Glenn Wellard sent us his version of the Deep Purple Family Tree together with the following note:

Being a fan myself, and this year being the 50th year since Deep Purple were formed, I decided I wanted to do something to mark the occasion and produce something to hand on my own study wall. So, for the last few months I’ve been working on a super huge family tree of band member connections with other major UK bands. It contains 50 different bands within it (I thought that was a nice number to reach for a 50th anniversary!), with the core of it, of course, being Deep Purple members. I’ve called it the Deep Purple Extended Family (as they are considered to be one of the catalyst for a lot of the rock bands that came after them). I’ve now completed the project, and a print of it is hanging proudly on my study wall. However, I’ve decided it would be a shame to keep the poster to myself, so I am sending a high definition converted JPEG copy of it to various parties out there that might be interested to have a look at, comment on, display on websites, etc, on a permission basis, whilst retaining copyright over hard copy prints.

It’s been a complex and pretty frustrating project at times, which has taken a lot of effort to make it as accurate as possible. As the tree has got bigger, the options of branches that can be included get exponentially bigger (!) and so it becomes harder to decide what to include and leave out, as well as the connections between artists getting more complicated. So I have tried to include those branches and connections that seemed most relevant to me.

I have also listed the poster on eBay (it can be found by searching Deep Purple Poster) in case people want to buy a large high quality printed copy. So, the only thing I have done to it to protect myself on the copy I am sending out digitally, is to add a faint copyright watermark, which does not detract from being able to view the detail of it online. On eBay I’ve restricted sales to the UK, mainly because I’m not sure what the postal cost to send to the USA would be. But if there was interest from over the pond there, I’m sure I could figure this out!

Click on the image above to view a full size version (warning: it’s HUGE!)

Ian Paice will be featured on the next episode of Vintage TV show Nicky Horne Presents…. The episode will be shown on Tuesday 17th of April at 10.30pm and will be repeated on, Sunday 22nd April at 10.00pm.

Vintage TV is available in the UK on Sky 369, Freeview 82, Virgin 343, Freesat 505 and BT/TalkTalk 82.

Thanks to Yvonne for the heads up.

May 2018 issue of Burrn! magazine carries an exclusive 12-page interview with Ritchie Blackmore, conducted by editor-in-chief Kaz Hirose. Below are a few of the more interesting tidbits translated back into English courtesy of our Japanese correspondent Akemi Ono.

On coming to Japan:

Burrn!: This year Rainbow is doing shows in places where you have not played before, Russia, Finland, Czechoslovakia. You wish to play where you have not done the new Rainbow line-up?
Ritchie: Well, I don’t like to travel, but I have been to Russia before, and I like borscht, the famous Russian soup.

B: What about Japan?
R: I thought about it when Mr. Udo invited us, but it’s too far. I don’t like flying long distances.

B: How about via Hawaii or California?
R: I’ve lived in California for about 3 years, I didn’t like living in Hollywood. Everyone is a rock star or a movie star and seeing a psychiatrist.

B: Japan really wants you to come.
R: Yes, I understand. If I go, it will be through Mr. Udo. I have known him for a very long time — about 200 years probably.

Ritchie’s comments on the tunes played by the current line-up:

Spotlight Kid: First I thought this was a meaningless song, just being played up-tempo. So I asked Don Airey whether he thought there was anything good about this tune. Don answered that since we have it, we should nurture it. Later on I took a liking for it.
I Surrender: This is a very difficult tune, especially since we have changed the key from G to F#. I need to concentrate very much.
Mistreated: I like to play this tune. David Coverdale did a great interpretation.
Man on the Silver Mountain: I also like to play this tune, but none of us know what this title really means. Only Ronnie James Dio knows. People tend to read into song titles. Like Speed King. When Deep Purple played in the US, people thought it was about drugs, but it was only about driving fast.
Soldier of Fortune: I requested this as I wanted to play the acoustic guitar. This is a great song. David wrote the first half and I wrote the second half. He wrote the first half on the piano and said he did not know where to go with it, so I made suggestions. It is nice to write and arrange a song 50/50.
Child in Time: One of my favorites, although we did not play in Deep Purple so much as Ian Gillan did not want do it on stage very frequently.
Long Live Rock’n Roll: This was a rare case where I was involved in writing the lyrics. I told Ronnie that the riff sounded like “Long Live Rock’n Roll” to me. I told him he could change it, but we ended up staying with it.
Smoke on the Water: Once I asked Ian Anderson which tune he does not enjoy playing, and he said “Aqualung”, since if he does not play it, everyone wants to hear it. Smoke on the Water is a tune everyone expects me to play, but fortunately it is a good song.

On tunes that have not been played:

Kill the King: I’m probably not playing it since it sounds too much like Spotlight Kid. If there is one song that we have not played and we may, it’s Self Portrait.
Gates of Babylon: It’s difficult to play the riffs. There is a lot of editing in the recording, and it’s difficult to play live.

Other questions:

B: Would you like to record a whole album with the current line-up?
R: There is a possibility, but I do not want to make an album with only re-makes of old tunes. Maybe something like 2 new songs, and 2 previous songs. That could be an idea.

B: Which are your favorite Rainbow tunes? I think Street of Dreams is unique and a great Rainbow song.
R: Yes, that is definitely one of my favorites. Joe did a great version. That may be one of the ideas to work on, or maybe not.

B: Do you still make songs with Candice?
R: Not really. We were too busy in the past, so we are taking some time off. She is also busy with the children.

B: Will you do shows in the US?
R: Probably not, although there were some ideas going around. If we do, probably one or two shows only. And not in California.

B: NY?
R: NY or Connecticut, if we ever get around to it.

The sketchbook pages on RGs official website have been updated with new items.

Glenn Hughes will be bringing his Classic Deep Purple Live set to the United States in late August / early September this year. He will play a total of 17 dates, mostly in the North East, starting with Westbury, Long Island, on August 25th, and wrapping up in Tarrytown, NY, on September 22nd. Tickets for many of the shows go on sale later this week.

Further details in our calendar.

The latest issue of Guitar Interactive magazine (#55) features an extensive interview with Steve Morse recorded last November in Stockholm. There does not appear to be a way for us to show it here, so head over to their website to watch it.
Continue Reading »

German magazine Eclipsed is celebrating 50th anniversary of the band in style. The current April 2018 issue has a historical picture of Mark 2 on the cover and 18 pages dedicated to the band inside. This includes the roadmap for the rest of the year, a career retrospective, timeline from February 1968 to the present day, a 2-page spread on Ritchie Blackmore, and reproduction of a 1970 Jon Lord interview. Later issues of the magazine will include:

• May 2018: profiles of guitar players — Blackmore/Bolin/Satriani/Morse, guest guitar players, plus pictures and interviews;
• June 2018: profiles of singers — Evans/Gillan/Coverdale/Hughes/Turner;
• July-August 2018: profiles of bass and keyboard players — Simper/Glover/Hughes and Lord/Airey, the drummer — the one and the only, and producers — Paice/Birch/Ezrin (Glover and Bradford are not mentioned for some reason);
• September 2018: Deep Purple as a live band;
• October 2018: 50 greatest songs.

Even those of us who do not understand the language, can appreciate the scale of the undertaking.

Customers from select EU countries can purchase issues of the magazine online through Eclipsed shop. The rest of the world is kind of out of luck.

Thanks to Deep Purple Tour Pages for the info.

Don Airey will release his new solo album One of a Kind on May 25, 2018 via earMusic. The album is touted as a “true classic hard rock gem with melodies, great riffs and solos” and features members of Don’s solo band Carl Sentance, Laurence Cottle, Jon Finnigan, and Simon McBride. It will be released in 2CD (including a bonus live CD), vinyl and digital formats.

Track list:

CD1 One of a Kind

1. Respect
2. All Out Of Line
3. One Of A Kind
4. Everytime I See Your Face
5. Victim Of Pain
6. Running Free
7. Lost Boys
8. Need You So Bad
9. Children Of The Sun
10. Remember To Call
11. Stay The Night

CD2 recorded live at Fabrik, Hamburg on March 14, 2017.

1. Pictures of Home (originally by Deep Purple)
2. Since You’ve Been Gone (originally by Rainbow)
3. I Surrender (originally by Rainbow)
4. Still Got The Blues (originally by Gary Moore)

Just to give you an idea what to expect, here’s Don Airey Band performing Victim of Pain, song from the new album, at the Bounty Rock Cafe in Olomouc, Czech Republic, on March 12:

Thanks to earMusic for the info, to Martin Dybala for the video, and to Yvonne for the heads up on all this.

There are 8 dates in Germany announced towards the ends of this year for an outfit called Pete York’s Rock and Blues Circus doing a Ticklin´da´Groove tour. Said circus consists of Pete York himself, our own Roger Glover, plus Miller Anderson, Zoot Money, and Albie Donnelly.
Continue Reading »

Rock Candy magazine has a 4-page spread on Deep Purple Mark 4 in their February-March 2018 issue.

DEEP PURPLE’S MK IV LINE-UP CRASHED AND BURNED IN SPECTACULAR FASHION IN 1976 AND MANY FANS THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT TIME. BUT WHY DID THE BAND FALL APART SO PUBLICLY? WHAT PART DID IT PLAY IN THE DEATH OF GUITARIST TOMMY BOLIN? AND IS IT TIME THE BAND’S WORK DURING THIS PERIOD WAS RE-EVALUATED? ROCK CANDY INVESTIGATES THE DEMISE OF THIS VERSION OF PURPLE, BRINGS YOU AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THEIR ILL-FATED LAST TOUR OF THE UK AND TAKES ANOTHER LOOK AT THE BAND’S OFTEN MALIGNED ALBUM, ‘COME TASTE THE BAND’…

The full article is available online as a PDF file or you can purchase the issue in question.

Thanks to Benny Holmström for the info.