DEEP PURPLE's official website has been updated with the following "road report" from fan club representative Amanda:

"Hi Everyone,

My name is Amanda and I am the representative for the fan club on the road with Deep Purple. I thought I would introduce myself to all of you! If you were one of the lucky ones who purchased a VIP Meet and Greet or Backstage tour, I will be the one escorting you through the venues and bringing you back to meet the band. I have already met some great people and look forward to meeting more of you at future shows.

So far the tour has been great. I wanted to give you a backstage look at what goes on behind the show, before the band can even step foot onto the stage! This tour is a well-oiled machine, better than most I have seen. Let me start of by telling you how we travel.

The crew, there are 11 of us, travel on a nightliner bus. We eat, drink, laugh and sleep on this bus. As you see in the picture below, it is a BIG bus and we get a lot of stares wherever we go.

The first week of the tour took us to Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, and Hungary.

The shows there were unreal, with attendance of at least 10,000 per show. As you can see from the below pictures, the fans were out in full force supporting the band.

This band has a very faithful crew, and most of them have worked with the band for at LEAST 2 years, some of them more. Michael is the guitar tech for Steve Morse. He is in charge of setting up Steve’s amps, tuning his guitars, repairing them if needed, and makin sure when Steve walks on stage everything is ready to go. Steve also uses different guitars for different songs so Michael has to make sure he gets him the right guitar on time for the right song!

Don Airey, the keyboard player is lucky enough to have his son Michael as his keyboard tech. It is a special relationship and even lets them have a little father/son bonding time! Michael sets up Don’s keyboard rig and is at his side during the show making sure his levels are correct, and that everything is running smoothly. They even have some time to have a moment.

As the shows go on, I will introduce you to more of the crew, and what their jobs are as well. If you are at an upcoming show, look for me. I will be in the pit taking the photos for the site. I usually even have a set list I might let you get your hands on.

Stay tuned for more!

Amanda."

Check out more photos at this location.