During Friday night’s gig not only did it go smoothly for the mostly septuagenarian rockers, they also had special guests in the audience, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo.

Lead singer of Deep Purple Ian Gillan told a press conference in Surakarta, Central Java, on Thursday that after 48 years the band was happy to be playing again in the country.

"Of course it's nice to come back. A lot has changed in Indonesia since 1975," Gillan said, referring to the year Deep Purple first performed in Jakarta, during which one of its hired bodyguards, Patsy Collins, was killed when he tumbled down an elevator shaft.

Deep Purple staged its live show on Friday night at the Surakarta Muhammadiyah University (UMS) auditorium.

In a short video posted on the band's social media accounts, Gillan had invited President Jokowi, known to be an avid rock fan, Ganjar and Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka to see the live performance.

Gibran, Jokowi’s son, said that organizers for the show did not provide a free ticket for Jokowi and that he had to purchase it himself.

Ganjar sent a tweet from his handle @ganjarpranowo on Tuesday saying he would be attending the concert and called on fans to rock out to Deep Purple's biggest hit, "Smoke on the Water".

"Don't forget to jump around to ‘Smoke on the Water’ or scream at the top of your lungs to ‘Child in Time’ or romance to ‘Soldier of Fortune’. We need to do it together," Ganjar said.

Both Jokowi and Ganjar are known as rock fans and have been spotted at a number of high-profile rock concerts in Jakarta and elsewhere in the country.

For the Surakarta gig, Deep Purple was  reunited with Indonesia's longest-running rock band, God Bless, which opened the show. God Bless, fronted by legendary singer Ahmad Albar, opened Deep Purple's gig in Jakarta in 1975.

When asked about sharing the bill with God Bless once again, Gillan said he was thrilled. "It's amazing to be able to see them again here," the 77-year-old singer said.

Joining Gillan on stage on Friday were founding members Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums, along with keyboard player Don Airey and guitarist Simon McBride, who both joined in 2002.

Deep Purple's December 1975 concert in Jakarta was the first live performance by a Western rock band in the country and turned into a horror story for the group with the death of its bodyguard, the arrest of its manager and a riot taking place during the concert.

Following the death of Collins, who had earlier worked with Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones, Jakarta Police arrested Purple's manager Rob Cooksey and threw him in jail on suspicion of murder.

To make matters worse, guitarist Tommy Bolin pinched a nerve in his left hand after the second concert and the band was faced with the possibility of having to cancel its Japanese tour.

The Jakarta concert took yet another turn for the worse when security personnel, failing to prevent thousands of fans who crashed the band's first night show, decided to use force to disperse the crowd on the second night.

Members of the band have described the 1975 Jakarta event as a nightmare.