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For money, for fame, for the chicks, and for the music

Several press clipping that are of a too marginal interest to post them individually. Australian Guitar has a short feature on Hughes/Iommi collaborations on the occasion of recent reissues: “I’ve always liked Glenn,” Iommi says. “We’ve been friends for many years and go way back. I’ve always loved his vocals. When they get older, most […]

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The latest… whatever it is

Ritchie Blackmore becomes a grumpy old man and complains about modern times from his basement.

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Congratulations to Dr. Don

Don Airey has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Sunderland. The ceremony was held at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on Wednesday, 27 November 2024, where he was joined by friends and family. Don thus joins the ranks of the academic community within the band.

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Forever stalker

Joe Lynn Turner has a couple of collaboration tracks out.

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All the bogus you can eat

Everything you wanted to know about the infamous bogus Deep Purple 1980 tour and then some can be found on a website dedicated to the debacle. Lots of quotes, pictures, reports from the press and duped fans who were actually there, etc, etc. Nice of them to acknowledge our own coverage of the events from […]

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A nightmare of epic proportions

Music Radar has a feature on how Whitesnake turned into a hair metal band, in the process nearly running itself into the ground. It is based on a 2021 DC’s interview with the Outlaw magazine. It was one of the biggest rock albums of the ’80s. Whitesnake’s 1987 – titled simply Whitesnake in America – […]

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Jon turned it down, so…

Louder Sound reprints a Prog magazine short feature on the Butterfly Ball project, stemming from a 2018 interview with Roger Glover. In 1973, Alan Aldridge and William Plomer published a picture book titled The Butterfly Ball And The Grasshopper’s Feast, based on a 19th-century poem of the same name by William Roscoe. On the surface, […]

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For the sake of completeness

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: […]

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Living the Blues

Saxophone player Terry Marshall (of the Marshall amplifiers fame) has released his first album Living the Blues on October 11, 2024, via Marshall Records. Besides working alongside his father Jim, Terry became an accomplished session player, but up until now never got around to recording under his own name. Nick Simper plays bass on the […]

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The well dressed necklace

A jewellery artist Katya Arts presents the Steve Morse collection of unique handmade pieces crafted from sterling silver and guitar strings. I started making silver jewelry because I got inspired by a Deep Purple song, composed and played by guitarist Steve Morse. The first piece I made was a silver dreamcatcher with the inscription ”The […]

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Become a DJ down under

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 […]

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Like a kid in a candy store

Speaking of Thomas Blug, he recently spent a very Purple day, and here are the proceeds. Join us for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes experience as Thomas Blug spends a day with rock legends Deep Purple and Jefferson Starship in Luxembourg! Invited to watch the show from both the front row and side stage, Thomas takes us […]

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The rest is not history

Ritchie Blackmore tells the story of how Deep Purple Mark 1 coalesced together, eventually morphing into Mark 2. That’s a lot of history in 3 minutes.

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In jazz we trust

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.

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Plug in and go

Another one for the guitar gearheads. UK retailer Play Music Today met with Simon McBride on the recently concluded European tour, and he gave the rundown of his stage setup. Letting us know, in the process, that the Engl Artist Edition amp he plays these days is a lot more closely related to the Ritchie […]

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He knows exactly what he wants

Guitar World has an interview with Steve Morse, and it gets pretty gear-heavy pretty quickly. Here it is, with more details on basic single coils vs stacked coil pickups than most of us ever wanted to know. If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good electric guitar and a cheap […]

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Bombast and swagger

Several press reviews from the recently concluded =1 More Time UK tour. Blues Rock Review presents some impressions from the November 9 gig in Manchester: Much of their new set at the AO Arena, Manchester comes from their latest album =1, and it’s a winning formula, still bringing vivid shades of vintage Deep Purple, while […]

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Tonight on the telly

Hot off the press, and slightly unverified. Tonight, November 12, at 11pm local time, Ian Gillan will be hosting a show on channel 358 (NOW Rock) of Sky TV.

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Back to Budokan

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 […]

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The last band standing

Another review of the November 6th London gig, this time courtesy of Brighton and Hove News: Cometh the hour, cometh the band. After an introductory blast of ‘Mars’ from ‘The Planets Suite’ by Gustav Holst, Deep Purple take the stage and go straight into the classic ‘Highway Star’. Guitarist Simon McBride impresses from the off. […]

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