According to the Uncut magazine, Rhino will be re-releasing purple vinyl editions of In Rock and Fireball on November 23. Both albums are said to have been newly remastered by Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham from the original analogue tapes, and have been cut at half-speed by Barry Grint at Alchemy Mastering.

Thanks to Uncut and BraveWords for the info.

EU General Court made a ruling yesterday, October 4, 2018, in the legal dispute between Blackmore and Paice over the ‘Deep Purple’ trademark. In April 2013 Blackmore applied to register the trademark in EU to cover musical recordings, clothing, and entertainment services. Apparently the name of the band was (and still is) unregistered. Should the trademark was granted, he would be in control of the ability of the band to record and perform under the name, as well as sell the merchandise.

Naturally, the band didn’t like that, and a notice of opposition was filed in the name of Paice (probably as the founding and the most long standing member). After years and years of hearings, rulings, appeals, and counter-appeals, the court for the most part sided with the band, and ordered both parties to pay the costs of their own appeals. This decision can still be further appealed (only on a point of law) to the European Court of Justice, which serves as the supreme court for the EU.

Thanks to BraveWords and WIPR for the info.

Deep Purple live at Fivepoint Amphitheater (Irvine, USA 2018-09-27)

When I wrote my 60th birthday / US Thanksgiving / first overseas Purple O2 London concert review for 11/23/17, I thought it might be the last time I’d see the Boys. But lo and behold, here they are back in the States. So for the 5th decade, the same four of us trucked out to Five Points Amphitheater Irvine to see the Five Guys. Personally, expectations were low considering what the US shows have been in recent years compared to what I saw at in London last November. US double bills, time curfews, greatest hits set list with very little Ian Gillan crowd interaction.

Last SoCal trip in, August ’17 at the Greek Theater, Alice Cooper played a spirited set, but many of his fans left and the Purple set seemed anticlimactic for the evening. None of that last night with the Judas Priest billing. After the Priest set, someone asked me, “How will Purple follow THAT?” To the Priest fans credit, they stuck it out and are probably very glad they did. (Aside from the three Priest folks in front of me who seriously yelled for “Burn” all night long)…

Spirited set from the Guys, crowd was into it all the way to the magical 11:00 curfew time when “Hush” ended. Both the band and the crowd were lively, Ian G looked in better shape than the UK tour and Ian Paice even jumped out behind the drum set to make his own call for the encore. I’m still checking the tape as Don started the lead in to “Perfect Strangers” but then changed it around to get back to “Lazy”. Intentional? I made sure I videoed “Smoke” and “Hush” as they *could* be the last live offerings I’ll attend.

“We love you, take it easy, bye bye!”

Irvine 2018? The Surprising, a good one, for sure.

Martin Paretti
w Kerry Frohling, Bob Grabar and Dave Krutcik

review by Martin Paretti

Deep Purple live at Starlight Theatre (Kansas City, USA 2018-09-18)

Wonderful show in Kansas City on a beautiful Tuesday night! First group The Temperance Movement was energetic and sounded quite good, then Judas Priest hit the stage…LOUD LOUD LOUDER.. the first half of their set was newer stuff but went over well with their base fans but the second portion including the big US hits and the Harley making an appearance on stage really rocked the house!! As with previous double bill gigs I didn’t notice anyone leaving before DP hit the stage and for good reason! They came out with a scorching Highway Star and never slowed down..the setlist remains the same as in previous shows. Sometimes the energy level falls off drastically after the opening song but Pictures of Home is the perfect tune to keep it rolling and SIFLS fits in just right later in the set. The newer backdrop was a nice added touch over last years tour, the band seemed much more relaxed than last year with Alice Cooper, not rushing thru the setlist, performing every tune with true perfection!! Lots of gray hairs in the crowd but many younger fans too, just a few comments heard after the gig..”they were awesome I didn’t think they could top JP but WOW…they never stopped playing they just kept on with no breaks between songs…best show I’ve seen in years…they are all really good but that keyboard guy was so good…(and my favorite) so much more depth and texture to their music”. The motel lobby was still buzzing about the gig at breakfast in the morning..haha..we met lots of fans from all over the Midwest. All in all another great show, my 10th and my wife’s 6th. If you ever get a chance to see a concert at the Starlight Theater try to make it, what a clean and friendly environment and not a bad seat in the house! Thank you Deep Purple and I hope to see you again at least once! As Gillan says ..Take it easy, we love ya, bye bye!!!!

review by stoffer

British tabloid Daily Mail reports that the mansion once owned by Ian Gillan (before being sold, converted to a hotel, which closed down in 2014) is now standing abandoned and in quite a derelict shape. This is the same mansion that Gillan put a guitar shaped pool in, as covered in his autobiography. This would essentially be a non story for a national newspaper if the property wasn’t once owned by a rock star. Probably still a non story, but hey, we’re dealing with tabloids here.

Read and see more pictures in Daily Mail.

Thanks to Jim Collins for the info.

The private rock’n’roll memorabilia collection of one Noel Monk is now up for sale at Backstage Auctions. Back in the 70s he was the tour manager for Trapeze, and then briefly managed Hughes’ solo career in the 80s. There are a number of Trapeze and Glenn related items among the 800 lots, including his bass from the Hughes / Thrall era (which apparently was in lieu of money that Glenn owed).

The bidding will start on October 13, 2018, and end on Sunday, October 21.

Hush (or, rather the glorious thirty seconds of it) is being used in the promo trailer soundtrack for a new Hollywood flick Bad Times at the El Royale.
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Glenn Hughes brings the Purple to Poughkeepsie
Glenn Hughes brought his incredible lung power and bass playing finesse to a small but very appreciative crowd at The Chance in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York last Tuesday September 11th, 2018.
Glenn opened the show with Stormbringer and then settled into a really groovy Might Just Take Your Life. Next up was Sail Away, followed by a great version of You Fool No One with a cameo shot of the Highball Shooter riff teased in near the end of the song.
A beautiful rendition of You Keep on Moving was followed by a really funky Getting Tighter (with a little Dance to the Rock & Roll sprinkled in) which Glenn dedicated to Tommy Bolin. Next up was Mistreated – one of the finest versions I have seen and heard Glenn perform – really nice tasty interplay between he on bass and guitarist Jeff Kolman; and of course Glenn’s amazing, stratospheric vocals as usual.
As this was a Deep Purple-flavoured show, albeit mostly Mark III; Glenn closed with Smoke on the Water and added his own twist to it – “Georgia…”. For the first encore one of the roadies strapped on Glenn’s bass while Glenn came out to do the vocal duties on Highway Star. Even though HS is an Ian Gillan signature song, Glenn did fine justice to it with his amazing vocal range. The final song of the evening was a blazing version of Burn.

Altogether about an hour and 45 minute show of very high energy, extremely well performed classic Deep Purple Mark III music. I have seen both the current Deep Purple line-up and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow in concert this past year, and though both shows were very nicely done and well played; I have to say that Glenn Hughes’ Purple show was the rawest, most energetic, and most passionate of the three.
Looking forward to catching Glenn again on his next swing through the USA in the upcoming year. It is well worth making a special trip to see him play.
Gary Halverson, Canada – Sept. 2018

Bruce Dickinson is currently doing a series of spoken word Q&A appearances promoting his autobiography. During his September 8 gig at DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen he was asked about his relationship with Jon Lord:

Jon Lord was a wonderful gentleman, and we were close friends. And he sadly died of… He had pancreatic cancer, but he survived for a year and a half — much against what everybody had said would happen. And actually, at the end, he didn’t die of pancreatic cancer — he died, unfortunately, of some terrible blood collapse that happened with him, possibly as a result of treatment. But we had all kinds of crazy plans, including me going out on tour with him, singing Deep Purple songs with an orchestra, which he was planning to do; that was one of the things we were planning to do. But it all got interrupted and canceled, and [it was] obviously very sad. He was a wonderful man.

For those of you who are into Maiden, you can see his talk on youtube, but in 3 parts and with 40+ minutes total, we’ll spare the rest.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Glenn Hughes did an interview with Metal Express promoting the upcoming UK leg of his Classic Deep Purple Live tour.

When you joined Deep Purple back in 1973, was it always on the basis that you were to be the bassist and also as an occasional singer or did you expect to do more lead vocals?

When they asked me to come to New York they asked me if I’d sing with Paul Rodgers and when they asked if I’d play bass, I said no, I was a singer. When Paul Rodgers was mentioned I said that I’d take it because I loved his voice so much. Of course, Paul wasn’t available and that’s when they auditioned David Coverdale so I was always going to be second singer. I was happy with that.

How did you view David Coverdale at that time seeing as you all had a lot of recording and performing experience and David had hardly any?

David didn’t really have any recording experience at the time so I took him and eased him in and made him feel comfortable. I actually loved sharing the microphone with David and love singing with other people. I share vocals with Joe Bonamassa in Black Country Communion and you can see how graceful we are together, we have a real rapport. I actually try to get Joe to sing more but he wants me to sing and he wants to play guitar more.

He also mentioned that a documentary will be filmed during this tour and a couple of shows will be recorded with the prospect of a “proper” live release as well.

Read more in Metal Express.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.