Budokan Night

1993 saw Deep Purple's twenty-fifth anniversary year, with Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Roger Glover (as well as their record company) wanting Ian Gillan back in the band for a Mark II reunion to celebrate this milestone. Although Ritchie Blackmore elected to have fellow ex-Rainbow member Joe Lee Turner (their current vocalist) remain, he grudgingly relented, after requesting and eventually receiving $250,000 in his bank account, and Mark II completed the aptly titled The Battle Rages On... in 1993.
The band then began a European tour, which was documented on the live album Come Hell or High Water, released in 1994. Blackmore left Deep Purple for the second and final time after a show in Helsinki, Finland in November 1993. Joe Satriani was drafted to complete the Japanese dates in December and stayed on for a European summer tour in 1994.