Purple in Polish press
There are several Purple items published in Polish press recently:
A long interview with Roger Glover has appeared in the October 10th issue of the Przeglad weekly.
Teraz Rock, a Polish monthly rock music magazine, has a lengthy special called “Deep Purple po calosci” (Deep Purple in total) in October 2010 issue.
And last, but not least, our long time contributor Joasia Ostrowiecka has published a book called “Nie tylko rock and roll. PodrĆ³Å¼e koncertomanki.” (Not only Rock’n’Roll. Travels of a maniac concertgoer.) which features several Purple accounts from the 21st century. The book is available in electronic form from bookowo.pl.
Thanks to Joasia Ostrowiecka for the info.
… and 2 pages interview with Ian Gillan in November issue of Metal Hammer Poland.
October 29th, 2010 at 13:29Is there an English version of those interviews? I can’t speak polish. Did they tell anything about their plans after their tour this winter?
October 31st, 2010 at 19:29I don’t read Metal Hammer, but yes, thank you for an info š
November 2nd, 2010 at 09:20Hello, Tommy,
November 3rd, 2010 at 09:44I’ve just checked the Przeglad website, and I’m sorry, there is no English version of any article… If I’ve got some time, I’ll try to describe in English what is this interview about. Never say die š
Probably its possible to translate into English by clicking on some kind of programme?
November 3rd, 2010 at 13:25@ purplepriest1965:
I thought about that. Those programs translate the words but not sentences, as far as I know. This often leads to misunderstanding. Propably Joanna can help …
November 3rd, 2010 at 15:53Yeah, bring Joanna back, please!
November 10th, 2010 at 13:34Ian for Metal Hammer about the new Deep Purple record (mark his words):
MH: Youāve said itās even hard for you to meet up and record a new album. In the meantime, after the fantastic āRapture of the Deepā our appetites are big. Can you tell us approximately when we can expect a new album?
IG: I canāt tell you because I donāt even know when I can expect it. You know, albums tend to HAPPEN. They are SPONTANEOUS. You see, weāre non-stop being accosted about a new album, because the record labels and the managers want new albums so I think weāre going to eventually record one day but the greater the pressure weāre under the further the new album is. Itās like gripping a soap bubbleā¦ Just do it and watch the outcomeā¦ The more weāre asked about the new album the less we want to go into the studio. If youāre being nagged about it all the time, howās your attitude towards it going to be in the studio? Weāre not commercial songwriters. We CREATE music. We write and record stuff that come straight from our HEARTS. We donāt write because we are forced to or because someone expects us to. We do it because itās fun and we LOVE it. Thatās why if weāre being constantly poked and asked: āWhenās the new record? Whenās the new record?ā, the first thing that comes to my mind is: āAh, maybe next year.ā
MH: I guess you can understand the impatience of the fans who always wait for the new record with a fair amount of excitement…
IG: Wellā¦ what can you doā¦ If you follow this train of thought whatās going to be next? It will eventually come to the situation when fans are going to tell us what songs should be on the album and theyāre going to demand we record those songs for them. You have to ask yourself: āDo you write the songs for the fans or for yourself?ā Weāve always written for ourselves. The other question you have to ask yourself is: āDo we write commercial songs or the material that is honest and comes from our hearts, our emotions?ā Commercialism, writing at a push, for demand is an entirely unknown concept to us. I think to be completely honest with our fan baseā¦ you know, Iāve noticed that for the past 10 years the average age of our audience oscillates around 18 years old so I guess the thing they enjoy the most is the concept of listening to Deep Purple participating in the live experience. I think thatās the thing they want now and I guess they donāt really care about the new record. The journalists, managers, publishers, record labels, people from the business and our older fans ā yes, I think theyād like the new album to see the light of the day, but we arenāt very willing to even discuss it because weāre simply getting bored with it. Thatās enough for us. Iāve just spent the past two weeks in the studio working on my new songs. Iām in the process of recording another solo album. I love writing new songs. If the guys from Deep Purple called me now and ask me to come over because weāre doing a new album, Iād be there immediately. Yet no one calls me. Everyone is really happy with the āliveā situation of Deep Purple and the deep, mutual understanding on stage. Thatās really a lot and it’s sufficient. One day youāll hear the new albumā¦ You know, if for the next three months we wonāt get a question about the new album then probably weāre going to record it.
