Despite the bans by some of the organizers, we the Armenian fans enjoyed the life-long awaited legendary band to the fullest In our previous issue, we have placed brief notices about the May 25 concert of the legendary Deep Purple in Yerevan. Below is a detailed article of our correspondent about the event and some additional aspects thereof. By Gourgen James Khazhakian At long last: Deep Purple, most probably the best rock legend ever, came to Armenia for an entire two days. The only (life-long awaited) concert at the Yerevan Sports and Concert Complex was a part of the band's world tour. Before Yerevan, they played in the Russian cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk and after the concert in Yerevan they were to leave for Johannesburg, South Africa. The May 25 concert organized by Vibrographus (Director - Vardan Grigoryan, who's also a member of Dogma rock group) and ArmRusgasprom CJSC (General Director - Karen Karapetyan), was a benefit performance with proceeds going toward the construction of No.6 music school in Gyumri. The Band's lead vocalist Ian Gillan first visited Gyumri in 1990, when he gave a charity concert in Yerevan for those suffered from the 1988 earthquake. "It was terrifying for us to see the conditions children had to study in - even 20 years later," he said during a news conference held in October 2009 in Yerevan. "It's impossible to study in that damp, cold, shabby, temporary building," Ian Gillan (who is called half-jokingly by some "Ian Gillan The Armenian," as he has visited Armenia for the third time already within the last seven months) emphasized. Mr Gillan had already donated some ,000 to the school from his two concerts in March with the Armenian Philhar-monic Orchestra. And at the May 24 news conference Ian Gillan said he is watching how the school project is going on, and the progress is obvious. The news conference started with cries from the audience (which included fans arrived especially for the concert from Georgia and Iran, waving their national flags) such as "Ian Gillan, we love you!!!", "Ian Paice, we love you!!!" The rock legends amazed the audience, first of all, by their modesty (in contrast to most of our home-bred "stars"). Thus, asked how they would qualify the Band's contribution to world rock music, they said that the question should be addressed not to them, but to the listeners. And… "probably you'd be surprised by knowing how little I know of drums," said (half-jokingly indeed) the legendary drummer Ian Paice. Asked by yours truly whether they maintain contact with ex-members of the band - the (fantastic) Ritchie Blackmore (lead guitar) and John Lord (keyboards) duet, Ian Gillan said: "That's a very interesting question and it has been asked often, but Steve (Morse, the lead guitar-G.Kh.) joined us twenty years ago, so…" "I see John Lord all the time; we live maybe 10 kilometers from each other and John is very happy with his new career, with his orchestra work, and we are very happy with Don (Airey, keyboards - G. Kh.) so I think we'd leave it like that," Roger Glover, bass guitar, another veteran of Deep Purple said. Mr. Gillan also said that the DVD of his concert in Yerevan with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra is under way in Australia. I have performed with Saint Petersburg, Linz and London Symphony Orchestras, but your Orchestra was the best, Mr Gillan said. Unfortunately, the bulk of the questions prepared long in advance by the audience remained unanswered, as the person responsible for press coverage, Ara Tadevossian, chief of Mediamax news agency "ordered" all of us: "We have only 20 minutes!" “ Yes sir, indeed!” But a big question still remains unanswered: was this Deep Purple themselves wanted? The author thinks, hardly so, since: (a) the previous press conferences by Ian Gillan in October 2009 and March 2010 lasted much longer; (b) it's really hard to believe that Gillan who calls Armenia his "spiritual home," where "the spirit of adventure is always in the air," and his friends as well, were not likely to be so "hard-hearted" on their Armenian (and not only) fans. So, most probably, it was the "will" of Tadevossian? As a colleague of mine, Georg Khachatryan told me, Tadevossian in fact "leaped" on him to interrupt his friendly chat with Ian Gillan and Jonathan Dee, head of Do Something! , an Australian charity (who was a driving force in organizing "Rock Aid Armenia" project in 1990) during their visit to Armenia in March. "No statements!",- in the same, already typical for him manner Tadevossian tried to stop The Highlights correspondent's question at the May 24 press conference. And this very "manner" went on: just in a second after the press conference's end, our "brave" guards (in fact, led by Tadevossian) started to push people out from the hall, so the biggest part of the fans had no chance to get a photograph with their long-awaited idols! Regrettably, the picture was the same the next day at the concert - the guards were preventing fans (those at the tribunes) to