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Once upon a time in Budokan
After a year-long hiatus of 2025, Deep Purple have started their massive world tour on April 11 at the place that helped them to get propelled into the superstardom — Tokyo Budokan. Potential spoilers ahead.
Read more »A mountain burned down…
In the last couple of weeks Ritchie Blackmore’s official YT channel has posted several short clips of Jon Lord reminiscing about Deep Purple’s selected albums and tracks. Most (all?) of these had been available before in one form or another. Here they are as a playlist, albeit in reverse chronological order — starting with Stormbringer […]
Read more »Speakeasy 1974
Ritchie Blackmore’s official YT channel presents Jon Lord, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ian Hunter in conversation with Chip Monck in 1974. Ritchie Blackmore has opened up his tape archive and found a great interview following Deep Purple’s triumphant California Jam show in April 1974. Chip Monck hosted the 1974 rock talk show Speakeasy, which featured an […]
Read more »A yodel for 17 strings and 2 sticks
Check out Steve Morse, John Petrucci, Dave LaRue, and Mike Portnoy jamming on a cover of Focus classic Hocus Pocus. This was recorded during the last John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe event, that took place in Las Vegas on August 7-10, 2025.
Read more »A very personal piece
Steve Morse, his band, and his son Kevin have recorded a composition Taken By An Angel, dedicated to his late wife Janine. After losing my wife and Kevin losing his stepmother, this is the piece we put together as a tribute. The part at the end was actually something I had written as a chapter […]
Read more »It’s never too late for a first
Extra! Extra! Ian Paice announces his first ever solo album, which should be out some time before the end of the next (2026) year, and promises this to be “not a drumming album”. Bonus: a drum cam(s) video of Lucifer from the Turning to Crime sessions.
Read more »Get yourself tangled up
Ian Gillan contributed vocals to a track on a new album from Italian band UROCK. The band is led by singer Umberto Urock, and the track in question is called The Line, which is the title track of the band’s second album. Umberto lives just down the road from me in Portugal. He did a […]
Read more »‘Ere’s a song fo’ya, one last time
[Updated Dec 11] A pro shot of a complete Whitesnake show from June 2, 2022, in Hamar, Norway, was posted to them intertubes. It is described to be the video wall production with front-of-the-house soundboard sound. It is one of the last Whitesnake live performances (if not THE last one) that was professionally recorded.
Read more »Live in Kuala Lumpur
Here is a complete recording of the Deep Purple show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on November 23, 2025. It is a decent quality audience recording, albeit with some audio distortion on the left channel.
Read more »Looking back across the years
Whitesnake have released what is claimed to be the last ever music video — 2025 remixed title track from the Forevermore album. This is the “unzipped” version, featuring the Hook City Strings ensemble and a gracefully aging DC.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing