Another interview with Roger Glover in the German press — this time it is from Kulturnews magazine, April 2017 issue, pages 12-13. We think that it is interesting enough that it deserves the effort of offering it to you in reverse translation (usual caveats apply).

SR: Mr. Glover, the question may sound hackneyed, but: Did you enjoy making the album?

Roger Glover: The question is not at all trite, but is very justified. Fun, joy and pleasure are the key concepts for us all. We have fun in everything we do. We love to play live, we like to travel around the world, we had a great time in the studio. Without fun we would be in a wrong job and should rather leave it. We are old enough — we should not worry about the negative aspects anymore.

SR: Has fun always been the focus of Deep Purple?

Glover: In our long and, indeed, changing history, there were also phases in which the good mood was in short supply. Nevertheless, we continued, for somehow it seemed to us our duty is that we should hang on and go with it. Today we make music because we want it, and for no other reason.

SR: Is being a rock musician the best job there is?

Glover (smiles deliberately): Can you think of a better one? I’ll tell you a story. I’ve lived in America for a long time, and for a while I had two neighbours, with whom I’ve often met for a well-groomed get-together. One was a former tennis player, the other a successful banker on Wall Street. One evening we were sitting at the bar, thinking about who of us had the coolest job. The tennis star said his career was over at 35, the Wall Street guy did not find it very inspiring to simply raise money because that has basically no value. So they both pointed at me. I could not disagree.

SR: Who was the former tennis player?

Glover: Mats Wilander. We are still good friends to this day.

SR: They celebrate 50 years of Deep Purple in 2018. What do you think about this?

Glover: Bouquets? (Laughs) It’s a madness to play in a band like Deep Purple that has been around for almost fifty years. I’m afraid something like this will not happen so often. We are a dying species.

SR: But you are quite fit and agile.

Glover: Thank you, thank you, but let’s not delude ourselves: we are getting old. We will not be able to go on with it forever, it will eventually be over with Deep Purple. Ian Paice had a slight stroke last year, which was a wake-up call for us. He is doing well again, two weeks later we were able to continue our tour. But each one of us has one problem or another.

SR: This tour has the moniker “The Long Goodbye Tour”, the new album is called “inFinite”. When is the end?

Glover: It’s not that close yet. No one of us wants to stop it now, we like this job far too much. Nevertheless, we want to let it go a little slower, just now we had four months completely free — so much as never before. We will not set a date and will not make a big fuzz about the last concert. But we will not just sneak away. If at any time it’s it’s over, we will say so. Man, I’m over 70. Maybe another year, two years, five years?

SR: So many of your songs have gone into history and will exist forever. Will the people in 200 years regard “Smoke on the Water” as they see Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or Mozart’s “Magic Flute” today?

Glover: Yes, it’s very possible, and it would be a pleasure and a great honour. I hope it comes. Hard rock has so much to offer and much more facets than for example heavy metal, where it is only about the fury facet.

SR: In the new song “Time for Bedlam” you rage verbally against the “politically crazy”. Are politicians generally distrustful?

Glover: No, I do not think so. There are quite decent and honest politicians. But overall, we’re just stepping into a mess that’s bigger than I’d like to bear. Without having to think for long, I could name a lot of politicians who only roar. Where are respect and decency? I am British, I like courtesy. I’ve lived in the US for 30 years, and right now I’m glad I’m in Europe. European values have a very reassuring effect on me.

SR: Does Donald Trump frighten you?

Glover: Trump does not look a bit empathetic to me and not at all nice. His rhetoric is terrible. I am really not a fan of his politics, but I find his behaviour even more distasteful than his political ideas, which are already bad enough.

SR: You have been living in Switzerland for eight years, near Zurich.

Glover: Yes, this has nothing to do with the very friendly and reserved nature of the Swiss, but with my wife, who is Swiss.

SR: What are you doing on the day of the band’s fiftieth band anniversary in April 2018?

Glover: Oh boy, I do not know exactly when that is. We do not celebrate anniversaries. I remember how it was when it was forty. Ian Gillan and I sat in the tour bus, we drove through the night, and Ian said, “Do you actually know what day is it today?” We opened a bottle of red wine and said, “Well then, cheers to us.” That was all.