rock, well, at… a rock (and not a symphony, or, let's say, opera) concert. So that was to us, "mere mortals"... As to the world-renowned Armenian composer Ara Gevorgyan, who postponed his flight to Moscow for a glorious concert at the Kremlin expected to be held on 28 May, as he said, "especially to meet Ian and the guys," he had great difficulties to "break through" the "guard" to his old friend Ian Gillan to give him a CD in which Ara Gevorgyan, by Gillan's request, put pieces of our legendary duduk. But when The Highlights photographer (at a request by Ara Gevorgyan) was trying to capture a pic of them, he, also, was pushed out by the guard. "Well, when Ian came to Armenia in 1990, even then, in the Soviet times, I was "allowed" to take Gillan to my home, to my friends' home, actually to everywhere, but now…" the prominent Armenian composer told us. What could we say to all this? As an Armenian rock musician, Edgar Barseghyan who is a permanent participant of all such events took place within the last year (Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi, etc.), said, there is a "proverb" already: "Some people probably think that if they brought Mr Gillan to Armenia once, they have the right to consider themselves a star of Gillan's caliber!" Unfortunately, this was not the last thing (at least for yours truly) which "bittered" the happiness of Deep Purple's life-long awaited visit to Armenia. The British Embassy in Yerevan organized a kind of an informal reception - rather a meeting - with Deep Purple at the same place as the press conference, the huge Tigran Mets Hall of Armenia Marriott Hotel, just an hour after the press conference. Getting to know about this on 21 May, Friday, and being very well familiar with the British "legalistic" ways, The Highlights correspondent gave a call to her Majesty's Embassy's PR officer Maria Sadoyan and informed about his quite natural desire to be present at the event and even requested Ms Sadoyan to advise him whether that would be the proper venue to hand to Ambassador Charles Lonsdale his newly published book entitled "Touching the legend: undercover intelligence agents Gevorg and Gohar Vardanian" (see The Highlights 17 May issue). "Yes, indeed!" was the answer of Ms Sadoyan. So, after all that, could you imagine my bafflement when The Highlights correspondent (accompanied by a photographer and a cameraman) approached Ambassador Lonsdale (who knows your humble servant, the long time diplomatic correspondent of The Highlights, very well, as we meet at just about every reception, from numerous articles on the British Embassy's activities, after all, and whose modest job was characterized by Mr Ambassador as "very enthusiastic"). And this was said when many of my colleagues, having been just an hour ago with me at the press conference, were there with TV cameras and all … Moreover, the event was all over TV screens the same evening… Is this a revelation of the British devotion to equality and freedom of press? When I appealed to Maria Sadoyan, she said to the Ambassador, "He asked only about news conference" ( !!! - G. Kh.). O.K., "dear" Ms Sadoyan, could you please tell honorable readers of The Highlights why and for what reason yours truly should apply to the British Embassy for access to the "news conference," as its organizer was Vibrographus?! "Sorry," said Ambassador Lonsdale after all, adding, "…the organizers…" Aha! The "organizer" behind His Excellency's back was , who'd you think…?! Tadevossian himself. As for the major event, the sold-out concert, it went as it befits Deep Purple, in one word, "fantastic" (the word seems to be a favorite of Ian Gillan, especially when he was addressing the audience). Whatever "some" say, alleging that "Purple's time is over", etc, etc,…, Deep Purple remains Deep Purple, the GREATEST rock band of ALL TIMES!!! What was new there? Mostly, the two things: performance by Don Airey of pieces from Aram Khachaturyan's "Spartacus" ballet and "Sabre Dance" and, indeed, a jam-session by Steve Morse and his younger counterpart Suren Arustamian (of Shant TV "Hay Superstar" Armenian music contest fame) during the performance of "Smoke on the Water", the all-time hard rock anthem. "This concert, and all those concerts in 2009 by Uriah Heep [and] Jethro Tull, will open a new page [in Armenian rock music], and will give Armenian hard rock a renaissance because interest in rock after each concert is increasing," said Sargis Manukian, the vocalist for the group Empyray in an interview with the Eurasianet.org. It seems Yerevan is becoming a regional rock music center, as the May 25 concert drew numerous fans from Iran and Georgia. "Thanks, Armenia!", a Georgian chanted with fellow fans. Well, we the Armenians also should be thankful to the organizers of the miraculous concert on May 25, and first of all to Vibrographus, a company which within a year let our dreams - Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, John McLaughlin, and, finally, Deep Purple come true. The Noyan-Tapan Highlights

---