Paicey reacts to a Burn cover of an 11-year old Japanese drummer Yoyoka Soma. Continue Reading »

Another article originally published in New Musical Express on July 8, 1972. This one is by Tony Norman and based around an interview with Jon Lord that must have been taken, according to the description, during the day on July 1. The question discussed appears to be the rumours of the imminent split of the band, which Jon vehemently denies, but admits that the last few months have indeed been difficult, starting with the fire at a certain Swiss casino. Bad luck continued to plague the band after that.

About the fateful North American tour earlier in the year:

But when we had to cancel the second American tour because of Ritchie’s illness, I think everyone was down. Really down. We just looked at each other and said: ‘What do you do? Shall we carry on, or what? That was probably the worst time we’ve had.

We were in Flint, Michigan at the time, in some horrible Holiday Inn. There was a howling blizzard outside and the phone call came through from New York, where Ritchie had been to the hospital the day before. They said the tests were positive. Ritchie had hepatitis. He had to go home immediately.

It really cut us up. We were sad for Ritchie and it just seemed like we were never going to shake the bad luck. We were less than halfway through the tour. We did try to carry on and do some crucial dates with Al Kooper, who’s a friend of ours. We rehearsed together and it could have been okay. Next day he rang up and said he didn’t feel too good. Two days later he was in hospital with food poisoning.

Next we got a guy called Randy California to play with us. We really wanted to do a show in Quebec, you see. In the end the concert was good, but the rehearsals were crazy.

To make us feel better the record company had hired us a couple of limos to go to and from the rehearsal hall. Coming back the first evening, the limousine we were in caught fire. So the other car picked us up. It got four blocks, then burst a tyre.

It was all building up to the point where we said, ‘I just want to go home and be a chartered accountant? We just wanted to forget it all! But I think we weathered that one.

Read more in Geir Myklebust’s blog.

This has nothing to do with Purple whatsoever (apart from the fact that one of them also plays bass), but may or may not put a smile on your face. It did on mine. Cheers! Continue Reading »

Geir Myklebust continues posting vintage Purple articles with a review of a gig at the Rainbow Astoria in London originally published by New Musical Express on July 8, 1972. The gig in question then would be one of the two concerts the band gave there on June 30 and July 1. Deep Purple had just returned from the arena tour of the USA and used the same arena-sized PA system at the theatre in London. Result: sound pressure level at one point peaked at 117 dB (120 dB is generally accepted to be pain threshold), Guinness book of records people were at hand to witness it, you know the rest…

Front row reviews

Deep Purple by Tony Norman

THE RAINBOW came back to life on Friday night with a snarl, a cheer and a smile. The near-capacity crowd had come to see Deep Purple and they got value for money. The most enthusiastic of them crowded down to the front, clapping, shouting, dancing and throwing peace signs towards the stage.

Many of them were too young to care about being “cool”. They just went straight ahead and had themselves a ball.

As soon as Purple walked into the stage lights they knew they were in complete control. This was their audience. Young, keen and lively. The rolls and roars of applause that were to wash through the theatre after every number were totally predictable.

They could have played “Three Blind Mice” and it would have worked. But they didn’t take things too much for granted. They worked and sweated and made sure it was a good show.

Continue reading in Geir’s blog (and thank you, Geir for your kind words).

There was a gig in April 1972 when Ritchie fell ill and Randy California was called upon to save the day. A bootleg recording of When a blind man cries from that gig (April 6, 1972 in Quebec City) has been posted on Youtube. The quality is about what you’d expect from an audience recording of that era, so don’t complain. Continue Reading »

A wonderfully weird and eccentric cover of Perfect Strangers from our favourite Finnish hillbillies Steve’n’Seagulls. Continue Reading »

Glenn Hughes is on the cover of the Bass Player UK magazine issue number 404. Apparently it is out since early December and probably marked as January 2021 due to the ongoing “calendar inflation” in magazine business. The inside story contains an interview that eventually should show up on Magzter.

By the way, Roger Glover was the cover story for the September 2020 issue of the magazine. That issue is already available.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

A new book about Stormbringer is being prepared for publication in March 2021. The author of is Laura Shenton, whose Purple family credentials include a Cozy Powell biography and a Tommy Bolin one.

The publisher’s blurb reads:

In 1974, Stormbringer was a pivotal album for Deep Purple. The second one made by the Mk3 lineup of Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale, it was ultimately the album that would see Blackmore call it a day with Deep Purple until the Mk2 lineup reformed in 1984.

Blending a range of styles across heavy rock, funk and soul, Stormbringer is a very unique Deep Purple album and there is a lot to be said about the story behind it. In this book, music author Laura Shenton MA LLCM DipRSL [that’s a lot of letters! — ed.] offers an in-depth perspective on Deep Purple’s ninth album from a range of angles including how it came to be, how it was presented and received at the time (live as well as on record), and what it means in terms of Deep Purple’s legacy today.

As the author explains: “Basically, the book covers how the album was made, what was going on with the music in terms of the artist’s intentions, how it did musically and commercially and what happened next.”

The narrative is essentially driven by contemporary interviews with the artists with small bits of music theory where relevant… in some cases they delve into the structure / key signatures / time signatures, based on the original sheet music without straying away from being an engaging read for non musicians.

What: Deep Purple Stormbringer – In-depth by Laura Shenton
When: March 12. 2021
Where: Wymer Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-912782-60-4
Price: £14.99
Format: Paperback, 216 x 138 mm, 184 pages, including an 8 page colour plate section

The book can be preordered from the publisher.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

RG posted a new message on his website:

The Christmas season is perpetually tied to the turning of the year, and have little to do with each other other than proximity. But the greetings of the season will always instruct us to have both a “Merry Christmas” (or holiday) and a “Happy New Year”. My desire is that all the love, joy, and warmth of the former carries over into the latter.

…

Head over to rogerglover.com to read ROCKDOWN

A new installment of tall tales from Paicey’s bar. Prost! Continue Reading »