![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse10.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse3.jpg)
Devious, but in a funny way
A third single Guilt Trippin’ from the upcoming album Splat! is upon us.
And here are some more soundbites from the band about the album, life, and universe.
[Update June 24]: The single Guilt Trippin’ will be available in physical media as digisleeve CD and silver & blue splatter vinyl, both due out on July 17, 2026.
Tracklist
- Guilt Trippin‘
- Portable Door (Live in Dresden, 2024)
- Anya (Live in Dresden, 2024)
Preorders are available through the “artist store”.
Thanks to AndreA for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
The third single is Guilt Trippin’ and will be released in a limited 3000 copies on colored vinyl and CD format on July 17th (in France). It will include live renditions of Portable Door and Anya recorded in Dresde, Germany during the 2024 tour.
June 23rd, 2026 at 03:50Ok, of course I look forward to listen to this single…
But also have to be honest: the little sound bite really sounds below par for me 🫣
Hope I’m wrong.
Really hope I’m wrong….
June 23rd, 2026 at 05:41I have to say inspite of the Hype, the first two singles are totally UNDERWHELMING! = 1 set a very high bar, which after listening to the first two singles I am transformed back to “Whoosh” which to me is one of the worst Deep Purple albums EVER. I also HATE the innuendo refering to Steve Morse not being suited to the band in the same way that Simon Mc Bride is…. What UTTER TOSH. STEVE MORSE RESCUED the band magnificently and I think Ian Gillan has not paid enough homage to a Brilliant Player and all round good guy in Steve Morse. Back to the ALBUM…. SPLAT I hope the first two offerings are the worst because if they aint……. Whoa, lot of people on here , including me will be wondering!!!!!!!
June 23rd, 2026 at 09:14They gonna release hole album on video before album come out, so save money is good 😆
June 23rd, 2026 at 12:15Since “Arrogant Boy” won me over and “Diablo” didn’t really do it for me, this third track should be more exciting. If the snippets in the interview above are from this song, then my interest has already roused again. Purple seems to have left of their comfort zone, and the bass sounds really funky. I like that.
June 23rd, 2026 at 12:34From the hell of Diablo to now a more celestial environment – is there laughing in heaven after all?
June 23rd, 2026 at 15:14@ 3 Agree about Steve Morse, he really saved Purple back in the day..!
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:03My favorite so far.
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:10Guilt trippin’ is their best song since I do not know when, imo
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:20Just after two spins: oh no, I don’t have to have every album fom Deep Purple….
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:21I really like it!! Now I’m really looking forward to this album!! Gillan does a great job and Paice is excellent. Sounds kind of like Guns and Roses Welcome to the Jungle!!
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:24!!!!= This Guilt Trippin’ IS JUST AMAZING. This is something we have not heard before from DP. I absolutely love it. It’s fantastic. Very bold from the band. The video goes one-to-one with the song. Love the video. They have never done anything like this. Thank you guys for this amazig surprise!
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:42Just heard it : this is (again!) an incredible piece of music. Arrogant Boy was impressive already but that Guil Trippin is so rich, efficient, rockin’, interesting and clever…IMPRESSIVE.
Performances by the 5 of them are quite unbelievable too… and the GILLAN boy still on top of his game.
That mk 9 really is making those last years of the band a phenomenal swan song(s).
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:53How did J. K. Rowling’s “Golden Snitch”
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/The_Making_of_Harry_Potter_29-05-2012_%28Golden_Snitch%29.jpg/500px-The_Making_of_Harry_Potter_29-05-2012_%28Golden_Snitch%29.jpg
from her Harry Potter-invented Quidditch Game end up in a Purple vid of all places?! 🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8bwEWYxb0
Is Big Ian a closet Harry Potter fan? Or did young Simon as a 16-year-old start reading the book series when it first came out in 1997? (I thought he was practicing guitar all day at that age and only altkluge teenage girls – before their period sets in – read Harry Potter?)
No matter, the intro is magic and the verses echo some IGB/GILLAN/Sabbath frantic mayhem. It’s the kind of vocal Blackmore would have hated, so it must be good. 😈
And I like Big Ian’s background “shower booth baritone humming” during the middle instrumental part, it is whimsically bizarre in a Jethro Tull or Max Webster sort of way (or even something Bob Calvert might have done). Ian probably recorded it while naked as not just the notes dangled in the air.
Nice guitar and piano exchanges too. I never thought I would write this, but as a pianist in a hard rock context, Don has gotten Jon beat by now.
In a strict sense, this is of course no real “single” at all, just a pre-release of what I would consider a “deep cut”. But I dig it. Innuh-risting it is.
June 23rd, 2026 at 18:54This is more like it .
It’s weird, eccentric…and brilliant!
You can’t pigeon hole this …its simply Deep Purple!
It leaves you saying ” wow ”
Mind you, had to bring a downer but how Gillan is gonna sing this every night is anyone’s guess ..effects I presume ?
June 23rd, 2026 at 19:07It is bonkers, slow fast a screamy double tracked vocal. Guitar piano duel in the middle. Totally different to anything they have released. I love it.
June 23rd, 2026 at 19:19Isn’t Big Ian’s SPLAT! concept of all of mankind eventually morphing into a collective consciousness (giving up all material existence in the process) as the final step of our evolution uncannily like Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-Wk16gLXByM
It came out in 1953 and was a very popular book well into the 70s, I’m sure that Ian read it at one point. It’s probably my favorite SciFi novel too.
The American-Australian TV mini series that came out about a decade ago actually did the book justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3cYGMY7Zk
June 23rd, 2026 at 19:25Guilt tripp sounds like the rise and fall of humanity.. 😀
June 23rd, 2026 at 19:56By far the best song among the three for me!
June 23rd, 2026 at 20:07I really like Don’s keyboard figure of the intro and I even more like his jazzy solo then joined by Simon.
OK, it’s maybe not the newest and most original song; some ingredients from Rapture of the Deep and Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion can be found but this is really a tune that stands out for me!
Its just a snippet
Why?
Anyway, me no like it.
June 23rd, 2026 at 21:05I thought these new tunes were supposed to sound like the 70’s DP? They aren’t even close, they all sound pretty much the same in the Ezrin era. That’s OK cause it is good just not great music. Gillan says the new tunes are compatible to Highway Star, Smoke and Lazy, not hardly, at least not yet. They had better keep those classics in the setlist cause these are nothing to get fired up about except maybe Arrogant Boy minus the lyrics. In older soundbites Gillan said much the same of Morse years ago as far as new energy and spark, I hope if/when they replace McBride they do it with more class. We are only 3 songs in and so far it’s ok, good but not great. We will be seeing them in August and hoping for at least a little different setlist than 2 years ago and at least a couple Morse era tunes.
June 23rd, 2026 at 21:17@3 Your comments are totally underwhelming. If you want to butt-kiss Steve Morse, have at it. McBride is doing just fine. It sounds like you don’t set a very high bar so much as drink at one too much.
June 23rd, 2026 at 21:37@1 Fabrice – thanks for the news with the release of the vinyl single. That’s a bummer, because it means I need to buy the Deluxe boxset and the single (and maybe some more singles) to get the Dresden show complete (on vinyl).
June 23rd, 2026 at 22:38Will take a few listens but a nice contrast to the other singles. Do I hear a hint of Sugarplum?
June 23rd, 2026 at 22:44Oops I was a day late and a dollar short with my first comment.
June 23rd, 2026 at 22:50That ‘single’ cyclops eye reminds me of someone here. Always watching, always critiquing………….. don’t feel too guilty Uwe Hornung………….it happens in life. Regarding this song, well, I thought it was Grumpy Rick ’embellishing’ those piano bits at first. Uwe’s favourite thing about Rick, bless him. Seriously, a bit of an awkward song in its arrangement. Still, at least Karin will be impressed, well, perhaps. The insect hitting a ‘windshield’ scenario reminds me of when I was about seventeen and driving around with an Italian guy. A insect hits the windscreen and he then says, “I bet you it hasn’t got the guts to do that again”. Splat indeed. Probably an old joke from somewhere else no doubt. Cheers.
June 23rd, 2026 at 23:233 I totally agree with you. As much as I love to like This version of Purple with Simon, Steve Morse input on this band was bigger than our singer and drummer like to admit.This version of favoring shorter songs doesn’t do it for me! The songs doesn’t go anywhere. Just ideas! Time to get rid of Bob Ezrin and get a fresh ear and producer
June 23rd, 2026 at 23:38I have listened to it 4 times now, and I don’t get it. It just isn’t doing anything for me. It reminds me a bit of Soon forgotten off Abandon. I hated that song too.
June 24th, 2026 at 00:04On a positive note, I liked the other two releases…..
Wow…. not what I expected from the boys, but I think this one will grow on me. Not sure what was going on with the vocals or verses, but the guitar keys were excellent.
The Purple albums with Ezrin have all been amazing over all. A few clunker songs on each, but some really strong songs as well. I suspect that this one will be the same after a few listens.
Cheers to all.
June 24th, 2026 at 00:37Great track. Pick of the 3 so far and written to be played live although Ian may struggle with the vocals.
June 24th, 2026 at 00:45Cheers
Phil
Why no comments on the third release? It’s in the same vein as When Time Began (on Rapture), so a mixture of prog and blistering rock. It’s interesting, but doesn’t have the immediate appeal of Arrogant Boy, which I love. The solos are especially good.
June 24th, 2026 at 00:46That really high, but comparatively faintly mixed banshee screaming falsetto backing voice that Ian has recorded in the verses – très Rob Halford!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwMZ20ZVZeE
June 24th, 2026 at 01:32Excellent progressive hard rock track with the vintage piano and guitar intro, raucous vocal on the verse (in positive way of course), long guitar-keyboard interplay. Marriage between Mark 2 and Mark 8 I gotta say (specifically, In Rock and Infinite).
A song that calls for an improvisation on stage and could be fantastic opener too if they dare to drop Highway Star, like at some legs of Now What and Infinite tours. Making this as an opener would be a statement, but maybe I’m too optimistic..
And finally, a Mk 9 song that did not make me quickly think “Hey this song sounds almost exactly like song… “.
Yes, it has the spirit of Rapture of the Deep and The Surprising, the vocal delivery of Bloodsucker and harder version of Power of the Moon, the mid-guitar/keyboard breaks like Flight of the Rat. But nothing’s really similar, all blended perfectly, unique, stands on its own. I say the best Mark 9 song so far, followed by Bleeding Obvious
But then 3 songs + =1, you can feel they can’t escape from the progressive rock adventures. Didn’t really feel much of the 70’s classic rock, Mark2 influence like they said beside the spontaneity on the songs, which are far from the more rigid, well-structured songs they created with Morse.
Not complaining, because at this day and age, they have nothing to prove and just keep continuing making good rock music that fans will enjoy. Only those marketing tags they said about completely back, returning to 70’s seems too odd.
June 24th, 2026 at 03:00‘The power of the moon’ dressed up in a scary melodic Black Sabbath costume.
June 24th, 2026 at 06:14My biggest problem is I am and I am not alone in saying that we are too analytical of DP latest installments and we tent to forget enjoying the music in the first place.
More listening and less thinking is a good starting point.
Peace ✌️
I think the best way to judge Splat, is to not compare it to the band’s 70s albums. It’s really about the here and now. So far I like what I hear!
June 24th, 2026 at 07:48This is indeed frantic and trippy – and that gives the track an enormous effect. Still, the “wall of bricks” sound is difficult to handle. No distinguished plans in the more dense parts – which creates a sense of chaos, it’s all falling on the head like a wall. I’m not convinced either about the yelling backing vocal layer. Ian’s time of sounding like Brian Johnson was in 1983-98, but certainly not now… Middle and low voices combined would do the track just as well (if you think about, say Soon Forgotten – how clear and well planned everything sounds there, but still the track is heavy as an armada of tanks). Don’s piano sound is also over-synthetic – can’t he use a real grand piano to good effect for once? He falls flat in terms of power of sound in the middle call-response with Simon. So, overall – great for all it’s intensity and franticness – it’s really intriguing. But what ruins the almost inevitable glory is a messy production. It’s unselective, disproportioned, pulling-the-wall-on-you chaos. Bezrinne, please go away. The guys have every right to be half deaf by now, but you shouldn’t, you did some well produced albums with them before! Or at least listen to “Purpendicular” – a clue for pristine sound production is there. Learn, don’t force streaming service type sound mayhem.
June 24th, 2026 at 08:15To # 22 You complain that 3 is butt-kissing Steve Morse. He has a right to his opinion! By the way, why are you butt-kissing Simon?
June 24th, 2026 at 08:34Now that’s a bit more like it lads!
Great creative and inventive tune – hope the rest are more like this and less like the boring, uninspired trite that is Diablo.
It’s great to hear Gillan screaming again! Don’s piano riff reminds me of Bolero for some reason!
And speaking of Mr. Gillan:
He can knock it off with the continued not so subtle slagging of Mr. Morse. Deep Purple are a hard rock band AGAIN?! What the hell do you call Infinite and Now What, Ian?? Electro Pop?!!
