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RED SQUARE GIG AND FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Birmingham Post, UK
September 29, 2011 Thursday
Deep Purple are set to perform in Moscow - where one very special
fan will be in the audience.
"There's talk of a Red Square gig, a special thing for the Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev," Gillan said.
"He's a great guy.We went for dinner with him at his place on the
last Russian dates.
"It was fantastic, we walked into his living room and he had a huge
stack of speakers and vinyl albums.
"It's a great story because Purple's music was banned in the Soviet
Union.
"When Medvedev was at school he was a music club DJ and he needed
permission to play a Purple track but he wasn't allowed to own the
record. Quite incredible."
Gillan said Medvedev's love of Purple ran so deep that the politician
received a special copy of a charity record released by him and Sabbath
guitarist Tony Iommi to raise funds for a music school in Armenia.
"There's a massive fan base in Russia. "My first visit was with the
Gillan Band during the Soviet era in the late 1980s.
"We were playing at football stadiums for three or four days.We kicked
off in Leningrad and Moscow, then went through Chechyna and Georgia,
through to the Caspian Sea.
Russian President Medvedev "Whole villages were coming and they would
set up and stay for the whole week.
"It was quite an adventure."
Birmingham Post, UK
September 29, 2011 Thursday
Deep Purple are set to perform in Moscow - where one very special
fan will be in the audience.
"There's talk of a Red Square gig, a special thing for the Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev," Gillan said.
"He's a great guy.We went for dinner with him at his place on the
last Russian dates.
"It was fantastic, we walked into his living room and he had a huge
stack of speakers and vinyl albums.
"It's a great story because Purple's music was banned in the Soviet
Union.
"When Medvedev was at school he was a music club DJ and he needed
permission to play a Purple track but he wasn't allowed to own the
record. Quite incredible."
Gillan said Medvedev's love of Purple ran so deep that the politician
received a special copy of a charity record released by him and Sabbath
guitarist Tony Iommi to raise funds for a music school in Armenia.
"There's a massive fan base in Russia. "My first visit was with the
Gillan Band during the Soviet era in the late 1980s.
"We were playing at football stadiums for three or four days.We kicked
off in Leningrad and Moscow, then went through Chechyna and Georgia,
through to the Caspian Sea.
Russian President Medvedev "Whole villages were coming and they would
set up and stay for the whole week.
"It was quite an adventure."