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![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
Bop till you drop
On August 26, 2025, Roger Glover has appeared on the satellite radio SiriusXM show Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk. Blabbermouth has some quotes of what he said.
Well, I see a lot of bands doing the farewell tour or the farewell gig — BLACK SABBATH just did it recently, and other people have done it before — but it doesn’t appeal to me, and I don’t think the rest of the band either. To actually put a date on the final [show], now where’s it gonna be? The pressure is too great. I’d much rather just play and play and play, and suddenly we’re not playing. We don’t need to go out with a fanfare — I don’t think, anyway. It’s possible other people disagree with me, but that’s my feeling.
Quite a few years ago now, at the start of ‘The Long Goodbye’, [then-PURPLE guitarist] Steve Morse, he said, ‘Why don’t we finish on a high and name the last tour and we’d make a lot of money because it’s the last tour and then kiss it goodbye?’ And that didn’t go down well with the band, which is why we called it ‘The Long Goodbye’, because we knew it was gonna happen sometime, but, of course, we didn’t know it was gonna go on and on and on. And thankfully so.
This year is a bit of an off year. We’ve been writing and stuff, and there’ll probably be an album next year. And the last — actually, the last two or three years have been so busy. We haven’t stopped touring and working. So it’s good to have a little bit of a breather.
Read more in Blabbermouth.
[Update Sep 25]: Recording of the show has been posted. For one reason or another, it doesn’t work on other sites, so head over directly to YouTube to listen.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Too bad this “little bit of a breather” came too late for Steve. I miss him very much in DP.
September 10th, 2025 at 08:54But I think both Steve and DP are happy where they are now and there will be a new abum by the SMB, I just can’t wait!
I’m happy they are going the Rolling Stones route. 😁
September 10th, 2025 at 11:40That’s why we love our boys. They put music over business and money and take it step by step, without big announcements. Because of that, they are not as commercially successful as they could be, but they are artistically relevant. This is also a fully legitimate lineup of the band with 3/5 of the golden MkII on board. Compared to that, Sabbath and Zep are gone, Kiss and Aerosmith turned into clowns, Metallica became crooners of thrash metal etc. Our boys still rule.
September 10th, 2025 at 12:30Chris Charlesworth (author of the 1983 Deep Purple biography) mentioned on his website back in April of this year that he’d been helping Roger with his autobiography. Sounded good, until he mentioned they had started 3 years ago, and were currently up to 1984!
September 10th, 2025 at 14:24I hoped the the new release could be in the late 2025…
September 10th, 2025 at 14:43Anyway, Morse disbanded DP because was tired of long tours, not only for his wife..so goodbye ciao ciaoo 🖐
Is that another little dig at Steve ?
September 10th, 2025 at 15:30Hmm …not sure I like that
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zPv06HBSvh8&pp=ygUdc3RldmUgbW9yc2UgYmFuZCBicmVha3Rocm91Z2g%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m6W9MauE-YE&pp=ugMGCgJpdBABugUEEgJpdMoFC3N0ZXZlIG1vcnNl0gcJCbIJAYcqIYzv2AcB
September 10th, 2025 at 15:34😂 At this rate, their last – posthumously released of course – live album will be called “Die With Your Boots On!”
https://images.nightcafe.studio/ik-seo/jobs/TTE0EfHccwFoLpLKraBQ/TTE0EfHccwFoLpLKraBQ–1–wjhaz_7.8125x/horror-zombie-face-thundercloud-in-the-purple-skies-a-masterpiece-8k-resolution-dark-fantasy-concept.jpg?tr=w-1600,c-at_max
I must say I share a lot of sympathy for Roger’s low key approach. That Steve M wanted an “event” to close down matters is not unusual for someone from the other side of the pond where a certain amount of drama is generally welcomed (—> Steven Spielberg), but given how often Roger retells the tale it must have really rubbed the others the wrong way though I’m sure Steve meant no ill with it.
September 10th, 2025 at 16:04Thanks QuelloCheHaRagione, a new Morse album in November called Triangulation then!
September 10th, 2025 at 16:39So it is not late’25 any more
September 10th, 2025 at 18:17Well, at last, not for that least relevant, we know what seems to be the actual reason for Steve’s (short but true) goodbye. I’ll always love his skills, he’s a master, maybe -technically speaking (not that I have a clue of playing guitar)- even better than Ritchie (although Ritchie’s, and always will be, unbeatable. By no one), but if what Roger says is really how it went, I don’t like that attitude, not at all. Maybe is just what Uwe (@8) says, people-“from the other side of the pond” ‘s ways “to close down matters,” and maybe (think so) these usually subtle “isues” between UK and US people never led go for good. I think this second reason (of which the first one would be only the final step) was the true reason that led to the final of MARK VIII, being the terribly sorrowfull personal circumstances arround Steve only the catalist for the inevitable.
September 10th, 2025 at 18:44The point is now we have a great NEW Mark, a great new album, a great new one on the way and a great new band that want to go on until the end. And this is all f****g great!
I think he’s thrown Steve under the bus there …I mean , he can’t defend himself can he !?
September 10th, 2025 at 20:24I just can’t imagine Steve saying anything like that !
All this spite from the other guys ( except Paicey ) is annoying me …it shouldn’t be like this 😪…and when you think about everything that Steve did for that band .
I sincerely hope this has been mis interpreted
#7 QuelloCheHaRagione:
Thanks for the link to the video, but how boring….if this is what Steve does in 2025 Ritchie was much fresher in 1997 with Blackmore’s night in comparison.
Steve, like all of Guitar Hero, has been living off self-indulgence for the past 20 years, I much more appreciate Neal Schon’s amazing fusion records from decades past.
September 10th, 2025 at 20:38I don’t understand what RG’s big deal is. Why not have a final show? 2 of the guys are in their 80s and lets face it yes they can play nice now and then but they are nowhere near as dynamic as they were even going back 10-15 years. Isn’t their something to be said going out and giving those fans a one time shot to see them? I have more respect for groups stopping like Rush who said enough was enough and haven’t done anything since they stopped, as opposed to bands continuing to play on when they are clearly past their prime. How bad was it to see Moody Blues with their drummer (forgot his name) barely able to hit the drums and continuing to play – who wants to see that? IP isn’t quite there yet but his energy has been waning and IG can sing some songs well but can’t do the fast songs justice anymore. I suppose they will continue to play as long public continues to pay. Self dignity at some point needs to show-up.
September 10th, 2025 at 22:19@ 3- “That’s why we love our boys. They put music over business and money and take it step by step, without big announcements.” Except for the year 1984. And I also doubt that that is the reason Purple are not the latest fad and have not been for along time. No band from that era is. Well, except for the much over rated Strolling Bones. Cheers.
September 11th, 2025 at 05:07@ 14 – I agree in part to what you are saying, some good points there. However in regard to Rush, it was Neil Peart who retired and for good reasons, he had been warning the other two members for a few years prior. He was worn out, over it all, not Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson though. They would have kept going and they both lamented the fact that Peart retired. Regarding the Moody Blues, they did have a younger second drummer for many many years before they retired. But I do agree, they should have retired many years before they did as it was a pure nostalgic show, year after year after year. No new music at all. Age catches any of us lucky to live long enough. It is the roll of the dice. Some as the story implies, keep rocking till they drop, or words to that effect. Look at Lemmy with Motorhead, he was a sad figure indeed and could barely stay on stage for more than a few songs at a time from what I was reading. Pride and ego eh? The recent Ozzy and Black Sabbath charade was embarrassing in that aspect. The year off for the Purple sounds a little ominous. Father Time as we all know, waits for NO-ONE. Cheers
September 11th, 2025 at 08:22@14
Yeah CN, but this is Purple 🤩
Deep freaking Purple! 💥⚡️
I want them to go on until THEY decide to stop.
And you can’t deny that despite their physical age, they seem very vibrant and downbeat fantastic!
September 11th, 2025 at 08:43@11 Agree. I don’t think Roger mentioned Steve just to poke him. We don’t have all the details of what had happened at the time of Steve’s departure. Methinks Steve had not wanted to “leave” by walking out. He just no longer wanted be part of the exhausting tours. And then, being an American (add some drama, out with a bang, y’know), he saw nothing wrong with leaving all together, having one grand final tour with the one grand final show. Then he would quietly return to playing with SMB and taking care of his family. Great idea except the rest of the band, being British (empires never die, if you please) never bought it. Steve ended up by walking out reluctantly. So Roger’s version of the events seems plausible to me and not meant to insult Steve. Bother sides have a grain of truth in this debate.
September 11th, 2025 at 08:43I think Roger’s story is about Steve wanting a Long Goodbye Tour is a bunch of crapola!! In an interview in 2016 Paice said it was the band’s Idea as they were all becoming I’ll and knew it was coming to an end. In an interview with Classic Rock Magazine, Gillan said the idea came from the Front Office and promoters went along with it so they could sell more tickets!! I agree with Steve # 12.
September 11th, 2025 at 09:30Somehow when I read all this the Long Goodbye Tour business which I think has been going on for about a decade now. I picture a Blackmore circa 1984 telling Roger, ” I warned you I wouldn’t let that happen.” Very dryly ala Peter Cushing.
September 11th, 2025 at 12:11I think Roger’s approach is the way forward. I can see Steve’s point but it doesn’t seem right for a band that could feasibly carry on for a while yet. But I do think next year would be the time for a one off event with Ritchie, Glenn, Coverdale, Nick Simper, Steve M, all joining on stage doing something or other, with a big group hug at the end. Unlikely I know, but not as unlikely as in the past I think.
September 11th, 2025 at 12:34empires never die, if you please
😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akbzRuZmqVM&t=6s
Especially not from some Yankee Doodle from the swamplands of the colony! 🤣
I just think that Steve’s fruitful time with DP had run its course. They’re mainly a touring band, he’s not really an international touring musician, he just adapted to that lifestyle as long as he had to and earned good money while doing it. Plus with the Mk II heaviness of the set in Mk VIII’s end phase, he was getting less and less of his compsitions heard in a live setting. If you’re Steve Morse, then the entertainment value of having to play Blackmore songs live eventually dwindles, I can understand that.
Steve often said he wanted to be if not the first guitarist of DP, then at least “the last” one, so I think its not unlikely that he was pushing for a joint ending of the band. He underestimated how much touring has beome a way of life for the other guys. Ritchie and Jon had tired of it too, but Roger, the two Ians and Don apparently never will. Separation was then the reasonable thing to do – it happens all the time that individual band members grow tired of the touring life after decades.
September 11th, 2025 at 15:24As usual, I think people are reading way too much into a quote. First of all, it is filtered through a journalist. Second, there is no one in the current band that would like to “throw someone under the bus”. These are adults, with better things to do than trash talk other human beings.
September 11th, 2025 at 15:26@21: Are you aware of how much work would go into such a thing? It’s not like calling up your mates and meet down the pub tomorrow evening. I don’t think anyone of the old DP members has an organisation behind them that have the resources, or can be arsed really, to do all that work.
September 11th, 2025 at 15:29Indefatigable voice of reason Svante is right: Preparation of such a thing and getting a setlist together plus rehearsing it properly would cost the current “living breathing DP” a year or so where they could do little else. They can’t afford that amount of time anymore just to pull off a one-off event.
September 11th, 2025 at 15:39@24
Svante this is why you and Nick are my favourite admin people 🙏🏼
September 11th, 2025 at 18:45@25 Exactly. Just lining up the plates full of spaghetti and sauce would take an enormous amount of effort.
September 11th, 2025 at 19:43#23 Svante:
I agree 100%
September 11th, 2025 at 21:22@14, as someone sometime already said here, dunno why some people think they are entiteled to say when others have to retire. “they can play nice now and then…” Oh boy, “You hit me with a cheap shot.”
September 11th, 2025 at 22:04A beast of an album, a great new guitar man, superb concerts (saw them in Madrid and Barcelona on 2024), and they are supose to retire because… what? They have more than gained the right to quit it when they want. And I wish they want it way ahead.
@22
Uwe, this:
“Steve often said he wanted to be if not the first guitarist of DP, then at least “the last” one, so I think its not unlikely that he was pushing for a joint ending of the band.”
– when did he say this? I’m not doubting you, but I’ve never read it 😊
And please stop with all these double negatives 😄 my brain is challenged enough already 😃
September 12th, 2025 at 05:05People – this is a true story (maybe)
A brunette goes into a doctor’s office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.
‘Impossible’, says the doctor, ‘show me’!
She takes her finger, presses on her elbow and screams in agony.
She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams, and so it goes on; everywhere she touches makes her scream with pain.
The doctor says, ‘you’re not really a brunette are you?’
She says, ‘no I dyed my hair, I’m a naturally blonde.’
‘I thought so’, he says, ‘your finger is broken’ .
🤓
May the weekend be filled with sun, warm and lovely coffee and may you all feel refreshed when Monday arrives 🤗😙
September 12th, 2025 at 05:32That joke, Karin … OUCH!!!
Steve said that sentence “I want to be DP’s last guitarist …” a couple of times, first I think in an interview with the Classic Rock magazine around Infinite in which he already sounded very somber about the band’s long term future and his physical ability to continue playing guitar. In a different wording (“I want to finish with the band …”) you also find it here:
https://blabbermouth.net/news/steve-morse-on-deep-purple-simon-mcbride-is-fitting-them-better-than-i-was
September 12th, 2025 at 12:34@29
Word!
September 12th, 2025 at 13:19As always Roger are spot on and I’m 99% sure there will a new album early next year and then a looong world tour.
September 12th, 2025 at 14:46And I’m sooo happy with Simon on guitar. Perfect sound for Purple. Now rock is back. Love it. =1 is one of the best albums since Perfect Strangers.
@32
Thank you Uwe 😃🙏🏼
Ok and now comes the ‘big-soft-girl’ question:
Do you know if Steve has remarried?
Because I noticed he has a wedding ring on his finger. And if it is in honour of Janine, then it is beyond sweet and cute 🥹
But if he has remarried, I’m really happy for him 😊
And before you start yelling at me: yes I know it is NOTHING of my business, but: Ich bin einfach ein (eine?) romantisches Mädchen 🥰
September 12th, 2025 at 16:40John H – I am with you and would like to see that – frankly its past due. And since you know where Rod Evans is – invite him too!
Svante – granted that might be an effort – but if people really want to do something they do it
September 12th, 2025 at 17:31Didn’t Jon Lord propose the idea of a concert with ALL surviving members, which would have been recorded and filmed? Sometime in the first decade of the millennium, if one remembers correctly.
Not sure if it was intended as a “final concert”, to commemorate some anniversary or other, or just for the fun of it.
It would have been great, though! Lord was probably the only guy who could have got Blackmore and Gillan to share a stage again for a night. And possibly even coaxed Rod Evans out of retirement, for however brief a time.
Seem to recall it was Gillan who nixed the idea.
Sabbath’s final show was memorable because it was the original four members. Were Purple to schedule a “final show” at this late date, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as big an event. Makes more sense for them to carry on as they have been doing.
September 12th, 2025 at 20:25@ 37- memorable? Skippy please. The Sabbath circus was just that, a plethora of other invited ‘guests’ to dress up poor Ozzy to be paraded out as final ritual of sorts. And four songs is not a show, if you know what I mean. For me, it is much better to just go out quietly. They (Sabbath) had their chance earlier to do the big ‘final goodbye’ wank, but they couldn’t be arsed and there were other factors too. We know who controls everything poor Ozzy did. Regarding the Jon Lord comment, I do recall something like that as Lord and Blackmore had reconnected at that time. I doubt though that Ritchie at that point in time would have done it and as we know mr grumpy Ian Gillan definitely wouldn’t have. It was Jon being Jon, nice and cordial and wishing there wasn’t any angst t all, which was one of his many fine attributes. He did mention possibly doing an album with Ritchie though, at some stage as a sort of ‘wish’ list of his. Cheers.
September 12th, 2025 at 22:29Karin, I believe Steve is still mourning Janine and wearing the wedding ring. Like you, I’d be happy if he found a new kindred female spirit – my mom in all her wisdom always said: Es ist noch keine(r) zurückgekommen … -, but it’s still a bit early days for that, one step at a time as they say. Steve is such a benign person, I’m sure he’ll find someone, questionable taste in printed T-shirts or not.
September 13th, 2025 at 00:32@35
“Ich bin einfach ein (eine?) romantisches Mädchen”
Yes, you are…
For your penance you must listen to this (not he whose name shall not be mentioned; well not exactly):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npCRplP61Qw
September 13th, 2025 at 07:32Pete Townshend looking at the final Who concerts and beyond. “I’m 80, I don’t like being away from my family, my studios, my dogs and my friends. I’m not looking to spend the next five years of my life waiting to fucking drop dead on the stage.” Enough said there, good on you Pete. Each to their own. Cheers.
September 13th, 2025 at 11:31It’s ein Mädchen, Karin, girls are things in the German language:
– das Mädchen,
– der Junge,
– die Frau &
– der Mann.
