Girish Mahajan (Editor)

The Songs That Built Rock Tour

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Start date
  
3 June 2011

Legs
  
6

Leg
  
6

End date
  
10 December 2012

Dates
  
3 Jun 2011 – 10 Dec 2012

The Songs That Built Rock Tour

Location
  
North America, Europe, UK

No. of shows
  
100 (33 in North America 51 in Europe 16 in South America)

The Songs That Built Rock Tour was a 2011-12 world concert tour by British hard rock band Deep Purple.

Contents

Overview

Along with the band, the tour featured a 38-piece orchestra. It was the first time Deep Purple toured North America in four years. It took place at the world's largest arenas, such as the O2 Arena in London and Arena di Verona in Verona, Italy.

The official management's press-release said the show would include Deep Purple's biggest hits, such as "Smoke on the Water", Highway Star", "Woman from Tokyo" etc, covering the 42-year history of the band.

Announcements

  • The first few European dates of the orchestral tour were announced in January 2011, including shows in Germany and the Arena di Verona, Italy. It was billed as just "Orchestral Tour".
  • Billed as "Deep Purple: The Songs That Built Rock", the tour was officially announced at the end of February 2011, with North American dates being first, followed by European ones. The North American tour includes three show in Canada and three shows in the New York City area. (New York area concerts combine 20,000 tickets for sale.)
  • At the beginning of April, Jacky Paice, the wife of Deep Purple's drummer Ian Paice, announced the 2011 edition of The Sunflower Jam, the annual charity event hosted by the actor Jeremy Irons. This year's edition includes Deep Purple appearing at London's Royal Albert Hall among some of the biggest names in the history of rock, such as Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Joe Bonamassa, Neuton Faulkner and members of the rock band Thunder. (with more names to be confirmed, as promised). The Sunflower Jam has been criticised in the British Medical Journal for fundraising in support of The College of Medicine, an alternative medicine lobby group in the UK linked to Prince Charles.
  • 12 April saw the band announcing four UK arena dates, including their first ever show at London's O2 Arena.
  • Ticket sales

  • According to Ticketmaster, on 16 April Deep Purple reached #2 in the list of week's biggest ticket-selling artists in the UK. (Download Festival being #1). The band sold nearly 70,000 tickets in two days. The fourth day of ticket sales saw them as the #1 bestseller artists of the week in the UK.
  • The LG Arena show in Birmingham sold out after one week of ticket sales.
  • First leg

    1. "Deep Purple Overture" (performed by the Orchestra) (performed only on concerts with the Orchestra)
    2. "Highway Star" (from Machine Head, 1972)
    3. "Hard Lovin' Man" (from Deep Purple in Rock, 1970)
    4. "Maybe I'm a Leo" (from Machine Head) / "Silver Tongue" (from Bananas, 2003) (4 June 2011 only)
    5. "Fireball" (From Fireball, 1971) (15 December 2011 only)
    6. "Strange Kind of Woman" (From Fireball)
    7. "Rapture of the Deep" (From Rapture of the Deep, 2005)
    8. "Woman from Tokyo" or "Mary Long" (both from Who Do We Think We Are, 1973) (in South America)
    9. "Contact Lost" (from Bananas)
    10. Steve Morse guitar solo
    11. "When a Blind Man Cries" (from Machine Head) or "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" (from Purpendicular, 1996) (in South America)
    12. "The Well-Dressed Guitar" (from Rapture of the Deep – Tour Edition, 2005) (it's after the guitar solo for some Canadian shows in 2012)
    13. "The Mule" (with Ian Paice drum solo) (from Fireball) or "Knocking at Your Back Door" (from Perfect Strangers, 1984) or "Mary Long"
    14. "Lazy" (from Machine Head)
    15. "No One Came" (or "Fireball" in some Canadian shows in 2012) (both from Fireball)
    16. Don Airey Keyboard solo
    17. "Perfect Strangers" (from Perfect Strangers)
    18. "Space Truckin'" (from Machine Head)
    19. "Smoke on the Water" (from Machine Head)

    Encore:

    1. "Green Onions" (Booker T. & the M.G.s cover) or "Going Down" (Don Nix cover) or "Time is Tight" (Booker T. & the M.G.s cover) or other covers intros to "Hush" (from Shades of Deep Purple, 1968) or "Knocking at Your Back Door" (4 December 2011 only)
    2. "Hush" (Billy Joe Royal cover) (occasionally with a drum solo)
    3. Roger Glover bass solo
    4. "Black Night" (from Deep Purple in Rock)

    Second leg (late 2012)

    1. Intro tape: "Dance of the Knights" (Prokofiev, arr. by Don Airey)
    2. "Fireball" (from Fireball)
    3. "Into The Fire" (from Deep Purple In Rock)
    4. "Hard Lovin' Man" (from Deep Purple in Rock)
    5. "Maybe I'm a Leo" (from Machine Head)
    6. "Strange Kind of Woman" (from Fireball)
    7. "The Battle Rages On" (from The Battle Rages On..., 1993)
    8. "Contact Lost" (from Bananas)
    9. Steve Morse guitar solo
    10. "Wasted Sunsets" (from Perfect Strangers) or "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" (from Purpendicular) or "When a Blind Man Cries" (from Machine Head)
    11. "The Well-Dressed Guitar" (from Rapture of the Deep – Tour Edition)
    12. "The Mule" (with Ian Paice drum solo) (from Fireball)
    13. "Lazy" (from Machine Head)
    14. "No One Came" (from Fireball)
    15. Don Airey keyboard solo
    16. "Perfect Strangers" (from Perfect Strangers)
    17. "Space Truckin'" (from Machine Head)
    18. "Smoke on the Water" (from Machine Head)

    Encore :

    1. "Highway Star" (from Machine Head) (first two gigs in Russia only) or "Speed King" (from Deep Purple in Rock) (in some European shows at the end of the tour)
    2. "Green Onions" (Booker T. & the M.G.s cover) or "Going Down" (Don Nix cover) or "Time is Tight" (Booker T. & the M.G.s cover) or other cover intros to "Hush"
    3. "Hush" (Billy Joe Royal cover) (from Shades of Deep Purple)
    4. Roger Glover bass solo
    5. "Black Night" (from Deep Purple in Rock)

    Line-up

    Deep Purple
  • Ian Gillan – vocals
  • Steve Morse – guitar
  • Roger Glover – bass
  • Ian Paice – drums
  • Don Airey – keyboards
  • Other
  • The 38-piece Orchestra, Europe tour: Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt
  • The Sunflower Superjam 2011 line up includes Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Joe Bonamassa, Newton Faulkner, alongside Deep Purple
  • References

    The Songs That Built Rock Tour Wikipedia