"Wembley was magical, but too short. No Airey solo, no Perfect Strangers ... the band just did "the job". Genova was completely different, one of the best Deep Purple concerts I've ever seen. Ian Gillan's voice was brilliant, he could sing everything without difficulty.

Anyway, here's the setlist:
Pictures Of Home (including the closing section of the Child In Time guitar solo) / Things I Never Said / Into The Fire / Strange Kind Of Woman / Rapture Of The Deep / Fireball / Wrong Man / Morse solo ~ The Well Dressed Guitar / When A Blind Man Cries / Lazy / The Battle Rages On / Airey solo ~ Perfect Strangers / Space Truckin' / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water / Hush (with Ian Paice solo) / Black Night plus (some 'riff raff 'by Morse).

review: Francesco from www.deep-purple.it

"-The show : grandiose and powerful, almost two hours of happiness - The audience : only 2,500 - The sound : loud and heavy, well mixed with a very percussive bass drum sound and very piercing trebles from the vocals and Hammond. I was facing the right speaker stack, something my ears will remember for a long time... - The lights : less equipment than the previous show last November. Maybe, the stage was not large enough for an entire set-up... - A few good things : the two video screens left and right alongside of the stage with close-ups of the drums and keyboards ; the regional counting song, "en passant par la Lorraine", interpreted by Don Airey during his solo with a wink to the audience ; Paicey's famous one hand roll, always impressive ; and "The Battle Rages On" in the setlist. A few regrets : no songs from "Purpendicular", "Abandon" or "Bananas"

The entire setlist : Pictures of home - Things I never said - Into the fire - Strange kind of woman - Rapture of the deep - Fireball - Steve's solo ~ Well dressed guitar - When a blind man cries - Lazy - Wrong man - The battle rages on - Don's solo ~ Perfect strangers - Space trucking - Highway star - Smoke on the water - Hush ~ Paicey's solo - Roger's solo ~ Black night with a bit of "La Grange"

review: Patrice Monin (mOmO)

"Deep Purple went on stage at 10.30 sharp to headline the festival. Ian Gillan’s voice never fails to impress me these days, it just seems to get better and better. The best thing about seeing the band live is the fun they have on stage, and to see Ian, Roger and Steve laughing together on stage also makes you feel good. Don Airey played parts of our (the Norwegian) national anthem in his solo spot and also music from our great composer Edward Grieg. This went down particularly well with the 8,000 strong crowd as the show took place on the day before Constitution Day.

It was an outdoors event, and the weather was pleasnat if a little cold, but who cares when the band is so hot. The local newspaper “Stavanger Aftenblad” carried the post-show headline “Brilliant Deep Purple” and that what they just were this night... brilliant."

The set list: Pictures of Home / Things I Never Said / Into the Fire / Strange Kind of Woman / Rapture of the Deep / Fireball / Wrong Man / Steve Morse solo ~ Well Dressed Guitar / When a Blind Man Cries / Don Airey solo ~ Lazy / The Battle Rages On / Don Airey solo ~ Perfect Strangers / Space Truckin’ / Highway Star / Smoke on the Water. Encore: Hush with Ian Paice solo / Roger Glover solo ~ Black Night."

review & photo : Ove Aase. There is a full gallery from the show in the DPAS photo gallery.

"I am not a great festival lover, it always takes so many hours before you get to see your favourite bands. But this festival had only four. The Bintangs (Dutch bluesrock band, raised somewhere in the sixties) kicked off with one hour of really good rock. Next was Talisman with Journey singer Jeff Scott Soto, great singer, good act but the songs were too much of the same to me. Y&T gave a good show with all of their classics.

When Deep Purple hit the stage the tent was filled up and even outside it was crowded. About 6,000 people saw them put on a good show. The band were very relaxed on stage, for example when Ian explained to Steve in Strange Kind of Woman how the strange woman looked, and when Don imitated Paicey´s one handed drumming with his own version of one hand keyboard playing during Lazy.

Steve jammed a couple of 'riff-raff' intros with Roger and Paicey before starting into The Well Dressed Guitar. And just like yesterday in Belgium he played like it was his last time. The sound was fantastic, so that makes the soundman the man of the evening! Afterwards at their hotel, Don said that his solo-album is almost ready and that he is very excited about it, and Roger talked about his Corridors project, for which takes pictures of corridors in all the hotels he has stayed! "

Setlist:
Pictures of Home - Things I´ve Never Said - Into the Fire - Strange Kind of Woman - Rapture of the Deep - Fireball - The Well Dressed Guitar - When A Blind Man Cries - Lazy - The Battle Rages On - Space Truckin´ - Highway Star - Smoke on the Water - Hush - Black Night.

review & photo : Peter Rossen. There is a full gallery from the show in the DPAS photo gallery.

"OK - like so many others I have been reading the tour reviews and they all say how good Ian Gillan is these days. So it was with high expectations that I made the four hour drive to see tonight's show.

Uriah Heep supported, and did well, creating a really good vibe. They should have played older stuff early in the set to get people going, but in the end the packed hall (5,500 strong) gave them a standing ovation.

Deep Purple took the stage at 9.30. They were better than last time around (three years ago) and that gig had been good. They played the same set performed of late, but left out Wrong Man. Still, with drum solo, bass solo and some odd variations, they still gave us almost two hours of powerful music and big smiles. Gillan was fantastic, as was the rest of the band, but the real kudos go to the soundman, who did super job in a very problematic venue."   review: Finnbogi Marinosson