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WhoCares to release an album
Ian Gillan and Toni Iommi’s charity project WhoCares will release a compilation (with a few rarities thrown in) on June 22 via earMusic. Geoff Barton of Classic Rock Magazine spoke to Big Ian about the project:
Tell us about some of the stuff on the WhoCares album, beginning with the Repo Depo track.
Repo Depo dates back to 1991 or 1992. It was a three-piece – well, four, including me – very hard rocking band. We had Brett Bloomfield on bass, Leonard Haze (Y&T) on drums, and Dean Howard was the guitar player. Dean was in various incarnations of my touring bands over the years. I suppose you could call Repo Depo a kind of offshoot of the Gillan band. There are various bits and pieces of Repo Depo on YouTube, I believe. I haven’t seen them myself but Brett keeps sending me messages saying: “You must watch this, it’s awesome, man.” We must have been together a year or more. They were all staying at my house when I lived in Buckinghamshire, between tours. But then I decided to return to Deep Purple for The Battle Rages On album. I was unable to resist the clarion call.
Ian also confirmed Bob Ezrin as the producer of the new album:
To close, we simply must talk about Deep Purple. It’s true that Bob Ezrin is producing your new album?
It looks that way. I’m not sure I’m allowed to say anything until contracts are signed but it seems… let’s put it this way, I’m booking a flight out to Nashville on June 23. So I’m sure he will be [producing], yes.
June 23 is when you’re going to kick off the recording?
The whole thing, the writing and everything, yes. We’ve got six weeks to do it.
Read the whole thing in Classic Rock Magazine.
WhoCares compilation track list:
- WhoCares – Out Of My Mind (from the CD single of the same title)
- Ian Gillan feat, Iommi, Paice and Glover – Trashed (from Gillan’s Inn)
- Black Sabbath – Zero The Hero (from Born Again)
- Deep Purple – Dick Pimple (unreleased Deep Purple studio out-take from Purpendicular)
- WhoCares – Holy Water (from the WhoCares single)
- Black Sabbath – Anno Mundi (from Tyr)
- Ian Gillan – She Thinks It’s A Crime (first time on CD or digital)
- Tony Iommi feat. Glenn Hughes – Slip Away (previously only available digitally)
- Ian Gillan – When A Blind Man Cries (live acoustic at Absolute Radio, unreleased)
- Garth Rockett aka Ian Gillan – No Laughing In Heaven (live)
- Ian Gillan feat. Mikhalis Ratzinkis – Getaway (available only on deleted vinyl LP)
- Tony Iommi feat. Glenn Hughes – Let It Down Easy (Japanese bonus track of the album Fused)
- Ian Gillan And The Javelins – Can I Get A Witness
- Repo Depo – Easy Come Easy Go (unreleased)
- Deep Purple feat. Ronnie James Dio – Smoke On The Water
Two more tracks are to be confirmed:
- Gillan/Glover – Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave Me
- Gillan – Don’t Hold Me Back
Thanks to Martin Johannessen for the heads up and to Ultimate Classic Rock for additional info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I understood Gillan-Ioomi were going to release “a new album” instead of just a “new compilation”…any plan?
May 5th, 2012 at 23:02http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqeKtqUN2BQ
Gillan covered this one? or it just has the same name…
May 5th, 2012 at 23:10Rory Gallaghers music is always cool, Roberto.
But I supposse it was a original REPO DEPO song.
Yesterday a friend of mine said that illan released those 4 RD songs some time ago. I did not know that or if that’s correct that it was released.
As far as I know some was re used for DREAMCATCHER and later on Gillan’s Inn.
First when I saw the “New Album”release I felt exited.
Although I also thought : Hey, is Iommi recovering that fast?
I m dissappointed about this new album. Most of it I already have.
But ok, it is for a good cause, so…….
It now is a mix of rarities and some plain studio stuff.
Might have been more fun to see Tony Martin doing CHANGES, etc.
What is this song “She Thinks It Is a Crime”?
