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Continuing on the slow news week theme, here’s something for that hangover morning — a Burn documentary, opinionated by a bunch of people most of us never heard about. Of the redeeming qualities, it has input from the ubiquitous Glenn Hughes, and from John McCoy (of all the people). The archive footage includes bits of Doing Their Thing, the Leeds Polytechnic project, Cal Jam, and the Last Concert in Japan. Continue Reading »
The band takes some time for a well deserved break from the touring. We hope some of that downtime is being used to make some new music. Meanwhile, various members of the family continue touring on their own and with different projects, albeit mostly in Europe.
Ian Paice kicks off the year in late January touring with Purpendicular, continuing throughout February. Caveat: these dates change frequently, so double check before making any plans. He will also play a one-off gig on May 30 in Austria with another tribute band, Voodoo Strat.
Glenn Hughes appears to be the busiest of the lot, touring-wise. He starts with a one-off gig in Sofia, Bulgaria, on February 18, performing with an orchestra. Throughout April he will tour Germany with the Rock Meets Classic project / package tour. A so far unconfirmed solo gig is pencilled in for May 2 in Brazil, followed by a string of European dates in June with the Black Country Communion. In September Glenn switches to full solo mode, performing throughout the month and into early October. The majority of the tour is billed under The Chosen Years moniker, with the last shows in Nordic countries billed as the Deep Purple set.
Simon McBride will play a handful of solo dates in late March and early April, both in the UK and on the continent.
Nick Simper is scheduled for a one-off date playing with Nasty Habits in Vienna on March 29.
Joe Lynn Turner is billed for another package tour of Germany and Austria in October. This one is called The Rock Legends Tour.
See our calendar for full details.
Have a very Purple New Year!
It’s a slow news week as most people are enjoying the holidays, so here’s something for you to entertain yourselves completely ignore. A cover of Fireball by Canadian indie musician Rick White Continue Reading »
Speaking of the “best of 2024” lists, Machine Head made it to the Classic Rock magazine Best rock reissues of 2024:
Yup, the one with Smoke On The Water. That song, and this album, made Deep Purple legends all over the globe. This, essentially, is a three-CD version. The first disc pairs the Dweezil Zappa 2024 Remix with the 2024 Remaster; the second contains In Concert ’72; the third delivers the previously unreleased Montreux ’71.
Given that you already own at least one copy of Machine Head and possibly bought In Concert ’72 on CD in 2012, you’ll need to know that this £100 box also contains: a 60-page booklet, Dweezil’s remix on vinyl in gatefold sleeve, and a Blu-ray audio disc containing a Dolby Atmos version, the 1974 quadraphonic mix and some Dolby 5.1 surround versions.
If you’re curious, check out other entries on Louder Sound.
=1 made its way into several best of 2024 lists. For example, it is at #9 on the Ultimate Guitar Top 20 Albums of 2024. Meanwhile in Germany, it tops Metal Hammer’s 2024 annual review in Hard Rock & Rock category, as evidenced in the January 2025 issue.
Update [Dec 29]: the deluxe box set made it to the Goldmine magazine ‘top box sets for 2024’ list. Continue Reading »
Snakecharmer General answers fan-submitted questions (Christmas Edition) Continue Reading »
To prove his thesis that “Life in Deep Purple has never been dull”, Geoff Barton lists 25 of the maddest moments from the band’s history. And California Jam is not one of them.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you probably already heard about most all of it. Nevertheless, here we go:
1. Rock’n’Roll Circus nightclub, Paris, October 1970: As Ian Gillan went to sit down, Ritchie Blackmore pulled away Gillan’s chair. Blackmore: “What I didn’t realise was that behind us was a big drop of about 15 feet and Gillan fell down – crunched his head… after that he was never the same.”
2. The Mk II line-up got together in the studio in 1970 to write a hit single but the inspiration didn’t flow. They went round the corner to the pub – the Newton Arms, near Kingsway, London – and returned to the studio pissed. They immediately laid down their biggest UK hit: Black Night.
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
In a recent interview, singer Marc Storace of the Krokus fame talks about his audition for Rainbow circa the Down to Earth sessions Continue Reading »
Louder Sound reprints a 2009 Metal Hammer feature on the hairspray era of Whitesnake, based around an interview with David Coverdale.
For the first few years of the 1980s, David Coverdale was an incredibly busy man. After the demise of Deep Purple, the band he’d sung with since 1974 and that had made him a star, he embarked on a solo career, which eventually morphed into the tight, swaggering blues rock outfit known, with a lascivious chuckle, as Whitesnake.
Starting in 1978 with the Snakebite EP, featuring one of the band’s signature songs, a cover of soul standard Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City, David’s new project swiftly became one of the most popular hard rock bands in the UK, releasing a steady stream of well-received albums including classics like Lovehunter, Ready An’ Willing and Saints And Sinners.
Always an ambitious man, David was never going to be content with simply following the usual album/tour/repeat schedule when there was a whole world out there waiting to be conquered, and so by the time Whitesnake arrived at their sixth album, Slide It In, he decided that a whole new approach was called for.
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
Harp playing Amy had a very purple weekend with listening to Highway Star and Smoke on the Water Continue Reading »
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing