Rat Bat Blue was only played for the first few dates of the UK tour in 1996. Bloodsucker had replaced it by Newcastle (but I know that wasn’t the first night for it). I heard it twice and it sounded excellent, but the audience responded to Bloosucker better.
But Hard Lovin’ Man hasn’t been in the set for all that time. It wasn’t played on the Infinite tour or the Whooh tour (at least not the shows I was at). It was added back in for the European festival tour in 2024, but dropped for the main European tour.
Hi Karin, yes the encore could be good for those audience joining in moments. Cheers
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I wish they’d drop most of the early stuff or perhaps reduce Smoke/HighwayStar/Hush to a medley if they insist that ‘fans expect this’. For a band that likes to make claim to pushing boundaries and moving forward, they have a hard time letting go some old chestnuts.
Hard Lovin’ Man has been played for many years, and considering that now BigIan struggles more than 10 years ago on this piece, as on Info the Fire, as on Space Truckin, it would be the case that it was replaced with something easier vocally.
Speed King may be an easier piece than hard lovin man to sing, excluding certain high notes (which cannot be excluded from HLM) it is a much more approachable piece for BigIan
No Steve Morse era songs left in the set?
Feels wrong to me. I get that they’re promoting a new album, and I applaud 4 new songs, with two remaining from =1.
But for god’s sake - give Black Night a rest in favour of a Morse era track.
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I have been going to see Deep Purple anywhere near Toronto since April 1, 1985 Never missed a show. Even went to see JLT show but that was cancelled at Canada’s Wonderland (poor ticket sales). So we just rode roller coasters all night 
. I can tell you they will always play their hits!! It’s what the crowd wants. That we get what we get is a blessing!! Take a look what the Google machine tells us the setlist in 1985 and the current setlist in 2026. The staples stay! That’s why I only video the new songs when everyone else goes to the washroom! Don’t forget they played 2 plus hours in 85 Now you get 90-100 minutes…
1985
Main Setlist
- Highway Star
- Nobody’s Home
- Strange Kind of Woman
- Blues (Improvisation)
- A Gypsy’s Kiss
- Perfect Strangers
- Under the Gun
- Lazy (including Ian Paice’s drum solo)
- Child in Time
- Knocking at Your Back Door
- Difficult to Cure (Jon Lord keyboard solo & Rainbow cover)
- Space Truckin’
Encores
- Woman From Tokyo
- Speed King
- Smoke on the Water
- Black Night (That was the closer in Toronto - The Google machine missed it).
I could be wrong about BN I swear they came back after Smoke Check out this audio of the whole show! Google Search
2026
Intro & Main Set
- Mars, the Bringer of War (Gustav Holst piece / audio intro)
- Highway Star
- A Bit on the Side
- Hard Lovin’ Man
- Into the Fire
- Guitar Solo
- Arrogant Boy
- Lazy Sod
- Lazy
- When a Blind Man Cries
- Diablo
- Keyboard Solo
- The Only Horse in Town
- Scriblin’ Gib’rish
- Space Truckin’
- Smoke on the Water
Encores
- Guinnesis
- Hush (Joe South cover)
- Black Night
Comparing 1985 to 2026 is still pretty useless - 4 decades of physical ability and 3 members are gone in between these time points. I don’t agree with the policy of DP as greatest hits playing band, they have never been that and for me - never should be. And as much as I understand why the set in 2026 is structured like it is - it still doesn’t draw interestingly from the vast catalogue of at least 56 years. But it’s them who decide.
It will be interesting to see if the next leg in US and Canada will reshuffle and refresh anything. I hope our residents there will tell us directly.
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As US resident I certainly hope they reshuffle the set list as 2 Splat songs are not enough.
Here a stab at a US list. Since most people here only know a couple of songs well I think it opens up a few things.
Intro
Highway Star
Strange Kind Of Woman
Diablo
Perfect Strangers
Lazy Sod
Arrogant Boy
The Rider
Ted the Mechanic
Woman from Tokyo
Speed King
Guilt Trippin’
Space Truckin’
Smoke
Encore
Splat!
Black Night
Hush
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Phil Collins perfectly defines this on Genesis’ 2007 tour documentary as: “Buying their [the fans] will”.
He speaks about how playing a string of hits/classic “buys” the audience “willingness” to hear a deep cut or more complicated song next.
If you look at the current set list, it perfectly alternates “songs that people likely pay to hear” with “songs the band wants to play”.
By the way…”Guinnessis” is a play on “Genesis” and the “Guinness” beer, is assume? 
Cheers, J.-
Leslie, that would be a truly awesome set list to pull the gig off with. The only gripe here is that four out of five in the band would need to be in their mid fifties again to run through this set comfortably. I’d be delighted and definitely there to see THAT!
