![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan2.jpg)
The “new” guy in the band
In anticipation of the June 11 show in Atlantic City, another interview with Steve Morse appeared in the local press:
I love being part of this. Musically this has been the easiest group I’ve been a part of. It’s a relaxed atmosphere.The songs are simply structured. I play with a band that has lots of intensity. It’s fun and perhaps the best thing is that you can do what you want.
We’ve been seeing a lot more teens and people in their 20s at shows. It’s a funny thing because people that age couldn’t have seen Richie Blackmore as the Deep Purple guitarist. They could have only seen me. That’s a cool thing. I want to make sure that they get the best possible experience. They need to leave the venue knowing that they have just witnessed one of the best hard rock bands ever. We have a reputation to protect every night we step on that stage.
Read more in Atlantic City Weekly.
After the show, a pretty much glowing review appeared in Press of Atlantic City:
Few bands have successfully gone through major lineup changes – particularly the replacement of its lead singer and lead guitarist – and remain together as long and stay as successful as Deep Purple.
More than 40 years after the band formed and eventually became British rock royalty, Deep Purple proved Saturday night that it still has a few tricks up its sleeve, performing to a packed Tropicana Casino and Resort showroom backed by a nearly 30-piece orchestra.
Read the rest at pressofAtlanticCity.com.
Thanks to Andrey Barabanshchikov for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
To me it’s funny, and strange at the same time, that Steve is still playing more Blackmore tunes than Steve Morse tunes, and that most fans still looks at Blackmore as THE guitar player in Deep Purple.
June 17th, 2011 at 07:45Ritchie who?
June 17th, 2011 at 07:51Kids of today, eh? Poor sods.
June 17th, 2011 at 08:31To them ‘one the best hard rock bands ever’ will mean a robotic, airbrushed guitar sound akin to playing an mp3 from laptop speakers…and a geriatric rapping lead vocalist who ‘lost it’ years ago……..
Blackmore one of the best gitar players and songwriters but Morse is a best replasement for Ritchi.
June 17th, 2011 at 11:03A saw him with DP couple of weeks ago in Israel playing – lord of the strings.
Hope to see DP again in Tel Aviv.
People remember Richie because he was the band when it was popular
June 17th, 2011 at 11:05Ritchie fuckin who wrote the main part of the material they play today, And numerous of classics that DIO performed untill his departure.
June 17th, 2011 at 11:58Where would they have been without this god songwriter.
Technically Steve outshines both Blackmoore Hendrix and alot of others But when it comes to songwriting and feeling in their playin he is miles after the above mentioned swedish miles by the way.
@3,
Simple answer to the likes of your posts. Get off of the bus. The Lady Ga Ga local always has some seats open….
Peace,
Ted :>
June 17th, 2011 at 12:06If Deep Purple had 10 guitar players after Ritchie, “the Goast of The Banjo Player” as Satriani mentioned in one of his interviews, would still hunt the Band and they would still be playing Mark II songs at the most.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:55On a youtube I saw today ,one said not to understand why people were still passionately willing to continue talking about Ritchie vs Morse.
He, like some here, would like us to shut up forever and so that they can indulge themselves in the fairytale of the current line up.
May youngsters of today are yet not able to look back and realise that the music they love is way inferior to what happened in the 60 s and 70 s.
Certain people, like the current line up, exploit that phenomenon, make loads of money with compositions from the past.
Without Ritchie most songs or bands would never had gotten off the ground.
One often thinks that DP without Gillan and Glover never would have made it.
I dont believe that, he would have found another way to become succesfull.
June 17th, 2011 at 14:23Nobody replaces Blackmore. Steve is a great guitarist, Bolin was enormous, but each of them do their song. We’ll never forget Ritchie, that’s impossible, new guys will know why.
June 17th, 2011 at 14:24Deep Purple were lucky to get Steve Morse.
LLDP
June 17th, 2011 at 15:43Long Live the Morse Era!!
June 17th, 2011 at 17:04@ 7
Can’t stand Lady Ga Ga, sorry.
But recently I have purchased:
Black Country Communion 1 & 2
Deep Purple MkIV: CTTB and Phoenix Rising
Rainbow reissues
Black Sabbath reissues
Whitesnake new album
and
Gillan/Iommi “Who Cares” which I like a lot, actually.
