Vintage Guitar magazine publishes online a short interview with Simon McBride that originally appeared in the September 2024 print issue.

Did you adapt your style to Deep Purple, or was it already a good fit?
I think part of the beauty of Deep Purple over the years is they never really had a fixed “sign.” They have that ability to adapt. It was, “Let’s just play and see what happens.” I had ideas, which I pre-constructed in my studio; we all are always writing stuff. There’s a track called “Sharp Shooter,” which is from a riff I had. I thought, “That’s too heavy, they’re never going to use it.” But here we are. They’re using it! There are no rules.

Read more in Vintage Guitar

There’s a new, very unofficial remaster of California Jam. The video was cleaned up and upscaled, which is laudable, but the audio stays pretty much the same. Which is regrettable, as in our humble opinion it is the sound that’s the weakest link of the recording. Continue Reading »

A radio interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio from November 1975, where they discuss the new band they are starting. Continue Reading »

Some time in 2019 Ian Paice visited his colleague Lee Kerslake, who was filming a documentary about his musical career and battle with cancer. Lee passed away in 2020. Continue Reading »

Classic Rock magazine has an interview with Don Airey in their latest issue (#340, with Fleetwood Mac on the cover). We don’t have many further details at the moment, apart from the blurb:

Q&A: Don Airey
The Deep Purple keyboard player, go-to session guy and solo artist on his new album, touring, Purple, Blackmore.

If you happen to have access and there’s something interesting in there, please post in comments.

Another clip from the series of restored and upscaled classic Gillan videos. This is Unchain Your Brain from the BBC TV series Rock Goes To College, as performed live at Oxford Polytechnic in 1981. The video has been cleaned up nicely, sadly the sound is the same muddy affair as before. Continue Reading »

Candice Night was interviewed by eonmusic, and in between some things that have been discussed previously, the last Rainbow incarnation came up.

Finally, I wanted to touch on Rainbow’s shows in 2016, and onward; that must have been special for you, to help make that all happen.
One hundred percent. I absolutely loved doing that because, I mean, it’s funny being, you know, the wife, the best friend, the confidant, the wardrobe consultant, and everything, but also being such a big fan of that band and of his, and watching him in his element, doing the songs that I grew up on that I’m just such a huge fan of. So as he’s sitting there doing the track list and making it, I’m going; “wow!” And I honestly didn’t think he was going to ask me to do backing singing. I was just happy to be around that music in a live forum, so when he asked me to do it, and the other backing singer from Blackmore’s Night at that point, we were able to get out there and just stand on that stage and listen to those songs live, and a lot of the songs I had never heard. I mean, the first time I saw Ritchie live, was six months before I met him, I went to a concert out here in the Meadowlands. It was a huge stadium, and it was Deep Purple, Guns n’ Roses on their maiden tour with ‘Appetite for Destruction’, and Aerosmith on a triple bill.

That’s a great line-up!
I was boots on the floor, general admission, getting knocked around, and all five four of me, but that energy! I later heard that during ‘Smoke on the Water’ the fans had set the seats on fire. It was 1989 and that’s the first time that I saw Ritchie perform on stage, and then I met him a few months later because I was working at the radio station, and we met on the football pitch, but I’d never seen Rainbow from back in the day, and when he started reforming Rainbow in 1995, and of course, I went on tour with them, with Doogie White [singing], it was great to be part of that whole thing. But hearing those classic songs that I grew up with, yeah, being part of that, and watching that from the stage is just that was electric. I’m really glad I was part of it all.

Read more in eonmusic.

Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up.

We’ve already mentioned on these pages that there’s a new book out that might be of interest to our readership. It is called Deep Purple From 1984: every album, every song, written by Phil Kafcaloudes, and published by SonicBond.

The book is pretty much what it says on the cover — it is every post-reunion album from Perfect Strangers to =1 reviewed track-by-track, with a brief introduction on the state the band found themselves at the time, the recording process, and the artwork. Selected live releases are included along with the complete studio discography. Each track is reviewed for the music, the performance, and the lyrics. Contemporary quotes from the people involved are sprinkled throughout. Being a collection of reviews, it is necessarily heavy on opinion, while the reference value of the book is, ahem, questionable, as documented in the previous review. One can argue if the author’s interpretation of the lyrics — that often differs significantly from the intended meaning — is as valid. But that’s how the vast majority of listeners would approach it — develop their own understanding of the lyrics. Only a few hardcore fans would go scour the web in the hope to get insight from the horse’s mouth.

That being said, I have found the book an engaging read — Phil certainly knows his way with the words and how to make his point evocative. Yes, it may raise an eyebrow here and there. It may also make you go “hmm, that’s not quite how I remember it”, and put on an album you haven’t listened to in years. Whether this collection of eloquently written opinions is worth £17, it is for you to decide.

What: Deep Purple from 1984: Every Album, Every Song
Author: Phil Kafcaloudes
Published by: Sonicbond Publishing
Format: softcover, A5 (148mm × 210mm)
Pages: 176
Colour pictures: 41
ISBN: 9781789523546
Publication date, UK: February 28, 2025
Publication date, USA and ROW: April 25, 2025
Suggested retail price: £16.99 / $22.95

Thanks to SonicBond for providing a copy for the review and to Phil Kafcaloudes for arranging it.

Blackmore’s official channel has posted an interview done in December 1975 by one named ‘Ronnie Die’ in the description, and who sounds suspiciously like Ronnie James Dio. Continue Reading »

Issue 49 of the Rock Candy magazine (the one with Black Sabbath’s Sabotage on the cover) has a page-spread interview with Don Airey. It is short, and sweet, and rather interesting. Don reveals that he is fond of travelling on tour buses, and even sometimes forgoes the Purple’s executive jet just to join the roadies on the bus. His most favourite session work is also quite unexpected — it is a series of McDonald’s ads he did in the 1990s — reinterpreting their jingle in the style of Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel, etc. with a 50-piece orchestra.

The issue can be purchased from the publisher.

Thanks to Reinhard Lackner for the info.