'70s Rockers Deep Purple Return to "Spiritual Home"

Legendary '70s rock band Deep Purple returned after 20 years to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to play a charity concert to help build a music school in the country. Fronted by vocalist Ian Gillan, the band first held a benefit concert in 1990 to help victims of the Spitak earthquake, which struck northern Armenia two years earlier.

Fans, including several hundred who traveled from Iran and Georgia, packed the 10,000-seat concert hall in Yerevan to once again cheer on the band performing some of its biggest hits.

Gillan calls Armenia his “spiritual home,” where “the spirit of adventure is always in the air” and where Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian is a big fan of rock music and the band as well.