Peace to you too!!
June 17th, 2011 at 20:45Love him or hate him Ritchie is who most people think of when they hear DP, because ALL THEY EVER FRICKIN” HEAR is SOTW,WFT, or Highway Star! I thought the world of RB when he was with Purple (still do, just not very into BN), but where would DP be without Steve Morse?? They most likely would be done, SM deserves a lot of credit for going out every night playing old DP classics without getting to play much of your own stuff and besides that he is just an awesome guitarist without a huge ego to satisfy. If radio played more Deep Purple material from the Morse era (never happen) there would be some classics, repetition over and over again, he would win over lots of haters. Time to jump off the soapbox, heading to Chicago tomorrow for the show 🙂 can’t wait…………………cheers
June 17th, 2011 at 21:47Blackmore was the best guitar player ever in every way.Technically songwriting fantasy when he pleyed the guitar and many more…Morse is just a good guitarist but very boring and whithout songwriting talent and thats all…
June 18th, 2011 at 12:04Long live the Morse Era…. Great us tour!!
June 18th, 2011 at 13:07Ritchie Blackmore…. eheh, what a guitarist, a musician!!
Steve Morse is good but really off with DP, his sound is not Purple…
… Ritchie…. 🙂
June 18th, 2011 at 20:21Love the bickering . But for my money , these guys are well worth seeing . No RB ? Well that’s just tough . I think like some others , DP were very fortunate to get Steve Morse .They could have been like some bands that try and prolong their careers and had three or four different guys in and out of the band by now .Steve can play with these guys as long as he wants .
June 18th, 2011 at 20:33The other night we palyed a Pub here in Devon. During the 1st Set, our singer told the Audience that we would play some Deep Purple during the 2nd Set. “We know everything by Deep Purple” shouted an audience member. Later when given a selection of DP songs to chose from they chose –
Black Night
Smoke on the Water
When a Blind Man Cries
No Ted the Maniachenic, Rapture of the Deep or Sometimes I feel Like screaming.
It seems that British Pub-goers haven’t heard of Steve Morse or feel the need to be enlightened – Shame!
Still, a good time was had by all!
– She was dancing on the Table, when she’s drunk & she is able, dancing on the Table
June 19th, 2011 at 01:48THIS DISCUSSION WILL GO ON FOREVER, TO ME, RITCHIE IS DEEP PURPLE, HAD THE PLEASURE OF SEEING HIM WITH THE BAND IN 91. I HONESTLY DON’T THINK THERE IS A MORE ACCOMPLISHED GUITARIST OUT THERE. HE CAN DO WHAT EVER HE WANTS AND MAKE IT WORK,EVEN IF IT’S NOT EVERYONES CUP OF TEA. I PREFER HIS WORK AS THE GREATEST HARD ROCK GUITARIST,BUT RESPECT HIS CURRENT WORK AS WELL.
June 20th, 2011 at 12:13Steve MUST have a big ego.
He took the job for which he is not suited and since that his EGO imposed his boring repetitive solos with the WRONG SOUND on us.
Look at the many years he ruuined the originally subtle solo of WABMC.
Look at HardLoving Man :
June 20th, 2011 at 19:29He finally plays the music as it should be nut halfway the solo there it comes again : that trick he once learned in a guitarshop and implements in every song!!!!
The Holy Chair wrote the holy words.
June 21st, 2011 at 12:35Tony Iommi would be better choice.Listen “Who Cares” 🙂
Holy Chair/Purplepriest????
Steve took the job because the other 4 members of the band hired him. He is more than suited for the job and gives his take on the Blackmore tunes which he varies each time he plays them. Yes, he has his ‘signature’ runs as did and does Blackmore. To this day, even in BN Ritchie repeats many parts of his solos. To listen to Blackmore from 1985 and beyond, he played the same songs the same way until his bailing out for the last time. Steve has been in Purple for almost 18 years. He has evolved into a harder Rock player over the last few. You can listen to his stuff evolve if you take the time to listen to performances from each tour. I find his take on the Old Tunes to be refreshing and am totally satisfied with his tenor. I just wish there were more albums from this line-up, and more songs played live from this line-up.