I agree Whoosh is a weak record with some brilliant moments, but it’s one bloody record in the grand scheme.
For God’s sakes Ian, can it already. If it wasn’t for Steve saving your band and career, you wouldn’t be riding high right now. So honestly, shut up, stop lying and twisting history and show Steve the respect he deserves – you owe hm the past 20+ years of your career with Purple for Christ’s sake! Biting the hand that kept you fed for over two decades is not a good look mate!
June 24th, 2026 at 08:44It’s nice, but I don’t entirely like it. I find it very prog in its guitar and keyboard music, and prog tires me out. I was hoping for R&B blues reminiscences, but no. I’m happy, but I’m not crazy about it. I played it for my friend, and he said, “But these don’t sound like DP.” YES!!
June 24th, 2026 at 08:46@34 👍
June 24th, 2026 at 09:00Nice pianos! I always thought Don should try more piano (or at least, piano sound) in DP.
I like the diversity we have in the 3 installments so far. Like them or not, 3 very distinct tunes, in the way the songs were distinct in Purpendicular or Bananas. Let’s see what else “Splat!” brings!
June 24th, 2026 at 09:45but at the end I consider it a great piece and yes, I like it.
June 24th, 2026 at 09:47#38. I agree agree with just about everything with exception I loved Whoosh. As for Gillan twisting history, you are correct about that. I remember that when RB left, he tried to tell everyone that during the 1993 shows that they were playing to half empty arena’s when, in fact, the arena’s were certainly mostly full. After 28 years in the band, Steve certainly has left his mark, just as Jon and Ritchie did (how I miss those 2). The band is certainly getting older and maybe Simon’s simpler (maybe not the right word but I can’t think of anything else) way of playing suits them in their older age cause as we all know, Steve is certainly in a league all his own when it comes to writing music as his latest album, Triangulation shows. I do hope the new DP album is better than =1 which I thought stunk. As evidenced by 2 of the new songs (Diablo wasn’t that good), I think it might be!!
June 24th, 2026 at 10:05@38
I honestly believe that Ian, like me, meant he was tired of Morse’s elaborate musical masturbations. The direct spontaneity in the music was gone, bordering on boredom. And then, I personally found the last three with Morse well-played but sad, gloomy, with a mental (and sonic) depression.
June 24th, 2026 at 10:24Satriani saved Purple
June 24th, 2026 at 11:52Morse ruined again
Of the three new songs this is the one i will remember in the future, don’t know wether it has got the potential for a classic but it got everything a fine Purple tune needs, only thing for me is that the song is…too short. And yes, Don excels on the piano, the new Banjo player does well but still i am waiting for something more characteristic in his tone, like Steve had and Blackers had and even Tommy had..
June 24th, 2026 at 13:02I don’t why but this song remember me this part of The Surprising
June 24th, 2026 at 13:22https://youtu.be/rx4XEso9Um0?t=232&is=Hm0EtnwsgomWAOpY
Le couplet ressemble même à du Shaka Ponk !
June 24th, 2026 at 13:23Born again screaming over a clear air turbulence…what’s not to love? 🙂
June 24th, 2026 at 13:51“Biting the hand that kept you fed for over two decades is not a good look mate!”
Not sure how you mean this, lieber Mike. Last I heard, Steve’s stint with Purple was the only time he made money in the music business EVER – or do you think be bought the six planes in his own private hangar with the royalties from his multi-million selling SMB and Dixie Dregs recordings, those conquerors of US airwaves and reliable fillers of stadiums? ☝️🥸
Or perhaps you meant this scenario here:
“Hi guys, my wife is not doing too well, mind if I stay at home for an indefinite period? We can always play a few gigs in Florida though where we have always been most popular. Incidentally, we should have called it a day a long time ago, go out with a bang, know what I’m saying? Yes, thank you, I did get the check in the mail from the proceeds of the last world tour, new aircraft on order!”
Sometimes, it is not entirely clear who feeds and who bites, it’s a matter of perspective.
*******************************
Different subject, but haven’t Arrogant Boy, Diablo and Guilt Trippin’ been so far nicely varied and even eclectic mix? It’s not like listening to a new AC/DC album, thankfully.
And those complaints about DP being too proggy: Wake up, DP have been more proggy since Purpendicular and the Morse influence, with the advent of Don that was even reinforced and while Simon is a hard blues rocker by nature, he honed his skills in the Don Airey Band, notably an ex-member of non-hard rockers Colosseum II. Prog is part of DP’s identity and has been for decades. If you want to hear music devoid of dreaded Prog influences with lots of Ritchie content though, then I have a recommendation for you: Wallow in Blackmore’s Night’s vast oeuvre, 100% Prog-free and all-u-can-eat Ritchie! In the meantime, ate the adults among us allowed to enjoy the more cerebral side of Purple? I have Judas Priest and Status Quo to go to when I tire of the brainy stuff. And I have suffered through enough non-cerebral Whitesnake and Rainbow, thank you. (Not mentioning IGB and GILLAN who both thankfully retained Prog elements.)
June 24th, 2026 at 14:54For me this is the best song from the Simon McBride Era..so far. It has progressive parts, a cross between “The Surprising” and
June 24th, 2026 at 15:11“Bleeding Obvious”, an incredible instrumental ride, I like the part that starts in the second minute song and continues until the end of the song..that Briton Don Airey is dangerous,this time jazz man..I like what he does.. ..for me much more than Harry Kane 🙂
By now I listened to a full version of GuiltTripping.
I dont know what to think of it yet but…. It reminds me of Gillan members nicking Ian :” The grand Whhhhhoaarggggghhh”
@ 17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBYspFKwo6U
June 24th, 2026 at 15:16@35
June 24th, 2026 at 15:18We don’t. But the bandmembers suggested that in their promotion interviews about Splash. Back to how they make music in the 70’s, their mojo returns, anything to say for marketing moves
..I forgot …..excellent guitar (melody) Simon McBride
June 24th, 2026 at 15:26@ 38 Well that is stretching things a bit, isn’t it? Steve Morse did save IG and DP’s career? Good ‘un! And I always thought it was the other way round. Silly me! According to you he saved the band from obscurity or what? Just a reminder: They played ace shows with Satriani on short notice and they even sold out venues.
Last time I checked DP were much more popular than SM, let alone ticket sales and album sales. So I thought they might have gotten quite a lot of first class guitar slingers to help them out. And as far as I know SM had been close to give up music as a pro because it seems it didn’t really make ends meet. Which, if it’s true, is a real shame of course. SM is a brillant guitarist without any doubt. But no, hard rock is not exactly his main interest or influence and it showed. DP with SM were a good band but for a lot of fans including yours truely left a lot to be desired. And it seems Simon brought that back. The rock’n’roll factor you know. With SM it all was a bit…well artsy. He was and is brillant, I said it before and all that I know about him is he is an extremly friendly man (a friend of mine had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times in professional settings). So who am I to put him down in any way. He just wasn’t the right fit for DP I think. And I guess he thought so too. But he was a pro and he made good money. And they soldiered on. That’s ok. I still can not hear a single harsh word about him from any of the band. just as Svante stated elsewhere.
Silly me! According to you he saved the band from obscurity or what? Just a reminder: They played ace shows with Satriani on short notice and they even sold out venues.
June 24th, 2026 at 15:33Don Airey’s harmless, unassuming keyboard runs make me miss Jon Lord once again. And “Guilt Trippin'” is just a tiny bit more interesting than Diablo.
June 24th, 2026 at 16:24And both tracks has nothing to do with the creative power of Purple’s “In Rock”, “Fireball” or “Machine Head”.
Has Ian Gillan not tell about his same feeling doing this new Album with reflection to those albums.
Wonder why.
Deep Purple 2026- who would have thunk it!
June 24th, 2026 at 16:28I’m so Glad!!
No, Don isn’t Jon. None of Don’s “Lazy” intros are anything like Jon’s, whereas Don has been playing the same one for ages…
June 24th, 2026 at 16:46Don is an excellent keyboardist, but perhaps… a bit too predictable in his solos.
I discovered Deep Purple in 1978; I was 11 years old. Since then, I’ve seen them 20 times. Purple is more than the sum of its parts. Apart from *Slaves and Masters*—which, for me, is their weakest album—I listen to every new release with a fresh perspective, without telling myself “Mark II was the best”…
Can’t wait to hear this new record, and I’ll be seeing them for the 21st time.
Hi fans,
Mike from France
Liked “Arrogant Boy” right away. Energetic, catchy. Sporting the most natural-sounding vocal of the three songs released so far.
“Diablo” pleasant enough, though as others have said, reminiscent of any number of previous DP tunes. Grows a little on repeated listens. Muffled-sounding vocals in “For once in your life…” section continue to feel like a production misstep. But Don’s keyboard work during the “trading” passages is excellent.
“Guilt Trippin'” is strong musically but vocals rather monotonous and harsh-sounding, no? Also wish they would have muted the mumbling and sighing during the middle instrumental passage.
Contains perhaps the most tuneful and exciting guitar solo of the three, though, while Don’s keyboard work continues to impress.
For those of us who prefer “Fireball” to “In Rock”, it’s a good thing that each song sounds different from the others.
June 24th, 2026 at 17:57With all the butt-kissers here, anybody with a spare tongue want to spoil me? 🤗
Christ, you guys can get worked up about things! Those childish line-up schisms. Deep Purple is first and foremost a job and a business to its members (all of them, past & present), in any line-up. It’s what they do for a living. I liked Ritchie, I liked Tommy, I liked Steve and I like Simon. (I would have likely also liked Joe S had be stayed on and recorded with them.)
“To everything …turn, turn, turn … there is a season … turn, turn, turn … and a time to every purpose under heaven!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkx0SuEGMOc
It must be my Catholic upbringing, I see the whole, I’m ‘catholic’ in its original sense:
–> The term catholic (derived from the Greek word katholikos) means “universal” or “inclusive of all.”
A sizeable faction of you guys, however, seem to me more like foaming-at-the-mouth Evangelicals picking out the parts from the Bible you like to serve your agenda. Ritchie was better than Tommy was better than Steve was better than Simon was better than Ritchie …😂
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sF9F3NxFbGw
On and on and on …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWgrGNS6RWo
June 24th, 2026 at 18:51Andre and Thorsun …you make some good points there and yes , I too am getting a ROTD vibe …particularly Before time began …and M.T.V
As for Gillans screaming…fucking brilliant! …I’m blown away he can still do that ( yes I know its double tracking and a lot of Studio tricks ) ..but it reminds me of The Malestrom ( Gillan B Side , remember that ? ?) …I never thought I’d hear that stuff again !
All this 70s stuff crap is just to sell records, personally I couldn’t give a toss what era it is …so longs as it sounds like good old whacky Deep Purple…and this definitely does !
I’m not sure which one of the characters is supposed to be God and which one is Darwin though !?
I know its pointless to hypothesise …but I wonder what would have happened if Steve had stayed in the band ?
June 24th, 2026 at 19:57“Christ, you guys can get worked up about things”! There we have it folks, Uwe Hornung and his ‘double’ standards. Uwe telling other people they ‘get worked up about things’. I am NOT surprised as many others will NOT be either. Oh well, these thing’s happen occasionally in life. We move on as always, further into the abyss of words and dialogue etc etc. I might as well just repeat those Elephant Talk lyrics from King Crimson. Cheers.
June 24th, 2026 at 23:27Ok so, for clarity:
Steve saved the band from obscurity, yes. Joe couldn’t stay with them long term, and Steve could. Steve also reinvigorated the band and got them to believe in themselves again after how poorly Ritchie treated them.
In the words of Jon, Ian G, Ian P and Roger, Steve saved the band from falling apart completely. If you don’t believe me, read the thank yous from the guys in the liner notes in Purpendicular or their farewell messages to Steve when he was released from the band.
They all say he saved Deep Purple. That is not just my opinion, it’s the opinion of everyone else in the band. It is a fact.
I am not complaining about him being let go or the fact that him going on indefinite hiatus was unfair to the rest of the band.
I am complaining about the fact that without Steve Morse the band would not exist today, the last 20+ years would not have happened, and that Ian is treating Steve in an ungrateful and disrespectful way when Steve deserves the opposite.
While the band certainly kept Steve fed and well, it was because he saved them that they were able to do this for him, including Ian Gillan. Ian wouldn’t have had the last 20+ years of his career without Steve Morse – the band would have collapsed, there would be no Deep Purple today without him, they would not have the success they have today without him, including Mark 9 and Simon, all of which exists because *Steve saved the band from complete and total collapse*. Gillan has said so, they all have!
They would have been finished without a permanent stable guitarist to step in and renew them and give them the stability they needed after the chaos Ritchie caused. It could have been anyone, I’ll grant that, and it just happened to be Steve.
