Blog – The Highway Star: Recent Episodes
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Over the years, we’ve announced a multitude of side projects and guest appearances for the various members of the Purple family. Quite inevitably, we’ve missed a few. Here they are, at least some of them. The last number in parentheses refers to the number of tracks the corresponding musician appears on, whenever known. Don Airey: […]
Mark O’Neill from Australia writes to us: I do a national rock show on community radio and also 3 nights of programming on 94.7 The Pulse. I’m looking for someone to do a weekly Purple pre-recorded show. The only prerequisite (besides the Purple knowledge) is fluent English. Interested parties are advised to contact Mark directly […]
Back in 2006 Don Airey and Ian Paice performed at the ProLight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt, Germany. Turns out that a recording was up on Youtube all this time, without us being aware. Here it is for your viewing pleasure. Don Airey — keyboards Ian Paice — drums Thomas Blug — guitar Alvin Mills — […]
The Asahi Shimbun reports that the famed Japanese music magazine Burrn! is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It was named after “Burn,” a hard-rocking song by British band Deep Purple, under the belief that beginning a magazine’s title with the letter B promised strong sales. The letter R is duplicated in the name to rhyme with […]
Marcelo Velazquez writes to us: Hi, I made this video in honor of my all-time favorite band and I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it. And the video is Deep Purple In Rock, if it was recorded in the 50s: The immortal words of Arthur C. Clarke are very pertinent […]
Well put together documentary on Jon Lord before Deep Purple. It covers in fair detail the evolution of the Art Wood Combo / The Artwoods / St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. This documentary is apparently from the same people who were behind the The Unusual Story of How Deep Purple Were Formed that we featured some […]
Louder Sound reprints a 2005 Classic Rock feature on the Iommi/Hughes collaboration that resulted in the Fused album. The friendship between Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes goes back more than 50 years – and Iommi even briefly enlisted the former Trapeze/Deep Purple man into Black Sabbath for 1986’s Seventh Star album. In 2005 they joined […]
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Edd Griles, director of Rainbow 1980s AOR videos Death Alley Driver, I Surrender, Stone Cold, and Can’t Happen Here, among other things, has passed away. The eulogy mentions that he has also directed unspecified Deep Purple videos, but our search for relevant credits didn’t return any matches. On a side […]
Ritchie Blackmore talks about guitar players that influenced him in his early years — Big Jim Sullivan and Joe Moretti.
A vintage article about Roger Glover and his then upcoming project Butterfly Ball. This originally appeared in Sounds on November 9, 1974. Glover has a ball By Pete Makowski Roger Glover is a satisfied person nowadays. Since his departure from Deep Purple, Glover has steadily been building up a good reputation as a record producer […]
On this slow(ish) news day, we will leave you with a couple of items that the mailman delivered to our trainspotting department. Sir Elton Hercules John writes about the keyboard geniuses who blew his mind for The Guardian. Jon Lord gets a mention: And as the decade progressed, keyboard players progressed too, away from their […]
Ronnie Romero has contributed vocals to the self-titled album of a studio project called A Circus. The driving force and main songwriters of the project is the father/son duo of Alfredo (bass, father) and Luca (guitar, son) Federici. The band is rounded up with Gian Marco Verdone (keyboards and arrangements), and Canadian drummer Shane Gaalaas. […]
Since the first collection seemed to go down well, the inimitable aficionado of Gillanisms David Black has sent us another one. No Staffordshire bull terriers were harmed while preparing this for publication. Or so we’re told. Smoke On The Water — Nobody’s Perfect This may seem like a devilish ploy, but it’s one way to […]
The year was 1976, and on March 24 Sweet were playing a show in Santa Monica, California. It was just days after the death of Paul Kosoff, so they decided to pay him a tribute by performing a cover of Free’s All right now for the encore. Ritchie Blackmore was in the neighbourhood, and joined […]
This is straight from the desk of bizarre appearances in our trainspotting department. Some time over the past year, crooks posing as Ritchie Blackmore scammed an old lady in the UK out of £115,000. See the maestro himself appearing at around 12:40 expressing sympathy for the victim and vehemently denying his involvement because he doesn’t […]
Some great pictures by our readers from the recently concluded North American tour. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 27, 2024 Photo: Yoko Shimamoto: Photo: Robert Lio: Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, August 30, 2024 Photo: Yoko Shimamoto:
Johnnie Bolin, Tommy’s brother, has passed away on September 5, 2024. He was known as a musician in his own right (played drums for Black Oak Arkansas since the mid-1980s), and an enthusiastic supporter of keeping his brother’s memory alive. A funeral service will be held at 2:00pm Saturday, September 14, 2024, at the Sioux […]
Our reader David Black has collected some of the best on-stage Gillanisms from over the years, and here we present them to you with a little judicious editing from everyone involved. Oh, we’d love to be the flies on the wall of the train of Gillan’s thought. Knockin’ at Your Back Door — Knebworth 1985 […]
One of our most prolific commenters Uwe Hornung writes: I know, I know, we’re not a guitar player forum, but this here is real interesting. It shows how Blackmore created THAT otherworldly studio sound of the Highway Star solo by harmonizing it (and breaking traditional harmony rules in places as he did not properly discern […]
=1 reviewed by The Highway Star reader Mike Whiteley. After listening through my laptop speakers for a week, the CD/DVD arrived three days ago, now two full listens thru my stereo. Show Me – Pretty poor opener. The descending, repeated riff is almost as irksome as the one in Throw My Bones. Moog synth solo […]
After a few listens to the new album, I would call =1 an “almost” masterpiece. Review by The Highway Star reader Flavio Romoli. How much MKII and Blackmore do I hear in here? Not much, very little, McBride’s guitar riffs are different, the rhythms too, and the solos and other solutions are closer to Morse, […]
Our ever so vigilant trainspotting department presents you with news of science and technology. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in USA reports about their new telescope becoming operational after a successful launch into space on August 16, 2024 on board of the NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-R (PTD-R) satellite. The instrument is of a new design […]
A few live clips from Tinley Park, IL, to brighten your day. That’s some pretty decent quality audience recording. Highway Star: Lazy Sod: Space Truckin’: Smoke: Thanks to MusicJunkie422 for the videos and to Blabbermouth for the heads-up.
Straight for our trainspotting department, Louder Sound has a nostalgic piece dealing with the bad old times: Back when the UK still had weekly music magazines – iconic titles such as Kerrang!, NME, Melody Maker and Sounds – having rock stars visit the editorial offices to review singles by their peers was always an entertaining […]
The Highway Star reader Albania reviews =1 My first listen to the material from =1 was somewhat unusual/disjointed as it occurred incoherently in bits and pieces (at airports, in the car driving my kids to soccer matches, in the office, etc.). Thus, this review might seem a bit disorderly given the various mental notes at […]
Simon Zyla (Wieliczka, Poland) sends us this review of =1 Steve Morse is on this album I’ll make no secret of the fact that I’m ‘Steve’s baby’ and a fan – all my Deep Purple listening for over 30 years has been Morse on guitar. So I will always look for his distinctive sound in […]
The Highway Star reader Jameson Rock reviews =1 I’ll be brief: Deep Purple In Rock was the first album I ever bought, =1 is the album I’ve been waiting 50 years for. (Well, apart from the fade-out on Now You’re Talking!) I thought they’d find it hard to follow Whoosh! but =1 is just such […]
The Highway Star reader Roska Posti reviews =1 I became a Deep Purple fan in about 1997, and the two first current albums, Abandon and Bananas, blew me away. The problem was that while Rapture of the Deep is half-great, half-baked, those two left me waiting for them to follow up every time a new […]
The Highway Star reader Johnny ‘Andrea’ Blade reviews =1 The stylistic “novelty” of =1 is a return to the more classic Deep Purple sound, the result of a writing more focused on robust guitar riffs, a small dream for many fans of the band who for many years had hoped for a more direct and […]
The Highway Star reader Mike Nagoda reviews =1. Oh my freaking god… I haven’t felt this way about a Purple record since I heard Purpendicular, Steve Morse’s first outing with the band, which was released in ‘96, which I first heard over twenty years ago when I was in my twenties (I’m 38 now, in […]
The Highway Star reader Marcin Karski reviews =1 We have it in our hands, at last! The craved, the anticipated new Deep Purple album. And, boy, oh boy, what a joy it is, indeed. There’s a lot to cover on it, so let’s do it in a bit of an unusual way. What’s UGLY about […]
It’s nice to see a reaction and analysis video not focused on Deep Purple’s 70’s output, and even with extra focus on the newest member of the band. Guitar teacher Michael Palmisano takes a good look at Lazy Sod and suggests it’s a good thing for a guitar player to leave the bass player some […]
As Deep Purple’s =1 albums hits the racks – and the charts – all over the world, we’re curious how you feel about it. We already reviewed the album – now it’s your turn. Write your own review of =1. Send your reviews of =1 to albumreview@thehighwaystar.com for a chance of publication right here on […]
Courtesy of earMUSIC, The Highway Star is reviewing Deep Purple’s new album =1. As we are fast approaching the end of The Long Wait for its release on July 19, this segment looks at the album’s last two songs. Deep Purple’s first studio album with new guitarist Simon McBride is one highly anticipated piece of […]
Stereophile magazine laments the passing of physical media (exhibit A) and discusses the problems with the music streaming. Yep, there’s a connection. There are plenty of reasons to worry about this, even beyond the purely sentimental. Mostly it comes down to a loss of control. You control what you own—what’s on your shelf—but a favorite […]
The famed Los Angeles recording studio The Record Plant is closing down after 55 years in business. It has a Purple connection — Stormbringer was mixed there, together with some last minute recording additions. But that’s beside the point. The reasons for closure reflect the overall state of the music business today. Longtime studio engineer […]
Thanks to earMUSIC, The Highway Star is reviewing Deep Purple’s new album =1 to be released on July 19. This is the penultimate segment. Having lived with =1 for just over a month now, the initial trepidation has evaporated. All doubts have been replaced by a feeling of energetic elation and warm reassurance that all’s […]
Thanks to the fine folks at earMUSIC, The Highway Star is reviewing Deep Purple’s new album =1 in segments ahead of its July 19 release date. Since the first segment, the band has spoiled us with no less than three new songs in their live set; the single Portable Door, A Bit on the Side […]
Yet another reaction video. You will not find here neither a Juilliard level analysis, nor an opera singer’s insights, or “professional gushing”. What you will find is a self-described introvert with somewhat less than perfect grasp of English, discovering music that came out 30 (or maybe even 40) years before she was born. And the […]
The fine folks at earMUSIC have kindly allowed pre-release access to Deep Purple’s new album =1, so that we can tell you all about it here on The Highway Star. Starting now and continuing until the official release date July 19, Rasmus Heide will be reviewing the full album in two-track segments. As they say: […]
Louder Sound reprints an old Classic Rock feature on the formation of Mark 2, from Chris Curtis to Fireball. This was originally penned by late Pete Makowski for the Re-Machined: A Tribute To Deep Purple special issue. It all began when Chris Curtis, the former drummer/singer with Merseybeat band The Searchers, approached London businessman Tony […]
Reprint of an article from New Musical Express, June 26, 1971, on Deep Purple’s visit to Iceland and review of the gig, in which the author reveals that he has absolutely no clue what Aurora borealis actually is. But that’s beside the point. A trot round town revealed every record shop with its windows full […]
Tony Iommi made an appearance on SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk show on May 22, 2024, and was asked about the remix of Born Again. The master tapes for the album have been found nearly 3 years ago, yet we haven’t heard much of the progress. His answer didn’t shed much light on the matter either. Well, […]
We haven’t seen opera singers being properly awestruck by our boys doing their thing in a while on these pages, so here you go.
That awesome Italian tribute band Strange Kind of Women didn’t lose any time learning and rehearsing the freshly released single and performed it at their gig on May 4 in Graz, Austria. Speaking of covers that can put a smile on your face… The average age at a Deep Purple concert might not be exactly […]
Andy Wood talks about meeting Steve Morse and jamming with him at the Dixie Dregs gig in Nashville, TN, on April 18, 2024. In September, Steve will be a featured guest at the Woodshed Guitar Experience, hosted by Andy Wood. Thanks to SteveMorse.com for the heads-up.
Bristol 24/7 has a review of a new book The West’s Greatest Rock Shows 1963-1978, complete with the cover photo of Deep Purple Mark 3 on stage in all their bell-bottomed and platform-shoed glory, and excerpts covering reviews of several local gigs, including said Mark 3 at the Colston Hall in Bristol, on May 20, […]
A gentleman going by Mr. Zero has published in his blog a pretty detailed write-up of Tommy Bolin’s collaboration with Alphonse Mouzon on the latter’s album Mind Transplant. That recording, along with Tommy’s work with Billy Cobham, got him noticed by the big boys and an audition with Deep Purple a year later. > The […]
A series of cryptic messages appeared over the past few days on various social media accounts affiliated with the band. They revolve around a new handwritten logo and an elaborate math equation, which (if my calculus serves me right) equals to one. The timing and style of the said cryptic messages make some people to […]
Guitar Player reprints online an excerpt from a vintage interview with Ritchie Blackmore that was first published in the July/August 1973 issue of the magazine. Did you ever have lessons? I had classical lessons for a year. That helped, because I learned how to use my little finger. A lot of blues guitarists play with […]
Scottish newspaper The Courier has a historic account of a Deep Purple concert at the Caird Hall in Dundee on April 18, 1974. It is accompanied by some never before published pictures from the gig. These rare colour photographs document the night Deep Purple kicked off their UK tour in Dundee 50 years ago. They […]
An interview with Roger Glover, originally published in the issue of New Musical Express dated June 19, 1971. Roger very prophetically talks about retiring from the incessant touring in a couple of years to focus on the production work. As we all know, this is pretty much what actually happened, albeit for all the wrong […]
Louder Sound reprints a Classic Rock magazine interview with a card-carrying Purple fanatic Lars Ulrich. He reminisces about Jon Lord, his first time seeing Deep Purple, goes through Machine Head track-by-track, and recalls meeting various members of the band. The interview was apparently conducted around the time of the Re-Machined tribute album, and that was […]
The record company might insist it’s still Machine Head’s 50th anniversary, while David Coverdale reminds us that it is indeed one of the California Jam. One of the most memorable days of my amazing life… Everything was larger than life… a gauntlet of emotions from the moment we arrived by helicopter backstage… nerves about the […]
One of the more unusual members of the extended Purple family has passed away. The ‘rocking abbot’ Notker Wolf has died on April 2, 2024, at the age of 83. In 2008, he arranged for Deep Purple to play a gig in the picturesque abbey courtyard in Benediktbeuern, Germany, just south of Munich. His own […]
Back in 2008, Ultimate Guitar has published a 1975 vintage interview with Ian Gillan, conducted just before the release of Ian Gillan Band first album Child in Time. It is preceded by a long-winded explanation from the interviewer on how stupid he was in his younger years. On with the main course: Could someone find […]
Another Classic Rock reprint in Louder Sound — the awful year for Black Sabbath that was 1984. Demise of the Gillan-fronted lineup is very much included. When, during their debut UK show at the Reading Festival in August 1983, Sabbath encored with the old Purple warhorse Smoke On The Water, there was disbelief, then disdain, […]
Elizabeth the opera singer is swooning all over the excessively coiffeured and trench coated David Coverdale. And dancing Vikings. Cue the chorus of comment on how the old Whitesnake was so much better 😉
Louder Sound publishes a Perfect Strangers retrospective penned by Geoff Barton: Bangkok. Barcelona. Beijing. Berlin. Bedford?! Deep Purple have always been a contrary band but this is pushing contrariness to the limit. It’s October 1984 and I’m travelling in cackling PR Roland Hyams’s knackered old Saab 900 up the M1 to the markedly unremarkable capital […]
Black Country Communion played their first gig since 2018 on March 17, 2024, at the Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A couple of new songs from the upcoming BCC V album have been premiered there. Here’s one — Enlighten: And one from the olden days: There are more videos from this gig available.
Two more bootleg archives were dumped on YouTube by the band’s official channel. Both with the 1973 Mark 2 performances. The first one includes Münster, Halle Münsterland, January 23, 1973; a.k.a. Münster Master and Live in Germany Boston Music Hall, May 24, 1973; a.k.a. Boston ’73 and Play Für Elise Nagoya, Shi Kokaido Hall, June […]
Watch a drummer from a different style and different generation listen to Fireball for the first time and play through with his own parts. The drummer in question is Tosh Peterson, who is 22, have been a touring musician since he was 16, and played with a bunch of bands most of us never heard […]
Here’s Pete Makowski’s feature on Rainbow December’76 tour of Japan, originally published on January 29, 1977, in the Sounds. It is a rather long read, but well worth it. “RADIES AND GENTLEMEN PLESENTING: TONEE CALEE, DIMMY BAIN, COSEE POW, LONNIE DAMES DIO, LITCHIE BRACKMORE… LAINBOW!!!!!” (me first Nippon gig). The audience looked pretty ordinary until […]
Louder Sound reproduces another Classic Rock feature, this time on Claude Nobs. Funky Claude’s legacy includes not only being immortalized in that song about a gambling house burning down, but also being a prominent European promoter associated with many, many bands. To name a couple: The Rolling Stones were already too big to play the […]
Roger Glover shares his thoughts and memories: Among that burgeoning collection of people, Dave Hodgkinson was pivotal in organising and running THS, not alone but one of a hardy set of diehards who have remained faithful to this day, and for whom I will always be grateful. I felt proud because it was honestly run […]
David Hodgkinson, who has died aged 58, was a technologist, programmer, and software engineer. Quite possibly, he will be remembered more for his huge footprint in the online fan community for veteran British hard rockers Deep Purple. This is certainly the case for most readers of this obituary, published as it is on the website […]
Steve Morse writes in his website: Yesterday, February 4, at 2:40pm, I said my last goodbye to my beloved wife, Janine. We had been in a period of remission which lasted not nearly long enough. But luckily, I was able to spend virtually every day with her as she found workarounds to get through some […]
Perfect Strangers of Finland are holding their traditional annual gathering on Saturday, February 24th, 2024 at the On the Rocks club in Helsinki. There will be fun, music (no less than 3 Purple family tribute bands), food and drink. What: Purple Night 2024 When: Saturday, February 24th, 2024; doors at 19:00, showtime 19:30 Where: On […]
Bob Daisley was interviewed by the Rock Daydream Nation podcast about his days in Rainbow. Thanks to the Ultimate Guitar for the heads-up.
Here’s a documentary on the making of Who Do We Think We Are. It is a fan-made affair, but it is fairly well researched and lovingly put together. Cherry on top: it was done by a Led Zeppelin fan. Thanks to Uwe Hornung for bringing this to your attention.
Louder Sound reprints a Geoff Barton feature on the pre-1987 Whitesnake originally penned for the Classic Rock magazine. It’s March 9, 1978. The ritzy stage of the Scarborough Penthouse looks like something out of The Price Is Right: curtains made out of multi-coloured strips of aluminium foil drape over a modest backline of amplifiers, there’s […]
Elizabeth the opera singer is drooling all over Rainbow take on Mistreated from Munich’77.
We’ve written before about that great cover band from Italy called Strange Kind of Women. They continue gigging around the continent, and their upcoming tour is promoted as you see above. Now, this image is fed into some sort of the neural network (be it the one working on silicon or on regular meat and […]
BraveWords publishes a chapter from the 2008 Tommy Bolin biography by Greg Prato, called Touched by Magic. Quite possibly it is the same chapter that was released as a teaser at the time of publication, but it’s been 15 years, and it’s a chapter telling about Tommy joining Purple, so here we go. David Coverdale […]
Our contributor from Brazil Marcelo Soares writes: Legendary bossa nova composer Carlos Lyra has died today, December 16, 2023, at the age of 90. You may not be a bossa nova fan, but you definitely have heard of at least one of his songs, Maria Moita — the riff, originally written by Tom Jobim for […]
What makes a good cover of a song? There are covers that strive to be as close to the original as possible. Personally, I don’t find them that interesting. It’s basically an exercise in futility: why listen to a copy, even a good one, when the original is just a couple of clicks away, right? […]
Since the possibility of the current lineup doing Soldier of Fortune for all practical purposes is nil, here’s a take on the track from the good ol’ Cov. It’s a string ensemble version that was a bonus track on various editions of his Purple Album. Hook City Strings are: Ruth Lenz Olga Archdekin Luciana Gallo […]
Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke to Metal Mayhem ROC podcast and professed his love for Deep Purple: Lars and I love Deep Purple. I’ve always loved it; Ritchie Blackmore is one of my favorite guitar players. Ritchie Blackmore is also Lars’ favorite guitar player of all time. When I was 15 years old, and I […]
It was 30 years ago, on November 17, 1993, that Mark 2 played their final concert at the Jäähalli in Helsinki, Finland. Ritchie Blackmore went his own way, and the rest of the band decided to carry with a different guitar player. Both sides arguably turned out to be better off. Thanks to Matti for […]
Our contributor Gert Bak Pedersen has published a book about his collection of signed records with foreword by Ian Gillan. From the author: For many years I have tried to get my most important album covers signed by the musicians. Among them are numerous Deep Purple albums. The collection has now turned into a book […]
Lovely Elizabeth the opera singer is counting dead bugs on Tawny’s face while trying to figure out the difference between White Stripes and Whitesnake.
Glenn Hughes played in São Paulo, on November 11, 2023, in the course of his Marks 3&4 tour. Red-hot chili pepper Chad Smith happened to be in the neighbourhood and sat behind the kit for a couple of tunes. Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.
Norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir has included their take of Perfect Strangers on the upcoming album of covers Inspiratio Profanus, to be released on December 8 via Nuclear Blast Records. BraveWords has a quote from the band’s guitar player Silenoz: The idea of doing ‘Perfect Strangers’ came about quite a while before we actually […]
Lachy Doley, one of the most prominent Hammond players today, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance three shows in the United States in July 2024. The campaign is three quarters towards the goal, is ending on November 15, and needs just a little push to help it reach the objective. Go check it out. […]
A few months ago, we’ve posted an interview with Tony Carey. Here is a much, much longer version of that conversation that has surfaced on YT since then. Tony digs deeper into his Rainbow story, and talks at length on other aspects of his career and the state of music business in general. Yep, it’s […]
Don Airey and Cozy Powell promote the Down to Earth Rainbow tour on British telly: Thanks to Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow channel for posting the video and to Hein for bringing it to our attention.
Louder Sound reprints a feature from the Classic Rock magazine on Whitesnake’s 1979 Lovehunter album: Working at Clearwell Castle, the 18th-century estate in the Forest Of Dean where Purple had prepped for both Burn and Stormbringer, the band re-hired Purple’s producer of choice, Martin Birch, who had also overseen Trouble, to man the console of […]
SEIJIRO UDO R.I.P Sadly, one of the greatest promoters has passed on. Mr. Udo was not only a superb businessman but a deeply passionate advocate for music in Japan. He could always be counted on as a dignified and sincere presence in our lives. He and his remarkable team supported Deep Purple and many others […]
The legendary Japanese concert promoter Seijiro Udo, widely known as ‘Mr. Udo’, has passed away at the age of 92. He was responsible for bringing Deep Purple to Japan for that historic tour in August 1972, and every subsequent visit of the band to that country. His company UDO Artists issued the following statement: It […]
A vintage interview with Roger Glover, originally published in an issue of New Musical Express from February 12, 1972. He talks about Gillan’s illness that cancelled the US tour towards the end of the previous year, recording a new album in Switzerland, how it compares to Fireball, financials of the band, and the creative process: […]
Here’s a rendition of Highway Star like you’ve probably never heard before. Arranged for 4 acoustic guitars and played by the outfit known as 40 Fingers. Arrangement: Andrea Vittori The 40 Fingers are: Matteo Brenci – Emanuele Grafitti – Enrico Maria Milanesi – Andrea Vittori Thanks to Laughing Squid for the heads-up.
Rick Beato got his hands on a multitrack of Smoke on the Water and dissects it for his Youtube series What Makes This Song Great? Thanks to Hein B for the heads-up.
Alice Cooper released a new album called Road on August 25. Bob Ezrin produced the album (him and Alice go waaay back) and our own Roger Glover was a guest musician on the album, playing bass on one track Baby Please Don’t Go. This is not the first time Roger guests on Alices’s album. Thanks […]
Child in Time and Flight of the Rat are featured in the new action flick The Creator, released to theatres on September 29. Both can be heard on the car stereo while the protagonist (played by John David Washington) is driving the sufficiently retro pickup truck, escaping from the bad guys. Both tunes can only […]
Louder Sound profiles Warhorse’s self-titled debut album for their Album Of The Week series. In the summer of 1969, Deep Purple’s incoming vocalist Ian Gillan had a devastating caveat. “He made it very clear that he wasn’t joining without Roger [Glover],” then bassist Nick Simper said. “I was definitely peeved.” Reeling from this de facto […]
Bernie Marsden’s posthumous album Working Man will be released on November 24, 2023, on independent label Conquest Music. Recording of the album was finished in June. Throughout the summer, Bernie was involved in mixing, artwork, and planning for the release of the album. He approved the final audio masters and artwork before his death in […]
Joe Lynn Turner has announced the arrival of his newborn son: On this very special day, of our 12th wedding anniversary, there is nothing more sacred and bonding between my Wife and I, as this beautiful Angel that we named Matteo (which means gift from God)… Our sacred union is complete and our hearts are […]
Geir Myklebust reprints in his blog a heartfelt eulogy to Tommy Bolin penned by Geoff Barton for the December 11, 1976, issue of Sounds. HEARD ABOUT Tommy’s death last Sunday morning. The news hit hard and low. I hadn’t known him particularly well, but there was always — shall always be — a place for […]
A short interview with Jon Lord, focussing on his gear. It was originally published in Sounds issue from December 4, 1976: Synthesizers JON LORD has been playing electronic keyboards professionally for 12 years, starting with the Hammond C3, which is still a favourite instrument. But like most keyboard players, he has explored synthesisers as a […]
Glenn Hughes performed his Purple set on Friday, September 8, 2023, at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, California. He was joined on stage by local talent Joe Bonamassa and Chad Smith. Thanks to Brian James for the video clips and to Blabbermouth for the heads-up.
