The Highway Star

Resist the tidal wave

Fox News has a new interview with Ian Gillan, promoting the upcoming new album. Some questions are quite mundane, some are off the beaten path.

Fox News: As an artist, how do you feel about audiences making cellphones part of their concert experience?

Gillan: Well, at first it was weird. It just connected with me. Why would someone film you at a show when they’re at the show and missing out on the experience? But generations change. It became pointless to try and resist that tidal wave. We kind of got used to it. In fact, it became amusing to see everyone holding up their phones in the air when back in the day, it was lighters. Initially, I didn’t understand why everyone had to share everything and be in constant communication. But [with this pandemic], thank goodness for it. Because my phone hasn’t stopped ringing thanks to friends and well-wishers from around the world. I may not always understand it, but I’m too old *laughs*.

Behind every band is a hard working crew. And Deep Purple’s one is quite a few steps above the average. The band trusts them to have everything set up so perfectly that they rarely do the soundcheck themselves.

Unfortunately, the current global pandemic means there is no touring and no touring means many in the crew are really struggling financially.

The band and the crew has put together a couple of exclusive t-shirts with all the profit going to help the crew. They are available through the online store set up for the purpose. You know what to do.

Thanks to Mike Airey for the info.

Posted in Blog by Nick on 2020-06-12
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Virtual and rescheduled

The three Deep Purple’s German dates in the Fall 2020: Oberhausen, Berlin, and Stuttgart — which had already been under suspicion — have now been rescheduled for 2021. Another summer date in Colmar, France has also been rescheduled and confirmed for 2021.

Don Airey & Friends will appear at this years Virtual Cambridge Rock Festival on June 20. It will not be a live performance per se as the festival will be broadcasting recorded performances from the previous years. However, these recording will not be available afterwards, so once you’ve missed it, you’ve missed it.

Foreigner’s tour is being rescheduled for 2021, with The Dead Daisies still opening on some dates — confirmed so far are Hamburg on June 6, Katowice on June 10, Halle on June 11, and Stuttgart on June 12. The Daisies’ last weekend performance at the virtual Taste of Syracuse is now available on Facebook (starts at around 1:45 into the broadcast).

Thanks to Nigel Young, Yvonne, Lutz Reinert, Andrea Lukas, and andreas leutgeb for the info.

Posted in News by Nick on 2020-06-10
2 Comments

Rupert Hine R.I.P.

Roger Glover writes:

Insightful, stimulating, talented and funny, I feel privileged to have known and worked with him.

Read his full statement on rogerglover.com

Posted in News by Andreas Thul on 2020-06-07
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Black caviar and maple

Just like he promised last time around, Paicey keeps getting us entertained in these trying times by showing off his drum room. Which looks more like a drum warehouse 😉
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Posted in News by Nick on 2020-06-05
5 Comments

How In Rock was made

Louder Sound (née Classic Rock) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of In Rock by reprinting in fresh electrons a feature that first appeared in issue 83 of the magazine on the occasion of the album’s 35th.

Heavy rock, hard rock, pomp rock, space rock, heavy metal – they’re all genres that today’s average music fan would regard as part of the vocabulary of everyday life. There’s no getting away from rock in all its forms – even if you wanted to.

Acts as disparate as, say, Coldplay, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Audioslave all fall under the mantle of rock, a term we associate mostly with big guitar riffs, powerful vocals – and a broad array of (sometimes questionable) sartorial styles and hairdos. Everybody knows what ‘rock’ means. But it wasn’t always so.

More than a third of a century ago the death of the 60s had landed the world and its groupie with a colossal cultural hangover. The decade of free love, peaceful protest and sticking flowers in soldiers’ guns was over, and the grim 70s – oil shortages, over-generous sideburns, Margaret Thatcher, punk – was just getting into its stride.

The Beatles had just waved farewell to the world after arguing themselves into dissolution. Jimi Hendrix, the man thought most likely to bring guitar music to the masses, had recently checked out; The Doors’ Jim Morrison, the lizard king, had mere months to live. Cream and Blind Faith had been and gone in a multimillion-selling flash. Loud music from blokes with generous facial hair and a fondness for lots of drugs and/or girls (usually both) was an endangered species.

Luckily, however, three British – yes, British, not American – groups weren’t about to take this lying down…

Continue reading on Louder Sound.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the info.

Posted in Blog by Nick on 2020-06-04
7 Comments

Hear here

RG gives some insights on songs he likes to listen to:

So, I thought I’d share some of the music and songs that interest me, plucked from my collection, sorry, database.

Head over to RGs website for the first part of “Hear Here“.

Posted in Blog by Andreas Thul on 2020-06-02
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Skoots Lyndon RIP

Skoots Lyndon, a long time Steve Morse’s guitar tech, who worked with him in both Deep Purple and Dixie Dregs, has passed away.

Steve wrote yesterday, June 1, 2020:

Just found out that our beloved Skoots Lyndon has died. He just did the last Dixie Dregs tour and worked many years with DP and as my guitar tech. Skoots older brother Twiggs died decades ago, late 80s while on tour with us. We all loved him and will miss him.

Roger Glover wrote:

Skoots, my good friend, is gone. Sad news indeed, I’m devastated. A kinder, more generous, good-hearted man you couldn’t wish to meet. He changed my life and my music. My thoughts are with those close to him and all his many friends.

Rest in peace, Skoots.

Posted in Blog by Nick on 2020-06-02
3 Comments

Boss. Timekeeper. Me.

How to keep your drum tech happy, how to use big drums, how to deal with the jetlag, when to use click tracks, and what will cost you money — this, and more on the new installment of The Chief Answers your Questions.
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Posted in News by Nick on 2020-06-02
13 Comments

The virtual taste of daisies

Glenn Hughes and The Dead Daisies are announced to perform at the virtual (this year) festival Taste of Syracuse next Saturday, June 6. The even will take place on Facebook. The festival will kick off at 6pm EDT with live performance, presumably, following later in the night.
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Posted in News by Nick on 2020-05-30
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