Interview: Steffen Rüth

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

The second part of the yes/no rapid fire interview with the band:
Continue Reading »

All Glenn Hughes dates in Australia and New Zealand have now been confirmed. And from the promo videoblurb it sounds like he will be performing with The Music Of Cream as opposed to opening the show for them. Guitaris Robben Ford will round up the list of guest musicians alongside with Glenn.

As if saturating the print in the month of the new album release was not enough, here is a list of promo appearances on German TV. Whichever publicity agent booked all those, have certainly earned their money. And the record company is banking big on this release.

Deep Purple WDR Aktuelle Stunde 06.04.2017 18:45
Deep Purple SR Brisant 06.04.2017 18:15
Deep Purple MDR Brisant 06.04.2017 18:10
Deep Purple ARD MoMa 07.04.2017 05:30
Deep Purple RTL Guten Morgen Deutschland 07.04.2017 06:00
Deep Purple RTL Punkt 12 07.04.2017 12:00
Deep Purple RTL Exclusiv 07.04.2017 18:30
Deep Purple NDR Brisant 07.04.2017 11:45
Deep Purple ZDF Volle Kanne 07.04.2017 09:05
Deep Purple RTL Nachtjournal 08.04.2017 00:00
Deep Purple ARD ttt 09.04.2017 23:05
Deep Purple ZDF mo:ma (Szene) 10.04.2017 05:30
Deep Purple ONE ttt (Brisant?) 11.04.2017 14:45

Roger Glover and Ian Paice will also appear on DW Euromaxx on April 7 at 00:30:

Goodbye Deep Purple?
One of the most iconic bands in rock history is back in the spring with a new album: “inFinite” by Deep Purple is released on 7 April. Many interpret the suggestive album title and the following “Long Goodbye Tour” as the band’s final retreat from the music business. And the documentary film that accompanies the English band as they write their songs and record them in the studio also seems like something of a farewell gift. Euromaxx talks to bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice about the highlights of their career.

DW is an English language German public broadcaster.

Thanks to The Aviator, Nigel Young and Media Communication Service for the info.

German GoodTimes magazine has Mark 2 on the cover of the latest issue (2017/02), with two extensive features inside — one on the Mark 2: Der Bruch war die größte Schande des Rock’n’Roll! (The breakup was the biggest disgrace of Rock’n’Roll!) and another one on the current band: Angst vor dem “Das war’s!” (The fear of “That’s it!”).

Another German magazine Eclipsed puts the now familiar band of polar explorers on the cover of their issue #189 (April 2017), with a 10-page feature Reise in die Unendlichkeit (Journey to Infinity) inside.

German version (see a pattern here?) of Classic Rock magazine opts for Jim Morrison on the cover, but features 5+ pages interview with Ian Paice inside its 2017/04 issue.

Not to be outdone by its British or German siblings, Italian Classic Rock issue #53 not only has the band on the cover, but dedicates no less than a whopping 35 pages inside to all things Purple.

Thanks to Deep Purple Tour Page and Nigel Young for the info.

Roger Glover was featured with a lengthy interview in the Antihero Magazine. Yep, it’s Roger sharing his thoughts in response to interesting, off-the-beaten path questions. No further hype is needed.

Mark Dean: Do you find these press schedules get easier or more difficult as the years pass by?

Roger Glover: Actually, probably easier, because when you’re young you were scared about saying the truth. When you’re older, you don’t give a shit.

Mark Dean: You’ve got a new album coming out and obviously then the inevitable tour. The tour’s being called The Long Goodbye. I just wondered if that was clever marketing, or a conclusion and drawing to a close on your career as a band playing live?

Roger Glover: Well, first of all, we tour anyway, whether there’s an album or not. It’s not the tour that follows the album. Although, it is literally, yes. You are correct. All we know is sooner or later we’re going to end. We’re all either above or below our seventies.

So, you know, the writing is on the wall. Sooner or later this will end. We just don’t know when, but we’re putting ourselves and everyone else on notice that, you know, it is around the corner, we just don’t know when. I think, personally, we’re touring this year around Europe and the States, and there’s certainly other places we should go to if we’re going to say goodbye. I’d like to say hello and goodbye to lots of places, really. If we can.

