You never forget your first love - and from the night in 1971 I saw five blokes with long hair in tight jeans playing the heaviest riffs I'd ever heard, I was smitten.

Their name was Deep Purple, it was their first UK tour and it cost 50p to see them at Birmingham Town Hall. I was 13 and it changed my life.

But would I still feel the same more than 30 years on? Well, some love affairs never die and from the moment a barefoot Ian Gillan stepped on stage, it was exactly like old times. Okay, so it was only three-fifths of the classic line-up - singer Gillan, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice - but by the end of the night, even die-hard fans were thinking this is as good as it gets.

All the hits were there - Black Night, Strange Kind Of Woman, Woman From Tokyo, Speed King and Space Truckin' - plus some pretty good new stuff.

Gillan, one of rock's greatest screamers, is still in fantastic voice at nearly 60 and Paice and Glover are still a chest-thumping rhythm section.

Guitarist Steve Morse, a relative newcomer after just ten years in the band, is good enough to have you saying Ritchie who?

And, yes, they did play you know what. All together now: Duh, duh, der. Duh, duh, der-der ...