We have become aware that the record company is planning to release a platinum edition of the new Deep Purple album inFinite. This edition will come some time before the end of the year and will include a whole disc of bonus material, including exclusive never before heard tracks and outtakes recorded during the album sessions:

• Gillan doing morning crossword puzzles
• Roger reading a book
• Steve tuning his guitar
• Don making a himself a cup of tea
• Paicey fishing at the lake in a rare moment of lull

This platinum edition will be released on CD, vinyl, compact cassette, reel-to-reel tape, and Edison phonograph compatible wax cylinders. Each format will be hand made and strictly limited to 100 copies. Pricing will be available at an unspecified later date.

Thanks to Hubert Jesslilt for the info.

Ian Gillan is pulling into doing promo work for inFinite as well. This week he was a guest on the Rob Sas Rock Show (if this sound familiar, Paicey was featured on the show just a month ago).

The interview starts at around 33 minutes into the show and the first part continues until 41 minute mark:

Second part of the interview starts at around 16 minute mark, followed by the third part, which concludes at 38 minutes:

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Roger Glover talks about things that you may or may not have heard in response to the questions that he may or may not have been asked many times over during the last few weeks of heavy promotional work.

The takeaway message here, I guess, is the ease, enthusiasm, and good-natured humor, with which he does it day after day. Compare, for example, with this Q&A he did just days apart at the documentary screening in Belgium. This man has a patience of a saint!

Thanks to Nigel Young for info and to LineaRock for the video.

A long-ish interview with Don Airey, done during his recent solo band tour in Europe. Part insightful, two parts hilarious, here it is:

Thanks to Nigel Young for the heads up.

Roger Glover has appeared on Van Gils & Gasten show on Belgian TV. There are certain limits on how deep the mainstream media can dig during a 10-minute TV appearance, but it was a well rounded and well researched interview. The host got his Made in Japan vinyl signed, the new album was plugged amid a couple of anecdotes and a clip from the documentary, and even Love is All got an airing (it was a major hit in Belgium and Netherlands back in the day).

You can watch the show at deredactie.be. Roger’s interview segment starts at 25:50 with a dramatic entrance over Child in Time cadenza. It continues for about 9 minutes. He appears again at 41:40 mark with a story of his foray into animal husbandry. The interview segment itself is (mostly) in English with Dutch subtitles.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Band’s management is offering VIP upgrade packages for the European leg on the upcoming Deep Purple tour in May-July. There are two different packages available:

• $200 USD will buy you a meet’n’greet with the band members excluding Ian Gillan (don’t be offended — he just does not do backstage mingling any more), plus some swag;
• $100 will buy you early access to the venue to grab some merchandise and that front row place at the railing (the shows are general admission, at least for the floor).

Either package must be purchased on top of a regular ticket — they do not grant admission to the show by themselves. The $100 and $200 packages are also mutually exclusive — meet’n’greet will be held before the band hits the stage, one physically can not be backstage and holding their place in the front row at the same time.

The packages are sold exclusively via VIP Showtix.

Thanks to Kat for the info.

Ian Paice and Roger Glover did another phone-in interview, to American radio station WSFL, which broadcasts out of North Carolina:

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Another screening of the From Here to inFinite documentary will be held in Torino, Italy, on April 4. This event does not appear that it will be attended by any members of the band.

What: From Here to inFinite documentary
When: April 4, 2017, 22:30 – 23:59 CEST
Where: Cinema Massimo
18 Via Giuseppe Verdi
10124 Torino
Italy
Tickets: free admission, but you have to register in advance via Eventbrite

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Johnny’s Band continues being played on the BBC Radio 2 since the premiere on March 6, and is climbing up their airplay chart. It is now at number 15 (with 18 times on air) in the Airplay Chart Top 40. This is a 28-day trailing chart that covers February 28 to March 27 inclusive.

According to the BBC DJ, it will also be released as a single alongside the new album on April 7.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

Another interview with Roger Glover in the German press — this time it is from Kulturnews magazine, April 2017 issue, pages 12-13. We think that it is interesting enough that it deserves the effort of offering it to you in reverse translation (usual caveats apply).

