Purple passages praise Durham

Old rockers never die, but they certainly do appear to mellow out. Jon Lord, the former Deep Purple keyboard player, has swapped the hell-raising world of trashed hotel rooms for the cerebral environs of Durham University. Whereas once he arpeggiated Space Truckin', his latest opus is a 45-minute concerto in six movements, written to celebrate the university's 175th anniversary. The piece will be performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on October 20, though whether it will take requests for Smoke on the Water remains to be seen.