Cherry Red Records is releasing on November 24, 2023, a Glenn Hughes and Robin George collaboration album Overcome, originally recorded back in 1989. A chance meeting between Glenn Hughes and Robin George eventually resulted in an invitation for Glenn to sing backing vocals for Robin and Sean Harris’ Notorious album, which lead to a full […]
Over the course of the pandemic, Robert Fripp and his wife Toyah Willcox were entertaining themselves and their Youtube audience by recording covers of everything from Swan Lake to Smoke on the Water in their backyard. Guitar World has recently caught up with Fripp and interviewed him about this project (which is still going strong, […]
Joe Satriani was interviewed for Sonic Perspectives, and there were several purple-related questions — whether he was expecting a call from his former bandmates to replace Steve Morse, would it be more difficult to play Morse’s music as opposed to Blackmore’s, and if he is going to do an album or tour together with Glenn […]
This is highly unconfirmed, borderline on rumour, but we thought it’s worth mentioning on these pages. The Good Old Boys are having their very last concert tomorrow, August 31, 2023, at the Eel Pie Club in the London suburb of Twickenham. Nick Simper was their bass player for a long time, but left the band […]
Another sad day in the family — Bernie Marsden has passed away at the age of 72. His PR people released the following statement: On behalf of his family, it is with deep sadness we announce the death of Bernie Marsden. Bernie died peacefully on Thursday evening with his wife, Fran, and daughters, Charlotte and […]
A vintage review of a Rainbow gig at the New York’s Beacon Theater. It first appeared in Sounds magazine on July 24, 1976. Rainbow hit nirvana Blackmore´s Rainbow Beacon Theatre, New York Concert review by Peter Crescenti IT MAY be a few months before Blackmore’s Rainbow appears in Britain for the first time, but even […]
A historical interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Cozy Powell from the same issue of Sounds dated July 24, 1976. Blackmore swings the axe Peter Crescenti dodges the blows RITCHIE BLACKMORE harbours no love for rock ‘n’ roll journalists. As far as he’s concerned, most of them fall into two unflattering categories, those that are either […]
Another historical article, announcing the dissolution of Deep Purple Mark 4. It originally appeared in the issue of Sounds from July 24, 1976. Purple: the end By Hugh Fielder DEEP PURPLE is no more — officially. One of Britain’s longest running and most successful heavy rock bands have split up — as predicted exclusively in […]
Goldmine magazine has another one of those top-something lists (yep, we can hear the eyes rolling from all the way up in our editorial ivory towers). But it is a list on a topic rarely discussed outside the hardcore fan forums — it’s a top 20 of Morse era tracks, and it’s rather eloquently penned […]
Geir Myklebust posts on his blog a Rainbow Rising review by Geoff Barton that first appeared in the issue of Sounds from May 22, 1976: “WITH RAINBOW’S music I intend to carry on and expand upon the essence of Deep purple — aggressiveness — and at the same time add a kind of medieval feel […]
Ronnie Romero will release his first original solo album Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters on September 15 via Frontiers. His two previous offerings — Raised On Radio and Raised On Heavy Radio — were both cover albums. This new release features only original material, written by Romero in collaboration with drummer Andy C. and […]
There’s one member of the band that is truly irreplaceable. He has been in every lineup, on every record, and on every gig. His name is Ian Anderson Paice, and he was born on June 29, 1948. Which makes him 75 today. Happy birthday to The Boss!
David Coverdale was a guest on The SDR Show and spoke. A lot. The whole thing is almost an hour long, and (full disclosure) we didn’t have time to sit through it. But Blabbermouth has some quotes that sound promising: Well, there’s something we’ve got planned, obviously. It’s a very, very big year. I’ve got […]
Steve Morse shares in Guitar Player magazine his tips on how to improve one’s playing skills: You might think that master guitarist Steve Morse never gets in a rut with his playing. But guess what? He’s just like the rest of us in that regard. However, being that he’s Steve Morse, he’s figured out some […]
Tony Carey appeared on the VintageRock Podcast to talk about his experience of being in Rainbow. We explore the making of the iconic album ‘Rainbow Rising’ at Music Land Studios in Munich, while Tony gives us a rare glimpse into how the band created their unique sound and the culture within it. Tony goes on […]
Don Airey, the mainstay of the band for the last 20 years, is celebrating his 75th birthday on June 21, 2023. Many happy returns, sir!
Our contributor Tobias Janaschke writes: Hello from the Baltic ocean, I would like to take this opportunity to say a few open and appreciative words to/about Ian Gillan: This man (like the others) gives everything for this band and is the only one who cannot change his instrument — his voice. And he has no […]
In the latest installment of Question Time with DC (hat airs on Whitesnake TV), the aforementioned DC shares a story of how he traded autographs with Hollywood icon John Wayne (the Alamo, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo not included). There used to be a lovely dark bar at the Beverly Regent hotel called the El Padrino […]
A tree part documentary about the Montreux Jazz Festival, titled They All Came Out To Montreux, will air in the UK on BBC Four starting at 10:15 PM on June 16. The film was directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray. If you are interested in music documentaries, you might have seen his previous works Ronnie’s […]
Graham Bonnet appeared on the Vintage Rock Pod(cast), talking about his illustrious career, starting all the way from back in the 60s. Almost half of the conversation dealt with his days in Rainbow. That segment starts at about 7’15” into the podcast, however, we encourage you to listen to the whole 50+ minutes thing — […]
Two branches of the massively overgrown family tree came together in Pennsylvania on May 26. Reb Beach, last seen with Whitesnake, came on stage to jam with the Steve Morse Band on a blues standard. Smartphones were on hand. Thanks to jmh2112 for the video and to Blabbermouth for bringing it to your attention.
A local paper out of UK The Hunts Post reports that Don Airey is spearheading a campaign to save his local pub in Great Gransden, Cambridgeshire, as a live music venue. The pub used to host gigs regularly until 2018, when the new owners moved in. The business didn’t survive the pandemic. The current landlords […]
A Dutch TV documentary on the history of Love is All, with participation from Roger Glover, Eddie Hardin, Ronnie James Dio, Ray Fenwick, and the book author Alan Aldridge. Everything you wanted to know about the track that to everybody’s surprise charted in that part of the world, and then some. It looks like this […]
A cover of Roger Glover’s Love is All appears as a bonus track on the just released album Golden Age of Music from Arjen Lucassen’s (of the Ayreon fame) new project Supersonic Revolution. The album is available from the label.
Louder Sound reprints an article from the Classic Rock magazine on how Paicey landed a Paul McCartney gig thanks to his neighbour. If Ian Paice were ever trying to impress the person sitting next to him at a dinner party, he wouldn’t be short of illustrious tales and celebrated collaborators to draw upon. The Deep […]
Classical musician Amy Shafer (we’ve previously featured her take on Child in Time) listens to the Concerto for Group and Orchestra — well, the 3rd movement to be precise — and gives her analysis, praise, and critique of Jon’s opus. It is always interesting to see a fresh look on a familiar piece of music, […]
A heavily augmented remix of Rainbow take on Since You’ve Been Gone is used in the Volume 3 of the Guardians of the Galaxy fairy tale superhero franchise. Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the info.
Metal Edge magazine has an in depth retrospective interview with Geezer Butler, touching, among other things, on the various interactions of the Sabbath camp with various members of the Purple family. Here’s an excerpt covering Gillan’s stint with the band. What are your thoughts on the controversy surrounding the Born Again record? Butler: I have […]
Louder Sound publishes what appears to be a transcription of the Machine Head recording story as told in the Classic Albums series documentary by everyone involved. Deep Purple’s Fireball was the second album recorded with the Mark II line-up. It was another No.1 hit in the UK, but despite its success there was a nagging […]
Paul Mann, Bruce Dickinson & Co. are taking their Concerto performances to Brazil. The show is wrapped up with a set of Purple classics done with the orchestras. Here is Burn as performed on the opening night of the tour, on April 15 in São Paulo: The final show is tomorrow, April 25 in Porto […]
Doogie White reminiscences about his days in Rainbow: The full interview is over half an hour long and can be found as a podcast on podfollow. It covers the range of issues from the British class system to his current job in Alcatrazz and their new album Take No Prisoners (due out on May 19). […]
Metal Edge magazine has reprinted online a Ritchie Blackmore interview from February 1997. It goes from the heat of the moment to some timeless advice. What do you love most about the guitar? Blackmore: Its shape. The guitar for me, when I was about 11, I was very introverted and I wanted something to relate […]
This is from the recent brief tour of Steve Morse Band in February 2023. Good to see Steve in great spirits and in great form. This was recorded on February 27 at The Vogel in Red Bank, NJ. There’s more where this came from. Thanks to Barry Krumm for the video.
Paul Gilbert has an RJD tribute album coming out on April 7 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group. It is called simply The Dio Album and contains purely instrumental covers of tracks spanning Dio’s career in Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and solo. An instrumental tribute album dedicated to a vocalist is definitely an interesting concept. Here’s […]
Deep Purple performing on February 16, 2023, out at sea, on the deck of Rock Legends Cruise. Pretty good quality audience recording. Check out the ‘all hands on deck’ moment during Lazy: …It was a smooth sailing after that: Thanks to David Huras and Gunther Records Inside Tracks for the clips, and to Amit for […]
There was no official announcement, but judging by the social media posts (here and here), Deep Purple had a writing session in Nashville, slotted between the short US tour and the upcoming visit to the Far East. They are once again working with Bob Ezrin at the helm. Special thanks to Tobias Janaschke for reporting […]
Shout out to the fellow purple maniacs Nathan and John at The Deep Purple Podcast. They’ve started in 2019 and now are up to 200+ episodes. Each episode is about 2 hours of Purple-filled banter from the hardcore fans. The latest, #202 is dedicated to the recent shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with our […]
A branch of the family tree rarely explored — an interview with Shoshana Feinstein, a former Blackmore’s girlfriend, who sang background vocals on the first Rainbow album. Christopher: How and in what circumstance did you meet Ritchie Blackmore? Would you tell me when and where the story with him begins? Shoshana Feinstein: I met Richie […]
Another article from the New Musical Express issue from September 29, 1973. This one unveils the new Deep Purple lineup that became known as Mark III. Purple, introducing the… err… unknown Mr. Coverdale Tony Stewart at the unveiling of the new Deep Purple PURPLE RECORDS took the press down to Clearwell Castle on the Welsh-English […]
Deep Purple performing Caught in the Act medley and Hush on the Rock Legends Cruise that sailed from Florida last Monday, February 13, 2023: Thanks to MrRogerRocks2 for posting this and to Mike Whiteley for bringing it to your attention.
A vintage interview with a freshly purplerised (is that a word? it is now!) Glenn Hughes, that originally appeared in New Musical Express on September 29, 1973: He’s got one of the best voices in modern music and he is also an accomplished bass player – but what did he listen to himself when he […]
Technically, this has nothing to do with Deep Purple. Or everything to do, depending on how you look at it. There was a discussion some tome ago in our comments about the connection between music and math, and then this video came across our attention. In half an hour it explains the fundamental mathematical problem […]
Paul Mann was interviewed by a Hammond aficionado Nick Foley. In this lengthy chat, they’ve talked about his work with Jon Lord, the Concerto revival and continuing performances, speaking English in Romania, among many, many other things. We highly recommend listening to the whole thing (it is an hour and a quarter long). The man […]
Last Rainbow vocalist Ronnie Romero appeared on The Classic Rock Podcast talking about how did he find himself fronting the legendary band, the prospects of performing with Blackmore again (spoiler: not good), and his recent solo album Raised on Heavy Radio. Romero’s interview segment starts at around 11:16 into the podcast. Thanks to Tim Caple […]
Elizabeth introduces her Aussie colleague to the joys of stargazing. Que the happy giggles. Brush up on your staccatos and legatos for the technical analysis.
Deep Purple have resumed their merciless touring schedule in 2023 on February 10 with a gig in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here are a couple of clips from the show, to whet your appetite. Thanks to Philly Upstart for the videos; to Mike Whiteley and Orhun Yakin for bringing them to your attention.
A second instalment of the Trapeze reissues will be released on April 28, 2023, via Cherry Red Records. This box set will include Hot Wire (1974), Trapeze (1975), and Hold On (1979) albums, and three live recordings: Live At The Boar Club (September 13, 1975 in Nottingham, UK), Live At Arlington (September 12, 1976, Texas […]
For all the fans of lovely Elizabeth: watch her giggle her way through the masterpiece that, by our count, have spawned at least three heavy metal sub-genres, before lending the name to an obscure website. Thanks to Mike Whiteley for the heads-up.
Metallica has a new single out, and at one point Kirk Hammett directly quotes several bars of Blackmore’s solo from Speed King: The track is called Screaming Suicide and is credited to James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich & Robert Trujillo. It is from Metallica’s upcoming new album 72 Seasons due out on April 14 (coincidence?), 2023. […]
And here are two ex-Purple guitar players jamming together earlier this year, joined by Eric Gales on guitar, Kenny Aronoff on drums, Bryan Beller on bass, and Rai Thistlethwayte on keyboards: Thanks to Dreamcatcher Events for the video and to Orhun Yakin for bringing it to your attention.
Perfect Strangers of Finland are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club with a Purple Night event on February 3, 2023 at the On the Rocks bar in Helsinki. There will be food and drink, and of course, music — two tribute bands: a Whitesnake one and a Dio era Black Sabbath one. Both bands […]
A recent post on Something Else blog makes the case that the often overlooked Who Do We Think We Are? deserves at least another listen. The train of thought departs from: It’s often accepted without reservation that Deep Purple’s Machine Head is one of the essential entries in the hard-rock canon of the early 1970s. […]
Today’s news of Jeff Beck’s passing prompted us to chase down the rabbit hole for the possible family tree connections. Cozy Powell, of course, got his proverbial feet wet in the Jeff Beck Group. And Tommy Bolin played his last concert opening for Beck. The Bolin/Beck connection actually goes quite a bit deeper. It was […]
The Dead Daisies recap their most eventful year of 2022: Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
The official YouTube channel for the band has posted 50 live tracks from selected 1971/72 bootlegs. Those are tagged as a Live Archive 1972 Vol. 1 playlist and said archive includes: Dagenham 19/02/1972 Royal Albert Hall 04/10/1971 Wolverhampton 20/02/1972 San Bernardino 28/01/1972 New York 31/08/1972 West Palm Beach, Florida, 14/07/1972 Leeds 29/09/1972 Quebec City 06/04/1972 […]
More Concerto performances have been announced for March/April 2023, this time in the southeast of Europe. These slot nicely just before the Brazilian performances later in April. 15 March – Sala Palatului, Bucharest, ROMANIA 18 March – National Palace Of Culture, Sofia, BULGARIA 22 March – Sports Hall Mirza Delibasic, Sarajevo, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 24 March – […]
Deep Purple live at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland, USA, on January 15, 1976. This a slightly longer version of the video that has been floating before. Now with more drumming! Thanks to Paleo Aram for posting this and to Tobias Janaschke for bringing it to your attention.
