Deep Purple European Tour

Deep Purple European Tour
Tour by Deep Purple
Associated album Deep Purple, In Rock
Start date July 1969
End date July 1970
Legs 11
Shows 127
Deep Purple concert chronology
The Book of Taliesyn Tour Deep Purple European Tour In Rock World Tour

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.[1] It is considered to be the pre-tour for the In Rock album, as the band mostly played songs from the upcoming album.

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.[2] Deep Purple never referred to this period of concerts as a European Tour, and therefore the existence of this page is somewhat erroneous.

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
10 July 1969 London England Speakeasy Club
18 July 1969 Redcar Redcar Jazz Club
20 July 1969 Erdington Mothers
13 August 1969 London Revolution Club Cancelled
15 August 1969 Newcastle Mayfair Ballroom Cancelled
16 August 1969 Birmingham Rebeccas Cancelled
20 August 1969 London Revolution Club
22 August 1969 Bilzen Belgium Jazz Festival
23 August 1969 Amsterdam Netherlands Paradiso
24 August 1969
26 August 1969 London England Klooks Kleek
29 August 1969 Lyceum Ballroom
30 August 1969 Gravesend Kent Pop Festival
3 September 1969 Gothenburg Sweden Que Club
7 September 1969 Copenhagen Denmark Club 6
12 September 1969 Barnstaple England Queen's Theatre
13 September 1969 Narbeth Wales Queens Hall
20 September 1969 Malvern England Winter Gardens
21 September 1969 Redcar
24 September 1969 London Royal Albert Hall
27 September 1969 Nottingham Nottingham College
4 October 1969 Montreux Switzerland Casino
9 October 1969 Augsburg Germany
10 October 1969 Stuttgart
11 October 1969 Essen Grugahalle
12 October 1969 Amsterdam Netherlands
14 October 1969 Hamburg Germany Musikhalle Hamburg
22 October 1969 Ipswich England Baths Hall
24 October 1969 London Lyceum Ballroom
25 October 1969 Weston-super-Mare Winter Gardens
30 October 1969 Leeds University Refectory
1 November 1969 Bristol Mayfair Ballroom
2 November 1969 London Lyceum Ballroom
7 November 1969 Romford
8 November 1969 Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall
10 November 1969 Bath Art College
13 November 1969 Newport Regency Theatre
14 November 1969 Birmingham Aston View
15 November 1969 Leeds University of Leeds Refectory
16 November 1969 Glasgow Scotland Kinema
17 November 1969
21 November 1969 Eltham England Avery Hill
22 November 1969 Bradford University of Bradford
23 November 1969 Epping Groovesville
29 November 1969 London Imperial College London
30 November 1969 Roundhouse
4 December 1969 Worthing
5 December 1969 Sunderland Polytechnic
6 December 1969 Manchester University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
7 December 1969 Bradford St George's Hall
9 December 1969 Stafford Keele University
10 December 1969 London University College London
11 December 1969 Bournemouth Rye Ballroom
12 December 1969 Hereford The Flamingo
15 December 1969 Carlisle The Cosmopolitan
18 December 1969 Redruth The Flamingo
19 December 1969 Plymouth Van Dyke Club
20 December 1969 Dagenham Dagenham Roundhouse
28 December 1969 Croydon Greyhound
5 January 1970 Paris France Anciennes
6 January 1970 Worthing England Assembly Hall
10 January 1970 Reading University of Reading
19 January 1970 Dunstable Dunstable Civic Hall
21 January 1970 Newcastle Newcastle Music Hall
23 January 1970 Lancaster University of Lancaster
30 January 1970 London Royal Albert Hall
31 January 1970 Cottenham Lawns Centre
6 February 1970 Waltham Forest Technical College
7 February 1970 Leicester Union Hall
8 February 1970 Erdington Mothers
13 February 1970 Cardiff Wales Cardiff University
14 February 1970 Manchester England Free Trade Hall
15 February 1970 Nottingham Boat Club
16 February 1970 Romford Kings Head
19 February 1970 London BBC Studios
20 February 1970 Preston Preston Civic Hall
21 February 1970 Twickenham St. Mary's University College
22 February 1970 Croydon Greyhound
24 February 1970 London Imperial College London
25 February 1970 Bristol University of Bristol
27 February 1970 Leeds Polytechnic
28 February 1970 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
4 March 1970 Zurich Switzerland Volkshaus
6 March 1970 Bern Tanzdiele Matte
7 March 1970 Lucerne Verkehrshaus
13 March 1970 Blackpool England Winter Gardens
14 March 1970 Weston-super-Mare Winter Gardens
15 March 1970 Epping Wake Arms
17 March 1970 Exeter University of Exeter
20 March 1970 Edinburgh Scotland Odeon
21 March 1970 Dundee Caird Hall
22 March 1970 Dunfermline Kinema Ballroom
23 March 1970 Aberdeen Music Hall Aberdeen
24 March 1970 Glasgow Electric Garden
25 March 1970 Hamilton Hamilton Townhouse
28 March 1970 Dagenham England Dagenham Roundhouse
30 March 1970 Berlin Germany Berlin Sportpalast
4 April 1970 Cologne Mulheim Sporthalle
6 April 1970 Vienna Austria Konzerthaus
11 April 1970 Chatham England Central Hall
18 April 1970 Ewell Technical College
24 April 1970 Bath
1 May 1970 Art College
9 May 1970 Dagenham Roundhouse Dagenham
11 May 1970 Leicester De Montfort Hall
15 May 1970 Chelmsford
16 May 1970 Birmingham Birmingham Town Hall
17 May 1970 Bristol Colston Hall
18 May 1970 Dunstable Dunstable Civic Hall
25 May 1970 London Queen Elizabeth Hall
28 May 1970 Kiel Germany Ostseehalle
29 May 1970 Berlin Neue Welt
30 May 1970 Munich Circus Krone Postponed 10 June
1 June 1970 Düsseldorf Rheinhalle
2 June 1970 Hamburg Musikhalle
4 June 1970 Bedford England Bedford Town FC
7 June 1970 Munich Germany Eisstadion
8 June 1970 Basel Switzerland St Jakob Sportalle
9 June 1970 Cologne Germany
10 June 1970 Munich Circus Krone
12 June 1970 Twickenham England Eel Pie Island
14 June 1970 Croydon Fairfield Halls
16 June 1970 Cambridge Jesus College
19 June 1970 Manchester John Dalton College
20 June 1970 Oxford University College
21 June 1970 Frankfurt Germany Radstadion

