BRUCE DICKINSON Says His Upcoming Performance Of JON LORD’s ‘Concerto For Group And Orchestra’ Will Be ‘Mega’

IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson and DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover will take part in a performance of Jon Lord‘s “Concerto For Group And Orchestra” in Győr, Hungary on November 5, 2021. Adding DEEP PURPLE tracks, the concert will be performed by the Győr Symphony Orchestra together with Kaitner Z Doka (JON LORD, IAN PAICE, DON AIREY) on guitar and Bernhard Welz (JON LORD, DON AIREY) on drums. Also appearing at the event will be conductor Paul Mann, a close friend of Jon‘s.

A new video message from Dickinson promoting the show can be seen below.

“Hello. It’s Bruce Dickinson here from IRON MAIDEN,” the singer says in the clip. “But on the 5th of November — that’s fireworks night in the United Kingdom. Well, fireworks night with a symphony orchestra, with the Győr Symphony Orchestra in Győr, we’re gonna be performing Jon Lord‘s ‘Concerto For Group And Orchestra’, and we’re gonna be doing some PURPLE classics at the end of the show as well. It’s gonna be a fabulous night. I’ll let you in to a secret: I’ve done it twice before, and it was mega. But this is gonna be even more mega than it was before. Oh yes!”

In November 2019, Bruce performed at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada as part of the 50th-anniversary celebration of “Concerto For Group And Orchestra”. Joining him at the event were Mann, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (QSQ) and the PAUL DESLAURIERS BAND.

When the Quebec City concert was first announced, Dickinson said: “It’s a great honor to participate in the 50th anniversary of the ‘Concerto For Group And Orchestra’. When Paul Mann contacted me about the Quebec event, I said yes immediately.

“As many people know, DEEP PURPLE have been a major, ongoing influence in my life since I was a teenager, and down the years, I have been fortunate enough to become good friends with all of the band, most especially in my collaborations with Jon Lord.

“[I] am looking forward to seeing everyone at this very special commemorative evening.”

Added Mann: “My long collaboration with Jon Lord, and in particular his innovative, genre-defying ‘Concerto’, has been one of the greatest joys of my musical life. Jon‘s spirit will definitely be with us.”

After the November 21, 2019 concert went on sale in April of that year, it sold out immediately and a second show — on November 22, 2019 — was added.

During a September 2018 spoken-word gig in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dickinson was asked about his relationship with Lord. He responded: “Jon Lord was a wonderful gentleman, and we were close friends. And he sadly died of… He had pancreatic cancer, but he survived for a year and a half — much against what everybody had said would happen. And actually, at the end, he didn’t die of pancreatic cancer — he died, unfortunately, of some terrible blood collapse that happened with him, possibly as a result of treatment. But we had all kinds of crazy plans, including me going out on tour with him, singing DEEP PURPLE songs with an orchestra, which he was planning to do; that was one of the things we were planning to do. But it all got interrupted and canceled, and [it was] obviously very sad. He was a wonderful man.”

Lord died on July 16, 2012 at age 71 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Lord, who was known for his keyboard virtuosity and his reinvention of the Hammond B-3 organ sound, co-wrote such PURPLE classics as “Smoke On The Water” and “Child In Time”, among others. Lord and drummer Ian Paice were the only original members to last through the band’s initial run from 1968 to 1976. He was on board for their 1984 reunion and stayed on through to his 2002 retirement from the band, after which he worked primarily in the classical field.