Yahoo! Entertainment (of all places) has a short piece about Deep Purple’s appearance at the legendary Fillmore club in San Francisco in November 1968. The nascent British rock outfit had made their American album chart debut in September of that year with their first LP, Shades Of Deep Purple. The record had reached its peak […]
Ian Paice’s Drumtribe resumes (hopefully) regular programming after a touring break with a studio drum cam of Après Vous off Now What?! If anything, this made me even more appreciate Steve’s and Don’s rhythm work during the verses, usually masked away by the vocal line.
Cherry Red records in the UK (which apparently is now the home of Purple Records imprint) is releasing a 6CD Trapeze box set on February 24, 2023. The set consists of the first three Trapeze albums circa 1970-72, recorded for the Threshold label, a previously unreleased 1973 live set recorded in Dallas, Texas, along with […]
Our contributor Matthew Burbridge writes: There’s a new app called Moises which uses AI to extract the various instruments from a mix. It is great for musicians to create a backing tracking by removing for example the guitar or vocals. They used a similar thing to extract the different instruments on The Beatles’ Revolver which […]
Another pioneer of rock’n’roll bites the dust — Jerry Lee Lewis has passed away at the age of 87 “from natural causes”. A very young British guitarist by the name of Ritchie Blackmore got his feet wet in Jerry Lee’s British touring band in the early 1960s. Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
Another video promoting Joe Lynn Turner’s new solo album Belly of the Beast. This is for the track called Tortured Soul. Hmmm, with some imagination, this sounds like it could’ve been an outtake from Dio’s The Last in Line… Thanks to Mike Whiteley for the info.
There is a growing subgenre on YouTube — classical musicians reacting to rock tunes, and you might be familiar with examples of such presented on our pages. What distinguishes the Virgin Rock channel from the rest of the pack is that the first listen reaction is followed by a few days later by an in-depth […]
On October 17 Deep Purple played a gig in Milan, Italy. A fairly decent audience recording of the show has been posted for your viewing pleasure. Sure, Big Ian sounds quite rough for the first couple of tracks, but once you get past it… Enjoy! Thanks to Max Zarucchi for the video and Mike Whiteley […]
Doug the classical composer reacts to Rainbow’s Gates of Babylon. Could be particularly interesting for those of us who can tell thy harmonic majors from upper tetrachords. Thanks to Gary Halverson for the heads up.
Bernie Torme’s posthumous live album aptly named Final Fling will be released on November 25, 2022. It was recorded in December 2018 at the Barnroom Studios in Kent, England. Bernie passed away on March 17, 2019 after being hospitalized with virulent double pneumonia. “Wild West” was recorded by Bernie and his final trio lineup (featuring […]
Jens Johansson, the keyboard player for the last incarnation of Rainbow, spoke to Blabbermouth on the future prospects of the band: I don’t know. You never know. At the moment, of course, with the pandemic, everything went completely right down to zero, all activities. I think he’s back to doing some stuff with BLACKMORE’S NIGHT. […]
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new documentary about Ronnie James Dio out. Truly yours ventured to movie theater this past weekend (for the first time in umpteen years), and here are some of my thoughts. It is fairly well put together. David “Rock” Feinstein, Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, Wendy Dio, Lita Ford, Rob […]
Australian musician Stefan Hauk have previously appeared on these pages for his collaboration with Paicey. Stefan not only plays guitar and sings, but also does keyboards, drums, and bass. On top of that, he has the cojones to tackle Child in Time all on his own. Thanks to Jörg Planer for the heads up.
This gentleman going by the online moniker Börje Unchained definitely has an unchained imagination. He records instrumental covers of metal songs as if they were written and performed by another metal band. He went all out for Smoke and did it in no less than 6 different styles: Testament, Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Slipknot, and Tool. […]
As the saying goes: it’s not a tree, it’s a jungle. Several branches and vines of said jungle have intertwined on a new album by Ruffyunz. It is a project of bassist Randy Pratt (Cactus/The Lizards), engineer/producer with songwriting credits JZ Barrell, and session vocalist Ed Terry (Stevie Wonder, Slash, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Talking […]
In this new interview with Blabbermouth, Doug Aldrich talks about working with the diverse vocal talents of Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale and now Glenn Hughes — all members of the Purple family one way or another. Blabbermouth: What was the situation like when Glenn came down with COVID-19 and you had to enlist Dino […]
Ear Music has released a Deep Purple concert from Mumbai, India on April 8th, 1995. The show was professionally recorded for TV, and was released on VHS and DVD video around year 2000 – or Y2K as those of us who remember it might refer it as. The concert was later also released as part […]
The Dead Daisies have released another track from their upcoming album — Face Your Fear. The album, called Radiance, is going to be self-published and release date is set for September 30. Hmm, this riff somehow reminds me of 16th Century Greensleeves… Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
For many years the band’s sales numbers have been a mystery — the record industry types like to keep their cards very close to their chests. The total worldwide sales number of 100 to 120 million records had been banged around at some time, without any supporting evidence. An interesting article appeared on chartmasters.org in […]
Joe Lynn Turner’ s new album Belly of the Beast is coming out on October 28, 2022, via Mascot. The promo pictures for the release feature JLT au naturel, finally owning up to how he is: This chapter saw him make a crucial personal decision too. Diagnosed with alopecia at three-years-old, he began to wear […]
Elizabeth the opera singer discusses the importance of spit management and hand calluses in her analysis of Smoke from Hosftra’73. Thanks to Mike Whiteley and Bo Olsson for the heads up.
Elizabeth the opera singer (a.k.a. the lady who forgot about singing more than all of will ever know) analyses Gillan’s take on Gethsemane. I’m very familiar with this song and have seen it performed many times, but have never seen nor heard the original with none other than Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan! This is going […]
Darker than Blue reminds us that Made in Japan is turning 50 these days. Albeit the album was released later in the year, but the three historic performances that were recorded were held on August 15th, 16th. and 17th, 1972. We’ll drink to that. Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the heads up.
Online incarnation of the Classic Rock magazine has a writeup on that desperate time in Thin Lizzy history when they had to resort to recording covers anonymously to make the ends meet. An album called Funky Junction play a tribute to Deep Purple was the result. The band were desperate to do something that might […]
Ultimate Guitar has an editorial titled 8 Reasons Why Steve Morse Was the Perfect Deep Purple Guitarist. Of course, all of us (okay, okay, most of us) have known these reasons for decades. An era has ended this July, when Steve Morse announced his permanent departure from Deep Purple so that he could be by […]
Our man in Brazil Marcelo ‘no relation’ Soares writes: Brazilian talk show host Jô Soares died tonight, at 84. He did some fun interviews with Deep Purple in the 2003 and 2006 tours. He asked none of the questions we geeks would, but at the same time he put the boys at ease talking about […]
Guitar Player reprints online excerpts from an interview conducted with Tommy Bolin on October 7, 1976. It originally appeared in the March 1977 issue of the magazine. What did you learn from playing behind Albert King? I learned a lot about lead; learned that you don’t have to blow your cookies in the first bar. […]
Doug the classical composer expands his consciousness with side 2 of Machine Head (side 1 was here).
Premier Guitar has a tutorial on a subject rarely covered in such publications — Marsden/Moody era Whitesnake. Whitesnake’s self-titled album is a pinnacle of ’80s hard rock, instantly making them one of the biggest rock bands of the era. It was a departure from their previous six albums due to significant lineup changes. Both original […]
Ivory tinker extraordinaire Jordan Rudess talks about the heaviest keyboard riffs of all the time. Watch out for Jon’s entry, and it’s probably not what you think…
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Deep Purple tour of Japan, the one that produced the aptly named live album. Burrrn! magazine publisher Shinko Music is supporting a couple of events commemorating the occasion. Osaka September 11, 2022 venue: umeda TRAD Tokyo November 5, 2022 venue: EX THEATER ROPPONGI Tokyo event will […]
Ever wondered what happened to the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio? Well, as this 2016 CBC report attests, it ended up in a museum in Calgary, Canada. And yes, Machine Head is featured prominently.
As the reality of the end of an era continues to sink in, let us recall selected moments from the ocean of awesomeness that is Steve Morse’s body of work with Deep Purple.
Bernie Marsden is releasing another album in his Inspirations series, following up on last year’s Kings and Chess. This one is called Trios and is a tribute (mostly) to power trios of the 1960s and 70s. The album us due out on August 5 via Conquest Music, and can be pre-ordered via this link. Tracklist: […]
Vocal teacher Ken Tramplin did a Who Did It Better? series of videos comparing different singers who were in the same band at different times. Here is the episode on Ian Gillan vs. David Coverdale vs. Glenn Hughes (Rod Evans didn’t make the cut for some reason). There are some keen insights interspersed between his […]
Today, July 16th, marks 10 years since dear Jon is no longer with is. Here’s something-something for you to raise a glass in his memory. Back in 2003 he arrived to Australia to endulge his classical side, but could not play the piano due to an injury. Fortunately, he could still play the Hammond (we […]
An online lifestyle magazine thrillist has profiled a certain Swiss town with a rich history connected to arts and music — from Lord Byron and Stravinski to Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury. And it starts with a story of Frank Zappa and The Mothers being at the best place around, with a few instances of […]
The founding member of Nazareth guitarist Manuel “Manny” Charlton has passed away at the age of 80. Roger Glover writes: Very sad to hear that Nazareth’s guitarist, Manny Charlton, has died. I last met him about five years ago in Spain after losing touch for many years, and it was a lovely reunion. Nazareth played […]
A stripped down acoustic cover of When a Blind Man Cries is included on a new live release from Metallica. It is an EP with recording of their performance at the MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on May 12, 2014. It also includes Rare Earth’s I Just Want to […]
Louder Sound has a feature on Stormbringer written by Geoff Barton. It actually may or may not be a reprint of something that previously appeared on one of the Classic Rock magazines — it sounds vaguely familiar, but we are not sure. Inspired and fired up by the injection of fresh blood and the success […]
Couple reaction type videos on this slow news day. Classical composer Doug was so impressed by Child in Time that he digs right into the whole of Machine Head. Here is side 1: Meanwhile, lovely Elizabeth the opera singer continues fangirling about Ronnie James Dio with her take on Sabbath’ Children of the Sea: Thanks […]
Another member of the family tree — Ray Fenwick — has passed away on April 30, 2022. He was guitar player with the Ian Gillan Band and also participated in Jon Lord’s Windows project. Since it would be Jon’s 81st birthday today, we celebrate both with an excerpt from the latter. Jon Lord — organ […]
In this 2010 vintage interview with Banger TV Jon Lord talks about conflating Johann Sebastian with Jerry Lee:
A pretty nicely put together documentary on the history of Rainbow. It is stitched together from both contemporary interviews from the people involved (and some not at all), and retrospectives from Graham Bonnet, Richard the Difficult Misunderstood, Joe Lyn Turner, Bobby Rondinelli, and Dougie White. Thanks to THE STREAM for the video, and to gmk […]
Ken Kelly, the artist responsible for the iconic Rainbow Rising cover, has passed away at the age of 76. He also had created many other album covers, most notably for Kiss and Manowar, as well as artworks depicting fantasy, and sword and sorcery heroes. A number of musicians responded to the news, including His Blackness […]
Our long time regular Marcelo Soares writes: One of my greatest moments ever as a fan was to see Jon play the Concert in São Paulo in 2009, in an open air gig in the most famous corner of Brazil. This weekend the festival will happen again, with lots of musicians playing around the clock, […]
The first single Radiance from the new yet so far nameless Dead Daisies album that is due in August 2022. Thanks to BraveWords for the info.
A few more clips of the ad-hoc Purple lineup performing, this time, in Istanbul on May 25, 2022. Thanks to Pavel 9988 for the clips.
[Updated] Eager to see how does the band sound after yet another hiatus, and with a new guitar player? You've come to the right place. Live in Israel, May 22, 2022. (watch inside)
Whitesnake legend Bernie Marsden hosted a special evening at Coles Book Shop in Bicester, England on Thursday, May 12, to celebrate the vinyl release of his recent albums of blues standards Kings and Chess. Meanwhile in America, his former bandmate promotes yet another remix and remaster of Greatest Hits with a remastered video of the […]
Ronnie James Dio passed away on May 16, 2010. Louder Sound is reprinting the tribute article that first appeared in Classic Rock magazine #147, June 2010. Music was central to his life from an early age. Although he never received any formal vocal training, as a child he mastered French horn and trumpet, to which […]
The charismatic Elizabeth digs into Perfect Strangers off the infamous ’93 Birmingham gig. I have been absolutely enthralled by Ian Gillan’s vocal prowess, and Richie Blackmore’s captivating guitar solos. So here we are with the next of your most recommended Deep Purple songs, this time without a solo for me to interrupt with a pause… […]
Another prolific musician professes his love for Deep Purple, and this time it’s Steve Vai. In his interview to My Planet Rocks he said: Well, when I was a kid, I was a huge Deep Purple fan. I was so bummed when Ritchie Blackmore left the band, when those guys left and they weren’t in […]
Joe Satriani gave an extended interview to Vintage Rock, where he explained how Deep Purple influenced his latest album called The Elephants Of Mars: You do have these cinematic qualities in your music where certain visuals and shapes must be popping into your head when you’re writing and playing. Yeah, it is important. As I […]
Here’s a track not covered too often — Rat Bat Blue, performed by Dario Mollo and the Space-T. Space-T are: Andy Senis – Bass Fabio Meggetto – Keys Andrea Biancheri – Vocals Alessio Benedetto – Drums Dario Mollo – Guitar Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
A track from the upcoming Michael Schenker Group album Universal is intended as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio, in particular to his performance on Rainbow Rising. The track is called A King Has Gone and features Helloween frontman Michael Kiske on vocals, and two of the Rainbow alumni — Bobby Rondinelli and Bob Daisley […]
A classical composer follows the footsteps of the opera singer and gives Child in Time a spin. Came for a guitar solo, left with the jaw dropped from vocals. And the drumming. And the organ. And let’s not forget da fundament. Thanks to Jim Collins for the heads up.
