Back in 1969, the lineup of DEEP PURPLE had seen a drastic change: Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice split up with singer Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper and hired the former EPISODE SIX musicians Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to complete the lineup.
One of the first shows to feature the new lineup was the live performance of Jon Lord’s „Concerto For Group and Orchestra“, an ambitious work to unite the different worlds of a rock band and a full orchestra which lay the foundation for Jon Lords career as composer / writer and solo artist. About a year later, the follow-up of the „Concerto“ faced the light of day during a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall, again featuring his DEEP PURPLE bandmates and conductor Malcolm Arnold.
While the „Concerto“ had its focus on band and orchestra as a whole, „Gemini Suite“ did focus on the different instruments, dedicating a track to guitar, piano, drums, vocals bass guitar and organ respectively. Also contrary to the „Concerto“, which took more than 40 years to be recorded in a studio, Jon Lord went to the studio in 1971 to record „Gemini Suite“ as a studio project. At that time, the rock career of DEEP PURPLE was in full flight and Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore showed no interest in participating in the recording and were replaced by guitar player Albert Lee , multi talented Tony Ashton and singer Yvonne Elliman.
The 2019 vinyl release is based on the 2016 remaster by Rob Cass, using the original stereo mixes of the album. Luckily, the remaster doesn’t follow the popular trend of brick-walling every track and preserves the dynamics and overall feel of the original recording.
There’s still no explaination why the original artwork has been dropped and was replaced by completely new design, but the 2016 foreword by Roger Glover is also included on the inner sleeve.
Parts of this text were originally published on December 4th, 2016 as “Jon Lord – Gemini Suite“
CBC has an opinion piece about the multitude of connections between heavy metal and classical music, with our heroes getting a name check. It opens with a collage of Vivaldi peeking over Roger Glover’s shoulder and proceeds with
Take Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, for example. A self-professed classical music fan, many of his works in the ’60s were modelled on classical examples.
“I still listen to a great deal of classical music,” he said in 1985. “That’s the type of music that moves me because I find it very dramatic. Singers, violinists and organists are generally the musicians I enjoy listening to most of all.” If you listen to both Jon Lord’s keyboard solo and Blackmore’s guitar solo on Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” both are distinctly Bach-like in harmonic progression and virtuosic arpeggio figuration.
Jon’s Concerto wasn’t mentioned, perhaps as not being “metal” enough.
Amongst other things, he finally put to rest any Mk3 reunion aspirations he may or may not have had by stating that he will never work with Blackmore again. Continue Reading »
Razzle Dazzle, from Ian Gillan’s Contractual Obligation #1. Not my favourite track off Bananas, but good to see it being pulled out of a dusty closet for a live appearance. Continue Reading »
There will be an attempt to set the new world record for the ‘largest electric guitar ensemble’ on September 20 in Oklahoma City. This will take place at 5:00pm, right before the Deep Purple show at the Firelake Arena. The event will be hosted by Steve Morse and although there’s no word on the programme, one can take a slightly educated guess. The event is sponsored by Ernie Ball and local promoters KATT. Registered participants will have a chance to win a MusicMan Steve Morse Signature guitar and tickets to the show (including a pair in front row and 25 pairs of lesser ones).
The Guinness certified record currently stands at 368 participants, albeit the ostensibly competing category of ‘largest guitar ensemble’ (note the lack of the ‘electric’ part) tops it at 6,346, that record having been set in 2009, once again with Steve’s participation.
It’s official: Glenn Hughes is now a member of The Dead Daisies. The Dead Daisies is a pet project of an Australian multimillionaire David Lowy — a supergroup with rotating lineup now consisting of Glenn on bass and vocals, Doug Aldrich on guitar, drummer Deen Castronovo (Journey, Ozzy Osbourne), and David Lowy himself on guitar. Glenn replaces two departing members: singer John Corabi and bassist Marco Mendoza. The new lineup has already been to the studio and a track is posted on their website. They are supposed to finish the album later this year and tour some time in 2020.
Glenn Hughes sat down to chat with Midland Metalheads (digging up his thickest accent), ahead of his performance at the Stonedeaf Festival on August 24. He tells the story of him joining Purple, and also mentions that Black Country Communion have January 2021 earmarked to record another album and that another one of his projects — California Breed — is pretty much dead now.
Thanks to BraveWords and Gary Poronovich for the info.
Music Radar has an interview with Opeth guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, in which he discusses top 10 guitar players that blew his mind. His #1? Ritchie Blackmore, of course.
This has to start with him. Ritchie Blackmore is my hero, but not just for his guitar playing. His persona fascinates me. I love his audacity to just change whenever he wants, without taking any care or note of the people around him, not his label or fans. He just does what he wants to… that’s how I want to be. That’s how I am, I think. He is a magnificent guitarist, though his best work was early on, up until Deep Purple mk.3, which was around 1974. After that, even in Rainbow, he got a bit sloppy… and yet also wrote a lot of his best music.
We supported him in Spain earlier this summer. I was so nervous and excited that I missed my flight the next morning, though I think it had a little bit to do with drinking beer too! We were main support that night so I sat around outside our little cubicle, waiting for him to arrive. Then came what looked like an armoured car with blacked out windows, he was only a few metres away from me but drove back into his own sealed-off area. Which was probably for the best, as I would have ‘accidentally’ run in saying, ‘Oh hello!’ I really wanted to take my first selfie together but was told he doesn’t care to meet anyone. I would love to meet him though; he’s my idol in so many ways. I’m infatuated with him.
Thanks to Gary Poronovich and BraveWords for the info.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse.jpg)
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing