Mike Portnoy wrote to the world a couple of days ago:

On my way to Nashville for the week to begin my drum tracks for the new @FlyingColors album! We have 10 songs written and we are shooting/hoping for a late summer/early fall 2019 release if all goes well…(& yes, praying that the stars align for live shows too! )

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Suddenly, here we are, looking back on the year – a busy one indeed.

Read the complete “A December Thank You” on Roger Glover’s official website.

Italian station Radio Rock has posted an extensive interview they did with Ian Gillan near his home in Portugal on the occasion of Ian Gillan & The Javelins release that happened back in August. Ian talks at length about life of a musician in the early 60s, how the project came about, why it is highly unlikely they will ever play live, and many other things.

The interview is posted in the walled garden of Facebook, so we can not show it here. Head over there to watch.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

David Coverdale is on the cover of the latest issue (December 2018 – January 2019) of Rock Candy magazine, with a 14-page feature inside. The interview is structured around David commenting on the photos from his career, starting all the way back in 1969.

POSING AFTER JOINING PURPLE, 23 SEPTEMBER 1973

That was taken at Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire the day it was announced that I’d joined Deep Purple. I’d turned 22 the day before. I think it had already been announced that Glenn Hughes was in the band, but nobody knew who they were getting in as a lead singer. The management or record company brought a bus or two of journalists up from London. It was a big deal.

I’d auditioned for the band that summer at a place called Scorpio Sound Studios in the basement of Euston Tower in London – the Capital Radio building at the time. I was really nervous, because I hadn’t even made a record at that point. I’d brought a bottle of Bell’s Whisky down from Yorkshire as it was the best I could afford. But the friend who’d driven me down had stashed it for fear that I might get too pissed! But the Coverdale nose knows, of course, so I found the stuff immediately, and Jon Lord and Glenn Hughes assisted me in swigging it from the bottle. Jon sat and talked with me and really calmed me down. He became an amazing mentor and a dear, dear friend.

I grew up with a Formica table in the kitchen, with a bottle of sauce on it and mix and match cutlery. Then the next thing you know I’m in Deep Purple going out for some incredibly posh dinner in Paris with 13 knives and forks on each side of the plate. I didn’t know what to do until I saw some other people begin from the outside and start working their way in!

Ritchie, Jon and I are all looking away from the camera here, but I don’t know why. I spent an enormous amount of time with Ritchie, writing most of the stuff. Our relationship was pretty much him saying, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you.’ But we worked well together, as the legacy testifies. I have to say, though, that everyone in this photo was important to the identity of Deep Purple; Ian Paice with his unique drumming, Glenn with his outstanding voice, and Jon with his incredibly confident left hand.

You can subscribe and/or order issues from the magazine’s website. The first two pages sample of the Coverdale article (that conveniently for us cover his Purple years) is available as a free download.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

The band has issued the following statement:

In regards to the cancelled shows in Merida and Cancun, we were as surprised as everybody else. We were looking forward to play there and, as of yet, have not received a reason as to why the promoter cancelled the shows.

Our apologies to our fans. We understand you are disappointed. So are we.

Deep Purple & Thames Talent Ltd

This is as official as one can get.

While performing for two nights in Moscow, Glenn Hughes was interviewed by TASS (now, there’s an agency that is an oxymoron). He claimed that the current band tried to stop him from performing the “Classic Deep Purple Live” tour.

The Deep Purple you know of with Gillan, Glover and Paice are very upset with me because I’m doing this. They are upset that Glenn Hughes is doing this show but Glenn Hughes is the writer of these songs. He is not calling it “Glenn Hughes’ Deep Purple”, he is calling it “Glenn Hughes performs Deep Purple”. They have tried legally to stop me and they can’t. The songs I’m doing, they don’t do. The songs that I am doing, fans around the world want to hear. They can be as mean as they want I am smiling and…I’m not going to stop.

Now, we obviously do not know what happened there, so everything you read below is a pure speculation.

We are pretty sure that Messrs Gillan, Glover, and Paice don’t give a particularly big damn as to what and how Mr. Hughes is performing. Their management, on the other hand, might take an issue about promoting the tour in a way like this:

Keeping in mind that the current band has been extensively using the very same logo during the past 20 years or so, this may or may not confuse the punters as to who exactly is performing.

Here endeth the speculation.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Hot on the heels of yesterday news of Merida cancellation, we are sorry to bring you news of another one: the final show of the Mexican tour in Cancun this weekend has also been cancelled. Eddie Trunk tweeted:

Just found out the final show of this @_DeepPurple tour here in Cancun on Saturday is now cancelled. Thanks to the entire Purple & @InFlames_SWE crew & all the amazing Mexican fans. Headed home now tomorrow in time for Thanksgiving.

Well, if there’s one positive thing that can come out of it, it’s that this may give the band another incentive to tour in the future. Because it would be a real shame if Deep Purple live legacy would end under such circumstances.

Thanks to Rob Hodgkinson for the heads up.

Another blow to the ill-fated Mexican tour. The show in Mérida on November 21 apparently has been cancelled. According to the Yucatan Times:

[…] Deep Purple was supposed to have confirmed a feature presentation in Merida, Yucatán on Saturday, November 21, but the show was canceled at the last minute due to logistics reasons.

Through a statement on their Facebook page, the Carta Clara Entertainment Center management informed that the tickets for the presentation will be valid for the concert that Deep Purple will offer in Cancun on November 24. Although they also offered reimbursement of the total cost of the ticket.

Thanks to Martin for the heads up.

Don Airey will embark on tour with his band in March 2019. They will be playing the usual circuit of clubs around Central Europe that they’ve been playing every year around that time for several years in a row now. The tour starts on March 8 in Zoetermeer and wraps up on the 24th in Uden, both in Netherlands, in the mean time visiting Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Switzerland.

Full details in our calendar.

Thanks to Lutz Reinert and everybody else sending in the dates once they started leaking.

A longer video from the press conference in Mexico City on November 16 (yep, the one with skulls and a gigantic guitar). The picture is potato quality, but hey, we all know what the gentlemen look like. The sound is good. In particular, check out Roger’s brilliant answer to the contentious question of would they ever play with Blackmore again (circa 16:12).
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