Mike Portnoy was a guest on The Prog Report podcast recently, where he spoke about the albums turning 50 in 2022. There’s some tremendous stuff from 72. Possibly two of the greatest prog albums of all time. That being said, Deep Purple’s ‘Machine Head’ is surely one of the greatest hard rock, early prototype metal […]
On this slow news day the mailman brought us a couple of semi-interesting tidbits for the trainspotting department. In a recent interview, Hollywood star Jim Carrey professes his love for Deep Purple and recommends Lazy off Machine Head in particular as “one of the great, great jams ever”. Far Out magazine has a short feature […]
An interview with Jon Lord, published at a critical point in Purple history. It first appeared in New Musical Express on March 17, 1973 — weeks after the release of Made in Japan and Who Do We Thing We Are, yet mere weeks before Mark 2 imploded. One can not help but wonder, did he […]
BraveWords reports that The Dead Daisies have been in a Los Angeles studio working on the follow-up to 2021’s Holy Ground with producer Ben Grosse. The new album is slated for release in August, with first single out some time in late May.
Another installment in the Live From Daisyland series. It’s a track called Long Way to Go that was written before Glenn’s time with the band, and originally appeared on The Daisies’ 2016 album Make Some Noise. This version was recorded on November 7, 2021, at the Rock City in Nottingham, England. Thanks to Blabbermouth for […]
Louder Sound has a story of how a cover of Since You Been Gone became the first ever Top 10 hit for Rainbow. Russ Ballard admits he got his recording of Since You’ve Been Gone all wrong, bur Rainbow gave the song a tough exterior and sent it up the charts Having quit the band […]
News from the branch of the family tree rarely visited on these pages. In the early 1980s Gary Driscoll and Craig Gruber (of Elf and the first Rainbow album fame) were in a band called Bible Black. Their album The Complete Recordings 1981-1983 will be released on April 14 via the freshly inaugurated Louder Than […]
Mansion Global reports that a stately country house in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, once owned by Jon Lord is up for sale. The Burntwood Hall has an eponymous track dedicated to it on Jon’s ’82 Before I Forget album. Today, Kate and Ian Gethin are the owners of the home. They paid a little over £5 million […]
In this video tutorial one can learn how to play the Smoke riff with literally zero prior music experience. Which is the majority of people on this planet. Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
The Dominus Orchestra (we’ve introduced them last month) is hosting a release party for their live album A concert tribute to Paice Ashton Lord’s – Malice in wonderland. The party will be held in a suburb of Athens on April 30, 2022. Drop by for some fun and frolic if you’re in the neighbourhood. Who: […]
Almost 20 years ago to this day, in March 2002, Deep Purple played a show at the Meteor Hall in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro), Ukraine. These were the vegetarian times by todays standards… Thanks to Matt’s Bootlegs for posting this and to Tobias for bringing it to your attention.
[Updated March 2] Remember the petition to install a plaque honouring Ritchie Blackmore? Well, it succeeded:
Hi Everybody, Yesterday, I viewed a plaque dedicated to Ritchie at his place of birth in Weston super Mare. I inspired the writing and the owners kindly sponsored a large metal plaque and placed it on the outside of the building for all to see. We will have a full unveiling on Ritchie's birthday in April. Thanks again for your support
Deep Purple managed to play one show on board of the rock cruise before it went sideways. Here’s a clip from it with a rising rendition of Perfect Strangers Meanwhile still at sea but on a different boat, Whitesnake men Joel Hoekstra and Dino Jelusik entertain the crowd semi-acoustically: We were just about to label […]
Dominus Orchestra is a project that is a tribute to all things Jon Lord. It is a brainchild of a Greek musician Panos Politis, who plays the Hammond, piano, and other keyboards, and makes the arrangements. Their latest release is a live tribute to Paice Ashton Lord‘s Malice In Wonderland, recorded in Athens on December […]
Here is a small collection of various odds and ends that accumulated in our mailbox over the past few weeks. They might be of interest, but probably each of them don’t warrant a separate post. A German band called Santiano has been spotted recycling props from the inFinite photo shoot: And now for something completely […]
Yet another cover of Smoke, this time swinging jazz style. Description claims it to be a ‘1920s cover’. We’re no experts in intricacies of early jazz, but to our editorial ears this sounds more like 1940s. Anyways, enjoy! Robyn Adele Anderson — Vocals Oscar Williams — Piano Kim Hawkey — Banjo Tom Jorgensen — Drums […]
In this 1987 interview George Harrison talks about the first time he saw Deep Purple in concert and jammed with them. Which happened on December 13, 1984, in Sydney, Australia. The said jam: Thanks to Randy Nichols for the heads up.
It’s not that we can quote a preeminent scientific publication in every news item here on THS, but today’s the day. An article in Communications Biology, a Nature family journal, enticingly entitled Miniaturization during a Silurian environmental crisis generated the modern brittle star body plan deals with 420+ million years old fossils of modern starfish […]
Produce Like A Pro youtube channel has posted their technical analysis of Smoke on the Water, including demonstration of different ways to play the riff. The video digs pretty deep into pre-history of the song, starting all the way back from 1967 Chris Curtis’ Roundabout concept, so the more enlightened and less patient of us […]
A fascinating article from the April 17, 1976, issue of Sounds. They’ve sent one of their journalists to be embedded, as we might say now, with the crew of one established band and the crew of an upcoming one. The established band happened to be Deep Purple Mark 4 playing a couple of gigs at […]
Roger Glover writes: I hope 2022 brings better times and I hang on to the chance of seeing you again and saying, “Hi, good to see you”. Head over to RGs official website to read “Let’s Call It A Year“
Tired of consuming whatever unhealthy foods you consume this time of the year and mindless small talk? Here’s another form of mindless entertainment for you — two dudes (one of whom you might have heard of) discuss Purple’s latest album (spoiler: both are not satisfied with track selection) and imagine how they’d like this to […]
Greek site Rockpages has interviewed Bernie Marsden on the occasion of his recent release Chess. The extended and rather interesting conversation invariably turned onto his days with PAL and Whitesnake: Rockpages.gr: I was reading the Classic Rock magazine lately with an interview of yours where you said that the best album you’ve ever made was […]
Tony Iommi was interviewed recently by Eddie Trunk. The interview appeared in his Sirius XM show and later was posted as a podcast. Amid promoting Iommi’s latest venture (which is a fragrance of all things), the conversation turned onto Born Again. ‘Born Again,’ we talked about in the past, you always said you wanted to […]
Another bit of history appearing in the venerable Music History for Those Who Are Able to Read blog. It is an article from Sounds magazine, originally published on April 17, 1976. The article is an overview of several hard rock bands that were “new” at the day, with Rainbow among them. Ritchie Blackmore`s Rainbow Ritchie […]
British tabloid Daily Mail has published a curious document — it is a price list, dated January 1969, from a London-based booking agent to hire various bands to play a function at The Queen’s College in Oxford. The most expensive band on the list is Fleetwood Mac at £500 a night, which the paper claims […]
What if Deep Purple were a Delta Blues band… Thanks to Justin Johnson for this little gem, and to Hein B. for bringing it to your attention.
Blackmore’s admiration for ABBA is well documented. Now it turns out that the feeling was sort of mutual. Total Guitar has a curious interview with Swedish session man Janne Schaffer, who recorded on 50 of the 98 tracks released by the band in their heyday. What were the most guitar-heavy tracks you recorded with ABBA? […]
Here is a roundup of Turning to Crime reviews from the web that passed through our mailbag over the past couple of weeks. Patch.com: Deep Purple’s new, vibrant covers disc, “Turning to Crime,” is a raucous, exhilarating effort, the latest achievement from a classic, timeless, and seemingly ageless band. Deep Purple make the songs their […]
One of our contributors has sent in his review of Turning to Crime. First off, let me get this out of the way. Was I excited up front to find this album did turn out to be a covers album as the rumors suggested? NO! On the contrary. Nobody was (Especially me). Who would look […]
Glenn Hughes got himself new favourite bass guitars — he is now playing instruments from a British company called Ashdown. Two models in particular caught his attention: The Low Rider and a P-style The Arc (pictured above). He first spotted these basses at the 2020 NAMM, and they made their live debut at the Dead […]
On November 26 the professional Purple tribute band Purpendicular played a gig at La Traverse in Cléon, France. Paicey once again joined them on drums, and the lineup featured another Purple family veteran — Neil Murray on bass. The setlist, quite understandably for the occasion, included several Whitesnake numbers: Highway Star Walking in the Shadow […]
Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra was performed in Győr, Hungary, on November 5, by a local orchestra with Paul Mann conducting, Bruce Dickinson singing, and Roger Glover blessing the even with his playing. The evening also included a set of Purple classics (with an occasional Beethoven tune thrown in). The Concerto itself: Perfect […]
Steve Morse will be once again a guest star at the Rock’n’Roll Fantasy Camp held on January 6-9, 2022, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL (caveat: camp website insists that the venue is in Deerfield Beach some 20 miles to the North). Other guest stars include Dave Mustaine of Megadeath, […]
A new album by The Temperance Movement called Covers & Rarities is a collection of songs both original and covers if the bands that influenced them. It opens with their take on You Fool No One featuring Ian Paice himself. Track Listing: You Fool No One (feat. Ian Paice) (Deep Purple cover) Up In The […]
We’ve announced earlier this year a cover of Sail Away done by an Austrian trio Restless Bones with Don Airey adding the Hammond magic touch from his home. The video is now available on Youtube. Thanks to Sam Schlagenhaufen (whom you can see on the drums above) for the info.
Steve Morse has been spotted among the musicians on the first solo album of violin player and a fellow Kansas alumnus Robby Steinhardt (albeit they never were in the band at the same time). The album is naturally called Not in Kansas Anymore and is touted as a prog opera. This Steinhardt’s solo outing also […]
A contemporary report from deep in the bowels of a certain Grand Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland. This was originally published in January 1, 1972, issue of New Musical Express. Charlie Chaplin would approve Richard Green, mixing with the Rothschilds, reports from the bizarre home-made studios in Switzerland where Purple are cutting their new album, `Machine […]
Far Out magazine just published an opinion piece on the much maligned Velvet Underground album Squeeze. Yep, the one featuring the one and only Ian Paice on the drums. There’s not a whole lot on how exactly Paicey came into the picture, but more on how the album itself fits into the VU legacy. Reed’s […]
Roger Glover, Bruce Dickinson, et al. tout the upcoming performance of Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra in Hungary.
A vintage interview with Ian Gillan, originally printed in the December 26, 1970, issue of the New Musical Express. Snob groups make Ian purple with rage By Richard Green It becomes a bit strong when groups get so selective in their attitude towards work that they cut their dates down to one or two a […]
Couple of upcoming release from the family tree people. Bernie Marsden is releasing a solo album called Chess. I will be a second album in his Inspiration Series, which is a collection of tributes to the artists that helped inspire and shape his own style and taste. The first release in the series, Kings, came […]
While the rest of us are pondering whether an album of covers will taint reputation of the band, Elizabeth the opera singer digs into the shadow vowels and intricacies of glottis control.
Another vintage article about Deep Purple, which originally appeared in the New Musical Express on December 12, 1970. It is based on interviews with the two Ians and tells the story of troublemakers in Germany, Aston, Gardner, Dyke and Lieber, Big Ian’s involvement with the Jesus Christ Superstar, and work on the upcoming album that […]
[Updated Oct 3] Regardless of whether the yesterdays rumours about the new album turn out to be true or not, we thought it would be fun to play through the songs listed there.
In case you’ve forgotten it, we repeat it once again — one simply can not “delete” something from ’em ol’ interwebs. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. Case in point: apparently the track listing for Deep Purple’s new album went down some sort of trade database, probably with the notice not to publish it […]
[Updated Sep 23] Geir Myklebust specifically for the audience of our site reprints in his blog the questionnaires that members of Deep Purple Mark 2 have answered back in 1970. These originally appeared in the November 21, 1970 edition of the New Musical Express.
