We’re not sure where this is from and we don’t know who did the interview, but here it is — Jon Lord talking about the original performance of Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

Enjoy!
Continue Reading »

Another interview with David Coverdale, in which he talks Slide It In remasters, his health issues, and offers his view of the post-pandemic world.

When I got back from Asia [in March]… I started off in Australia, and the first show was in Melbourne. The second song is ‘Slide It In’, and there’s a big vocal, physical projection. I had this awful sensation of popping, and it was, like, ‘Oh my God! What the hell is that?’ And it was very painful. And I knew it was something physical. So I had to be very careful. And then it was a very, very sparse schedule [for the rest of the tour], so I had plenty of chance to recover. The moment I got back, I saw my doctor. He had discovered a cyst on the vocal cord, which has vanished over time. But he said, ‘You should have these’ — they’re called bilateral inguinal hernias — he said, ‘These are dangerous. We’ve gotta get you in.’ But literally within 12 hours of him calling the surgeon general of Reno, the government closed down anything that wasn’t life-threatening at the hospital. So I’m still unable to work out properly, and I can’t strain myself, which actually works if you’re my age.

I can’t see anything happening this year; I really can’t. Because number one, not only do we have to get rid of this completely and utterly, but all the venues are gonna have to be sprayed down and disinfected, and people are gonna have to be temperature checked… I was reading articles about how it’s gonna be in hotels. And this is past 9/11. 9/11 changed our lives, and all the inconvenience other than the tragedy — but all the inconvenience it caused to those of us who are regular travelers… We’ve gotta be prepared for an entirely new game.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and quotes.

German promoter KBK has announced that all Deep Purple shows organized by them and scheduled for 2020 in the country — and that includes even the three October dates — have been postponed until further notice due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The promoter is currently working on the catch-up dates for which already purchased tickets will be valid. For what it’s worth, they have already rescheduled May 2020 Yes dates for April/May 2021 at the same venues and likewise June 2020 Brian Wilson ones for June 2021.

Update (May 3): German dates scheduled for October (Berlin on the 13th, Stuttgart on the 16th, and Oberhausen on the 17th) are not in fact postponed or cancelled yet, but are listed as being under consideration if they can take place as scheduled.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info, to anonymous for the graphic chuckle, and to Qbert for October dates clarification.

Another track from the upcoming Deep Purple album Whoosh. This one is called Man Alive. [Update]: Now with video.
Continue Reading »

David Coverdale spoke to the Appetite for Distortion podcast clarifying his retirement comments from last week and he sounds like he’s not quite ready to retire yet:

I was asked a question, and I just thought it was amusing to say, ‘Oh, what better age for the lead singer of Whitesnake [to retire] than 69? I can’t wait to design the t-shirts.’ That was just fun.

I hope I do get out and play. There’s nothing comparable to standing in front of 10, 15, 20, 30 thousand people and have them singing — a hundred thousand people we were doing in South America last year — singing along to every word that you wrote. Some of these people weren’t even born when those songs were released. There is nothing more fulfilling than that to an artist, to have an appreciative audience make you feel so uplifted. It’s breathtaking. I certainly hope to have that experience again. And if I can’t do the big stuff, then I’ll do the little stuff and do ‘An Evening With David Coverdale’ — of more acoustic-based conversations, a Q&A with me to find out ‘the real story of what happened.’

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and quotes.

Taking advantage of the forced downtime (and probably trying to make up for some of the income lost due to no touring), Flying Colors will be holding an online event called Backstage Summit on May 5-8, 2020. It’s not quite a live performance, but more of a Q&A session with the band and a songwriting workshop where you can also submit your own music for review and critique.

Prepare for an in depth up close and personal time where the band covers everything from how to write songs to what happened in 1973! You can ask questions, respond, and participate on an unprecedented level. Here is the current schedule (each session is 1 – 1.5hrs in length):

• Tuesday | May 5th | 1:00pm EST | 7:00pm CET – Casey McPherson
• Wednesday | May 6th | 1:00pm EST | 7:00pm CET – Mike Portnoy and Neal Morse
• Thursday | May 7th | 1:00pm EST | 7:00pm CET – Steve Morse and Dave LaRue
• Friday | May 8th | 1:00pm EST | 7:00pm CET – Full band Songwriting Session Live!

Tickets are $75 for all 4 sessions, available through the website set up specifically for that purpose.

Speaking about “those who can afford to retire, will retire”, David Coverdale said just that in his interview to Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown on Detroit radio station WRIF. Besides retirement, he’s promoting a new Whitesnake compilation and talks about the fate of ’84 album, noting that 50% of that band is now gone.

I have a feeling it’s gonna take a little while to get things back to any semblance of what we knew before. So what we have to do is think outside the box. I have to get this surgery and get up and running. And what better age for the Whitesnake lead singer to go out and retire on — 69.

I’ve always written songs that challenge me as a vocalist, and I’m 68 now. So I think 69 would be appropriate for Whitesnake’s lead singer [to retire], wouldn’t you?

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and quotes.

Roger Glover posts a message to the world, in which he mourns the passing of John Prine on April 7 from COVID-19 complications.

I sit at the computer attempting to describe feelings, views, thoughts, but nothing seems important right now, and yet everything is. Of course, I send my wishes for good health to anyone and everyone. I feel for the suffering going on around the world. The situation seems surreal; a horror story that’s literally life and death. I don’t need to tell you because you already know; we’re all in the same boat.

Continue reading on RogerGlover.com.

As many European governments have now banned mass gatherings until at least the end of August, the whole summer tour schedule is now in jeopardy. Hellfest, Graspop, Clam Live, and Lovely Days festivals are now officially cancelled, with a whole bunch of others (we predict) to follow in the coming days.

Worse, there are indications that the ban on mass public gatherings, including live music and sports events, may extend until a COVID-19 vaccine is available, which is 12 to 18 months away. As Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a special adviser to the director general of the World Health Organization and director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, has put it:

If 1% of the population has COVID-19 and half are asymptomatic, that’s 250 people in a stadium of 50,000, all touching chairs, eating food, talking and jumping and shouting. Is there is a better place for spreading disease? Going back to those situations, for all of us who love concerts, it’s hard to see how to do that without a vaccine.

We’ll begin opening up with social interactions while wearing face masks. If we’re probably bending the top of curve, [that’s] four to six weeks at the absolute earliest. […] maybe you can later have a venue of 2,000 people where you put in 500 and spread them out with masks and protection. But you’ve got to vaccinate 70% of the population to get back to pre-COVID, and you may have to shut down some businesses that reopen. It’s a roller coaster, and you want those hills to be as gentle as possible.

And Dr. Emanuel, besides being a world class expert in epidemiology, probably knows about entertainment industry a bit more that your average Joe Schmoe — his brother Ari is such a prominent figure in the entertainment business that he was parodied as the characters played by Bob Odenkirk on The Larry Sanders Show and by Jeremy Piven on Entourage.

So there you have it — brace yourself for a year without live music. The implications of this will be enormous. Live performances became the main source of income for most musicians ever since the rise of the internet pulled the carpet from under the recording industry feet. Now with this source of income also gone, many may just give up — those who can afford to retire, will retire, and those who can not will seek another means to support themselves and their families. This will cascade down to the supporting staff and infrastructure — road crews, managers, agents, promoters, venues, etc, etc. The music industry will most certainly not be the same when it emerges on the other side.

Being married to your singer all of a sudden does not seem to be such a bad idea after all, does it? 😉

Thanks to andreas leutgeb and Blabbermouth for the info.

Ritchie Blackmore had his own ‘Mr.Grover, Mr.Gillian’ moment yesterday when a German newspaper decided to publish a birthday note for somebody famous. So they’ve probably consulted a celebrity gossip calendar and pulled up a stock photo of a guitar player from Deep Purple to accompany the blurb that came down the wire.
Continue Reading »