Purpendicular, the tribute band Paicey have been touring with, have posted the following on their Facebook yesterday, February 18 (emphasis ours):

+++IAN PAICE/PURPENDICULAR COMPLETE SECOND LEG OF SUCCESSFUL EUROPEAN TOUR+++
The band now take a couple of weeks break while Ian is writing with Deep Purple.
This tour has been regarded the best by promoters, fans and Ian himself.
Thanks to all fans who came out to see the shows.
The tour will continue in Germany Bensheim next month. Do not miss this!

This means that Deep Purple are writing new material right about now. Various members of the band will resume their solo touring activities in early March — Don Airey on March 7, and Ian Paice on March 12. Gillan starts his tour on February 27, but he usually joins the writing later, once backing tracks are already developed.

Thanks to Akemi Ono for the info.

The previously mentioned source for these news has withdrawn his report as apparently it was not meant for public consumption.

Back in 2016 Toronto Sun run a story about a legendary, uhm, entertainer that some 30-odd years earlier fascinated both Canadian lumberjacks and a certain British rock star.

Western Canada in the early 1980s was a lot like Western Canada now, burdened with a sputtering economy and a lot of long faces to go with the doom, gloom and daily unemployment statistics.

That may explain why something so hilarious, pointless and vulgar captured the popular imagination of the time so completely: There was nothing serious about Mitzi Dupree, and love the act or hate it, she offered a distraction and something to talk about that could only leave people blushing and laughing.

Unless you were the Kamloops RCMP of course, in which case, ping-pong balls were suddenly very serious business.

In October 1981, after a local newspaper reporter broke the story of the ping-pong ball sensation at the Bar-K, police filed charges against Dupree under her real name (Michelle Pradia), claiming the 22-year-old American dancer had violated local obscenity laws.

Of course, a phalanx of cops had been forced to watch the entire show in Thompson’s sold-out bar to reach this conclusion, and so on Jan. 12, Dupree went to trial to explain herself and her unusual talents to a judge.

Read more in Toronto Sun.

Thanks to Mark Bryant for the heads up.

A great piece of history — an ’85 interview with the band (sans the obvious) after a record store signing session in Houston, Texas, during the US leg of the reunion tour.
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The new Whitesnake album Flesh & Blood will be released on May 10 via Frontiers Records. Curiously, the date is about 3/4 into the band’s US tour — most artists these days use new releases to promote the live dates, not the other way around. The album will be available in multiple formats:

• CD (Jewel Case)
• CD+DVD Deluxe Edition (Digipak) – Includes two studio bonus tracks on CD. DVD includes Shut Up & Kiss Me (classic jag version) (video), Shut Up & Kiss Me (club mix version) (video), Behind the Scenes of Flesh & Blood video + 3 DVD audio tracks (remixes of album tracks)
• Super Luxury Boxset – Includes CD+DVD Deluxe Edition, 2xLP Standard Color LP, Poster, Numbered Lithograph, Box Set
• 2xLP – Black, 180g, Gatefold (Worldwide)
• xLP – Silver, 180g, Gatefold (Frontiers’ U.S. Store Exclusive) – Limited to 300 Copies
• 2xLP – Gold, 180g, Gatefold (Frontiers’ UK Store Exclusive) – Limited to 500 Copies
• 2xLP – Red, 180g, Gatefold (Frontiers’ EU Store Exclusive) – Limited to 350 Copies

A limited number of signed CDs, as well as the colour vinyl pressings will be available directly from the record company store (US, UK, EU).

Track list:

1. Good To See You Again
2. Gonna Be Alright
3. Shut Up & Kiss Me
4. Hey You (You Make Me Rock)
5. Always & Forever
6. When I Think Of You (Color Me Blue)
7. Trouble Is Your Middle Name
8. Flesh & Blood
9. Well I Never
10. Heart Of Stone
11. Get Up
12. After All
13. Sands Of Time

Bonus tracks appearing on CD+DVD Deluxe Edition and download/stream:

14. Can’t Do Right For Doing Wrong (new studio song)
15. If I Can’t Have You (new studio song)
16. Gonna Be Alright (X-Tendo Mix) (DVD audio track)
17. Sands Of Time (Radio Mix) (DVD audio track)
18. Shut Up And Kiss Me (Video Mix) (DVD audio track)

Mixed by Christopher Collier
Produced by Beach, Hoekstra & McIntyre
Executive Producer: David Coverdale

David Coverdale — vocals
Reb Beach — guitar
Joel Hoekstra — guitar
Michael Devin — bass
Tommy Aldridge — drums
Michele Luppi — keyboards

A promo video for Shut Up & Kiss Me was also produced; here’s a “Jaguar edit”, no less:

Quote Coverdale from the press blurb:

…After the intense darkness of our last video ‘Burn’, if anything, it’s ‘light’ snake, you know? We’ve got some really dark energy going on in the world right now, so we’re gonna write & record a fun, knees up, song about falling in love with a fabulous babe. You’re over-talking, over-compensating & she just looks at you, takes the reins & says, ‘Shut Up and Kiss Me!’ and that’s it!! My video director and creative partner Tyler Bourns and I discussed a great storyline for the video, which involves a surprise guest: my fabulous old white Jaguar. We ended up cleaning and detailing it, as it has been in storage since I moved to Lake Tahoe, then we dusted off my old turquoise silk jacket from the original ‘Here I Go Again’ video and I was thinking, “man, this is going to be fun!” It’s a respectful acknowledgment and positive nod to the past, just fun stuff.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes spoke to Guitar Interactive at this year’s NAMM. Here is the interview that they’ve posted.
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On Monday, May 20, Ian Paice will take will take a week long residency at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club playing with the Buddy Rich Big Band.

