LA’s rock radio KNAC reviews the latest release with Ian Paice — Banned from Purpendicular, and gives it 5/5:

The underlying concept of this album is the is the hypersensitive culture of our times, in which every word has to be carefully weighed up, because you mustn’t and don’t want to offend anyone, and the resulting cancel culture. Hence the title of the album: Banned. If you take away the second n and the e, you get the word that describes what it’s really about: Band.

Read more on KNAC.com.

Classic Rock has an extensive interview with Glenn Hughes. He talks about his career, from playing trombone in a school orchestra, to his mum saving him from joining ELO, to the most Ritchie Blackmore thing that Ritchie Blackmore did, to the latest solo album Chosen.

Your first instrument was the trombone. This could have been a very different conversation.

When I was twelve years old, the principal of my school was looking to put an orchestra together and somehow they chose me to play the trombone. So I started to learn how to play trombone and read music. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but playing the trombone led to playing the piano and then to playing the guitar.

Why did you end up gravitating to bass?

Well, at thirteen I was a guitarist. There was a kid three of four years older than me named Mel Galley, who also played guitar. I used to see him playing gigs in Cannock and he became my idol. I loved watching him play. I used to mimic everything he did, I tried to look like him. And he knew I was this budding little guitar player.

Mel joined a band called Finders Keepers, and about a year later their bass player left. And he said: “I know a young kid from my home town, maybe he could switch from guitar to bass.” Within twenty-four hours I was learning how to play bass, simply so I could play in a band with Mel.

Continue reading in Louder Sound.

Another new(ish) release courtesy of letters to our better-late-than-never department. A Warhorse live album was quietly released some time in January 2025 via SingSong Music (a company founded by George Harrison himself). It is a recording of their one-off reunion gig from 2001.

A founding member of Deep Purple, British music veteran Nick Simper left after recording on the band’s first three albums to form hard rock act, Warhorse.

Along with Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath and Juicy Lucy, Warhorse settled quickly into the ranks of embryonic cult record label, Vertigo.

Initially counting Rick Wakeman in its ranks, the line-up settled down with Simper (bass), Ged Peck (guitar), Ashley Holt (vocals), Mac Poole (drums) with Frank Wilson replacing Wakeman on keyboards.

Warhorse’s 1970 self-titled debut was well-received and the band became a popular attraction on the live circuit. A return to the studio in 1972 for ‘Red Sea’ with Pete Parks replacing Peck showed musical development and assured direction.

While a bolt from the blue came with the band’s sudden dissolution, the line-up reunited for one night in January 2001 at Woods Club in Borehamwood near London to play a memorable note-perfect set that reached back to the glory days of three decades prior.

Recorded for posterity by BBC producer Tony Wood, the tapes have languished until now and their first ever release in “Live At Woods”.

Warhorse’s albums, copies of original LPs selling for vast sums on the collector market today, have never been out circulation.

“Live At Woods” serves to complement them admirably, reviving some of the band’s favourite compositions in an incendiary set that measures Warhorse’s reputation as a devastating live act – at full gallop!

Track list:

1. Woman Of The Devil
2. Chest Fever
3. The Ritual
4. No Chance
5. Just Looking
6. Confident But Wrong
7. Burning
8. I Who Have Nothing
9. St. Louis
10. Back In Time
11. Shakin’ All Over
12. Hollywood Nights
13. I Can Tell
14. Lucille

Apparently there is no physical media on offer so far (although Nick Simper’s website is hopeful for a CD release “out soon”). The album is available for streaming and download only via this link. Physical aficionados will have to burn a CD themselves or wait for “out soon” to materialize.

[Update Oct 12]: The physical CD is now available through BGO Records at £11.99 + shipping.

Thanks to Arch for the sharp eyes.

Goldmine magazine reviews Candice Night’s recent solo album Sea Glass, released earlier this year:

Sea Glass is drenched in classically resounding pure folk and soft rock incantations, conjuring up the spirit of true singer/songwriter compositions and productions. Save for a few selections which bring in a slightly heavier production quality, the album is reminiscent of classic era folk artists who use modest orchestrations and deep storytelling to convey their songs. Here, Night’s vocals blatantly take center stage throughout the whole of the album and present some of her most impressive vocal performances over her three-album solo run. Her tonality and her voice deliveries are more heartfelt and personal than we’ve ever experienced them previously to these recordings. There are sporadic renaissance-inflected sonic influences that are obvious to her music created with Blackmore’s Night (especially with regard to the instrumental, “Dark Carnival” and the track, “When I Want To Fly”), and though that style of music seems to fit naturally with her (seeing as how she is well-versed in many medieval-period instruments), this is by far not a Blackmore’s Night album, nor is it as pop-driven as her previous solo efforts. It is evident that every unique selection found within is all unwaveringly inspired totally and wholly from the mind and the individualistic musical mentality of Candice Night, and Night alone.

Read more in Goldmine.

Music Radar has a piece that dissects Rainbow’s Stargazer. It’ll be of particular interest to those of us who can tell their third mode of G Major from the B Phrygian Dominant scale.

What really catches the ear, however, is when Blackmore decides to go off-piste and start firing out notes outside of that scale.

He plays a run that chromatically climbs one fret at a time until its explosive peak, where he bends a whole tone up from the 17th fret of his high E – turning the minor seventh into a root.

This concept of using the ‘wrong’ notes after so many right ones is a musical device that Blackmore has employed many times as a tool to catch listeners off-guard. Another famous example is his solo in Deep Purple’s Highway Star.

Read more in Music Radar.

Music Radar has another short historical piece, wherein Glenn Hughes confesses how his participation in the America: What Time Is Love? collaboration with KLF became that life-changing moment where he realized that it’s a chance to turn his life around.

“That song, and that session, and the realisation that was to come was a game-changer for me,” Hughes says. “If I hadn’t have done that song in October or November of 1991, it would have been difficult for me to have another life-changing moment where I thought I needed help.

“The KLF coming to be with that opportunity was important,” he says. “I realised that I was gonna be seen on national TV everywhere and everything, and that it was time for me to come to my senses, and get help.”

Thanks to Music Radar for the info.

Steve Morse was interviewed by the (we kid you not) Rockin’ 101’s The Johnny Rock Show, who’s DJ must be a close relative of Sally ‘I kin fart through my nose’ Cohen. Anyways, you gotta do what you gotta do… Continue Reading »

Music Radar has a short piece on the history of Whitesnake’s first UK hit — Fool For Your Loving:

As Coverdale said: “Bernie had done an interview with BB, whom we all adored, and he asked us to write something for him. He loved what we’d done with Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City – as did Bobby Bland, by the way.”

Coverdale and Marsden wrote Fool For Your Loving with Whitesnake’s other guitarist Micky Moody during sessions for the band’s third studio album Ready An’ Willing.

They wrote the song with King in mind, but after cutting a demo they had second thoughts.

As Coverdale recalled: “When we listened back to the demo of Fool For Your Loving, we agreed we should keep it. Sorry, B.B.!”

The article continues with a similar anecdote, as Is This Love off the 1987 album was originally written with Tina Turner in mind, but was deemed to be too good to be given away.

Thanks to Music Radar for the info.

The German edition of the Rolling Stone magazine features Made in Japan remix as the cover story of its 2025/10 issue. It also comes with an exclusive 7″ vinyl single containing Highway Star and Smoke on the Water, tagged as Live in Tokyo.

Following Bruce Springsteen and The Doors, we are releasing our third collector’s item with the October issue of ROLLING STONE: a world-exclusive vinyl single featuring two songs by Deep Purple. The two live versions of the hits ‘Highway Star’ and ‘Smoke On The Water’ are taken from the legendary double album ‘Made In Japan’, which was released in 1972 and became the blueprint for many hard rock live albums.

The 7inch single comes in a hard, carefully designed cardboard cover and on heavyweight vinyl. It is only available with the German edition of ROLLING STONE and not in record shops.

Included in the package: ROLLING STONE issue 10/2025 + exclusive Deep Purple 7″ vinyl single.

Meanwhile in the UK, issue 112 of the Fireworks magazine features Glenn Hughes as one of their cover stories.

We don’t have any further details on either publication at this time, so please feel free to post anything you know in the comments.

Thanks to Benny Holmström and Tobias Janaschke for the info.

This is a (part of the) recording of Glenn Hughes’ spoken word appearance at Café de Paris in London on February 25, 2017. Here, Glenn talks to the legendary British DJ Nicky Horne about joining Deep Purple and his days in the band. Continue Reading »