Edel had run a contest to interview the band in conjunction with the Whoosh! release. Anssi Herkkola from Finland was the winner and got to speak with Roger Glover and Don Airey. This produced a quite relaxed conversation with some off the beaten path questions. And good old THS gets a namecheck at the end. Enjoy! Continue Reading »

Classic Rock has one of them “greatest ever” lists, and this time it’s 50 greatest live albums ever. Made in Japan tops their ranking:

Deep Purple were at their peak, having released the career-defining Machine Head just months before. On Made In Japan they straddled a fine line between intense and indulgent, the four sides of vinyl giving them room to stretch – and we mean stretch. Incredibly there were only seven tracks; Highway Star, which opened side one, was the only one to clock in at under seven minutes.

Side Four comprised a monstrous, 20-minute version of Space Truckin’; The Mule, meanwhile, contained a six-minute Ian Paice drum solo. It might sound preposterous now, but back in the day we could only shake out heads disbelievingly at the sheer, unbridled brilliance of it all.

Honourable mentions: Rainbow – On Stage is at #32
and Whitesnake – Live… In The Heart Of The City is at #38.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the info.

David Coverdale dresses up and wishes you a Merry Christmas. Continue Reading »

Slightly disheveled Glenn Hughes talks about how he joined The Dead Daisies, the RnR Hall of Fame induction, his autobiography, and discusses lyrical themes of the Daisies’ upcoming album Holy Ground. This is an interview he gave to That Jamieson Show in April 2020 that was recently made available on Youtube. Continue Reading »

Happy birthday to our favourite bass player! Besides playing bass in a band most of us might have heard of, Roger is a man of many talents — he is a songwriter, producer, an artist, photographer, father, grandfather, and most importantly — just a wonderful human being.

Cheers to the next three quarters!

There is a petition on change.org in support of preserving Malcolm Arnold’s archives, which are apparently slated to be destroyed by a court order:

Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) was one of the most important British composers of classical music in the 20th century. From 1979 to 1986 he was in the care of the Court of Protection, and for the remainder of his life the Court of Protection and the Office of the Public Guardian played a significant role in his protection as a vulnerable person. Over this period the court accumulated a considerable archive of records, papers and personal correspondence. This collection is of great importance to researchers, biographers and musicologists. Until recently it had been the stated intention of the Court of Protection that these records would be preserved. However, it has now stated that it intends to destroy the entire collection as it believes that all possible options for preserving the records have been exhausted. We urge the government to intervene to prevent the destruction of the records relating to this significant British artist and to ensure that they are lodged in the National Archives.

Being British citizen or resident does not appear to be a requirement to sign the petition. At the time of this writing, it had 4,905 signatures.

Thanks to Darker than Blue for the heads up.

Ronnie Romero is doing interviews promoting the latest release of his other band Lords of Black Alchemy of Souls Pt. I. During the chat with Italian Linea Rock, he was asked whether Rainbow is still an active band:

Well, we are locked down. We will see. Obviously, nothing’s gonna happen next year. And Ritchie and Candice, they’re really focused on the new Blackmore’s Night record. So probably if everything comes back to normality in the next few years, probably we’ll do some more shows. But at the moment, everything is on standby.

You can watch the interview on youtube.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the quote.

Paicey continues his Tales from the bar with a new batch of tall tales of one nascent band that eventually became known as Deep Purple. Continue Reading »

Fore more of your caroling needs, Blackmore’s Night have released a lyric video for another track from their upcoming Xmas EP Here We Come A-Caroling. Continue Reading »

Geir Myklebust has a new old article reprinted in his blog — a New Musical Express feature on (then) upcoming Fireball that was originally published on March 27, 1971.

Deep Purple – commercial without compromise

By Richard Green

FOR Deep Purple fans the end of an era is approaching. After late April or May, familiar numbers like “Speed King,” “Child In Time” and “Wring That Neck” will almost certainly disappear from the group’s repertoire, to be replaced by new additions. And the new additions will be taken from the highly important project on which Purple is now working – the heir to “Deep Purple In Rock.”
This week is the album’s fortieth consecutive week in the NME Chart and sales are almost as healthy now as they were in the balmy days at the beginning of last summer. “In Rock,” you will remember, is the album that pulled the group together collectively after the individual depressions that were a result of the concerto.
“The next album would have been ready by now but we had to hold it back a bit because of Richie’s operation,” Ian Gillan revealed. “It should be ready for the mixing stage and the art work by mid-April. Five tracks are done and there will be seven or eight included.”
Does Ian see it as an extension on “In Rock”?
“Well, yes, quite simply,” he replied and laughed at the brevity of his answer. Then he went on: “The tracks would have been out of place on `In Rock` but they seem to be a natural extension. The only common ingredient in both albums is earthiness.”
We touched on the subject of Deep Purple’s act which Ian agreed is based on the current album.
“I think audiences now are hearing us as we want them to, they’re seeing and hearing us playing our sort of music,” Ian began. “I used to go and see someone purely because I knew they would be doing certain numbers and I think it is nice for an audience to go and hear certain numbers.
“We could have been doing new numbers three or four months ago but on the British tour we decided to give In Rock a last fling. We’ll probably retain some of the numbers we’re doing now, some seem to follow on more naturally than others. You need to play numbers to give people a lift and others to bring them down to another level. People need to go through a series of ups and downs, they need to go through certain emotions. If you play the same thing all the time people start shuffling round on their backsides.”

Continue reading in Geir’s blog.