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Why we should all move to Finland
The venerable fan club Perfect Strangers of Finland will hold a preview listening party for the new Deep Purple album Splat! one day ahead of its release. The album will be played twice in its entirety during the evening. First round starts at 18:00. Guests will have a chance to give their review of the album, and the event will feature a competition and related prizes.
What: Splat! listening party
When: Thursday, July 2 at 18:00
Where: The Riff Helsinki
Who: Open to public — anyone on or off Facebook
Thanks to Mona Sundman for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I heard all already, and can say this is the best of the lot. Hail!! Deep Purple ! 😲
June 29th, 2026 at 11:55Finland is a stronghold for hard and heavy music, there are many metalheads there in relation to the population and they are not nearly extinct like in Italy.
when I went to Finland 15 years ago I was really impressed by how many there were, and how much metal they listened to in clubs, pubs and restaurants… gourmet ears
I think it’s due to the fact that Finland has been the homeland of major Power metal bands for 20 years (excluding Helloween, Gamma Ray and Primal Fear of course) as well as many Thrash, Death and Black metal bands.
The Finnish government gives subsidies to young bands to make their first records, it is something that stimulates the musical culture of the country and the growth of individuals on healthy values.
June 30th, 2026 at 09:17Finland is all white and white people love Heavy Music except white people in America who like hip hop, pop & Gangsta music.
June 30th, 2026 at 12:06#3 timi:
no racist innuendo right?
I don’t think that loving hard & heavy is a question of skin color:
https://youtu.be/YQqz15NXZC4?si=xoGmCudiFm7NA3_2
Let’s remember King Jimi, Hendrix Prince Phil Lynott, Bishop Randy Jackson, Knight Clarence Clemons and many other unforgettable black musicians in the rock chessboard
July 1st, 2026 at 20:44Ah, enjoy early birds. As Monty Python put it, that’s the country to be…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHsoEAAMZU
July 2nd, 2026 at 07:53Last time I looked Living Colour were black musicians, from the USA too. And I have noticed back and white folk in the audiences too. Cheers.
July 2nd, 2026 at 09:28Is not intended to be racist, just is the truth. sure Living Color & Jimi Hendrix started their careers in the sixties and eighties, when the youth of this country grew up with that music being popular. Like the youth of today grew up with pop and Hip Hop, Gangsta music is popular with white kids. what i’m saying is it is the popular music of it’s time. But white kids need to pull up their pants and stop wearin backwords hats and talking all gangsta, looks stupid.
July 2nd, 2026 at 12:06May I shyly raise my hand and name Michael Bradford a little?
https://youtu.be/8pck16kvTpE
http://www.deep-purple.net/gallery/dusseldorf05/deep-purple-1.jpg
Without Michael, DP would have never gotten to Bob Ezrin and the band might not even exist anymore.
Honorary mention: TM Stevens and the very best Burn cover ever:
https://youtu.be/pY56aonrm48
July 2nd, 2026 at 13:49@ 8- “Without Michael, DP would have never gotten to Bob Ezrin and the band might not even exist anymore.”
July 2nd, 2026 at 17:01I have always said it, Uwe should work for tabloid news corporations. The totally sensational, unnecessary and untrue statements abound. Beat it, just beat it etc etc………..Cheers.
There was also a listening party at the Headbangers Pub in Milan Italy tonight to listen Splat!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaAd2xboPP6/
https://www.facebook.com/100064653492947/posts/pfbid0r26cbyozSTeVayY7yCUj3XEvw4QNUUUnRr7Y2ceMgwNd1p6QJuErMYx3LaeHK9Sul/
July 2nd, 2026 at 21:11Lieber Herr MacGregor, I can always explain it you, but I cannot understand it for you, sorry. If you think that DP working with Michael B was not a first testing the water with an outside producer and if you have not read in the Martin Popoff bio that earMUSIC liked the concept and then nudge-nudged the band for someone like Bob Ezrin, then I guess it’s best you continue marvelling at Cozy’s intro drum break to Stargazer a little more.
Sensational, unnecessary and untrue statements abound for you. Well, statistics seem to be on my side: From 2000 to 2012 DP recorded exactly two new studio albums, including a seven year hiatus after ROTD. During the (almost) same number of years from 2013 to 2026 they recorded, wait for it, six with Bob Ezrin. Now you might not like his production values, I know, but do you really wish to contend that the band are not happy with him, that their albums have not sold well and that he has not boosted their spirits and morale? Keep diggin’ then.
https://c.tenor.com/QsQxyYRuNTEAAAAd/tenor.gif
July 2nd, 2026 at 22:51@ 11- More rubbish from Uwe. He implies that without Bradford, the band wouldn’t have gone any further, the same with Ezrin. So DP would have just pulled the pin then? No chance of getting another producer? Fairy stories abound. This guy lives in a bubble of self doubt. All in hindsight of course. Cheers.
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:47Your reading skills have diminished over time, ole island survivalist! I didn‘t write Michael saved DP, but he cleared the path to Bob who patently did.
It‘s perfectly fine if you don‘t give a hoot about the inner workings of Purple, don‘t read the Popoff bio then.
Purple wouldn‘t have “pulled the pin“, they would have simply withered away.
So you don’t think that Ezrin and DP have gelled? Then riddle me this, ole curmudgeon, how come he’s recorded six studio albums with them, about as many as Martin Birch did, whose engineering work you seem to worship? What gives you any sort of reliance that someone other than Bob would have slotted in as nicely, given that Roger didn’t want to do it anymore (and has repeatedly stated that Ezrin’s production work has liberated his bass playing) and Michael B only lasted two albums (which might have to do with the fact that Roger found him a better producer than an engineer, the latter aspect being important to Roger, while he views Bob Ezrin as balanced in both capabilities)?
Have you even read the Popoff bio and the massive amount of interviews in it? Or does His Majesty Herr MacGregor the First simply determine his qualifications for “rubbish” out of midair as his (bad) moods strike him?
July 3rd, 2026 at 13:42Hey Kiddos, enough of this bickering 😀 it’s a day to rejoice – you have a new purple flight of the “80” rat going so quit swooshing your ponytails to warm up the air 🙂 it’s already *hotter than hell* at places…
(sic! now – that’s a slab of a proper riff too! hot! hot! … hotter than hell!!!” )
Sir MacGregor, how do YOU find the new album? 🙂 🙂 🙂
July 3rd, 2026 at 14:26MacGrumpers always likes to comment things from afar and without even having heard them. That keeps his sweeping assumptions fresh.
July 3rd, 2026 at 21:45@ 13- “I didn‘t write Michael saved DP,” No one said that you did say that? Also, “So you don’t think that Ezrin and DP have gelled?” Please point to where I said that Uwe, I am intrigued. Are you losing it ole son? One more from Uwe, “MacGrumpers always likes to comment things from afar and without even having heard them” ???????
July 6th, 2026 at 10:43@ 14- I don’t have access to the album Thorsun, otherwise I would have said I was still listening to it. Usually we can get a listen or two online, but things have been tightened down it seems. No one has it or are game to put it up. Last album I purchased was Now What and before that Purpendicular. I am rather hesitant with modern day DP music a lot of the time. I still enjoy the odd song or two online from certain albums, Whoosh had a few good songs on it. There were a couple on =1, Bleeding Obvious the standout track. I don’t mind the three ‘singles’ from this new album, but there ‘should’ be a few better songs hopefully, that keep me listening more often. If there are quite a few really good songs, I will then purchase the album. Cheers.