A Purple specter haunting Europe
Deep Purple’s record company Edel has posted a short clip assembled from the behind-the-scenes footage from the set of Arrogant Boy and Diablo.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse7.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride5.jpg)
Deep Purple’s record company Edel has posted a short clip assembled from the behind-the-scenes footage from the set of Arrogant Boy and Diablo.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
EDEL/earMUSIC do a fine job promoting DP – and if I say so myself!
June 17th, 2026 at 00:58Sigh – I could look at them all day long!
I would love if this tour would end with a live album 🤩
Made in Europe or Made in Europe ll – depending on the temper ☺️
June 17th, 2026 at 06:06@ 1
Uwe, we are not dumb, we know you ARE Edel/earMUSIC!
June 17th, 2026 at 13:14Duh 🤷🏼♂️😀
How I wish, Julio! 😂
I just wrote “and if I say so myself” because they’re German. But I’m really impressed by how they handle their artists – not just Purple. IIRC they were also the ones to give DP a slight bump to maybe look at an outside producer. And in Martin Popoff’s bio in several printed interviews, all DP members are full of praise re their collaboration with them.
Purple have worked with German record companies like BMG and EMI Deutschland before, but EDEL/earMUSIC seem like a real home for them. A lot of vintage acts are passed around from record company to record company from album to album – I’m glad that DP don’t face that with their decades of combat experience and worthy service.
Just imagine if EDEL/earMUSIC got their hands on the COMPLETE DP catalog, what a high quality re-release bonanza would ensue!
June 17th, 2026 at 14:06earMUSIC is the UNSUNG hero of Deep Purple revival since 2013’s Now What.
They did tremendous job in promoting the band. Back to the charts in so many countries with Whoosh! reached #4th at UK Charts and six #1 positions as their peak milestone. Unbelievable since I consider the time when EMI dropped them after Bananas as their lowest point in their career. Touring all over the world in larger stages and many famous festivals till today (Hellfest tomorrow).
Making the band energized again with 5 studio albums + 1 cover album in 13 years, means averagely 1 studio album in every 2,5 years while constantly touring. I still remember the endless anxious discussions in this thread where no one really knows if Deep Purple will release a new album or just staying focus as a live band after Rapture of the Deep.
With this long and unexpected success since 2013, no wonder these 4 Purple guys seem determined to continue, “Rock! Rock! ‘Till You Drop” (quoting Def Leppard).
June 17th, 2026 at 15:00Those 800 posters they are signing, will they be available on their web site or are they going to be for sale at concerts? Any one know? They’re being sold somewhere.
June 17th, 2026 at 15:56Will there be a third video (before 07.03) from the “Splat! “album?? Since 2012 there have always been three (.. “inFinite even four)
June 17th, 2026 at 17:38@4
@5
Indeed!
EDEL has done a very good job during The Long Nap (2002-2022) and this new awakening era. I hear Ezrin makes great coffee too 🙂
EMI => Well I “grew up” with their excellent archival releases (plus those by Connoisseur Collection) and those great Simon Robinson booklets. Indeed, DP-Family is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of archival material!
All the best, J.-
June 17th, 2026 at 18:15Yes,yes,yes….EAR Music is, nowadays, the best record company they could find, in terms of really dedicated promotion. It’s business, it’s a matter of money, say what you want, but it’s so clear the fantastic and dedicated work they put on the plate. My sincere compliments to
June 17th, 2026 at 20:44all the people in EAR Music, absolutely.
@6: With the last album, they ran various promotions where you could get the autographed artwork. As in, subscribe to this magazine now and you will get the new album in an exclusive edition featuring an autographed print.
June 17th, 2026 at 20:55In the 90s, among the various jobs I did, I worked in an Italian record destruction company and we imported records from all over the world.
I remember the nascent Frontiere record that produced only AoR and in the last 20 years has progressively expanded its catalog with many historical hard & heavy groups
Edel was a classical music label, then in the mid 90s it changed gear, acquiring several other labels including Eagle Rock which reissued Gillan’s albums for example.
