Despite the prolonged lull in Deep Purple touring, Paicey is keeping himself busy by playing with various bands around Europe. Having just finished a jazz residency in London, he is heading to Italy for June 2 gig with a local band, then off to Bulgaria, France, Belgium, and Germany to tour with Purpendicular. He is booked to do another two touring legs with Purpendicular — one in August, and one in November. That band is hoping to finally shake off the ‘tribute’ moniker by releasing another album of original material later this year, with Ian on drums. He will return to his day job in December.

These gigs is a fairly low(ish) key affair, with the new dates being added constantly and the old ones refined, so check our calendar regularly.

Update (May 29): ex-Rainbow keyboard player Paul Morris will be joining Paicey and Purpendicular on this tour and the upcoming album.

A 2002 vintage interview with Roger Glover and Steve Morse has been posted to Youtube. The interview was taken before the show on the joint tour with Dio and Scorpions in Concord, California, by a dude who calls himself Metal Matt, but looks like he just stepped out of a Bee Gees video 😉
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A Didi Zill retrospective exhibition is on display at the Rockmuseum Munich, which is located in the Olympiapark Tower (Olympiaturm). The exhibition will be open throughout the summer until August 30, and Deep Purple are, of course, featured prominently. Admission to the Rockmuseum is included with the tower admission itself. The museum has peculiar hours, perhaps in accordance with the rock’n’roll lifestyle — it is open from 9 am until midnight, albeit last entrance is at 11:30 pm.

Fun fact: the famous Munich venue Olympiahalle is located next door to the tower at Olympiapark, which was built to host the 1972 Olympic Games. The first concert after the games ended was held there in January 1973: Deep Purple supported by Steppenwolf Dick Heckstall-Smith band.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Graham Bonnet spoke to Australia’s Heavy Magazine promoting his upcoming short tour down there. He mentioned that he will be marking the 40th anniversary of Down to Earth by performing the whole album live:

We’re actually going to play the whole ‘Down To Earth’ album that I did with RAINBOW that’s never been done before, so it makes an interesting show, I think, along with some oldies but goodies. I think it’s going to be good.

When I was in RAINBOW, we did a lot of their old stuff that Ronnie Dio sang, so when we played songs from ‘Down To Earth’ live, we probably only did about four or five songs — something like that. We never did the whole album as such. This is everything. I’ve got to relearn songs that were, like, B-sides to singles… There’s about two or three that have never been done live before, so this is quite an experience for me, apart from the audience.

Graham Bonnet Australian tour dates:

Jun 6th 2019 – Enigma Bar – Adelaide
Jun 7th 2019 – Corner Hotel – Melbourne
Jun 8th 2019 – Manning Bar – Sydney

Tickets, including VIP passes, are available from the promoters Hardline Media.

If you feel hungry for more Graham anecdotage, we leave you with another Australian interview:

And here he is, belting out Eyes Of The World in 2018 like there’s no tomorrow:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Ian Gillan was caught by NME on the proverbial red carpet at The Ivors yesterday, May 23. And he mentioned that he just flew in from Nashville (if you know what we mean).
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Bob Ezrin (who may or may not have been working with Deep Purple recently on their 3rd collaboration album) was a guest on CBC Music Q show. This produced a very interesting chat about his life, career, producer philosophy, and music in general. All be it Deep Purple were never mentioned (but to be fair, not much of his work past the 1970s was discussed).

The interview is slightly more than an hour long, so kick back and relax.

Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.

Deep Purple Mark 2 are the the winners of the 2019 Ivor Novello Award in International Achievement category. This is sort of a “lifetime achievement” category, as opposed to any particular song or album. The awards, knows as The Ivors, are presented annually in London by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). The award itself is a bronze sculpture of Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry.

Update May 24: The awards were presented yesterday, May 23, at the Grosvenor House in London, with Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, and Ian Paice in attendance. Deep Purple Mark 2 were honoured “acknowledging an exceptional legacy that has inspired and shaped generations of hard rock musicians all over the world”.

Thanks to M Magazine and Blabbermouth for the info and to marcus for the heads up.

The latest incarnation of Rainbow has recorded a grand total of 4 “new old” tracks over the years: Waiting for a Sign (a Stranger in Us All outtake), remakes of I Surrender, Black Sheep of the Family, and Blackmore’s Night’s The Storm. These 4 tracks will be put on a limited edition EP CD to be sold on the upcoming in June Rainbow shows as merchandise. The EP is called Rainbow vorwärts (“vorwärts” is German for “forward”).

Thanks to Lutz Reinert for the info.

Several relevant releases from the British label Cherry Red Records, that owns the RPM catalogue and has now partnered with Purple Records.

Glenn Hughes: The Official Bootleg Box Set: Volume Two 1993-2013

This includes 6 CDs in a clamshell box set. Disc one is a collection of demos and outtakes called Incense And Peaches: From The Archives Volume 1. Originally released in 2000 through Glenn’s own Pink Cloud Records, it was a collection of previously unreleased songs covering more laid back, pop and soul tracks rather than hard rock.

Disc 2 contains recording of a June 1993 live show at the Blitz Nightclub in Borlänge, Sweden.

Disc 3: September 1993 show at the Zoo Club in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Discs 4 & 5: November 1996 show at the Gino’s in Stockholm, Sweden.

Disc 6: May 2013 show at the Crossroads Club in Rome, Italy.

Caveat: record company blurb includes a disclaimer that “whilst every effort has been made to produce the best possible audio, limitations in the material drawn from various, non-standard, and un-official sources means that the quality may not be up to the standard usually expected”.

The box is due for release on May 31 and can be preordered via the label for a quite reasonable amount of £23.99 + shipping.

Roger Glover’s Butterfly Ball & Grasshopper’s Feast, reissued last year on CD with bonus tracks, is now available on vinyl. The 2LP purple vinyl edition includes the material contained on the first two CDs of the digital version — original album on disc 1, plus demos, alternative mixes and 1974 radio special on disc 2. It was released on April 26 and can be ordered directly from the label.

A Phenomena Anthology of a besf-of type compilation from the tree albums of the project, featuring Glenn Hughes, Cozy Powell, Mel Galley, Neil Murray, Ted McKenna, and many other guests. It is said to be “fully endorsed by Tom Galley, who personally compiled the track list”. It is a 1CD affair, with a couple of bonus tracks, released on May 3, and available directly from the label.

Thanks to our editor emeritus Benny Holmström for the info.

Recently released Whitesnake’s Flesh & Blood album has reached #3 on the Official German Album Chart issued on May 17. What is interesting however, is that according to BraveWords, this is the highest chart position for Whitesnake in Germany in all of their career.