Deep Purple’s Around the World DVD

If you’re a fan of Black Sabbath (why else would you be reading this), then you’re probably also a fan of Deep Purple. Both bands have long histories of personnel changes, and carrying on when popular opinion seemed to think that they should not. The primary difference between Black Sabbath and Deep Purple is that Sabbath stopped putting out new studio albums in 1995. Thing is, the year after that, Deep Purple started in on their revival, and started releasing some really good studio albums with Steve Morse. Some would have thought that Ritchie Blackmore’s second departure from Purple would have killed the band for good, but if anything, it revived them – the work that Purple has put out since 1996 onwards has been almost uniformly excellent.
That is the reason for the DVD box set I’m talking about here. It’s called “Deep Purple: Around the World Live”. This is a very nice quality set. It’s got four DVD’s in it. The first three are all concert footage (interspersed with interview stuff as well). The fourth DVD is a rather long documentary on the history of the band in the Steve Morse era. The documentary talks about all kinds of stuff with Steve Morse, spends a lot of time on the departure of Jon Lord as well, and is really quite cool. There’s some references to the other times of Purple’s history, but this documentary is really all about the Morse era. Which I happen to love, so it was right up my alley. Ian Gillan even referenced a concert I saw with a friend of mine in 1994 in Texas, which was technically Steve Morse’s third ever gig with Purple. There’s a review I did of it back then still online over at the Highway Star website, too!
Anyway, there’s tons of concert footage, and with the sets varying over several years, you don’t get the same set lists all the time, it varies – and includes live tracks from Battle Rages On, an album I rather liked, and is under appreciated. I’m going to post the press release below, so there will be some more stuff to read. But the bottom line is this. If you like Deep Purple, and want to see more than just old music videos of Highway Star when Ian Gillan talks about Steve McQueen, then I urge you to check out this set. Its’ really good stuff, and I didn’t even get into the booklet that comes with this. :)

New York, NY (May 29, 2008)—On June 17, 2008, Eagle Rock Entertainment, through its wholly-owned Eagle Vision subsidiary, will release Deep Purple: Around The World Live [pre-book date May 28, Retail Sales Price $39.98], a 4-DVD boxed set chronicling live shows in 1995 India, 1999 Australia and 2002 England. The fourth disc, Access All Areas, is a documentary of the band, from inception on.
Deep Purple is one of the most beloved Hard Rock bands in music history. Seen as one of the key precursor bands to what ultimately became Heavy Metal, it is also in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the loudest band ever. Its debut album, Shades Of Deep Purple, came out in September of 1968. By year’s end, The Book Of Taliesyn was also out and 12 months later, in 1969, its self-titled third album made them stars. Superstar status was achieved in the ‘70s, and there was no looking back from there. All during the ‘80s and ‘90s, Deep Purple continued to make new fans, performing its music on stages all over the world. With 18 studio albums, six live albums, and 14 of Hard Rock’s greatest musicians (including guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, organist Jon Lord, vocalist David Coverdale, guitarist Joe Satriani, and the late Tommy Bolin) who have filled its ranks at one time or another, Deep Purple has sold millions of records, and are considered one of the greatest bands of alltime. (The current lineup, which has been solvent for six years, consists of vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Don Airey and drummer Ian Paice.)
Around The World Live disc bonus features an eight-song fourth concert from 1995 Seoul, South Korea (Disc #1), a 1999 documentary, “A Band Down Under” (Disc #2), and a 2002 interview with vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover (Disc #3).
This lavish boxed set comes complete within a hardback cover that also includes a 32-page specially commissioned book written by Joel McIver of Great Britain’s Classic Rock magazine, illustrated with photographs of the various eras covered by the concerts.
Packed with rare and previously unseen material, this is the ultimate Deep Purple 57-song nine-hour collection!
Track Listing
Disc #1 “Bombay Calling—India 1995”
1) Fireball
2) Maybe I’m A Leo
3) Black Night
4) The Battle Rages On
5) Woman From Tokyo
6) Perpendicular Waltz
7) When A Blind Man Cries
8) Perfect Strangers
9) Pictures Of Home
10) Child In Time
11) Anya
12) Space Truckin’
13) Guitar Solo
14) Lazy
15) Speed King
16) Highway Star
17) Smoke On The Water
Bonus Material “Live In Seoul South Korea 1995”
1) Black Night
2) Woman From Tokyo
3) When A Blind Man Cries
4) Perfect Strangers
5) Child In Time
6) Speed King
7) Highway Star
8) Smoke On The Water
Disc #2 “Total Abandon—Australia 1999”
1) Ted The Mechanic
2) Strange Kind Of Woman
3) Bloodsucker
4) Pictures Of Home
5) Almost Human
6) Woman From Tokyo
7) Watching The Sky
8) Fireball
9) Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
10) Guitar Solo
11) Smoke On The Water
12) Lazy
13) Perfect Strangers
14) Speed King
15) Black Night
16) Highway Star
Disc #3 “Live At The NEC—England 2002”
1) Fireball
2) Woman From Tokyo
3) Mary Long
4) Ted The Mechanic
5) Lazy
6) The Well-Dressed Guitar
7) When A Blind Man Cries
8) Space Truckin’
9) Keyboard Solo
10) Perfect Strangers
11) Speed King
12) Guitar Solo
13) Smoke On The Water
14) Hush
15) Black Night
16) Highway Star