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The biggest stretch would be WFT…the rest seems pretty much in line with their current set length although I am questioning whether IG can perform Guilt Trippin’ live…
Agreed Leslie, fully. Your set still looks definitely like something that would turn me on like no other for years 
That’s exactly the way I understand it.
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I don’t see why comparing the current ser list to 1985 helps. I’m working on setlist piece which I’ll share eventually, but only ONE song has stayed constant in the set since 1984 (barring the occurrence of band tantrums 
) and that’s Smoke. There have been tours without HS, Lazy, Space Truckin’, Black Night and Hush. The reason they are back now, and have been the staple for several years is that the wider audience enjoys them, and the band enjoys playing them. They want a set list that flows for them as musicians rather than being a random selection of songs. They’re also songs Gillan is comfortable singing (regardless of how you view his voice). As an example, Hard Lovin’ Man was dropped from the main European =1 tour after the first night, but they kept in the five =1 tracks.
As I’ve said - my kid has seen the band 5 times over four tour legs across 2022, 2024 and 2026. Excluding solos, he’s heard 26 different songs (27 if we include Green Onions). There’s been a further 4 or 5 tracks in those years he didn’t hear. So, across the Whoosh!, =1 and Splat! tours there have been over thirty tracks played (plus solos). That’s the same as two completely different sets. If we’re lucky, we may yet get something else from Splat!
I’d love to hear stuff from Purpendicular or Abandon. I’d have preferred they ditched Hard Lovin’ Man or into the Fire insteadof Rapture on the last few European dates to fit in the new tracks. But most of the audience loved hearing those songs. Some were hearing them for the first time. Some for the 5th. Me..? About 80ish. And there were some there who have seen the band well over 100 times. But we remain very much in the minority, and I’m happy I’m still getting to see them live, regardless of the set.
The purpose of comparing the first time they came back in 1984/5 was to show that the only substantive change is length of setlist. It is 20 minutes plus shorter. The formula for the setlist is the same as 1985. Less time equals less songs shorter jams if any…Musically the setlist must flow. Proper key changes and tempo. Etc.. I’m no expert at this but I have seen the band 20 plus times since 85 and had a brief stop and chat with some of the band in a hotel in London Ontario about setlists and outdoor vs arena shows…. We had a good laugh about people yelling for songs to play like they’re a jukebox!
I was feeling nostalgic. I guess the post didn’t reflect my thoughts properly….
Don’t worry - debate and discussion is why we’re here. But what you say kinda proves my point.
The average set in 1985 was 14 songs (excluding solos). We’re currently on 16 songs. We hit 20 songs on some of the early Purpendicular shows, though some were dropped as Speed King became the vehicle for improvisation between Jon and Steve. Personally, I loved the 96-99 tours which did hover around the 2 hour mark on a good night. I think we hit 2hrs 15 mins on the longest standard show I saw, but I may be misremembering.
Doug, should you be correct on this 2h15 length of the show in 1996, so that would prove that this bloody tour of TBRO, the undersold and maligned one in the righteous mind of Gillan, wasn’t close behind. The best shows were ticking at 130 minutes, I think Essen from Oct 4th 1993 has 133’ on the clock. It was the 1st show of that leg that went to that distance, a truly inspired slab of a gig. Good handful of the following shows kept the suit (namely Stuttgart, Paris, Bruxelles, Rotterdam and London #2 were over 2 hours). Which could be a proof of the point that during 1991-1998 Deep Purple members were at the peak of their powers (S&M and ABandOn Tours also featured shows scratching the 2 hours mark). From then on the shows settled around 100-110 minutes with very rare instances of longer ones (excluding orchestra tour, which was different formula).
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And of course the absolute running time record of electric phase of this bastardous self proclaimed genius Blackmore was the London 1995 Hammersmith Odeon of this so berated Rainbow band, 160 minutes on the clock up with encores. Just as our dear Stathis mentions it in the Balingen 1996 thread. Long shows running over two hours (sometimes ticking close to three) were happening up to early 2000s for Blackmore’s Night too, but I guess this would be chosen here to be treated as a “different story”. All this goes to show that this moody guitarist really liked his stage time and was more than capable of embracing it, when the cosmic phase was on for him. Deep Purple basically lost the ability of letting it loose after the Concerto tour. With dissolving of the Lord-Morse tandem, the formula became fairly time regulated from night to night (time running wise).
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The longest Purple shows I was thinking of were probably 1998. I’ll need to go and check now. I’ll also have to check that Rainbow gig in 1995 - I was there, and I’m sure it was only about 140… maybe I didn’t count the gaps between encores
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