The latest issue (#8-2018) of the Swedish Rock’n’Roll magazine has a 12-page feature on Ian Gillan with lots of pictures.

Other juicy bits include:

• Chuck Berry needed a backing band for a gig in 1970, for which Deep Purple helped him out. The band went on stage without knowing the setlist.
• Gillan once had a chance to meet his hero Elvis Presley, but was so intimidated that he didn’t go. The rest of the band went, and apparently Elvis was very courteous. Big Ian regrets his decision to stay back to this day.
• He also retells the “spaghetti incident” story.

The magazine can be purchased through their online shop (caveat, it’s naturally all in Swedish).

Speaking of spaghetti, issue #6 earlier this year had His Blackness on the cover with another feature inside.

Thanks to our editor emeritus Benny Holmström for the info.

Lick Library has released an educational video detailing guitar parts of every track on Machine Head, demonstrated by Danny Gill:
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The first two dates of the much maligned Deep Purple Mexican tour — Tijuana on November 3 and Chihuahua on November 7 — appear to be cancelled. No explanation has been given, but considering the apparent general lack of organisation on the part of the promoters, perhaps this is not too surprising.
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The Ritchie Blackmore Story documentary will be shown on US cable/satellite channel AXS TV on Tuesday, October 23, between 10:00 and 11:15 pm EDT. It will be repeated several times throughout the week, check the schedule for full details.
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David Coverdale has recently appeared on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show recalling the first time he appeared on stage with Deep Purple. Copenhagen, December 9, 1973:

I walk onstage for the first time – where it came from, I don’t know, but I still do it – ‘Are you ready?’ I screamed into the microphone, and I’ve got a very powerful voice. So, like, everybody goes, ‘Oh my God!’ and there’s this roar from I don’t know how many thousands of people. And it was great.

Suddenly I’m singing, Ritchie’s smashing a guitar, dragging amp stacks over,” Coverdale recalled. “Paice is trashing his drums. And I’ve like become a member of the audience while I’m actually onstage. Lordy’s thrashing his organ, boys and girls, thrashing his organ every which way! And I’m going, ‘My God, I should do something, I should do something … ’ I’m going, ‘I can’t afford to smash anything!’

I had a ring on, which was like ten bucks, so I took it off with great drama, threw it on the floor and stamped on it. That was my contribution to the madness and mayhem!

Thanks to Ultimate Classic Rock for the quote and to Jim Collins for the heads up.

Music Radar has interviewed Roger Glover and, as usual with RG, it’s a pure joy to read.

Roger, Purple are about to head out alongside Judas Priest for a major US tour. Is touring more physically tough these days?

Well, you do learn to pace yourself. You can’t get hammered every night like you did in your 20s – the hangovers are far more serious! We do travel in the most comfortable way we can; we’ll charter a small plane rather than hang around in airports for cancelled flights.

I love touring on a bus, but not everyone in the band can sleep on a bus like I can. I think that as a band you’re never as together as you are on a bus tour. You spend time, and you bond, and that doesn’t happen in an airport lounge.

Will last year’s Infinite album be the last from your band?

No. All we’re doing [with the Long Goodbye tour] is putting our fans on notice that we’re in our 70s now. Ian Paice had a minor health hiccup a while back, but two weeks later we were back on tour. It was a minor thing, but it was a wake-up call. I hate to use that term, but that’s what it was. It was a warning.

Deep Purple has been such a presence in our lives for 50 years that none of us want it to end, but the realisation is there that sooner or later we are going to have to stop. I’d love to go on and make another album. Emotionally we’re not ready to stop, so we could carry on for another four or five years.

Continued on Music Radar.

Thanks to Jim Collins for the info.

The Infinite Live Recordings Vol. 1 was released in Japan on September 26, 2018, tied in with the Japanese let of The Long Goodbye Tour. Disc 1 includes 13 tunes from the live performance at Hellfest 2017 in France, and is apparently identical to the European release. Disc 2 includes more tunes from Hellfest 2017, other live performances from Europe in 2013, plus two studio outtakes from Infinite and radio edits of All I Got Is You and Johnny’s Band.

