Bridport & Lime Regis News reports that Ian Gillan have donated several items for a charity auction run by the local Rotary Club. There are some recent vinyls and DVDs, and a few books. Nothing ultra rare, in other words (well, there’s this promo copy of Naked Thunder, but that’s about it, we think). Some of the items can be autographed personally to the winner at no additional cost. The silent auction will start on March 12 and run until the end of the month. Items can be viewed and bids placed online. It is not immediately clear if the items can be shipped abroad, though:

At the end of the auction, the winning bidders will, once payment is received, be contacted by email and provided with an address in Lyme Regis from which their lot may be collected. Alternatively, we can, if preferred, arrange free delivery up to 10 miles, beyond which carriage and risk to be at buyers’ expense.

Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.

The visuals are from a late 1960s Soviet cartoon The Bremen Town Musicians based on the Brothers Grimm classic. Continue Reading »

David Coverdale talks to a couple of Canadian dudes, promoting the latest tricolour Whitesnake compilatons. Also on the agenda: Jon Lord’s left hand, the flying Dutchmen, singing about lunches, Coverdale/Page, wildfires, classical artists, and many other things. Continue Reading »

An interesting interview with Don Airey, dug up from the mu:zines depth and breadth. This was done around Ozzy’s Bark at the Moon time and originally published in February 1984 issue of Electronics & Music Maker.

The interview will be of a particular interest for vintage synthesizer aficionados (you know who you are). Don also talk about his illustrious career up to this point, that started at a tender age of about three, the student years, the TV work, Cozy Powell’s Hammer, Rainbow, Solar System, Milky Way, The Universe…

After Gary left Colloseum II we carried on a bit with my brother Keith, but I fancied something a bit heavier. Then Cozy rang up and invited me to work with Richie, and I was a bit doubtful, but we got on great – for the first year, or at least that first album we did, Down to Earth. That was basically me Cozy and Richie. Then Roger Glover came in, initially as the producer and then subsequently at the bass player and we eventually found Graham Bonnett after about six weeks of recording, and the band was born. It was a truly English sound, very heavy and melodic and beautiful. Donnington festival was the next triumph for that band, and then inexplicably Richie let Graham and Cozy leave and he brought in American musicians which was fine and great, but he tried to go for a sort of Foreigner sound – much more commercial, which I felt was a mistake. We had four hit singles altogether, two from each album, including All Night Long that brought us in new audience altogether, but after that, the stage shows became, well, mistimed I think is the best term, and I handed in my notice and left at the end of tour – which didn’t go down well…

Undeniably, there are real problems with being a keyboard player in a heavy metal band, and not least the guitar. First off, the guitar is very loud, but also the guitar is an amazing instrument, it is very expressive and you just have to listen to it. But what works for me is trading ideas with a guitarist. Almost any keyboard can sound great on its own – especially in the studio, you put a bit of Lexicon on them, down into stereo and wham! It’s wonderful. As soon as the guitar comes in it vanishes. So you have to hone your sound very much so that you have something that can compete with the guitar and also to get right behind it. I try to get a blend with the guitar so that we can support each other. Over the years I’ve obviously worked with a lot of guitarists, and there have been varying levels of success, but between Gary Moore and myself there is a sort of bond. We’ve worked on a lot of things together which sort of came to a level on Variations – what a long time ago that was!

Read more in mu:zines.

Another Jon Lord interview from the mu:zines archives. This one is from 1983, originally published in the May issue of Music UK magazine. Once again, this is a pro music magazine, and much of the discussion revolves around equipment and technique.

When Jon mentioned that he was still able to take his Hammond out on World tours with him I’d done an instant double-take. The old faithful keyboard is still revered by many experienced players but hasn’t been obtainable for many years now, later Hammonds (and many other organs) never seeming to have been able to quite capture that archetypal Hammond sound. But the Hammond was never really designed for a hard life on the road — so how had Jon kept his going?

“I had one Hammond when Purple started but that kind of exploded on one occasion. I must admit that I also find it quite remarkable that I’ve still got one going after all this time but I suppose that shows how well they were made — it’s a pity you can’t get them anymore.

“What I managed to do when Hammond stopped this model was get hold of four old tone wheel generator systems for them, so I’ve got the spares to keep me going. No synthesiser manages to get quite that sound. The Korg, for example, is a very good organ and it does a very creditable job of trying to get that Hammond sound but it’s not quite the same, there’s something more massive about the Hammond’s sound which no synthesiser has ever managed to duplicate. Certainly, I’d feel naked without it.”

Read more in mu:zines.

Digging deeper into mu:zines archives, there’s this interview with Jon Lord from the time of Before I Forget, published in August 1982 issue of Electronics & Music Maker.

On the album ‘Where Are You’ it seems to have a Debussy type ending.

Jon Well, again, he is a composer that I used to play quite a bit when I was a kid. Of course, you can listen to Chick Corea and hear Debussy and Ravel floating around — all those French impressionist ideas have had a lot of influence in modern jazz.