If you’re German all this makes sense (no, it doesn’t! 😂), but Mark Twain had a few observations to make that are still relevant today:
Every noun has a gender (edit: in the German language), and there is no sense or system in the distribution; so the gender of each must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum-book. In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. See how it looks in print–I translate this from a conversation in one of the best of the German Sunday-school books:
“Gretchen: Wilhelm, where did the housemaid put the turnip?
“Wilhelm: It put her in the kitchen.
“Gretchen: And where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden, it’s raining?
Wilhelm: It has gone to the opera even though her roof is leaking, the management hasn’t repaired it yet, all the actors will get wet.
To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female–tomcats included, of course; a person’s mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, and NOT according to the sex of the individual who wears it–for in Germany all the women either have male heads or sexless ones; a person’s nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, and toes are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, and conscience haven’t any sex at all. The inventor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay.
https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html
So when you go to bed tonight, do thank your maker on your knees zat vee didn’t vinn ze wär, you would have had to learn it all! 🤣
September 13th, 2025 at 18:40@39
“Steve is such a benign person, I’m sure he’ll find someone, questionable taste in printed T-shirts or not.”
– of course he will, if he wants to!
And your dear mum was right: no one has returned yet. But of course one needs to be in sync with the inner person, so to speak….
September 13th, 2025 at 20:09@40
What have I done to deserve this Russ?
😂😂😂
ZZ Top are alright, especially this one:
https://youtu.be/gOoKzw3JSCM?si=hJsa1oUQzK0qn4eV
If we have to drag the butter-meister in!
This is cute:
September 13th, 2025 at 20:17https://youtu.be/Pn2-b_opVTo?si=ikC7wF1IlImzXEdG
Unbelievable that certain folk here think that people simply ‘get or find someone else’ to partner with. What a narrow way of thinking. Nothing to do with music of course. Facebook anyone? Sorry, it has to be said. A tad disrespectful it is too. Cheers.
September 13th, 2025 at 22:36“This is cute:
https://youtu.be/Pn2-b_opVTo?si=ikC7wF1IlImzXEdG”
Yeah, and stolen from Trapeze who shared the same US promoter with ZZ Top in the first half of the 70s:
https://youtu.be/KQzxTiq2wPE
September 14th, 2025 at 00:02Settle down, Herr MacGregor, even in Medieval times the period of mourning for a lost spouse wasn’t longer than a year. People had to survive.
https://youtu.be/NbWNVqO3vNQ
Have you never seen this movie?
https://youtu.be/4RmC8mVFwMc
It was a remake of this here:
https://youtu.be/kRKRb7qjCus
Finding someone new to share your life with after a tragic loss has nothing to do with disrespect for the past and the people in it.
September 14th, 2025 at 00:19@45
Of course you’re right MacGregor 😊
I just saw a wedding ring on his finger, and you know in my little country a lot of men can do mysterious tricks: the soon the wife is gone shopping, vacation, whatever, so is the wedding ring! And it only re-appears when the wife is coming home!
I just thought it such a sweet gesture if Steve still wore his wedding ring 😍
On the other hand, marital bliss is not for everyone, I know that. But personally life is more interesting when shared with a cutie 😃
September 14th, 2025 at 06:12@41
September 16th, 2025 at 00:49Regarding The Who just got Live at The Oval 1971. Only listened to it once but it’s excellent!
I have it too, but haven’t listened to it yet.
September 16th, 2025 at 21:57Interesting Uwe, I thought you weren’t a Who fan? I’ve been on a SuperTramp kick lately with the death of Rick Davies. Cheers!!!!!
September 18th, 2025 at 04:36I had a listen to a few songs from that live Who album, at the Oval. Raw as they were at that time. Thanks for the heads up sidroman. I am a lot more use to The Who with the added keyboard player on stage. Well for certain songs at least. Still sounds good though, 1971 and that album Who’s Next is a killer indeed. One of rock musics greatest albums. Regarding Rick Davies, yes I have been listening to a few of his classic songs from Crime of the Century and Quietest Moments. He was critical in being the opposite of Roger Hodgson, the darker and dramatic to the lighter and melodic whimsical side of the band. Similar to earlier classic Pink Floyd with David Gilmour lighter and brighter to Roger Waters darker and more dramatic. The opposites attract syndrome. Or Yin and Yang. It only lasts a little while but their most creative music is from that set up. From Now On: ‘Guess that’s all it has to be, living in a fantasy, that’s the way it’s got to be, from now on”. Vale Rick Davies.
September 18th, 2025 at 10:18I don’t think that Keith Moon and John Entwistle were really a joint rhythm section in playing together, they played alongside each other, it was often staccato mayhem, yet sometimes brilliant staccato mayhem. But the Who in their prime were a force to be reckoned with. Pete Townshend also couldn’t play a fluid guitar solo to save his life, but as long as they had JAE to do that an octave deeper that didn’t matter.
Apart from the obvious Who’s Next my favorite Who album is a strange one, the very introverted and somber The Who By Numbers.
And I really would have welcomed it had Paicey passed the audition and joined them after Keith’s passing rather than being vetoed out by Pete who apparently didn’t want any Purple baggage. Paicey and JAE could have really made a rhythm section. Kenny Jones never understood John’s bass playing and just played simplistic to hold things together, but Little Ian has an ear for bassist nuances as he has proven time and again with Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, Paul Martinez and Neil Murray. All vastly different bass players (well, Glenn and Paul were somewhat similar), yet he made everyone of them sound great.
September 18th, 2025 at 13:14@53
“I don’t think that Keith Moon and John Entwistle were really a joint rhythm section in playing together, ”
They weren’t… The Who had a lead bass player, a lead drummer, a lead vocalist, and Pete as a part-time lead guitarist. In any other outfit such anarchy would’ve resulted in total chaos. But somehow they made it work.
September 18th, 2025 at 22:27Ian Paice in The Who would have been really interesting. I suppose Townshend went with someone he knew with Kenney Jones and being over the Moon effect, he was in two minds a lot around that time from what I have read. His solo output (Empty Glass) points to a similar direction with The Who after Keith Moon. It is a wonder Simon Phillips didn’t get the nod, although he was very busy doing sessions and the like at that time, including with Townshend. I do remember Entwistle’s wry reply to a question of, what is it like to play with a different drummer? His answer ‘well at least I can now play with someone who keeps time’, something like that. Cheers.
September 18th, 2025 at 22:49Absolutely love The Who By Numbers, a criminally underrated album, Dreaming from the Waist, particularly live versions are excellent!!!!!
September 19th, 2025 at 00:32“Better to burn out than fade away”
Ozzy’s last gig was the best ending in music history. I don’t want Purple to just fade away. One final performance with Blackmore, Hughes, Coverdale, before someone else passes away. Various bands doing covers and showing their love.
September 19th, 2025 at 07:01@44
I generally like ZZ Top’s EP covers but that one just stinks. I lump that one in with the rest of their 1980’s “let’s sell out and make a lot of money” crap.
Regarding your other link… I prefer stuff like this over Sharp Dressed Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEPjmWKDHKM
September 19th, 2025 at 07:01To the defense of JAE: He probably simply adapted to ignore Keith and ploughing on with his own extravagant lead bass playing. I too remember him saying in Kenny Jones days that he missed Keith “as a person, but not as a drummer”. Though he might have just said that to be nice to Kenny who was getting a lot of stick (no pun intended) at the time.
The Who were always a vehicle for Pete’s songwriting craft, but initially ALSO an idiosyncratic rock band collective. Sometime in the latish 70s, Townshend must have seen that as limiting for expressing his own art and began dismantling the rock band spikiness of The Who. Both Keith and John were replaced by people who took up less space and attention – it’s how the bandleader wanted it, but I was no fan of that development.
Unlike Cozy Powell’s hammering, I never got tired of Keith’s anarchic drumming, it was entertaining and in its own way swinging and smooth, he was never heavy-handed. And JAE’s lead bass playing was just as reckless and at is core undisciplined, he just stood still while doing it.
September 19th, 2025 at 10:20@58
I had a feeling you might prefer that!
Well, what about this then:
https://youtu.be/HL5MpgKM_9s?si=sFCexQ1jiY-9wxwq
😂😂😂
September 19th, 2025 at 11:11Me too, at one point ZZ Top became just too cartoonish. For me they peaked with Deguello …
https://youtu.be/PjbaHlTl86Q
I especially loved it when they swapped lead vocals in a song à la Coverdale/Hughes or Stanley/Simmons. I rated Dusty a stronger singer than Billy.