A vintage interview with Ian Gillan by Allan McDougall originally published in the New Musical Express on November 7, 1970. This was taken at the Olympia in Paris, where the band had played on November 1. Roger is a fantastic bass player. I talked to Ian Gillan about Roger and he agreed. “Yeah, he doesn’t […]
Rolling Stone magazine is on a family tree streak with an in-depth profile of Neil Murray for their Unknown Legends series. Was the cover of Lovehunter created to cause controversy? It’s pretty out there. I guess to an extent. But it was really more of a management idea than anything to do with the band. […]
Various members of the band said in the interviews that all thing permitting they would like to go to the studio some time this summer. Check. There have been a conspicuous silence from the band’s camp in the recent weeks/months. Check. Someone has leaked today the collage you see above. Check. The turningtocrime.com domain has […]
Take a heavy rock song and turn into a lullaby? We could totally see how this could be done to Temple of the King, but Stargazer, Heaven and Hell, or The Last in Line? Surely not. Until someone did… There’s also a fascinating thread on Reddit on how these are done: […] Music software makes […]
Another Rainbow related interview in the Rolling Stone’s Unknown Legends series — this time it’s an in-depth conversation with Bob Daisley, covering his career from a 3 year old listening to his parents’ Frank Sinatra records to the present day and pretty much everything in between. And that’s a lot of everything. Bob has stories […]
Rock And Roll Garage has a collection of quotes from various interviews Blackmore gave over the years talking about the other guitar players in Deep Purple. I think they’ve done very well. Of course, Joe (Satriani) is a brilliant player. But I think he did the right thing by leaving only after two weeks [laughs]. […]
The record company has posted a spotify playlist ostensibly curated by the members of the band themselves. And while some tracks are pretty obvious as to who contributed them (cough, Elvis, cough, Allman Brothers, cough, Buddy Rich, cough, Dave Brubeck, cough) otherс can raise an eyebrow. Discuss! 😉 Ice Cold Daydream – Freedom Flight – […]
Elizabeth the opera singer dives into the Purple pool (heeding our suggestion, perhaps?). She goes straight for the deep end with her analysis of Child in Time from the 1970 Granada TV performance and comes up suitably impressed by everyone involved. Thanks to Mike Whiteley for the heads up.
There are covers, and then there are rip-offs. Under normal circumstances the following would fall into the former category, however credits accompanying the video put it squarely into the latter: Song : Aisa Zakhm Diya Hai Music : Anu Malik No mention of the co-authors. Were there any? Let’s see… Yup, this appears to be […]
The Ultimate Guitar has a nice writeup on why Paicey is one of the best drummers of all time. Inspired the Blast Beat Technique Ian Paice is not thought of as a technical drummer, but in fact, his skills were incredibly impressive at the pique of his career. His drum parts have inspired countless drummers […]
Lots of people seemed to like what Sons of Apollo did with the Gates of Babylon. On the last tour before the proverbial excrement hit the proverbial fan, they regularly used to do a cover of Burn. Tony MacAlpine was supporting them, so he was joining to jam on this one. The only downside seemed […]
In a recent interview with News-in-24 Tony Iommi mentioned that the multitrack tapes for Born Again, which for a long time were considered lost, have apparently been found: […] I’m also thinking of remixing the album “Born Again”, the one with Ian Gillan, now that we have found the original tapes. Thanks to BraveWords for […]
There is a petition going on the change.org for Weston-super-Mare Town Council to honour Ritchie Blackmore with a memorial plaque. Ritchie, of course, was born in Weston, at the Allendale Nursing Home, on April 14, 1945. At the time of this writing, the petition has 900 signatures with the next immediate goal being 1,000. You […]
A cover of Rainbow Gates of Babylon done by a neoclassical metal band Lost Symphony with guest musicians, including Dave Abbruzzese (of Pearl Jam fame) on drums. Fun fact: despite Abbruzzese being in PJ in their heyday and recording two multi-platinum albums with them (Vs., 1993, and Vitalogy, 1994), he was snubbed when the band […]
Our favourite opera singer continues fangirling over Ronnie James Dio with her analysis of Rainbow’s Gates of Babylon. Bonus: how her descent down the rabbit hole started a few month prior — Heaven and Hell from RJD Sabbath tenure: Thanks to The Charismatic Voice for both videos.
This review of a Deep Purple performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on May 25, 1970 had originally appeared in the New Musical Express on May 30 that year: WHEN Jimi Hendrix broke up his Experience and went back to America, a huge gap was left in Britain. On-stage excitement was hard to […]
Glenn Hughes, Tony Iommi, Carmine and Vinny Appice, and many, many others will be taking part in a virtual Ronnie James Dio birthday bash on July 10, 2021. This global livestream fundraising event is organized by the Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund and hosted by Rolling Live Studios. It will start at 2PM Pacific […]
This collection of little ditties is presented to your by our semi-irregular Weird Covers column. It is available through Apple Music and probably some other digital vendors. The evil demon sitting on my shoulder is whispering that this is just a bunch of midi files plunked off them old interwebs and rendered in appropriate style. […]
Austrian band Restless Bones is about to release their second album Captured By The Roots, which includes nine original compositions, plus a cover of Sail Away with none other but Don Airey blessing it with a Hammond solo. The track will also be featured as a single and is available for pre-order. Restless Bones are: […]
Something that you don’t hear every day — a recording of Ritchie Blackmore guesting on Jackie Lynton’s gig in Fulham, London, on March 10, 1987. The description says it’s a full concert, it is not. But it has all the important (for us) bits, the ones where Ritchie is playing. Nothing really new here as […]
Here’s a blast from the past: Ian Paice and Roger Glover promoting the soon to be released House of Blue Light on British TV. Thanks to STERF EN BEDERF for posting the video above and to Yvonne for bringing it to your attention.
Break on Through is the title of a short film about rock climbing for which Tommy Bolin together with his early band Energy wrote and recorded quite a Mahavishnuesque soundtrack. One can clearly see here why just a year later Billy Cobham tapped Bolin to step into John McLaughlin’s shoes, so to speak. Filmmaker Bob […]
Music History for Those Who Are Able to Read has a new addition — a reprint of a contemporary review of the original Concerto performance that appeared in October 4, 1969, issue of the New Musical Express. “The gulf remains wide and unabridged.” “Pop and classics just don’t mix… so the pop group had its […]
There is a new Deep Purple tribute album out, and it is by a bunch of bands most of us never heard of. It was put together by an outfit called Glory or Death Records that is described as “California underground heavy rock and metal specialists”. The album is called Bow to Your Masters Volume […]
A review of the Hallelujah single originally published in New Musical Express on August 2, 1969, was posted by Geir Myklebust in his blog Music History for Those Who Are Able to Read. Due to the brevity of the review, we take the liberty of reproducing it here in full. This is a review of […]
This behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of WhoCares single back in 2011 was published a couple of years ago, but somehow have completely slipped under our radar. Until now. Thanks to Christina Rowatt for the video and to Gary Poronovich for bringing it to your attention.
Rolling Stone magazine has series called Unknown Legends where they interview “[…] veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public.” David Rosenthal was the latest guest on this feature column. Tell me how […]
Watch this if you enjoy knowing how the sausage is made. A genuine bona fide opera singer is reacting to Stargazer, dissecting the greatness of Ronnie James Dio, and in the process discovering for herself that little phenomena called Ritchie Blackmore. Now, somebody needs to show this girl Gillan in full flight circa 1969 and […]
Here’s Whitesnake performing on a German TV Show called Plattenküche at Cologne’s WDR Studios, filmed on February 19, 1979, and broadcasted on March 13 same year. Thanks to Snakehead1964 for posting this and to Yvonne for bringing these young snakes to your attention.
Bruce Dickinson was a guest on BBC’s Rock Show with Johnnie Walker on Saturday, April 3, during their regular Rock God segment. His pick is Ian Gillan: So there I was as a young spotty teenager and there was this noise coming through somebody’s door, and I opened it, and I… ‘What on earth is […]
This review by Peter Creascenti of Deep Purple Mark 4 gigs at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City in January 1976 has originally appeared in Sounds on February 14, 1976. DEEP PURPLE is a band beset by severe internal problems, problems that are now affecting their live performances and may ultimately destroy […]
The firecracking antics at the California Jam were to the great amusement of a great many people, and to not-so-great amusement of the local authorities. Here is a reproduction of a letter sent by the City of Ontario Fire Chief to the ABC Entertainment in the aftermath of the event (click to enlarge). Thanks to […]
This is the Blackmore’s interview that he gave in September 1993 to a Swedish show called Metal Magazinet. You may have heard bits and pieces from it over the years, but here it looks like it is in its entirety and unedited. That’s the one from which the sensationalist clip of Ritchie going to beat […]
Many a fan who got the chance to meet members of our favourite band made a remark to the extent of how nice and down to earth gentlemen they turned out to be. Here is a story of a lad from Edinburgh who through his work connections to Gillan’s manager Phil Banfield ended up in […]
There are people on youtube with thousands of dollars worth of rig. And then there’s this dude. Thanks to Blackwood Richmore for bringing it to your attention.
Remember that first time when you’ve heard Child in Time and it left you speechless? Here is one of ’em reaction videos, and while the girls are about as coherent as could be expected from giggling teenagers, their sheer youthful exuberance is kind of endearing. Bonus: getting goosebumps to Stargazer
A year ago, on March 14, 2020, Deep Purple played in Mexico City what turned out to be their last concert before the world has shut down. Jordan Rudess stood in for Don Airey at that gig, and here he reminisces about it (he puts the date on March 13, but our records show otherwise), […]
An interesting interview with Don Airey, dug up from the mu:zines depth and breadth. This was done around Ozzy’s Bark at the Moon time and originally published in February 1984 issue of Electronics & Music Maker. The interview will be of a particular interest for vintage synthesizer aficionados (you know who you are). Don also […]
Another Jon Lord interview from the mu:zines archives. This one is from 1983, originally published in the May issue of Music UK magazine. Once again, this is a pro music magazine, and much of the discussion revolves around equipment and technique. When Jon mentioned that he was still able to take his Hammond out on […]
Digging deeper into mu:zines archives, there’s this interview with Jon Lord from the time of Before I Forget, published in August 1982 issue of Electronics & Music Maker. On the album ‘Where Are You’ it seems to have a Debussy type ending. Jon Well, again, he is a composer that I used to play quite […]
Dutch fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Thomas Zwijsen does covers of classic rock tracks for his Youtube channel, and his latest is a cover of Smoke on the Water. Smoke has never sounded more acoustic than this. Previously on the same channel, Soldier of Fortune: Thanks to BraveWords for the info.
Blabbermouth reports that David Coverdale was on the Eddie Trunk show on February 18th, and spoke about a possible reissue of the Coverdale/Page album. He said that he obtained the rights to the album from the record company (Geffen, now owned by the Universal Music Group behemoth) and is in discussions with his co-conspirator about […]
Blackmore’s Night has a promo video for the title track of their upcoming album Nature’s Light: Couple of observations, if we may… First, the track sounds eerily similar to another track from one of their earlier albums. Second, with each release there’s less Blackmore and more Night in Blackmore’s Night.
Here is a Ronnie James Dio interview from 1981, where he talks about his current band (Black Sabbath) and the previous one (you might have heard about them — Rainbow). The recording is from the collection of Sabbath keyboard player Geoff Nicholls, who passed away in 2017. It was posted by someone dealing with his […]
Another Purple cover from the 11 year old Japanese drum prodigy Yoyoka Thanks to Gary H. for the info.
Another TMZ moment involving another two Rainbow vocalists. For a number of years, Joe Lynn Turner was the singer in the Sunstorm project, a brainchild of Frontier Records president Serafino Perugino. Since 2006 they have released five albums with JLT on vocals, however in December he announced on Facebook that he is leaving the project, […]
A vintage interview with our ever so thoughtful Roger Glover, originally published in New Musical Express on October 14, 1972. Roger talks about some side project with Big Ian he’s working on (wonder what had happened to it), the impending release of Made in Japan, and wonders why the British press and radio do not […]
Saxon is putting out an album of covers called Inspirations. Here they cover the bands that influenced them in the early years, from The Beatles, to Motörhead, and everything in between. One of the tracks (and a newly released single for the album) is Speed King. Bill Byford explains: Without ‘Speed King’ there would be […]
Music Radar celebrates Ritchie Blackmore’s legacy with 5 of his songs guitarists need to hear that aren’t Smoke on the Water. And even perhaps each of us would list 5 different ones, it’s not the worst way to entertain yourselves during a holiday lockdown (like it is in this heck of the woods). Best of […]
Another article originally published in New Musical Express on July 8, 1972. This one is by Tony Norman and based around an interview with Jon Lord that must have been taken, according to the description, during the day on July 1. The question discussed appears to be the rumours of the imminent split of the […]
This has nothing to do with Purple whatsoever (apart from the fact that one of them also plays bass), but may or may not put a smile on your face. It did on mine. Cheers! Beats the latest offer from the Minstrel Hall, eh? Thanks to CharlesBerthoud for this gem and to Amit for bringing […]
Geir Myklebust continues posting vintage Purple articles with a review of a gig at the Rainbow Astoria in London originally published by New Musical Express on July 8, 1972. The gig in question then would be one of the two concerts the band gave there on June 30 and July 1. Deep Purple had just […]
A wonderfully weird and eccentric cover of Perfect Strangers from our favourite Finnish hillbillies Steve’n’Seagulls. Thanks to Yvonne for bringing this to your attention.
