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Is no more — officially

Another historical article, announcing the dissolution of Deep Purple Mark 4. It originally appeared in the issue of Sounds from July 24, 1976. Purple: the end By Hugh Fielder DEEP PURPLE is no more — officially. One of Britain’s longest running and most successful heavy rock bands have split up — as predicted exclusively in […]

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Court minstrels of yesteryear with electric guitars

Geir Myklebust posts on his blog a Rainbow Rising review by Geoff Barton that first appeared in the issue of Sounds from May 22, 1976: “WITH RAINBOW’S music I intend to carry on and expand upon the essence of Deep purple — aggressiveness — and at the same time add a kind of medieval feel […]

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Play that funky music

Deep Purple live at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland, USA, on January 15, 1976. This a slightly longer version of the video that has been floating before. Now with more drumming!

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Don’t blow your cookies

Guitar Player reprints online excerpts from an interview conducted with Tommy Bolin on October 7, 1976. It originally appeared in the March 1977 issue of the magazine. What did you learn from playing behind Albert King? I learned a lot about lead; learned that you don’t have to blow your cookies in the first bar. […]

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A day in the life of a roadie

A fascinating article from the April 17, 1976, issue of Sounds. They’ve sent one of their journalists to be embedded, as we might say now, with the crew of one established band and the crew of an upcoming one. The established band happened to be Deep Purple Mark 4 playing a couple of gigs at […]

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Shand Grenade

Continuing with blast from the past, another band down the list of ‘heavy hopefuls’ circa 1976 is actually more progressive and fusion than heavy…

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A potential supergroup

Another bit of history appearing in the venerable Music History for Those Who Are Able to Read blog. It is an article from Sounds magazine, originally published on April 17, 1976. The article is an overview of several hard rock bands that were “new” at the day, with Rainbow among them. Ritchie Blackmore`s Rainbow Ritchie […]

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The end of the beginning

Mike Eriksson (of the Swedish Deep Purple Forever fan club fame) is posting a series of articles in his blog dedicated to what ended up being the last Deep Purple tour in the 1970s. Which, coincidentally, was happening 40 years ago as we speak — at the end of 1975 and beginning of 1976. 40 […]

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Rainbow’76 documentary

The old management company Deep Purple (Overseas) (who have also managed Rainbow in 1975-78) have released a short documentary video about the band originally made in 1976 to promote the band. (watch inside)

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Phoenix Rising details

The Mk.4 release Phoenix Rising which is due on May 20 in Europe will be released in the following package formats:

  • DVD+CD in DVD-style digipak
  • CD+DVD in CD-style jewel case
  • Blue-ray
  • 2LP+DVD
  • Audio CD separately (not confirmed by the label, but listed on Amazon)

Now let’s sort out what contains what.

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