![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice.jpg)
The mountain revival
Vermonter.com has an article about the connection that Deep purple formed in the 1980s with the quaint ski resort town of Stowe, Vermont. With input from Colin Hart, and some locals what befriended the band. The piece is well illustrated with photos, some of which may have never been published before.
In the tranquil mountains of Stowe, Vermont, an unexpected musical revival took place that would reshape rock history. In 1984, one of hard rock’s most influential bands, Deep Purple, chose our unassuming New England ski town as the birthplace of their remarkable comeback.
Far from the prying eyes of the music industry and surrounded by Vermont’s serene landscape, the “Mark II” lineup reunited after an eight-year hiatus to create what would become their platinum-selling album “Perfect Strangers.”
Continue reading in Vermonter.com.
Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.
Pictured: the “Horizons” property in Stowe, where Perfect Strangers album was recorded using Le Mobile studio truck manned by Nick Blagona. The recording sessions started on July 10, 1984, and continued for six weeks.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Look at those legs. Karin, control yourself, he he he. It was obviously warm weather at the time. Gillan still has his mane here, what happened between there and Australia? Maybe he thought he would be too feral for us out here, I don’t know. There are a few good photos in that article, thanks for posting. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuv1KXU1gw0&t=25s
April 10th, 2025 at 07:15@1
😂😂 MacGregor I am indeed controlling myself 🤣
Thanks for the video, I guess Uwe has some comments regarding full grown men showing off legs in shorts outside one’s private sphere 😉
April 10th, 2025 at 13:02Re ‘Boring Alice’ in ‘Space Truckin’, I have read it was about Alice Cooper….
April 10th, 2025 at 13:13So no boring female this time ☺️
Honor-bound to the defense of Vincent Furnier aka Alice Cooper, I am the destroyer of internet myths, Karin: Ian doesn’t sing “boring Alice”, but rather “borealis” as in aurora borealis, very much a Scandinavian phenomenon so I’ve heard and a regular part of the pagan rituals popular there:
https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/n75rlMjuACcJiPnvuaTkn3JN0XQ=/1500×0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-948709288-5c8492f246e0fb00013364fb.jpg
Ian & Vince are good buddies (polish your German!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JZg9SgL_9Y&t=457s
They have even both performed in the same musical, albeit in different roles …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnxwP8vLRg
***************************************************************************
That Vermont piece is some great in-depth research, very well done! I had forgotten that Perfect Strangers was recorded in Stowe too, identifying it mostly with the unhappy THOBL sessions.
I like Vermont people, they’re fearless, have brains and an immaculate taste in winter wear.
https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/aeb/79e/1f1032ddd075e380efe88a14ac7b9efdc1-bernie-mittens.2x.rsocial.w600.jpg
April 10th, 2025 at 15:00What a fantastic article 👏 brilliantly written and brings the memories straight back .
Karin…its not about Alice Cooper! Promise …him and the band are great friends .
April 10th, 2025 at 15:25I believe it just refers to some boring people in general in the music business …a bit like ‘ Moronica..queen of the biz ‘ ( Any fule kno that )
@ 4&5
Arrrhhhh man!
I knew I ought to have written that down, put it in my safe, and never forget where I heard it the first time!
I promise you dear friends that I have read Ian himself commenting on Boring Alice as taunting Alice Cooper!
“Ian & Vince are good buddies (polish your German!)” – yeah I know Uwe!😊
“Karin…its not about Alice Cooper! Promise …him and the band are great friends” – I know Steve ☺️
But dear Uwe and Steve, I love to taunt my friends mercilessly over and over again! So I thought Ian did the same thing here..
When I, in the nearest future, have several hours where I don’t have to work, drink coffee, walk my doglet or take care of René, I promise I will look for the statement 👀
And Uwe, unfortunately the first link doesn’t work 😊
April 10th, 2025 at 19:22I would love to see it, as we indeed have spectacular sightings around where I live!
We spend some time each year at the Trapps in Stowe, which is the Northeast’s cross-country skiing mecca. Every once in a while I’ll see folks walking around town wearing DP shirts, presumably on a pilgrimage, but I’ve never started conversations with any of them. I did have the pleasure of meeting the affable Roger Marcoux several years ago, so much of what’s in this article wasn’t news to me. Still, enjoyed reading it.
As for Alice, I believe she was a real person the band knew who was, er, anything but boring. I infer this from a comment made by IG on the “Classic Albums: The Making of Machine Head” video.
April 10th, 2025 at 21:05I can’t believe you all give credence to that “boring Alice” thing, the original Machine Head gatefold vinyl came with a folded lyric sheet and there it was in purple and white: “We danced around with borealis.” The sentence alludes to “dancing Northern Lights” – in ancient times the natural phenomenon was perceived as the spirits of the ancestors dancing in the night skies.
It’s not about any “Alice” or person at all. Ian first sings about “rocking the Milky Way” (not the candy bar!) and then about what the sunspots of a star (in this case our Sun ☀️) can cause:
“Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs):
CMEs are massive clouds of charged particles ejected from the Sun. These CMEs can travel through space and eventually reach Earth.
Auroras:
When CMEs interact with Earth’s magnetosphere, they can cause auroras (also known as the Northern Lights and Southern Lights). The charged particles from the CMEs interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the atoms and molecules to become excited and emit light, resulting in the colorful auroral displays.”
Ian wrote the song in late 1971, ‘Love It To Death’, Alice’s first commercial breakthrough album after breaking free from Frank Zappa’s record label had only been released in March that same year, I severely doubt that Ian by then even knew who Alice Cooper was, much less would have deemed him “boring” or a “bore”. In 1971, the Alice Cooper Group was cutting edge and decidedly underground. Given Ian’s love for Arthur Brown, I’m pretty sure he would have dug Auntie Alice’s music.
What’s next? That Knocking At Your Back Door advocates sodomy?! 🤯 The anus boggles …
April 10th, 2025 at 21:23Karin
Again, it is just confirmation of what a great lyricist Mr Gillan is …he’s having a little play on words ..’ Borealis’ …and Boring Alice !! …as we both know…the man is an absolute genius!..in fact, Any fule kno that !
Alice Cooper used to present a rock show here in the U.K …and he always used to introduce D.P as one of his favourite bands …
April 10th, 2025 at 21:36https://youtu.be/n4oUaErqr6s?si=9W9fhAFNiXQUD2Hx
Ritchie in the 1960s with The Outlaws …check out his moves!?
April 10th, 2025 at 21:41And the late , great Mick Underwood on drums 🥁…just think, if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be having all these wonderful chats …RIP
Ian Gillan singing Space Truckin’ live would have lead from one thing to the other no doubt. It isn’t just the original lyric Uwe, that some good folk here are necessarily alluding to. Gillan just likes a little comedy a times, there are many out there who do the same. Word play, wit and quick thinking and a penchant for a good laugh at times, depending on the situation. We danced around boring Alice……………Cheers.
