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Substitute things
The Guardian has a piece dealing with “how rock’s drummers cope with furious sets in their 70s”, and Ian Paice is featured there, among his peers Rat Scabies (Damned), Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), Paul Cook (Sex Pistols), David Kendrick (Sparks, Devo), and others.
Ian Paice, 76, has just finished a tour with Deep Purple, the band he co-founded in 1968. Even 56 years on, the shows were touching two hours long and opened with the band’s fiercest, most propulsive song, Highway Star.
“Many of the things I found easy when I was much younger are now difficult,” he says. “But I know a lot more now than when I was younger. So you substitute things: that is going to be difficult, but I can do that instead. Anybody who thinks they can do exactly the same thing they did 50 years ago is mad. There aren’t many guys of my generation left playing what I call ‘powerful drums’.”
There’s not much more Purple related in the article, but here is the link.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Little Ian is no longer the whirlwind drummer he was in the 70s, he’s matured like fine wine. But it doesn’t matter if one day he can’t do a single drum roll anymore as long as he keeps that swing which sets DP apart from so many other heavy bands.
Rat Scabies was brilliant in an interview in the heyday of Punk when a jaded NME scribe tempted him with the question why he had only a rubber rat and not a real one dangling from the top of his bass drum. Unflappable, he quipped: “I like rats, they wouldn’t like being tied to my bass drum. Besides a real rat would smell too much.”
And they do, real rats have quite an odor. It’s an ammonia-musky type smell from their urine and fur glands secret, you can’t miss it if you’ve ever smelled it once. Smart animals with a sophisticated social life, also one of the few rodents you can tame to a reasonable pet level, unlike rabbits, hamsters or guinea pigs which never really tame. I had a white lab rat once, it was fun to have around, had impressively sized balls of the furry kind immediately attractive to the female gender and would sit on my shoulder eyeing its surroundings inquisitively – and, yes, it smelled a bit no matter how tidy you kept its cage or how often you washed and bathed it (which it didn’t mind). My little brother had bought it for himself, he was at that time still living at home and my mom, generally very much an animal lover, told him unceremoniously in no uncertain terms that it was either the rat or him who would leave the house so he bequeathed it to me, I had by then moved out and was living off immoral red light district earnings in Frankfurt. Needless to say, I christened it Ben.
https://youtu.be/uxv0ZNXvmqk
January 7th, 2025 at 04:30Nicko McBrain is the drummer who impressed me the most, if talking about later aged power rock players. Powering the Iron’s is no mean feat at any time. 72 years old before retirement because of health related issues, well done Sir. Carl Palmer is still drumming at 74 and both he and Ian Paice are two of the greats of British & world rock music. As Paice says, less is more and he has wound things down nicely in what I have witnessed from live clips online over the last few years. Simon Phillips is ‘only’ 67 & still going strong. It is luck or bad luck, depending on illness or age related health issues. Stamina and the passion to boot. Neil Peart was worn out big time with Rush & Geddy Lee is still banging on about how they loathed having to pull the pin. Time for Ged to get over it me thinks, in that sense of things. Thanks for the article as it is a thought that often passes through my mind, the stamina of it all. How long can it last etc etc. Cheers.
January 7th, 2025 at 05:45Of all the drummers, I’ve always preferred Ian P 😊
He is completely magnificent!
January 7th, 2025 at 08:52Ian Paice is not only a good drummer, he is above all a friendly and pleasant person with an incredible attitude
January 7th, 2025 at 17:52As far as I’m concerned, Paicey can do whatever he wants after he’s mind blowing, spell binding drumming on MIJ…no one can even come close !
January 7th, 2025 at 22:56Thanks Mr Paice
“He is completely magnificent!”
But you say that about all the boys in Deep Purple, Karin!
https://www.meisterdrucke.ie/kunstwerke/1260px/Carel_Lodewijk_Dake_-_Vrouw_berispt_een_meisje_over_een_scheur_in_haar_prentenboekHet_Gescheurde_Prent_-_%28MeisterDrucke-1369001%29.jpg
You have to become more discerning, Karin, really. I mean Little Ian’s twin sister Ludvica Pearl Paice (they look very similar, you can only really hold them apart by the hair) drummed for some Rolling Stones guy on a cover of one of those awful Elvis songs (with some balding guy from Genesis playing a Status Quo guitar, all weird), that does have to count against him, be stringent and don’t act all female!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5g9nt1wVMA
[Macca is great, both as a singer and a bassist, no two friggin’ ways about it.]