SR: Mr. Glover, the question may sound hackneyed, but: Did you enjoy making the album?

Roger Glover: The question is not at all trite, but is very justified. Fun, joy and pleasure are the key concepts for us all. We have fun in everything we do. We love to play live, we like to travel around the world, we had a great time in the studio. Without fun we would be in a wrong job and should rather leave it. We are old enough — we should not worry about the negative aspects anymore.

SR: Has fun always been the focus of Deep Purple?

Glover: In our long and, indeed, changing history, there were also phases in which the good mood was in short supply. Nevertheless, we continued, for somehow it seemed to us our duty is that we should hang on and go with it. Today we make music because we want it, and for no other reason.

SR: Is being a rock musician the best job there is?

Glover (smiles deliberately): Can you think of a better one? I’ll tell you a story. I’ve lived in America for a long time, and for a while I had two neighbours, with whom I’ve often met for a well-groomed get-together. One was a former tennis player, the other a successful banker on Wall Street. One evening we were sitting at the bar, thinking about who of us had the coolest job. The tennis star said his career was over at 35, the Wall Street guy did not find it very inspiring to simply raise money because that has basically no value. So they both pointed at me. I could not disagree.

SR: Who was the former tennis player?

Glover: Mats Wilander. We are still good friends to this day.

SR: They celebrate 50 years of Deep Purple in 2018. What do you think about this?

Glover: Bouquets? (Laughs) It’s a madness to play in a band like Deep Purple that has been around for almost fifty years. I’m afraid something like this will not happen so often. We are a dying species.

SR: But you are quite fit and agile.

Glover: Thank you, thank you, but let’s not delude ourselves: we are getting old. We will not be able to go on with it forever, it will eventually be over with Deep Purple. Ian Paice had a slight stroke last year, which was a wake-up call for us. He is doing well again, two weeks later we were able to continue our tour. But each one of us has one problem or another.

SR: This tour has the moniker “The Long Goodbye Tour”, the new album is called “inFinite”. When is the end?

Glover: It’s not that close yet. No one of us wants to stop it now, we like this job far too much. Nevertheless, we want to let it go a little slower, just now we had four months completely free — so much as never before. We will not set a date and will not make a big fuzz about the last concert. But we will not just sneak away. If at any time it’s it’s over, we will say so. Man, I’m over 70. Maybe another year, two years, five years?

SR: So many of your songs have gone into history and will exist forever. Will the people in 200 years regard “Smoke on the Water” as they see Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or Mozart’s “Magic Flute” today?

Glover: Yes, it’s very possible, and it would be a pleasure and a great honour. I hope it comes. Hard rock has so much to offer and much more facets than for example heavy metal, where it is only about the fury facet.

SR: In the new song “Time for Bedlam” you rage verbally against the “politically crazy”. Are politicians generally distrustful?

Glover: No, I do not think so. There are quite decent and honest politicians. But overall, we’re just stepping into a mess that’s bigger than I’d like to bear. Without having to think for long, I could name a lot of politicians who only roar. Where are respect and decency? I am British, I like courtesy. I’ve lived in the US for 30 years, and right now I’m glad I’m in Europe. European values have a very reassuring effect on me.

SR: Does Donald Trump frighten you?

Glover: Trump does not look a bit empathetic to me and not at all nice. His rhetoric is terrible. I am really not a fan of his politics, but I find his behaviour even more distasteful than his political ideas, which are already bad enough.

SR: You have been living in Switzerland for eight years, near Zurich.

Glover: Yes, this has nothing to do with the very friendly and reserved nature of the Swiss, but with my wife, who is Swiss.

SR: What are you doing on the day of the band’s fiftieth band anniversary in April 2018?

Glover: Oh boy, I do not know exactly when that is. We do not celebrate anniversaries. I remember how it was when it was forty. Ian Gillan and I sat in the tour bus, we drove through the night, and Ian said, “Do you actually know what day is it today?” We opened a bottle of red wine and said, “Well then, cheers to us.” That was all.

Interview: Steffen Rüth

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.