Gillan has been telling lies and balderdash that the band was no longer hard rock with Steve in it. Sure, some prog elements entered the mix, but I never saw him complain about Purpendicular not being hard rock, or Abandon, or Bananas, or Rapture, or Now What. In press interviews for those records, and indeed even for Infinite and Whoosh, he continued to refer to Deep Purple as a hard rock band, that he was proud of those records.
So, I have questions then:
Has Ian been lying to the press and the fans the whole time?
Did he not really consider the music DP was making to be very good and not really hard rock? Did he not consider DP a hard rock band for those 28 years with Steve? Is he not proud of the records the band made with Steve?
Because quite frankly he can’t have it both ways. Either he stands by the last 20+ years when Steve was in the band or he doesn’t. This rewriting of history and lies really disgusts me because if what he is saying now in the press is true, it means we have been not only been lied to as fans, but that DP were more than happy to push out records with Steve that didn’t meet the standards of the majority of the band as long as it made them money.
But quite frankly, I don’t buy that interpretation. If Gillan really had a problem with the prog influences in the band, there wouldn’t be any prog in Equals One, or this new single. This new single is as proggy as the Morse years!!! He’s ok with Simon doing prog, but not Steve???
If that isn’t hypocrisy, then I don’t know what is!
Ian is clearly resentful towards Steve and acting incredibly ungrateful and disrespectful towards him as of late- perhaps his ego is so big that he can’t bring himself to admit that he needed someone to save his band and career. He’s always struck me as being very insecure in himself, having read his autobiography, so that seems possible to me.
At the end of the day, I have no idea what’s going on in his head, and whatever it is, it’s causing him to treat Steve with an ungrateful and resentful and disrespectful attitude and behavior in the press. I don’t like it, at all. This is not how you treat the man who saved your band and gave you the last 28+ years of your career. It’s disgusting and disappointing for me as a fan to witness.
I hope Ian figures out why he is acting this way towards Steve and changes. Whatever it is, it’s about him and not Steve.
Steve, while he made his own mistakes in the band and his own ego got in the way thinking he’d be DP’s final banjo player, does not deserve to be treated like this. He has been incredibly honest and mostly generous to the guys in interviews post Purple, including Ian. I just wish Ian would reciprocate, and give the man who saved and gave him the last 30+ years of his career the respect he deserves, and treat him kindly instead of lying and implying they weren’t a hard rock band with Steve when they absolutely were.
I love Gillan as an artist, but honestly, I have lost so much respect for him as a person because of his dishonest and unkind behavior towards Steve. I don’t wish to meet him, ever, if this is how he chooses to continue to act. His actions to me are incredibly small and petty, and I wish him healing and hope he can resolve whatever’s going on inside and treat Steve differently with more magnamity and kindness going forward.
There’s more to this story than any of us realize, of that I’m certain – it’s just so sad to see one of my heroes fall so far on a personal level. I honestly expected better of him, and I’m going to have to greatly adjust my expectations going forward, take him as he is, and forgive him.
So yeah, I’m angry he’s choosing to treat Steve the way he has, and holding on to that anger won’t serve me much either. Thanks to everyone here for letting me express my anger, disgust and disappointment – as a life long fan, the situation with how Gillan is treating Steve in the press is a difficult one for me to watch unfold. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.
June 25th, 2026 at 02:04Don’t care who’s playing guitar- they’re all great in a great band .
June 25th, 2026 at 02:30I’m going to savor it while I can!
Well the demise of my marriage was incredibly accredited to Ian Gillan as I was miming the lyrics of ‘A Day late and a dollar short’ at home and it went like this
Once I tried to eat myself alive
I wanted to know what I was like inside
Once I tried to set myself on fire
I was burning with desire.
All I can remember after that she took the kids and stormed out of the house saying ‘Weirdo’
June 25th, 2026 at 08:07@60, Uwe.
I don’t know what you’re shrugging about. Of course we get worked up about things, we are after all ultra purple freaks… We feel. We sense. Sometimes we just know things so much better that the guilty party involved, it’s just that the guys don’t want to hear it… You wouldn’t want the hardcore fans any other way, would you. We’d be so boring if we were polite and not opinionated.
June 25th, 2026 at 08:29Actually Uwe, you are also a butt kisser as you seem to be constantly sucking up to the band because, as it seems, you don’t want to “offend” them. You seem to think your opinion is the only one that counts and everyone else is being childish because they have a favorite line up and guitar player and voice their opinion about it. As Far as I go, I’ll be really “Childish” and say MKII is my favorite line up, Blackmore my favorite Guitar Player, Airey is certainly no Jon Lord as his playing live proves, and Simon is a very good guitar player but is certainly generic as compared to all DP’s other guitar players. As for DP being a business, if the new album is as crappy as =1, which I hope it’s not, I’d say they are bankrupt and should close. Now that I am done being childish, I will go pick up my toys and put them away. 🙂
June 25th, 2026 at 08:59Sounds like Ian Gillan band song… Lay me down… The vocals
June 25th, 2026 at 10:40@63 Not sure Gillan will change although you threaten not to meet him – plus wonder if you’re ever goin to forgive him.
Tastes change, feelings change. Why does it has to be a lie when you praised something years ago and praise something else now?
And still I havn’t heard a bad word about SM…
June 25th, 2026 at 11:19@63 GREAT POST! unfortunately I’ve lost some respect for Gillan as well
@66 ultra purple freaks YES we are!
@67 “you seem to think your opinion is the only one that counts” 100% right on!
They are my favorite band and always will be, I want them to succeed, I want them to be great no matter who is on stage…..just that things could have been handled a lot better
June 25th, 2026 at 12:04Right on stoffer!!! Been my favorite band since 1973 and I always want them to be great and succeed!! I am proud to be an ultra purple freak!!! I am greatly looking forward to new album and hopefully a live one from the tour!! Deep Purple Loud and Proud!!!! 🙂
June 25th, 2026 at 12:20Personally I don’t take a lot of notice what Gillan and Blackmore say a lot of the time. Those two very similar peas in the same pod. They are often being sarcastic, witty, using double entendre’s and continually stirring the pot. And we also have to remember that it wasn’t that long ago that Ian Gillan was still wheeling out the repetitive ‘the living, breathing DP’ mantra. That was amusing to me, Gillan being a little worried about Ritchie mentioning a ‘reunion’ gig and even turning up at the Hall of Fame circus. And all that time Steve Morse was saying, “bring it on, it would be a good thing to do and some people should get over their chip on their shoulder”, so to speak. Now there is a thought eh? I take a lot of what Blackmore and Gillan say with a grain of salt, as that old saying goes. Cheers.
June 25th, 2026 at 12:27Gillan shows inconsistent
He s been telling lies for decades
But inbetween he tried to be honest :
” He admitted/admits that he maybe even more than Ritchie was too blame for “what had happened.”
And at the time still talking crap : ” Don comes from a broader spectrum than Jon.”
WTF?! I like to believe Don d not agree.
June 25th, 2026 at 14:11At this point, I’m convinced this a satirical site perused only by those that seemingly loathe Deep Purple, but spend their lives endlessly commenting on them lol!
June 25th, 2026 at 15:46I’m not interested in the controversies (if they even exist) between Gillan and Morse. I enjoyed the albums with Morse until *Rapture*; after that, they started to get a bit boring. Now I want to enjoy the new album—hopefully better than *=1* (though that one never bores me)—and certainly better produced. Long live DP 💜
June 25th, 2026 at 15:51I have to laugh. 🤣🤣🤣. I must be getting old but I can’t understand a word Gillan is singing. Iam going to print out the lyrics to this great, great song. The only song I can think of that is this radically different would be Watching The Sky from A. band. On.
June 25th, 2026 at 17:09Has to be the worst thing they’ve recorded, but luckily it’s only 1 out of 13 tracks on the album. Hope the rest is better.
June 25th, 2026 at 17:46Mike Nagoda, Leslie, Stoffer, Thorsun
Excellent points and very eloquently made …I do love hearing everyone’s points of view and opinions on all things Purple.
Yes, I too am sick to death of ignorant , obnoxious, self opinionated people stomping through all the post and saying …” OK, now gather round little children and let uncle Uwe tell you exactly how you should be thinking about this ! ” …and why the fuck does he feel the need to have the last word in every thread !? Sooo sad
June 25th, 2026 at 18:14I’ve said it before …I bet he could clear a pub in 10 minutes ! Lol
@63, Mike
Kudos and bravo for your post. As you suspect – you have put out not only yours but a many’s feelings there. IG does look to me as at least inconsistent in various stages of his “oponionation”, sometimes simply lying and rewriting the history. My friends say I’m simply prejudiced towards him, but this kind of prejudice doesn’t root in fiction, certain actions and behaviours back it up. When a man is honest – he usually is standing tall but at the same time not grudging towards others or doing them wrong – and it’s so crystal clear, that you find no scratch to claim there is a pose in integrity. IG never was, is, nor will be like that – he lacks integrity in his biography and relations with people around him. There is a fair deal of insecurity in this. And hence – I have it like you – I love to listen to his voice, his sound will forever be a soundtrack to my life. But that’s it, I can’t warm up towards this man turned to a lousy talker he sometimes is. I can endorse people of character like Jon Lord or Roger Glover. They had their faults, but they countered it with class, calmness and integrity. This kinda posing? Not. So talking gib’rish sounds pretty much an appropriate title for this 2027 tour to me. It will please a lot of people and will pump up one certain ego, but I’m not joining this fun.
I will though – in act of glorious substitution, crank up “Mr Universe” from live 1980 BBC broadcast – and let Mick. Bernie, Colin and John shatter my living room to pieces one more time. Which, of course, will be topped and augmented by this one-of-a-kind instrument of voice that we came to justifiedly live and love so much over the decades.
June 25th, 2026 at 18:21I like the fact that Gillan finally has been open about the fact that he was as much of a problem of more about the conflict between him and Ritchie. I just hate that he had started calling Steve “ a Southern rock” musician, where Steve was much broader er musician than that. Simon is a hell of a guitar player. But he still liking that originality of a guitar player. Granted I didn’t like. The last couple of albums with. Steve, especially Whoosh but = has gotten a little bit tired for me, with the exception of a couple of songs.
June 25th, 2026 at 18:38Leslie, I have been called many things, “butt kisser” (except where a romantic situation calls for it among consenting adults) and “not wanting to offend” (I’ve heard the opposite quite a bit though!) are pretty much firsts, so thanks for the late, but obviously necessary and apparently fully deserved enlightenment! 😎
It was Ian Paice who once said that with Deep Purple (all line-ups): “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” That is my mantra too.
It follows that I do not have a favorite line-up, all line-ups of DP have strengths and all have weaknesses 😱, even the mighty Mk II, there I said it! Ritchie Blackmore is for me co-responsible for both DP’s best (MH) and worst (TBRO – sorry, Max! 😘) album, in Uwe’s little universe that is not a contradiction. Likewise, Steve was hugely important for DP for a long while until the fire went somewhat out with him (and perhaps the band too). It is to his eternal credit as a musician and caring person that even a Steve running on three or even only two cylinders is still not nearly as band-destructive as an annoyed and estranged Blackmore. And yes, Don is no Jon Lord, but neither was Jon a Don Airey as coming up with off-the-wall piano ideas goes. Jon’s piano playing was either of bluesy or of English-pastoral nature (unless he was citing Bach). He did not cover the piano area as well as Don and was not nearly as edgy and thinking-out-of-the-box as the Sunderlander who sometimes even has a little Colin Towns devil sitting on his shoulder. But Jon was very musicianly and had great feel while Don is more the mad professor.
You will never hear from me that Steve was “too prog” for DP just like I don’t think that GH was “too funky”, JLT “too AOR” or Don is “too jazzy and fragmented angular”. I have room for all of them. I mean isn’t that what we butt-kissers not wishing to offend do?
Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s
assb-b-butt whether DP play quaint English psychedelia, lyrically dumbed down US-targeted stadium rock with great Blackmore riffs, progish hard rock, hard-rockish Prog or even heavy metal. And if tomorrow they call themselves Dub Purple and record a reggae album in Jamaica, I will give that a fair listen too. I watch and listen to the band on its journey through the ages. Catholic, as I said. Listen, learn, read on.PS: May I come up to the defense of – Uwe makes indistinguishable slurping noises – Herr Ian Gillan and his perception of Don being a “broader” musician than Jon? Outside of his DP and Whitesnake work, I have something like one-and-a-half CD rows of Jon’s work (and I believe I have everything ever officially released). Don’s shelves (sans DP and Rainbow as well as Gary Moore while Ian was drumming there, that is shelved in Ian’s shelf region 🤗) take up like more than double that room (and I likely don’t have everything because you can never be sure with the versatile man). Don has played serious Jazz Rock, classical music, outright pop, participated in the ESC, played Blues (if you want to call it that) with Gary Moore and left his mark on countless Heavy Metal and AOR albums + loves Billie Eilish. Also: No one in his right mind and a deeper knowledge of DP will deny that Don’s songwriting input in the course of now seven DP studio albums with him (not counting TTC) has been greater than what Jon has contributed since maybe In Rock? That IS pretty eclectic, versatile and broad to me. It of course says nothing about who the greater musician was/is and I am by no means saying that Jon was narrow in his fields, but he wasn’t – Ian used exactly the right term – as “broad” as Don. So everyone calm down, Ian did not commit Majestätsbeleidigung“.
PPS: I may not agree with you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t value your views. I think it’s great that we have lively discussions here, never agree on anything and are not some uniform grey mass all clamoring “DP and everything they do is great”.
https://i.imgur.com/uvXSer4.gif
June 25th, 2026 at 19:05From an interview I just found
When the interviewer suggested that McBride is more riff-oriented, Airey agreed and contrasted his approach with Morse’s.
“Yes, exactly. Steve didn’t quite get that side of Deep Purple. I think he wanted it to be more prog, and bit more adventurous. He said. ‘We’ve got to be more musical.’ That’s what Steve wanted – to drift off into the ether a bit.”
And according to Airey, McBride’s arrival marked a return to a more direct style of songwriting and performance, as he pointed out, “I think when Simon came in the band, we just went, ‘Let’s really get down to it again’.”
June 25th, 2026 at 21:21#60 Uwe:
Unfortunately it seems that some guys here don’t come to taste the band and only think of looking for venom in Purple’s words when they talk about Steve, while it’s just the pure truth about the songs that Purple have made with Morse in the last 20 years: almost all boring songs with some diamonds and masterpieces far from hard rock!
this is the summary, and this is what Purple think, what those who are tied to the albums of the glorious past think and it is what those who do not believe that everything Purple did with Steve is shining gold think.
Steve’s widows need time to admit this truth.
June 25th, 2026 at 21:58and I repeat once again that the fault is not only Steve’s, but all 5 Purple together, but =1 proved that the guys still had fresh and exciting ideas to give us!
I’m in Crete on my honeymoon, and while my wife is sleeping I’m listening to Guilt Trippin’ several times, with a little Ouzo in my veins, and I have to say it’s not an easy song at all!
I consider that I could do without the boring prog in Purple, it’s not the song I would have liked to hear, but in the concept of Splat it has its logic.
the “Splat” that the brain-destroyed “nature” fly with the wings of the “human race” probably makes in the falling-apart world in the single’s video.
The lyrics are also a request for forgiveness to creation, very dreamlike and solemn, and I think every Pink Floyd fan will appreciate this song.
It’s definitely incredible that Purple at 80 years old can create a song like this.
Musically, I don’t see any similarities with Before Time Began (a limp piece of junk with a boring pseudo-prog part) or MTV (a musically banal and useless song) or Power of the Moon (this slow lullaby is truly enough to make you fall asleep to it).
rather the central break reminds me of the one in Back or White from THOBL.
That being said, Paice’s work is incredible, he’s been playing harder since =1 and I thank God for that!
BigIan is simply unique, no other singer today could have given birth to this complicated singing genius.
finally Don does an excellent job on the piano, sublime, masterful, magnificent, but to my ears he never introduces a scratch, a sonic hell, something that raises the temperature of the song…. I mean, I’m sure Jon would have made the piano growl in some places with different chords and passages!
Don’s work is very refined and well-finished, it takes balls to play like him and in this song he shows all his class
#33 Andre Sihotang:
June 25th, 2026 at 22:48you’re right, unfortunately Purple can’t help but write some prog songs like Bleeding Obvious or Guilt Trippin, but in =1 they limited themselves, let’s see the next songs on Splat, I hope there won’t be too many prog songs, I hope the general quality doesn’t drop like it did 10/15 years ago!
Regarding Uwe’s contributions here I guess some folks are preaching from a chair…it’s not his fault if they can’t compete. I get an idea why the german word Kindergarten made it into the international dictionary. It’s needed.
June 25th, 2026 at 23:04And why on earth is IG not entitled to speak his truth like anyone else? And how can some interviews – PR, remember? – can be taken that serious? He’s a singer, selling his music and trying to keep things fun a bit I guess, not a preacher or a politician – and it has come to my attention even those don’t tell the truth and nothing but the (whose?) truth all the time. Analysing a man on behalf of some media snippets might be a bit …well… brave. How about just discussing the music – after all there’s some of it. Morals seem to take over everywhere…. makes people feel superior I guess. Hey, this is supposed to be fun. It’s only Rock’n’Roll.
I can see it now. When the so called Music Press here in the States finds out Purple is about to release a new album, it will probably go something like this “Big News!! Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice, of the legendary Deep Purple, the same line up that gave us the magnificent Burn album, are back with a new album called Splut”! LOL 🙂
June 26th, 2026 at 01:35I didn’t think Steve was boring with DP at all, Fla76. Was he a dramatic riff-merchant like Ritchie or a flamboyant spectacle with a talent for slinky grooves like Tommy? No. Steve was more introspective, embellishing and ornamental in his playing, but there was beauty in his contribution to the band if not always earthshaking excitement. I mean look at the guy: He’s a laid back, veggie Southerner, what did you expect? Ted Nugent?! (Himself an avid Ritchie fan btw.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kBIhOn_9CM
Steve approaches music like Edward Hopper painted his rural and urban American settings.
https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjQ1NzQxNyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcXVhbGl0eSA5MCAtcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MjAwMFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=c07ab673689e8510
That worked more often than not extremely well with DP for a very long time. I have no bones with his past work. But if he was Snowy White, then Simon is perhaps John Sykes? And I rate Snowy White’s work with Lizzy highly.
June 26th, 2026 at 01:47#81: If I understand you correctly, you find DA a “broader” musician than JL because you have more CD’s featuring the former?
June 26th, 2026 at 04:00Gentlemen, the guys themselves, that’ll be Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Roger Glover and Don Airey, said in other interviews that they have the feeling, which I share wholeheartedly, that they are [finally] back to the original rock roots.
I liked SM a lot. But come on! SMcB is a Rock’n’Roll guitarist in his core 😊
And SM is not. He has a lot of other qualities, that I know Beate agrees with, and he is a nice man, or so it seems, but SMcB has been pouring fresh air and fresh red blood into Purple 😊
Have you seen, talking about SMcB, that he will give away some guitars at some random concerts?
June 26th, 2026 at 04:35Nice bloke 😊 give away…
Oh, and I forgot ☺️
The fact that the guys in Purple didn’t sack SM, but let him leave when he needed to take care of his darling wife, speaks volume in my world.
They could have let him go when they saw the development in his style. But they didn’t!
…and I can’t hear any disparagement of Steve from Ian G 😊
June 26th, 2026 at 04:59Max:
Gillan may not ever change, and I still need to forgive him, because I do not want to be trapped in my own resentment. Spiritually, that is a kind of poison I wish to be free of. You can rest assured I will be letting go of my resentment towards Ian and forgive him, even if it takes a long time. Compassion is both a virtue and a long, long journey.
I can absolutely see how the band ahs returned to a more direct sound, and that just wasn’t Steve’s style – the parting of ways was inevitable, and I’m fine with it, even if I prefer Steve’s more ethereal approach to music. That said, I don’t find the new song too direct – Steve’s influence has rubbed off on the band and has become part of their sound, like it or hate it.
Mike Airey:
As someone else on here said, it’s not that we hate the band or its members (just because I don’t like Ian Gillan’s public conduct of late or don’t care to meet him currently does not mean I hate the man!), it’s that we are so passionate and love the band so fiercely it drives us to be opinionated because we care a little bit *too* much sometimes, myself included. Even if I or others don’t like the actions of certain members of the band, it doesn’t mean we hate the band or its music. Lastly, when you speak to press, you open yourself up to public scrutiny, it’s part of the gig!
One person in the band I definitely don’t have any animosity for is your Dad – all my best to him and to you, he’s been the MVP for me in the band since the formation of Mk 9, and thank you to you for all your efforts in assisting him!
Thorsun:
Thank you for your support – and one final word on Ian Gillan: it is his lack of integrity that disgusts me so. As someone whose number one value in life is honesty and integrity that I do my best to live by, you nailed it as to why some of don’t like how the man conducts himself in public sometimes. Still, I don’t hate him as a person so much as I actively dislike how he conducts himself in terms of his *public persona*. I don’t know him that well at all, and I can only judge his personality and actions and words by what he presents to the public. I don’t know Ian like he knows himself – I could be completely wrong about him, I’ll admit that, and, this is how he comes off to me and many others in terms of his public presentation of himself.
To be fair to Ian, there are parts of his personality I love – his strange sense of humour, off the wallness, creativity, love for the fans, his spiritual thinking, and his contemplative nature.
For me though, what I and others perceive as that lack of integrity and honesty is a huge turn off, because that’s about me and my own personal values in life and how I conduct myself, speaking honestly here. Honesty matters the most to me – if you lack it, and lack integrity in your actions, I probably don’t care to meet you, and that’s just me being honest about *who I am* as a person!
Uwe:
I understand your point of view – in my own view, occassionally Purple have strayed outside of what I consider personally to be the Deep Purple sound – such as with Slaves and Masters, which is my worst DP record ever. For me, it is too polished and arena rock, and not rough enough around the edges. While it may bare the name, it does not bare the sound of DP for me.
While I am not as Universal as you, I do accept that the band is all these things even if I don’t consider some of them to be personally Deep Purple-in-essence as such. My opinion also counts for nothing in the grand scheme of things where the band is concerned, and it is my opinion and feelings as a life long fan.
Also, what is that wonderfully long compound Deutsche wort you mentioned mean? I love German compound words, so please, I would love for you to enlighten me!
Fla76:
Form my own perspective, there is no truth, only perception and feeling. If anything is true for me, it’s that.
I firmly disagree with you that the Morse records are boring – for me they are the most exciting thing in the DP cannon – for me there is no objectivity here, no objective truth, only subjective perception and opinion.
You can claim all that stuff to be true for yourself, you certainly cannot claim it for myself or others on here who feel or perceive differently.
You seem to confuse your personal feelings and opinions for objective truth. This will not get you far in a forum of die hard fans where a number of us hold a variety of different personal truths and viewpoints. You have your truth, the rest of us have our own.
Let us be, and I’ll let you be in turn.
In my own view, all points of view on Purple (and art) are valid subjectively, none are valid objectively, because there is no such thing as objectivity when it comes to art, only subjectivity.
Now lastly, for myself:
As MacGregor said, it would be wise for myself to not get too caught up in what Gillan says in public towards Steve and take what he says with a grain of salt, given his opinions change and contradict themselves over time, as is the case with anyone.
So, Gillan may change or he may not. I have no control over him, only how I feel about it. Rather than show him anymore resentment, I’ll do my best to show him compassion and forgive him going forward, no matter how dishonest he may act in public, or what flasehoods he may utter that might irk me. That’s about me, and, life is short.
Perhaps I’ve been a bit too hasty in saying I don’t wish to meet Mr. Gillan – perhaps, in the spirit of forgiveness, I shall one day like to meet him. I’m just not there yet, and that’s okay, I’m on my own journey, as is Ian. I suspect if such an interaction were to occur, it may be a fruitful one. You can still learn something from somebody, even if you don’t like how they act in public!
Maybe I should give Ian a chance and a fair shake – he may just surprise me, as if there’s one thing that’s inevitable it’s change, which both he and I and everyone else are subject to!
June 26th, 2026 at 05:35If there is another album coming it would be refreshing if Ezrin started the sessions by standing up and saying: “We’re not doing any back and forth this time.”
They’re slightly stuck in a rut in the sense that this is now the third song in a row that features DA and SM “dueling”. It takes up a lot of time in songs that are already short to begin with. Take away the solo in Guilt Trippin and what’s left? Not a whole lot.
Hopefully this approach would “force” them to focus more on the songs and less on the soloing. With McBride’s execution style being closer to John Petrucci’s than Blackmore’s, or Bolin’s for that matter, they may want to be careful pushing that direction too far.
June 26th, 2026 at 05:44Yes, Mike I see…you take this very seriously and I do wish you all the best when it comes to getting to grips with it spiritually. Thank you for explaining.
June 26th, 2026 at 07:11Hey Ian, keep an eye over your shoulder, Nagoda might be around, unable to let go of his grudges. Poor suffering soul… 😅
June 26th, 2026 at 09:13So much suffering in this world!
Lieber Mike @74:
You blessed fruit from the Sunderland loins of DP’s best piano player ever, may I put up a defense for everyone (even those who I sometimes rub the wrong way) commenting here? We all love Deep Purple, we just can never agree on why! 🤣
But the fact that your dad’s most recent single with those four other mostly ancient geezers still incites that much passion among us, ain’t it a good thing too? Irrelevance is harder to bear than the ability to create division.
See you tomorrow (from afar) in Coburg! (And don’t forget to turn your dad up LOUD!)
Uwe
PS to whom it may concern: Now was that sufficiently butt kissin’?
June 26th, 2026 at 13:25Now back to us, dear brethren, I have a Hühnchen zu rupfen with you, where did that silly argument, most recently applauded by the honor- & venerable Steve @78, emanate from that I try to subjugate everyone under my views? Uwe as the Meinungsführer or what?
So ein Blödsinn! My views are my views and my views entirely alone. Whether you share them or not, up to you. All I do is give reasons/arguments why I think in a certain way. If those arguments shake your beliefs or offend you too much, go see a shrink. As for me, I’m not expecting anytime soon that Trapeze’s You Are The Music, We’re Just The Band … outranks Rainbow’s Rising here in popularity based on what so write. It is perfectly sufficient for me to know that I like it better – and I can give you a hundred reasons for that off the top of my head. In the meantime, you guys continue listening to Rising and write me a postcard when you detect the bass playing something noteworthy! 🙉🙈🙊
Just because something has fossilized as conventional wisdom, doesn’t mean it’s right, look what happened to the wizard in Stargazer because he never reviewed his – somewhat shaky – aviation assumptions! So I delight in being a mythbuster.
And some stuff that gets regurgitated here and elsewhere is just plain wrong. Glenn did not play more (notes) than Roger did, he played more sparsely. Trust me, I counted all the notes of both! 😂
And one other thing: While I might bash the opinions and convictions of people around, I go out of my way to avoid ad hominem attacks, a standard not everyone adheres to here, unfortunately so.
Mike N, I always like to read your stuff, irrelevant of what I think about the varying subjects. Majestätsbeleidigung btw translates as lèse-majesté, insulting the sovereign.
Daniel, you’re very well smart enough to exactly know that I wasn’t making an argument about numbers of CDs, but of in-depth-involvement in various types of music.
Re the dueling/back & forth/call & response, I agree that this has become a major trait in Purple’s Simon era, no doubt a carryover from the Don Airey Band. It is also endearingly old-fashioned as it has almost gone extinct in current music, so I love it – is has put some FUN back into DP. Don and Simon are like a fresh couple relishing sex with each other 24/7 – I mean who doesn’t enjoy watching that? 😎
Finally “focus more on the song and less on the soloing”, hahaha, telling that to DP is like scolding the Beach Boys, the Eagles or Queen to not overdo harmony vocals. In the 70s the argument that DP was using excessive solo padding to plug the holes in their allegedly only soso songwriting was the most popular accusation by critics against them. And it has never been entirely without merit. DP is a boys’ club of instrumental show-offs, always have been, always will. And I wouldn’t want it any other way: Don‘t take away that self-masturbatory content, there is a reason why we all fell for them as adolescents, alas!, ‘twas the age of discovery after all where enlightenment would ooze from every new gripping experience. (Did I phrase that descriptively?)
June 26th, 2026 at 14:50@83
Flavio, calling us “Steve’s widows” is a bit too much, don’t you think? 🙂 It’s bold, but is it respectful? Some of us miss him, some others maybe less so – but we’re calling mostly about respecting him and what he did to the keep the band strong and valid for so long. I still remember that I wasn’t at all convinced in 1995-6 that he was a matching fit for the banjo vacancy. I was deeply irritated by his sort of staccato rhythmic playing all the time, going Alan Holdsworth type flurry of notes everywhere (and often getting nowhere), endless using of pinch harmonics instead of low, fat, bold chords. But the guy adopted as the years went by, he developed and started to blend his style with the band sound. Plus – he truly reinvigorated Jon Lord in first 5 years, which made the instrumental vehicle engines of Deep Purple truly rolling on again.
Not almost all of the output was boring – that’s truly unfair to say this. Results of his tenure were surely uneven. You’ve got great albums like “Purpendicular”, “Rapture”, “Now What!” and “Whoosh!” – and all of them gained a proper stature rather with passing decades, than most immediately. On other albums (of which I consider “Bananas” as the worst possible dud of theirs, they were completely lost on it) – there’s still at least few cuts always to love – and to me they’re usually the deep cuts the band recorded and forgot about – “Loosen My Strings”, “Don’t Make Me Happy”, “Picture of Innocence”, “Clearly Quite Absurd”, “Weirdistan”, “Paradise Bar”, “Step By Step” – these are monster tracks! And I think they would have never come out from the UK hard rock background, if the all British line-up would be going in creative circles all the time. You’d have 15 sequels of “Pictures of Home” by then and other 15 tracks that would fit Gary Moore’s discography better than DP’s. That wouldn’t be too inspiring, would it? So in the end this wave of diversity did them proper good – at least in the first 2 decades (1994-2013). If it wasn’t that – they really would be done or dominated by any other chosen guitarist to fit his style, no more, no less. This is why there’s a call to respect Steve’s input and only this. It isn’t calling him back to the fold – he deserves greater happiness and independence than being a slave of the Purple business machine. He’s an extraordinary musician (many of his own records and collaborations are really stupendous works) and a superbly lovable human being after all.
June 26th, 2026 at 15:45@ 74 I belive it is not. I feel that we are allowed to say freely what we feel here.. almost always.. ha ha
June 26th, 2026 at 15:45@ 92 Yes I do agree, it would sometimes be liberating without the damn solo section..
June 26th, 2026 at 15:47For me, this is the best of the 3, love the intro by Don.
June 26th, 2026 at 15:48@74
Dear Mike, you probably read all of us and think that we all take it all all too seriously, but your comment tells me you’re prone to it too! You could be looking around reading different forums devoted to DP, but I can assure you – despite all our analyses and criticisms, there is nowhere else you will find a place, where people care so much about each and everyone of these guys that made this band what it is. It’s sad if you think of us as a joke, I hope the devoted fans are still something worthy to your Dad and his companions. We never get under a certain level of respect for them. We discuss and argue over them, but we never loathe, it’s not what this place was designed for. Moreover, I think that compared to the social media sewer level most everywhere, we’re still providing a nice discussion standards. So… no need for a bitter irony there, Sir. Don might have his views and likes about the personal configuration and approaches as I donhave mine, but one thing I am humble about despite being knowledgeable and opinionated about Purple is that Don’s input into a history of British rock music is something no one will take away from him. And I, the satirical joker, will be the first to bow and admit that.
June 26th, 2026 at 16:06@95, Uwe
Yes, it was sufficient. So much so in fact, that I felt bait to do a bit of that too, to lessen Mike Airey’s irk, and maybe soften a stick in his back a bit, hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hyeeeeee… (in a smudgily Gillanesque satan voice straight off his delivery of ‘Black Sabbath’ in 1983).
June 26th, 2026 at 16:11Mike ( if indeed you are THE Mike Airey !
The people on here are the real true fans that absolutely love the band , buy everything, even bootlegs …see the band as much as they can …and as both Ian and Roger have said before …” fortunately we’re not surrounded by sycophants…they tell us exactly what they think !”
We live and breathe Deep Purple..Uwe for instance, loves them nearly as much as he loves himself!
And you can tell your Dad that 99% of us on here are blown away by ” Guilt Trippin ” …if the rest of the album is like that …you’re on a winner !
Mike ( if it really is you ) perhaps you could explain exactly what happened with Steve ( in a discreet and diplomatic way ) …and that would shut us all up and we could find something else to moan about ! Lol
Would Steve be welcome on stage when you go to the states later ?
June 26th, 2026 at 17:15@84 Fla76
Congratulations on your marriage. Enjoy the honeymoon.
June 26th, 2026 at 19:46I have noticed just now (I didn’t put my finger on it earlier, strangely enough somehow) – the video creator must be a fan of Coldplay, the band. The geometric ideas of figures and light play over them has a strong resemblence to the elements of design of C’s last two albums. And, mind you (for those who don’t start the flow of H8 over the name of the band itself), “Music Of The Spheres” is a very good one, on the track “Coloratura” they took the chances of a radical left turn and went full prog for a 10 minute, wonderful and adventurous track.
June 26th, 2026 at 20:07Andrea:
Re-read the end of previous my comment (#91) – perhaps you missed it! Be well!
June 26th, 2026 at 21:12#91 Mike:
obviously you and all those who sanctify Steve and point the finger at Ian and the other members can consider all the albums of the Morse era to be absolute masterpieces, of course.
but leaving aside the emotional part, it was the band themselves who admitted that musically they had lost themselves in something far from the essence of Purple, and the litmus test is the fact that they followed few songs from the albums with Morse after Abandon, while with =1 they returned to performing at least half of the songs from the album.
I’m not talking about personal feelings, I’m talking about songs that objectively lack riffs, hard rock, decent vocal melodies, too-low drum BPMs, impersonal and resentful keyboard and guitar solos.
I’m the first one to madly love the first 3 albums of the Morse era, and for this very reason I can’t help but note the weakness of most of the songs on the other albums.
and it’s not just the problem of the slow pace that Purple have kept in the last 20 years, because if they made a whole album of soft rock songs like All the time in the World for me it would have been a masterpiece album!
for me the band can do what they want, I don’t judge people, I judge the music, I judge the songs, as much as objectively THOBL & TBRO were inferior albums compared to Perfect Strangers.
Is it so hard to judge a Morse-era album as insufficient for some of you?
Let’s leave it alone if it’s too difficult to prove your opinions by talking about the songs, but whenever someone comes along and says that Purple were bad for letting Steve go, I’ll be ready to point out that the songs on the last few albums were insufficient and that the band needed to change its guitarist to find its identity again.
June 26th, 2026 at 21:56“We live and breathe Deep Purple. Uwe for instance, loves them nearly as much as he loves himself!
Wrong, Steve, I love DP more, flaws and all! 🤗 You should see where my perceived self-love goes when I try to repair something and it doesn’t work immediately! I can then hear my late father murmuring behind me “ tsk, tsk, tsk … two left hands …“. 😑
May I buttkiss Flavio a little? I think Steve’s widows is effing brilliant! 🤣
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Pleureuses_de_Romont_2025_CH_02.jpg/1280px-Pleureuses_de_Romont_2025_CH_02.jpg
A putdown of sheer Machiavellian elegance, I applaud! 👏👏👏 Where would we be if we couldn’t be a little nasty to each other at times, nothing like a good insult to freshen up a relationship.
That said, I think Steve did mostly good to very good to excellent things with Purple – no line-up did not pull a howler now and then, ironically Mk IV met the highest standard in studio albums because they released only one and that was great ☝️😎 -, but that doesn’t mean that the other guys were chained to him for life if they felt a musical change was needed. Steve is the DP member with the longest tenure save for Gillan, Glover & Paice! He headed a whole era with them. And did very well for himself too.
To me, valuing Steve’s past contributions and welcoming Simon as the new guy is no contradiction. And so the seasons change …
Steve, re your question:
“Would Steve be welcome on stage when you go to the states later?”
Not a fibre in my body doubts that. He’d receive a warm welcome if he is up to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mre-bXXVo18
“Kill all the lawyers, kill them tonight!” is always a good slogan to go by. 🤗
June 27th, 2026 at 01:19#96: The difference is that whenever RB and JL used to duel it almost always elevated the song, and often in a big way. A Gypsy’s Kiss probably being the most exciting example of this. I am struggling to think of similar showstoppers from DA and SM, possibly because there aren’t any? I know it’s unfair to compare to the magical time period of the mid 80s, when they were on such a roll creatively, but since the name DP is still on the cover, the musical standards to live up to are higher than if it was a normal solo project.
Regarding the musical broadness of DA/JL, it’s mostly subjective as always and down to whose style you prefer, but history tends to favour strong composers. Just look at the setlist DP is currently playing to see from which era the bulk of the material comes from. It would be easier for you to make a case if it was the other way around.
June 27th, 2026 at 05:04@107, Flavio
You are WRONG in the 1st paragraph of your comment. Backing up with Steve upon personal and emotional aspects of DP relations doesn’t =1 with glorifying all the albums he did with the band. See my @97 thing. I’m sure most of us glorify the things that do deserve it and at the same time condemn things that should be pointed with finger at. At least I do. And if we don’t and we’re too one sided in judgement, then your saying that all from Morse’s tenure was boring is of the sam ilk. 🙂 So, suddenly (and ironically) we differ opinions but are all on the same page again 😀 not being objective enough. But that’s not what this site is for! 😇
June 27th, 2026 at 06:16UWE!
If you do attend the Coburg DP gig today despite the horrendous heat – do bless us all with the proper review of what you heard and how well they did on stage! Thank you!!!
June 27th, 2026 at 06:23So, I listened to it right after it made its debut on YouTube and wasn’t exactly overwhelmed. It’ll grow on ya, I halfheartedly told myself, give it another listen tomorrow and see if ya feel the same way. To my surprise, all day long at work I was hearing over and over in my head. After the second listen the next day it hooked me. After hearing it about a dozen times now it has become my favorite of the 3 songs released so far. It is much better than anything from =1.
@ 96
“…there is a reason why we all fell for them as adolescents, alas!…”
Couldn’t agree more… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D7Dycaimv0
June 27th, 2026 at 06:38Fla76 asked “Is it so hard to judge a Morse-era album as insufficient for some of you?” Maybe many folks don’t think they are insufficient just because you do. We all have our different opinions. My favorite Morse era albums are Purpendicular, Now What, Abandon and Whoosh all of which I think are excellent!! I think Banana’s and Infinite are very good albums and ROTD was just ok. As far as =1 goes, I’ve posted many times here that is is my least favorite DP album as it is, to me boring. You most likely disagree with me but, as I have said, we all have our different opinions. As for the new album, of the 3 songs I’ve heard, I really like 2 of them and think they are better than anything on =1. The only song I didn’t like was Diablo. There, I’ve judged the albums honestly and it wasn’t hard at all. As for Turning to Crime, to me, it’s just a fun album and certainly different.
June 27th, 2026 at 07:24@107 Fla76
👍👍👍
I’ve never appreciated Morse’s rhythm playing. It just seemed like something to fill the space, to make/ show a presence..
I’ll repeat what I said before: I liked everything up to *AbandOn*— even *Bananas* itself —but then came the tedium of building music rather than simply playing music.
June 27th, 2026 at 09:48#108 Great post Uwe!! I need not add more! 🙂 🙂
June 27th, 2026 at 11:56I just hope there is a live release from this tour. There should have been one released in 2025 from the = 1 touring of 2024 but maybe someday. Live cd/dvd releases are awesome. I can never get enough.
June 27th, 2026 at 12:20I agree George. A live release would be great!! So would an official Live release from the Banana’s Tour and the S&M tour. I have bootlegs but it’s just not the same as getting an official release. In the DPAS Magazine many years ago, Simon Robinson said that there was a complete Canadian Show from MKI in early 1969 that was lost, found than supposedly lost again. That would be awesome if it were found again and finally released.
June 27th, 2026 at 14:14#104 Albania:
Thanks for the good wishes! We’re currently on Elafonissi beach, with pure, wonderful water, light years away from the chaos of Milan!
#97 Thorsun:
“Steve’s widows” I copied it from someone who wrote it in another thread recently!
obviously it’s an ironic way to include more fans (not only from the forum) avoiding writing so many names, it seemed nice to me since it had already been written, it wasn’t in an offensive tone…..maybe it’s better to say “the lovers” or “the disciples”!
#108 Uwe:
Uwe, you appreciate something that I didn’t create, in fact I thought you wrote it first weeks ago….I don’t remember who wrote it here on THS!
#110 Thorsun:
I never said that the whole period with Morse was boring, and I repeat again that it was the whole band, all 5 of them, who had a decline in songwriting which culminated in Infinite, where next to 2 masterpieces there is the rest of the album which is really weak.
Are Abandon and Purplendicular higher level than =1? Yes, of course, globally yes.
but what happened to Purple with the arrival of Simon was a blessing!…and it’s the music that tells us this, that tells us about a band paradoxically reborn at 80 years old!
so the message is to give MK with Simon a little leniency, to enjoy the fresh, harder rock, more melodic, seemingly simple but always complicated music that this band is giving us at the end of its years!
June 27th, 2026 at 15:06#109 Daniel:
You hit the nail on the head with the comparison to “Gypsy’s Kiss”!
In the cerebral composition of Purple Mark VIII I would have liked them to have developed more iconic solos, like those of Cascades, Ted, SSMG, but it is a practice that has been lost in the years without Ritchie.
and as you rightly say, when the name Deep Purple is on the cover, we always expect a lot, perhaps too much from them, perhaps we expect more from them than any other band on the planet, their fans expect!
#114 AndreA:
Steve’s work in each song is certainly excellent and never banal, whether you like it or not.
As far as I’m concerned, the problem isn’t the style and technique, but whether the songs worked well overall, or whether there were structural deficiencies or too many superstructures, or parts that had already been heard.
There are about 35 Purple songs with Morse (half are practically masterpieces, the others are excellent) that I adore and make me love the post-Blackmore band for the class, the unique style, the modernity and the beauty of a diamond, that no other band in the world could and can have.
not even the MKII or the MKIII.
#95 Uwe:
June 27th, 2026 at 21:40I think you’re the first one in here to see Purple on their new tour!
We’re waiting for the report, have a good concert!
@69 And still I havn’t heard a bad word about SM…
I haven’t either. @63, I think you’re too much… dunno. Gillan is just expressing his happiness and kind of a gratefull deja vu in this somehow melancolic return to their heydays. I’m sure he LOVES all albums done with great Steve and he wouldn’t change a single thing or live a single day of those 26 years in a different way. He’s just happy with the new guy, the new energy and still being on top, which is as mesmerizing as it can be, even for them themselves.
June 27th, 2026 at 23:16Proof that there ain’t bad feelings and they all -Gillan included- are proud of the Morse albums and respecfull to him for his forever unconditional and unbelievable contribution to DP is that many songs in =1 and in this new one sounds a bit prog and a bit in Steve’s way.
Steve was there in ´95 and it was great and he has been helping on writing this fabulous history for 26 years. But in ’22 there was a crucial point of change, again. Morse was feeling like it was time to give it up and call it a day but the rest of the guys were not. Personal matters on Steve’s side, Simon’s skills being well known by Gillan and Airey… it was all a matter of serendipity or sincronicity or you put the words, but in the end it was good for them all. DP could not be doing albums like the previous one or Splat with Steve, because Steve’s wrist wouldn’t let him do that. Simply as that. DP -all of them I’m sure, gentlemen as they are- thank him and we fans thank him big big too, and we keep on enjoing the trip and being part (we all are) of the legend.
cheers!
It’s been more than 24 hours since I have offended anyone big time here, did you miss me? 😘
Thought I’d stir the pot again … So we have Blackmore Orphans and Steve’s Widows (= registered trademark). (Bolin Babes are too few in number to be demographically relevant though I would consider myself to be one, Bolin on a good day had a light-handedness as a musician that both brooding Ritchie and earnest Steve lack.)
But comparing the Blackmore era with the Morse one in a better/worse sense is a futile exercise because DP played (mostly) commercial hard rock with slight Prog influences with Ritchie and sophisticated Prog with Steve, albeit through a hard rock lens.
A key ingredient to Ritchie’s talent is the immediate accessibility of his writing. Ritchie isn’t Paul McCartney, but he has a sense for a good hook, be it a guitar riff or a vocal line. Deep Purple’s 70s and 80s hits aren’t milestones of sophistication, they are often anchored around one very good idea and contain lots of repetition to get the message across. The music isn’t simplistic, but it is not too demanding either, Gates of Babylon is likely the proggiest number Ritchie ever wrote. With Blackmore, you generally don’t have to hear a song of his more than once to determine for yourself whether you instantaneously like it or whether you think it sucks the big one. Blackmore’s music doesn’t need to grow on you, it is immediate – a trait Ritchie alway cared for.
Steve’s music isn’t immediate at all. It is pleasant, beautiful, well thought out and endearing to the ear after repeated listening – it is much more sophisticated than Blackmore’s, there is always another layer to discover – with Blackmore it basically what you see is what you get, he paints mostly monochrome.
We’re all Blackmore nerds here in one way or another and can tell the Mk II and III songbook apart in our sleep, but that is hardly representative. I remember from the 70s a lot of people who thought that DP were repetitive; especially the Zeppelinistas would say things like “DP know one trick and one trick only – and they use it ALL the time.” One of them flabbergasted me when he heard Might Just Take Your Life with the disparaging comment: “Ok, how many more times are they gonna recycle that Woman From Tokyo riff?! You hear the organ intro and you know EXACTLY what is gonna happen in the song for the next four minutes.” 🤣 But sometime accessibility and predictability are not that far apart.
Fairness demands to point out that Ritchie’s recipes are somewhat limited in nature, and eventually even he got bored with being the eternal riffmeister (at the same time: a lot of these riffs were magic!). Steve paints from a much larger palette.
It was therefore unrealistic to expect from someone like Steve to deliver the same immediacy as Blackmore and I don’t think that DP in fact ever did. They were happy to exchange immediate accessibility against a deeper music with more layers and freedom. At least for almost three decades – and then they longed for some immediacy again.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: This posting is only Uwe’s view. He is frequently wrong, but never in doubt. You are of course entirely free to hold different views, even if these are most likely haphazard and inferior in nature. No slight should be inferred. Knowledge is a free well, but you have to do the drinking yourself. ☝️🥸
June 28th, 2026 at 00:48Let’s not get too romantic, serendipity, fate, a guiding hand … but convenience played a major role too:
– Simon had the same record company and management as DP (much as Joe Walsh hat the same record company and management when he joined the Eagles replacing Bernie Leadon),
– they knew him,
– he knew how to play their stuff,
– his solo career was in the doldrums due to the pandemic, he himself has said that he applied for a supermarket job (and didn’t get it) to feed his wife and kids, hungry mouths don’t bite feeding hands,
– he came from a background where there was little danger he would morph into Yngwie Malmsteen or Michael Schenker overnight and become either unbearable or unreliable.
In fact, and here’s a conspiracy theory for the Steve’s Widows among us to chew on, a case can be made that the Sunderlander groomed Simon for years to one day take Steve’s position at short notice. And you know what: In the interest of DP’s longevity that was exactly the right move by Don.
I know, call me heartless then, I’m German, I can take it! 😂
June 28th, 2026 at 09:09#121: Ritchie obviously has sophistication by the bucketload, or else he wouldn’t have been capable of writing the music he did. I know you don’t care for Rising but for many songs like Stargazer and LITB are the definition of sophisticated hard rock. And that’s only scratching the surface. For pure immediacy, look no further than KAYBD. Mad Dog. Bad Attitude. Under the Gun. Hold On. The list goes on. Have you ever considered that it’s the simplicity that requires real sophistication? Mk Morse’s most memorable moments were usually delivered with a simple melody. SIFLS comes to mind. Did RB mostly paint in “monochrome” when he took off in I Surrender or Stone Cold?
June 28th, 2026 at 09:36I think Led Zeppelin fans should just keep their mouths shut. Calling Deep Purple repetitive? Coming from them, that’s ridiculous. Led Zeppelin’s early albums were just blues puzzles pieced together from bits copied here and there. They were highly commercial, packed with sex appeal and Plant’s orgasmic wailing… Gillan was always on another level entirely. Led Zeppelin were like the Sex Pistols: a rock ‘n’ roll scam. It’s undeniable that they produced some great work later on, but they always prostituted themselves to the business side of things (their manager certainly knew how to look out for number one) and to the trends of the moment.
June 28th, 2026 at 09:40Is something “repetitive” when you instantly recognise it, or is it simply a “style”?
June 28th, 2026 at 09:53@ 121 – hold me back, hold me back, Uwe has learnt another word, Sophisticated(ion). Where did you look that on up Uwe, he he he. Three times mentioned in your post. You must have thought you were in court or something, settle down ole son! We peasants here don’t understand those sort of words., well at least I didn’t, I had to look it up myself. Seriously though, Deep Purple ‘sophisticated Prog with Steve’.????????? We now move on, into the realm of Ritchie’s ‘simplistic’ ideas, musically speaking of course. Not forgetting his 1960’s session experiences and also Pete Townshend telling him to ‘keep it simple’ and ‘as long as the postman can whistle it’, something like that. Gates of Babylon, you forgot to mention David Stone and Ronnie Jame Dio in the songwriting department there Uwe. Yes it appears to be the most ‘progressive’ song that Ritchie has been involved with, in the rock composition side of things. Next stop, the Zeppelin bus pulls into base. Nice to hear you son has had an influence there again Uwe, you did very well bringing him up the correct way, he he he. All hail Led Zeppelin. Next, Steve Morse joining DP. Anyone who was familiar with Steve’s music would have already known that DP were going to travel down a different musical road. Sure there were DP followers who may not have been as familiar with Steve and his music at that time. And it doesn’t sound like three decades of ‘happiness’ to many people, does it? Probably about 10 to 15 years or so, depending on who and what you think about, within the hallowed halls of the band. The ‘bounce’ effect only lasts a little while with most ‘new’ musicians joining an established act. If time wasn’t of the essence, we do wonder how long poor ole Simon McBride would eventually last. Father Time will intervene there and save Simon from any conflicts or differences of opinion from within, hopefully. Thank you Father Uwe, for your ‘enlightenment’, it has been approximately 24 hours since my last confession. What is my penance for all of my sins? Cheers.
June 28th, 2026 at 10:15I think the below summary is a good response to Uwe’s claim that Ritchie lacks sophistication and that Jon is more narrow than Don. At some point you have to bring numbers into the discussion to put things in a larger context:
Over 80% to 90% of Deep Purple’s total lifetime album sales were generated during the 1970s. This massive percentage is driven entirely by their legendary Mark II era, which yielded their best-selling classic rock records like Machine Head and Deep Purple in Rock.
The breakdown of their commercial dominance across the decade includes the following factors:
Machine Head (1972): This single album accounts for a vast bulk of their legacy. It has moved an astonishing equivalent of over 36 million units, including approximately 9 million pure album sales globally.
Deep Purple in Rock (1970): Sold over 13 million equivalent units internationally.
Burn (1974): The Mark III lineup album moved over 8 million equivalent units.
June 28th, 2026 at 11:33I really do enjoy this conservation here, i am a lifelong Purple afficionado myself and a Deadhead too…i understand all these opinions about the widowed Stevianos, the orphaned Blackers, never heard of a bigger family of Bolinistas…to keep it short, my most beloved 5 Purple albums include:
June 28th, 2026 at 11:53Fireball
Made in Japan
Come Taste the band
Perfect Strangers
Purpendicular
Bananas
Ok, that makes 6
Hence i love them all…
Regarding the banjo players i saw Blackers only once with Purple in 85, Steve well about a dozen times and Simon Mcwhatshisname once…Hard decision whom to prefer but yes it is Steve, he never let me down and he didn’t let the band down…
@117
June 28th, 2026 at 13:18I couldn’t agree more! Can you just imagine if there ever was a release from 69, that would be so awesome. I may be wrong but I always think when they say we have a show then it gets lost then found and lost again it’s basically two sides fighting over who gets more of the money it will bring in. If that’s the case figure something out and let’s get on with it. Also, I saw 3 shows on the Bananas tour and they were all great. You would think something live would have come out of that. Only time will tell but I’m not getting any younger so let’s go.
@121 Uwe, all good, but why would anyone care about what Zeppelinistas have to say about music ?
June 28th, 2026 at 14:09I love Bananas! It is good Hard rock.
June 28th, 2026 at 15:57The last 3 with SM are not great hard rock.
#130 Manic:
great!
Aside from “Steve’s widows and other nicknames,” if there were a “comment of the month” award on this site, I’d definitely vote for yours!
#126Mac:
hahahahah
If you weren’t there to stand up to Father Uwe…your penance will be to listen to Led Zeppelin’s entire discography non-stop, after which you’ll quench your thirst with only the one Purple song you consider the worst, and magically it will be the best you’ve ever heard!
#127 Daniel:
I add Perfect Strangers which has surpassed 4 million copies and will sooner or later reach 5 million
In the wake of the nicknames,
June 28th, 2026 at 21:59I put myself in the category of “apostle of MKII bis” or “lobotomized by Perfect Strangers”
On the subject of favourite and beloved Purple Albums, here are mine.
1. Purpendicular
2. MIJ
3. In Rock
4. Rapture of the Deep
5. Live at the Olympia ’96
6. Stormbringer
7. Now What?1
8. =1
9. Bananas
10. Burn
Abandon gets the honorable mention.
June 28th, 2026 at 22:28An observation that popped up recently. There have also been other articles analysing the difference in ‘sales’ and ‘charts’ over recent years, compared to the glory days of the past. Cheers.
https://www.noise11.com/news/streaming-charts-cannot-be-compared-to-physical-sales-era-20260528
June 28th, 2026 at 23:34Daniel, I hate to break it to you: Stargazer is not a sophisticated song, it is bombastic. Two different things. It consists of two riffs (the verse and the bridge one they both play to death) and then the banal mock-classical chorus chords that also double for the coda. I’m sorry, it’s music designed to overwhelm, but sophisticated? As far as chordal structure goes, Stargazer is simple and, for instance, Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back In Town isn’t.
Better listen to the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations again to hear what I mean.
I did not say Blackmore did not have hits or commercial songs, sure he did, so did John Fogerty with CCR, does that make him sophisticated in your book too?
Care to explain to me why Mk II’s commercial success is proof for Jon being a broader musician than Don, when his songwriting input was minimal during that time? That’s not putting him down, he could do magic with other people’s ideas, but crediting the typical riff-driven Blackmore tracks to him is a stretch. Interestingly, Blackers thought so too or he wouldn’t have put a gun to the head of the others to make the change of the writers’ credits regime for Mk III. Along with Paicey, Jon suffered the most under the new policy. (I thought the change in policy was a mistake btw, but that is another matter altogether.)
Finally, Mk II’s commercial success in the first half of the 70s cannot be seen out of context with the prevailing music tastes back then, hard rock was much more part of the mainstream than today. In current times , it is a niche genre, albeit one with loyal fans and a still relevant market share especially as physical media goes. But when did you last hear a hard rock, heavy rock or heavy metal song in the regular Top Twenty singles chart?
Mk II were great and I’m not denigrating their success, But they were also at the right place at the right time – Zeitgeist!
June 29th, 2026 at 00:33The magic of Mark 2 to me is their songs seemed straight and simple compared to other classic rock songs during that period. Yet they are actually tasteful, groovy, stand the test of time, and ‘explorable’ on stage. Hence why we never get bored listening to them live till today. Just like Cream
I remember Gillan once said in interview during ROTD tour during the discussion about them playing deep cut “Living Wreck”, he said “Flight of the Rat” was too dated, hence why it might will never be played live by current formation
Steve unfortunately might not go that way often (straight and simple) in the songwriting context. The one he tried like that, was in the song “Johnny’s Band” (yes, a Southern Rock song, little reminiscent of BTO “Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”). Not a bad song, they played it regularly in Europe leg of Infinite aka “The Long Goodbye” Tour, but certainly one of the weakest songs by Mark 8. Despite I gotta say, fantastic audio production after listening to it on YouTube (plus the spaghetti reference)
For that reason, I could understand their joy of working with Simon McBride, who was more of a modern rock’n roller guitarist, the spontaneity is there I admit. Only (perhaps Gillan and Don only) they don’t need to publish their little Mark 8 dissatisfaction like that in interviews. What’s about “moving forward” like old men often say?
June 29th, 2026 at 01:48My favourite with SM is AbandOn.
June 29th, 2026 at 09:43Uwe wrote our beloved Ritchie lacks sophistication as a songwriter – heresy!!! Befor you burn me at the stake: I also wrote he had a knack for immediacy. Sophistication is something you can learn, but immediacy? Not so much.
But there seems to be an underlying understanding with some people here that if you prefer one line-up over the other, then that means your preferred line-up must be superior to the others in ALL aspects. What a load of Unsinn. My posting at 121 made a case why I think that comparisons between 70s Mk II and 21st century DP don’t make a whole lot of sense, because their musical foci/focuses were/are different. Yes, there are some things that Mk VII/VIII/IX did objectively better than Mk II AND vice versa, do we really need to discuss this because your tribalist lens doesn’t allow perceiving the obvious?
Blackmore in the 70s and 80s aimed for music that delivered an immediate sucker punch to the listener – that was both his magic and his inherent limitation. To Blackmore, music that takes a while to develop with the listener is boring, he doesn’t have the patience for that, he likes immediate drama. And yes, he doesn’t like it either if there is too much going on in a piece of music and if there are too many layers. All these traits are anathema to how Steve Morse sees and writes music. Not being able to realize that strengths can sometimes also be weaknesses and that both Ritchie and Steve have them is akin to having to state from now on that Ritchie had both black and blond hair (in the places where it has still been growing that is) and was both brown- and blue-eyed. If that is what sincere fandom implies, then I’m out, I don’t believe in the paranormal.
**************************************************
Is something “repetitive” when you instantly recognise it, or is it simply a “style”?
Were the Ramones repetitive or did the have an immediatly recognizable style, Svante? Or perhaps even both? One doesn’t exclude the other. Nor do they have to go together by nature. Queen were a prime example of having an individual style applied to no matter what genre of music they did. Do I again have people up in arms when I say that Queen were less typecast in their music than Mk II?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EDkv_dyeI
****************************************************
Manic Miner @130, I’m generally not a prime suspect for giving too much credence to what Led Zeppelin fans say or think (especially as regards their beloved drummer), I just remembered that quote from at the time by Johan Hambraeus, a Swedish buddy of mine I went to school with in Kinshasa in 1974/1975. Johan was a lovely person (and still must be, I’m sure), but also – I hope he will forgive me for mentioning this, it was very long ago and he was very young as well – also a Led Zep fan, lamentably so, yet we still stayed overnight at each other’s houses and listened to/argued about music endlessly. Johan’s observation stands for lot of criticism that was lobbed at Mk II and Mk III in the seventies ( I know, I was there, I fought those arguments tooth and nail at the time) by the press and people who were not committed DP fans: That DP’s music is formulaic, follows a recipe/design plan and that they are playing below their true abilities as musicians for commercial gain. Of course you could counter that sameness argumentat anytime by playing Stormbringer (the album) to them, but (i) if we’re honest that is not the album most Purple fans are proudest of nor (ii) the one Ritchie would call his favorite, (iii) it didn’t sell nearly as well as Burn, and (iv) whenn you play Hold On or Holy Man to someone who accuses DP of sounding “samey” they are first bemused by the music and then say “But that doesn’t even begin to sound like real Deep Purple …“, not realizing how they have just fallen prey to their own stereotype thinking and invalidated what they said before. 😂 I’ve done it many times, the reaction is always the same.😈
*********************************************
You can now all return to your ptichforks and torches! 🤣
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/1e/f3/a11ef35e72e7aff562da4b8c814f8834.gif
PS: The Led Zep fans didn’t convince me back then and you won’t either! I don’t have issues liking something that also has weaknesses. But I don’t overlook weaknesses just because I like something either.
June 29th, 2026 at 13:32@63 “Ian is treating Steve in an ungrateful and disrespectful way when Steve deserves the opposite”
Where did you see that? care to share? I don’t think he is disrespecting him; on the last interview he mentioned that they would like to play songs from that era as an homage to Steve Morses era. I don’t like the fact that he is cornering Steve as ” a southern rock’ type of musician, as Steve is much more than that BUT in retrospect i wish Satriani could have stayed with them as the style would have fit better
June 29th, 2026 at 17:08THORSUN wrote:
UWE!
If you do attend the Coburg DP gig today despite the horrendous heat – do bless us all with the proper review of what you heard and how well they did on stage! Thank you!!!
Lieber Thorsun, the day I miss a DP gig because of outside temperatures is the day you can visit my grave. At 41°C (= 105,8°F), Germany has inexplicably turned into Arizona and I could hum ‘Desert Plains’ all day on my Fat Bob going to Coburg (and exploring the region there on Sunday as well until I rode home in the dark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH-qnW1ovYs
(See, Uwe can like more simplistic music too!)
The concert, yes, I won’t do track for track, that always bores me, so just a few impressions:
1. IG had a great tan (contrary to popular belief, Brits do tan if you take them out of their natural rainy habitat for long enough) and he sang well, especially noteworthy was how loud they had turned up his voice, my wife would have been pleased (as was my cousin Jutta who had joined for the gig). That said, he paced himself (and who wouldn’t on a day such as this), he skipped the occasional verse sentence, using the pause to take visibly deeb breaths, skipped notes and at times switches to baritone in parts he had once sung as a tenor ((and you know what: it didn’t sound bad at all). But overall his voice was fresh.
A personal gripe of mine is why they do not make use of Simon’s voice more often, whenever he sang together with Ian, the effect was really good.
2. More on age: From where I sat, I could see all five DP members walk up the stairs to the stage: With the exception of Simon, they all received – and accepted – a helping hand mounting the stairs.
3. Even more on age II: Front of stage was all seated. I forgive IG his opinion that DP gigs are mainly frequented by 18-year-olds, his eyesight hasn’t been great as of late, but the (sold out) Coburg gig was definitely a senior citizen event. (I’m not counting myself out, it was the first time I witnessed a Purple gig sitting down, something I regularly always avoid.)
4. For Karin when she still wanted to have her own salon: Keith Urban’s influence is everywhere
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTYzODE2OTc4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDI1ODg0OA@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg
IG now wears a youthful middle parting too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZy4ZP1OrCk
I thought that might be important to you, you know how I’m always supportive with anyone here.
5. Speaking of Simon I: I was reminded of our current discussion here and the collective mourning of Steve’s Widows, but already with the first resounding chord in Highway Star, Simon defined ballsy rock’n’roll in one second.
6. Now before all the Blackmore Orphans rejoice, Simon put your idol to shame too: In the intermission between the main set and the encore part (Purple didn’t even leave the stage, but just resumed playing after wallowing in adulation on stage for a few minutes 😂) Simon impromptu walked to where the bouncers stood and handed some teenage kid (he must have been there with his grand- or great-grandparents) a green PRS guitar. The kid initially thought he was only allowed to touch it, but Simon motioned to him with his hand that it was his now – you should have seen the kid’s face! Simon found himself a lifelong fan that night. And I thought to myself – nasty and graceless person I am – hey, Blackers, all your guitar execution antics were just outdone by one simple, yet profound gesture!
7. The set flows well the way they have it now. I’m not gonna get into the ‘more or less old songs’ discussion. Rapture of the Deep received a warm welcome and though it was never a favorite Purple number of mine, I liked it that night. (Guilt Trippin’ was NOT played in case you wonder.)
8. It must be something with your ears. All these claims about Purple not improvising anymore … The set I heard and saw was filled with freakish surprise insertions, musical inside jokes and spirited solo sparring between Simon and Don, who are really a great team. What is true is that the solo exchanges are much snappier than before, at times it reaches the point of musical standup comedy, but I’m entertained by it.