June 17th, 2026 at 21:29but Eagle was also a small record label, then Edel was strategically listed on the stock exchange and grew exponentially by stealing important artists from the Majors who were now involved in “disposable” music
June 17th, 2026 at 21:40Frontiers Music SRL has laudable achievements too, they were the only ones to give a home to AOR and Melodic Rock (which both still have a sizeable following) when most other record labels only had derision for that type of music. Grazie mille for that – as a Night Ranger and Robin Beck fan I know what I am talking about.
Cherry Red (and its offspring Esoteric Records and HNE Recordings) as well as Rock Candy deserve honorary mention too, but they are mainly reissue labels. Still, I’m eternally grateful for Esoteric’s rerelease of the completely remixed Be-Bop Deluxe catalog a few years ago and Cherry Red’s more recent salvage job with my guilty pleasure Strapps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh8bMTW_0ao
Now if only someone could do something similar for STARZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSB6g8ZcRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZTHfr8dsY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWUhpUTX4UA
and for The Hollywood Stars’ brilliant eponymously named1977 album on Arista?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAekWatkfiw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs__HrlMkgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB8VJouFZYQ
June 18th, 2026 at 00:05Talking record companies and this news item from England 1971 regarding illegal live bootlegs. The Floyd are on it as well as a larger than life Peter Grant being asked about bootleggers and what to do about them. At 5.20 on the video Deep Purple’s name is displayed in a shop window. Doing a little research, so many bootlegs that I gave up after a while and I did enjoy this 1970 one, Deep Purple in Hell. Note the term ‘heavy metal’ mentioned on the cover.
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/interviews/peter-grant-pink-floyd-bootleggers
https://wherethebuffaloroam1968.blogspot.com/2015/06/deep-purple-in-hell-1970-live-album.html
June 18th, 2026 at 10:17When they tour America, usually in summer but cant see on schedule 🤷🏻♂️
June 18th, 2026 at 12:13That’s interesting Fla76, tell us more! Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum, record companies are (still) important. I didn’t know any of this background to EDEL’s history.
June 18th, 2026 at 12:58@4 Uwe, it’s a pity since I really want the Bananas remix and even Abandon remix (which to me is still the heaviest Purple record after In Rock).
I don’t understand the business, but is it possible if earMUSIC want to do remix for both albums by having agreement with EMI?
June 18th, 2026 at 15:46The topic for many years was why there was no new material released by Deep Purple.
Maybe my memory is wrong but I recall Gillan saying they didnt make enough profit releasing cds and saying it was due to the downloadphenomenon.
It made me think of the 70 s interview in which he outed himself as being a capitalist.
Possibly a reaction to the Zeitgeist in which Germans demand free shows?
It also was practice to forbid/blocking/deleting YOUTUBE clips with new stuff.
Now they re using YT as a pr channel.
I watch a lot on the net, incl that old Englishman Phil Aston now installing a paywall .
Not sure if he s going to extend it to every episode.
I kinda enjoy what he does but to me he s just a fan talking like us about the band et all.
So. not going for it.
I think he offered an interview with Don Airey.
Its promotion, so basically we need to pay for their advertisement.
The band is doing well, asking high prices for shows,and still implementing ways to make fans cough up much as possible.
Several options like the special treatment Platinum meet and greet,re releases so one needs to buy the same stuff all over again cause they add 1 or more extra tracks.
On a positive note I noticed Gillan singing better, seemingly in better health recently.
One of the reasons I stayed home for years.
So I unexpectedly started thinking to go see a show after 2 decades.
Morse was depressing for me and Gillan became more and more emberassing, so……
Mc Bride to me is not a new Ritchie but less annoying than Steve.
Though he seems imho to implement Morse sounding stuff in his playing,just enough to make me not annoyed.
Prices,it seems normalised like other contemporary developments, and thus nagging if you still complain about them prompts derogatory reactions.
I could afford it but its a thorn in my side.
