SET LIST: - Pictures Of Home - Things I Never Said - Wrong Man - Ted The Mechanic - Living Wreck - Rapture Of The Deep - Before Time Began - Mary Long - Contact Lost - Steve’s Solo ~ Well Dressed Guitar - Lazy - Don’s Solo ~ Perfect Strangers - Junkyard Blues - Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye - Space Truckin' - Highway Star - Smoke On The Water. Encores: - Speed King - Black Night.       (thanks to Chris Rock)

German language review by Franz Pegemeyer....

"After the fantastic show in Amsterdam, 2 weeks ago, I felt that I had to see them at least one more time during this tour. So it was up to Dortmund. Alice Cooper was superb, great show, nice music, altough the combination is a bit strange. But of course I came for Deep Purple. The setlist was the same as Amsterdam, but there were some differences, the sound was much better in Amsterdam, and the guys were having more fun on stage in Amsterdam. But the show was still fantastic. The audience was a nice mixture of all ages and reacted enthusiastically to the new songs. I really like this new setlist, with old and new songs sitting together perfectly. Iwould still like to hear songs such as The Battle Rages On, Ramshackle Man, Rat Bat Blue, but who knows in the future....... During the aftershow they all showed up, patiently signing autographs and posing for photo´s." review and photos: Peter Rossen. See a full page of Peter's photos in the DPAS photo gallery.

"Deep Purple rocked the house for two hours, the sound was clear and excellent. Living Wreck was good to hear as fresh as a new song with its howling keyboards followed by Mary Long. One of the highlights was Before Time Began, played very well as all the new tunes from Rapture... As for the solo spots, the crowd went crazy for Well Dressed Guitar, and Don did in his very best J.M.Jarre routine on the ultimate Stuttgart Hymn "Auf der Schwäbsche Eisebahna...", an old Railroad Song, that went down very well! On the video screen you could look over Ian Paice shoulders and watch his one-handed drum roll. Roger Glover did a gloomy solo before Black Night and used his old RICKENBACKER bass during Smoke... which put tears in their eyes of some die hard fans. The encore of Speed King and Black Night were jammed out to nearly a half hour; including guitar / vocal duels, and old songs such as Hello Mary Lou being dropped in during Speed King. On my way home I felt like a Highway Star with my small Japanese car with no fat tyres and everything... Harald Miller, Blaustein"

"And then were five.... On the road between London and Stuttgart Deep Purple have sadly lost 2 of their new songs from the set. I had been so happy to read about them playing so much of the new album in their show , and I hope they won't return to the greatest hits routine of previous years. I remember that they had been playing 7 songs from Abandon back in 1998 only to drop most of them during the tour.

"Much to my surprise Alice Cooper had what looked like his complete production on stage, a guillotine, a coffin, a dancer. So a co-headliner rather than an opening act. He was entertaining and got the crowd to react and sing along. A tough act to follow? Purple came on to an intro tape and videofootage (one of the screens did not work) and the show ran very much like the ones that were reviewed before. The band in good form and on good terms obviously. Lots of space for Steve Morse, though frankly I could do without Contact Lost and the Well Dressed Guitar and would prefer him to add another solo piece of his own. The new songs made the show for me and especially Before Time Began, which sent shivers down my spine. Speed King had bits of Mary Lou and Peggy Sue and was fun. Black Night as always gave me the oppotunity to get out to the carpark before everybody else. For me it really was a return to form and a band with a future as well as a past. Great! Ah, and my girlfriend was really impressed. It was her first time." review: Thomas Max

"Alice Cooper opened the bill with about 75 minutes of his usual stuff: theatrics, guillotines, coffins, detached limbs, etc. A jolly start to the evening. At about 9.15, after a short video consisting of the band getting out of a tour container, the drums rolled and Purple's set opened: Pictures Of Home /Things I Never Said / Wrong Man /Ted the Mechanic / Living Wreck / Rapture of the Deep / Before Time Began / Mary Long / Contact Lost / Well Dressed Guitar ~ Steve solo / Lazy, Don solo ~ Perfect Strangers / Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye / Space Truckin' / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water / Hush (including Ian P solo) / Roger solo ~ Black Night. The sound quality right at the start was poor, but quickly improved. I felt that I could hear Don better than in other recent shows. Ian's voice sounded a little strained, otherwise, fantastic. A lively, appreciative audience, at least at the front, who welcomed the new stuff as well as the old." review: James Whitworth

