The ARTE channel in France have posted some footage of this years Hellfest festival, including from around the 22 minute mark Smoke on the Water and Uncommon Man from DP’s set.

A further longer show, approx. 1 hour, of the Deep Purple set is due to be aired in July for those with access to a European satellite feed.

More here

Thanks to Thomas for the info.

A lengthy, technical at times, and very interesting interview with Steve Morse has appeared on the website of Ultimate Guitar.

UG: What’s the Purple album and solo you’re most proud of?
Steve: I don’t know. I don’t dwell too much on the albums or the solos. In a way it’s like children you give up for adoption. You love ‘em and you’ve been waiting for them to have their life but once they’re on their own, you can’t do anything more with ‘em, hahaha. They’re done. But I think Purpendicular was magic because it was the newness of being in the band and there were the most question marks. Like, “What’s it gonna be like? What’s gonna happen?”
UG: Nothing ever compares to the first time.
Steve: There’s a song called “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” and it was so far out of left field because it was something I was practicing as a little guitar thing and not as a Deep Purple idea. Jon heard it and we went from there and he was like, “Let’s take this further. Let’s modulate and change this” and that was really cool.

UG: Do you remember the first time you heard Purple?
Steve: I heard “Hush” and living in the South at that time, we heard the original version of “Hush” too [by Joe South]. That was when they had Rod Evans singing and he sounds more like a pop singer and it didn’t hit me until the organ and Ritchie’s happened and that it was like, “Oh, OK. Cool. This is a heavy version of it.”
UG: Had you done Purple songs in cover bands?
Steve: Oh, yeah. We were jamming on “Hush” the minute it came out. Of course, I paid for my first car by playing “Smoke On the Water” in cover bands.

UG: Have you ever picked up another guitar like a Strat or a Les Paul?
Steve: Actually, I pick up a Les Paul from time to time. Bob’s got his favorite Les Paul that he’s convinced has to be on every record so we double some parts with that but it’s generally like power chords. As long as he knows it’s there, he’s happy.
UG: You’ve just described your live sound and your guitars. Achieving a great guitar sound is really a lifetime pursuit, right?
Steve: Yeah. I try to play to the vision too. For instance, I’m always doing little subtle things that no one would notice but it does make a difference. When Ian starts singing a verse and there’s a big chord, I’ll hit the big chord then roll off the tone control on the next drum beat or the next snare beat. What that does is give him a lot of top end to sing over and makes me a little less obvious in the mix. When I’m doing a line I’m trying to bring out, I push down on the pedal for the short delay so it’s suddenly coming through two amps in what sounds like a stereo chorus. When you have one dry and one modulated, that’s basically the way the old Roland Choruses [amps] were. They were stereo: one was straight and one was modulated. Your ears hear it as stereo.
UG: These are effects you would do on the fly while recording the track?
Steve: Yes and sometimes it annoys the engineers because they think they have to do everything like you can’t fade out your own chords because they want to fade it out in the rare event they get that way. But in general they like if I shape the tone and do it the way I do it because that way there’s one less decision.
UG: That would absolutely make an engineer’s life easier.
Steve: Also with the long airy delays when I’m hitting a clean chord, I’ll push down the long delay and I can make it stop instantly when the next bar comes.

More to be found over at UltimateGuitar.com

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Deep Purple live at Graspop Metal Meeting (Dessel, Belgium 2017-06-17)

I was on saturday 17th of june in Dessel at the Graspop Metal Meeting & I saw once again Deep Purple as Headliner of the day. No doubt about it, it was a fabulous GIG. I saw Purple many times but this time it was extra ordinary! OK, we can discuss about the setlist but for me one thing is very clear, Deep Purple is awesome! With their ages , they blow still everyone away.
Also the press is very possitive “oldies but goldies”. If this was the last concert in Belgium, well this was really a great one!
But with the energy & the technologie they plaid, I can hardly belief that they will stop playing.
It’s impossible to belief but these guys are so good & their smiles are so great…go to see them, it’s unbeliefable but thrue!

