A 1981 vintage Jon Lord interview, where he talks about the bogus Purple, Gillan’s departure from the band, Tommy Bolin, prospects for a reunion, Tony Ashton, an upcoming solo album, and the Frank Sinatra of rock´n´roll. The interview is published with a warning that no part can be quoted without permission, so we can’t offer you a teaser. You can read it here. Continue Reading »

Ian Gillan’s autobiography has been published in Ukraine. It was translated by Gennady Shpak (text) and Julia Vrotna (lyrics), and edited by Volodymyr Drybushchak, who himself is a well published author of quite a few books on Deep Purple and family. With Ian’s blessings, Volodymyr corrected several factual inaccuracies that sneaked into the original. Sounds like the English edition is due for an update too.

The book is out now via Nash Format publishers.

Thanks to the proud editor (pictured above) for the info.

John Sykes, guitar player with Tygers of Pan Tang, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, and his own band Blue Murder, has died, having lost a protracted battle with cancer. The following message has appeared on his website yesterday, January 20, 2025:

It is with great sorrow we share that John Sykes has passed away after a hard fought battle with cancer. He will be remembered by many as a man with exceptional musical talent but for those who didn’t know him personally, he was a thoughtful, kind, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room.

He certainly marched to the beat of his own drum and always pulled for the underdog. In his final days, he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years.

While the impact of his loss is profound and the mood somber, we hope the light of his memory will extinguish the shadow of his absence.

Sykes was instrumental in transforming Whitesnake from a British blues-rock band into an American hair metal one. He re-recorded guitar parts for the US edition of 1984 Slide It In album, and later co-wrote most of the material and recorded the smash hit 1987 album. Relations with DC soured immediately afterwards, and he was dismissed before any of the MTV videos were made, or the band hit the road.

Albeit they have parted on less than friendly terms, Coverdale pays a tribute to his former bandmate:

Just heard the shocking news of John’s passing…My sincere condolences to his family, friends & fans…🙏✨🙏✨⭐️✨🙏✨🙏

Another connection with the Purple family was made in 2002, when Sykes guested on a track for the Hughes/Turner Project first album HTP. Glenn Hughes has also paid tribute today:

There are no words to describe how I feel about John’s guitar playing. He was absolutely a phenomenon.
Here’s a song that we wrote together called “Heaven’s Missing An Angel”. What an amazing solo on this song & Honored to have John join me on vocals.
RIP Dear one. The angel is now in heaven,
Love you 🙏 🩵

Thanks to Blabbermouth and Uwe Hornung for the heads-up. Photo credit: Will Russell, CC BY-NC 2.0.

Former Sabaton guitar player and current Majestica frontman Tommy Johansson has posted his cover of Child in Time a-la Power metal style, with plethora of guest appearances. Check it out if you’re a fan of the genre. Continue Reading »

A newly restored video for Gillan track Sleeping on the Job off the Glory Road album has been posted on YouTube Continue Reading »

Don Airey’s latest solo album Pushed To The Edge (of which he hinted about back in September) is set to be released on March 28, 2025, via earMUSIC. Joining him on the record are Carl Sentance and Mitchell Emms on vocals, Simon McBride on guitar, drummer Jon Finnigan, and bassist Dave Marks. The album will be available on a digipak CD, 2LP gatefold black vinyl, digital download, and streaming.

Track list:

1. Tell Me
2. The Keep On Running
3. Moon Rising
4. Rock The Melody
5. Flame In The Water
6. Out Of Focus
7. Power Of Change
8. Girl From Highland Park
9. Godz Of War
10. Edge If Reality
11. Finnigan’s Awake

One can pre-order the album via this link.

The first track Tell Me was posted today to accompany the announcement:

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Steve Morse dispenses wisdom to younger players on the virtual pages of the Guitar Player magazine.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced shifting from Kansas to Deep Purple?

My first encounter with Deep Purple was a really good jam session, and my first encounter with Kansas was a writing session. Those were different things, but they were the things that I connected on with each band. With Kansas, it was more about writing, but with Purple, it was about the feel of everybody improvising, listening and reading each other’s minds. With Purple, that connection grew very organically.

Did you need a whole new setup to cover Ritchie Blackmore’s parts?

I eventually changed the amplifiers four times before I ended up going with Engl. When I first started with Purple, I was using a 5150 setup. I used that through the [1996] Purpendicular album. That setup worked fine, but the gear needed to be turned up in order for the type of distortion I needed to convey the notes. The search began to find a rounder tone with more impact. That led me to the Marshall Jubilee to the Marshall 2000 series to Engl.

What made Engl Amps perfect for Deep Purple?

At the time, I liked some of the characteristics, but I really wanted to make some changes. Luckily, the designer started bringing prototypes to the shows with breakout boards attached to the amps that let me adjust the tone centers of the tone controls. It was awesome. That begat my signature amp.

Read more in Guitar Player.

Couple of Machine Head related articles in the Vintage Guitar magazine. Both have originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of the magazine, and now are also available online.

Roger Glover was interviewed on the occasion of the Dweezil Zappa’s remix of the album.

The recording circumstances are part of the Machine Head legend, so would it have lost some of its magic if it was recorded traditionally in a sterile studio environment?
Absolutely. But that’s what studios did. They took sound away. They controlled it too much. Our concerts were pretty wild. Crazy-sounding, loud and vicious, and aggressive and exciting. We wanted to bring that into the studio somehow. The idea was to record an album in a venue, not in a studio.

If we didn’t quite achieve it, it’s because, to me, the album sounded a bit muddy considering we were after this huge, echoey sound. But whatever it was, it worked. It certainly would’ve been different if we’d done it in a proper studio.

The fire changed everything. It took our time away, but brought the band together in a way we wouldn’t have if we were all living at home, traveling to the studio at night.

Read more of Roger’s interview in Vintage Guitar.

And a retrospective article about the album, albeit dealing mostly with Smoke, Highway Star, and guitar amps used in the recording.

Guitar World has a story about the origins of two-hand tapping guitar technique, and Ritchie Blackmore is indirectly involved.

It sounds like something out of one of those corny classic rock-themed parodies of Renaissance paintings.

The setting is one of the most famed rock venues of all time, LA’s Whisky a Go Go, and the year is 1968.

Onstage is Harvey Mandel, the underrated guitarist who highlighted his performances with flourishes of two-hand tapping years before Eddie Van Halen put the technique on every guitar player’s radar. In the audience are, among others, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison.

Now, these are rock stars after all, and so each of them is either hammered, or well on their way to being so. Morrison, as was often the case, is much further along that path than anyone else.

Already a blues-rock veteran, and soon to be a member of Canned Heat, Mandel was in fine form onstage, and confident enough to pull tapping out of his bag of six-string tricks, surprising his audience in the process.

Here’s Harvey Mandel demonstrates his technique at a 2012 gig:

Read more in Guitar World. The Blackmore’s 1991 interview that the article quotes, we coincidentally happen to have in our archives.

The complete performance of Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra that happened in Munich in October 2024 has been posted on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. The piece was performed by the rock band Boxhead and Abaco-Orchestra conducted by Ina Stoertzenbach. Watch out for some delightful deviations from the canon. Continue Reading »