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Success as impediment to progress

A rather interesting interview done with Ian Gillan in Australia in 1999. It is particularly interesting to see how well what he said about evolution of the band some 20 years ago has aged.
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Ahoy, mateys!

Radio Caroline, which started as a pirate radio broadcasting from the international waters in the North Sea back in 1964, and these days is streaming worldwide over the internet, has added the latest Deep Purple single Nothing at all to their playlist. The station has also been recently spotted streaming Ghost Story by the “tremendous” (their words) Paice Ashton Lord.

Check them out.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the info.

Montreux calling

Montreux Jazz Festival is not happening this year just like everything else. They’ve decided to celebrate their 54th summer by posting a series of select performances from the past years. Yesterday they posted clips from the 2011 Deep Purple performance. Yep, that’s the year when the band toured with orchestras.
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From Trapeze to Spring & Airbrake

GLENN HUGHES bootleg box set Vol 3

Cherry Red Records in the UK will be releasing the third installment of Glenn Hughes’ Official Bootleg Box Set on July 31, 2020. It will contain 6 disks.

  • CDs 1 & 2: Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton, November 17, 1995;
  • CD3: Astoria 2, London, November 18, 1995;
  • CD4: Esquires, Bedford, May 3, 2008;
  • CDs 5 & 6: Spring & Airbrake, Belfast, October 9, 2010.

The usual disclaimers about bootleg sound quality apply. The box set can be preordered directly from the label.

Three archive Trapeze albums in expanded formats will be released on September 18: self-titled Trapeze, Medusa, and You Are The Music • We’re Just The Band.

Trapeze 1970 cover art, image courtesy of Cherry Red Records

Trapeze, originally released in May 1970, will be a 2CD affair, with the second disk containing

  1. Send Me No More Letters (UK single version)
  2. Send Me No More Letters (US single version)
  3. Across thte Water, Across the Sea (demo)
  4. Seafull (demo)
  5. New Life Again (demo)
  6. 40,000 Voices (demo)

BBC sessions 1969:

  1. Intro / Send Me No More Letters
  2. Another Day
  3. Send Me No More Letters

Live at Lafayette Club, Wolverhampton (Colour Me Pop 1969):

  1. Intro
  2. Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf cover)
  3. Meet on the Ledge (Fairport Convention cover)
  4. Open My Eyes (The Nazz cover)

The artwork is augmented by an extended essay from music journalist Malcolm Dome based on interviews with Glenn Hughes & John Jones.

This can be preordered directly from the label.

TRAPEZE Medusa cover art, image courtesy of Cherry Red Records

Trapeze’s second album Medusa will be no less than a 3CD affair, with two full disks of bonus tracks (caveat: track listing on the label website is all wrong and appears to be copy’n’pasted from You Are The Music • We’re Just The Band reissue). The blurb describes bonus tracks as

This classic has been expanded with two bonus discs, packed with extras. It kicks off with a stereo edit and then a mono edit of the ‘Black Cloud’ single, followed by radio session versions of ‘Makes You Wanna Cry’ and ‘Medusa’. Disc Two finishes with an unreleased live show from the United States in March 1971, where the band had a growing following, thanks in part to the opportunity to tour America with mentors, The Moody Blues.

Disc Three features a second complete unreleased show from 1971, featuring all but two tracks from the “Medusa” LP.

The 3CD set includes a reproduction of original concert poster from the band’s archives. Liner notes are based on interviews with Glenn Hughes, John Jones, Trapeze’s original manager Tony Perry, Trapeze’s photographer David Rohl and Mel Galley’s brother and Trapeze co-writer, Tom Galley.

This item can be preordered directly from the label.

TRAPEZE You Are The Music cover art, image courtesy of Cherry Red Records

Trapeze third album You Are The Music • We’re Just The Band, originally released in 1972, now also appears as a 3DC set with two CDs full of bonus material.

CD2

  1. Coast to Coast (mono version)
  2. Good Love
  3. Dat’s It

Radio One In Concert 1973 (off the air recording)

  1. You Are the Music
  2. What Is a Woman’s Role
  3. Way Back to the Bone
  4. Your Love Is Alright

Dallas 1972

  1. Black Cloud

Houston 1972

  1. Way Back to the Bone
  2. You Are the Music

CD3
Houston 1972 (continued)

  1. Jury
  2. Seafull
  3. Your Love is Alright
  4. Medusa
  5. Black Cloud
  6. Touch My Life
  7. Keepin’ Time

The set includes extensive liner notes by Malcolm Dome based on interviews with Glenn Hughes, manager Tony Perry, producer Neil Slaven, Tom Galley and Rod Argent.

This item can also be preordered directly from the label.

Thanks to our editor emeritus Benny Holmström for the info.

Lucifer, Isaac Asimov, and Ringo Starr

Classic Rock has an article on the intriguing story behind The Mule, with multiple quotes from the star of the hour himself — Paicey.

As with the majority of compositions by the Mk II Purple line-up, The Mule is credited equally to the classic quintet of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Ian Paice. But hang on a minute. Type the track title into Google, or indeed any search engine, and a sixth name pops up: that of Jethro Tull mainman Ian Anderson.

Drummer Paice chuckles down the phone from his country mansion in Henley-on-Thames. “I can state categorically that no Aqualung influences were involved in the making of The Mule. It just so happens that Anderson is my middle name – Ian Anderson Paice.”

Somewhere in a parallel universe there’s a live rendition of The Mule with a marathon flute solo. But what happened in reality was this… After its appearance on Fireball, The Mule was incorporated into Purple’s stage show and became the focus for Paice’s tub-thumping talents. Live, the song’s running time increased dramatically. The Fireball version lasts 5:21; on the 1972 live album Made In Japan it’s twice as long.

The talent exhibited by Paice on The Mule sent shockwaves through the 70s rock scene. Cream fans in particular were stunned by the Purple pounder’s dextrous display of controlled power and awesome technique. Ginger Baker’s Toad – previously the benchmark for such drum-solo shenanigans – was summarily squashed under the trampling hooves of The Mule.

Continue reading on Louder Sound.

Thanks to Jim Collins for the info.

Nothing at All

Another single — Nothing at All — from the upcoming Deep Purple album Whoosh was released today, July 10.
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Here comes the drum solo

A new installment from Ian Paice Drumtribe — couple of drum solos recorded during one of the An Evening With clinics some time around 2007.
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Paul Gilbert can’t shred

Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert were special guests of Ernie Ball stand at the NAMM earlier this year. We had previously posted a couple of tracks from their performance, but there was another one. And it is a spectacular jam over a tune that was written and recorded in the bad old days, but only became a live improvisation vehicle during Steve’s tenure with the band — Pictures of Home.
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26 if you count

A lengthy (over an hour) and thus very interesting chat with Steve Morse, courtesy of Sea of Tranquility. Dig in!
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The headless drummer

Paicey posted a video of him playing with the Buddy Rich Orchestra at the Ronnie Scott’s Club in London last year. Watch out for the quick recovery at 10:52 — blink and you’ll miss it.
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