Deep Purple 1993: “Highway Star” in Birmingham – Blackmore’s last storm
The opener from the concert film “Come Hell or High Water”: Deep Purple’s classic Mark II line-up, filmed on 9 November 1993 at the NEC Birmingham – days before Blackmore walked out.
Photo: Fredamas / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Single video: YouTube · DeepPurpleVEVO · youtube.com
On 9 November 1993 Deep Purple played the NEC in Birmingham, the last of four sold-out UK shows on their “The Battle Rages On” tour – and the cameras were rolling. The result was the concert film “Come Hell or High Water”, shot entirely that night. “Highway Star” opened the set, and this very performance is notorious: Ritchie Blackmore was initially missing from the stage, the band started without him and he only joined in for the guitar solo. The opening was heavily edited for the film.
On stage was the classic Mark II line-up, reunited in 1992 for the band’s 25th anniversary: Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (organ, keyboards), Roger Glover (bass) and Ian Paice (drums). Blackmore had agreed to the filming only on condition that there were no cameras on stage. When a cameraman stayed put, he threw a glass of water towards a camera after the solo – from the audience it looked as if Gillan was the target. Blackmore later said the incident was “in no way” directed at any member of the band.
The night capped a fractured tour: after the Prague show on 30 October Blackmore had already handed in his resignation in writing. His final gig with Deep Purple followed on 17 November 1993 in Helsinki; Joe Satriani stepped in for the Japanese dates, and Steve Morse later took over. “Come Hell or High Water” came out in 1994 as a video and a live album; the DVD went Gold in the UK and Platinum in Australia. The complete Stuttgart and Birmingham shows followed in 2006 on the box set “Live in Europe 1993”.