Some bits and pieces in the Classic Rock text look weird.
Release dates? It was already released, that WHO CARES single!
Talking about recording and writing in 6 weeks?
Did they not already have written tons of stuff since 2006?
In RECORD COLLECTOR Steve says that Gillan writes all the time, blablabla.
And or a typo or Gillans state of mind :
I dont think BORN AGAIN was done shortly after the Perfect Stranges tour.
Maybe I misundersood and he is referring to the moment he already came to grips with the Sab thing, the production et all.
In my recollection his view on it all stayed persistent through many years…..
Did not know that DICK PIMPLE was Ritchie’s idea.
Although I read the “thing” around 1984 on a envelope I received from the Rainbow FanClan.
May 6th, 2012 at 11:35But That is a complete other story(….)
This is not a “Who Cares” album. Just a few songs from “here and there” put on a CD. Better if it was a DVD. I might buy it, because Gillan was singing great when most of these tracks was recorded. Just like Who Cares tracks. Why not in DP these years? I Dont understand.
May 7th, 2012 at 16:18I doubt it though after the original reunion of Black Sabbath and plans of a new Deep Purple record,A new material betw Iommi-Gillan would be possible.I am only interested in one song or jam,and outtake from Purpendicular session DEEP PIMPLE,the rest of the music is just old and not new.
May 7th, 2012 at 20:59ROCK ON GILLAN/IOMMI!!! We love you! Congratulations on this very beautiful project!
May 8th, 2012 at 11:55Once again I have to laugh at the self-centered complainers here. Yes, I too have all of these tracks in one form or another. Most of us ‘Hard Core’ collectors do of course. But many of these songs will be new to most of the public that doesn’t collect ‘all things Purple’. There are some very obscure and hard to find tracks on this offering that will and should be of interest to those whom haven’t gotten their hands on or heard them before. With all due respects, this is quite a diverse and well selected bunch of oddities that together will be a very enjoyable mix and well worth the listen.
Cheers
May 8th, 2012 at 13:26sad production, uneuseful to me..very poor,without immagination..
with so many artists in this big “family” they could get off a better release..
Just to dream to listen for ex. Toni Iommi playing his dark version of “Wasted Sunset”..wow…or listen martin playing “Zero The Hero”..
I think it is nice to reinvent some old stuff in new version…
sorry for my grammatic..
ciao
May 8th, 2012 at 14:10Ian Gillan – She Thinks It’s A Crime could be a ‘Magic’ out take…or a Gillan-Rakintzis one…or one of the two rare studio songs from Naked Thunder (which now disappeared from you tube)…I can’t remember when and were I read this title…
May 8th, 2012 at 20:07Not ‘Naked thunder bonus tracks’….that were:
May 8th, 2012 at 20:15“Rock N’ Roll Girls”
“Hole in My Vest”
@ 3/9/10 I’m almost sure “She thinks it’s a crime” comes from “One Eye To Morocco”. Was it the vinyl or the japanese version? That I can’t remember.
May 9th, 2012 at 07:52she thinks its a crime is one eye to morocco bonus track .
May 9th, 2012 at 08:13I think The Last years of his and deep purple music career will be good presented and productive.
Repo Depot didn’t release anything. This track has never been heard beyond pre-release ears. @Priest, the four tracks that wound up on Dreamcatcher were written by them, but recorded with the line-up used on the album. Four different tracks on Dreamcatcher were originally recorded with another line-up, coincidentally friends from my hometown and Pat Regan, one of them now a member of Kiss.(I have that extremely rare demo)
May 9th, 2012 at 20:17Cant recall seeing this one before :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9u0T8y-HDM&feature=fvwrel
May 9th, 2012 at 22:32Hey Priest, the video is blocked here in the States. Is it good quality? What song is it?
May 11th, 2012 at 03:24I don’t know where to post it: “Jon Lord news – some tremendous news with Jon’s concerto recording having been completed with a fantastic range of musicians including Bruce Dickinson, Joe Bonamassa, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Morse. Mixing will be completed late May and all is on track for an early September 2012 release. This is the first studio recording of the 1969 Jon Lord /Deep Purple ‘Concert For Group & Orchestra’.”
May 11th, 2012 at 22:55What a shame Lord didn’t pull the Original MK2 boys into the studio for this iconic release since they performed the live show. Will be interesting anyway. Especially is Malmsteen tones down the shredding.
Cheers
May 14th, 2012 at 00:26Roberto @16:
the best way to report the news is to email to news@thehighwaystar.com
what is the source of your information?
May 14th, 2012 at 17:19Digital Bitch and Zero The Hero
May 14th, 2012 at 17:23Thi is just what I read on a Facebook D.Purple tribute page…
May 15th, 2012 at 13:20thanks for the email adress, I hope I will remember it for the next times…
watch here: http://www.facebook.com/deeppurple6876
May 15th, 2012 at 16:43I also hear there will be a feature film release of the Concerto in London.
May 16th, 2012 at 19:04So, they need someone to “cut out the rubbish, which [they] always recognise too late”.
Interesting statement.
I just keep wondering why that didn’t work with Bradford, then.
Maybe it’s not the presence or absence of an external producer.
Maybe it’s the concept of writing and recording a full album within six weeks, that’s the problem.
Of course, this approach might generate some great ideas, and the danger of an antiseptic overproduction is always imminent at this level. So spontaneity and freshness go a long way.
But a great idea isn’t necessarily a great song, some ingredients might be missing, and if you force things instead of letting them develop, you will get an endproduct that just sounds like that: Unfinished and forced. Especially when the creative juices aren’t exactly overflowing and the people involved have already written so much stuff for the band.
I’ve always felt that this was the true problem of many post-reunion Purple albums: Many tracks didn’t realise their full potential. Great ideas which weren’t allowed to flourish, were finished and recorded prematurely and somewhat wasted.
It’s no wonder that you lose your sense of reality to a certain extent if you lock yourself into a studio for six weeks – and the producer will be part of the dynamics. He possibly can’t remain objective – whatever that means.
I think great works require to sometimes step back, maybe look the other way for a while, then come back and discover their true focus
The best DP albums in my book were those that were conceived over a longer period of time (In Rock, Fireball, Burn), not those that were made under a lot of time pressure.
May 24th, 2012 at 22:01@23
There was never a Purple album under more of a ‘Time Pressure Restraints’ than Machinehead. Plus to add to the fact a major technical factor due to the events that took place that is well documented regarding the Big Fire…..I for some reason must elate to the fact here that it probably falls somewhere into one of their best albums…….Hmmmm? Surely the most monumental.
Cheers
June 4th, 2012 at 18:51Hi
Many things are worth a listen, but when there’s so much talent so many writing possibilities, does it really need to be just worth a listen. So whocares.
June 21st, 2012 at 13:08Frankly, the process of creating great albums is capricious. When I step back and try to listen to what’s happening in the music scene, and when I try to figure out why my ear is drawn to specific music, I’m stymied. I know what I like, and I buy it, but predicting who will produce that music is a mugs game. Having said this, Purple will always have a special place in my hard – I could rely upon them. Initially because they were exciting and made my blood boil, and later because they were like comfort food or that old sweater in the closet.
Full disclosure, I’ve enjoyed most Deep Purple albums, and I love the early albums (up to Burn, plus Perpindicular), but I’ve not experienced the thrill of hearing something amazing and different from this band since since Fireball.
I’ve been flamed before for these types of comments (CrimsonPriest and PurplePriest1965 got the last word last time – and I’m sure they will again) but at my age do I really give a FF? Not really. If Purple delivers an amazing album I will be truly thankful. But, as is more likely, it will be an exercise in technical execution and auto-tuning. That’s okay too. Because really, that’s a lot better than the other crap we can get these days.
Sterling
June 27th, 2012 at 03:02