"Amazing. Simply amazing. The evening began with SHE SAYS, a young Austrian band. Then came ALICE COOPER. What a show! It was the first time that I've seen him, but I will probably do it again. Eric Singer (drums, ex-Black Sabbath,and Kiss) was the best known member of the band, but the others fitted in as well. DEEP PURPLE put in a great performance. The audience greeted every song as if they were Top Ten hits. "Pictures Of Home" was a perfect opener, "Mary Long" was revitalized and "Living Wreck" was a highlight. The "RAPTURE..." tracks fitted in very well, with the exception of "Before Time Began" which I think was the weakest song in the set, and should be replaced by "Clearly Quite Absurd". A strong ballad was missing from the show: no "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming", no "When A Blind Man Cries", no "Haunted".... "Contact Lost" was the only survivor from "BANANAS" - what a shame. "Smoke..." included a little guitar-jam with Damon Johnson (ALICE COOPER-band)." review: Michael Huck, photo: Marcin Zalewski

"The stage looks strangely empty after Alice’s theatrical carbuncle of a stage set is broken down to be replaced by the minimalist backline, three Engl stacks on Steve’s side and Roger’s four SWR bass cabinets flanking Ian Paice’s drum riser. Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me” issues forth from the PA and the lights drop, the music changing to Don’s specially recorded Rapture-esque Eastern keyboard intro and the video screens come to life showing a flight case unloaded from the back of a truck, from which the band emerge one by one. This is a new version of this, replacing a shorter one which was running earlier in the tour.

Total darkness then the stage lights burn into life as Paicey rumbles out the intro to “Pictures Of Home”, everyone bouncing around in the hall as Roger prowls the front of the stage. A quick change of tempo and we’re into “Things I Never Said”, which is well received again with knowing nods, this track is a lot more well known than you’d think for a Jap. only bonus track. The crowd knows the words, which is just as well as Ian Gillan is struggling tonight and sounding very hoarse, arching himself onto the balls of his feet to muster more energy to push out the notes. Throughout tonight’s set, Don and Steve cover parts of the vocal with additional guitar harmony, keyboard work and also vocals, which works well and gives the show a different feel again to those I’d seen earlier on the tour.

With Alice Cooper’s set finishing so late, Purple’s set has been trimmed back slightly with the loss of “Junkyard Blues” but they still extend some of the instrumental passages, the first being the elongated “Things I Never Said”. It’s interesting too to note how much more Steve is controlling these sections of the show, seemingly a lot more assertive in extending middle sections and bringing them to a close with a series of hand and head movements where before the length of some of these musical breaks seemed to be more structured, more fixed. A ragged show vocally, but musically very impressive."
review: Martin Ashberry

SET LIST: - Pictures Of Home /Things I Never Said / Wrong Man /Ted the Mechanic / Living Wreck / Rapture of the Deep / Before Time Began / Mary Long / Contact Lost / Steve solo/ Well Dressed Guitar / Lazy /Keyboard solo/Perfect Strangers / Junkyard Blues / Space Truckin' / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water (with Damon Johnson and Ryan Roxie) / Hush (including drum solo) / Black Night.

"Given Ian’s voice the night before, I wasn’t expecting much from him on this, Alice Cooper’s final night in Europe with Purple. At around 9.25 and Frank Sinatra again gave way to the intro and “Pictures Of Home”. Instantly, there’s a sense of great atmosphere, Gillan looks and sounds refreshed and hits the high notes of the opener without issue whatsoever. Indeed, his performance on “Living Wreck” is the best I can remember off the tour so far. “Mary Long” is the one song I wouldn’t miss if it went as there’s nothing special about it for me, it just seems to jar the set slightly. “Before Time Began” should do the same really, but live it has a brooding atmosphere which builds slowly to the finale and receives a long, loud cheer from the Munich crowd when it eventually winds down. Tonight, “Junkyard Blues” replaces “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” (I’d have preferred both to stay) and a stormer it is too. As the lights dim after “Highway Star”, Steve starts a small riff interlude and the lights reveal the two guitarists from Alice Cooper. We all know what this means and, sure enough, the crunching riff of “Smoke” is belted out by three guitarists, a real heavy thunder and a great solo from Damon Johnson. Paicey throws us a dummy by launching into the count for “Speed King” before he shouts “wrong song!” and then “Hush” finally shuffles in, the crowd drowning out Gillan at points, as they do again for closer “Black Night". review: Martin Ashberry

"After last night’s 9.25pm kickoff, we arrive just after 8 to find the backline complete and the final checks being carried out and the stage being vacuumed (!). Bolting our beers, we get half way down the hall as Ol’ Blue Eyes rolls forth from the PA. Tonight the band are sharp, you can tell from the extra flurry of bass from Roger or the odd twiddle from Don that things are bubbling away constantly. Highpoint after highpoint at this show, “Lazy” is awesome tonight as is the reinstated “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye”. No “Star Wars” from Don as he replaces it with the William Tell Overture to the amusement of all." review: Martin Ashberry

"Unbelievable! I saw my first Deep Purple show 21 years ago but what I heard yesterday topped the wild energy they delivered back in the 80s. The Intersportarena was packed with c.4000 people aged 15 to 65. We drove about 200 miles to see the show.

Ian Gillan was obviously in good mood, doing a fair amount of talk between songs. His voice was in top shape, much better than on the Bananas tour, and I think even better than in '85. He managed to get the high notes out when expected and he even sang the full chorus of Highway Star ( always a good sign when he does!). For the setlist, it was pretty much the same as before. Remarkable renditions of long lost gems like Ted the Mechanic and Living Wreck - the latter with Ian changing the words of the seconf and third verse, telling now the full story of the night with Big G! We got a full five-pack of new songs, the classics were freshened up, especially Lazy, and Highway Star, which had a new intro by Roger and Steve. Black Night closed a fantastic set, a total time of 2 hours and 5 minutes. Steve and Don were in brilliant form, as ever and there`s nothing to top the power of the rhythm boys...... The band.....FANTASTIC, WE THANK YOU, WE LOVE YOU and we`ll see you again in summer." review: Erik and Gabriela

SET LIST: Pictures Of Home / Things I Never Said / Wrong Man / Ted The Mechanic / Living Wreck / Rapture Of The Deep / Before Time Began / Mary Long / Contact Lost / Well Dressed Guitar / Don Airey Solo (incl. Vltava from My Country and Star Wars) ~ Perfect Strangers / Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye / Space Truckin´ / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water / Hush (with superb drum solo) / Black Night.

"Ian Paice was star of the night! Only one small problem - Ian Gillan sounded a bit rough on the highest notes, leaving out some screams (eg. the usually screamed part of Wreck "you said you were a virgin" was sung in very low key, beginning of third verse was screamed, but... it failed a bit - after that he "dropped" the screams which he didn´t have to sing - for example - at the beginning of Highway Star). That was the ONLY slip of the entire show. Simply amazing energy came from stage, Steve was smiling the whole time, Don played an absolutely AMAZING solo, Roger enjoyed himself a great deal, and Ian Paice played the best solo I´ve seen from him for ages! The set list was great mix of new songs, old classics, rarities (which went down very well!) and I have to say you only one recommendation - GO AND SEE THEM!!! ." review and photo: Petr Cejka

SET LIST: Pictures Of Home / Things I Never Said / Wrong Man / Ted The Mechanic / Living Wreck / Rapture Of The Deep / Before Time Began / Mary Long / Contact Lost / Guitar Parade (incl. La Grange, Stairway To Heaven solo and others) ~ Well Dressed Guitar / Don Airey Solo (incl. Vltava from My Country and Star Wars) ~ Perfect Strangers / Junkyard Blues / Space Truckin´ / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water -- Hush (with superb drum solo) Black Night.

"Even better than Brno. I think the star of the night was Steve Morse - for the 1st time on this tour he played his Guitar Parade between Contact Lost and Well Dressed Guitar (you´d have to see Ian Gillan during the guitar parade - he sat down on the drum riser, and his SMILE when he watched the crazy Czech audience was something to behold!). I was very surprised by fact that Ian´s voice was better on the highest notes in Liberec. He sang Living Wreck as it is on the studio recording.... He was in extremely good shape in Liberec, and I believe he's singing his best since his 83-84 Sabbath era. I´ll finish my review with almost same words as the previous review - DON´T MISS THEM!!! ."
review and photo: Petr Cejka

"Decent and proper only, surely not their best concert of Rapture Tour. Set list same as for February, except that they cut out Junkyard Blues, and put in some guitar tunes instead. Good opening and powerful playing, but the band seemed to be tired of in this leg of the tour. Most of the songs were not played with much enthusiasm. Possibly there was some lack of internal drive within the band (or maybe I overdosed on tapes of Astoria and other shows?). Very nice and longer guitar part somewhere in the middle of Living Wreck. Rapture Of The Deep and Before Time Began sounded generally very good, but not amazing, even Mary Long did not surprise, I guess. Nice Space Truckin`, excellent Highway Star again with the intro in style of the seventies, and Smoke on the Water (with Steve singing support/backing vocals !). The encore still the same. Absolutely the best of all the musicians was Don Airey – who gave 200%, certainly did his best, no doubt. His sound, reaching the best Hammond tradition, exceeds any expectations now. 'Great, great job' for him and 'good job' for the rest of the band. However, I must say the audience was pleased with the performance. No madness here, though it`s not the first time Deep Purple have played in Poland. But, still a real joy." review: Dominik Bednarski