January 7th, 2025 at 23:43@6
“ But you say that about all the boys in Deep Purple, Karin! You have to become more discerning, Karin, really.“
Yes I know. But I can’t!
I LOVE Purples music! But I can’t explain it like you musicians can! And I can’t for my life explain why I think they are WAY better than any other band…
You can talk all about how and why! I can only explain it in feelings (😝 yeah I know, so girlish) because I can explain what the music does to me, how it is making me feel. I WISH I could be more precise, but I can’t!
At the moment I’m very busy (being a homeopath I mean) and I don’t have the time to go into playing and understanding music on a deeper level, I wish so much I could, but with all the sick people in the world, I have my work cut out for me ☺️
So to be a tat more precise:
Ian Paice is completely magnificent!
Ian Gillan is completely magnificent!
Roger Glover is completely magnificent!
Simon McBride is completely magnificent!
Don Airey is completely magnificent!
Do you know what I mean now? 😃
January 8th, 2025 at 08:08@6
🤣🤣🤣 – “Little Ian’s twin sister Ludvica Pearl Paice“, sorry I didn’t commented it before, I just hadn’t time to see the video with Lucinda 😄
Yes, Paul McCartney isn’t halfbad at all!
“those awful Elvis songs” – well I’m done listening to that crooner!
This: “ drummed for some Rolling Stones guy on a cover of one of those awful Elvis songs (with some balding guy from Genesis playing a Status Quo guitar, all weird), that does have to count against him, be stringent and don’t act all female!” <- I don’t know what you’re talking about here…. Please explain 😊
January 8th, 2025 at 13:40This new DP a.i. album is very different from that 1950’s style stuff we’ve been getting used to….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLBIefSV8Ao
But it’s still pretty crappy.
January 8th, 2025 at 14:36“Do you know what I mean now? 😃”
Not quite, I think those endorphins are again tearing at you, dear 🤣, but each one of them is quite alright on his own 😎, yet things only turn magnificent for me once they all get together and co-create music.
Which is a thing that Little Ian actually once said:
“With Deep Purple, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
You can paradiddle on that.
January 8th, 2025 at 15:35@10
Uwe you’re clever man, of course you know what I mean!
I don’t know if you’re a very skilled painter! (If you are the following illustration is lost, so please read on if you’re not a painter)
At a certain museum there are several paintings of the late great Rembrandt! You’re looking at ‘the Nightwatch’, admiring it immensely and mumble for yourself: oh it’s magnificent.
But behind you there is a very skilled painter, and he says: Uwe, you’ve said that about every painting of Rembrandt, now please go into detail and explain to me why this painter is magnificent!
For once in your life you don’t know what to say (yeah right 🤣) and you just smile nervously and go away because you don’t know the technical terms and cannot explain why this wonderful painter made so many wonderful treasures!
That’s how I struggle explaining WHY Purple, and each member of the band, are magnificent!
They talk to me (play and sing to be correct) on a deeper level, emotionally, and I wish I could explain it in terms of a musician, but I don’t have the words. I just know in my heart of hearts that Purple are making glorious, beautiful music that fills my heart and mind in the very best way 😊
Now you understand?
January 9th, 2025 at 07:07My drumming love was created on the MIJ album. It’s easy to recognize him among a thousand drummers, for me he is among the five best rock drummers of all time..( Ginger, Bonzo, Moon, and Cozy).. greatest alive!!!!…little Ian jazz soul and rock heart.
January 9th, 2025 at 09:16If I had to single out five drums work ..
it would be in the song ..DP “Living Wreck” (IR) “The Mule” (MIJ),”You Fool No One” (MIE) and “The Battle Rages On” (Come Hell or High Water) and “Hot Stuff”WS
He is a very humble man..far from the behavior of a rock star
He had a gig in Croatia. He accidentally heard a pop-rock band playing..he praised the gig and asked for their CD …I don’t know ?..maybe it was cavalier or courteous ?..but the media recorded it
Paicey forgot to mention he dropped drum solos a few tours back? Probably why Don got two spots on last DP tour? ha ha
January 9th, 2025 at 11:23IAN PAICE ON THE DRUMS- YES!!
January 9th, 2025 at 15:36I’m fine with Paicey pacing himself and leaving the drum solos away, Richard, though they were always a personal highlight for me. I don’t want to see him suffer another stroke trying to impress an audience.
He still does short drum solos with Purpendicular, but their sets are also much shorter than DP’s and in more intimate venues.