April 10th, 2025 at 21:57After posting earlier today, I found an e-mail I sent to some fellow Purple fans following a conversation I had with Roger Marcoux in Stowe, Vermont, in 2016. Some of you may find the info interesting, so I’m posting it now. I’ve edited it for length. Apologies to Roger M. if I got anything wrong:
My family has been visiting Stowe annually since 2000, when my wife found an ad with a coupon for a three-night stay at the Trapp Family Lodge. We fell in love with the area and eventually purchased a fractional ownership.
I was long aware of Deep Purple’s connection to Stowe, that the “reunion” albums “Perfect Strangers” and “House of Blue Light” were recorded there. Over the years, I’ve noticed a few people wearing Deep Purple T-shirts, but figured they were nutty fans — even nuttier than I am, that is — on pilgrimages. “Best avoid,’’ I thought, and did just that.
Last summer, Stowe magazine, a quality semi-annual publication, ran a piece on Deep Purple’s stays in Stowe, in which Roger Marcoux was quoted. I e-mailed the writer, telling her that I am a fan of the band and the town, and thanking her for writing the piece. She forwarded the e-mail to Roger, and before I’d heard back from the writer I received an e-mail from Roger offering to get together for a beer. We were finally able to make that happen over the weekend.
Back in 1984, Roger was a 25-year-old Stowe cop, a musician, a music equipment geek, and a huge Deep Purple fan, not necessarily in that order. More important, he was a soccer player who still played recreationally. The band, their families, and entourages moved into homes off the beaten path in Stowe, which is saying something because downtown Stowe itself is off the beaten path. Their home away from home was an English inn and pub owned at the time by a fellow Englishman. The band befriended the owner, who was made aware of their requests to find people who could keep groupies and drug dealers away from the band, and who could round up enough soccer players so that the band could play 11 v. 11 games. He figured Roger could do both. Suffice it to say, Roger had to pinch himself when the owner invited him to the pub and he soon found himself drinking with Blackmore at the bar.
Flash-forward to the other day. Roger shows up at our door with about 100 Kodak photos from the 1980s in one hand and bearing a present — Ian Paice’s well-beaten drumsticks used during the recording of the “House of Blue Light”— in the other. He’s a great guy, which probably also helped him become a member of the band’s inner circle. He grew up on a farm, married a farmer’s daughter — I resisted asking if he ever stood under her bedroom window, throwing up a brick — and like yours truly is a father of twins. Here are some highlights from our conversation:
He said he once broke Ian Gillan’s toe during a soccer game.
Other than Jon Lord, they were all good soccer players, but Ritchie was the best. Nonetheless, Blackmore would have Roger pick the teams and request/demand that the best players were on his team so that his team would always win. Somehow I was not surprised to hear this.
When one of Lord’s synths malfunctioned, they didn’t miss a beat because Roger owned the same instrument. He drove home, brought his back, and the session resumed. Roger also got to jam with the band when Jon was late for rehearsals, which he said often started at 9 p.m. Lucky bastard. He was also allowed to be around while the band jammed. He was stunned at their chops and how effortless it all seemed.
He helped provide musical entertainment at Gillan’s wedding, which took place when the band was in Stowe.
Roger went to work for the DEA not long after “Perfect Strangers” was recorded. In 1986, when the band returned to Stowe, he helped pull off a huge coke bust of a notorious New England dealer who had arrived in the area. The band weren’t into drugs, other than alcohol, but perhaps some in their entourage were.
His said that Blackmore was in his own world, but he got along with him, perhaps because “I never asked for an autograph.’’ He never saw friction between Blackmore and Gillan, and believes things went south during the tours that followed the recording of “House of Blue Light.’’
April 11th, 2025 at 03:31@8
Uwe, I guess Ian is very well-known for his changing words in his songs as it suits him 😊
I promise you, I have – with my own ears – heard him sing! We’ve been around the boring Alice ☺️
April 11th, 2025 at 04:42@9
April 11th, 2025 at 04:49Exactly Steve, and isn’t it magnificent to be in the presence of a true genius 😍💜💜💜
@7
“As for Alice, I believe she was a real person the band knew who was, er, anything but boring. I infer this from a comment made by IG on the “Classic Albums: The Making of Machine Head” video.”
The plot thickens Uwe 😉
Thanks George M 👍🏼
April 11th, 2025 at 05:10But don’t you see that from your porch every night, Karin, up there with the reindeer, moose and snow owls where you live in eternal darkness half year round?
https://images.app.goo.gl/AiB382JLgegPyTu88
“I promise you, I have – with my own ears – heard him sing! We’ve been around the boring Alice ☺️”
NOW THAT I don’t doubt at all, Ian wouldn’t let the opportunity for a pun go to waste when playing live. ☝️😂
But it wasn’t the original meaning of the lyric. Moreover, in 1971/72, Alice was a man with an evident drinking problem, but hardly boring, more morbidly fascinating …
https://youtu.be/jXZcJojTucg
April 11th, 2025 at 10:07George M
April 11th, 2025 at 10:49Thanks for taking the time to post all that . I love hearing stuff like that
“Nonetheless, Blackmore would have Roger pick the teams and request/demand that the best players were on his team so that his team would always win. Somehow I was not surprised to hear this.”
Yes, when I saw him play in Frankfurt in 1988, he was “by coincidence” on the team drenched with Bundesliga veterans (which of course won). 😁 Ritchie is a competitive little character and he obviously won’t let that losers’ concept of “fair play” get in the way of a good win! Hence delaying the CalJam appearance and destroying half the stage to make it more difficult for ELP to get a similar reaction or giving the man at the mixing desk some extra bills to make sure that Ritchie’s Strat is louder in the mix than Jon’s Hammond – a little pathetic and on the Blackadder side of things if you ask me … 🙄
It just goes to show that behind all the intentionally off-putting mock-arrogance and self-confidence of Ritchie there lies a big heap of insecurity. You don’t do stuff like that if you’re not concerned that you need to always win to keep people impressed. Ritchie is a lousy loser – his defections from Purple have proven that again and again, it’s either his way or “toys out of the pram” and leaving in a huff. No commitment to the cause unless it matches his own 100%.
April 11th, 2025 at 12:30I got that lyric sheet too, Uwe. And I remember I even read about that borealis thing, I guess it was here on the HS years ago or maybe in Simon Robinson’s publications …
April 11th, 2025 at 14:07@16
“I promise you, I have – with my own ears – heard him sing! We’ve been around the boring Alice ☺️”
NOW THAT I don’t doubt at all, Ian wouldn’t let the opportunity for a pun go to waste when playing live. ☝️😂“
What!
Well what have we been arguing about then!?
April 11th, 2025 at 15:20@16
“But it wasn’t the original meaning of the lyric.”
Well Uwe, Solicitor Supreme, I never, as in NEVER assumed that was the original meaning of the lyrics!
I simply mentioned I have HEARD Ian sing ‘boring Alice’, and that I read somewhere he was pulling the leg of Alice Cooper! 😊☺️
April 11th, 2025 at 15:23“The plot thickens Uwe 😉”
At my age, anything that thickens is welcome news. 😎
April 11th, 2025 at 15:37#12 George M.
Thanks a lot for the interesting information!
do you have any others?
Well, I think I’ve always been very envious of the people of Stowe, and I would have loved to be one of them in 1984!!
April 11th, 2025 at 22:58“Well what have we been arguing about then!?”
Since when do you need a real reason to argue about anything, Karin honey?
Wimmin … 😑
April 12th, 2025 at 00:39@22
“At my age, anything that thickens is welcome news. 😎”
I’m almost afraid to ask what you mean, since every single time there is something I don’t understand, René always says: “well if you don’t understand it, it’s not innocent!”
But ok Uwe, I know you’re not like that, so what in the world there is pure and lovely do you mean?
April 12th, 2025 at 06:47Don’t be so inquisitive, Frau Verndal! 😎
April 12th, 2025 at 10:30Hi Karin
April 12th, 2025 at 11:15Just so you don’t get teased anymore and for the point of clarification, Borealis is the original lyric ( as was distributed in the album lyric sheet , way back )
Boring Alice is what he sometimes sings on stage for a bit of fun ( he could be singing about any old Alice that he knows ..you’ll have to ask the man himself) …and this source comes from the making of Machine Head documentary where he is sat down chatting with Ian Paice
@24
“Since when do you need a real reason to argue about anything, Karin honey?”
Well, likewise sweetie 😄😆
April 12th, 2025 at 11:23@27
Thank you so much Steve! 😊
And to make everything crystal clear: (this is especially for you Superior Solicitor!) I have NEVER said Ian had written ‘boring Alice’, I just said I had heard him sing ‘boring Alice’ !
“you’ll have to ask the man himself” – I would love to Steve! But where do I get hold of him?
April 12th, 2025 at 15:25I have several questions for the big man, some peculiar, some right down nosey and some just friendly! 🤭
@25: While I appreciate your throbbing curiosity in the matter, neugierige Karin, it really wouldn’t be appropriate for me to delve in further here – with Max letting his children read these pages and all. It would be tantamount to making juvenile jokes about Ian Gillan’s vocal predecessor’s first name.
I fear I have to be rigid on this.
April 12th, 2025 at 15:27@26
“Frau Verndal”
Uwe, please don’t call me that! My mum was named that…
And why can’t I ask questions?
Every single time you ask me a question, I answer truthfully 😇
April 12th, 2025 at 15:32Not to be tiresome about Uwe’s need to discuss everything to it’s early grave, but listen to this
https://youtu.be/TDH77eYL9Gs?si=BWVitgdQhzq-D3KK
It’s very clear that Ian is singing “Boring Alice” a couple of times
April 12th, 2025 at 17:13☺️
Karin
April 12th, 2025 at 19:25You could try writing to him at ‘ Caramba ‘ his website…he does do a few questions and answers there ( although, I think he prefers quite obscure and esoteric questions) …but he really makes an effort to reply ….the next time I’m in Lyme Regis , I’ll head to the local pub and try and track him down for you …although, I believe he spends more time in Portugal now
Ps
Just ignore Uwe ….he’s in love with the sound of his own voice ! Lol 🤣🤣
Uwe is not in denial that Ian might have sung it that way as a joke a few times – that Machine Head stuff must get boring to him after all, he needs to freshen it up.
Steve, am I now the Glenn Hughes here or what?! 🤣
April 13th, 2025 at 03:04@33
“although, I think he prefers quite obscure and esoteric questions”
Arrrh man, then I’m lost because I’m neither obscure nor esoteric 😔
He won’t answer stupid questions from a half-witted Dane with not much to brag about and with very little musical understanding?
Portugal you say? Don’t blame him when thinking of the weather in our part of the world!
Re Uwe, well you do have a point there 🤭 but we have to be honest! Uwe has a brilliant mind and he remembers everything!
I like to read his posts in here, even though most of them are too grandiose to me ☺️
But Steve, if you do drag him down, then please ask him why Purple is avoiding Denmark completely this year! 😊☺️
April 13th, 2025 at 05:34@33
….he’s in love with the sound of his own voice !
Perhaps; doesn’t help that he’s a lawyer… I’ve known a couple, they tend to be long-winded.
April 13th, 2025 at 07:33Karin
April 13th, 2025 at 10:51I think Purple are definitely winding down now …and who can blame them !?
I’ve made my feelings plain that I don’t like the fact that Steve is not in the band anymore so, I’m hoping this next album with the session guitarist is just a bit of fun or something very different.
Uwe…I’m only teasing you
We English are known for our sense of humour …you Germans are not ! 🤣🤣🤣
@34
“Uwe is not in denial that Ian might have sung it that way as a joke a few times” – 🤣🤣🤣 Why do you refer to yourself in the third person?
I guess you are allowed to write like this:
“I am not in denial…”etc
But of course, there is something majestic about referring to one self as the third person!
April 13th, 2025 at 10:52Do you also say “we”? I mean like this: we are hungry Edith, fence us some food! 😂😂
@36
Russ, we do have to admit Uwe is among the cleverest people!
Or is the correct grammar: ARE among the cleverest, hence his mentioning of himself in the 3.person! 😂😂
Did you have time to make the lovely dish Fulskager?
April 13th, 2025 at 10:56I really would like to know what you think of it 😊
@ 30 😀
April 13th, 2025 at 12:15Very kind and sehr rücksichtsvoll, Uwe….but their jokes could make an old lawyer blush, believe me!
I know, a German joke is no laughing matter.
But actually, during my professional career, I always heard from clients (especially Anglo-American ones) and judges/arbitrators that I write the most hilariously funny emails and briefs (and as my firm would regularly worry: also the most low pc, risqué and generally inappropriate absence notices 🤣). And in school, I was always the class joker. Sarcasm, irony and caustic one-liners are a family curse with the Hornungs, my two – sequential – wives (and those of my brothers) would always say that it is our impregnable wall of protection against anybody getting too close to us.
April 13th, 2025 at 13:59@41
“that it is our impregnable wall of protection against anybody getting too close to us.“ – that I do believe!
But Uwe, no need to be frightened here, you are among friends 😉
April 13th, 2025 at 17:09@40
Ok Max, maybe you will explain whatever it is Uwe won’t?
(Don’t be shy, I was raised with 4 older brothers that mercilessly taunted me every single day, so I am fire proof ☺️😉)
April 13th, 2025 at 17:12@37
“I think Purple are definitely winding down now …and who can blame them !“
Well, Steve, I know the pc answer would be: no of course I understand completely they are slowing a bit down!
But in my heart I am yelling: NOOOOO don’t slow down! Keep on doing what you’re good at! It is DANGEROUS to stop a good thing!
April 13th, 2025 at 17:21Besides – you owe us to give koncerts in Denmark
(Please don’t ask why they owe us that, because I don’t have an answer for that yet, but give me time and I will mix someone up 😄)
Uwe
April 13th, 2025 at 18:35Self praise is no recommendation
Karin
April 13th, 2025 at 21:58I do believe the first Deep Purple concert ever was in Denmark…maybe it would be fitting if the last was there !?
@46
Ha ha 😅 well Steve, I certainly would think that!
And not only in Denmark, but actually in Randers, where I live, and I would indeed be leading the cheering and make sure there is plenty of that very tasty coffee I make!
Well, a woman can dream, can’t she?
April 14th, 2025 at 06:32Hi Karin
Yes , it would be lovely…have you ever seen them live or met the man himself?
It’s Ritchies 80th today …can you believe that !?
I wonder if Ian sent him a card !? Lol
April 14th, 2025 at 10:14And they could play ‘And the Address’ as the final encore song. Wrap it all up in Denmark, why not. Mark III commenced their touring in Denmark. There must be the something in the coffee up that way. Cheers.
April 14th, 2025 at 10:29@48
No Steve, I never had the good fortune to meet Ian Gillan.
Would I like to? You bet! 🤩
I have quite some topics I would like to discuss with him ☺️😉
(I wonder what ever happened to Barry! And what about his sister, did she really wanted him to be Dr.Gillan, and did he get accept? And is he still inventing spaceships, submarines, household appliances etc?) (oh yeah – and do we get another autobiography!)
Actually I have a ticket to the concert with Ian Paice and Perpendicular in Kolding in the fall and I would be thrilled if Ian would be doing the singing instead of whats’s-his-name ☺️
If I can believe Ritchie is finally turning 80? Well, Steve, in my opinion he has been there for several years 😂😂 compared to Ian he has seemed way older and sedated 🤭 whereas our favorite singer always comes along as fresh as a daisy!
If Ian send Ritchie a card? Oh, I don’t know, but I guess he has been thinking about him, and isn’t that almost as good as sending something?
April 14th, 2025 at 12:35I‘m sure Ian will hold his last gig sitting on your lap (or the other way around), Karin!
And since you insist, sigh, and now even want to drag poor innocent Max into my cesspool of filthy double entendres + risqué comments: The “thickening“ comment alluded to the fact that as men age certain natural phenomena of their youth such as the one often described as “morning glory” dwindle in their frequency of appearance. Hence nostalgic feelings for things “thickening” once the days of your inbuilt hydraulic jack making impromptu appearances are over. 🤗 But I’m sure there is a homeopathic cure! 😂 And don’t tell me that as an Oasis fan you didn’t know what “morning glory” – it’s not just a flower – meant either! 🤣
Steve, self praise? More self realization. Both in law and music irony and the ability to laugh about yourself and others are only appreciated by a minority. You have no idea how often I have been scolded for it (but I’m a repeat offender). A lot of people in both fields are under the false impression that it somehow benefits their image as a professional if they do everything with utmost earnestness. That has always provoked me into extra outbursts of humor. The line between being earnest and serious minded one one hand and unwittingly hilarious on the other is a really fine one not immediately apparent to all.
Hopefully, I don’t need to rely on self praise to document that I like to take the piss both out of me and other people, I thought my posts did most of the talking here already.
April 14th, 2025 at 12:38Not just Mark III, Mark I too! When they were still called Roudabout. For some reason, The Artwoods had been especially popular in Denmark and Jon had been a known musician there even pre-DP, I guess that gave him access to promoters and venue-owners there.
April 14th, 2025 at 12:44@49
MacGregor, from your lips to Ian’s ears 💜
If that really would happen I would never ask for anything ever again!
(Except coffee, because without it I am a hazard to society I’ve been told 🤭, you know: ‘what would I do without coffee? 25 to life’😉)
We actually have a very nice venue in Randers, named Værket, where also Dan Baird gave concert some years ago (in ‘18 I believe), and it’s perfect in size, not too big, not too small, or as I like to call it: the Goldilock-venue☺️
I could write novels about our coffee! Not that anyone would be interested in reading them, but I could!
April 14th, 2025 at 12:45So if anyone ever wants to know really – you know RRRREALLY good coffee, then come by and you never wanna leave again!
@51
Uwe, Ich versuche nicht, ein Bleiveilchen zu sein, eine zarte Blume, unberührt von der Welt, but I had no idea what so ever that Morning Glory wasn’t just a nifty song by Oasis!
I will however ask every male I know if they knew that, and I will return with an opinion whether you’re in the wrong or not!
Ian is always welcome to sit next to me and sing! No doubt about that!
And then I just need to say this:
Uwe is one of the cleverest people I have ever met (or not met, but you know!) I am thrilled to read his posts in here, and actually I have to look up several words in each post!
And what I like about him is that he never seems arrogant when I make spelling mistakes or chose wrong words by accident!
And he was actually the first person in here to greet me! (Which I am pretty sure he has regretted over and over, but too bad, I’m here now 😄)
And finally, yes Uwe, I have several homeopathic remedies that will help you! Just mention it to me, and I sort you out. (No need to thank me, I am here to serve ☺️)
April 14th, 2025 at 13:03@49
Arrrhhh man MacGregor, you just confirmed what has been said around this house for years: I am just a dumb blond!
‘And the address’ – I had to look it up 🫣😝
Hush hush! 😄
April 14th, 2025 at 14:28“Which I am pretty sure he has regretted over and over, but too bad, I’m here now …”
Indeed you are and long may that continue, you totally unreasonable woman! 😘
I played in an Oasis cover band for a couple of years – we were initially called Morning Glory, but later changed our name to Downing Beat. Admittedly, not many people got the Morning Glory thing even though it is reminiscent to the German “Morgenlatte” which I hasten to add is NOT a coffee variation. The rhyme went like this:
“Hart ist the Zahn der Bisamratte
https://www.pirsch.de/sites/pirsch.de/files/styles/heroteaser_lg_2x/public/2023-06/nutria-wasser-47845576.jpg?h=a1c9f760&itok=gJ2ZvDV4
Noch härter ist die Morgenlatte!”
Max will no doubt wish to translate it for you. He’s always trying to make himself indispensable with you, not that I don’t notice!
And I hate to break it to you, unschuldige Karin, but I fear Oasis’ “Morning Glory” is an unabashed ode to the pleasures of masturbation immediately after waking up, when your testosterone batteries are fully charged:
“Need a little time to wake up
Need a little time to wake up, wake up
Need a little time to wake up
Need a little time to rest your mind
You know you should so I guess you might as well
What’s the story morning glory?
Well
You need a little time to wake up, wake up
Well
What’s the story morning glory?
Well
Need a little time to wake up, wake up”
and how a cocaine addiction
“All your dreams are made
When you’re chained to the mirror and the razor blade
Today’s the day that all the world will see”
does nothing to stifle (on the contrary: it stiffens!) that unfortunate habit.
Aren’t the pages of the HS a treasure trove of acquirable knowledge about the cavernous abysses that are male minds for you, liebe Karin?!
April 14th, 2025 at 15:41“No Steve, I never had the good fortune to meet Ian Gillan.
Would I like to? You bet! 🤩”
He’s a widower now, Karin. The best status a man can attain as attractiveness on the market goes. Just sayin’.
Widower with small children is even better. You can’t save yourself.
April 14th, 2025 at 16:25Karin
April 14th, 2025 at 17:22I think you really must write to him at Caramba….your questions are exactly the sort of off the wall stuff he would love ( seriously)…I genuinely think you would stand an excellent chance of getting a reply
“And what I like about him is that he never seems arrogant when I make spelling mistakes or chose wrong words by accident!”
That’s actually something you learn as a litigator: Everyone can miss a typo, mess up a spelling, use similar-sounding words wrongly (I love to jumble “your” and “you’re”, “it’s” and “its”, or “to” and “too” all the time), translate something not quite right from his/her own native language, do a grammar stumble or just use a particular phrase in a cumbersome way. Happens to me all the time too.
If you write briefs to court, you don’t point opponents’ mistakes like that out, you don’t quote them triumphantly verbatim and add a “(sic!)”, you just don’t gloat. It can happen to anyone. Proofreading is a difficult art and I sure do regret that this site doesn’t enable you to retroactively correct some real bad howlers in posts.
Arrogance is unpleasant and there is a saying in German: Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall, a variation of the biblical proverb, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18). It can be fun to be cocky sometimes (I certainly can be and also appreciate it if other people are), but keep the dosage in mind.
April 14th, 2025 at 20:26@56
“Aren’t the pages of the HS a treasure trove of acquirable knowledge about the cavernous abysses that are male minds for you, liebe Karin?!”
It certainly is Uwe 😍
And I am GRATEFUL for every piece of wisdom I collect in here 😃
I’ve decided not to go further into the details I would ask all my male friends about, I surrender to your explanations Uwe ☺️😉
April 14th, 2025 at 20:50(Save time and red cheeks)
@57
Sometimes I doubt your intellect a little bit 😄
Yes, Ian is a widower, and yes he is very attractive, but Uwe, come a little closer, I wanna whisper something in your ear, are you ready?
(Remove your glasses dear, or I may break them to pieces)
📣
I LOVE HIS VOICE! THAT IS ALL !
Now go out and dry your eyes and start behaving according to your own standards 😂😂
April 14th, 2025 at 21:00@58
“your questions are exactly the sort of off the wall stuff he would love
( seriously)” – WOAH! 🤓
But in @33 you said this:
“although, I think he prefers quite obscure and esoteric questions”
I guess I need a definition of ‘obscure’ and ‘esoteric’ 😄
April 14th, 2025 at 21:04Hi Karin
Yes, you’re questions are obscure and esoteric …exactly what he would like .
What I meant was, I bet he’s bored with answering questions about Smoke and Ritchie etc etc …cus he gets asked that stuff all the time !
April 15th, 2025 at 10:35“I guess I need a definition of ‘obscure’ and ‘esoteric’ 😄“
(assuming lotus position …) Mmmh, let’s see, maybe homeopathy and stuff?
April 15th, 2025 at 12:07@63
Ok Steve, thank you, I’ll give it a try then 🫣
But do you know where I can read the great man’s answers, should he choose to answer me?😊
April 15th, 2025 at 16:58Good Evening Karin
April 15th, 2025 at 23:10Just keep checking his Caramba website…I’m not sure how active he is on it now ( I don’t go on it very much myself these days ) ..I’m surprised you’re not on it much more yourself.
I do know there’s some great Q and As on there, I also remember him talking about his love of carpentey and a few pics of his whacky inventions .
I would be virtually certain that he would love your questions.
When I met him, I was blown away by how humble he was …I kept looking at him and thinking about everything he has achieved and what a massive part of my life he’s been ….and yet, somehow….he made me feel like I was the star !
I only live 20 miles from him and everyone …and I mean everyone that I know , who has met him , has been blown away by what a great guy he is …totally unassuming , humble and extremely giving with his time …he is completely unaffected by all this rock star stuff.
Incidentally, how are you enjoying the box set ? I’m listening to it as I type this ….I’m completely blown away by it ! Soooo much great music ….I’d really forgotten what a great band they were…soooo exciting .
I can honestly say I couldn’t pick a favourite guitarist …Janick or Bernie …and I’m loving Ians best mates contribution on bass…his playing is so precise and heavy !!
Uwe
April 15th, 2025 at 23:12Feel free to comment on big John’s bass playing …seriously, I’d be interested to hear your comments…he was good wasn’t he?
@66
Actually I have been a lot on Caramba! I tried in vain to find an amusing talk about German toilets! ☺️ (it’s really true!)
And I have read really funny answers from Ian! Especially a questionnaire from a guy, where he asks a lot of questions, f.e. if and when Ian is lying, and our favorite troubadour answers: when I am answering questionnaires ☺️
You live 20 miles from him!!! Woah!
My claim to fame is that I have his autograph, not made for me personally, but I got it in the very nice box-set.
I agree with you, it was amazing music Gillan made!
And I know Uwe disagrees but Gillan (the band that is) was really big in Denmark 😊
I prefer Bernie, not that I am able to hear the difference between him and Janice, but in the videos Bernie was such a spectacular man ☺️
He really put on a show 😊
Steve, I have also heard people tell me he is really humble.
April 16th, 2025 at 12:20We have friends from England, and I was told that he is indeed charming and funny (and it was not a woman who said that! It was actually a guy 😉)
Steve, I’ve lauded McCoy’s bass playing so often before on these pages, he had a very specific style:
– A mercilessly accurate and lightning-fast upstroke/downstroke pick technique, he’s in Ian Hill (JP) territory really;
– the habit of following as chord changes of the guitar and keyboards as little as possible, rather staying ostinato on the previous root note, which created tension and made his bass playing slightly threatening (Restless), he did that to the point of caricature sometimes;
– the habit of – also ostinato – hammering through counter- and syncopated rhythms (Dead Of Night, Are You Sure, Fiji) that went against the rest of the music giving his bass playing a semblance of “tuned drums”, again he would push that to caricature levels;
– great dexterity when it came down to playing a fast guitar or keyboards riff unisono.