September 19th, 2025 at 12:20Quite ironic that The Who ended up with Zak Starkey, who did plough the trough so well in a similar influenced Keith Moon style. I can adjust to a lesser or no frills at all player, especially after such extravagance from all those years passed. It would have been pointless getting another busy bass guitarist after Entwistle passed, at that later stage of the bands career. I have never witnessed The Who in concert with Entwistle, unfortunately. So when I did attend that 2009 concert, I obviously didn’t miss his influence and sound in a live setting. If I had previously been to a gig with him on the bass guitar, I would have no doubt noticed him missing big time. Cheers
September 19th, 2025 at 22:16@Uwe:
ZZ Top made a very fresh album in the 90s, with a more modern sound and spot-on melodies.
that album is Rhythmeen:
https://youtu.be/ULGr2Pe9hok?si=nsj4wgjZmLdWkNsH
https://youtu.be/tJZWJVaYyjs?si=AdIKOezac3_GRnko
https://youtu.be/2V3HbsAE1ds?si=jFEHSAJ3356q8-VE
It’s a beautiful album from start to finish, and curiously in my head here I hear some things that I heard in Roger Glover’s Snapshot
September 19th, 2025 at 23:46Fla76: I have Rhythmeen on CD, indeed a return to (almost) old form.
September 20th, 2025 at 14:27@61
Yes, Dusty was just as good a vocalist as Gibbons.
They started to lose me after Deguello… never felt the need to buy Eliminator, Afterburner or Recycler. But they got back to what they are best at after a that. IMO XXX, Mescalero & Rhythmeen are as good as their records from the 70’s.
September 21st, 2025 at 07:19@60
Thanks… never was a big Beatles fan. Although I have always liked this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI8Aw0IGM1I
September 21st, 2025 at 07:29Wow, I never knew it was Lennon who played the solo and all the fills, always assumed it was George!
For me The Beatles are magical, any era. Compared to them, all other bands – including DP – are just that … bands making in some cases excellent music … whereas the Fab Four were cultural icons of a new age.
September 21st, 2025 at 15:19@67
Ok, so we are back at the old discussion:
Would Purple have happened without the Beatles?
I will the rest of my life on this earth argue that real, raw talent as the true fab 5, that’ll be Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Roger Glover, could never have been hold down!
Even if they didn’t have any who had made the path to walk, they would have walked it!
And how can I suggest that?
Well, before Beatles there was….?
Right! No one!
So if Beatles could happen, so could of course Purple 😊
I know you lawyer head may will explode now, but Purple are so much more than Beatles ever was! ☺️
September 21st, 2025 at 18:46About time they (The Beatles) got out and played live, even if only for a few songs. What could have been eh? And don’t talk to me about that early screaming girlie crap. 1966 to 1970 is The Beatles. With a couple of extra musicians on stage they could have nailed it live. Well they had one extra muso right there with them on that rooftop. Someone else playing mellotron etc, adding that sound and feel to so many classics. Cheers.
September 22nd, 2025 at 11:35Karin, please. Ignorance is never an asset. And loyalty to whatever shouldn’t make one blind.
You were ironic, right? Please use appropriate italics next time!
Without the Beatles, Blackmore would – health allowing – still be playing joints on the Reeperbahn and living off the immoral earnings of his girlfriend.
It’s laughable to compare DP to them, a lot of DP songs don’t even have a catchy chorus and very few of them adapt to acoustic guitar around the camp fire. Harmony vocals, so key to the Beatles success, are almost non-existent with DP except during the Mk III era. The Beatles appealed to older people t0o, my mom was born 1930 and loved them and knew at least three dozen of their songs, I don’t think she knew a single Purple number, not even SOTW, she might have liked the acoustic first part of April though, that got quite a bit of airplay on German radio.
Most former and current DP members are avid Beatles fans (Little Ian is a fan of both Ringo’s drumming and of Macca’s bass playing) and recognize their historical significance. They even covered Beatles songs on their first two albums or with their previous bands:
https://youtu.be/WIM6d_pD_EY
https://youtu.be/K6FI6ddjFxI
Saying that DP (and a thousand other bands) could have happened in a vacuum without the Beatles is like saying the NASA space program didn’t need Wernher von Braun.
https://youtu.be/TjDEsGZLbio
And a song like this one has “Beatles” written all over it:
https://youtu.be/6PYjXgabgCQ
September 23rd, 2025 at 23:49Whooohooo I am in a devil-may-care kinda mood right now and feel strong enough to face the consequences, ich geb dem Affen Zucker:
The Beatles are overrated.
Now there you have it. I done it. I said what noone dares to say.
Well…no…I mean of course they were brillant but just as the automobile or the telephone were results of their time and brainchildren of many a kindred spirit The Beatles didn’t come from nothing. And bands like The Kinks or The Mothers of Invention or …you name them drank from that well of inspiration too. And I guess you could have had DP without The Beatles, yes.
September 24th, 2025 at 11:34@70
“Please use appropriate italics next time!”
– I don’t know how to! And I don’t have that kind of relationship to Nick as you have, so I’m in the dark until ‘someone’ feels so sorry for me that they’ll teach me….☺️☺️
“Without the Beatles, Blackmore would – health allowing – still be playing joints on the Reeperbahn and living off the immoral earnings of his girlfriend.”
– 🤣🤣🤣🤣 oohhh boy! You do have a way with words 😆😆😁 (you are ruining my mascara! 😄😆)
“a lot of DP songs don’t even have a catchy chorus and very few of them adapt to acoustic guitar around the camp fire.”
– in strictest confidence I can tell you that I actually have been sitting around such a fire and was singing several Purple tunes: SotW, Anyone’s Daughter among others 😄 (however no one was suggesting any songs with Beatles!) (oh and I tell you why: a lot of people acknowledge Beatles of course, but compared to the intricate songs of Purple, a lot of Beatles’ material are quite simple, not so demanding to sing and play as Purple’s songs) (not my words, but the guitarist at the time) (around the bonfire)!
“The Beatles appealed to older people t0o, my mom was born 1930 and loved them and knew at least three dozen of their songs”
– ok my mum was born in 1926, and she hated the Beatles so I don’t think it’s legit to claim they appealed to older people as such!
I’m happy for you and your mum that she liked them, but my mum seemed to think they needed to learn to sing (‘instead of all the screaming Karin!’ – can you imagine how she looked when I played Child in Time for her the first time 😝😂) and she would also like to cut their hair!
“Most former and current DP members are avid Beatles fans “
– I’m pretty sure Paul and Ringo also love Purple! I remember that John and George did in fact love them, didn’t George play with them at some concert?
“ They even covered Beatles songs”
– they covered several songs! Lucille is a favourite of mine!
I don’t say Uwe that Beatles wasn’t some kind of influence to Purple, what I indeed say is that raw talents, as the kind we are seeing in Purple, cannot be hold down!
September 24th, 2025 at 12:45I need my silver hammer for Max! Non-violence can only go so far. 🤣
September 24th, 2025 at 14:18@71
“And I guess you could have had DP without The Beatles, yes.”
Well, Max, you and I see eye to eye! 😊
Of course Purple could have happened 😃
I won’t go so far that I’ll call Beatles for overrated, but well compared to Purple they are ☺️😉 (so I did anyway!)
I know they made ‘All you need is love’
https://youtu.be/RJi4iDdxY5M?si=MlJUzG6gYTX4NnpB
And this one of course:
https://youtu.be/wXTJBr9tt8Q?si=4FKDvcnwUa5s9fqS
But COME ON (😉) Purple made this phenomenal gem:
https://youtu.be/jY2Jk1YMhI8?si=bjlcMy0w_Gnk44oO
And this:
https://youtu.be/01-2-7_IRFA?si=sT-BbeAnUw3x5KAc
Ohhh and this:
https://youtu.be/jlHEdkL1VoM?si=JaF9lQc7Ystv8oQB
Not to forget about this:
https://youtu.be/-RYmt3I4gGQ?si=bplFnrzbuqGDnnnZ
I can’t forget this one:
https://youtu.be/uIaXva9akfs?si=rtcrvHEbZaiSp3UG
And this of course:
https://youtu.be/u1kZ9zYr7kk?si=uG_qpzzJBzNCyIWK
(Which is so much better than the one Mark l made!
This is my favourite 🤩
https://youtu.be/zi3lxg9SX28?si=Ok-wZSqlzWNdExKj
And honestly I could go on and on!
However with Beatles (and I really like Beatles 😃) the list is rather short because they lacked so much substance compared to Purple!
If one is sad and heartbroken, it certainly isn’t Beatles I reach out for! It is indeed Purple (and yes, Sir, preferably with Ian as the vocalist) (even though DC isn’t that bad… but that we have covered several times 😄)
Uwe – see your fellow-Germanist agree with the Danish gypsy 😅😅
I remember Paul (or maybe John) mentioned they couldn’t develop their music because of the fans screaming and fainting!
Well, to that I can honestly say that Purple has developed and refined their music even though girls also were screaming 😄 (yes they pumped up the volume!)
