DEEP PURPLE recently announced their first tour in North America in four years, and the pioneering rock band - featuring classic members Ian Gillan (lead vocals), Roger Glover (bass) and Ian Paice (drums, percussion) - will perform for the first time in North America with a symphony orchestra in each city (except San Francisco). Launching June 3 and wrapping June 25, the tour is called Deep Purple: The Songs That Built Rock, with stops in New York (two nights at the Beacon Theatre), Los Angeles (Greek Theater) and Montreal (Bell Centre).

Fans can expect to hear the band’s trail-blazing iconic hits - including 'Smoke On The Water', 'Highway Star', 'Hush' and 'Space Truckin’' - plus other favorites achieve a new dimension of sound with the added heft of a symphony orchestra. In other parts of the world, Deep Purple has achieved acclaim for its live epic presentation of symphonic rock.

As they eye a new studio album for release in 2012, Deep Purple continues to tour around the world. The band, rounded out by Steve Morse (guitar) and Don Airey (keyboards), recently launched (March 18-27) their eighth visit to Russia, a country where the group made early inroads as a touring act and where they’ve played at the personal request of the country’s president Dmitry Medvedev. They performed in three cities - Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and Moscow--before moving on to Kiev (Ukraine) and Minsk (Belarus). The band also has nine more shows on tap - Heraklion, Greece (May 6), Limassol, Cyprus (May 8), Ceasarea, Israel (May 14, 15), Istanbul, Turkey (May 18), Athens, Greece (May 20), Patras, Greece (May 21), Thessaloniki, Greece (May 23) and Ioannina, Greece (May 25) - before heading to North America.

Throughout its career, Deep Purple has sold over 100 million albums worldwide and has incorporated classical music, blues-rock, pop and progressive rock. (Although the band’s devoted fans treasure their live album Concerto for Group and Orchestra, the upcoming tour of North America will not draw from this work.)

Deep Purple: The Songs That Built Rock North American Dates:

June

3 - Casino Rama, Orillia, ON
4 - Agora - Québec City, QC
6 - Place des Arts Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier - Montréal, PQ
7 - Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre - Boston, MA
8 - Mortensen Hall at The Bushnell - Hartford, CT
10 - PNC Bank Arts Center - Holmdel, NJ
11 - Tropicana Showroom - Atlantic City, NJ
12 - Bethel Woods Center for the Arts - Bethel, NY
14 - Beacon Theater - New York, NY
15 - Beacon Theater - New York, NY
17 - Fox Theatre - Detroit, MI
18 - Ravinia Pavilion, Highland Park Chicago, IL (with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra)
19 - Orpheum Theatre - Minneapolis, MN
24 - The Greek Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
25 - Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA