Perfect Strangers of Finland will be hosting their annual Purple Night on September 16 at the Tavastia club in Helsinki. This year, the event will pay tribute to the music of Tommy Bolin. His brother Johnny, who plays drums and guitar, will be the special guest of the evening. He will perform with a variety of local musicians playing under the Private Eyes Project moniker. Petteri Hirvanen Group (including Santeri Kallio and Niclas Etelävuori from Amorphis) will perform some Tommy Bolin solo and Bolin/Cobham material. Finally, Wolf Moon Rising will perform the whole of Rainbow On Stage from start to finish. The night will be hosted by singer, songwriter and writer Mika Järvinen, who has just finished his Uriah Heep book and now is working on one about Deep Purple. His band The Sensational Mika Järvinen Band will also open the proceedings.

Sounds like good times can be had for all. Be sure to drop by if you find yourself in the neighbourhood.

What: Purple Night 2016
When: Friday, September 16, 2016, from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am
Where: Tavastia club, Helsinki, Finland
Tickets: €13 in advance / €15 at the door
More info: PSoF

Thanks to Jari Kaikkonen for the info.

Back in June, Ian Paice spoke to Russian drumming magazine Back Beat. And what you’d expect to be a quite technical talk with a trade rag turned out to be an entertaining conversation that is very accessible to laypeople. There is a lot of wisdom in here for an aspiring musician to soak up.
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Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again (the hairspray remake version) is being used in a new Walmart back-to-school commercial in the states:
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Roger Glover spoke to The Rob Sas Rock Show. That happened around the time the band was in Turkey, where they played a gig on July 5. The short, but quite informative interview covers a lot of ground: Paicey’s health, touring plans, state of the new album, Hall of Fame induction, Roger’s gear, setlist, and so on.

Listen to the interview (the 10-minute segment start about 29 minutes into the podcast right after Rainbow’s No Release):

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Billboard has a writeup of an interview they did with Glenn Hughes on the occasion of his upcoming US tour. It’s not a full blown interview, rather some quotes plucked and sprinkled here and there.

Glenn’s solo output swings like a pendulum between funk and heavy rock, and it sounds like the new album will be on the heavy side:

It’s possibly the heaviest record I’ve ever made. I don’t want to confuse it with horns-up heavy; it’s not metal. But it’s definitely f—ing heavy. It’s dense. It’s dark. There’s some aggression on this record. Every bloody track is begging to be played live.

The yet unnamed album is due in November via Frontiers Records, after which a keyboard player is said to join Glenn’s band on the next tour leg.

On the future of Black Country Communion:

Black Country will be playing, but what I can’t say is how many shows, and where. I would think that’ll happen next summer. We all know Joe books a year ahead, and he’s been doing it for 30 bloody years. And I’m doing it on my own now, and I’m in love with playing on my own and going about my own business with my own band and own team. So I totally get what Joe’s doing. But we’ve spoken about doing the record and then we spoke about doing shows, and I would think we’d do some [shows] even if it’s not any kind of big tour.

Read more in Billboard.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Guitar World has posted an interview with Ritchie Blackmore that first appeared in their magazine in February 1991 issue. It is fairly entertaining and it aged well, so it’s worth a revisit even if you have seen it the first (or the second) time around.

“Are you ready?” I ask, and Blackmore nods his assent. But before I can ask the first question, he points at my tape recorder and in thick British tones says, “By the way, that’s not on.”

“Oh no,” I think. “The tape’s busted!” My worst fears, realized. Tolinski stares at me, horror etched on his features. I examine the contraption, but it seems to be running smoothly. I turn to Blackmore, a bit befuddled, and insist, “It’s moving. It’s on.”

“Just checking,” he says slyly.

Continue reading in Guitar World.

Thanks to Vladimir Drybushchak for the heads up.

A small town newspaper from Michigan has an interview with Glenn Hughes on the occasion of his gig later this month.

The Enquirer: Matt Hires asks, “what’s the last album you listened to?”

Hughes: I have to be honest with you. I’m listening to my album right now because I’m mastering it.

That’s OK.

I need you to know I’m a fan of other people’s work but I can’t lie to you. I’m sequencing my album this week.

Other than that, I’d probably say outside of my work, the last album I listened to would have been Steely Dan.

Are you keeping up with newer bands?

It’s a difficult question for me because I don’t really know what is going on in the music world other than what I’m doing. I read magazines and I read up on stuff but I don’t really listen to radio.

If somebody said to me, ‘have you checked out this band,’ I’ll go, ‘no,’ and I’ll write it down, and I’ll go home and I will listen to it. But I haven’t heard anything that’s blown my mind in a while.

Continue reading in the Battle Creek Enquirer.

In case you don’t have enough copies of Machine Head in your collection, it will be released on clear vinyl by Rhino on October 4 this year. This odd release will be opening their Rocktober campaign, that will feature a round of vinyl releases from their back catalogue every Tuesday in October. This release will only be available in “participating brick and mortar retail outlets” in the US and is said to be limited to 2,500 copies with MSRP of $21.98.

In related family tree news, Heaven & Hell’s The Devil You Know will see a similar 2LP release “on dark orange & gold colored vinyl with etching on side 4 and band poster”. It is due on October 25.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

David Coverdale’s specal feature that appeared on Vintage TV on July 26 has now been posted online on their website. It contains an exclusive interview done at his home on Lake Tahoe, some Whitesnake clips from the abundance of hairspray era, and a preview of his new live DVD shot last year during his the Purple tour. All in all 4 parts about 12 minutes each.

Head over to Vintage TV to watch.

Thanks to mike whiteley for the heads up and to nupsi59 for the best intentions.

Two upcoming items are worth mentioning, if at least partially in the caveat category.

First, Deep Purple’s September 14, 2002 performance from the Jon Lord farewell tour is getting a standalone DVD release in the USA. The show was previously available on video as a part of 2008 Around The World Live box set, packaged together with Bombay Calling and Total Abandon for the milking effect. It is also confusingly titled Live at the NEC, as a release with the same title already exists — the infamous 1993 show on double CD (still available, despite being apparently withdrawn). The new release is due on August 26 via Eagle Entertainment.

Gillan’s The Vinyl Collection 1979-1982 will be released on September 23 October 7 via UK’s Demon Music Group. The box set includes five albums spread across seven LPs: Mr Universe, Glory Road / For Gillan Fans Only (2LP), Future Shock, Double Trouble (2LP), and Magic. There will also be a limited edition that includes a 7″ single Spanish Guitar.

Thanks to BraveWords and Classic Rock for the info.