JonLord.org has announced that Jon’s memorial show at the Royal Albert Hall in April will be released by Edel/earMusic on September 26, 2014 — the day month of the 45th anniversary of the performance of Jon’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra at the same venue.

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Deep Purple were inducted into Kerrang! Hall of Fame this year at the award ceremony held on June 12 in London. There they join previous years inductees of the (mostly) metal oriented publication: Mötley Crüe, Iron Maiden, Slayer and Machine Head (the latter claim their band’s name has no relation to the Purple classic album).

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Deep Purple have played at the Hellfest in Clisson this past weekend, and at the press conference before the show Roger Glover confirmed that the band is indeed working on a new album for tentative release in 2015:

...Some time next year there will be another album...

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Jon Lord has won the Greatest Keyboard Player poll held by Real XS radio in Manchester, UK. The final top 10 is as follows:

1. Jon Lord
2. Rick Wakeman
3. Rick Wright
4. Keith Emerson
5. Ray Manzarek
6. Matt Bellamy
7. Jordan Rudess
8. Tony Banks
9. Dave Greenfield
10. John Paul Jones

Thanks to Alan Heron for the info.

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An industry insider Mitch Weissman recently shared on Lefsetz Letter this tidbit of history on how the Coverdale/Page collaboration was put together:

I almost had [Jimmy Page] and Billy Squier unite for a record in the 80′s.

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Blackmore Vale Magazine (I kid you not) reports that Ian Gillan offered his services to perform at the Guitars On The Beach festival in his home town of Lyme Regis. The event is essentially a mass gathering of guitar players not unlike the ones that set the world record, albeit not on quite the scale: last year 2,267 guitarists set the UK record, with this year more than 3,000 having already signed up.

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Guitar World has an article on Yngwie Malmsteen’s 80s cover of the Highway Star which contains an undated quote from Blackmore about the two solos on the track, both becoming legendary:

I wrote that out note for note about a week before we recorded it.

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Glenn Hughes is still busy doing interviews and promoting California Breed. In the course of this, he spoke to SparkTV (who really should brush up on their phone interview recording techniques):

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

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Glenn Hughes’ new band, California Breed, has announced 5 dates in the UK in late November / early December. It appears that they will be opening for Slash, and thus playing bigger venues.

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Ian Gillan, Steve Morse, Joe Lynn Turner, and Graham Bonnet, along with extravaganza of classic rock luminaries, contributed to the Light My Fire – A Classic Rock Salute To The Doors CD which is due out on July June 24 via Cleopatra imprint Purple Pyramid Records.

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