The Songs That Built Rock Tour



The Songs That Built Rock Tour was a 2011–12 world concert tour by English hard rock band Deep Purple.

Overview
Along with the band, the tour featured a 38-piece orchestra. It was the first time Deep Purple toured North America in four years. It took place at the world's largest arenas, such as the O2 Arena in London and Arena di Verona in Verona, Italy.

The official management's press-release said the show would include Deep Purple's biggest hits, such as "Smoke on the Water", Highway Star", "Woman from Tokyo" etc, covering the 42-year history of the band.

Announcements

 * The first few European dates of the orchestral tour were announced in January 2011, including shows in Germany and the Arena di Verona, Italy. It was billed as just "Orchestral Tour".
 * Billed as "Deep Purple: The Songs That Built Rock", the tour was officially announced at the end of February 2011, with North American dates being first, followed by European ones. The North American tour includes three show in Canada and three shows in the New York City area. (New York area concerts combine 20,000 tickets for sale.)
 * At the beginning of April, Jacky Paice, the wife of Deep Purple's drummer Ian Paice, announced the 2011 edition of The Sunflower Jam, the annual charity event hosted by the actor Jeremy Irons. This edition includes Deep Purple appearing at London's Royal Albert Hall among some of the biggest names in the history of rock, such as Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Joe Bonamassa, Neuton Faulkner and members of the rock band Thunder. (with more names to be confirmed, as promised). The Sunflower Jam has been criticised in the British Medical Journal for fundraising in support of The College of Medicine, an alternative medicine lobby group in the UK linked to Prince Charles.
 * 12 April saw the band announcing four UK arena dates, including their first ever show at London's O2 Arena.

Ticket sales

 * According to Ticketmaster, on 16 April Deep Purple reached #2 in the list of week's biggest ticket-selling artists in the UK. (Download Festival being #1). The band sold nearly 70,000 tickets in two days. The fourth day of ticket sales saw them as the #1 bestseller artists of the week in the UK.
 * The LG Arena show in Birmingham sold out after one week of ticket sales.

Line-up

 * Deep Purple:


 * Ian Gillan – vocals
 * Steve Morse – guitar
 * Roger Glover – bass
 * Ian Paice – drums
 * Don Airey – keyboards


 * Other


 * The 38-piece Orchestra, Europe tour: Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt
 * The Sunflower Superjam 2011 line up includes Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Joe Bonamassa, Newton Faulkner, alongside Deep Purple