There will be two shows per night for this celebration of the great Buddy Rich:
Mon-Thur: 1st show onstage 7pm , 2nd show onstage 10.15pm
Fri-Sat: 1st show onstage 7.30pm, 2nd show onstage 11.15pm

The event will be hosted by Buddy’s daughter Cathy Rich.

One of legendary drummer Buddy Rich’s last requests of his daughter, Cathy, was to keep his band working, his music alive, and to do something for young people. No easy task, but eventually the idea of an annual memorial concert seemed like the best way to do it. Cathy Rich produced the first Buddy Rich Memorial Concert in 1988 at Carnegie Hall in New York and thus began the story of these incredible events. 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Buddy’s passing and what would have been his 100th birthday and, following the success of the 25th anniversary memorial concert at the London Palladium in 2012, Ronnie Scott’s will be hosting 12 exclusive shows over 6 nights featuring the reformed Buddy Rich Big Band with legendary drummer Ian Paice (of Deep Purple fame), Buddy Rich Big Band drummer Gregg Potter, and the evening hosted by Buddy’s daughter Cathy Rich. The Buddy Rich Big Band will comprise musicians from both the US and the UK, several of whom toured with Buddy himself and played on his last ever UK shows in 1986. Join us in paying tribute to “the world’s greatest drummer” in his 100th birthday year!

Full details in our calendar.

Thanks to Akemi Ono for the info.

In an interview published in the recent issue (February 2019, #258) of Classic Rock magazine Steve Morse is waxing philosophical about joining the band:

How did it feel to step into Ritchie Blackmore’s shoes when you joined Deep Purple?

By the time I got there the ice was sorta broken, because Ritchie had left the band and Joe Satriani had done such a great job covering that. Also I had been part of the reunited Kansas, when people mistakenly thought I was trying to replace Kerry Livgren — which I wasn’t — so I was used to the mixed emotions of the audience. Y’know, they’re glad to see the band again… but they wish it was the original guys. Every once in a while, people will be throwing stuff at you — I mean literally throwing stuff at you. For some reason those people stand out more in your memory. I’ve never met Ritchie, but in the press, his posture was: ‘Good luck’. It is a signal to the trolls of somebody says: “They suck with this new guy”. He didn’t do that. I think he made it possible for the band’s success. It’s been a pretty easy ride, but of course there’s a certain percentage of people that just hate me because of who I am.

The issue can be ordered online, but bear in mind that the interview in question is only a page long.

Thanks to Mark Bryant for the info.

Finnish KaaosTV spoke to Glenn Hughes before his show in Tampere on November 29, 2018.
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Back in the mid-80’s, Mel Galley (Trapeze/Whitesnake) was looking for a new outlet for his musical energies after having left Whitesnake; his producer brother Tom had ideas about a progressive rock concept project, and together they assembled a multi-media piece with contributions from a number of well-known rock musicians, including members of the Deep Purple family such as Glenn Hughes, Don Airey, Cozy Powell, and Neil Murray.

The storyline underlying the first release was continued through two more recordings, along with the approach of using many collaborative musicians; the second record spawned a hit single (I Did It All For Love) as well. You can see the accompanying video for that on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Ir4zpL4xh78

Now the recordings have been reissued (andremastered by Mike Pietrini in 2018) with new liner notes, an interview with Tom Galley, and previously unseen artwork and imagery selected by Tom from his personal archive. Since the concept running through the Phenomenon project was one continuous story thread, they have chosen to collect all the additional tracks from the sessions together; they will be released on a forthcoming Anthology CD.

You can find them at

Phenomena I Amazon CD: http://geni.us/Phenomena1
Phenomena I iTunes: http://geni.us/Phenomena1dig

Phenomena II Amazon CD: http://geni.us/Phenomena2
Phenomena II iTunes: http://geni.us/Phenomena2dig

Phenomena III Amazon CD: http://geni.us/Phenomena3
Phenomena III iTunes: http://geni.us/Phenomena3dig

Thanks to Daniel Earnshaw for the details

Live track from a Whitesnake show in Glasgow in 1984 was posted today. This version of Ready an’ willing will be included on the 6CD+DVD Ultimate Special Edition of Slide it in that we profiled recently. This was one of the last Jon Lord’s shows with Whitesnake before leaving to reform Deep Purple.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.