The Graham Bonnet Band is releasing a brand new album called The Book, It will be a double, with 11 new songs, and a bonus disc with 12 rerecorded classics, including 4 Rainbow tracks.
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Glenn Hughes posted on his Facebook page that him and Joe Bonamassa have started writing new music for an upcoming Black Country Communion album (scheduled for release in May 2017):

Here we go #BCC friends – followers & fans .. Here is @joebonamassa and I @glennhughesonline ?we started writing BCC4 at my LA home today ..full of #gratitude & for our #friendship .. I want to thank all of you for your love and support.. #musicisthehealer #loveistheanswer #blackcountrycommunion #brothers ??✌️ — with Joe Bonamassa.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

And we’ll leave you today with this little gem:
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Pat Thrall joined Glenn Hughes for a couple of songs at the latter’s gig in Las Vegas the other day. They performed Muscle and Blood and First Step of Love from their 1982 eponymous album.
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British paper The Guardian has published a retrospective of their coverage of heavy metal “from its inception almost 50 years ago”. The interesting part are the reproductions of two contemporary reviews of seminal Purple performances: the premiere of the Concerto for Group and Orchestra and the California Jam.

Attempts to unite European “classical” music with jazz or pop evoke as much excitement as to trial matings of giant pandas, and the results are just as often discouraging. Wednesday’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall […] featured the premiere of a Concerto for Group and Orchestra by Jon Lord, organist of the Deep Purple, and, in spite of several failings, makes quite an impressive effect.

Read more of the review in Guardian archives.

Suddenly British groups are the hottest thing in America, and the hottest of the hot is Deep Purple, who last year sold more albums in the States than any other recording artist, including Rolling Stones or anyone else. “California Jam” is one of their final dates on a 28-city, five-week tour of America, which has been sold-out at every show.

The lights blaze, the vast speakers tremble and boom: Deep Purple is a heavy metal group: hard driving rock. Excitement. You can feel the beat thumping inside your rib cage, taking over your body, battering your ear drums, possessing you.

Read the rest of the most eloquent review in Guardian archives as well.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Our Japanese correspondent sent in this interesting piece of Mk1 memorabilia. It is one of those compilations that can now be considered as bizarre, but at the time probably made quite a lot of sense to the record company.

I bought this at a second-hand record shop in the 1970’s. Entitled “Battle of Deep Purple and Jimi Hendrix”, it is a round tin can with two LP’s. The DP LP includes Hush, River Deep Mountain High, Prelude; Happiness, I’m So Glad, Hey Joe, Kentucky Woman, We Can Work It Out and April. Hendrix’s LP includes 12 songs including Purple Haze. The record company is Polydor, and it was released after “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”.

It is quite interesting that the liner notes categorize DP as the same genre as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Moody Blues and Nice, but with a more hard rock taste. The notes describe DP as a band which became popular in the US first rather than Great Britain. Also that DP is band which does not try to exceed its maximum power with each LP, but rather is a “well-behaved” band which flourishes step by step. Whoever wrote this was in for a surprise when “In Rock” was released! Anyway, the band members look very young…

Many thanks to Akemi Ono for the info and pictures.

An interview with Jon Lord recorded in June 2011 at the Blues en Bourgogne Festival in Le Creusot, France. It is relatively unknown as having been published in early July this year, it managed a whopping 32 views on Youtube by the time of this publication almost 2 months later. The fact that the video can not be embedded into other sites like ours, probably didn’t help matters.

It is always a delight to listen to Jon talking, and this is probably one of his last interviews — he was diagnosed with cancer just weeks later and withdrew from public eye for treatment.

A brief history of the miracle called Hammond organ, a layman accessible explanation of how the playing technique differs from the piano, the ups and downs of Purple, why Whitesnake was so much fun and why it stopped to be, working on the definitive Concerto recording, becoming an R&B musician again.

Head over to Youtube to watch the interview and come back here for some blues.

Thanks to Pascal Lefèvre and Jean-Philippe Porcherot for the videos and to Yvonne for the info.

To quote the source, “Here’s something that you don’t see every day…”

Well, let’s continue quoting. Just because.

Put together by Australian TV “Guitar Gods and Masterpieces” host Hack Wanger, “Don’t You Tell Me Not To Play Guitar” is a massive international charity effort to raise money for the E.J. Whitten Foundation to promote awareness and fight against prostate cancer, as well as an anti-depression efforts.

The lineup features a gent going by the name Dorian Chiiwahwah Phallic, Astral Cosmic Travel Agency (apparently his backing band), and several dozen guest guitar players including our own Steve Morse and Joe Satriani.

Thumbs up to Paul Gilbert’s t-shirt.

The track is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes, and you can also support the cause by buying t-shirts or making donations directly to the E.J. Whitten Foundation. This effort is also part of the Epic Guitar Solo contest.

Thanks to ESP Guitars for the info.

Glenn Hughes spoke recently to the Hard Rock Haven. He talked about his new solo album (by the by, it is called Resonate and will be released on November 4), Black Country Communion upcoming reunion (studio sessions are planned for January 3-11 next year with tentative release on May 21), Coverdale’s Purple Album (“David and I are as close as you can get”, yet he had to learn about the album through third hands), and the HoF induction. He also claims that Blackmore asked him to take part in the recent Rainbow shows:

HRH: Well, you mentioned Ritchie when we were talking about Purple. He recently went out on the road with a new version of Rainbow. As a vocalist from that era and as a friend of Ritchie’s from back in the day, what are your thoughts on the new Rainbow?

GH: He asked me to do it with him.

HRH: Really?

GH: And I said no because he wanted to, funny enough, he wanted to use an unknown singer and I said, “It’s not me. It’s not me to do that.” I’ve done that with David and it was good. I don’t want to do it again. It was something…I said, I very eloquently said, “No thank you. I really would like to see you, but I can’t do this at the point where I am right now.”

HRH: It’s still nice to know that that kind of communication exists between you two.

GH: It’s completely open.

On his schedule:

[…] I’m completely booked until Christmas and then January is Black Country. Then late February I start my next American tour in the spring and then all the way into Europe and festivals in Europe and America.

Read more in the Hard Rock Haven.

Thanks to Team Rock for the heads up and to BraveWords for additional info.

Swiss music magazine Tracks has a Deep Purple studio report in their July/August issue. If you have followed our news thoroughly, there is not much in the article that you don’t already know. Our correspondent summarizes the gist for the rest of us who do not speak German:

• in February 2015, the band met in Bottrop, Germany for the writing/jam sessions;
• followed this year by the recording session in Nashville, with Bob Ezrin producing;
• after which Gillan and Glover met in Portugal for writing the lyrics;
• the vocals were recorded in Toronto after the HoF induction in April;
• 14 tracks were finished but not all of them might end up on the album.

Roger also mentioned in early July that he expects to hear mixed album for the first time somewhere around the Montreux date (which was July 16th).

Release date was mentioned in several interviews as being penciled in as some time early next year.

The magazine is available for your viewing pleasure online. Look for the pp 28-29 spread.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.