Cheers
June 22nd, 2011 at 03:23I did mention the transfer a few weekes ago.
Appearantly some miss the Priest : )
June 22nd, 2011 at 15:09Miss the Priest??? Nah. Chair or Priest…..same negative bastard…LOL.
Funny how you choose your names though you have made it clear you give no creedence to God or Christianity. Oh yeah, I get it…..Blackmore is your God. Well, good luck with your afterlife. Sure is gonna be hot there…..
Cheers
June 22nd, 2011 at 21:20I’m 18 years old and I love Deep Purple. I think that their first three lineups are all solid gold despite changing singers and bass players for each lineup and divergent sounds for each, each had their charm. Mark I was a little imbalanced and too unsure of whether or not they wanted to be pop or hard rock, but it was still a great lineup and they made great albums. Mark II had the most cohesive sound and was by far the best lineup of the group, with almost all of their albums being complete and utter classics with not a single note of filler in between. Mark III was a little strange, but their two albums are very good and songs like “Burn” and “Mistreated” are some of the bands’ absolute bests.
As for Mark IV…was it Deep Purple? No….
Why is this? Tommy Bolin has (well had) a great solo album shouldn’t the band still have been good?
No.
DEEP PURPLE IS RITCHIE BLACKMORE, JON LORD, and IAN PAICE.
Could Led Zeppelin go on without Jimmy Page or John Paul Jones? No!!
These three musicians defined the band and remained as its core for its best and most definitive years.
I love Gillan’s vocals and I think that Glover was the best Purple bassist but THEY are not Purple, and neither is just Paice, who has always been in the band. Deep Purple is Blackmore, Lord, and Paice, and right now, only Paice is still in the band. Morse has decent solo work but his style is just NOT Purple, and hes all technique and no feel. He has the lamest stage presence and looks so uncool, unlike Blackmore who had an extremely original style, both in playing and appearance. As for Don Airey, I love his playing for Ozzy and Sabbath but hes also NOT Purple. He just does not have the Jon Lord sound!
So were Mark IV and the post Mark II reunion lineups BAD? No!
Are they TRULY Deep Purple?
Never.
June 23rd, 2011 at 03:01@ 25
Hell for me is COLD.
June 23rd, 2011 at 13:32Hmmmmm. Let’s see here, you are presently 18 years old and Purple has been around for 40 and through 8 line-ups. I saw MK-3 in Miami in 1974 when I was 18 years old. Been a fan since I first heard ‘HUSH’ in 1968. I’m not ridiculing you, nor saying you can’t have an opinion about this band. On the contrary. I love to see younger listeners put in their 2 cents as much as us older fans, but there is an obvious level of opinion that realistically can be thrown around regarding the legitimacy of who is or isn’t the Real Deep Purple. To better direct your opinion, you might want to state which line-up you prefer, but don’t fall into that same old trap whereby you singlehandedly can define what is and isn’t Deep Purple. Doing as you did, and not including Rod Evans and Nick Simper as the Real Deep Purple makes your statement quite objective and leaning towards selective favoritism.
Every line-up has their Real Deep Purple Stamp. The band has been around for 40 years, under much turmoil and personnel changes. Steve Morse has been the Guitarist for Purple your whole life. As long as you’ve been alive there has been Deep Purple. I remember when there wasn’t a Deep Purple. I was 12 when they came out the first album and heard Hush for the first time. I also remember when there was no Deep Purple between 1976 and 1984. I’ve personally been through all of the line-ups, and had misgivings about the various changes, but living through those times, you learn to respect and get the fact that All Purple is good Purple. Depending on individual taste, one may prefer one from the other, but it’s ALL DEEP PURPLE. Just as you have a preference for one song over another on the same album.
Don’t know if you have seen this latest outing with Orchestra, but if not, PLEASE GO. After doing so, please give your opinion of it…
Cheers
June 24th, 2011 at 03:57Now I know why I am not taken seriously by Tracy.
June 24th, 2011 at 23:15He is older than me!!!!
Older by age, but you have me beat twice over regarding your cranky old attitude……
One would think you were in your 70’s the way you chronically complain.
Now, don’t forget to respect your elders.
Cheers
June 27th, 2011 at 00:04I guess I always have been an old soul.
July 2nd, 2011 at 00:12