The new Rainbow single The Storm has been released and is now streaming:
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The new dates for Glenn’s UK tour have been promptly rescheduled for November, neatly arranged around the previously announced two shows in Scotland. Unfortunately, Edinburgh, St Albans, Liverpool, and Nottingham had to be cancelled for logistical reasons. Four new shows were arranged in their stead: Bexhill, Cambridge, Cheltenham, and Middlesbrough.

Ticket holders for the cancelled shows can return the tickets to their original point of purchase to request refunds.

Four shows have been rescheduled at the same venues: Salisbury, Norwich, Holfirth and Birmingham. Original tickets will be valid for these dates. Refunds for customers who no longer wish or unable to attend will be made available until Monday, May 27th.

Full details in our calendar.

Thanks to BraveWords and GlennHughes.com for the info.

On May 10, the day of its release, the new Whitesnake album Flesh & Blood landed on the #1 spot on the ORICON Daily Album Ranking in Japan. This is the general chart for all genres, not just “overseas music” or rock albums. It slipped down to #6 on May 11.
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A 1987 vingage interview with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover was posted on Youtube. Ian and Roger are in the UK promoting Accidentally on Purpose, mixing Nobody’s Perfect, and generally having a ton of fun.
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Glenn Hughes’ tour of the UK, due to start in just a few days, has been postponed. The message on his website reads:

GLENN HUGHES sends his regrets that he is unable to perform his UK tour which was due to start May 14th through May 24th. He needs to be treated for an illness that while not life threatening, must be dealt with immediately in order for it to not become a serious problem. He is expected to make a full recovery and be back on the road in June.

Info to follow shortly on tickets.

See also the followup story for rescheduled dates.

When DEEP PURPLE disbanded in 1976, Jon Lord and Ian Paice decided to start a new band, not trying to recreate what they already had with DEEP PURPLE but to explore new musical directions.

As frontman they recruited singer and keyboard player Tony Ashton. Jon Lord had already collaborated with Tony Ashton composing the soundtrack for “The Last Rebel” (published 1971 as “Musical score composed by Tony Ashon & Jon Lord, performed by Ashton, Gardner & Dyke”) and on “First Of The Big Bands” (published 1974 as “Tony Ashton & Jon Lord”), an album which could be seen as some sort of blueprint for “Malice in Wonderland”.

The lineup was completed with Paul Martinez on bass and Bernie Marsden on guitar, a brass section fronted by Howie Casey and two female background singers, Sheila McKinley and Jeanette McKinley.

The recordings took place in Munich in autumn 1976 in basement studio of the Arabella hotel (inspiration for the song “Arabella”) and the album was released in early 1977, surprising many DEEP PURPLE fans with a mix of Rock, Blues, Funk and Jazz.

To promote the album, a tour covering major European cities had been planned, but as tickets didn’t sell as expected, most dates were dropped from the oncoming tour, leaving just five British dates to be performed.

As time went by, Tony Ashton felt more and more uncomfortable with his role as frontman of PAL and it also turned out the fans needed more time to adjust to the sound of Paice Ashton Lord as expected. By the end of 1977, the band started the recordings for a second album, but as the momentum was gone the album was never finished and the band called it quits in 1978.

“Malice In Wonderland”  will be reissued on May 17 2019 by earMUSIC, using the 2001 remaster by Nick Watson for the tracks of the original album. The release will also include eight bonus tracks from the never finished second album, remastered in 2019 by Eike Freese. The booket contains previously unpublished photographs by Alan Messer and detailed liner notes by Simon Robinson.

Sadly the reissue misses the opportunity to include the “Sight & Sound In Concert” live recording, which would have been a perfect addition to this otherwise fine release of an impressive album.

Rainbow will release another single — this time a remake of Blackmore’s Night tune The Storm — on May 17 via Minstrel Hall Music. The new release said to be a “rocked up” version of the track. The original was not lacking in guitar wizardry, albeit acoustic, on its own.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

A US leg of The Long Goodbye Tour has been announced. It starts on September 3, 2019, in Riverside, California, and finishes on October 19 in Minneapolis, performing 33 shows and visiting 25 states in between. Support for September 7 show in California will be Foghat, with the rest of the tour still in mystery. Most venues on this tour are theaters with all reserved seating.

Ticket sales to general public start on May 10, with various presales starting as soon as tomorrow, May 7. The tour is promoted by the Live Nation/Ticketmaster behemoth, so expect their usual shenanigans with ticket availability and pricing.

All further details are in our calendar.

Last September, 2018 I wrote about Glenn Hughes’ impressive Classic Deep Purple show in Poughkeepsie, New York. So impressive that I jumped at the chance to see him once again, this time even closer to home in Belleville, Ontario on April 30th, 2019. In fact, Glenn told us this was his very first appearance as a solo artist in Canada – he had originally been scheduled to play in Toronto but somehow the gig fell through and hence new plans were made head up the road about 100 miles to play at the Empire Theatre in Belleville instead.
This time around guitarist Soren Andersen was back on Stratocaster duties. A new and very talented drummer Ash Sheehan is now in the band (standout performance was his absolutely stunning solo on You Fool No One). Keyboard duties are still being handled very ably by Mike Mangan.
In terms of setlist, the show was quite similar to the one in Poughkeepsie with the very welcome exception of Holy Man from the Stormbringer album replacing Highway Star (which is more appropriately associated with Mark II Purple). All songs were very well played with huge energy; and Glenn really engaged with the crowd – lots of story-telling about Mark III and IV days.
I am still amazed at the power and range of Glenn Hughes’ voice, who at the age of 66 years is showing no signs whatsoever of any decline. His vocal gymnastics on all songs, and especially Mistreated, were simply stellar. And he is an absolute monster on the bass guitar too – his solo on Getting Tighter was a masterclass on how to do it justice.
Total concert time was about 1 hour, 50 minutes in front of approximately 500 very approving and appreciative fans. A great show! Looking forward to future visits to Canada by Glenn & company.
Gary Halverson – May 2nd, 2019

Classic Rock has an interesting opinion piece on Gillan’s Magic album:

Of the three major offshoots that emerged after the break-up of Deep Purple in 1976, Gillan (the band, not the man) was certainly the most musically daring. And Gillan’s most daring album just might be their last: 1982’s Magic.

Yes, the keyboard-heavy record carries a glossy, polished sheen; yes, it contains a pair of obvious stabs into ‘hit single’ territory; and yes, the off-the-rails kinetic chemistry of the Bernie Torme years is largely absent. But it’s not the music that makes makes Magic Gillan’s most fascinating record; it’s the words.

Truth be told, Magic could and should be looked at in hindsight as a concept album, as the lyrics throughout revolve around a common theme: Gillan (the man, not the band) was laying out his future plans right before our very eyes, misdirecting our attention with another album’s worth of musical hocus pocus while planning the greatest magic trick of all: making himself disappear.

Continue reading in Classic Rock.

Thanks to Jim Collins for the heads up.