Another member of the family has passed away. Drummer Ted McKenna, who played with Gillan on Naked Thunder, and more recently was a member of Michael Schenker Fest together with Graham Bonnet and Doogie White. He died unexpectedly, during an elective surgery that prompted a bleeding the doctors could not stop.

Neil Murray wrote:

Completely shocked by the very sad news of the sudden death of drummer Ted McKenna (SAHB, Michael Schenker, Rory Gallagher and many others) who I spent time with only 3 weeks ago at the Cozy Powell Birthday Bash. A lovely guy and great drummer who will be much missed.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

And then there is this piece from British Pathé highlighting circa 1967 vintage hipsters. Look out for familiar faces!

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

[Update: Dec 29] We have it on good authority that the mentioned below Deep Purple gig in Finland on July 27 is not happening. So, we’re back to “for the first time in many, many years we do not have any Deep Purple dates either confirmed or leaked” situation.

We were just about to post an annual roundup of touring plans for the Purple family and start it with something like “for the first time in many, many years we do not have any Deep Purple dates either confirmed or leaked” when this happened. Bear in mind that this date is highly unconfirmed, bordering on dubious. Tickets are being sold by Ticketmaster though, and for all it’s drawbacks, the outfit is pretty reliable.

As for the rest of the family, there’s plenty to choose from. At least if you happen to be in the right part of the world.

Don Airey will tour Central Europe with his band in March.

Glenn Hughes will continue touring with his Mark 3 & 4 “Classic Deep Purple Live” set, starting with four dates in Spain in early April, then off to the US for a couple of weeks, moving to the UK in mid-May, continental Europe in the Summer, briefly returning to the UK for a festival performance on August 24.

Ian Gillan will do another tour of Germany with the Rock Meets Classic starting late February and continuing through the most of March.

Ian Paice took playing with tribute band Purpendicular to his heart and so far is booked to perform with them for 17 more (so far) gigs in February and March, all in Europe.

Ritchie Blackmore is booked to do another 4 shows with his latest incarnation of Rainbow in June, all in Europe again, before switching to acoustic for an obligatory, albeit a brief one, tour of German castles with Blackmore’s Night.

Whitesnake are all set for a month long extensive Stateside tour of resorts and casinos starting mid-April, moving on to Europe for June and July.

As always, full details in our purple calendar.

Happy New Year everyone!

Las Vegas TV channel KSNV has a flashback news report about a riot that ensued on April 27, 1973, when Deep Purple did not take the stage at the LV Convention Center. The report itself was published in 2015 on the occasion of Fleetwod Mac being in town, who were also on the bill for the ill fated ’73 gig.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

While being on tour with the band in Mexico, Eddie Trunk did two extensive interviews with Gillan and Paice. Both are now available online as podcasts, albeit with quite annoying commercials mixed in.

Ian Paice, “the only guy to whom you can talk about every era of the band” (and they do):

The interview starts at around 12’30” into the podcast, subsequent segments begin at 22’05”, 40’05”, and 58’55”.

Chat with Ian Gillan:

The interview starts at around 14’15”, continuing at 34:40.

Thanks to Akemi Ono for the info.

Glenn Hughes recently spoke to Music and Me, revealing that he has settled his royalties for Burn (he famously claimed that he co-wrote the album, but was not credited for contractual reasons). The settlement, we presume, was made with the embattled HEC Enterprises and Deep Purple (Overseas) companies.

As we sit here speaking, it’s three months ago, it’s all been resolved. It’s taken a long time. It’s not really something I’ve spoke about in the press.

People, of course, always ask me: ‘How come you didn’t write on ‘Burn’?’ And I don’t really go out of my way to give the definitive answer, but the fact is I was signed to another company. And if you look at George Harrison and Robert Plant, they were off a couple of records too — Robert being ‘Led Zeppelin I’. It’s the same scenario. I decided I’d leave my name off to… take care of business, if you will. At a young age as well — I couldn’t believe I did that.

I never hold a resentment. Because the resentments are about people who are no longer with us. Let’s just say that I was mismanaged — young and mismanaged — and I was promised things that… Being an only child living with his mum and dad up in the north, I was offered a handshake, and I took it.

The thing that’s kept me alive is I’ve never held a resentment against anyone. Never. Resentments would kill me — it would take me out drinking, it would take me out cavorting. I never held a resentment. And now, 44 years later, it’s been resolved. It’s a long time.

I’m getting paid, yeah. It’s going back. But more importantly, I’m getting paid going forward. But there are some things I’m getting paid for, like film stuff and sync rights and streaming and stuff from lately. But there are other ways to go about it, which I can’t talk about. But I am right now…

Listen to the complete interview (24 minutes long) at this location.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the transcriptions and to Jim Collins for the heads up.

On Friday, January 11 2019, the “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” will be perfomed in Kaiserslautern by the Orchester des Pfalztheaters Kaiserslautern together with the band Vanden Plas.

The complete program will be:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ouvertüre zu „Don Giovanni“
• Sergei Rachmaninow Paganini-Variationen op. 43
• Jon Lord Concerto for Group and Orchestra

Event details

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.