I’ve said it before: John would have been the ideal bassist to play with Cozy Powell (and still leave a mark, Neil Murray played well with Cozy too, but sacrificed all the nuances in his playing for it as he has himself admitted) – of course Blackers would have never let him join Rainbow just because of the way he looked.
It’s ironic: John Gustafson (one of McCoy’s bass heroes besides Dusty Hill of ZZ Top) was a rocker by origin and became all funky-jazzy by the time he joined IGB, and John McCoy had for years played ethno-jazz rock with Zzebra before radically recommitting his style to sort of a comic book version (yet still great) of rock bass upon joining GILLAN.
So, yes, one of my favorite bass players, does that help? Were you in doubt?
April 16th, 2025 at 13:12Hi Karin
I think I’ll probably just agree with you about Bernie…but, only just ! He was like Jimi Hendrix…crossed with a Pirate ☠️…I’m loving the box set too , I put it on for a quick half hour and it ends up staying on all night .
I’ll have to have a little drive up to his house very soon …I do remember he had an old English telephone box stuck right in his garden ( which must have been some reference to ‘ Telephone Box ‘ on Accidentally on Purpose)
April 16th, 2025 at 15:30Hi Uwe
I actually found your comments very illuminating and fascinating…so, thank you for taking the time to go through all that.
I’m glad you give John a glowing reference and some of the songs you mention..Dead of Night, Are you sure etc are among my favourites…the more I listen to Gillan now, the more I realise just what a brilliant band they were ( I was only around 13 when I first discovered them ) I was listening to Future Shock last night and I don’t Care what you say about Production ….its an absolutely fantastic album ..McCoys bass on For your Dreams and Don’t want the truth is hypnotic ……what a band they were ! How lucky we were to have had them !
John Gus ….love is the drug ! …say no more…Bryan Ferry himself says he came up with that !
April 16th, 2025 at 20:35I’m seriously thinking about buying some Judas Priest because of you ( British Steel was one of the first albums I had ….but, I quickly discovered true , classic rock !)
Uwe
Ref your mate Dusty from ZZ Top…have you seen this?
https://youtu.be/yWMnxyIhCDw?si=X8x7xPX_qT_NwV_O
https://youtu.be/yWMnxyIhCDw?si=X8x7xPX_qT_NwV_O
What a band !
April 16th, 2025 at 20:40@70
Not far from where I live, there is an old English telephone box, placed in front of a house (the person living there translates from Danish to English) if those boxes belonged to dr.Who……! Wouldn’t that be amazing 😄
April 17th, 2025 at 04:16Gentlemen, I listened to this
https://youtu.be/MYxTX1dGUeA?si=goyuhfuv3zi_Qqh3
And immediately after this
https://youtu.be/y5y7vCTBrtc?si=DIfc6dWPjQH5JMwU
Is it just me, because I slept very little this night, or do the riffs remind a bit of each other? 😃💜💜
April 17th, 2025 at 11:35Bernie was great live, but in the studio surpassed by Janick who was the more versatile, controlled and tasteful player. But I’m probably prejudiced, Janick was very much “School of Blackmore”.
Listen to this Gers-composition here, it owes a lot to Ritchie (and Uli Jon Roth too) and is well beyond anything Bernie might have ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cWpaa9aRec
And his solo @02:33 sounds like an outtake from the 1975 Rainbow debut! 🤣 Janick left much more space for drama and dynamics in his solos – Bernie’s forte was in contrast brazen energy.
I never understood why Bernie didn’t go find a job in one of the 80s rising LA hair metal bands (who would have regarded an Irish guitarist as an exotic deity), all it would have needed for him to do was a one way ticket to LAX, hang out in the usual places and wait until someone would have asked him the quintessential “Are you in a band?” with his striking looks. For some reason, he never had the balls to do that, I firmly believe his career would have turned out different in the 80s had he done so.
He had his own attempt at hair metal pop in the mid 80s with ex-Girl Phil Lewis singing (Phil later on moving to LA and forming LA Guns with Tracii Guns, initial founder member of Guns & Roses – Bernie should have really gone with him), but the UK simply wasn’t the right home base for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqZs_D903bM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNWaZqhGpUw
Bad career moves indeed. John McCoy’s looks would have made it difficult for him to get a job as a bass roadie in 80s LA’s superficial glam universe, but Bernie would have had the red carpet rolled out for him.
April 17th, 2025 at 14:56Karin
April 17th, 2025 at 20:30I think it’s the first 3 notes are the same …Born Again was a fantastic album …it needs Dweezil Zappa to give it the treatment!
Karin
Not the best quality …but this should bring a smile to your fave
…happy 🐣 Easter
April 17th, 2025 at 20:32https://youtu.be/8UpA6pjCeK0?si=RyvJ87vwMsk7mj4Y
Steve, access the dark side and musical beauty that is Judas Priest! I will personally guide you to your most evil desires …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxNN-VUbXfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_HISjd_K7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S68_spOUvdo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O__MDlHDE0
(A dance floor experiment that turned out not at all bad, anyone remember those great 10″ mixes?)
Re La Grange, why does no one ever dare to say that it is a direct rip-off of what Canned Heat did already in 1969? Except that they put a real vocal melody to it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRYKAMjKgto
I liked ZZ Top always best when – sort of in a Coverdale/Hughes fashion -, Bill and Dusty were sharing/trading the lead vocals as they do here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjbaHlTl86Q
They did that relatively often in their early days and then somehow stopped doing it.
April 17th, 2025 at 22:02The thing is that 90% of all minor pentatonic rock riffs consist of the root note, the minor third, the minor seventh and then sometimes also the fourth and the fifth. That is a kind of limiting choice!
The Black Night riff, the Strange Kind of Woman verse, the “A Fire in the Sky”-part of SOTW and the riff intro to Space Truckin’ all employ the same three to four notes. So does the Burn riff, but it adds a second. Ritchie was a mastermind in jumbling the same notes together again and again, yet make them sound different and catchy each time. German critics spoke of his “Dampframmenstil that repeats itself” (steam hammer or pile driver style).
There is a Status Quo number from a time (1974) when both Rick Parfitt and Alan Lancaster became closet Deep Purple fans – to the chagrin of the more pop and country oriented Francis Rossi – and they began writing in that vein, using the same notes as Ritchie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWedyugALz4
The verse and chorus chords follow the Purple recipe too. Also very purplish is how at 03:14 they all (Parfitt, Rossi & Lancaster) play the riff in unison emulating the typical Blackmore-Glover-Lord unison riff tactic albeit with two guitars, sacrificing the organ.
Really the only thing that is not from the Purple playbook is the fact that Rossi sabotages 😁 all Blackmore feel @02:05 and proceeds to play a solo in a jaunty major key in what is otherwise a decidedly minor key song.
Brilliant number still.