Karin @8, describing ex-Beatle Paul McCartney as a “former Rolling Stone” and ex-Pink Floyd-guitarist David Gilmour as a “balding guy from Genesis” was just my silly attempt to be funny. And Gilmour plays a Fender Telecaster guitar which is generally identified with Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xO72OTV5m4
Actually, Macca’s and his friends’ rendition of All Shook Up is really great – energetic and fresh.
John @9: Sounds like landfill Scandinavian Melodic Power Metal (that has listened to too much Dokken) to me! I’m surprised at the quality of the artificially generated vocals though.
January 9th, 2025 at 17:27#9 John
more than Deep Purple this seems like a hodgepodge that starts with Ronnie and ends with Malmsteen passing through Rudy Pell and Europe!
January 9th, 2025 at 20:55@15
“ He still does short drum solos with Purpendicular, but their sets are also much shorter than DP’s and in more intimate venues.” – looking forward to see that magnificent drummer in Denmark in February 🙂↕️
“ suffer another stroke” – another strike 😨😳 has Ian P been ill?
“ was just my silly attempt to be funny. ” <- well it was funny, once explained to this dummer Däne 😄
January 10th, 2025 at 00:06Karin: https://www.thehighwaystar.com/news/2016/06/16/message-from-ian-paice/
January 10th, 2025 at 07:16@18
January 10th, 2025 at 07:34Thanks Svante, I had no idea 🥺😞
I must have been horrible, so happy it ended well 🥰
Do any of you gentlemen and ladies know if Purple ever made a dvd of House of Blue Light tour?
January 12th, 2025 at 19:18I can’t seem to find it anywhere…
I’m not aware that there is any official product from the THOBL tour other than the Nobody’s Perfect audio. To my knowledge, those gigs were not video filmed at the time. There is nothing like the NEC filming from the 1993 TBRO Tour (also known as the IFWC or Identified Flying Water Cups Tour).
If you type in ‘Deep Purple The House of Blue Light Tour’ on YouTube you get a couple of hits with inofficial concert footage, among them this goodie from the Valbyhallen in Copenhagen, one of the larger Finnish cities I believe, already pretty close to the Russian border, especially in the long winters they have there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boAtDjxLAuo
I do wonder though whether the source gigs for the Nobody’s Perfect release which was mixed together from various gigs (with Child in Time even beginning in one city and ending in another one) do not still exist recorded in their complete form which might allow a release of them all as a boxed set similar to Live in Japan or the Graz/Saarbrücken/Paris gigs of Mk III. But again, that would only be audio.
January 13th, 2025 at 14:47@ 20 Karin, not as far as I know. And I keep following their carrer and llook for releases since the late 70s. I have never seen reallly decent footage of the 87-88 tour. A pity! There is a dvd with video clips from The House of Blue Light but you can find those on Youtube and I don’t think it’s essential because they are just miming of course. But if you ever hear of something, please lemmy know!
January 13th, 2025 at 14:50@21 &22
Thanks guys 🤗
I searched on Amazon and EBay, and couldn’t find anything. But on Amazon I actually did find the dvd with selected videos, which of course I bought! You see I live in fear that one day YouTube, fb, this page etc will disappear for good, so I just have to have everything with Purple so I can dwell into the goodies whenever I need to 😊
Uwe: “among them this goodie from the Valbyhallen in Copenhagen, one of the larger Finnish cities I believe, already pretty close to the Russian border” <- 🤣 well either I had this coming or you’re just as geographically disconnected as I am 😄
Just a bit surprised there isn’t any bootleg recordings to buy!
Max: “But if you ever hear of something, please lemmy know!” Of course – and that goes both ways 🫱🏻🫲🏼
By the way (has NOTHING to do with this, but it’s very important) the beautiful blackbirds are back in our garden 😍😍 they are still stum, but today I was witnessing a lovely blackbird-male searching for food near our frontdoor, so I’m happy happy happy! Our mornings and evenings serenades are safe 🤩
January 13th, 2025 at 17:02I’d be happy to even hear the original studio releases from that era remixed!
Roger has stated that while the master mix AND the individual source tracks to Perfect Strangers cannot be found anymore, the individual source tracks for THOBL all still exist (with nobody knowing which ones ended up in the final master!), it’s just the master mix that cannot be found. Which means: THOBL could still be mixed totally anew (no just remixed) from the ground up today if someone devoted the time to it and spent the money on the arduous process. Somebody call Bob Ezrin, pleeeeze – he has done a great job in the past remixing Kiss’ iconic Destroyer album (the remix was released in 2012 as ‘Destroyer: Resurrected’ and makes an already great album invincible).