Weird, Antwerp says max price is 75 E and Amsterdam is 19o E max?!
https://www.ticketmaster.nl/event/deep-purple-%7C-comfort-seats-tickets/199100372
https://www.ticketmaster.nl/event/deep-purple-%7C-vinyl-room-package-tickets/1191815322
June 18th, 2026 at 15:52@18
Antwerpen, that beautiful train station! 😍
June 18th, 2026 at 19:14I personally will buy the album when it’s released and listen to it several times and decide if I like it.
June 18th, 2026 at 19:27All the rest like behind the scenes and so on is just for visual entertainment which has nothing to do with music and your ear drums.
Peace ✌️
@14
Of course Mac, there was a quote against bootlegs on the inner sleeve of “Who Do We Think We Are”, either by Paice or Glover (can’t remember!).
Also the famous “H Bomb” was said to be part of the reasoning to allow general release of “Made in Japan”.
Best regards, J.-
June 18th, 2026 at 19:28#16 Uwe:
Actually, I’ll disappoint you, I can’t tell you more than that. I was one of the warehouse workers who took care of the goods to be received and displayed, of the stocks, of the shipments to customers throughout Italy.
I worked there part-time since I was already dividing my time between the recording studio, the Milan venue where I was the resident sound engineer and a couple of audio services.
Many people passed through the venues, including promoters, Italian music journalists, and managers of rock clubs at the time, and often they received promos and free tickets, but we clerks received other people’s leftovers!
then after a few years the Napster and emule/Bit Torrent bubble arrived and the company had to close because CD sales dropped dramatically, but I no longer worked for them.
Each department had its own managers who had direct contact with the houses and customers, therefore Jazz, classical, dance, international pop and finally metal departments.
All my colleagues would tell anecdotes every now and then, including the intrigues and power games between record companies and the war that the Majors waged for the Bigs, in proportion to what the small (and not so small like Audioglobe, Massacre, Nucleare Blast, Century Media, etc.) independent labels waged for metal artists, but more than a quarter of a century has passed, I don’t remember anything!
then we had a couple of people in charge of finding emerging artists, and we were for example the first to import exclusively in Italy (and maybe in Europe) Muse, Danko Jones, Mike Patton’s Fantomas, the compilations “cafè del mar” and “Buddha Bar” and others that I don’t remember.
June 18th, 2026 at 22:16I will give it as fair a listen as I did back then in 1993 when TBRO appeared.
That the present guitarist and the singer no longer hate each other gives some hope!
June 19th, 2026 at 00:47My only contact to a record company has been SPV – when they and their metal label Steamhammer (nearly) went bust in 2009 (SONY bought much of their business out), our insolvency “wrecking crew” worked on the case, I remember being called ad hoc into a meeting with Manfred Schütz, the CEO/founder of SPV, for some potential litigation issues. At one point we got into talking – after one of my Smart Alec fellow partners had quipped: Uwe is our resident heavy metaller here! – and I think Manfred was extremely chuffed that someone in a big shot law firm wearing a suit would know who Uli Jon Roth was (Manfred was personal friends with him and adored him as a musician). Extremely nice man. I learned a lot about Uli that day.
Our insolvency guys would later say: “Herr Schütz is a lovely guy, great to work with and has wonderful stories to tell, but, man, what a terrible business man he was!”
Well, you can’t have it all. SPV had no doubt achievements too and Manfred was really a music enthusiast. Today they are a sublabel of Napalm Records. Reverse Anschluss so to say. 🤣
June 19th, 2026 at 15:17Hi J.
Antwerp indeed has a trainstation to fall in love with.
But I stranded once there february 87 cause no trains durng the night.
Not something I d recommend.
Of course I could ve gone into bars et all but being a boring old fart all my life I didnt feel like.
Theoretically I missed out on adventures this way.
But the next day I needed to be fit for Rotterdam, so sleeping etc seemed a wiser idea anyway.
The first Rotterdam, imho, was the best of the three.
Its legendary this,many,like me had stood in line in freezing cold for the first show tickets.
In real life the first show was excellent and made even stoic security turn around to see the band.
But this ticket went on sale after the 2nd day sold out in a heartbeat.
The 2nd night was much less and many who had taken the trouble
to stand in the cold to get there got served a depressing evening.
Gillan recognised me standing in front of him and complimented me on that.
A nice moment which became scarce in the years after.
Pity I only got around to seeing them at the hotel years when they toured Purpendicular.
Gillan behaved very rude me trying to make contact.
” Cant you see I m in a buisness meeting here?!”
Others experienced this too.
One of them jokingly said : ” Gillan thinks he s Blackmore.”
I had friends near Antwerp, THS caused that, but somehow the prolongevity wasnt meant to be.
Which saddens me even today.
” Had a friend once in a room….”
In the years after 87 I rented a room once.
About the other dates in Vorst my memory is failing me but I did attend S and M show, TBRO tour,Foreigner/Doobie Brothers(Yeah, I know)in 95.
June 19th, 2026 at 17:10No surprise there, Ian can be arrogant and highbrow too. Blackmore is often just shy or in a bad mood, tries to get away from people, but dear Ian can have an attitude at times – and be uttely charming in the next minute, on/off, most celebrities are very adept at that.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VNnhhWy-UDw
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/adEjI5qlHVc
Bacon is at least honest about it! 😂
June 19th, 2026 at 17:30A handful of old men talk about their new album – endearingly so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkrk9LdKYL8
Young (relatively) Simon says something about Big Ian’s lyrical work that I can subscribe to: “It pulls you in.”
Damn right it does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29DXfcdhBg
June 19th, 2026 at 23:57Should I know who/what Loki is?
I know the Godfather reference.
Bacon.
I immediately thought of that role called the Invisible Man(2000) in which he gets to do all kinds of naughty things many of us d love to do.
I dont know if the 2020 title is a remake.
So much to do, so much to learn, read,…..
Which makes me think of Gillan in his role as Darwin.
June 20th, 2026 at 21:59Should I know who/what Loki is?
Not if you were in a cryogenic tank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSR5TnNGKmo
during the last 15 years or so, RV!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki_(Marvel_Cinematic_Universe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1dKbVnNE1Q
June 21st, 2026 at 00:11@25
Nice story Rock, thanks!
Funnily enough yesterday I watched the movie “Now You See Me 3” with my daughter and there it was again, Antwerpen and the train station 🙂
@28
Loki: Norse Myth figure and also popular Marvel Movies character, played by that guy in the video. In the movies he is sort of crazy-brother-with-issues to pretty boy Thor.
Bacon: You are thinking “Hollow Man” movie, based on H. G. Wells’ classic novel “Invisible Man”. The 2020 thing is another take on the novel, but not strictly a remake of the Bacon one.
Good Kevin is also, of course, the subject of the popular Six Degrees of Bacon game, which claims you can connect any actor in existence to Kevin by a maximum of six co-star credits in movies (it is addicting as hell).
“So much to do, so much to learn, read,…..”
‘So listen, so learn, so read on
You got to turn the page
Read the Book of Taliesyn’
Best regards, J.-
June 21st, 2026 at 01:03Too many links to yt here, overwelming .
And its bloody hot, headaches, bad sleep but I didnt feel like immerging into Lemmy s space age noise.
Yeah, I know
That best of Loki brought something back.
But I missed out sequels, I think?
Frozen for ages, it reminds me of several efforts.
Sylvester Stallone did one.
June 21st, 2026 at 19:57Mel Gibson did one.
I think Brendan Fraser as well.
I recall Futurama.
Idiocracy from which we re not far away or already stuck in.
#27 Uwe:
from the video you linked, in addition to hearing with pleasure the other 4 most influential bands in the history of hard rock being named (including the precursors The Who and excluding the American Jimi “king” Hendrix) there are two things worth highlighting:
1) the incredible shape of our heroes!
2) there are images where the band is dressed in white, so that will be the next video clip!!
June 21st, 2026 at 21:32