![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse2.jpg)
Don Airey in Classic Rock
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.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
It’s mostly about his new solo album but he was asked about Purple and responded “I only came off the road on the 19th December so we’re having a bit of a break. Once the dust has settled down then we can look to the future” and one anecdote about Rainbow, he’d previously told the interviewer that sometimes Ritchie would solo leaning back on his Marshall stack but the roadies would have to push against it to stop it falling over. One time they forgot and Ritchie leant against the stack and he and it fell over backwards “Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on the Down To Earth tour. Ritchie gave me a wave as he was falling backwards and pointed. That was my cue for a ten minute solo.”
April 28th, 2025 at 06:42I hope he doesn’t use this interview as another opportunity to say how Simon is the best thing that ever happened to them and to slag Steve.
April 28th, 2025 at 13:40I agree John. Simon is an excellent guitar player but, to me, he lacks “that something” that makes him stand out. As for Don, I still think his performance on =1 wasn’t as good as any of his other DP albums. I’ve been called a lot of names for posting this, but (and I listened to it a few days ago), think =1 is not that good and is my least favorite DP album of all time. They’ve been my favorite band since 1973 but, for some reason, some people on this web sight think I have no right to speak badly about a DP album.
April 28th, 2025 at 19:45@ 3 – don’t worry Leslie, speak out all you like and I agree with you in many aspects. A new album always gets some people excited and that is fine, how long does that lasts is fine also. History never repeats and we all are aware of that conundrum. It is all over bar the shouting anyway, life eh? Go for it. Cheers.
April 28th, 2025 at 22:14@3
You’re not alone, =1 doesn’t do much for me either. Obviously Deep Purple; but a castrated version.
There, I said it. I suppose Uwe will calling for me to be burned at the stake or something equally horrible.
April 29th, 2025 at 08:29=1 is a lively affair – I like it first and foremost for that.
But by the same token: Leslie is free to not like it. If it doesn’t speak to him, then it just doesn’t.
Simon is essentially an advanced blues rocker – Gary Moore school. Maybe that is why you miss “that something”, Ritchie had that neo-classical element plus the eastern tinge, Tommy that staccato flurry of notes playing and black rhythm guitar approach, Steve treated guitar as if it was a keyboard to create soundscapes … Simon is the first guitarist of DP from a generation that learned at least a part of its chops already from the internet (and before that from instruction videos on DVD, he has had exposure to a lot of styles and co-mingled them all into his own. I think his playing is “well-rounded”, but with an access to so many styles via media there is perhaps less of a definite stylistic imprint. There is a whole new generation of players like that.
But if we did the time travel test and dropped present (or say 20 years younger) Simon into late 60s London, I think he would have made a name for himself very soon as “that hot guitarist with the spiky hair who does all this strange stuff on his guitar and is lightning-fast”. I believe Ritchie would have said: “This guy is real good and to be watched out for!”
https://youtu.be/vwlWgYsyp1k
We have to realize that at age 12, not Ritchie, not Tommy, not even Steve Morse, not Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton (who couldn’t play any guitar at that age because he learned it comparatively late) were in league with young Simon. That just goes to show what availability of influences and tutoring (and some talent of course) can do.
April 29th, 2025 at 12:04# 3 Leslie.You might recall that I took a pretty good roasting over my review of = 1. You’ve been contributing your thoughts and considered opinions here for quite some time.Don’t stop now.
April 29th, 2025 at 14:25@2 and 3 …and even 4
HERE, HERE
April 29th, 2025 at 14:55At last some people talking sense …nothing against Simon …but he is no where near Steve …we miss Steve terribly 😔 I’ve been watching them live from infinite and Now What tours lately …Steve is fantastic…the energy, the style…the smile !
I don’t reckon Blackmore will be back but ..for fucks sake …bring Steve back for the last album and tour , that would be so fitting, considering what he has done for the band !
=1 has been a very divisive album, almost on a par with the CTTB and S&M.
April 29th, 2025 at 19:15I personally like it a lot and like Simon as an exceptional player. I simply didn’t want to lose Steve…but that was fate. And terribly sad.
All of my other thoughts on this have been said much more eloquently by Uwe.