With a new album under their wings a recharged Deep Purple has recently gone out on the concert trail again and on January 25th the tour caravan made a stop at Belgium’s oldest rock temple, Forest National. And it was amazing to see that nearly 40 years after their foundation they have once again become hot news. Because with a capacity of 8.000 seats Forest National was already sold out for several weeks prior to the event and among those in attendance were a lot of youngsters.

But first Belgians Cowboys & Aliens had the honour to warm up the place and let the crowd get acquainted with their no nonsense power rock. After the departure of founder member John Pollentier it took the guys some time to re-establish themselves but their solid performance tonight served as prove that this line-up works very well. Allthough their music can’t be filed under the classic rock banner they received a lot of appreciation from the audience and certainly made some new fans tonight.

The first Deep Purple album was released way back in 1968 and since then a lot of things have happened. And at this stage in their career and with a truckload of classic anthems such as “Child In Time” or “Smoke On The Water” in their back catalogue, it would be perfectly normal and easy if the band relied on their past to do the trick. But instead Deep Purple are still making new albums and touring the world on a regular basis. And more surprisingly they seem to attract a whole new generation of youngsters who are heavily into their music. How else can you explain their large number tonight. From the first notes of “Pictures Of Home” I saw a band taking the stage with a lot of enthusiasm and joy, and that’s an unmistakable necessity for a live performance. In the first part of the set a lot of new songs such as “Wrong Man”, “Things I Never Said”, “Before time Began” and “Rapture Of The Deep” passed in review. Of course these songs sounded quite different when compared to their seventies material but that’s only natural. With Gillan, Glover and Paice, only three original members remain from that classic mark II line-up but Steve Morse and Don Airey are more than just replacements for icons Blackmore & Lord, as both their solo spots prove.And since they have joined the band, they have clearly put their stamp on the sound. The rhythm section of Glover – Paice remains a well oiled machine that laid down a solid foundation song after song. Both played inconspicuous and with a lot of ease although their chops aren’t always that obvious to play. Last year Gillan celebrated his sixtieth birthday and while it's only normal that he can't hit those high notes anymore, his vocal delivery was great throughout the performance. In the second part of the show we were treated to the well known classics “Lazy”, “Perfect Strangers”, “Space Truckin”, “Highway Star”and “Smoke On The Water”. Encores “Speed King” and “Black Night” rounded up this gig by a band that’s too young to retire yet.