November 11th, 2010 at 15:04@8
November 13th, 2010 at 14:42Oh. My. God.
ItĀ“ll be interresting to read the coming comments of this one.
Me, i feel completely lost for words…
Sometimes I think Gillan hasn’t lost his voice as much as he has lost his mind. But then again, I know his favorite saying is, “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story”.
Saying that the *average* age of DP’s audience is 18 tells us that IG is either blind or very very bad at maths.
His talk about writing for one self or for the fans goes completely against the arguments of why they only play old songs live.
November 13th, 2010 at 23:07To place the comments from Ian in the proper context I will put up the entire interview later on.
I think Ian touches several topics of a very interesting nature and they can be hinted at what we call ‘the Internet support’ and disinformation. The whole interview starts with Ian denying the rumours about a possible Deep Purple split after the current leg of the tour which were spread over the Internet some time in July. If you ask me… they feel the pressure from their Internet fans the most, because the Internet is the place where things are discussed at length. Almost every comment here under any review has it ‘When’s the new album?’. Must be rather cheesing for them, if they read it all. Also they’ve been asked about the album many times now and that may put them off. So if he gets this question for an umpteenth time it’s not a surprise to me he answers it in a completely ‘unexpected’ way.
Just hold your horses and make up your minds after reading the entire interview, not a cut. Will be up soon.
November 14th, 2010 at 10:24MH: Before our conversation I just had a glance at Deep Purple official website and the news item I found there was: āIt is not the end.ā Obviously itās an official commentary denying rumours that had it the leg of the tour starting in October was going to be your lastā¦ Have you got any idea why such rumours?
IG: You say our website? Itās not our website. We donāt run it. I donāt even read it. These are trash. Every one of us, Deep Purple members, runs his own website and you can find the most accurate information there. We donāt read anything else and we donāt recommend reading anything else. Itās pure disinformation. You knowā¦ putting the last tour together would require a lot of special preparations, something extraordinary, special and at the same time itās pretty hard for us to get together to record a new album so how could we even possibly thing about the last tour. You see, the Internet is music press of today. Itās full of shit. Donāt believe a word you read there.
MH: Letās explain this once and for all. Itās not going to be the last tour of Deep Purpleā¦
IG: How am I supposed to know? Things happen but I can tell you we donāt plan the last tour. We havenāt even had a single discussion about it yetā¦ We never discuss things as such. We donāt even talk about new records, another tours; when the moment is right we just take the day off heading our own directions and then a short question arises: āWhen are we going to meet up again?ā Itās followed by a short answer like now: āOk. See you in October.ā Things have always been like that with Deep Purple. We donāt read music press, we donāt listen to the radio and never done that. Itās a different world. Totally different from the one we exist in. We donāt and we donāt want to have anything to do with the music business. Everyone of us has an interesting life. We like each other and weāre great friends. We all love music, love playing live and itās fantastic to be on stage together. Weāre even better on stage when we get back after a longer break, long holidays. Everything happening around us ā things people talk, write or gossip about us ā has absolutely no influence on our inner relationsā¦ Let me tell you thisā¦ When weāre going to eventually meet in Octoberā¦ if I correctly remember we start in Pragueā¦ I can tell the content of our discussions on the night before the show in a hotel bar. Itās going to look more or less like this: āWell, how are you? Did you buy that new car? Howās the football team doing ā heard they had a good start of the season? Howās your daughter? She married yet? Howās your mum? Is she having a swift recovery after the operation?ā Thatās the way we talkā¦ I remember, it was about two years ago, at the beginning of the tour we all got together in a bar and when I was on my way back to the hotel room I just had to smile to myself because during the two-hour talk, with a couple of beers and in a fantastic atmosphere none of us mentioned music. Nothing about music.
MH: Then I begin to wonder do you ever discuss the set list before the start of the tour?
IG: Of course we talk about itā¦ just around 45 minutes before the showā¦ Itās always been like that. I remember when we were kids: āOh, whatās the set list tonight? I havenāt got a clue, make something up.ā Sometimes Ian Paice puts the set list together and sometimes Roger does that, and thereās the time I do thatā¦ Sometimes one of us goes: āYou know, Iām tired of this or the other songā¦ā and then we just change it for another. Itās so simple with Deep Purple. You know the thing is our concerts are not those big productions with all the special effects preordained. Thereās no need to tell the lightning guys, the sound guys and all the people responsible for production what songs weāre going to play so they could make the appropriate show. In our case these things are unnecessary. Lights on, we go on stage, play our music and when weāre done we go off stage and the lights are off. Thatās the whole Deep Purple show.
MH: Youāve said itās even hard for you to meet up and record a new album. In the meantime, after the fantastic āRapture of the Deepā our appetites are big. Can you tell us approximately when we can expect a new album?
IG: I canāt tell you because I donāt even know when I can expect it. You know, albums tend to HAPPEN. They are SPONTANEOUS. You see, weāre non-stop being accosted about a new album, because the record labels and the managers want new albums so I think weāre going to eventually record one day but the greater the pressure weāre under the further the new album is. Itās like gripping a soap bubbleā¦ Just do it and watch the outcomeā¦ The more weāre asked about the new album the less we want to go into the studio. If youāre being nagged about it all the time, howās your attitude towards it going to be in the studio? Weāre not commercial songwriters. We CREATE music. We write and record stuff that come straight from our HEARTS. We donāt write because we are forced to or because someone expects us to. We do it because itās fun and we LOVE it. Thatās why if weāre being constantly poked and asked: āWhenās the new record? Whenās the new record?ā, the first thing that comes to my mind is: āAh, maybe next year.ā
MH: I guess you can understand the impatience of the fans who always wait for the new record with a fair amount of excitementā¦
IG: Wellā¦ what can you doā¦ If you follow this train of thought whatās going to be next? It will eventually come to the situation when fans are going to tell us what songs should be on the album and theyāre going to demand we record those songs for them. You have to ask yourself: āDo you write the songs for the fans or for yourself?ā Weāve always written for ourselves. The other question you have to ask yourself is: āDo we write commercial songs or the material that is honest and comes from our hearts, our emotions?ā Commercialism, writing at a push, for demand is an entirely unknown concept to us. I think to be completely honest with our fan baseā¦ you know, Iāve noticed that for the past 10 years the average age of our audience oscillates around 18 years old so I guess the thing they enjoy the most is the concept of listening to Deep Purple participating in the live experience. I think thatās the thing they want now and I guess they donāt really care about the new record. The journalists, managers, publishers, record labels, people from the business and our older fans ā yes, I think theyād like the new album to see the light of the day, but we arenāt very willing to even discuss it because weāre simply getting bored with it. Thatās enough for us. Iāve just spent the past two weeks in the studio working on my new songs. Iām in the process of recording another solo album. I love writing new songs. If the guys from Deep Purple called me now and ask me to come over because weāre doing a new album, Iād be there immediately. Yet no one calls me. Everyone is really happy with the āliveā situation of Deep Purple and the deep, mutual understanding on stage. Thatās really a lot and itās sufficient. One day youāll hear the new albumā¦ You know, if for the next three months we wonāt get a question about the new album then probably weāre going to record it.
MH: Okay. So Iām going to forget all the questions on the new Deep Purple record I have in my mind. Let me ask you about some older albums of yours instead. Recently āClear Air Turbulenceā and āScarabusā from Ian Gillan Band have been reissued. You touched jazz-rock on those albums. Why jazz-rock back then?
