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The city of Gyor witnesses a miracle on 25 and 26 March 20102 April 2010, 15:12

Cry Free - Deep Purple's Favourite Tribute
The city of Gyor witnessed a miracle on 25 and 26 March 2010! The town which has a population just over 100,000 had the rare opportunity to host two major events on two subsequent nights, the first one being Jon Lord's monumental symphony-rock crossover act, and the second one being the 11th Annual Percussion Festival headlined by legendary Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice. This meant paradise for the Purple fans from Hungary and the neighbouring countries most of whom booked a room in a hotel in or around the town to see two of their favourite musicians in a row. This was also a very special opportunity for Cry Free, who are probably the only tribute band in the world to perform with two original members of the group they represent within two days. Their role was no less than stepping into the shoes of the Deep Purple members in both Lord's special show including the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, and Paice' drum clinic, the second part of which features "Little Ian" playing Deep Purple songs with a band. It goes without saying that this unique series of events attracted a whole lot of people, Hungarian and foreign, making both shows in Gyor's new concert hall Richter Terem sold out.

Jon Lord and Cry Free have joined forces for the eighth time now. This year's setlist had only two differences compared with last year's and was still based on the ground-breaking Concerto from 1969 and the Maestro's solo albums (Sarabande, Pictured Within etc). The real novelty for the audience besides a new symphony orchestra was the change behind one of the microphones. As it turned out a few weeks before the show that the official singer of the Lord tour Steve Balsamo had been double-booked and was not available for the concert in Gyor, the management decided to give the male vocal job to Attila Scholtz, singer of the Hungarian Deep Purple Cover Band. Jon Lord and his team were really grateful for the quick substitution and congratulated Atka on his successful soloist debut. The great keyboardist-composer also thanked the band again for being so well-rehearsed, and acknowledgingly added that guitarist Oliver Lee was getting ever crazier with his solos. As Lord was also pleased with the performance of the Philharmonics of Gyor, and considers conductor Marton Racz one of the best in the world, this is the very team he wants to work with in the Austrian town of Imst on May 9, and go on tour with in Central Europe in September. The tour is planned to include the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary again.

This was the first time, however, that the Hungarian Deep Purple Cover Band had had the opportunity to join Ian Paice on stage during one of his popular drum clinics. After a brief introduction, a couple of stories, and two short solos, the legendary drummer called Cry Free on stage to play a few Deep Purple songs with him to show the audience how his technique works in a live rock music environment. Instead of the 2-4 songs originally planned, the great percussionist -apparently having lots of fun -finally played 6 numbers with the Hungarian musicians. The songs were selected ten minutes before the show with "Little Ian" choosing three titles and leaving the rest to be picked by the band. Thus the five songs of the spontaneous setlist (Burn, Stormbringer, You Keep On Moving, Perfect Strangers, and Highway Star) plus the encore (Smoke On The Water) initiated by the enthusiastic Paice himself, were all performed without any rehearsal or soundcheck, in fact, even without much discussion about structures. The music entirely arouse from the moment constantly putting smiles on the faces of each participant with its smooth progress. The set sounded so tight and powerful as if it had been rehearsed and performed many times, blowing away both audience and band, perhaps even the great drummer himself. After the encore Paice spoke to the audience asking them to "give a big round of applause to a fantastic band". Negotiations have started about a follow-up concert in Budapest with the same line-up.

In our Photos section you can find a few galleries of both shows and many more are to follow