RG posted a new message on his website: The Christmas season is perpetually tied to the turning of the year, and have little to do with each other other than proximity. But the greetings of the season will always instruct us to have both a “Merry Christmas” (or holiday) and a “Happy New Year”. My […]
One Peter Carter, who was a professional musician since the 60s, tells the stories of how he crossed paths way back then with a virtuoso guitar player called Ritchie Blackmore. By the by, that Czardas tune he refers to is probably a violin piece by Italian composer Vittorio Monti based on the traditional Hungarian folk […]
Jon Lord’s press conference on September 13, 2003 outside of the Hell train station in Norway, prior to his performance at the Hell Blues Festival, and at the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim the next day. Some of you may have seen it (some may have been there), others not. Later that day at the Hell […]
There’s been a bit of a soap opera going on the the family tree, particularly in its Rainbow branch. We’ve reported earlier this year that Graham Bonnet teamed up with the original Alcatrazz bassist Gary Shea and keyboard player Jimmy Waldo for the band reunion. An album of new material came out in July, and […]
In case you have nothing better to do over the holidays, why not sit down and read a fictional story about Vladimir Nabokov encountering a certain band in Montreux in 1971. Nabokov vs Deep Purple is written by one Mark Rudolph, in a genre self described as a post postmodern humor. The story is written […]
Classic Rock has one of them “greatest ever” lists, and this time it’s 50 greatest live albums ever. Made in Japan tops their ranking: Deep Purple were at their peak, having released the career-defining Machine Head just months before. On Made In Japan they straddled a fine line between intense and indulgent, the four sides […]
Happy birthday to our favourite bass player! Besides playing bass in a band most of us might have heard of, Roger is a man of many talents — he is a songwriter, producer, an artist, photographer, father, grandfather, and most importantly — just a wonderful human being. Cheers to the next three quarters!
There is a petition on change.org in support of preserving Malcolm Arnold’s archives, which are apparently slated to be destroyed by a court order: Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) was one of the most important British composers of classical music in the 20th century. From 1979 to 1986 he was in the care of the Court […]
Geir Myklebust has a new old article reprinted in his blog — a New Musical Express feature on (then) upcoming Fireball that was originally published on March 27, 1971. Deep Purple – commercial without compromise By Richard Green FOR Deep Purple fans the end of an era is approaching. After late April or May, familiar […]
Adrian Smith, one half of the classic Iron Maiden’s signature twin guitars, is doing interviews promoting a book of memoirs about his other passion — fishing (with a good measure of musical anecdotage thrown in). He recently guested on Blue Fish Radio to discuss the book and his career. Here’s how he describes that crucial […]
My Things – Music history for those who are able to read is a music blog dedicated to reprinting articles from old music magazines and papers from the past 50 years or so. And there are quite a few Purple related ones. Take, for example, this report in Sounds, dated March 13, 1976 — from […]
The title says it all. Nothing particularly on-topic, just to make the rest of your weekend a little bit brighter, hopefully. Best watched full screen, at least the second time around. Big thanks to Ithaca Studio for this gem, and to Vladimir Drybushchak for bringing it to your attention.
Joe Bonamassa recently appeared on Guitar magazine live podcast showing several axes from his collection. Among them was the American Flag Les Paul that once belonged to Tommy Bolin. It’s my job not only as a collector, but as a player to keep the legacy going, and make this guitar make music again. It’d been […]
Eddie Van Halen passed away on Tuesday, October 6, from complications due to cancer. Ritchie Blackmore paid tribute to the fellow guitar wizard: Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant guitarist who started a technique of guitar playing which was emulated by a whole generation of guitarists. He was one of the nicest musicians I ever […]
Metal For Kids! United is a charity project that raises money is support of Peter Pan Association, a voluntary association helping children with cancer and their families since 1994 through free hospitality in Rome, Italy, during treatment at Child Jesus Hospital. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual benefit show has been cancelled and instead […]
The Music Legends magazine has put out in September a Deep Purple special. The writeup would probably be nothing new to any THS regular, and it’s riddled with wrong dates (California Jam ostensibly took place in 1971, and Gillan was arguing with Blackmore on their US tour of 1974). It is also far from coherent […]
Trouser Press was a music magazine published in New York during the late 70s to early 80s. Their entire magazine archive is now available online, and issue 30 from July 1978 has a very interesting interview with Ritchie Blackmore. Where, for once, he is serious for the most part, and provides his thoughts at the […]
Six String Salute was a virtual concert held on September 17 to support all the crew members who found themselves out of their jobs due to the pandemic. One of the numbers featured there was a “progressive arrangement” of Stormbringer done by Joel Hoekstra on guitar, Dino Jelusić (Animal Drive, Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on vocals, Virgil […]
David Stone talks to the Metal Express Radio about his current projects, his career, and of course, his stint with Rainbow: Not long after the [Symphonic Slam] album was released you had joined Rainbow. How did you get the call to join Rainbow? I was still signed to A&M Records and was still involved with […]
A German band called Baroque in Blue lists Jon Lord Tribute among their projects. Their repertoire consists of Purple staples with some Whitesnake and rarities from Jon’s solo output thrown in. The Jon Lord Tribute Project are: Hans Peter Herkenhöhner – Hammond B3, keyboards Karen Fälker-Herkenhöhner – flute Holger Strässer – guitar Wendel Biskup – […]
If you thought the au naturel cover of Child in Time was fun, check out this one. As one of the youtubers has put it Wanted to see them in Uppsala summer of 1258, but I couldn’t find a spot to moor my longboat. Damn ! The band is called Stary Olsa, they are from […]
Roger Glover shows his artsy side in this early 80s vintage TV interview. Thanks to Yvonne for the info.
Ian Gillan answers to Loudwire‘s Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction. This was published 3 years ago, but somehow slipped under our radar all that time. Big Ian not as much as providing rebuttals, as goes on a tangent telling anecdotes from his career.
Speaking of Planet Rock, they also have a collection of semi-random factoids titled 42 facts about Deep Purple’s album covers — that’s two for each studio album. As we all know, 42 is also the answer to the ultimate questions of life, the universe, and everything. To top it off, truly yours website gets a […]
John Coletta’s granddaughter reacts to Smoke on the Water. Thanks to Boswell’s Johnson for the info.
And just to brighten your day, here is a guitar shredding cover of Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming by Damian Salazar. Thanks to Blackwood Richmore for the tip.
This is all highly theoretical now, but nevertheless… Now that the new album has been out for a month, everybody had a chance to listen to it and make up their minds, but impressions are still fresh. What tracks from Whoosh would you like to hear live when the band resumes touring? You can choose […]
This is from our trainspotting department. September 6 stage of Tour de France was won by a gentleman whose jersey was adorned by a logo that reads WHOOSH. Turns out the winner rides for Team Emirates which is sponsored this season by eponymous piece of spyware fitness app. No relation to the recent Deep Purple […]
An objet d’art called Musicians’ Bench was spotted in Russian city of Pskov. Sharp eyes quickly recognized that music notation on the bench is not random, but represents the opening chords of nothing else but Smoke on the Water. The bench is installed in a recently reconstructed Square of the Arts and is the work […]
Somebody went into all the trouble of artificially colourizing the complete Copenhagen 1972 video and the result is now available on youtube. Thanks to tireli1971 for the video and to Jim Collins for bringing it to your attention.
Now, who would have thought that mighty Child in Time would sound just as majestic in an acoustic (well, almost) treatment. Here it is, in all its glory, complete with a Mick Box-esque electric guitar solo. Performed by Akoustik Rock Trio from Germany. Akoustik Rock Trio are: Katja – vocals Daniel – guitar, vocals Erik […]
Michael Schenker will release a new album under the MSG moniker in January 2021 via Nuclear Blast records. It will be called Immortal and feature several members of the extended Purple family. Ronnie Romero will be the principal vocalist on the album, along with Joe Lynn Turner, Michael Voss (Mad Max), and Ralf Scheepers (Primal […]
Not many of even the die hard fans know that Roger Glover actually has a beautiful singing voice (quite understandably, because he uses it in public so rarely). Here is an example from all the way back in 1966. It is an unreleased demo acetate of him singing his own song called Afterwards. Thanks to […]
Latest track from Australian bluesman Stefan Hauk features two guest musicians — our own Ian Paice on the drums and Lachy Doley on Hammond organ. Stefan Hauk – Guitar & Vocals Lachy Doley – Hammond Organ Damien Steele Scott – Bass Ian Paice – Drums Thanks to andreas leutgeb for the info.
There is a tribute album to Deep Purple out in Brazil. The shtick is that all the covers are done by metal bands with female vocalists. And apparently Brazil has quite a few of them. Some of these can be rather interesting, as long as you don’t expect faithful reproductions of the originals. Revengin – […]
The late Derek Lawrence discusses his relationship with Tony Edwards and John Coletta in the early days of the band and why the band got signed to two different record companies at the time. Thanks to deeppurpleos for the video.
Graham Bonnet spoke to the Antihero Magazine, promoting a new Alcatrazz album — their first studio offering since 1986. The conversation also ventured into the Rainbow theme. ANTIHERO: I read quite some time ago that you said hard rock music wasn’t something that came naturally to you as a vocalist. Graham Bonnet: Yeah. ANTIHERO: Here […]
Ace Frehley of Kiss fame is releasing an album of covers Origins Vol. 2 and is promoting it with a teaser of his take on Space Trucking’. View this post on Instagram 🚀🚛🧐 [link in bio] A post shared by Ace Frehley (@acefrehleyofficial) on Jul 23, 2020 at 7:11am PDT The full version of the […]
Radio Caroline, which started as a pirate radio broadcasting from the international waters in the North Sea back in 1964, and these days is streaming worldwide over the internet, has added the latest Deep Purple single Nothing at all to their playlist. The station has also been recently spotted streaming Ghost Story by the “tremendous” […]
Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert were special guests of Ernie Ball stand at the NAMM earlier this year. We had previously posted a couple of tracks from their performance, but there was another one. And it is a spectacular jam over a tune that was written and recorded in the bad old days, but only […]
There is a terrific cover band out in Italy which also happens to be an all-girl band. They are fittingly called Strange Kind of Women. Ian Paice did a guest gig with them in March 2019 and now is giving them a shoutout on his DrumTribe channel: Strange Kind of Women are: Alteria – vocals […]
Deep Purple tribute band Demon’s Eye played live on June 19, 2020 at the Lÿz in Siegen. The whole show was streamed on Youtube and Facebook and in case you missed it, here’s the recording: Besides recording two albums with own songs featuring Doogie White on vocals, the band also performed with Jon Lord in […]
GasTank was a short lived in the early 80s show on British TV hosted by Rick Wakeman and Tony Ashton. Musicians were invited to be interviewed and jam with the house band. When Paicey got on the show, Resurrection Shuffle just had to be performed. Many thanks to Rick Wakeman’s Youtube channel for the videos.
Behind every band is a hard working crew. And Deep Purple’s one is quite a few steps above the average. The band trusts them to have everything set up so perfectly that they rarely do the soundcheck themselves. Unfortunately, the current global pandemic means there is no touring and no touring means many in the […]
Louder Sound (née Classic Rock) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of In Rock by reprinting in fresh electrons a feature that first appeared in issue 83 of the magazine on the occasion of the album’s 35th. Heavy rock, hard rock, pomp rock, space rock, heavy metal – they’re all genres that today’s average music fan […]
RG gives some insights on songs he likes to listen to: So, I thought I’d share some of the music and songs that interest me, plucked from my collection, sorry, database. Head over to RGs website for the first part of “Hear Here“.
Skoots Lyndon, a long time Steve Morse’s guitar tech, who worked with him in both Deep Purple and Dixie Dregs, has passed away. Steve wrote yesterday, June 1, 2020: Just found out that our beloved Skoots Lyndon has died. He just did the last Dixie Dregs tour and worked many years with DP and as […]
Behind the scenes video from the Infinite writing sessions. The band is working out a tune that eventually became one of the gems on that album. Special thanks to Ian Paice Drumtribe.
May 16th marks the 10th anniversary of passing of Ronnie James Dio. The latest Rainbow singer Ronnie Romero pays tribute to the legend with a cover of Rainbow Eyes: By the way, that’s Romero’s Lords of Black bandmate Tony Hernando on guitar. Apparently, they are “putting the band back together”. Thanks to Blabbermouth for the […]
Here is Ian Gillan performing in front of an unspoiledly enthusiastic crowd of Soviet Armenia in 1990. That was his first visit to the country, and as we all know, not the last one. Thanks to Mediamax for the video and to Ara Tadevosyan for bringing it to your attention.
