of new MKII songs. "Speed King", "Child In Time" and "Into the Fire" were premiered on the tour, before being released on the In Rock album.
- And The Address {opening bars only}
- Kneel And Pray (early version of Speed King with different lyrics)
- Into the Fire
- Kentucky Woman (only occasionally)
- Child In Time
- Mandrake Root
- Wring That Neck aka Hard Road
- Ritchie's Blues
- Paint It Black, instrumental (The Rolling Stones)
- ~Drum solo
Tour diary & notable live dates
Deep Purple MKII kicked off their first tour at the London Speakeasy Club. In a recent interview, Ian Gillan named this show to be favourite live performance of his career, as it was his first show with Deep Purple.
After a few United Kingdom dates, the band headed to Belgium, where they headlined Jazz Bilzen, and then again returned to the United Kingdom.
On 24 September, the band played at London's Royal Albert Hall, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold. This was one of the earliest examples of a rock band collaborating with an orchestra. The show was called Concerto for Group and Orchestra and was later officially released. The Concerto and album itself was influential, with many rock bands following in Deep Purple's steps and playing with orchestras. Rock band Metallica made their orchestral debut in 2000 and named Purple's 1969 show as the main influence. The orchestral parts were written by Jon Lord and included three movements.
- Hush
- Wring That Neck
- ~Jingle Bells instrumental
- Child In Time
- First Movement - Allegro moderato
- Second Movement - Andante
- Third Movement - Vivace presto
- ~Drum solo
- Third Movement (2nd half)
- ~Drum solo
In April 1969, Deep Purple headlined the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland as well as the Pop & Blues festival in Germany. Other festival acts included Pink Floyd and The Nice. Ritchie Blackmore jammed with The Nice's Keith Emerson
On 19 February, they performed at the BBC's Studios, with the show later being released on CD. They then returned to Germany, Switzerland and Austria, before again returning to the UK. The tour ended at Frankfurt's Radstadion on 21 June 1970.
Live albums and DVDs
Several live albums from the tour were later released.
- Concerto for Group and Orchestra CD/DVD
- Gemini Suite Live CD
- Kneel & Pray CD
- Live in Montreux 69 CD
- Scandinavian Nights CD/DVD
- Deep Purple in Concert CD/DVD
- Live in Stockholm CD/DVD
- Space Vol 1 & 2
- Doing Their Thing DVD
- Heavy Metal Pioneers (Tour documentary)