From www.spinner.com
Russian president and life-long Deep Purple fan Dmitry Medvedev saw his dream of meeting his heroes realised after welcoming the band to his residence on Wednesday.
Meeting singer Ian Gillan and company before their concert in Moscow, Medvedev heralded the band's arrival at his home by cranking up the volume and blasting out a snippet of one of their tracks.
"When I began to listen to Deep Purple I could never imagine that one day I would sit at the same table with them" the Russian president told the band (via the Voice of Russia).
During his school days such a meeting would have been hard to imagine given the political climate of the time. Even playing Deep Purple songs was a far from straightforward process. Medvedev said, "You know that we had a very restrictive political system then and, as a DJ at school, I had to get the school Young Communist League committee's approval for disco music playlists."
Before the band headed off for their concert, there was a chance for a brief jam with Medvedev's 15-year-old son joining in on guitar. In return for his hospitality the band presented the president with a set of drumsticks.