IG: Imagine youāre going to have beer with your friends at a local pub. If most of them are avid fans of football, you can tell sooner or later the conversation is going to be about football. If you have a basic knowledge of football you will be able to join the conversation and even have some fun. The next day youāre going to your cousinās party and everyone talks politics and again youāre able to join the conversation and even throw in some ideas. You know where Iām getting at? I used to work with Colin Towns, John Gustafson, Mark Nauseef, and Ray Fenwick, and those guys at that time were pretty much fascinated with jazz-rock-fusion and that was the music they wanted to record and I had to adapt being with them in one team. When you listen to my records you can see at once theyāre not homogenous. Theyāre very versatile because I used to record them with different people and the final outcome was up to those people in this respect. You donāt talk politics with people who are football fansā¦
MH: Do you like to adapt?
IG: If you read Darwin youāre going to understand my answer. Adapt or die. The adaptation to different situations is the only thing human beings are really good at. We donāt understand many things, we canāt control breathing but at least we know how toā¦ feed ourselves (laughs)ā¦ wait ā¦ Iām slowly losing my driftā¦ yesā¦ you have to adapt.
MH: Iāve read in the internet recently that youāre planning the release of a live album āLive in Armeniaā supposedly recorded with an orchestraā¦
IG: First of all, itās not an album. Itās just a single song. Second off all, you wonāt hear any orchestra there. Third of all, itās going to be a song I co-wrote with Tony Iommi. Iāve already finished laying down my vocal parts and now weāre waiting for Jon Lord and Nico McBrain adding theirs. The song is for charity, for further help to people from Armenia who are still contending the aftermath of the earthquake that struck this country 20 years ago and took the lives of 25.000 people. Those people still need help and I decided to do something about it.
MH: So I let myself fell into disinformationās clutchesā¦
IG: Let me tell you this. When I have a beer with my friends and we run out of jokes we turn on the computer and read Wikipediaā¦ (laughs). Thereās so much shit there itās even difficult to imagine. Unfortunately thatās where most of the journalists seek information because the traditional ways of obtaining information are now unavailableā¦ 50 % of the time of the interviews I give is devoted to correcting information spread over the Internet. On the other way, please, donāt panic! Come to think of it not much has really changed. All the information delivered to the journalists in the times when the Internet has not yet existedā¦ Who do you think wrote them? Of course some people wrote themā¦ and do you think there wasnāt disinformation at that time? Do you think that in the ā70s when the music press was in fool bloom people werenāt writing rubbish about us? You think we only met with understanding back then? After we recorded āWho Do We Think We Areā in 1973, the press started to produce utter rubbish writing how dared we recording such an album when theyād wanted us to record only hard rock not blues, funky and whatnot. For this sole reason the press expected us to record something different and they were badmouthing us and showing us in a bad light. Utter junkā¦ Then we were reading all of that and wondering if they were really writing about us, about Deep Purple? Did they really understand us?
MH: The new leg of the tour begins in Czech Republic and then youāre coming to Poland for three shows. I realise there are countries you visit more often but I think youāve been to Poland frequently enough to have your own opinion about our country. I wonder whatās your opinion about Poland?
IG: (laughs)ā¦ Dear Godā¦ I havenāt got a clue. How am I to answer this? I have friends in Poland and thatās why Iām often here. I also have friends in Portugal and they also come to see me. I have a small house on the hills in southern Portugal. I go there to relax, ease off a bit, enjoy the weather and good food. I have a couple of friends there but friends from America, Germanyā¦ and Poland tooā¦ and Argentina, and Brazil drop by for a visit. You think they come to Portugal because they like the countryās geography? No. They like nice weather and good companyā¦ we meetā¦ make music togetherā¦ sip wineā¦ whatever. I come to Poland because I have friends who from time to time invite me to play there. I clearly remember my show with orchestra in Gdansk ā it was fantastic. If you like generalizations I can say I really have a liking for and feel bonding with Polish culture. I was chosen for narrating a documentary about Frederic Chopin; Iām to do this soon and Iām really looking forward to doing this. The recording sessions are going to be in Warsaw. When I come to think of it all now, I certainly donāt like Poland just for its geography. Itās culture. I like Polish attitude towards life.