Infuriatingly, neither Gillan/Glover/Paice nor whoever now has the rights today seem to be interested in doing so! Roger once mentioned in an interview that there was enough additional material to Strangeways to create a much, much longer version of the song, longer than even the CD and tape version from 1987 which were longer than the vinyl version due to vinyl running time constraints. Bring it on then, I wouldn’t mind a 20 minute version of that song!
Judas Priest have just released a complete remix of their half-century old debut Rocka Rolla from 1974 (the original mix sounded crap even back then) and the difference has to be heard to be believed. It has only happened now, because they finally got their grubby Brummie steel mill worker hands on the rights and could forge the piece of ‘early metal’ (in 1974 they were actually still more of a bluesy hard rock band closer to Budgie and Trapeze than to what they would later become, there is even harmonica on the album) as they had always heard it in their heads.
January 13th, 2025 at 21:05@24
“Bring it on then, I wouldn’t mind a 20 minute version of that song!” I agree wholeheartedly!
Is it the producer alone or also the band who decides how much and what are published?
Regarding the bass guitar that Rush uses, and Roger uses in ‘She took my breath away’, Uwe, how do you tune it when there are no ‘what’s-their-name? Keys??
January 14th, 2025 at 11:32“Is it the producer alone or also the band who decides how much and what are published?”
It can be both or either, depending on the hierarchy in any given case. It can also be the record company (“Radio won’t play a song this long!”) or even something as banal as media storage limitations. A 20 minute version of Strangeways would have been too long for optimal sound on one vinyl side (in 1987 when THOBL was released, vinyl was still the prevailing music storage media in Europe and North America though not in warmer climates where vinyl has warping issues due to the heat), conventional records sound best if a music duration of, say, 18 minutes per side is not surpassed. The more grooves you have to squeeze on a vinyl album, the more the sound quality deteriorates (bass is the first to go) and longevity is also negatively impacted (vinyl crammed full with grooves will begin to skip sooner).
“Regarding the bass guitar that Rush uses, and Roger uses in ‘She took my breath away’, Uwe, how do you tune it when there are no ‘what’s-their-name? Keys??”
Imagine you had strapped a right hand bass around you, Karin, and you would look down on it: Your playing hand would be your right hand and you’d be fretting with your left hand – that is also where the tuning keys or tuners (US) or machine heads (UK) would be (at the headstock beyond the nut). But the strings would be anchored where your right hand is (at the bridge).
On a so-called “headless bass”
https://muzikercdn.com/uploads/product_gallery/7566/756669/main_e513b0b0.jpg
that principle is turned around: In the absence of a headstock, the strings are anchored at the end of the neck (the nut – of the bass guitar, not of the player!) on the left
https://www.gak.co.uk/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/g0MaIyh1SZefBaZsKuFj0g/prod/products/57b4/4220-411d-4e9a-99f3-78f341a1786d.jpg/651×621
while the tuners are located on the far-right. There you would have four knobs behind the bridge with which you could heighten or lessen string tension for each string and thus tune the strings to a specific note.
https://www.stars-musik.de/medias/steinberger/xt-2db-spirit-db-tuner-hd-4-95621.jpg
Got it?
Can I now please have Greenland? I have some plans with it I’ve kept locked away for a very long time, jawohl …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWyA63YBT6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_b-g2PUsy8
January 15th, 2025 at 01:13@26
“Got it?” – yes thanks so much! 🤗
Regarding Greenland, well as far as I’m concerned it’s all yours, but maybe you ought to talk to Mette Frederiksen or the people of Greenland, it’s their beautiful country after all ☺️
Re your last link: you need Greenland to go to the moon.?..?
January 15th, 2025 at 08:51“Re your last link: you need Greenland to go to the moon.?..?”
Jawohl, it vill be our first step to get zere! Today ze Arctic, tomörröw ze moön. Eins-zwei-drei-vier … (@01:27):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhsiwWqGAWo
January 15th, 2025 at 11:43When funky Little Ian peaked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTQhDuCX8I
January 15th, 2025 at 12:44It just occurred to me: Little Ian is by now the sole survivor of the PAL line-up. Tony, Jon, Bernie and Paul are all gone. 😑
January 15th, 2025 at 20:41@29
I have to admit, these guys amaze me! Don’t the guys in Purple ever need to get their feet up, read the newspaper while drinking a lovely cup of coffee, and going to bed early?