Roger Glover posted a text about the death of Little Richard To me, the twin towers of rock, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, are gone, but their legacy will be felt for eons. Head over to the RG official website to read “Little Richard R.I.P.“
Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, has passed away from cancer at the age of 87. He was one of the pioneers of Rock’n’Roll music and his influence on many subsequent rock musicians, including our own boys, can not be underestimated. Rest in peace, Little Richard. Thanks to Rolling Stone for the info […]
As many European governments have now banned mass gatherings until at least the end of August, the whole summer tour schedule is now in jeopardy. Hellfest, Graspop, Clam Live, and Lovely Days festivals are now officially cancelled, with a whole bunch of others (we predict) to follow in the coming days. Worse, there are indications […]
Ritchie Blackmore had his own ‘Mr.Grover, Mr.Gillian’ moment yesterday when a German newspaper decided to publish a birthday note for somebody famous. So they’ve probably consulted a celebrity gossip calendar and pulled up a stock photo of a guitar player from Deep Purple to accompany the blurb that came down the wire. This was the […]
One of the cheapest and easiest ways to protect yourself from the coronavirus is to wash your hands with soap, do it often, and do it thoroughly. Thoroughly means rubbing every nook and cranny of your hands for at least 20 seconds. A good way to measure the time is to sing a verse of […]
A fairly comprehensive documentary of the history of Deep Purple Marks 1 and 2 has been put together by the Music Legends Magazine. It is a step above the slew of similar talking head documentaries from a few years back as this one actually interviews Nick Simper (and he tells the story of him being […]
Michael Schenker is on the cover of the current (#18) issue of the Rock Candy Magazine. In the cover story interview, he spoke about his abortive collaboration with David Coverdale. Back in the early ’80s when I had the Michael Schenker Group my manager at the time, Peter Mensch, believed we needed a new singer […]
Don Airey is interviewed in the latest issue (01/2020) of Sweden Rock Magazine. On Jon’s gear: As soon as I joined [Deep Purple] officially, I started using my own gear. In the beginning I toured with the band because Jon was ill. I used Jon’s equipment then and realised it wasn’t in good shape. Everything […]
German city of Bonn is celebrating the 250th birthday of their son Ludwig van Beethoven in 2020. In the occasion, gallerist Peter Wierny has initiated a tribute project with national and international artists contributing objets d’art and memorabilia. Roger Glover has contributed a painting (see above). When Ian Paice played in Bonn last November, he […]
This is a rather unusual cover even by our standards. Child in Time performed on a church organ at the funeral of German actor and Deep Purple fan Jan Fedder, who succumbed to cancer on December 30, 2019, aged 64. To the wider audience outside Germany Jan might be known for his role of Petty […]
Welcome to the new installment of our semi-irregular trainspotting column. It’s been a while, eh? Netflix soap opera The Crown is based on the real events from the life of the British royal family during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Season 3 episode 6 (wait for it) deals with the investiture of Prince Charles […]
Sadly, gone are the days when Roger graciously provided us with the studio updates on the progress of a new album. These days we have to resort to rumours and second hand info. On November 2, 2019, Chameleon Studios Hamburg posted this picture to their Facebook feed: The chap on the left is mixing engineer […]
There are several old-ish features on Louder (online successor to the Classic Rock Magazine), done by Geoff Barton and published over the past few years. February 2015 saw a series of profiles on individual band members that were published in anticipation of the R’n’R Hall of Fame induction. Unlike the HoF people, Geoff knows his […]
And we’ll leave you to contemplate your Sol Invictus with this little gem from Finnish hillbillies Steve’n’Seagulls: Thanks to Yvonne for bringing this to your attention.
A picture of the band from what appears to be a photo session for the new album has popped up a couple of days ago on the Instagram of a German photographer Ben Wolf. Ladies and gentlemen, behold the band embracing the Elwood Blues aesthetics. The way we look together presents a uniform image of […]
In The Studio with Redbeard celebrated the 35th anniversary of Deep Purple reunion and release of Perfect Strangers by repackaging some contemporary interviews with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
The Deep Purple Art and History Exhibition that was held in Spring 2018 in Cologne, Germany, came to a conclusion of sorts. The exhibition netted 1500 euros, and while Roger Glover was in the neighbourhood recently, these proceeds were donated to charities. On Roger’s suggestion a children cancer initiative and a homeless initiative in Cologne […]
An outfit called Sonicbond Publishing has a new-ish book in their ‘every album, every song’ series — Deep Purple & Rainbow 1968–1979 – Every album, every song. It came out in June 2019, but slipped completely under our radar. Now there’s even a Czech language edition available. An Amazon review by Short person (yeah, right) […]
A Cozy Powell biography is being prepared for publication by Wymer. It is called Dance With The Devil – The Cozy Powell Story and is scheduled for March 20, 2020. The book is authored by Laura Shenton, who has a Masters degree in “Music Since 1900” from Liverpool Hope University. What: Dance With The Devil […]
Concerto for Group and Orchestra got a rare North American performance yesterday, November 21, at Palais Montcalm in Québec City. Paul Mann was on hand to conduct l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, with Paul DesLauriers Band, and Bruce Dickinson handling the vocals. Concerto was followed by Sarabande and Bouré, and a set of Deep Purple covers […]
The Ultimate Guitar has quotes from an interview with Michael Schenker, in which he explains why he refused to join Deep Purple, Ozzy, Thin Lizzy, and Motorhead (spoiler: he didn’t want to end up in somebody else’s band). I didn’t go with Deep Purple, I didn’t go with Ozzy Osbourne, I didn’t go with Phil […]
On September 27, 2019 earMusic will continue the series of Jon Lord vinyl re-releases with “Windows”, an album featuring a cooperation between Jon Lord and conductor and composer Eberhard Schoener. Schoener, who was also involved in progressive rock masterpieces like “The Turn of a Friendly Card” by The Alan Parsons Project may also be known […]
Back in 1969, the lineup of DEEP PURPLE had seen a drastic change: Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice split up with singer Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper and hired the former EPISODE SIX musicians Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to complete the lineup. One of the first shows to feature the […]
CBC has an opinion piece about the multitude of connections between heavy metal and classical music, with our heroes getting a name check. It opens with a collage of Vivaldi peeking over Roger Glover’s shoulder and proceeds with Take Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, for example. A self-professed classical music fan, many of his works in […]
Razzle Dazzle, from Ian Gillan’s Contractual Obligation #1. Not my favourite track off Bananas, but good to see it being pulled out of a dusty closet for a live appearance. Thanks to BraveWords for the info.
Music Radar has an interview with Opeth guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, in which he discusses top 10 guitar players that blew his mind. His #1? Ritchie Blackmore, of course. This has to start with him. Ritchie Blackmore is my hero, but not just for his guitar playing. His persona fascinates me. I love his audacity to […]
Ian Gillan & Co were guests at a talk show in Brazil back in 2006. And what do Brits and Brazilians talk about — football, of course! And shoes. And silly hats. Thanks to Yvonne for the info.
Last Saturday, August 3, Mexican rhythmic gymnastics team won gold medals at the Pan American Games 2019 in Lima, Peru. Thanks to Marcel Vinicius for the info.
…Or so he says himself: I'm Alright Now by Mickey Lee Soule This new track, which truly yours finds hauntingly mesmerizing, is from the family veteran Mickey Lee Soule. It was recorded with Michael P. Starmer on drums and The Royal Sympathetik Orchestra, and released a couple of days ago on his website under ‘name […]
Deep Purple’s Hush and Kentucky Woman are featured in a new Quentin Tarantino’s movie Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood that opens stateside tomorrow, July 26. Both will also be included on the soundtrack album. “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood” visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo […]
Back in 2016 Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi toured together under the Generation Axe moniker. According to Steve Vai: The idea was to create a seamless show with one backing band and 5 completely accomplished and astonishing guitarists that take to the stage in various configurations, performing some of […]
A 2002 vintage interview with Roger Glover and Steve Morse has been posted to Youtube. The interview was taken before the show on the joint tour with Dio and Scorpions in Concord, California, by a dude who calls himself Metal Matt, but looks like he just stepped out of a Bee Gees video 😉 Thanks […]
A Didi Zill retrospective exhibition is on display at the Rockmuseum Munich, which is located in the Olympiapark Tower (Olympiaturm). The exhibition will be open throughout the summer until August 30, and Deep Purple are, of course, featured prominently. Admission to the Rockmuseum is included with the tower admission itself. The museum has peculiar hours, […]
Graham Bonnet spoke to Australia’s Heavy Magazine promoting his upcoming short tour down there. He mentioned that he will be marking the 40th anniversary of Down to Earth by performing the whole album live: We’re actually going to play the whole ‘Down To Earth’ album that I did with RAINBOW that’s never been done before, […]
A 1987 vingage interview with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover was posted on Youtube. Ian and Roger are in the UK promoting Accidentally on Purpose, mixing Nobody’s Perfect, and generally having a ton of fun. Thanks to Deep Purple Theatre for the clip and to Yvonne for bringing it to your attention.
When DEEP PURPLE disbanded in 1976, Jon Lord and Ian Paice decided to start a new band, not trying to recreate what they already had with DEEP PURPLE but to explore new musical directions. As frontman they recruited singer and keyboard player Tony Ashton. Jon Lord had already collaborated with Tony Ashton composing the soundtrack […]
A couple of updates to our semi-irregular trainspotting department. A bombastic Smoke on the Water rendition is used in the soundtrack for a new Hellboy monster flick trailer: And here is Bill Murray’s character trying to break cultural barriers with bewildered Afghan villagers in a 2015 movie Rock the Kasbah: And just to remind you […]
David Coverdale is selling his Lake Tahoe house, and it looks exactly the Valhalla of decadence that you expect a Coverdale’s house to be. Gated on “secluded acreage”, 9,035 sq.ft. (840 m2), 4 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, indoor pool, private grotto, media room, heated driveway, etc, etc. It’s yours for $9,850,000. Thanks to Ultimate Classic Rock […]
Over the years we’ve featured many weird and not so weird products that were called Deep Purple — from beer, wine, and coffee, to exotic flowers and restaurants. Couple of years ago a cannabis oil popped up on the horizon, we decided to skip it because back then it wasn’t exactly legal yet in this […]
Yngwie Malmsteen’s new album Blue Lightning, due for release on March 29 via Mascot Records, contains two Deep Purple covers — Demon’s Eye and Smoke on the Water. Plus a cover of Paint it Black, which may or may not be closer to Purple’s version than to the original. The album is said to pay […]
Back in 2016 Toronto Sun run a story about a legendary, uhm, entertainer that some 30-odd years earlier fascinated both Canadian lumberjacks and a certain British rock star. Western Canada in the early 1980s was a lot like Western Canada now, burdened with a sputtering economy and a lot of long faces to go with […]
A great piece of history — an ’85 interview with the band (sans the obvious) after a record store signing session in Houston, Texas, during the US leg of the reunion tour. Thanks to deeppurpleos for the video.
And then there is this piece from British Pathé highlighting circa 1967 vintage hipsters. Look out for familiar faces! Thanks to Yvonne for the info.
[Update: Dec 29] We have it on good authority that the mentioned below Deep Purple gig in Finland on July 27 is not happening. So, we’re back to “for the first time in many, many years we do not have any Deep Purple dates either confirmed or leaked” situation. We were just about to post […]
Las Vegas TV channel KSNV has a flashback news report about a riot that ensued on April 27, 1973, when Deep Purple did not take the stage at the LV Convention Center. The report itself was published in 2015 on the occasion of Fleetwod Mac being in town, who were also on the bill for […]
On Friday, January 11 2019, the “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” will be perfomed in Kaiserslautern by the Orchester des Pfalztheaters Kaiserslautern together with the band Vanden Plas. The complete program will be: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ouvertüre zu „Don Giovanni“ Sergei Rachmaninow Paganini-Variationen op. 43 Jon Lord Concerto for Group and Orchestra Event details
Suddenly, here we are, looking back on the year – a busy one indeed. Read the complete “A December Thank You” on Roger Glover’s official website.
While performing for two nights in Moscow, Glenn Hughes was interviewed by TASS (now, there’s an agency that is an oxymoron). He claimed that the current band tried to stop him from performing the “Classic Deep Purple Live” tour. The Deep Purple you know of with Gillan, Glover and Paice are very upset with me […]
EU General Court made a ruling yesterday, October 4, 2018, in the legal dispute between Blackmore and Paice over the ‘Deep Purple’ trademark. In April 2013 Blackmore applied to register the trademark in EU to cover musical recordings, clothing, and entertainment services. Apparently the name of the band was (and still is) unregistered. Should the […]
British tabloid Daily Mail reports that the mansion once owned by Ian Gillan (before being sold, converted to a hotel, which closed down in 2014) is now standing abandoned and in quite a derelict shape. This is the same mansion that Gillan put a guitar shaped pool in, as covered in his autobiography. This would […]
Hush (or, rather the glorious thirty seconds of it) is being used in the promo trailer soundtrack for a new Hollywood flick Bad Times at the El Royale. The film is due for theater release on October 3. Thanks to Tracy Heyder for the info.
One of the most dedicated fans of the band — Axel Dauer — has passed away this Sunday morning, August 19, at a hospital in Saarland, Germany. He was 56. He suffered from a multitude of health problems, each of them alone can kill a man, and when they decided to attack all at once, […]
Our Japanese correspondent sent in these video clips from a busy Osaka train station to our trainspotting department. A couple more tour posters from Japan. At the Shibuya Station in Tokyo: Fukuoka poster:
Glenn Wellard sent us an updated revision of his version of the Deep Purple Family Tree. This new revision fixes Atomic Rooster (which had been mistakenly called ‘Arctic’) and links the Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin branch to the tree via Coverdale/Page collaboration. And before you start complaining again, remember: this is just a one man’s vision on […]
Glenn Wellard sent us his version of the Deep Purple Family Tree together with the following note: Being a fan myself, and this year being the 50th year since Deep Purple were formed, I decided I wanted to do something to mark the occasion and produce something to hand on my own study wall. So, […]
Joe Bonamassa, Kevin Shirley, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, and Derek Sherinian do a Q&A session during the Keeping the Blues Alive cruise earlier this year. Bonus track: Mistreated performed by BCC at the cruise Thanks to Brad Kilgas for the q&a video and to Yvonne for bringing it to your attention.
A relatively rare glimpse behind the curtains of how the band works during rehearsals. This clip is from a studio showing the band preparing for their appearance on the Australian TV show Hey Hey It’s Saturday in 1999: …And the performance itself:
The official DP Youtube channel has published a contemporary documentary about the project known as PAL. Thanks to Akemi Ono for the heads up.
A Czech outfit called Crocodile Quartet offers their take on the Highway Star. Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the way you never heard it before.
Roger Glover writes: And where did I go? On the road, that’s where. The road that leads to your door. To many doors; stage doors, closed doors, dressing room doors, hotel corridors, van doors, bedroom doors – dreaming through that revolving door of time. More thoughts on the last twelve months can be found at […]
It has been quite a while since Joe Satriani played with DEEP PURPLE, but he’s back with a new album and a G3 tour in January. The G3 tour will feature Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Phil Collen for the US leg and replace Phil Collen with Uli Jon Roth for the European dates. For further […]