November 14th, 2010 at 10:32Hi, Tommy, As I promised, I give you an account of the RG interview in Przeglad. I don’t know if you will be satisfied, as I did it in a hurry, but I’ve done it as well as I could.
——————————
Roger Glover interviewed by Agata Graban. āPrzeglÄ dā , 10th October 2010
Career: when he started playing with Deep Purple, he never thought this band would play over 40 years. Nobody can forecast the future. During his early career, in his first band, he only wanted to get into charts. Being a child, he listened to Rolling Stones, but during that period that band was copying Chuck Berry.
November 15th, 2010 at 13:29Once, when Deep Purple (with him and Ian Gillan) became a famous band, he was walking on the streets of the town where they had a show, and he wondered who of its inhabitants had bought Deep Purpleās album. It was so exciting. Now there are lots of brilliant bands, but they can be heard by Internet only, not by radio or TV. The world of music is cruel, itās a jungle, nobody knows who will survive. There are more and more groups and everybody wants to be recognizable. RG thinks he simply had a luck.
Satisfaction: he feels satisfied, although not entirely; he thinks itās impossible to be fully satisfied, as he always looks for something new, he writes new songs, and he must do it, although it isnāt easy. Itās his passion. He is satisfied, yes, fifty-fifty.
Guitar Guinness Record in Vratislavia: it was unbelievable, Polish fans are wonderful. RG remembers his first gig with Deep Purple in Poland. With Ritchie Blackmore, but the guys already knew heād decided to leave the band. It was a very hard period, and Poles boosted the bandās morale.
The Beatles: RG got to know those musicians, and he thinks it was completely another world.
Changes: he thinks he hasnāt changed at all, apart from his hair colour. Heās in excellent form. So is the whole band. The audience has changed- is more and more young, even teenagers come to DP gigs now. Also older people who sometimes come to recall their youth (no, Mr Glover, not only, we come there to listen to good music first of all! āJ.O.). RG is so excited when he enters the stage. He thinks many people listen to DP because itās an honest music, the guys donāt pretend to be who they arenāt, they do their work as well as they can, they donāt pose. Times change: in 70 ties the fans were sitting, only sometimes one or two entered the stage and started dancing. Now they want lots of lights, noisy sounds, they would like to have a scream, they jump. On hearing āSmokeā the fans used to take out lighters, now they take out cell phones to call their friends āItās on!ā
Stage fright: he doesnāt feel frightened, although he used to. Heās calm until he enters the scene. He gets excited when he starts playing. He supposes his stage fright is more concentrated now.
Being together during DP tours: no anger, no arguments, the guys still are friends. Everybody has his own room at the hotel, they donāt disturb each other. They have a talk in the wardrobe, they joke, discuss, but after coming back to the hotel everyone stays alone.
Ritchie Blackmore: before his leaving the band the atmosphere was heavy, but he still admires that brilliant guitarist, he observes his work. Changes are a normal thing, and as for Deep Purple, they occurred very seldom.
Covers: he feels delighted on hearing them, some bands play better than DP does! He isnāt jealous, DP musicians donāt prove itās their music. RG is glad to see young people learn from DPās mistakes.
Improvisations: the band improvises every time. The guys are so happy to refresh their hits. Maybe thanks to it they havenāt become dull yet.
Computers: instruments are steadily replaced by them, but remember, the comp is a tool only. Neither worse, nor better. Donāt forget: first of all, the music depends on musicians, especially drum parts. DP uses comps, but nothing can replace their invention.
Other bands: RG always loves good music, but isnāt very fond of hard rock (sic!). He thinks nothing new idea can appear there.
His daughter: he sometimes performs with her, not very often because he wants her to go her own way.
Quiet life: he leads it in spite of appearances. He goes shopping, he works (although not 8 hours a day), he eats, he sleeps in beds (although in various ones ļ)ā¦
Marcinn! Kudos for the translation. Guess we have our answers!
November 15th, 2010 at 19:26Regards, Rick
Sounds like Big Ian was not in a great mood
November 16th, 2010 at 03:00