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Glenn and Lita steal the show
Glenn Hughes is currently touring Germany with the Rock Meets Classic package. Here is some video evidence of the proceedings and a brief witness report. Continue Reading »
A missed opportunity
There is a new book out — it is called Deep Purple From 1984: every album, every song, written by Phil Kafcaloudes, and published by SonicBond. David Black got himself a copy and shares his review with the rest of us. We also received a copy for review, which we hope to complete and publish as soon as possible.
In 2019 SonicBond published Deep Purple and Rainbow 1968-1979: Every Album, Every Song and it was a patchy affair written by a fan of the band but not a hardcore fan and was therefore lacking in depth or insight. When it was announced that the follow-up Deep Purple: From 1984 was to be published but with a different author, I was hoping for an uberfan revealing things I didn’t know. In that respect, the book is a disappointment.
There are three principal failings: lyrical analysis, live recording reviews, and general errors.
From the extensive bibliography listed at the end the author has done some research but his attempts to analyze the lyrics are undermined as he doesn’t appear to be aware of the Caramba! website and Big Ian’s explanations in the wordography section. This results in numerous misinterpretations, which fatally undermine the credibility of the text. For example: he tells us that Knockin’ at Your Back Door is about an uptight woman oral sexed back to life when, as any fule kno, and in the words of the man himself “What I was talking about was good old upright Christian heterosexual buggery as opposed to the other kind.” And this is the very first track reviewed! He is baffled that The Unwritten Law is about venereal disease, misses the point that Ramshackle Man and the “stumbled through the door” line is about Big Ian nakedly crashing into an argument between Ritchie and his girlfriend, that A Castle Full of Rascals is about parliament, gets the source of Hey Cisco wrong, misses that Pictures of Innocence is about the EU commission. Wrong Man is apparently about an unnamed villain whilst we know that it’s Wayne Williams, Rapture of the Deep about “lovin’ and carin’”, and so it goes, and so it goes. There are several more, but it becomes depressing to list how badly the text misses.
The author also sets out to review the live albums but is selective in his choice and the choices are very odd. Perfect Strangers Live is reviewed (without any mention of Ritchie’s less than stellar playing) but In the Absence of Pink isn’t. Nobody’s Perfect is reviewed (and he seems to think in some cases that Ritchie is on top form!) as is Come Hell or High Water, but he reviews the DVD not the CD or the Birmingham/Stuttgart box set. Live in Montreux 1996 is ignored, but Live at the Olympia is reviewed. Live In Rotterdam isn’t. In Concert 1999 concerto is reviewed, but Total Abandon isn’t – which is odd as the author is Australian. The Soundboard Series and Live in London 2002 are absent, but Live at the NEC 2002 DVD is included even though it was part of a larger set. Live in Montreux 2006 is reviewed but yet again it’s the DVD and the last set to warrant reviewing, so Live in Montreux 2011, Verona, Wacken and Setting Sun in Tokyo are all absent.
Compounding all of this are sundry other errors: when reviewing Nobody’s Perfect to not know that the “cool jazz blues, probably the most effective since ‘lazy’ is yet another of the band’s surprises” when we all know this is Ritchie’s Blues and has been in the set since 1973. Blues is described when prefacing A Gypsy’s Kiss from Perfect Strangers Live as “Blackmore improvises over some subtle Lord organ work in a 52 second jam.” The NEC’2002 DVD review is illustrated in the photo section with a cover of Birmingham NEC from 1993. And then there are some track listing mistakes (which to be fair may be a function of Australian editions) but the review of the tour edition of Rapture misses The Well Dressed Guitar and the Hard Rock Café Live tracks. Infinite adds the tracks from the singles release, but not all of them, or the Hellfest live tracks from the gold edition. The shame is that for a true fan, these errors jar so heavily that any enthusiasm for the content is lost.
In conclusion, the book is a big disappointment for the hard core fan and such a missed opportunity. The real shame is that the author has an engaging tone and that, if he was an uberfan, this would have been a worthy purchase – but it’s not!
Review by David Black
One big bang
An addendum to the recent series of classic Gillan clips, all restored and upscaled. This time it is M.A.D. as mimed on the Top of the Pops Continue Reading »
Travelling on hold
Another interview with Candice Night, in which she reveals that Ritchie Blackmore’s touring career is, ahem, on hold. He was told by the doctors not to fly (at least for now), so any shows now can only be within the driving distance from their home in Long Island. Continue Reading »
That Addams family at the end of the road
Candice Night was interviewed for the Folk N Rock podcast. She explains the title of her upcoming solo album, how exactly her hubby became involved in it, what it’s like to live in the house with a thousand guitars, and you get a peek at the medieval interior decor of the humble abode. Continue Reading »
It’s a rocky old road sometimes
On February 17, 2025, Don Airey has appeared on Mick Wall’s podcast Season 4, Episode 9, promoting his new album Pushed to the Edge. The conversation veered wide of the release, however, and ventured into Don’s years with Gary Moore, Colosseum II, Rainbow, Ozzy, Whitesnake, etc, etc. Continue Reading »
Godz of War
Don Airey’s new album Pushed to the Edge is now out for streaming and download, and here is another single from it — Godz of War Continue Reading »
What happiness looks like
Armenian agency Mediamax shares an account of two Ian Gillan’s charity performances in Armenia in 2010:
Fifteen years ago, on March 26 and 27, 2010, I was the happiest person in the world. If you were present at Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan’s charity concerts with the Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra on those days, you will understand exactly what I mean.
Thanks to Mediamax for the reminder.
Come up with something good
Yahoo carries a short interview with Don Airey, attributed to DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur). Like many other of his publicity appearances these days, it was done on the occasion of his upcoming solo album Pushed To The Edge. Continue Reading »
The Last Goodbye
A second single The Last Goodbye from the upcoming Candice Night’s solo album Sea Glass has been released. This is the track with Ritchie Blackmore making a guest appearance on guitar, but lowering your expectations is in order. There are no fiery solos, and his contribution can be described as ‘some acoustic accompaniment’. Continue Reading »
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing