Greg Smith, the bass player for the 1990s incarnation of Rainbow, was interviewed for Eternal Terror webzine out in Norway. Much of the interview revolved around Rainbow proper and Over the Rainbow project, as well as Greg’s work with Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, and his stint on Broadway with Billy Joel’s musical Movin’ Out.

“Stranger in Us All” by Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow happens to be one of my all-time favorite albums. How do you feel about that album nowadays? Do you think it has stood the test of time well?

Thanks. I’m glad it’s one of your favorites! I certainly do think it’s stood the test of time. I think back fondly of the time doing pre-production and of the actual recording. It was the last time I did an album “old school”, meaning everyone together in the studio hashing out the tunes from beginning to end then recording it. I was in the studio from January 1995 to April 1995. Ritchie was mostly a pleasure to be around as were the rest of the band. We had many laughs, drank much wine and beer, and became very close. Doogie recently gave me some audio tapes of some of the jamming we did at the studio as well as a recording of the first time I came down to play with the band in September1994. Priceless stuff!

There are so many legendary tales and stories involving pranks and jokes played by Ritchie floating around. I was wondering if you were ever a victim of one of those or if you outsmarted him or simply steered clear of him?

By the time I joined Rainbow, I had already played with Alice Cooper, so Ritchie thought of me as a professional. I never let him know I was a fan. I had already toured and recorded with his ex-bandmates Joe Lynn Turner, Dave Rosenthal, and Chuck Burgi. I’d heard all their stories, so I was prepared for his potential pranks! He tried pranking me once when I first started with the band in pre-production. He rented a mansion in the Hudson Valley that we rehearsed at. He put his dirty soccer clothes in my pillowcase. I just thought it was a bumpy pillow. I didn’t smell any body odor or sweat. He asked me the next morning how I slept. I told him I slept great. Another time he put this huge industrial vacuum cleaner in my room. I thought the cleaners had left it or something. Turns out he had it on a remote control. About 4:30 AM he clicks it on from his room. He’d thought he’d be able to play that prank on me all night. I just unplugged it from the wall. His remote no longer worked. Again, he asked me how I’d slept. I again told him great! He wasn’t getting a rise out of me so he then moved on to easier prey!

Coincidentally, Greg’s attitude towards making living as a musician is exactly the same as another bass player that from time to time gets coverage here on THS — Roger Glover:

You have been recording and performing music for quite a few years now, so I was wondering; is it ever not fun to be a working musician? Where do you find the inspiration to keep going?

The inspiration for me is I still love it as much as I did when I was a teenager. I always tell people that when I’m on tour, I get paid for the long days of travel and for being away from my family. The playing is free! The only time it was ever “not fun” was the very, very short amount of time I played in a wedding band. It was depressing. You’d be treated like crap by waiters and kitchen staff. Not at all fun. That felt like work and I never want playing to FEEL like work.

Read more in Eternal Terror.

Thanks to Jens Nepper for the info.

Roger Glover appeared on BBC Radio Wales Alan Thompson’s show this past Sunday, March 12. The segment lasted for around 35 minutes, and they spoke about the new album, the band’s songwriting process, Spinal Tap, Ian Paice, Steve Morse, Jon Lord, Ronnie Dio, Ritchie Blackmore, Frank Sinatra, and many other things. Time for Bedlam, Johnnie’s Band, Since You Been Gone and Smoke on the Water have been played on the show.

You can listen to in on the BBC Player, where the episode will be available until April 10. Roger’s segment starts at around 24 minute mark into the show.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Just a quick public service announcement that Don Airey Band starts European tour tomorrow, March 11. If you’re in the neighbourhood — go and see them. The venues are intimate, the tickets are not that expensive, the musicians are top notch, and they are playing the music we all love. Just go.

A snippet from the last year performances, Lost in Hollywood live at the Locomotiv Club di Bologna, March 8 2016:

Swiss magazine Tracks has a cover story on the new Deep Purple album in its 2017 issue #2. A 6 page story inside includes an interview with Roger Glover, from where we present you with selected quotes. Usual caveats about reverse translation apply.

On Johnny’s Band lyrics:

It is not about a particular band. It was clear to me that this question would come when I wrote the lyrics. If you look at the stories of bands they are almost all the same. They start with nothing, alone against the rest of the world, they struggle to survive, they create the breakthrough, success brings money, money brings women and drugs, they end in rehab or die or anything else and 20 years later they reform and play again in the small clubs where they had begun. It is a universal story. I called it ‘Johnny’ because John is a very commonplace name.

