Simon McBride spoke to the Scars and Guitars podcast at the beginning of June (i.e. after the start of the tour, but before the announcement of Steve’s retirement).

At the end of the day, for me, with this gig, there’s been lots of people saying, or asking me will I play like Ritchie or will I play like Steve or will I do this like Tommy or Satriani or whatever. So that thing initially kind of confused me a little bit; I didn’t know what to do. It was only when I was talking to [DEEP PURPLE keyboardist] Don Airey about it, and he just said, ‘Forget about it all. Just be you. Play your own thing.’ That’s it. Which I did. And I kind of started to relax a little bit and just be myself.

When you start to think about who else has been in the band, you get a little bit confused what to play or when to play or what to do or ‘should I play this like Ritchie?’ or ‘should I play it like Steve?’

Everybody has their own opinion on the guitar players in DEEP PURPLE and which ones worked better or whatnot. I [am] respectful to everybody who’s played there, because they’re all good players — every single one of ’em — so whether it’s Ritchie or Tommy or Steve, I just kind of [am] respectful to what they’ve done in the past, and I just do my own thing most of the time.

There’s certain things you have to play. Like ‘Highway Star’, for example, I’m not gonna play anything different to what’s there in the original, because why the hell would I? [Laughs] That’s my attitude. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

To be honest, everybody’s been so nice and so cool and so kind, especially on the social media stuff where it’s all been very positive. You get the odd negative one, but I don’t read a lot of it anyway. But it’s really cool that people accept me, because it is a legacy band and they’ve been around a long time. I really appreciate that people are digging what I do, and I feel it every night onstage. Some of the shows we’ve done, some of the audience reaction has been incredible.

We played a show in Macedonia. We came off. We did an encore and stuff. And then 20 minutes later, the audience are still shouting,” he recalled. “I’d never heard this my entire life — 15, 20 minutes of 10 thousand people shouting for more, just constantly, and they wouldn’t leave. Even Don Airey and Roger Glover were standing there in shock, going, ‘We haven’t heard this in a long, long time.’ I’m not saying that’s all for me; I’m just saying that’s just for the band.

I’m very [happy] that people like what I’m doing because it is always hard stepping into a band where you’ve had [laughs] Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Morse, Joe Satriani and Tommy Bolin. They’re not small names by any means, so it’s always very… I think if you just play and have fun, that comes across and people respect that and people will really see.

I’m 43, so I kind of grew up in that old-school playing method anyway. ‘Cause I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, so I guess I’m still part of that older generation, if you wanna call it. So the way that I play would still fit very well, whereas maybe some of the new, modern players wouldn’t fit. I don’t know.

Yeah, the response has been brilliant. I can’t complain at all. And I thank every single person that has said a nice thing about me.

Listen to the interview:

Hurry up, we’re being told that this podcast issue might disappear at the end of August for corporate reasons.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and quotes.

Whitesnake is pulling out of their 2022 joint tour of United States and Canada with Scorpions. The following message from David Coverdale has appeared on the band’s website today, August 5:

It is with profound disappointment and a heavy heart that I must announce that Whitesnake will no longer be able to join The Scorpions on their US and Canadian tour due to my continued treatment for a persistent upper respiratory infection that affects my ability to perform. This includes the cancellation of our own headlining shows as well.

While Whitesnake will no longer be on the tour, the Scorpions will be continuing on. We Wish Our Good Friends, The Scorpions Every Success!!!

We Wish You Well

The tour was supposed to start on August 18 with a couple of standalone Whitesnake gigs before joining the Scorpions’ bandwagon in Toronto on August 21. According to Blabbermouth, Scorpions will proceed with the tour, with Swedish band Thundermother as sole support.

This raises all sorts of unanswered questions about the fate of Whitesnake as David had previously stated on numerous occasions that this is supposed to be their farewell tour.

Our man in Brazil Marcelo ‘no relation’ Soares writes:

Brazilian talk show host Jô Soares died tonight, at 84. He did some fun interviews with Deep Purple in the 2003 and 2006 tours. He asked none of the questions we geeks would, but at the same time he put the boys at ease talking about soccer and their families. In the 2003 interview, he got Ian Gillan to talk about the three months of quality time he had with his daughter every year, Don Airey to explain the origins of the word “soccer” and Ian Paice to laugh a lot. He also had them playing two songs and none of them was Smoke on the Water.

Thanks to Marcelo Soares for the info, and to alyen06 for the video.

Guitar Player reprints online excerpts from an interview conducted with Tommy Bolin on October 7, 1976. It originally appeared in the March 1977 issue of the magazine.

What did you learn from playing behind Albert King?

I learned a lot about lead; learned that you don’t have to blow your cookies in the first bar.

At that time, I was playing everything I knew when I took a lead. And he said, “Man, just say it all with one note.”

He taught me that it was much harder to be simple than to be complicated during solos. If you blow your cookies in the first bar, you have nowhere to go.

Blues is really good that way. It teaches you to develop coherent solos, because the form you’re playing over is so basic. You have to develop leads that go someplace.

The neatest compliment I ever got was when I was playing with Albert King at an indoor concert in Boulder, Colorado. He used to let me take solos, and I was very into playing that day.

After the concert he came up to me and said, ” You got me today, but I’ll get you tomorrow.”

I really respect him. He’s a beautiful player.

Why all the interest in so many styles, and how did you handle them all?

They were just gigs that came up. I’d rather work than not. I was very lucky to be able to play in all those extremes.

It was difficult following a guy like Ritchie Blackmore. When someone is the focal point of a group like he was, it’s very hard to replace them. After a while, it just got to be pointless.

The way I got involved in jazz-rock was through a flute player named Jeremy Steig. He played on the second Zephyr album.

He showed me various jazz relationships and put them into a rock perspective, and then through him I met a lot of New York people like Cobham and [keyboardist] Jan Hammer.

Cobham called me for the Spectrum session, and I said, “I don’t know how to read, man.” He said it was okay.

So I went to the studio, and he handed me a chart. I told him again I didn’t again I didn’t know how to read, so we had a day of rehearsal, then cut the album in two days.

In rehearsal I’d just find out the changes – for example, Am to D9 to G6 to E13 – and play around those chords and changes.

I learned quite a bit through those people. You can’t help but learn. All the different styles I’ve played have really helped me as a guitarist and helped me develop my own way of playing.

I have my own style, but it’s different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

Doug the classical composer expands his consciousness with side 2 of Machine Head (side 1 was here). Continue Reading »

Premier Guitar has a tutorial on a subject rarely covered in such publications — Marsden/Moody era Whitesnake.

Whitesnake’s self-titled album is a pinnacle of ’80s hard rock, instantly making them one of the biggest rock bands of the era. It was a departure from their previous six albums due to significant lineup changes. Both original guitarists, Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden, had left the band and opened the doors for former Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes to join. Sykes’ influence, which began on the 1984 release, Slide It In, moved the band away from its British blues-rock sound towards the more popular American glam-rock vibe. Let’s take a look at the band’s style during the Moody/Marsden era which is often overshadowed by 1987’s incredible success.

Read more in Premier Guitar.

Ivory tinker extraordinaire Jordan Rudess talks about the heaviest keyboard riffs of all the time. Watch out for Jon’s entry, and it’s probably not what you think… Continue Reading »

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Deep Purple tour of Japan, the one that produced the aptly named live album. Burrrn! magazine publisher Shinko Music is supporting a couple of events commemorating the occasion.

Osaka September 11, 2022
venue: umeda TRAD

Tokyo November 5, 2022
venue: EX THEATER ROPPONGI

Tokyo event will consist of two shows — the matinee (doors 1pm, stage 2pm) with a Purple tribute act performing Made in Japan in its entirety, and an evening show (doors 6pm, stage 7pm) with a tribute to Dio-era Rainbow. Osaka will be a Purple only event (doors 3pm, stage 4pm). Tickets can be booked here (but you better brush up on your Japanese).

[Update Oct. 17]: There is an interview with Dio Ken, the singer for the Rainbow tribute band scheduled to perform on November 5. You can read it here in both English and Japanese.

Thanks to Akemi Ono and Glenn Williams for the info.

Tribute act Purpendicular that have toured extensively with Paicey on drums are releasing a third album of their original material, once again with Ian’s participation. The album is called Human Mechanic and is due on September 23 via Metalville Records.

Tracklist:

1. The Nothing Box
2. Ghost
3. No One’s Getting Out Alive
4. Something Magical
5. Human Mechanic
6. TV Stars & Internet Freaks
7. Made Of Steel
8. Soul To Soul
9. Four Stone Walls
10. Passing Through

Ian Paice — drums
Nick Fyffe — bass
Robby Thomas Walsh — vocals
Christoph Kogler — Hammond keyboards
Herbert Bucher — guitars

Promo blurb describes the album as

Musically, Human Mechanic offers the typical Ian Paice grooves and funky bass lines, but without neglecting the heavy hard rock sound. You won’t find a copy of Deep Purple here, but many influences. But Hammonds and guitars are still strongly in the foreground.

Judge for yourselves from the preview track Ghost:

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes has tested positive for COVID and will be sitting out the rest of The Dead Daisies’ European tour starting with July 26 gig in Vienne, France. The recent Whitesnake recruit Dino Jelusick will stand in for the vocal duties, and Yogi Lonich will play bass on the remaining dates.

In other Daisies news, release date for their new album Radiance has been set for September 30, 2022. The album will be self-published and can be pre-ordered via their website.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.