Disc 2:

1. Hell To Pay [Live at Hellfest 2017]
2. Key Solo [Live at Hellfest 2017]
3. Highway Star [Live in Aalborg 2013]
4. Strange Kind Of Woman [Live in Gaevle 2013]
5. The Mule [Live in Gaevle 2013]
6. Hell To Pay [Live in Gaevle 2013]
7. Black Night [Live in Milan 2013]
8. Smoke On The Water [Live in Milan 2013]
9. Simple Folk
10. Above And Beyond [instrumental]
11. Time For Bedlam [First Take]
12. In & Out Jam
13. All I Got Is You [Radio Edit]
14. Johnny’s Band [Radio Edit]

As for the studio outtakes: Simple Folk is a 1:17 long guitar instrumental which sounds like a demo of a haunting melody that never got developed any further; In & Out Jam is pretty much what it says on the cover — a 3:24 studio jam.

Kaz Hirose, chief editor of Burrn! magazine wrote the liner notes explaining the history of Deep Purple briefly, concluding with

Ever since Steve Morse joined the band, Deep Purple’s live stage has been fun for everyone, including the audience and the band itself. Only bands that have transitioned to that stage of existence, without straining themselves, could become the “King of Rock”. In that sense, Deep Purple is, without doubt, the “King of Rock”.

Thanks to Akemi Ono for the info.

Deep Purple live at Makuhari Messe (Chiba, Japan 2018-10-14)

So DP started their Japanese tour yesterday at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba. I went to the meet&greet including a stage tour. I’m not a review writer, but I can tell you the set list and my impression of their first show:

1. Highway Star
2. Pictures of Home
3. Bloodsucker
4. Strange Kind of Woman
5. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
6. Uncommon Man
7. Lazy
8. Birds of Prey
9. Time for Bedlam
(keyboard solo)
10. Perfect Strangers
11. Space Trucking
12. Smoke on the Water
13. Hush
14. Black Night

The last 2 tunes were supposed to be for encore, but they actually did not go off the stage, and played the set throughout.

I must say that the audience, which included a lot of young people, were thoroughly enthusiastic for the new songs as well as the old ones. Each tune received a huge applause and the audience was up on their feet throughout the show. This is their only show in the Tokyo area, Chiba being right next to Tokyo. I cannot help but wish they will come back to do a concert in the Budokan.

I attached some pics but unfortunately not so great, as we did not have good seats. The closeup shots are from the screen. I also included some pics of their equipment from the stage tour. We have better seats in the other shows, so if my husband takes better pictures, I will send them later.

In the meantime, I noted kind of late that the [promoter’s] Udo site had some pre-concert messages from Ian Gillan.

Akemi Ono
Photo: Kei Ono

Several items of interest have either been published or are about to be.

September 2018 issue of the Uncut magazine is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the band under the Ultimate Music Guide moniker. Albeit we’re told that the inside content is ridden with errors. For those still interested, the issue can be ordered online.

Paicey and his Mercedes-Benz 500SEL AMG are profiled in November 2018 issue of the Classic Cars magazine.

Back in January Chris Charlesworth mentioned in his blog that he is “at present engaged in revising my 1983 biography of Deep Purple for publication in a different format later this year”. As a taste teaser, the post has an expanded anecdote circa 1970 of him sneaking a girl for Ritchie into a Paris hotel past an overly diligent night porter. Also, check out his another Purple detour from a couple of years ago, which contains a slightly different version of the aforementioned Paris anecdote.

Purveyors of very expensive books Rufus Stone are exercising another foray into the realm artificial scarcity with a 3 volume collection sold via Pledge Music. Deep Purple at 50 includes:

1. Jon Lord All Those Years Ago with a mounted inside the cover postcard personally signed by Jon Lord;
2. Whitesnake The Purple Tour signed by David Coverdale and the whole band;
3. Deep Purple The California Jam signed by Ian Paice.

The set is said to be limited to 50 copies and comes with a princely price tag of £795 (approx $1053/€902) and a promise to ship in the first week of December 2018. 28 copies are left unclaimed as of the time of this writing.

Thanks to Jim Collins, Nigel Young, Doug A, and BraveWords for the info.

The slightly disorganized Deep Purple’s Mexican tour in November has undergone a few changes. Several shows have been moved to other venues in the same cities, compared to what we reported earlier. Swedish metal band In Flames will be supporting the whole tour, while US radio personality Eddie Trunk is announced as a host for all dates but Tijuana. Both In Flames and Eddie Trunk sites list Cancun venue as Moon Palace Arena, albeit we have not been able to trace any tickets for these two shows yet.

Full details in our calendar.

We have no further tour dates for the band, neither confirmed nor leaked, so this Mexican leg of The Long Goodbye Tour could as well be the last one.