The record company has posted a second teaser for the new Deep Purple album inFinite, due to be released early next year:
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Back in 1969, the lineup of DEEP PURPLE had seen a drastic change: Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice split up with singer Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper and hired the former EPISODE SIX musicians Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to complete the lineup.

One of the first shows to feature the new lineup was the live performance of Jon Lord’s „Concerto For Group and Orchestra“, an ambitious work to unite the different worlds of a rock band and a full orchestra which lay the foundation for Jon Lords career as composer / writer and solo artist. About a year later, the follow-up of the „Concerto“ faced the light of day during a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall, again featuring his DEEP PURPLE bandmates and conductor Malcolm Arnold.

Contrary to the „Concerto“, which took more than 40 years to be recorded in a studio, Jon Lord went to the studio in 1971 to record „Gemini Suite“ as a studio project. At that time, the rock career of DEEP PURPLE was in full flight and Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore showed no interest in participating in the recording and were replaced by guitar player Albert Lee , multi talented Tony Ashton and singer Yvonne Elliman.

While the „Concerto“ had its focus on band and orchestra as a whole, „Gemini Suite“ did focus on the different instruments, dedicating a track to guitar, piano, drums, vocals bass guitar and organ respectively.

The first CD release was a straight release in 1987 on Line Records in Germany being the only official (and now long deleted) version until the remastered release on Purple Records more than 20 years later. The 2016 release is not based on any of those previous versions and features new artwork and a new remaster by Rob Cass, based on the original stereo mixes of the album.

Not owning the 2008 remaster, a comparison with the 1987 release shows quite some improvement in sound quality with more details being audible than on the original CD release. Luckily, the remaster doesn’t follow the popular trend of brick-walling every track and preserves the dynamics and overall feel of the original recording. The booklet gives no explaination why the original artwork has been dropped and was replaced by completely new design, but the new foreword by Roger Glover adds some enjoyable pages to the booklet.

Only thing to criticize is the record company did not use a proper Digipak for the release and decided to go with some LP-like fold-out papersleeve instead, resulting in your CD getting the first fingerprints and scratches before even being played.

It is now more or less official: Deep Purple will play the UK in November 2017 and the tour is being promoted as The Long Goodbye Tour. Tickets go on sale December 9, with presales starting a day earlier. Support for all 5 shows will be Europe.

There are also some a lot less official dates on European mainland in May and June. These remain highly unconfirmed, but look very plausible to our eyes. Some are going on sale in the coming days. At least a couple of German shows are being billed as “Farewell Tour 2017”, but do not read too much into it.

Full details in our calendar, which may be updated further quietly.

Ah, and one last thing: the first single for the new album Infinite will be released on January 20.

Thanks to Blabbermouth and Nigel Young for the info.

Several of our regulars contacted us wondering why we did not report on the rumours that upcoming Deep Purple tour will be their last. The truth is, there is not much to report. So far, there has been just that — rumours and innuendo.

Let me inject a healthy dose of scepticism into what you may have read elsewhere.

The first source of said rumours were the Hellfest organizers, who briefly put up a flyer suggesting that this will be the band’s last tour. It was quickly taken down and replaced with one without such claims. And we all know that promoters will say just about anything that will not land them in jail to sell tickets. So, on a scale of trustworthiness, this is rather close to 0 than to 10.

The second source (which Simon Robinson cited without link) is the Spanish site The Metal Circus. A post dated November 29 states that:

Hace escasos minutos hemos estado en contacto con una fuente muy cercana al management de la mítica banda británica Deep Purple, quien nos ha confirmado que, en efecto, Deep Purple se despiden de los escenarios de todo el mundo con su próxima gira.

Now, my Spanish is nonexistent, but Google translation does not bring in a lot of confidence either:

A few minutes ago we have been in contact with a [source] close to the management of the legendary British band Deep Purple, who has confirmed to us that indeed, Deep Purple [will say] goodbye to the stages around the world with their upcoming tour.

“A source close to management”? Really? I wonder what is Spanish for “hearsay”…

On a side note: personally, I decided some time ago to follow the example of a fellow fan and to treat every Deep Purple show as the last chance to see the band. Let’s face it: the esteemed gentlemen are getting to that stage in their lives, where anything can happen at any minute, and plans be damned. So, for me it does not really matter whether the band is planning their retirement or not. I’ll be just grateful if they indeed continue for another couple of years, as Gillan suggested in recent interviews, and will give me another chance to go and see them doing what they do best.

I wish you the same.

The first date of the 2017 Deep Purple tour — following release of the new album — has surfaced. Organizers of the Hellfest festival in France have posted next year artist lineup and Deep Purple is listed as one of the three headliners alongside with Aerosmith and Linkin Park. The festival runs June 16-18 in Clisson, France, and we’ll fill our calendar as soon as the exact date of the band’s appearance will become available.

Smoke on the Water (the single) will be added next year to the Grammy Hall Of Fame. This particular hall is run by The Recording Academy (the same people responsible for the Grammies), and aims at “honoring both single and album recordings of all genres of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old”.

Recordings continue to be reviewed annually by a special member committee comprised of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts, with final approval by The Academy’s Board of Trustees. Commemorative certificates are then awarded to recipients.

The next Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 12, 2017, at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

In addition to Deep Purple wine and beer, one can now also brew some Deep Purple branded coffee. And this one is not shy about making connection with the band (we hope Bruce gets his cut 😉 ). Sold by the German company Rock Star Coffee, the Black Night organic arabica blend can be purchased separately or as a 1999-piece limited edition gift set boxed together with a thermal mug.

Thanks to Rick Harris for spotting this one.

If you have already forgot about the teasy-whimsy Now what?! promotional campaign, a reminder arrived today in the form of the new profile picture on the official Deep Purple Facebook page and a video teaser to the earMUSIC Youtube channel:

Now, knock yourselves out with speculations.

New European tour dates have been posted to Glenn Hughes’ web site. As you might remember, he was booked on an extensive tour of the continent co-headlining with Living Colour, who pulled out at the 11th hour due to being double booked by their management. Consequently, the whole tour had to be scrapped.

We are now happy to announce that a new tour has risen from the ashes of this screwup. It will start on January 20 in Newcastle, UK, cover the isle, then move on to the continent, visiting France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, and wrapping up on February 23 in Tilburg, Netherlands.

British band Stone Broken will be supporting Glenn on this tour.

Full details and ticket info (where available) in our calendar.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Ian Gillan was interviewed by Andy Fox for his Rockshow on the occasion of the Vinyl Collection release. Of course, Andy knows his Purple stuff (he even played Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming on this show), so the interview turned out to be rather entertaining.
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