There are certain things that have to be factored into life: Boris Johnson will self-promote; Five Guys is overpriced; and Deep Purple (and their spinoff bands) will plague the audience with solo spots. Thankfully, those solos are no longer quite as interminable as they were in the days when the band would only fit nine songs into their set because everyone had to have a moment in the spotlight. Tonight, Don Airey’s two keyboard solos and Simon McBride’s guitar spot only occupy 15 minutes of an otherwise tight set of just shy of two hours.
The rest of the time, Deep Purple are not just surprisingly good, but actually good. At 79, Ian Gillan isn’t going to be asking for Child in Time to be returned to the set to test his falsetto scream, but his voice is strong and true, and he can summon a roar when needed, as on Into the Fire. Ian Paice, 76, thunders around his drum kit like a man a quarter of his age, while bassist Roger Glover is one of the few 78-year-olds who can still pogo on stage.
The classics remain classic: the brutal, one-chord opening of Highway Star would do Osees proud for its fearsome drone; Lazy is a potent reminder that Purple sprang from the 60s R&B scene, Hammond organ and harmonica combining into something that has far more in common with the Graham Bond Organisation than the metal bands Purple inspired.
What is most refreshing, though, is that a third of the set is drawn from this year’s album =1, and those songs absolutely stand up to the ones most of the crowd have come to hear. Lazy Sod has a typically eccentric lyric from Gillan, but its groove and power would have done the group proud in 1972, while Now You’re Talking has the same propulsive thrill as Highway Star: the use of Hammond organ to supply the parts usually played by rhythm guitar giving it that distinctive Purple rumble.
The set finishes with Black Night, and Purple depart, having proved that sometimes the old folks know best.
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