April 17th, 2025 at 22:38@77
Thank you Steve!
I have seen it before and I’m always blown away how Ian just jump on the stage and have everybody mesmerised 🥰
I figure it’s that time where he got married to the beautiful Bron, but do you know if that is true, or am I confused (again!)?🤭
April 18th, 2025 at 05:38@79
Uwe, my tiny brain has just burned out 🤯
What are you talking about????? 😳
“The thing is that 90% of all minor pentatonic rock riffs consist of the root note, the minor third, the minor seventh and then sometimes also the fourth and the fifth. That is a kind of limiting choice!”
So basically all riffs are more or less the same?
Please explain in a language I can comprehend 😉
And I don’t know what that tune fra Status Quo has to do with anything…….
(I am excused! I have been very very busy, so I am tired, exhausted, and I do not have any vacation the next couple of weeks, so PLEASE explain very kindly what you mean 😃)
April 18th, 2025 at 11:01Hi Karin
Happy Easter 🐰 🐣…I guess you must celebrate it in Denmark 🇩🇰
I was thinking about Ian last night, and , I think he’s a guy with a sort of aura around him …tonnes of charisma …and a sort of invincibility !
When I met him, there were loads of people in the room ( Bron was there too) ..but , it was as if I was the only one in the room with him ! …he’s an incredible guy !
Re Bron …he wouldn’t have been with Bron then , I believe he was with someone called Zoe Dean ( it’s in his book )
April 18th, 2025 at 11:10I think he met Bron as the Gillan band was going under and he was going bust ( she worked at Virgin ) …and I’m guessing this was around 82/83 …I believe they were married around 84 and Grace was born around86/87 …but , you’ll have to check his book and video thing for accuracy .
I do know that Bron says they’ve been married several times ……to each other !
Uwe
Thank you very much , considering how much I tease you , you’re very good to me ( Doors Tribute album )
I’m gonna give Priest a good go on your recommendations, I notice one of the albums was called Point of entry ….very appropriate for me ….and for Mr Halford too ! 😉🤣🤣🤣 I notice he is a big Ian Gillan fan too !
I always did like Priest as a young rocker ( and Motorhead and AC-DC too ) ..I remember having British Steel and taking the album down to the hairdressers to impress this girl I fancied …it didn’t work ! She was a Mod !!
What put me off Priest was all this posturing and leather stuff ..V shaped guitars etc ..we British don’t like this OTT stuff ….but just listening to the music you sent me, I can hear they are an excellent band !
Status Quo are great too , Rock and Roll royalty…but the comparison with Purple?…no, I don’t see it ….and everyone knows , all their songs are exactly the same !
I’m ignoring your comments about Glen Hughes …he is just some ponce I have to tolerate in order to listen to the masters ..Blackmore/ lord/ Paice ….same applies to that puff Joe Lynne Turner .
However , that is really interesting what you raised about Canned Heat and ZZ Top …I wonder if they knew ? …I’m very much getting into a bit of ZZ Top at the moment…and I’m always surprised to discover just how good Canned Heat are .
Mind you , the same can be said about Nirvanas Smells like teen spirit being Bostons More then a feeling Speeded up !!
I’m off to ask Alexa for some JP
April 18th, 2025 at 16:44@82
Oh are we at Easter now!? 😄
Sorry, Steve, I have been very busy lately, and even we do have time off from work (normally 😝) I haven’t!
Do you celebrate Easter in England?
“I think he’s a guy with a sort of aura around him …tonnes of charisma …and a sort of invincibility “
Yes Steve, you describe Ian very accurately! 🙌🏼
When he is at the stage, he is all I see!
When GH, DC or anyone else are on the stage, I think about my next cup of coffee, or if I ought to paint my nails in a different colour etc 🤣😂
Re Bron, you’re probably right but I always thought they met around start ‘80s. But what do I know? Nothing much, I can tell you 😄
Bron was a beautiful woman, wasn’t she? She also has something special about her 😊
April 18th, 2025 at 19:02Hi Karin
April 18th, 2025 at 22:40Yes, we do celebrate Easter in UK ( although we are having some tension with a minority trying to get it banned …ill let you guess who , as I do believe you in Europe are having the same problems…particularly in Uwes land ! )
You’re probably right about Ian meeting Bron in the early 80s …I do know it was as the Gillan band was breaking up ….and, I must admit , I feel a little bit guilty/ embarrassed trying to pretend I know everything about his personal life …..I’m only quoting what I read in his book and saw on his DVD 📀
Right…its music video time for me now, although, thanks to Uwe….I’ve got a lot of Judas Priest and Canned Heat recommendations coming up on You tube 😀
@85
Oh I have no idea whatsoever who the minority could be!
Will you tell me?
In Denmark it’s mostly the children who are celebrating Easter. They are getting very expensive Easter eggs (due to the abnormal high chocolate prices!) and then some are having lunches, gathering their families 😊
Well Steve, I don’t know the big man personally either, only what I have read in his autobiography!
I have often wondered how it must feel to be this celebrity and have everybody knowing everything about you, and have all these women offering themselves at you!
At his fb there are hot declarations of love to him, and of course anyone would be somewhat flattered (personally I would be highly surprised 😅) but also at the same time it must feel annoying!
I recall I once saw an interview with Ian, where a person would go through Wikipedia and what was said about him there, and man there were a lot of mistakes 😄
Well for me he has the most wonderful voice, and I’m just so happy he has been spending most of his life singing and letting so many of us who really can’t carry a tune, should our life depend on that, experience true talent 😊
April 19th, 2025 at 11:47“So basically all riffs are more or less the same?”
A lot of them are based on the same tonal material. That was especially true in the 60s and 70s.
Hard Rock/Heavy Rock/early Heavy Metal is basically electrified Blues (other influences would make their entries as the music developed, notably classical and Eastern scales elements of which Ritchie was a progenitor). Blues (and a lot of other folk music too – all over the world) is based on just five notes per octave – the pentatonic scale. “Regular” scales have seven notes before repeating themselves, that is why they’re called hepatatonic. So you have a very limited choice right there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale
There is a minor and a major pentatonic scale, you’re gonna hear the minor one predominantly with bands like DP or early JP, it is darker and more classical sounding, and the major one with bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Eagles, it sounds “happier” and more country’ish (the more major’ish C&W having been one of the parents of rock’n’roll together with the more minor’ish Blues).
But you can do a lot with those five notes depending on their sequence and time values. Think of it as four or five number digits, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but how many different combinations are possible with them, a four-digit-lock on your bike offers 10.000 combinations! And that doesn’t even include the additional options of rhythmic placement music offers.