Ok, I guess my work here is done!
And Uwe, if you’re interested I would like to link a very interesting article regarding how people’s minds can work in sync, which was indeed what was happening, re what Max wrote:
“you name them drank from that well of inspiration too.”
Thank you and as Dave Allen always said:
September 24th, 2025 at 14:23https://youtu.be/66lUk_qYpm4?si=8_9m7ROUe1IU5jxr
@67
“I never knew it was Lennon who played the solo and all the fills…”
Funny, I came to the same realization when I watched the video just before I posted it here. I was gobsmacked… I too had always assumed that it was George.
September 24th, 2025 at 20:50Admittedly, I didn’t even think Lennon had the chops to play something like that. He was an excellent rhythm guitarist and singer, that is how I remembered him.
September 25th, 2025 at 01:46Regarding rhythm guitarists playing a little lead here and there, it has always had me wondering, how often (if ever at all) do they take that journey. Lennon is one here in the rooftop performance, however what about Malcom Young in ACDC, always playing rhythm. Tom Fogerty in Creedence is another. David Knopfler didn’t appear to play any in the early Dire Straits. No doubt one of a few frustrations that lead to his resignation from that band. James Hetfield in Metallica, surely he delves into it at times? Bruce Welch in The Shadows, did Hank Marvin play all the lead guitar, quite possibly. The list goes on. Cheers.
September 25th, 2025 at 23:15As a child my musical taste ran to Purple / Slade / Nazareth / Zeppelin and Grand Funk – heavier sounds.
The older kids in the neighborhood weren’t too impressed by that kind of music, and were always trying to turn me on to the Beatles.
They knew who played every solo. Another one I remember them saying was done by John was “You Can’t Do That”.
September 26th, 2025 at 03:36https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Dpt7TI9q0
@ 71 – “The Beatles are overrated. Now there you have it. I done it. I said what noone dares to say.” Fair point Max, however I remember saying something along those lines a little while ago here somewhere. As far as the media and certain acolytes go, yes indeed, the Beatles are ‘fawned upon’ far too much. This happens as we have noticed with a few other pop artists over time. Elvis, Dylan and The Stones are a few that spring to my mind. They seem to do no wrong, well some people think that, comical that is. Each to their own, I suppose we can revert to that old chestnut. Thanks for stating the obvious, not many do eh? Plenty of artists would have still produced wonderful music without The Beatles influences. How can some people say that they know that they couldn’t? A crystal ball I suppose could be one way to look at a total hypothetical situation. The Beatles had some influence on a few here and there. I can imagine many artists would have been trying as hard as hell to not be influenced by them. It is the old false worship of a man made deity I fear. Create some sort of myth and surround it with total adoration and submissive worshipping. I had better be careful, I may not live to see another dawn if some folk here get their way. However, I survived the first time I said that, so you should be ok Max. We will live to fight another day. Cheers.
September 26th, 2025 at 07:57@79
“Plenty of artists would have still produced wonderful music without The Beatles influences.”
– MacGregor 🤗 protector of the downtrodden and prosecuted by a certain lawyer and his assistent from the meat-factory in the US! I salute you 🥂
“Plenty of artists would have still produced wonderful music without The Beatles influences. How can some people say that they know that they couldn’t? A crystal ball I suppose could be one way to look at a total hypothetical situation.”
– EXACTLY!
I do acknowledge that Uwe is a clever fella, but even he isn’t clairvoyantic 😁
“I had better be careful, I may not live to see another dawn if some folk here get their way”
September 26th, 2025 at 11:32– don’t be afraid! Uwe is way to busy listening to ms Swift’s newest album…
Dear Mr. MacGregor, never did I suspect you to be among the faint hearted while on the other hand I had to notice your well founded judgement – so it’s not too big a sursprise to me that you offered your doubt regarding the devine status of the fab four. It may just have escaped my attention when you did. I have a hard time following the threads (as I am pretty sure I did mention before). Sometimes family life, work and grocery shopping, not to mention having to get car and teeth fixed gets in the way of much more imoprtant things here at Max towers.
Of course The Beatles were great – and even more so are The Stones in my book (btw I cannot see why the Stones alone shouldn’t have been enough to inspire anyone, in fact besides playing the Blues they came up with some very nice ideas of their own just like the Beatles did.) But saying without the Liverpoodles there would not have been other great bands is really stretching things a bit far.
September 26th, 2025 at 11:35@77
“however what about Malcom Young in ACDC”
– actually when thinking of Oasis, you know the British band that Uwe seems to like a lot, there is a guitarist named Bonehead (Paul Arthurs) who seem to be to Noel what Malcom was to Angus 😃
September 26th, 2025 at 11:42He is really good!
“He’s really good!”
He’s a bar chord pusher, Karin!
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmJlNGJlMWItOWQ4My00ZGZhLTk0NjgtMmNjNGYyZjU1M2UwXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRgq1yJ0_V5u_KIE764YMnmhwZ3hpytKb2icg&usqp=CAU
September 26th, 2025 at 16:31You Beatles naysayers are a bunch of savages! 🤣 Boy, I’m gonna carry that weight of your collective ignorance …
I’m no Beatologist in a strict sense at all, sure I have all their albums, but I do that with a lot of bands, I haven’t even seen the Let It Be Sessions completely, but still The Beatles are my most prominent musical childhood memory and there was never a time as a teenager when I found them “uncool”. Their iconic special status as a band and for music of the second half of the 20th century is an unquestionable given for me. Taking them out of the Rock & Pop history equation is for me like saying marxism would be the same without Karl Marx or psychoanalysis without Sigmund Freud. I consider them that pivotal for everything that followed. And no, I cannot imagine Jon Lord moving on from The Artwoods or Ritchie from Heinz or Lord Sutch to DP if the Fab Four had not come into existence as a the 60s shaping cultural phenomenon.
If I were abducted by Martians in their spaceship and they asked the earthling to explain to them what this rock music on my planet is, I wouldn’t play In Rock, Machine Head or Burn to them, I’d play Sgt. Pepper.
that is not to say that The Beatles could have themselves existed without, say Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly or Elvis – the Fab Four soaked up influences too, but they projected their music into the collective psyche deeper and on a larger scale than anyone before. Of course, the upcoming importance of radio, TV and vinyl played into their hands doing that.
End of my Beatles sermon! 😇
September 26th, 2025 at 23:10Hi guys, I just wanted to share this – again,,,,
So unbelievable beautiful 💔
https://youtu.be/gZQJuOyDJtU?si=Cx7SmeAYNkcirbRI
Hope you all have a lovely weekend 🤗😙
September 27th, 2025 at 05:20@42, Uwe do not despair! German may not be the weirdestest language. Ask the French about “la bite”. Excuse my French.
September 27th, 2025 at 11:53Merci for that bit of info, Attila!
Yup, Ian sang Pictured Within beautifully though it was written with a more gravelly-throated baritone singer in mind by Jon who had a penchant for this type of vocalist (Tony Ashton, DC, Miller Anderson). For some reason, Miller wasn’t available for some Japanese Concerto gigs and Ian had to step in – and with aplomb he did.
September 27th, 2025 at 13:34@ 84 – “If I were abducted by Martians in their spaceship and they asked the earthling to explain to them what this rock music on my planet is, I wouldn’t play In Rock, Machine Head or Burn to them, I’d play Sgt. Pepper.” You would play them ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ wouldn’t you, a bit more akin to their travels and surrounds. Cheers
September 27th, 2025 at 21:29@84 – have been trying to understand for decades why so many folks think the Beatles are the “best” or the “most important” band ever.
Maybe I’m obtuse – still don’t get it.
It could be due to having heard tons of 1950s rock ‘n’ roll before ever encountering a Beatles record, and having as a first impression: these guys don’t hold a candle to the players on the 50s stuff. (“Sgt. Pepper” to explain to a Martian what rock music is? Above Elvis, or Chuck Berry, or Little Richard, or Jerry Lee Lewis?)
Many folks equate marketplace dominance with quality… Could decades of hype, merchandising, movies and saturation airplay be at least part of the reason the moptops are idolised to such an extent?
Some of their stuff is good, yes. But rock ‘n’ roll already existed long before they were around, and no doubt would have continued to evolve and change whether or not they came into being. Have to agree with fellow non-Beatles idolaters like Karin and Max on that. And with MacGregor’s thought that excessive Beatlemania amounts to “false worship of a man made deity.”
Mick Jagger once noted that prior to the Beatles, UK musical artistes mostly hawked their wares to music to the domestic market. And credited the “fab four” with being the first group to give other bands the notion that they too could sell their music worldwide. Perhaps that is their greatest achievement.
