In Rock World Tour

There was no such thing as what follows: The In Rock World Tour was a successful worldwide concert tour by British hard rock group Deep Purple. The tour began in July 1970, after the release of their album In Rock, and lasted 15 months, until September 1971. The band visited 3 continents (Europe, North America and Australia), with dates in the UK, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, Canada, USA and Australia.^[1]

Pre-history

In July 1970, Deep Purple's MKII released In Rock. The album became a worldwide hit, with hits like "Black Night", "Into the Fire", "Speed King" and "Child In Time". It was the band's first hard rock album. In Rock put the band into the list of pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. The album sold several million copies worldwide. Increasing popularity and commercial success resulted in a worldwide tour, including an Australian leg, as In Rock charted #1 there.^[2] Despite the existence of this page there was actually no In Rock tour. Although it became customary in later years for bands to refer to tours by the name of their most recent album, Deep Purple never presented touring as promoting albums during this period, which was just a succession of concerts partly to bring in much needed revenue due to the collapse of the band's US record company.

Tour dates

Setlist

1. "Speed King"
2. "Hush"
3. "Into The Fire"
4. "Child In Time"
5. "Living Wreck" (Occasional)
6. "Wring That Neck" (Instrumental)~Brubeck's Unsquare Dance~Bach's Violin Partita no.3 in E Major~Bach's Gavotte en Rondeau~Grieg's Morning Mood~Greensleeves instrumental (composed by Henry VIII)~White Christmas instrumental
7. "Mandrake Root"~The Mule riff~You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
8. "Paint It Black" (Instrumental only)
9. "Drum solo"

Encores:

1. "Black Night"
2. "Lucille" (Little Richard)

• They played Down the Line jam with Keith Emerson (from The Nice) at Berlin Peace Festival^[3]

Tour diary & notable live dates

Deep Purple kicked off the tour at the Bedford Football Stadium, UK and soon visited German stadiums.

MK II's first USA leg followed, Purples headlined "National Pop&Blues festival". 25 August, Deep Purple made the USA premiere of Concerto for Group and Orchestra with Los Angeles Philharmonic, at Los Angeles's Hollywood Bowl, in front of 15,000 people.^[4] setlist for the show was:

• First set (without Orchestra)

1. Speed King
2. Hush
3. Wring That Neck
4. Mandrake Root
5. Child In Time
6. Black Night

• Second set - Concerto For Group And Orchestra (edited):

1. First Movement - Allegro moderato
2. Second Movement - Andante
3. Third Movement - Vivace presto

They returned to Europe in August, and played their first full tour of France, including one show in Paris's legendary Olympia hall.

Scandinavia saw Purple shows after French Tour, Live album was recorded at KB Hallen, Copenhagen. This was the first Rock live for Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich, in his age of 9. Lars remembers the show as one of the greatest live he has ever seen, and says that this show, and Ian Paice's drumming influenced him to become a rock-drummer. Lars: "That was the famous gig where in a newspaper article the day after everybody talked about Deep Purple, I remember they played a lot of new songs, I was all of nine years old^[5]

After many European dates, the band headed to their first Australian Tour. Deep Purple first visited Australia as part of an groundbreaking, sell-out package tour with Free and Manfred Mann, supported by local Santana-inspired Latin-rock band Pirana. The tour played four states in as many days, breaking all previous attendance records for rock shows in Australia. It was an influential tour for the local scene, giving Aussie audiences their first direct experience of the heavy-rock style being pioneered by bands such as the headliners, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Up to that time, fans had been reliant on records, and on cover versions performed by local bands like The Dave Miller Set.

The tour played to capacity crowds for one night each in Perth and Adelaide on 16 and 17 May followed by two nights in Melbourne at the Festival Hall. The first Melbourne show on Saturday 18 May ran overtime by more than two hours, finishing after 1.00am. Over 5000 fans were turned away, so a second show on the Sunday 19 May was hastily arranged for the benefit of fans who missed the first performance. According to GO-SET, Deep Purple's first Melbourne performance was troubled by equipment problems, as was Free's set at the Sydney concert.

The following day the four groups played at a rapturously-received outdoor performance at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, attended by over 30,000 people. Segments of the concert were filmed by the ABC's GTK, and the tour received extensive coverage in the GO-SET edition of 22 May, with reviews of both the Melbourne and Sydney shows by Ed Nimmervol and David Elfick.^[6]

On 18 June band played their first gig in Iceland, Reykjavík at Laugardalls Hall.

Another massive North American leg followed, then Europe again and then back to USA, including one show at NYC's Felt Forum (nowadays known as Madison Square Garden). In Rock Tour ended in Chicago's Auditorium Theater.^[1][3]

Live albums

• Live in Stockholm - CD - recorded 12 November 1970
• Scandinavian Nights - CD - recorded 12 November 1970
• Deep Purple in Concert - CD - recorded 1970-1972

Line-Up

• Ian Gillan - vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
• Jon Lord - hammond organ, keyboards
• Roger Glover - bass
• Ian Paice - drums

References

External links

• Deep Purple Tour Page - 1968 until today