Deep Purple Rules!

probably a stupid Purple fan?

review by luc Appelen

Deep Purple live at Schleyerhalle (Stuttgart, Germany 2017-06-14)

Here we go again …Stuttgart, Schleyerhalle. MONSTER TRUCK were one of the better guests Purple had during the years as far as we were concerned. Us being the girl and me and two of our boys, 16 and 10 years old, that are really in DP (and were lucky enough to catch a drum stick from Ian Paice each – but after a PURPENDICULAR-show earlier in the year, where Ian signed booklets and was kind enough to chat and have a pic taken. They are so proud…) Back to Stuttgart: Purple started in time and with a powerful 4-pack of Bedlam, Fireball, Bloodsucker, Strange Kind of Woman. I could easyly do without the last one for years now, but have to say, this time it was special. Ian Gillan started a rap at the end, talking to Steve at the speed of light and being very funny, well the bits I could understand at least. Just when you were tempted to think “clever move, he just can not do the call and reaponse bit with the screaming and all anymore …Ian screamed. And man did he scream! Just as if to show ’em … and show ’em he did! Oooh my soul, I love you baby! Yep.

Don Airey was very much in the front throughout the whole show and I wonder if he covers up a bit for Steve Morse who has reportedly issues with his right hand. Steve’s playing was flawless though (even with a broken string for the encore of Black Night). And I for one did not mind they dropped Contact Lost after all those years ….
Of course I would have loved to hear even more new stuff or some rather obscure songs but that’s just me being very picky, given the fact they played 4 songs from Infinite and even 2 songs from What Now. And as a matter of fact folks yelled and danced to the classics so the band may hardly see a reason to change the old homerun we’re all used to: Perfect Strangers, Space Trucking, Smoke on the Water, Hush (with an opening of Peter Gunn this time) and Black Night. A pity they did not add Roadhouse Blues to the shuffle of Black NIght (as coverband PURPENDICULAR did – and that was were Ian Paice got the idea to cover the song from) but as lots of people on the net put down Purple’s go at the classic the band might not have been very encouraged to do so …

The new stuff sure was impressive and sounded well rehearsed and went smoothly. It fitted in better than the songs from Now What did on the last tour, I’d say. Maybe that’s because I like Infinite much better anyway. Jonny’s Band and especially The Surprising were great additions to the set. Birds of Prey has never been my favourite despite many people singing it’s praise but came across very good here. I would have loved to see Top of the World or One Night in Vegas (grooves like Ted, doesn’t it) played but you can’t have it all. It is nothing short of breathtaking at times how the band manages to squeeze something fresh from every single tune they play at every single show they play – so hats off!

review by Thomas Max

The last few days of the European tour are upon us, and in Germany the media bandwagon has been rolling on, with many interviews being broadcast and published.

First on our list is a broadcast from SWR, a lengthy interview with IG knocking in at half an hour or so, and in English (allegedly) for your greater understanding.
http://www.swr.de/kunscht/deep-purple-rock-vetranen-tournee-deutschland/-/id=12539036/did=19450106/nid=12539036/1ccpt1k/index.html

A shorted interview appears on the website for BILD which again is in English, with subtitles in German

http://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/musik/deep-purple/zu-besuch-bei-bild-52198322.bild.html

And finally a short review of the show in Frankfurt here…..

According to a post on the Manchester Arena The Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow show on 22nd June will not now go ahead.

Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow

Promoter statement
Following last month’s tragic incident and the subsequent temporary closure of the main area outside the venue, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow show on Thursday 22 June 2017 is unfortunately no longer able to take place at Manchester Arena.
Other shows on Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow tour are not affected and will continue as planned, including London’s The O2 (Stone Free Festival) on Sat 17 June, Glasgow The SSE Hydro on Sun 25 June and Birmingham Genting Arena on Wed 28 June.
From Rainbow – “Ritchie, all band members and management are sorry that this tragedy has occurred.  Our heartfelt sympathy to all victims and everyone in Manchester”.

