Deep Purple - Bournemouth 1971 (2023)

Formed in London in 1968, Deep Purple remain among the pioneers of heavy metal and hard rock, but their musical approach has changed over the years. Originally formed as a psychedelic rock and progressive band, they shifted to a heavier sound with their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock. Deep Purple’s second and most commercially successful line-up consisted of Ian Gillan (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass), who joined founder members Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums) and Ritchie Blackmore (guitar). This line-up was active from 1969 to 1973 and was revived from 1984 to 1989 and again from 1992 to 1993. The Mk. II line-up’s second album, the creatively progressive Fireball, was issued in the summer of 1971, reaching number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. The title track was released as a single, as was Strange Kind of Woman, not from the album but recorded during the same sessions. Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band were already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which later became ‘Highway Star’) was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus en route to a show in Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist's question: "How do you go about writing songs?" The tour began on March 6th 1971, in Perth, the first of five shows in Australia, after which Purple toured across continental Europe, and in July ’71, they landed in North America for concerts in Canada and the U.S. Back in the UK by mid-September, on 29th of the month Deep Purple performed at Bournemouth’s Winter Gardens, on the English south coast. Still considered one of the Fireball tour’s finest concerts, the Bournemouth show was recorded for live FM radio broadcast and is now available on this new 2CD set for the first time.