Group will be performing for the fourth time in Israel at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena on February 22.
By YONI COLLINSDeep Purple 370(photo credit: REUTERS)
Veteran British rock band Deep Purple recently announced that it will be performing for the fourth time in Israel at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena on February 22.The group, considered pioneers of the metal genre, began their career in 1968.Five years later their album Machine Head was released, which included their famous hit “Smoke on the Water,” which was ranked No. 434 in a special issue of Rolling Stone which ranked the top 500 songs of all time. Along with fellow English rock bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the three have come to be known as the “Unholy Trinity” of British metal music in the 1970s.Deep Purple last performed in Israel in 2011, and their return is part of their What Now?! World Tour in support of What Now?!, the group’s 19th studio album and first since 2005’s Rapture of the Deep. The tour began two months before the release of the record in February of this year and has already visited 25 countries on four continents.Since the creation of the “Highway Star” rockers, Deep Purple has gone through 14 members, with five currently touring only one of whom, drummer Ian Paice, is a founder of the group. Jon Lord, another founding member, died in 2012 and the group dedicated two of the latest album’s tracks to him.