To find out how he retains passion about creating new music, what he thinks of Slaves and Masters, how much of the new album he wants to play live, what he thinks on the reactivation of Rainbow, the state of his book of memoirs, which song really started him on the path to making music his life, how does it feel to be a rock celebrity, how the whole music landscape has changed over his lifespan, that secret track that Gary Moore guested on that is still unreleased, and many, many more, continue reading in Antihero Magazine.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

The official inFinite online store is now open, presumably run by the record company. It stocks a full range of album merchandise, from compact cassette tape (how quaint) for $6.99, to the signed canvas artwork bundle for $183.99 (the store greets you with the video of the band hard at work actually signing those). There are a couple of standalone t-shirts and as well as t-shirt bundles, and these come in sizes S to XL, unlike the ones that come with the box sets. Public service conversion: the posters for sale are in A2 paper size, which is 42 × 60 cm or 16.5 × 23.4 inches.

Link: deeppurple.tmstor.es

Thanks to Yvonne and Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Ian Paice will be a special guest on the new album by Purpendicular, called Venus to Volcanus. The album is due on April 14, via German label Fastball Music.

Ian is also continuing to perform with Purpendicular live, with the last gig of the latest string of European dates happening tonight, April 26, in Savigny-le-Temple near Paris.

Thanks to Akemi Ono for the heads up.

Roger Glover and Ian Paice did several interviews for the German press while attending the documentary premiere in Düsseldorf. Most of them by now are quite repetitive, so we won’t list them all, but the one from WAZ.de is a wee bit off the beaten path. And nothing like stirring a little controversy asking about a hot political topic or two.

We are now offering it to you in reverse translation from German, with all the usual caveats applying.

Wouldn’t it be tempting to play a concert without Smoke on the Water in the setlist?

Ian Paice: Never! We’re not crazy! 90% of the audience come to hear the old stuff!

Do you really take it to your heart what your fans have to say?

Paice: You can not make it right for everyone. Our real fans are pretty critical, they immediately speak out if they don’t like something. They have their own taste, but that’s okay.

Roger Glover: It all has changed with the Internet. When we played the first test concerts with Steve Morse, my stepson said in the morning: “Hey, it was probably a great show yesterday. — It’s all over the Internet.” I’ve even made friends with a few fans over it. But you have to set boundaries between them and yourself.

Paice: Oh yes, three or four years ago I had a few Jack Daniels’ too many and signed up for Facebook — oh man! I was busy for two days.

Glover: It is not like in the old days anymore, when you could leave your fan mail somewhere in the corner because it simply became too much. Nowadays people expect to get an answer.

You have hinted lately that the next tour could be your last.

Paice: It is more likely that we will do another album than we would do yet another world tour after this one. The music that you record is immortal, but the musicians are not. Some time age will take its toll, either you won’t be on that planet any more or you can’t play any more like you should. That day might come sooner than you think. At the moment we are not brave enough to say: “This is the end, this is it!”

So what then?

Paice: After the tour is over we’ll take a break for six months and then decide what to do next. And maybe we’ll play a concert here and there. In any case, we do not want to make a farewell tour like other musicians — and two years later say: “Okay, we are back”.

Glover: The first annual reunion tour… (laughs)

But are you not bored to play the same songs over and over?

Paice: A good piece of music is still a good piece of music even after 50 or 100 years. And when it’s really good, it’s always fun to play it. I’m sure if you go back 200 years, you’ll find a lot of classical pieces that are rubbish. What we know is the good stuff. And our music is like jazz: there is a structure, but within it everybody gets a chance to do something different every evening.

What do you think about Trump and Brexit?

Paice: I voted against the Brexit, it takes away a lot of amenities from me. But: the European Union was founded as an economic community, which was a good idea. What we have now is a federal state with far too many regulations from Brussels.

Glover: I didn’t vote, I’ve been living in Switzerland for eight years now. I would have voted to stay. And against Trump.

Paice: What a rebel you are! Trump talks like the blue suits [??? – ed.] after they had a few drinks at the bar. He does not talk like politicians should be talking.

Glover: I lived in the US for 30 years — today it looks to me as if they have a new civil war. Not North against South as it used to be, but the Middle against the East and the West coasts. It’s a disaster!

Thanks to Deep Purple Tour Page for the heads up.
Interview: Jens Dirksen for WAZ.de.

Loudwire is conducting a poll for the Most Anticipated Release of April 2017. Deep Purple’s inFinite is in the running and is currently trailing in the second place behind Richie Kotzen. You know what to do.