Deep Purple European Tour
| Tour by Deep Purple | |
| Associated album | Deep Purple, In Rock |
|---|---|
| Start date | 10 July 1969 |
| End date | 21 June 1970 |
| Legs | 11 |
| No. of shows | 127 |
| Deep Purple concert chronology | |
The Deep Purple European Tour was a year-long successful concert tour by British hard rock band Deep Purple, lasting from July 1969 until June 1970. The band played mostly United Kingdom shows, also covering Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. It was the first tour to feature the classic Deep Purple line-up: Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. It is considered to be the pre-tour for the In Rock album, as the band mostly played songs from the upcoming album.
In 1969, the band's founding members Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord decided to replace vocalist Rod Evans with Ian Gillan. Gillan himself declined to join Deep Purple without his former bandmate Roger Glover. Lord and Blackmore accepted him and in 1969 band was joined by Gillan and Glover, replacing Evans (vocalist) and Simper (bassist). This new line-up, known as MKII, immediately went on tour throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.
During the tour, half of the setlist included MKI hits with the other half consisting of new MKII songs. "Speed King", "Child In Time" and "Into the Fire" were premiered on the tour, before being released on the In Rock album.
Deep Purple MKII kicked off their first tour at the London Speakeasy Club. In a recent interview, Ian Gillan named this show to be favourite live performance of his career, as it was his first show with Deep Purple.
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