On why the band have recorded a cover of Roadhouse Blues for the new album:

Just out of a whim. On the last album, we had the fun of Jerry Lee Lewis ‘It’ll Be Me’ and Bob asked, ‘Do we want to do that again?’ There were a few songs to choose from, but I no longer remember who called ‘Roadhouse Blues’. We are a band who likes to choose the path of least resistance. If we have to learn something first – forget it! (Laughs). ‘Roadhouse Blues’ is a song that we can play without having to listen to the original. So we played that in the studio, quite spontaneously and only once. The whole thing was done in half an hour. All live, no overdubs – even the singing is sung directly live with the band, since nothing was changed afterwards. That was fun. I was just a bit uncertain because the song was already covered a lot. Gillan has his roots and influences more at Elvis in the early rock ‘n’ roll time. But he did a great job here.

On Ritchie’s absence from the RnRHoF induction and Celebrating Jon Lord gala at the RAH:

It is not that we do not like each other. He has isolated himself. I would be happy if we still had contact and would talk with each other. This Hall of Fame thing would have been great if he had come. But he had already said months before: ‘I’m not interested.’ But afterwards he said naturally, ‘I was not invited’ or ‘they told me I should not come!’ I’ve sent Ritchie Christmas cards for years, but never got an answer. Somehow I gave up. Of course I know how important Ritchie was to the band. He pushed us in the right direction, he and Jon Lord had this push/pull effect for the band. Ritchie was more the purple architect than anyone else. But it was his choice to get out, just as I thought the band was back on a healthy path. All he did was always his own choice. I would welcome him as a friend. But it is not an option to return to Purple as a guitarist. We’ve been with Steve for 22 years and he’s our guitarist. Basically, all this is a soap opera.

If you can understand German, the magazine is available for your online perusal free of charge.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Take a break from all the promotional hoopla surrounding the impending release of the new album, and watch some random dude listening to Deep Purple (Child in Time from Granada TV, no less) for the very first time in his life. It’s good for a chuckle or three on that lazy Sunday afternoon.

Bonus hot off the press: same dude digs deeper into Purple family archives with Stargazer:

Thanks to Milan Fahrnholz for bringing this to your attention.

Craig Hooper, the filmmaker behind the From Here to inFinite documentary, was profiled in his local Welsh paper. This is not his first collaboration with Purple folk — he was also responsible for the 2003 Roger Glover documentary made for ITV Wales and produced the DVD that accompanied Gillan’s Inn career retrospective in 2006. His team has been granted unprecedented access to the band during inFinite writing and recording sessions in Nashville and Toronto.

The film also sees the band reflecting back on the many highs and lows of a career that’s influenced generations of musicians, and they consider a future choice – to retire gracefully or keep on rocking into their 70s.

From Here to inFinite premiers tomorrow, March 11 on Sky Arts in the UK, and on March 16 in cinemas in Germany and Austria. An extended version will be available with all inFinite editions that include a DVD.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

April 2017 issue of the Classic Rock magazine (now on sale in the UK) has Deep Purple on the cover, a 10-page feature Love, Death, Age: Inside the Unstoppable Deep Purple inside, plus a 7/10 review of the new album inFinite, and four pages review of Glenn Hughes’ Islington gig from January 21 this year.

To top it off, the magazine comes with an free Deep Purple compilation CD called Limitless.

The CD includes:

1. Time for Bedlam
2. All I got is you
3. All the time in the world (radio mix)
4. First sign of madness (bonus track on some versions of Now what?!)
5. No one came (Live in Gaelve — from Now what?! Gold edition)
6. Strange kind of woman (Live in Wacken)
7. Perfect strangers (Live in Tokyo)
8. Black night (recorded live in Milan on July 21, 2013 — previously unreleased)

In slightly related UK promotional news, Johnny’s Band has obtained Record of the week status on BBC Radio 2.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Record company has published an official video for All I Got Is You:

The single is due out on March 10. with the album to follow on April 7th.

Rainbow Memories in Rock — Live in Germany has won a Japan Gold Disc Award 2017 under the category of Best Music Videos — Overseas Music (foreign bands/labels). Despite the name, this award is more like American Grammies, as it is awarded for the best performance in a given year, as opposed to a certain number of units sold. The award is presented by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Thanks to Akemi Ono for the info.

Two more tracks from the upcoming Deep Purple albums inFinite have been published. We don’t have the means to embed them here, so here are the instruction on how you can listen.

All I Got Is You: go to bcfmradio.com/andyfox, click on ’21:00 – 02/03/2017′ (third link in the Recent Broadcasts list), and skip to around 47 minute mark. Caveat: it’s in pretty piss poor sound quality due to heavy compression, but gives you an idea nevertheless.

Johnny’s Band: go to www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gmqwc, start the player and skip to 2:02:35. The track is described as a ‘new single’ and is edited down to 3 minutes.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.