Certainly they were the spearhead for the “British Invasion”, paving the way for the international success of the Stones, Kinks, Who etc. Whose music many enjoy as much as or more than that of the Beatles.
September 28th, 2025 at 01:18@85 thanks for that I had not heard it .
September 28th, 2025 at 02:47Awesome!
Thanks agiain!!
Not a huge fan of DSOTM, I prefer WYWH, I find it the deeper record. DSOTM ain’t bad though, perhaps a bit glossy. WYWH sounds more somber.
September 28th, 2025 at 04:15@87
“though it was written with a more gravelly-throated baritone singer in mind”
September 28th, 2025 at 07:04– of all the singers I have heard singing this one, Ian is by far the most emotional 🥹
It’s unbelievable touching ❣️ but then again, isn’t he my all time favourite singer?
Yes, yes he is ☺️
@ 87 – Uwe, what about Elmer Gantry (aka Dave Terry)? That haunting song Where Are You from the Before I Forget album. He also sings a few songs on Cozy’s wonderful Tilt album. Cheers.
September 28th, 2025 at 12:08Yes, Elmer Gantry, I knew I had forgotten someone! Thanks for reminding me.
September 28th, 2025 at 14:57Skippy, The Beatles incorporated American Rock‘n‘Roll into English music hall and opened it to a much wider audience, both generationally and internationally. Before the emergence of the Fab Four, Rock’n’Roll, which had peaked in the mid 50s was on its way out in mainstream appreciation.
There is not much Blues or Rock’n’Roll in Eleanor Rigby, yet the same band could also rock out with Helter Skelter which in my view is heavier than any thing The Kinks, The Who or The Stones did at the time.
September 28th, 2025 at 15:11I agree with Uwe that Roger and co must have been very bothered by Steve’s farewell tour to have brought it up multiple times in interviews now – likely the source of tension between him and the band at the time. I can understand both sides.
I’m still not okay with how they let Steve go – being fired by management after 28 years in a phone call still does not sit right with me. I’m firmly of the opinion that is not how you treat people who have been with you for that long, disagreements aside.
If there was to be a show involving multiple past members of DP, I doubt Steve would take part in it – he barely talks about Purple these days, I have a hunch he’s still very much hurt by how the band told him he’d be leaving. I know I would be.
I really like Simon and the mk 9 material so far, and if I’m honest, I’m still struggling to forgive the band for how they let Steve go – it’s prevented me from enjoying fully the MK 9 lineup as time goes on, as what was done to Steve really goes against my personal values of how you treat people.
I know Roger made the phone call to Steve after in an attempt to smooth things over, and I feel Roger calling Steve to let him go friend to friend initially would have been a better way to do it. Firing by management comes across as cold, tbh.
I’ll find some way to forgive the band, but yeah, I’m still really bothered by it all. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
September 28th, 2025 at 23:31Talking of old school singers and the wonderful Eric Burdon with Rick Wakeman’s band on the show Gas Tank. Also the sublime Alvin Lee on guitar and of course Tony Ashton on piano. Wonderful blues and strange to see Rick playing the blues, well for me it is. Rick’s long time drummer Tony Fernandez, another leftie and superb he is. I had better find out who the bass guitarist is or Uwe may feel a little left out. News flash……Chas Cronk it is on bass. Phewww, found that just in time. Also the second live performance has Phil Lynott and John Sykes playing, wonderful. Phil on rhythm guitar and lead vocal of course. Just came across another clip with Phil Lynott and Sykes, a ballad. Wonderful singer Phil. I have never noticed these three live performances anywhere before. I know, I should get out a little more. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhkhiVK8XQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2dpXamaRj0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7vNlAOQANM&list=RDX7vNlAOQANM&start_radio=1
September 29th, 2025 at 03:37Mike, I’m with you re questions of style in letting Steve go. But unfortunately that followed a not so grand Purple tradition, I’m not aware that anyone ousted from DP’s ranks ever heard from the remaining band members’ decision. Ritchie, Ian G (the first time), David & Jon left at their own volition, but Rod, Nick, Ian G (the second time), Roger, Glenn, Tommy, JLT and Steve all were fed the bad news belatedly through the managerial grapevine. There was never an over-abundance of spine within the DP musicians’ camp when it came down to these types of “difficult” conversations.
Steve was a model citizen of course, which is why it seems especially hurtful, but he was another one in a long line who was dismissed somewhat shabbily, not the first one. According to my count actually #8! Not a great track record for the band. And I‘m talking from experience, I‘ve had to conduct dismissal talks myself (also, sadly, of “good citizens”) and seen grown men crying.
September 29th, 2025 at 14:10@95 – Uwe – if you are saying that their huge commercial success is the basis for Beatles idolatry, because they “opened it (rock music) to a much wider audience” – I fully concur. By that yardstick, yes, no doubt they were the kings of the hill.
Still don’t get how that confers a mantle of musical superiority upon them.
Think the Kinks incorporated elements of “music hall” more seamlessly.
And that almost any of their contemporaries rocked harder. Especially when speaking of their post-“Revolver” material.
“Helter Skelter” strikes me as more noisy than heavy.
Not to mention that many other groups got better mileage out of psychedelic sounds, and came up with less treacly ballads.
All a matter of personal taste I guess!
September 29th, 2025 at 18:46@96 – Mike – it’s a seeming contradiction that Roger seems to be the only one who’s spoken to Steve since his firing… But keeps dwelling on his unhappiness with Steve’s idea of a final tour… And was also the one who blabbed the fact that Steve WAS fired in the first place. Which was presumably supposed to be kept confidential.
What is consistent is the heartless way the band has always discarded people, leaving management to do the dirty work.
Seem to recall that ol’ Rog himself was on the verge of getting the boot in 1973, before he found out and walked before they made him run?
Still, if we stopped listening to every group because the band members weren’t the nicest of guys…
Eg, The Who, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin…
We wouldn’t have much left to listen to!
September 29th, 2025 at 18:56Geoff Emerick and George Martin really did make The Beatles sound so much better and creative for all to hear. Can we imagine The Beatles without their input? Cheers.
https://www.fivegrandstereo.com/blogs/music/geoff-emerick-the-real-beatles-producer
September 29th, 2025 at 21:19@98 Does it have to do with the British business culture that amplifies the certain part of the British culture in general, like the unwillingness to have a candid conversation because it may lead to a conflict? I heard it that the British would avoid an awkward situation by all means, even if it means not conveying directly a message that has to be conveyed. In business environment, it means that people just keep sawing off the legs of the chair the unfortunate person sits upon, and then when it all is done, they go: ‘Oh, Johnny/Tommy/Sally, how are you doing? Nice weather, innit? Have you noticed by any chance, that the team has moved on without you? No? Really? Oh, it’s a pity…’
September 30th, 2025 at 10:41Compositionally, neither The Kinks nor The Who nor The Stones could have recorded something like Sgt Pepper, no matter who the engineers or producers would have been. The Stones tried with Their Satanic Majesties Request and that didn’t work out at all. The Beatles sinply had the more versatile songwriters with Macca and Lennon who could write individually, but also together. And that is not even counting in George who developed into an astute songwriter in his own right as well as The Beatles matured.
Songwritingwise, The Who were a Townshend vehicle and The Kinks a Ray Davies one (novelty songs like Death Of A Clown by his brother ignored), the Stones were in the claws of the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership, but they excelled more in working as a team than as representing different styles.
September 30th, 2025 at 10:53@83
“He’s a bar chord pusher, Karin!”
September 30th, 2025 at 12:04– well so was Malcom I guess!
(Sigh – shake my head in silence while mourning one of the cutest, smallest bar chord pushers there ever was, drinking Sunday tea at his sister’s with Angus 🥺)
@90
Aww Kidpurple, you’re very welcome.
I always get teared up listening to this song.
September 30th, 2025 at 14:41I would put Townshend as the most prolific songwriter of those British musicians you mentioned Uwe. Although at the time of 1967, the Lennon and McCartney combination had a head start and working with George Martin helped them there. Once Townshend wrote Tommy though it is daylight between them with ole Pete way out in front. No way would I put Jagger and Richards in with L/M as a duo songwriting twosome, as you correctly stated. Ray Davies, hmmmmmm, a fine musician and a good writer, particularly earlier on, probably not as prolific though to my ears. Cheers.
October 3rd, 2025 at 21:32Uwe is right to point out this is a pattern of behaviour with respect to firings in the band’s history, and I actually find Georgivs suggestion that it might have to do with British culture and avoidance of difficult conversations to be particularly insightful.
I also agree with Skippy that it is odd that Roger keeps bringing up Stve’s suggestion fo a farewell tour – I sense some possible resentment there on Roger’s part, and I agree, it is odd that he aired the dirty laundry in public instead of giving Steve his privacy and letting him feel dignified in terms of what the public knows about the situation.
