Deep Purple in Belgrade: Don Airey Slips in Ajde, Jano
Keyboardist Don Airey worked bars of a traditional folk song into his solo, and the Arena answered with an ovation. What else was played on October 10 and what fans say.
Zoran Aleksic was among the fans at Belgrade Arena on Saturday night who heard the Deep Purple keyboardist play the traditional song “Ajde, Jano” in the middle of a solo. Today he regrets that he did not film the moment.
The concert took place on October 10, 2026, as part of the European tour “Mad in Europe”, organized by SKYMUSIC. According to the organizer’s announcement, doors opened at 6 p.m., the band Jayler warmed up the crowd, and Deep Purple was due on stage at 8 p.m. The reports we read do not confirm the exact start time, and none gives an attendance figure or says how long the show lasted. Telegraf only writes that the hall was full.
What did Don Airey play in his solo?
Don Airey took a keyboard solo lasting several minutes. According to Telegraf, he played classical pieces, from Chopin to Mozart, and one medley included bars of “Ajde, Jano”, which the crowd answered with an ovation, the outlet reports. Aleksic described the same passage a little differently, as a mix of several genres in which the folk song lasted only briefly. The two accounts do not contradict each other, but neither says exactly how many bars were played or in what order.
Aleksic told B92:
“The keyboardist had a solo of a couple of minutes and he made a mix of various genres, and among other things the song ‘Ajde, Jano’ made it in, but briefly. I’m really sorry I don’t have a recording.”
For a band built around keyboards, a solo is craft rather than decoration. Telegraf notes that Deep Purple was formed in England in 1968 and, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, is counted among the groups that laid the foundations of hard rock, with the sound of the Hammond organ as one of its trademarks.
Which songs were performed?
According to B92, the set included “Smoke on the Water”, “Highway Star”, “Lazy”, “Perfect Strangers” and “Space Truckin’”, while “Hush” and “Black Night” came near the end of the show. No source gives the running order, so we do not reconstruct it. The lineup is singer Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Don Airey and guitarist Simon McBride. Telegraf lists “Child in Time” among the classics the band carries, but neither report says that song was played that night.
Of the overall impression, Aleksic said:
“Deep Purple are legends, they sounded like they were just starting their career. These eighty-year-olds gave their maximum and sounded perfect. You could see they play out of love and not just to get the gig done.”
How often does Deep Purple come to Belgrade?
The band has played Belgrade in 1975, 2003 and 2006, then in 2019 at the Arena, and in July 2024 at Tasmajdan. A little over two years passed between the last Belgrade show and Saturday’s, while five years separated the Arena in 2019 from Tasmajdan in 2024.
For fans who have followed the band for decades, this was another meeting with the same riffs, but with a keyboardist who added something local to a familiar program. Whether “Ajde, Jano” was a one-off Belgrade episode or part of a solo that Airey changes from city to city cannot be concluded from the available reports.