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.[3]

  1. And The Address {opening bars only}
  2. Kneel And Pray (early version of Speed King with different lyrics)
  3. Into the Fire
  4. Kentucky Woman (only occasionally)
  5. Child In Time
  6. Mandrake Root
  7. Wring That Neck aka Hard Road
  8. Ritchie's Blues
  9. Paint It Black, instrumental (The Rolling Stones)
  10. ~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.[4]

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.[5] The orchestral parts were written by Jon Lord and included three movements.

  1. Hush
  2. Wring That Neck
  3. ~Jingle Bells instrumental
  4. Child In Time
  1. First Movement - Allegro moderato
  2. Second Movement - Andante
  3. Third Movement - Vivace presto
  4. ~Drum solo
  1. Third Movement (2nd half)
  2. ~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[6]

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.

  1. Concerto for Group and Orchestra CD/DVD
  2. Gemini Suite Live CD
  3. Kneel & Pray CD
  4. Live in Montreux 69 CD
  5. Scandinavian Nights CD/DVD
  6. Deep Purple in Concert CD/DVD
  7. Live in Stockholm CD/DVD
  8. Space Vol 1 & 2
  9. Doing Their Thing DVD
  10. Heavy Metal Pioneers (Tour documentary)

Line up

References

  1. ↑ http://www.deeppurpleliveindex.com
  2. ↑ http://deep-purple.net/tree/mk2.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.thehighwaystar.com/rosas/discog/dpsetlists1.html
  4. ↑ http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/hit_the_lights/ian_gillan_morocco_could_be_my_naughty_weekend_away.html
  5. ↑ http://www.dustbury.com/music/dppurple.html
  6. ↑ http://www.deep-purple-ticketmuseum.co.uk/691011.htm

External links