Then again, if Rog is feeling a bit resentful towards Steve, airing the dirty laundry in public suddenly makes a lot of sense…
Skippy is correct that if we didn’t listen to bands that have treated their members badly that we wouldn’t have much to listen to. This is why I said I will need to find some way to forgive the band for how they treated Steve, and move forward and continue to enjoy their music.
Now, for the record, like Uwe, I too am a band leader and have had to have difficult conversations with folks in the past and let them go. It is never an easy thing to do – I’ve often felt guilty after doing it – so if I think about the situation with Steve, or anyone else in the band’s history of firings, suddenly the behavior to avoid the conversations and do it via management makes a lot of sense.
I don’t have management, and even if I did, I’d still elect to have the conversation face to face. It’s happened before, and will continue to happen again. It never gets any easier, so I can actually have some compassion for the guys if I consider their position and feelings – perhaps I can use this to help me forgive the band and move on.
Thank you all for your comments, they’ve been incredibly insightful and helpful regarding sorting through my feelings. Not sure this forum is intended to be used as a group therapy session, but hey, if the shoe fits….
October 5th, 2025 at 02:52Most people tend to act cowardly in seperation scenarios, except those sociopaths who enjoy people showing the door to demonstrate power. That said, in a band scenario, you’re adding insult to injury if you are not (wo)man enough to tell the other guy about his future. It seems that with maybe the exception of DC (in his WS days) no one in the Purple camp was ever good at this (with Jon and Little Ian trying to keep their hands especially clean), even Ritchie with his hire & fire reputation preferred management and roadies to bring the bad news. I don’t think he ever had an open discussion with RJD why he didn’t see him in Rainbow’s future from late 1978 onwards and Dio seemingly never got over this either.
Mike, when I mentioned that I had to fire people, I was talking about work mostly, I headed our department for a few years, it was part of the job. Funnily enough, though I was never a “band leader” in the bands I played (except perhaps in my first one, I would describe my role in bands more akin to that of a drill sergeant/coach), that led to me bringing the bad news in bands too, but overall I had to lead termination discussions with more people in my professional life than as a hobby musician.
My golden rules in termination discussions were always:
– Treat them like you would want to be treated if the roles were reversed.
– No matter how gentle and fair you go about things, don’t expect the guy/girl on the other side of the table (an observation: women tend to handle such situations better than men) to love you for it, they have the right to project negative feelings. Your job is also that of a punching ball.
– Make people un-humiliated leavers, give them the chance to walk out erect and with the self-perception of having cut a good deal. Organisations don’t have feelings, to them it is just headcount statistics, but people do.
October 5th, 2025 at 16:14Dio was well aware of the impending end of is involvement in that incarnation of Rainbow Uwe. At least from what I have read over the years. Blackmore and Dio were quickly ‘growing’ apart and Dio had a good inkling by then of Blackmore’s attitude and frustrations and everything else. Dio was annoyed and his ego hurt, simple really. Same scenario happened with the Sabbath guys, Iommi and Butler. Ronnie certainly didn’t enjoy his tenure in a few bands where he wasn’t the control freak. Cheers.
October 5th, 2025 at 20:51Reading all this, I recall an old interview from Rog (can’t find the damn link, sorry). He was talking about his Rainbow days. Back in 1979, when he hadn’t even formally joined the band but was a hired producer, he had a conversation with Ritchie about the singer, whoever was on board before Graham joined. Ritchie asked what Rog thought about him. Rog replied that he was sorta okay but Ritchie deserved better. To which Ritchie said: “Then go ahead and fire him. You are the producer.” Which Rog duly did. We have quite a bit of history here.
October 6th, 2025 at 07:54@108 Dear Uwe, you sound like you are looking for a job of this type:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/characters/nm0000123/?ref_=tt_cst_c_1
My company starts laying off people as of now. Shall I bring my management in touch with you?)
October 6th, 2025 at 10:03Sure, Dio saw what was coming as Blackmore grew more aloof using Roger (then still only the producer for the coming album) to transmit messages to Dio. And he had of course himself witnessed that fateful 1978 tour with REO Speedwagon where Rainbow failed to make inroads with an AOR audience, this triggering Ritchie’s desire to purge and rearrange the band.
But none of that is an adequate replacement for a face-to-face with Ronnie where Ritchie might have said: “It was great while it lasted and your contribution to the first three albums was valued, but I have something else in mind for the band going forward and I don’t think it is something where you can or want to go.” That doesn’t seem so awfully hard for two men in their mid 30s.
I do find it kind of weird that following Dio’s eviction from Rainbow, Blackmore and him never spoke again all the way until (and including) Dio’s premature passing, that was more than 30 years of radio silence between them. Dio after all having been the guy who had Blackmore leave the security and comfort blanket of DP behind in 1975 and enter into the Rainbow venture.
Don’t get me wrong, there was really no place for Dio’s stern and solemn voice (nor for his mature look as a frontman and the lyrics he preferred) in the kind of poppy hard rock Blackmore envisaged Rainbow to adopt in 1978/79, but the communication could have been so much better.
October 6th, 2025 at 15:32Up In The Air was a great movie and contained some eternal truths, Georgivs!
Be assured that I never volunteered for this type of work, I would procrastinate like hell before those discussions.
The Rainbow singer who almost had the job you mentioned, I wonder whether that was Pete Goalby who in German Musik Express was already announced as Dio‘s replacement several weeks before Graham Bonnet was then surprisingly pulled out of the hat. Goalby had an AOR voice alright, but not Bonnet‘s laddish gung-ho uninhibited power, he was a much more careful singer.
But Roger wasn‘t entirely sure about Graham either, Ritchie, Don and Cozy were all flabbergasted by his audition singing/hollering Mistreated, but Roger apparently had second thoughts along the lines of something ain‘t quite right with him.
October 6th, 2025 at 19:41Different strokes for different folks Uwe. So many, as we are well aware do the very same. They don’t ever speak again, it doesn’t surprise me. With all that supposed ‘Classic Rainbow’ reunion garbage being pedalled in the media in the later 1990’s, I didn’t believe any of that at all. Dio has his ego and pride, the same as others do including Blackmore. It wasn’t to be for the Sabbath guys thankfully. Although Iommi has been known to not communicate directly to certain band members over the years, with those who eventually moved on. At least they (H&H) got back together and let bygones be bygones. Some people never forgive and forget, it depends on the individual and the circumstances. Cheers.
October 6th, 2025 at 21:25It looks like Uwe’s ‘predominately male only concert attendees’ myth is about to be blown out of the water. Although having said that, it may increase the male only concert goers, time will tell. I have always said that Lee and Lifeson should get another drummer after Neil’s unfortunate passing. Time no doubt is of the essence. So glad they have gone with a relatively unknown drummer too, and a chick. Well I will be damed, can they play the drums can they? Cheers.
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/anika-nilles-rush-drummer/
October 6th, 2025 at 22:16well Anika can certainly play alright (as if I need any convincing), she had to pass the pub test. The little worry I have is whether Geddy’s voice holds out. If he keeps it in a nutshell, he should be fine. This post will hopefully stop Uwe or anyone else sending a plethora of female drumming links in. And Anika is German too. Seriously though, good luck to her, this is good to see. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AqEARVsUgM&t=251s
October 6th, 2025 at 22:37Thanks for making me aware, Herr MacGregor! l hadn’t heard of Anika Nilles before, but I’m happy for Geddy and Alex doing something together again, Rush’s music deserves to be played and she certainly has the chops. There will be naysayers of course, Neil Peart has saintly status with a lot of people, but I never saw him so much as a drummer brimming with testosterone than as a drumming intellectual and expert. I believe it would be more difficult for a woman to gain acceptance following, say, John Bonham on a drum stool, there was more of an animal at work there.
I also welcome that they will be touring with a keyboard player on stage, keyboards have been such an integral part of the Rush sound for so long, preserving a three piece image had become an end in itself while the music had moved on long ago. I see no real benefit or valor in wringing a maximum of musical tones out of a minimum of people in a live setting, rather have the number of musicians you need on stage to credibly project your music.
Really hope this works out well for her, the two mourning Rush members and the worldwide fan community. There is a lot of goodwill for it too already …
https://youtu.be/5N7D4JXpLRc
PS: Not sure whether Anika‘s Canadian recruitment really proves your rather valiant point in Rush having developed into “chick music“ overnight though 😂, I read that she had scant knowledge of Rush’s oeuvre before meeting up with Geddy and Alex as she had never listened to them much! Which might actually work out for the better. You wouldn’t want someone there who has been playing along to Rush albums since (s)he was a child, mimicking every Neal Peart paradiddle.