Not that I’m complaining at all! I mean, thanks to Ian P’s workaholic lifestyle, I can experience his intellect in drumming coming February, but man they are a bit older than me, and I couldn’t go on like that 😵💫
Am I the only one who are impressed?
January 15th, 2025 at 20:53Paice certainly was on the money in the mid to late 70’s, as many rock musicians were at that time. Tony Ashton, a narrator more than a singer. Another ‘lost’ soul it seems, wandering around not sure what to do at times, bless him. A have to comment on how much Bernie Marsden visually reminds me of Rory Gallagher. Cheers
January 15th, 2025 at 21:21@ 31- Karin what about Mick, Keith & Ronnie. Mick & Keith are even older & still bopping about the stage. It is different for everyone as we know, some age well, some not so, some appear younger than others when they are not younger at all. The luck of the draw me thinks. Anyway the guys in DP would drink Tea wouldn’t they? Maybe that is the answer for all the British lads. Remember the old saying ‘now just have a nice cup of tea and everything will be fine and dandy’. Something like that. Talking of tea, meaning herbal tea. We need to get Uwe drinking some chamomile tea or something to wind him down a little. Some of his comments here recently, sheesh, it is looking like another hectic year for all of us, again. Cheers.
January 16th, 2025 at 09:23Gallagher & the slim version of Bernie: Yes, there are obvious visual parallels. Didn’t Bernie even do a Gallagher tribute album/tour once?
There was something incredibly musicianly about Bernie – coupled with that English pop songwriter feel which really benefited Whitesnake in their first era + also made the PAL album more melodic and accessible.
January 16th, 2025 at 13:38@33
Yeah MacGregor, they are ancient! And look it, and sound it… 😉
Many years ago in my hood of the world there was this rumour going round, maybe JanBl has heard it too?, that the reason the gentleman of Rolling Stones kept ‘so well’ was the fact that they could afford the purest drugs, and I guess it’s not news for anybody that they have been doing drugs big time (maybe still do, I don’t know), because normally doing drugs means sudden and early death, or at least a very poor old age.
I must admit I don’t know anything about their tour schedules, should there be any, but “our” guys don’t do drugs (and I don’t really care what you say on the matter Uwe, because Purple have again and again stated it as a fact that they did love alcohol (coca cola and whiskey and beers, but apparently not anymore while working) and I’m pretty sure that had they been doing drugs they wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it!☺️😉) and they are keeping going many, many, MANY months each year touring, and oh my if Ian P isn’t touring while being off touring with Purple! 🤩
And that’s the point! Purple people are among the elder now, and they have more energy and stamina than many young(er) musicians.
Remember Ian G once commented on Oasis, (Noel is my age, 57, and Liam a couple of years younger,) but they can’t do the touring life like Purple can!
I am not complaining 😄😄 but as a homeopath I would simply love to test the gentlemen to find out what is the force behind them ☺️
I guess that would be important and beneficial for a lot of us!
And then my dear MacGregor, you write this:
“Anyway the guys in DP would drink Tea wouldn’t they? Maybe that is the answer for all the British lads. Remember the old saying ‘now just have a nice cup of tea and everything will be fine and dandy’.” Well – I ALMOST spat out the lovely coffee I am drinking, reading that 😜😆
Tea is only for people who aren’t feeling well 😂
Coffee on the other hand is to be feeling better and better and just have that amount of cheerfulness that makes life happier and indeed more satisfying 😍 ok? Ok!
“We need to get Uwe drinking some chamomile tea or something to wind him down a little.” <- 🤣 I agree completely MacGregor!
January 16th, 2025 at 20:16I also had some difficulties showing my sweetheart his latest outpourings! I was a bit afraid René would ask me to leave thehighwaystar, but for now it’s ok, but if Uwe keeps on I simply don’t know what to do 🤷🏼♀️
But maybe it’s his longing for Greenland that makes him a bit unstable 😄
I purchased Bernie’s ‘Look At Me Now’ solo album upon its release all of four decades ago, 1982 from my memory. I liked it & played it often. I did listen online a year or two ago and it still stands the test of time. Agree with the PAL album comment. I have just bookmarked his Rory Gallagher tribute album. I am not sure if I will listen or not as I am not usually into a full album of covers. Curiosity will probably kill this cat again no doubt. Cheers.
January 17th, 2025 at 03:20