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A song about castles and crossbows

Meanwhile, Classic Rock reviews another family box set — Rainbow’s The Temple Of The King 1975-76: The tour rehearsal material, for all its historical value, is ruined by too much bass and distortion. But across six live discs – with just a little overlap with the band’s 1977 album On Stage – there is much […]

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Everything in one place

Get Ready to Rock reviews the upcoming Ian Gillan Band box set Down The Road: The Complete Ian Gillan Band Story, now due out apparently at the end of March. Another wonderful package, two fold out card cases with a 7” booklet that is well annotated. Bonus artwork includes both UK and Japanese editions of […]

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Live Archive 1975

Another batch of historic Deep Purple bootlegs have been digitally released through official channels. This one includes two Mark 3 performances from Copenhagen (March 20) and Gothenburg (March 21), and three from Mark 4: Auckland (November 13), Melbourne (November 25), and Nagoya (December 8). That’s 77 tracks in total. They are available on streaming platforms […]

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His first drum crush

Card carrying Paicey aficionado Chad Smith offers his take on Burn

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A yodel for 17 strings and 2 sticks

Check out Steve Morse, John Petrucci, Dave LaRue, and Mike Portnoy jamming on a cover of Focus classic Hocus Pocus. This was recorded during the last John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe event, that took place in Las Vegas on August 7-10, 2025.

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Purpendicular at 30

Purpendicular holds a special place in our hearts, as its release and events leading to it coincided with the formation of the online community that had founded this website and still runs it to this day. It is also one of the seminal albums in the history of the band — alongside with In Rock, […]

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The Paul and Steve Show at NAMM 2026

The yearly Namm Show in Anaheim, CA ends today. As usual, the show is a place where both professional musicians and regular folks roam around the show floor looking for the latest in musical tools. This always generates interesting YouTube videos from demos and impromptu small concerts in exbitor booths. Paul Gilbert and Steve Morse […]

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Artwoods: Live at Klooks Kleek

From the letters to our better-late-then-never desk, we are glad to present you an actually pretty decent quality recording of the two early Artwoods performances from 1964, featuring Jon Lord. It apparently came out a few years ago: in 2016 on vinyl, and in 2023 on CD and digital. The latter are available via Amazon, […]

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On the long winter night

The indefatigable Purple Strangers of Finland will be holding their Purple Night 2026 on January 31 at the On the Rocks club in Helsinki. This year, the gathering will be celebrating two albums in particular — Fireball and Rainbow Rising. There will be two tribute acts: The Mule, preforming Fireball in its entirety, and Leverage, […]

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Author’s Top 10 Jon Lord performances on record

While we wait for Before We Forget – the forthcoming biography on Jon Lord – its author, Ovais Naqvi, offers his personal Top 10 favourite recorded performances by Jon Lord – and explains his choices. Learn more about the book: Before We Forget – the story of Jon Lord. 1. Deep Purple: Knocking at Your […]

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