There’s a new section on the official Roger Glover Website called “Sketchbook pages”:

They say that if you haven’t used something for a couple of years, it might as well not be there. Get rid of it. Keep life current. Simple.

In my case, not so. Not that I’m a hoarder (I’m a hoarder) but some things I can’t let go; photographs, videos (though never watched), diaries, cassettes, tapes, albums, memorabilia, etc., etc.

And many boxes of sketchbooks. I can’t pass an art shop without buying a sketchbook.

There are hundreds of them. Several have only a few pages used and then nothing. Others are crammed with lyrics, doodles, chord sequences, lists. And the odd drawing.

Recently I was rummaging through them and here are some of the things I found.

RG

Head over to RGs website to see the first bunch of Sketchbook pages.

Deep Purple live at Rockhal (Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg 2017-05-27)

[Written one week ago, after getting home from the show]
Excellent show tonight in Luxembourg. Interestingly, almost 10 years to the day from when they played here on 20 May 2007 [still touring the amazing Rapture of the Deep album]. Tonight the band played an amazing set. The songs from In-Finite sounded great. Bedlam is a strong opener, and The Surprising and Birds of Prey were absolutely astounding. And, as many fans will know from reading previous set lists, they’ve happily kept Uncommon Man and Hell to Pay in the set as well. The mix of classics was fun and with some fantastic jamming, but I was mostly glad about the newer songs they played. The band totally rocked.
I’ve been a serious, steady fan since Perfect Strangers [I was 14 years old then], but have unfortunately seen them only six times: Prague in December 2000 [Group and Orchestra tour] and November 2003 [Bananas]; Brno, Czech Republic in Feb. 2006 [Rapture of the Deep] and Slavkov in August 2013 [Now What?!], and here in Lux in May 2007 [Rapture] and tonight [In-Finite], and each one seemed to me like the best DP show I’d ever seen. It was like that again tonight. An amazing rock concert.

review by John Norris

A video has arrived at n-tv in Germany for Johnny’s Band, the second third ‘first to have an actual video’ single from the new album InFinite. This single was heavily played on the UK’s BBC Radio 2, making song of the week, earlier this year.
Just remember, as per Call of the wild, Deep Purple just don’t do videos…..

No doubt it will appear on YouTube soon, but in the meantime you can enjoy the video here

Ritchie Blackmore: ‘I’m not a guy who likes jamming and having fun. Music is very serious’

The Guardian newspaper in the Uk has published a new interview with Ritchie Blackmore in advance of the new Rainbow shows this coming June.

Blackmore is one of English rock’s great eccentrics. Not in a cuddly, tea-party sort of way, but in a faintly malevolent, unpredictable and quick-to-anger sort of way. In both Deep Purple and Rainbow, a lineup of which he has convened for a summer amble around the UK’s arenas, he developed a reputation for volatility, and that volatility was accepted because he also had a reputation as one of hard rock’s most electrifying guitarists – he was, after all, the man who wrote rock’s most recognisable riff, Smoke on the Water.

Then, in 1997, he cast rock behind him and, with his wife Candice Night, started playing medieval and Renaissance music – in some version of period costume – under the name Blackmore’s Night. What he wanted, he says, was “to be a wandering minstrel and play to 10 people a night”, and to be able to stay in castles when he toured. And that’s precisely what he did for the next 20 years or so, until the Rainbow name was revived last summer.

Three things are certain in heavy rock: death, taxes, and that you will part ways with Ritchie Blackmore. In Rainbow alone, he has been through 26 musicians. Why?

“I’ve been told it’s because I don’t pay anybody. I don’t see why that should make a difference. If you’re into music, you should do it for nothing. In fact, that’s the way the music business is going, isn’t it? I thought artists were expected to play for nothing.”

That really doesn’t make being a globe-straddling, internationally successful band sound like much fun.

“I try not to have fun. I work very hard at not having fun.”

More here