Brubeck was obviously an influence, because I just used to love the way he played a solo. He just used to knock me out. He suffered from a loss of belief in people and the music seemed to come so easy to him, but people often did not respect his fertile imagination. In my early days I had a band with a line up of piano, bass, drums, vibes, alto sax and clarinet so we were able to do some quite weird things. The alto sax player was Jack Shepherd who later turned to acting. For me he was one of the best alto players and he introduced me to Charlie Mingus and that school.

My interest in the jazz idiom led me to find Jimmy Smith. Well, he found me! I heard ‘A Walk on the Wild Side’ and I really wasn’t too sure what the instrument was. I’d played church organ but I’d never heard that lovely percussive effect of the jazz organ and thought, what the hell is that, it’s wonderful! Not so long after I joined an R&B band who insisted on having an organist instead of a pianist, (this was in the mid Sixties), so I fell into Hammond playing. But I was still playing church organ at the time.

Haven’t you used a Hammond on your new album?

Jon Yes, it’s a split Hammond that’s been heavily modified. I’ve had it since 1968, although it’s about 25-30 years old and it is one of the original C3 models.

One thing they say about organ playing and organ technique is that unlike the piano, you have to make your own expression. It doesn’t matter how hard you hit the keys obviously, so you have to use a swell pedal, but I find that from a Hammond you do get something back. I have developed my own right foot swell technique, but nevertheless I do find I get a bounce back from the Hammond keyboard — almost like a piano although different in its way. And the fingering is different too.

Read the whole thing in mu:zines. Caveat: the interview is pretty long and gets rather technical at times — this is a music production magazine after all.

mu:zines is a website dedicated to digitally reprinting old music production magazines. It has quite a few Purple-related interviews of various vintage.

International Musician and Recording World issue from March 1975 had an interview with Ritchie Blackmore, where he mentions Tommy Bolin as one of the few worthwhile American guitarists, mere months before Bolin replaced him in Purple.

JT: What guitarists do you like?

RB: I like Jeff [Beck]. He’s my favourite guitarist. There are a lot of guitarists around that get overlooked. When you’re a guitarist yourself you tend to get so buried in what you’re doing. Mike Bloomfield is really good. Steve Howe’s always been a very good guitarist. I’m not too struck on Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, I never saw what was in Clapton at all. He’s a good singer.

JT: How do you view someone like Peter Townshend?

RB: He’s part of “the Establishment”… you can knock the Establishment but there’s not much point. There were days in ’64 when he inspired me, because he was the first one ever to use distortion, it was unheard of in those days, and he did a distortion solo in “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere”. That was really good, I thought The Who were great when they first came out. Townshend is not so much of a guitarist as an all-round guy — writer, all that. There are so many people who are good guitarists who aren’t even names.

JT: Are there any American guitarists that you find worthwhile?

RB: Tommy Bolin, especially. There’s a guy in a group called Stray Dog, and I was slightly listening to him outside the Record Plant door when he was recording, and he sounded great… I don’t know who he is.

The last sentence most likely refers to W. G. Snuffy Walden, who went on to make himself a successful career in film and TV music, winning numerous awards, including an Emmy for The West Wing theme.

Read the complete interview in mu:zines.

Thanks to Yvonne for the heads up.

Don Airey’s recent release Live in Hamburg is now streaming on Youtube in its entirety, courtesy of the record company. Continue Reading »

Dutch fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Thomas Zwijsen does covers of classic rock tracks for his Youtube channel, and his latest is a cover of Smoke on the Water. Smoke has never sounded more acoustic than this. Continue Reading »

Blabbermouth reports that David Coverdale was on the Eddie Trunk show on February 18th, and spoke about a possible reissue of the Coverdale/Page album. He said that he obtained the rights to the album from the record company (Geffen, now owned by the Universal Music Group behemoth) and is in discussions with his co-conspirator about what to do with it.

Among the ideas being kicked around is a luxurious box set for the 30th anniversary of the album in 2023, including a remaster of the original album, two complete album remixes — one done by DC and one by Page, some unreleased tracks from the original sessions, and possibly some new material “if we can write courtesy of FaceTime or Zoom”. It is unlikely, however, that the work will begin in earnest before the end of the pandemic:

At this moment in time, at his country estate, I don’t think [Jimmy] has a studio. And he certainly doesn’t wanna drive into London. He and I are target ages for this dreadful virus. So I completely support him in that scenario, ’cause there isn’t any rush. Nothing is gonna be going on this year. Even if we have the opportunity of recording, I can record stuff over here, send him the drive for him to do his part, and we can mix it through the technology now, which is something you couldn’t do before. But I have a studio at home, and Jimmy doesn’t. So I’m hoping we can get some new bits and pieces and ideas and put that into play next year when it will be safer to get around.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.