MetalTalk spoke to Roger Glover earlier today, March 1, “to find out more about the current ethos of the band, the inspiration for the new suite of songs as well as hopes and fears for the future”:
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Documentary on the making of the new album Deep Purple: From Here To Infinity will be shown on British cable/satellite channel Sky Arts HD on Saturday, 11th March. It’s on at 9pm, with Classic Albums: Machine Head starting at 8pm, and Perfect Strangers Live following at 11pm.
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Canadian band Monster Truck will be supporting Deep Purple on their European tour from the beginning through to the Stuttgart gig on June 14. This combination are no strangers to each other as Monster Truck already have played support slot on the Canadian tour in 2012. Since then the neo-“classic rock”-sounding band have released a couple of albums and enjoyed popularity both at home and in Europe.

Check out their track Don’t Tell Me How To Live from the 2016 album Sittin’ Heavy before deciding to skip to the bar:

A brief article appeared in the Billboard today, with quotes from an interview with Roger Glover and a video from the polar expedition photo shoot.

When we go in to make an album, we have no idea. We don’t sit down and have a meeting and say, ‘What are we going to do?’ We just let the music do the talking. The only thought for [Infinite] that occurred … is after a real standout album like Now What?!, what are we going to follow it up with?’ It’s almost like the classic second-album syndrome. We wanted to make it different. We didn’t want to make it sound like an extension of Now What?! So [Infinite] sounds a little heavier than Now What?!, a bit denser maybe. But, really we just jam and see what happens.

It was the record company [earMUSIC’s] idea, the [album] title and the [photo] concept. t’s always great when they come up with the idea, and I think we were all very happy that someone else was making the decisions for us. They sent us a mockup of what they were looking for, and it looked great. They said, ‘Be prepared to have a bit of fun. We’ve got some vintage Arctic clothing,’ so it was a real surprise. It looked great, although God knows how those explorers years ago survived — obviously, some of them didn’t — because [the clothes] are not that warm compared to the modern ski clothing of today.

No one wants to stop. But we know that I’m 71 now, [singer Ian] Gillan is 71, we’re all about late 60s, early 70s, and bodies have a way of not keeping up with your brain or your career. We’re all sort of approaching that point where I can’t imagine another eight years to do an album.

The time is approaching when it will end, but we don’t want to face that. We don’t actually want to make a date or a final tour or anything. We just want to carry on as long as nature allows or is kind of dignified. If we can’t do what we do anymore, then yes, it’s time to stop. But we’re still doing it, and we’re still enjoying it very much. So all we’re saying is the door is closing, but it’s not closed yet.

Read more in Billboard.

Thanks to BraveWords and Lutz Reinert for the info.

An interview with Ian Paice was featured on Robert Sas’ Rock Show a few days ago, and it was a very relaxed and informative chat. Ian spoke about his health, the title and contents of the new album, the differences between then and now, the fate of the band, their immediate touring plans, his hobbies, the ways of entertaining himself on the road, the Purple fantasy camp, and many other things.

The interview starts at around 26 minute mark into the show, right after Time for Bedlam:

It continues at 32’20” into the second part of the show, following Smooth Dancer:

Couple of new submissions to our semi-impermanent trainspotting section.

Highway Star is being used in a mexican commercial (ka-ching). We’ve been told that it advertises beer, but might just as well advertise sneakers. Or extra tight pants. Or something else entirely.

Meanwhile, Russian military band has been spotted practicing their goosesteps in Abu Dhabi:

Thanks to Arturo García and Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Roger Glover and Ian Paice have also appeared on German TV channel BR Fernsehen in an evening news segment for February 22:
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We now have images of both the “large” and the “small” inFinite box sets:

The t-shirt in either of them is only available in size L.

Thanks to Lutz Reinert for sending these in.

Roger Glover and Ian Paice sit down with the Rock Antenne to answer the burning questions: is this the final tour? Is this the final album? Is this the end of Deep Purple? Why you can’t please everybody with the setlist? And most importantly, why do sound techs never count to three?

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

A Japanese documentary on the Highway Star has been posted to Youtube. And in 43+ minutes it covers a big chunk of Mark 2 history besides the song itself. Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, and Chris Charlesworth (of Illustrated Biography fame) were inteviewed, with some stock footage of Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore as well. While the narration is in Japanese, the extensive interviews are not overdubbed, which makes it easier to piece together the story with some background knowledge about the band.

Now, writing Highway Star on the tour bus and performing it the same night on stage certainly makes for a great story. But it is contradicted by contemporary accounts.

Aforementioned in the documentary Richard ‘The Beast’ Green’s writeup in New Musical Express suggested that it were the lyrics that got written on the bus:

Little did the capacity crowd at Portsmouth Guildhall on Monday night know just how new Deep Purple’s opening number “Highway Star” really was. On the coach on the way down from London, Ian Gillan asked for suggestions for titles for a rock number, Roger Glover suggested “Highway Star”, and Ian set to writing it. It was finished during rehearsals and performed for the first time three hours later! It was the start of Purple’s new British tour and if the audience reaction at Pompey is anything to go by, it’ll be a stormer.

And Roy Shipston wrote in Disc And Music Echo that Blackmore was not on the bus at all:

A picnic with Deep Purple sounded like a good idea. We arrange to meet the coach from London, allegedly loaded with booze and grub, at a pub on the Kingston by-pass, en route to Portsmouth for the first gig of their tour. Perhaps we’ll stop to eat at the Devil’s Punchbowl, quite a beauty spot. Naturally, the coach is considerably late, and you can’t sit in a pub for an hour and a half and not drink, can you! By the time I’m juggling with large paper cupfuls of scotch on a coach that must have square wheels, I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t come. True, there is plenty of alcohol on board, almost a bottle of scotch per person. But support group Bullet have missed the coach (only the start of their troubles), Ritchie Blackmore has decided to make his own way there, and we stop for every hitcher in an attempt to fill up the empty seats.

Thanks to T Grace for the video and to Nigel Young for bringing it to your attention and original research.