The Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who is also a big Deep Purple fan, announced new tour dates with the Concerto For Group And Orchestra, symphony orchestra with more than 80 instrumentalists conducted by Paul Mann, who was a close friend of the late Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord. The band will also be formed by Kaltner Z Doka (Guitar), Bernhard Welz (Drums), John O’ Haras (Keyboards), Tanya O’Callaghan (Whitesnake) and Mario Argandonia (Percussion). Back in November the musician had announced concerts only in Brazil but now he revealed new dates in Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Concerto For Group And Orchestra featuring Bruce Dickinson 2023 tour dates: March 15 - Sala Palatului, Bucharest, Romania 18 - National Palace Of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria 22 - Sports Hall Mirza Delibasic, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina 24 - Hall Drazen Petrovic, Zagreb, Croatia 25 - Cancarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia April 2 - Hala University Palacheho, Olomouc, Czech Republic 15 - Vibra, Sao Paulo, Brazil 19 - Teatro Positiva, Curitiba, Brazil 21 - Vivo Rio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 25 - Auditorio Araujo Vianna, Porto Alegre, Brazil Possible setlist The setlist covers the career of the late keyboardist Jon Lord and the last show made by the group was in Hungary in 2021. So the setlist might be similar to that one that can be seen below. Concerto for Group and Orchestra songs played First Movement: Moderato – Allegro Second Movement: Andante Third Movement: Vivace – Presto Deep Purple and Jon Lord songs played: Sarabande Bourrée Difficult to Cure Wring That Neck Pictures of Home When a Blind Man Cries Perfect Strangers Hush Smoke on the Water https://youtu.be/rHtqSGf9yvk Bruce is a big fan of Deep Purple and in an interview with ABC back in 2018 he recalled when was the first time that he ever heard the group. “I was walking up and down the corridor at boarding school and I heard this racket coming from behind a door. I thought, ‘Oh my god, What is that?!’. So, I knocked on the door. This senior boy opened the door and looked at me with a big sneer on his face.” “I asked, ‘Who was that?’. He went: ‘Oh, it’s Deep Purple if you must know. ‘Speed King’’ and shut the door. So that was that, I was hooked. We used to have little auctions in the boarding house. People would be short of money and wouldn’t have enough money to have enough to pay their bill at the school shop. So they’d auction their stuff off. LPs got auctioned quite regularly.” “The second LP that I got was ‘Deep Purple In Rock‘. Scratched to bits. I paid 50 cents Australian for it. I loved it and played it absolutely to death. So I think I might have blown up my parents’ stereogram with it,” Bruce Dickinson said.
