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Dave was in town on Tuesday, working, taking photos for
Deep Purple at their penultimate gig (of the current tour) at the Brighton Centre.
Now, Deep Purple isn’t really something we’d go to see, but Dave was in town so we were going to go along and get the Rock experience. And besides, Dave conjured up backstage passes, making it a no brainer. (We’ve now been spoilt: insist on access all areas passes for all gigs you go to).
Deep Purple put on a good show, although we’re not the people to ask, knowing only
one song, but there were plenty of people seriously enjoying themselves. It was a good experience, especially being at a gig where you’re really not overly bothered by the music: you can just experience the whole thing, detached from the event as such. Odd.
Back stage (the Brighton Centre back stage is not Rock and Roll) there was some kind of meet and greet. A group of about thirty people gathered in a room, and all were Big Fans, probably having followed the tour round the country or the world – apart from us imposters, of course. When the band showed up for photographs and autographs, we were really feeling like phonies. But the band spent quite a lot of time, making sure they worked the room and got round to see everyone. We had a chat with a couple of them, and they seem like good blokes who obviously really enjoy what they do. Impressive.
It was 3am before I managed to drag Dave away from Hotel du Vin bar…quite a trick, as that bar does stock some good beers.