That said, I’d say that by now nearly every possible pentatonic riff has been written in one way or another. We’ve run out of possibilities (pretty much by the end of the 80s I believe, a lot of Nu Metal wasn’t pentatonic anymore, but employed scales with more notes). It was Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins (a perceptive man and also a Blackmore/Uli Jon Roth fan) who once said:
“You can’t really write a good riff anymore these days, they have all been done. Whenever you think you have come up with one, you then listen by accident to something like Made In Japan and there it is … (laughs).”
So yes, the notes employed for this here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDi2XdFUy3I
and the ones to the Space Truckin’ intro, Black Night, Strange Kind Of Woman + the end of the SOTW chorus are very similar.
And you hear them also here in what Rudy Sarzo, the bassist, plays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui79Uf817YA
Or here in the telltale somber melody at 02:07:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Pr1_v7hsw
All these examples center around root note, minor third and minor seventh of the minor pentatonic scale, in the key of A that would be A, C & G, in the key of E: E, G & D.
April 19th, 2025 at 15:04Easter is a pagan fertility spring rite (hence the multiplying bunnies which were initially hares: except for Spain and Portugal, bunnies/rabbits were unknown in most of Europe until well into the Middle Ages and they are not especially closely related to hares either) that the Catholic Church tactically appropriated centuries ago in its Christianizing battle to drive back the celebration of pagan holidays, all they did was swap the label. It’s as “originally Christian” as Christmas, meaning not at all. Oh Tannenbaum alright.
As such I have no issues with Easter. Just don’t call it inherently Christian, it’s a remnant of our pagan DNA. People celebrated the beginning or the end of seasons (which determined much of their daily life in prehistoric agricultural communities as the womb of all culture), be it spring (Easter), summer solstice (St. John’s Day), fall (Thanksgiving) or winter (Christmas).
“Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too”
I’ve been an agnostic since I was about 10 (did have a voluntary churchgoing phase before that, my parents were tolerant atheists in a Catholic environment), yet I pay church taxes/Kirchensteuer to this day, the Catholic Church is to me this weird conservative cosplaying manosphere with some corruption and occasional crime, but also a functioning charity arm and of of course cultural-historical relevance for the Western World, hence my continuing support – it’s kind of like why I still go to Blackmore’s Night concerts 🤣.
I’m not for forbidding any form of religious celebration (and I don’t get worked up about the loud ringing of church bells either, just as no muezzin’s call disturbs me, it’s all culture) just as long as I am also free to NOT observe those holidays. I’m a dedicated visitor of churches and cemeteries for their cultural relevance. As regards (Christian) Easter specifically, the many questions raised by the concept of the Holy Trinity and the Resurrection of Christ were actually what led me to agnosticism as a child as no adult Christian could give me science-test-proven answers that could have convinced me even as a child back then. And I did ask a lot, yet answers were always evasive/made no sense. If something cannot be properly explained, my default mode is to doubt its existence.
That said, once I’m dead, I’m still open to that penciled in 30-minute-chat with God, life is full of surprises, why shouldn’t death be? 😎
April 19th, 2025 at 16:06@87
Uwe, I remember a famous pianist once said: (sorry I can’t find it, so I quote from my very bad memory ☺️) We all have those notes to play, what makes a pianist a genius (or a banjo-player, or a bassist, drummer etc) are the pauses we use!
I guess the same goes for famous riffs?
April 19th, 2025 at 16:42Point Of Entry is actually my favorite Priest album for its pop and new wave influences, but be warned, among diehard fans its regarded as controversial. For versatile Priest it can be recommended together with Sin After Sin and Killing Machine/Hell Bent For Leather.
If sheer headbang Priest is your thing then you can’t go wrong with British Steel (very sparse), Screaming For Venegeance & Defenders Of The Faith.
Priest at its most proggiest was Sad Wings Of Destiny and Stained Class.
Priest at its poppiest/glammiest is of course Turbo, it was a divisive release too, but I like(d) it. It’s bit like a Billy Idol record of the time, approaching dance floor rock.
Painkiller is legendary for its influence on later heavy metal, but I prefer the Tom Allom productions before it (Painkiller is Chris Tsangarides).
Nostradamus is ambitiously failed, but interesting. They spent too much time with it, that took immediacy and life out of it. Some beautiful melodies though.
Of the reunion era albums Angel Of Retribution and the new Invincible Shield are the best.
**************************************************************************
Re V shaped guitars: I’m not saying that their radical design (from 1958!)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9c/70/f3/9c70f3684e026562ac7e9ed357ae518d.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/18/cf/b9/18cfb9a1135154b365d30ad58ef9bdac.jpg
intended this, but of all electric guitar shapes known to man, the Flying V is the one that has the greatest influence on sound (it has to do with the majority of the wood being so far away from the pick-ups due to the elongated wings). That is they don’t just “look the part”, they also have a very different sonic character. It’s a sound that – by accident – slots in very nicely with the requirements of harder music (a Flying V is not too overwhelming/doesn’t get in the way even with a lot of distortion where a Les Paul or Stratocaster might already be problematic). So there is also a sonic reason why you saw/see it with bands like JP, Wishbone Ash, Scorpions, UFO, Accept, Pantera (but it was also played by Jimi Hendrix, Leslie West of Mountain and Dave Davies of The Kinks).
For the same reason that they are popular as guitars, it is relatively difficult to get a Flying V bass to sound good (I have a couple, so I know) – the distance of a majority of the wood to the pick-ups is a drawback with lower frequencies and has to be compensated elsewhere.
April 19th, 2025 at 17:32Hi Karin
Yes , we’re a Christian country here in the UK…and we celebrate it about Jesus coming into Jerusalem etc , good Friday and then Jesus rising on the Sunday
We are having a lot of this woke rubbish going on here and the government are trying to ban free speech ….that won’t last long !
But, I am aware this is a forum for opinions ( mainly musical ) …so, I won’t try and trample over other people’s opinions like some ignorant ,obnoxious, prat that thinks he is right all the time and only his opinion matters !
April 19th, 2025 at 20:10Uwe, I loved hearing Unleashed in the east last night !
Uwe
April 19th, 2025 at 20:56Heading out to the highway !
I’m gradually joining the Parkside! Lol
Heading Out To The Highway is a riff of epic SOTW, Burn & MOTSM proportions!
https://youtu.be/LKuuHfMx3CQ
https://youtu.be/WtABg813nJk
April 19th, 2025 at 23:13(😂 All those blatant girl close-ups from the audience they liberally strew in as if Auntie Roberta had given a rat’s well-proportioned butt about them … “Here‘s your autograph, can I now please talk to your boyfriend for a minute?!“ 🤣 – this was the time when JP’s management grew increasingly worried because Rob, up to then pretty much an unhappy gay bachelor, had finally found a steady same sex significant partner he was taking with him on tour and as our Karin would say the plot thickened …)
@93
Uwe, I am saying nothing! Not a word……. 😇
(I am thinking though, but that’s private between me and Karin!)
April 20th, 2025 at 12:52