In any case, I believe that the female turn-off in Rush was not Peart’s complex drumming – it’s not like women don’t appreciate nimble ability in a man and Peart was after all also a very visual drummer – but Geddy’s tone of voice, I never detected much of a Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye influence there. 😂
PPS: If anything, her drumming reminds me of Mark Nauseef’s – probably the world music polyrhythm influence. I never found Neil Peart in all his skill and wit particularly world music, but you can judge that better.
October 7th, 2025 at 21:59Why is the option always between “never speaking again” and “Let’s have a reunion!”? I never thought Ritchie and Ronnie would or should get back together again, Blackmore had moved on from that type of music, but not talking at all for 30 years? The two of them curating a remix/remaster of their past work together and perhaps a joint interview for the liner notes was more what I would have had in mind as a mature(d) relationship. (Re)Appreciating the past and wishing to relive it are really two different things.
I once read that in the 70s Paul McCartney showed up unannounced on John Lennon’s NYC doorstep and rather than talking reunion plans, jamming or writing songs together, Paul helped John baking a bread in the kitchen oven the latter was busy with (and apparently deemed a most daunting task … 😎) and they just spent the evening together in the apartment after John had put his son to bed (Yoko wasn’t around). Is there no middle ground between hating each other’s guts and and falling into each other’s arms exclaiming the resurrection of The Beatles? Most of real life takes place in that undramatic middle ground area.
October 7th, 2025 at 22:33@118
“and they just spent the evening together in the apartment after John had put his son to bed (Yoko wasn’t around).”
– 😄😄
Of course she wasn’t home! EVERYONE knows she was the main reason that Beatles was done! (Or that is what I heard at the Beatles fan group! Quite similar to this one….)
October 8th, 2025 at 16:32I believe Yoko (and John being drawn to her) was more a symptom of John‘s growing alienation from The Beatles than the root cause. That ”Yoko did it!“-conspiracy theory (with a pinch of anti-Asian racism at its core) never convinced me. The Quarrymen/The Beatles were together for a hell of a long time – from 1958 to 1970 – especially for back then. John and Paul had been making music together since even 1957. In those 12 to 13 years, they grew from teenagers to men and reshaped global pop music along the way. Things became a bit crowded with first two and then three prolific songwriters, it is a wonder they lasted as long as a group as they did.
October 8th, 2025 at 21:13@ 117 – I hadn’t heard about an additional keyboard player with this recent Rush setup, I have obviously missed that in these recent articles. However I was thinking that back in the late 80’s, even the band briefly thought about it from what I read. I agree with the trio concept being too restrictive. They sort of got away with it with the help of technology, however to me it could have been much better with an additional musician onstage playing the keyboards. We hope the keyboard player will be visible and not hidden off stage? Anika as a musician unfamiliar with Rush music is a really good move and of course she is a down to earth individual. The last thing that was never going to happen was a so called big name with a huge ego to be in that position. Lee and Lifeson are not silly, they would never go down that path. Regarding the good friendship with certain musicians, yes it is better to forgive than to hold onto past animosities. McCartney held out an olive branch to Lennon so to speak and good on him for that. Some people can do it, some cannot. Humans eh? Cheers.
October 8th, 2025 at 22:02Just read in The Daily Stoopid that Tillythemax sent to me that new Rush-drummer Anika Nilles was excited to be the only woman in the arena …😄
October 10th, 2025 at 08:12🤣😂🤣😂
I actually love it that Rush so defied expectations and picked a woman. And the curiosity and solidarity factor alone will drag a few females to those gigs, women musicians especially. So it’s all good. Even at old age, Geddy and Alex deserve to finally see a few female faces in their audience – Canada has an abundance of qualified therapists well-versed in advice on how to deal with wimmin …
https://media.tenor.com/OJrC5MRsqD4AAAAM/jordan-peterson-jbp.gif
who can gently prepare them for that first encounter pre-tour.
I wonder if Geddy still has a few of his gender-bending kimonos in his wardrobe he could offer Fräulein Anika for the tour?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2b/e6/71/2be67171698c7ecf33a57738a167b7e2.jpg
Or, particularly poignant, one of Neil’s?
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDMLCLIZvs8CRnD0gAU-_FutyhLLgQyMp_0axlbEXhcw&s=10
Not to mention how Geddy and Alex were always adept with the eye shadow and rouge even under severe lighting, so Anika can have free makeup tips too!
https://preview.redd.it/rush-1977-photo-by-fin-costello-v0-in170i0j1yid1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=efacef6b3763b46ea622fb89a869034642cef91d
So Geddy and our Alex will be the ones to start
To mold a new identity
Closer to the heart …
If they tour Europe, I might actually go see them just for the heck of it. Seen Rush live twice, might as well make it three with now the girl from Aschebersch (= local dialect pronunciation of her hometown of Aschaffenburg).
October 10th, 2025 at 13:37@122
So now they have at least one female at their concerts Max 😄
October 10th, 2025 at 16:46The big question regarding Anika drumming for Rush is, will the all male audience continue to ‘air drum’ at the concert. Or will they rebel and insist on just standing there wondering what the hell is going on? Apparently Rush concerts had the most air drummers in the audience than any other band ever has, from what I have read. Go Anika, you can do it. Real drumming that is, forget all those pesky male drummer wanna bee’s in the audience. Cheers.
October 11th, 2025 at 10:42I doubt Rush will tour Europe Uwe, this just sounds like a closer to home series of concerts to me. Dream Theater just pulled out of a European tour, for whatever reason. I think they did tour there in recent years on a few different occasions. Is that Brexit hassle sinking bands enthusiasm to tour over there these days? Or is that only a hassle for British artists touring there? Cheers.
https://musiciansunion.org.uk/news/touring-in-the-eu-post-brexit-key-findings-and-next-steps-from-the-mu-s-recent-survey
October 11th, 2025 at 10:56Isn’t it always said that wimmin are good at multitasking?
https://media.tenor.com/EZhejqOq2ggAAAAM/girl-multitasking.gif
I would assume that has to be a core trait of any drummer with Rush?
With ze Känädiäns now marching to a Tshörmen beat, I’m hoping for some traditional military zest!
https://youtu.be/qtfZ3ZYxfSY
October 11th, 2025 at 12:37@125
MacGregor, it’s not that I haven’t tried to listen to Rush, because indeed I have, but oohhhh man that voice 😝 my skin cringe and my ears bleed!
October 11th, 2025 at 12:49But maybe the young lady isn’t so sensitive 😃
All those early Rush images are amusing to say the least, just what were they thinking back then? It does raise an interesting conundrum though. Does Uwe have any photos of his younger days when he apparently or (allegedly) had very long hair, down to his waist I think he said recently. If so, is there any chance any of us interested people here at THS may lay our innocent eyes upon them? Especially when you are heading out on the town Uwe (red light district), and preferably before the event and not after. Cheers.
October 11th, 2025 at 21:22You inquisitive little pesky pests, if you insist …
https://photobucket.com/bucket/f30ee81d-9dda-4c8e-b420-7df2d57cf3d6/media/c0edc34c-e50a-4b13-a74b-1e2a18853c24
Satisfied? 😎 This must have been around 1981/1982 at a club gig. Notice the Farrah Fawcett T-shirt which my then girlfriend didn’t like me wearing at all. Also included: studded wrist band, gun belt, goggles, hand cuffs, garter … full regalia, I was very much into Judas Priest back then. This was actually before the mullet.
October 12th, 2025 at 20:57No worries, Karin, in general, a female brain cannot really process Rush. It’s like parallel parking to you, nature just closes some doors.
Imagine males attempting to watch Dirty Dancing, it escapes us in similar fashion.
https://youtu.be/XINddkzfTzM
I personally preferred Flashdance in any case. The trials and tribulations of a petite female industrial welder in a Philly steel mill earning some money on the side in a strip club and dreaming of a ballet career plus falling in love with the wealthy and ruggedly handsome owner of the steel mill were never more accurately portrayed. I like some realism in my movies.
https://youtu.be/miax0Jpe5mA
October 12th, 2025 at 21:23@131
Well well well, it’s not that I can’t process Rush! I just don’t wanna!
That voice makes me sick!
I actually don’t know what it is, but in my head all the most obnoxious colours are emerging! 😫🤯😭😭😭
When you mention teen-movies (and yes I guess you saw them all!) what about this one:
https://youtu.be/UQK5Hh0L1Sg?si=eSjYFtxm9FtEz_1-
It’s funny, a bit romantic and Matthew Perry is in it 😃
October 13th, 2025 at 13:18I never saw that one, Karin!
October 13th, 2025 at 21:10