9. Maybe, just maybe Blackmore Orphans and Steve’s Widows have to come to terms with one thing: McBride is no Blackmore, he is no Bolin and he is no Morse. Just like Ron Wood is no Mick Taylor with the Stones, Paul Chapman was no Michael Schenker in UFO and Matthias Jabs is no Michael Schenker or Uli Jon Roth in the Scorpions. What Simon has in common with Wood, Chapman and Jabs is that he is simply the right guitarist for where Deep Purple are now. I’m happy he’s there. Blackmore wouldn’t be able to do it anymore, Tommy has been dead for half a century now and Steve, well he never liked leather pants hugging his crotch, did he?
10. Hopefully, some of you are now again suitably enraged? Don’t disappoint me!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d4/ff/2d/d4ff2d949e3a195741f1026fbd3ecf9c.gif
June 29th, 2026 at 17:47Uwe writes: “To Blackmore, music that takes a while to develop with the listener is boring.” Strange then that he didn’t fall asleep during those 30 minute versions of Wring that Neck.
June 29th, 2026 at 18:13#135 Uwe:
without fear of denial, apart from Metallica, in Italy the last metal bands that entered the charts (not speaking of historical groups, but of “new-now-old”) were Dream Theater from Falling Into Infinity to Octavarium, and Nigtwish with Once but 20 years have passed and no other great bands have been born.
obviously in the meantime I don’t even consider The Darkness and Greta van Fleet, two bands that are commercial and faded clones of the good old hard rock.
I’d rather listen again to the Spiritual Beggars with their heavy and psychedelic, but above all genuine and fresh, homage to the 70s!
June 29th, 2026 at 23:29https://youtu.be/0tgV_GA-iaM?si=qMtIGabZR3Kh3YiX
Uwe Hornung’s grave headstone. “Here lies an alleged Deep Purple aficionado, who raised his son a Led Zeppelin acolyte”. Can we fit all that onto a headstone without it appearing to dominate proceedings? Time will tell. Cheers.
June 29th, 2026 at 23:52#143 MacGregor:
hahaha you’ve been in great shape lately!
As the Purples would say, “silver tongue”!!!
I want to tell you what happened last night: I heard Arrogante boy in a typical Greek tavern, at a high and powerful volume, I couldn’t believe my ears, it immediately excited me and spread among ordinary people!!!
June 30th, 2026 at 09:07But unfortunately the bad part happens: we stopped last night in Heraklion for dinner after I had traveled many kilometers… we found this typical family-run tavern, with excellent reviews and when I heard Arrogante boy I thought “this is the best tavern in Greece! I want to eat here, it will be unforgettable!”
but there was no table left, not even a corner in the kitchen or in the bathroom, a huge disappointment after the joy.
end of the sad story.
#137 AndreA:
I think I recognized you in a recent comment of yours on the metallized site hahaha, here you use much more diplomacy!
June 30th, 2026 at 09:51@ 144- thanks for your story Fla76, good to hear that Greek tavern was playing new DP music. Although it was disappointing for you when pursuing that dining experience after your many kilometres travelled. Regarding people using ‘diplomacy’ when commenting here, yes indeed. We are all rather edgy though at times, simply because of that Lawyer chap, the one by the name of Uwe Hornung. His Eagle/Hawk eye or now days also the cyclops eye, forever casting an ever present shadow over all our innocent comments. Everyone is constantly worried about being dragged before some ‘kangaroo’ court somewhere. Thank God mr Hornung is NOT a moderator here. NONE of us would get a word in, we struggle enough as it is! Cheers.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:22Leon did fine for a while, Herr MacGregor, he morphed from Right Said Fred to Eminem to Korn to Judas Priest to Whitesnake (Doug Aldrich line-up) to GnR to Lynyrd Skynyrd to acts like Gary Clark jr and Marcus King – Zep was appreciated only randomly, he liked Page’s experimental nature with chords and tunings, a field where Blackmore has nothing to offer. And he does actually think that Ian Paice is the superior drummer, but that Bonham’s style was easier for non-musicians to latch onto, hence his greater popularity. Leon thinks that a lot of what Paicey does remains undetected by the more casual listener.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:35Daniel @141 , Wring That Neck was a very flashy and immediate instrumental built on the dueling effect, then still comparatively new in rock, there is nothing “slow build-up” about it, it is a tour de force!
If you want to know what Blackmore thinks of music that takes its time developing into a sort of hypnotic frenzy, then ask him what he thought of Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead, I take it that you are aware that he poured derision on them. And I dare guess that Steve’s The Surprising (a great song) wouldn’t have been his cup of tea either.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:46@74… Mike are you related to Don ?
June 30th, 2026 at 12:12@145 Fla
June 30th, 2026 at 14:14🤣🤣🤣💜💜 Fantastico!!
Guten Morgen, Timi, Mike is Don’s son! 🤣
June 30th, 2026 at 16:39@ 140
Uwe, thanks again. One remark – as you explained difference between the sophistication and immediacy – throwing in little bits and pieces isn’t =1 with improvising. I count a jam for improvisation if it suddenly starts to veer off the usual path and develops itself in unplanned manner. DP Mk9 don’t do that. All bars to the song are counted.
If you happen to forgot what I mean, let me take you to December 1984 and one of the greatest examples ever recorded of what COUNTS as an LET’S IMPROV BABY!!!
https://youtu.be/gUM1gBh2ebg?list=RDgUM1gBh2ebg
June 30th, 2026 at 18:32SPOILER : “Sacred Land” is only memorable song of the new album … The new album has a few interesting flashes here and there, and overall, it could be considered better than *=1*, with Gillan delivering a stronger vocal performance. I’ll take some time to decide whether to buy it. I might pick it up for the artwork—which I find fantastic across Deep Purple’s entire discography—but I’ll give it some thought.
June 30th, 2026 at 20:33Mike (Airey)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-airey-9353511a/
https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/C4D03AQHYDDbHRHQPPw/profile-displayphoto-shrink_800_800/profile-displayphoto-shrink_800_800/0/1516842284513?e=1784160000&v=beta&t=LtgBJFo6U4cClussnGGVLW2iGHj_5dXOd7n6AcKaOKQ
has been DP’s Production Manager since 2020, he’s the guy making sure we like what we hear and see. Prior to that he was Don’s longstanding keyboard technician and the Stage Manager of the band. He’s als worked with Rival Sons.
It would be nice to get an interview with him re getting and keeping the whole operation on the road.
He only shows up occasionally here – mostly to admonish us! 😂 We are not worthy …
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExb2k1ajNhMWgwdnZreWlpZHlhMnBiaDVvbXBrcGZ4b3QxN3Zibmo3eiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/slI3Y2GR9iWWI/giphy.gif
June 30th, 2026 at 22:23Herr MacGregor, tsk, tsk, tsk, the inscription on my gravestone has long been determined by Ms Laura Nyro
https://img.libquotes.com/pic-quotes/v2/laura-nyro-quote-lbd0m8j.jpg
I’ll go for
I swear there ain’t no heaven
And I pray there ain’t no hell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Gx0GVYZkQ
She wrote it when she was 17! Peter, Paul & Mary were the first to cover it,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeIQH7-ThA
long before the more famous Blood, Sweat & Tears version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMQGTUafG0o
Speaking of them, lead singer/front man David Clayton-Thomas just left us a few days ago, what a loss …
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/30/david-clayton-thomas-obituary
DCT and BS&T meant a lot to me in my youth, there was a time where I listened to as much BS&T as I did to Deep Purple, a strange combo I know, but it likely had to do with the fact that for some reason Blood, Sweat & Tears records were widely available in Kinshasa in the mid 70s, while most other Western rock artists were not. It most likely also explains why I never developed an aversion against brass in rock bands.
June 30th, 2026 at 23:00I don’t understand how so many people have already listened to the album (how many times? Just one or a whole week before making judgments) and come here to give spoilers.
July 1st, 2026 at 11:39Uwe Hornung says:
July 1st, 2026 at 11:55Guten Morgen, Timi, Mike is Don’s son! 🤣……. 😕!
@144 Fla76
Nice story! As a Greek I feel proud about my fellow Cretans, those delightful cretin Purple Lovers 🙂
Enjoy Ouzo, but do have also some taste of Tsikoudia (a.k.a. Raki), which is the island’s specialty 😉
July 1st, 2026 at 13:00@124 & 131
July 1st, 2026 at 16:26You made my day AndreA! My stomach hurts from laughing so hard.
„…Led Zeppelin were like the Sex Pistols… and always prostituted themselves to the business side of things…and to the trend of the moment“
And further on this person praised „Bananas“ as his beloved Purple Album!
Thank you so much!
Brass….do yourself a favour and listen to Bywater Call. If you get any chance go see them in concert. Best live-band I have seen in years. Apart from our boys of course.
July 1st, 2026 at 18:43.
Thorsun…I think I get what you mean….but in Ulm Don and Simon exchanged quite a few runs and I was very pleased by the level of improvisation they delivered. That said I have only witnessed this show of the current tour by now….so I don’t know how much of that was really made up on the spot/spontanous – but for me there was very little left to be desired.
July 1st, 2026 at 18:55Ahhhhhhhhh,you kids still stuck in Anthrax MADHOUSE, arent you?
Blue dot fever free days to ya all.
With all the honest respect I try to squeeze from myself …..
Yes, I sense exitement and more,but still….
How many d go to a show if there were no BLACKMORE songs s hold the setlist together?
Except for a few great covers Ritchie mainly played his own work.
Steve never got to that, something I suggested incl a triple live set cd wwith the Lord/Morse era but hey…..
It s amazing they still live and play.
It was an itch I felt in recent weeks but ve decided not to go.
July 1st, 2026 at 19:51#162 Rock:
I would honestly love a Purple show with only =1 & Splat songs, as much as I would have loved a Purple show with only Morse-era songs…
but maybe only a few fanatics inside THS would think so, and besides, it’s more likely that the new Messiah will come among us, rather than a setlist like this!
July 1st, 2026 at 22:21“How many (of you) go to a show if there were no BLACKMORE songs (to) hold the setlist together?”
I’d go faster than it normally takes to drop a few Fallschirmjäger over Holland, lieber RV! I do know how the Mk II songs go already, so an all post-Blackmore material gig would be something new.
I could have lived with Mk III, IV and V gigs without a single Mk II track as well, but that’s just me.
Hell, I don’t even want to listen to Ritchie playing HS anymore, last time was ample, thank you very much.
https://youtu.be/gZEfHn6SjSs
What a gem of a performance that was. Historic in more ways than one.
July 2nd, 2026 at 01:47@ 161
Max – it’s good to hear what you say – and really gives me a glimpse of hope for London in November. Last time, I admit, I was utterly spoiled and completely floored, the 1st show of 2nd EU Leg of “=1” tour and we got no less but 6 tracks off the new album (including debuts of Old Fangled Thing and Now You’re Talking as the 1st encore), which both were my favorites on the record. I was in 7th heaven! (this wasn’t played, mind you 😉 ).
Meanwhile, my dear fella DP Freaks, a full throttled review of Splat! was scribbled down yesterday evening by yours truly, now it will be edited and sent right off to Rasmus for putting it out here (which, I pray, he maybe does). The album *is* genuinely an excellent affair, might be their most consistent and focused since Now What!?, which tells a thing or two. I wonder if our own Mr Leslie Hedger approves this one, this time around! Coming soon, stay tuned! 😀
July 2nd, 2026 at 06:35I’m listening to the album as I type – almost through with it!
Ian’s vocals are heavily produced (and upfront), but SPLAT! is a late career gem, idiosyncratic, ballsy & proggy, melodic, even catchy in places (never Purple’s forte). As post-Blackmore era stuff goes, it is up there with Purpendicular and Now What?!.
Extremely varied too – like Stormbringer, in a good way.
At this point in their lengthy career, bringing out an album like that is a stunner. IG might be turning legally blind in the not too far future, but with this album there is no need for the blind man to cry, only rejoice!
July 2nd, 2026 at 17:16Splat on the doormat. It’s arrived a day early and we have visitors today. Should I be rude and tell them to bugger off so I can listen to the album?
July 2nd, 2026 at 17:21@167
Of course you should David! This might be the last time in your life to have such a chance to act in true purple devotion mode in the real time! 😛 yet another new album and a great one to boot!
July 2nd, 2026 at 20:19Free Advice from Uwe for Social Situations contd
Visitors? Now if the arrival of SPLAT! doesn’t constitute a material eviction notice from the premises, THEN WHAT DOES? What kind of fan r u even? Hospitality is all fine and dandy, BUT LET’S NOT BE SILLY ABOUT IT!
Give those pesky guests the Spanish Archer. 🤣
July 3rd, 2026 at 13:18I don’t know if it has already been reported here on THS, but the photographer who took care of the photo sessions for the album is a certain Olaf Heine.
while I’m proud that the graphic studio is still Jekyll & Hyde from 1996 in Milano,
The same one that did the graphics for Whoosh and Turning to Crime
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ4nSN_jG-_/?img_index=4
https://www.jeh.it/edel/
July 6th, 2026 at 21:08