Glenn Hughes
live at Toldkammeret, Helsingör, Denmark,
February 8, 2017.

Cool, calm and collected. This is Glenn Hughes as he enters the stage on a windy and snowy evening in Helsingör, Denmark, February 2017. The venue is less than ideal, with a very low stage and pillars obstructing the view. Still, the turnout is better than expected for a Wednesday night and the audience spans fans in their mid 20s to more grey haired ones in their 60s who remain seated in the adjoining cafeteria even as the show is in progress. Glenn seems to have raised his profile these past few years by being in the media eye.

The start of the show is the highlight, with Flow, Muscle & Blood, and Getting Tighter. The band is tight and heavy. Very heavy. Engborg is probably the hardest hitting drummer Hughes has played with (next to Chad Smith?) and the drum sound is crystal clear. His style is slightly unusual. Powerful as mentioned but not a basher per se. Plenty of creative fills and outros where he’s so focused on the delivery that he almost looks bewildered once the song has ended. This power is welcome but it also comes at a cost. In the past Glenn has often played with swinging drummers and his most popular work was built on light and shade, both in terms of vocals and playing. This is the heaviest Glenn Hughes show I’ve seen to date, but there’s also a lack of dynamics as the evening wears on. Glenn and Engborg almost bring enough power on their own, but then there’s also a Hammond player and 2(!) guitarists. The soundscape is living but not breathing.

Soren Andersen is obviously a great sidekick for Glenn in a professional capacity, but clarity in the playing is not his greatest strength. With Blackmore in the 70s you could hear every note picked and somehow he was able to cut through the mayhem with clean leads. With Soren, the wah wah pedal is constantly pressed down and few notes leave a deeper impression. Partly because his tone doesn’t cut through enough. Later in the show Glenn goes on to explain how he wanted a Jon Lord presence in his band and introduces Jay Boe. Jay’s playing is lively and fine but somewhat lost in the mix.

Glenn has surrounded himself with great, hungry talent on this tour, all focused in their delivery, mineral water by their feet. So, why is something still missing? Maybe because they’re not equals or simply because one is spoiled by his earlier collaborators and legendary past. While his band is musically in your face, Glenn is more subdued than normal given recent events and having a cold. This cold has no effect on his performance and even though the acrobatics are all but gone, You Keep on Moving is all the better for it. The bass intro is magical, with Glenn playing notes close to the bridge of his bass while adding just the right amount of stringbending to get that ambient effect. The crowd goes silent in respect of the intro and moment (Glenn introduced the song by talking about his mother).

Throughout the evening it becomes clear no song is too hard to sing for this 65-year-old. While other singers of his generation look like they’re about to have a heart attack any minute trying to do their old songs justice, Glenn clearly employs a different technique. Barely moving an inch, he focuses his stare into the crowd, adjusts his mouth accordingly and lets loose a falsetto, followed by soft improvisation, followed by a full on power voice. Just like that. He’s in total control and it’s cool to witness. It’s also one of the few times my focus is 100% on the stage. If this kind of dynamic was present more often in the show and band, the outcome would have been different. But I think what it comes down to in the end is the combination of songs and delivery. Glenn doesn’t have enough classics of his own to sustain the audience’s excitement fully throughout. Or he simply doesn’t play the classics he has in the way people first heard them. I also think this is partly why the crowd is receptive but not ecstatic. When he does talk to the crowd he connects though and does so by being down to earth and honest. No schtick nor open shirt necessary.

Hopefully he will be back to Scandinavia with a slightly more nuanced approach, in a venue where you can see the stage and where his new level of restraint is also reflected in the band’s delivery.

Daniel Bengtsson
Photo: Alexander Hallden, Sylvester Zimsen

The artwork for the new Deep Purple album inFinite has been produced by design studio of Dirk Rudolph. He is no stranger to the album art design and in his career spanning over 30 years have designed artwork for almost 500 releases for a huge variety musicians ranging from Berliner Philharmoniker, to Oscar Peterson, to Rammstein. And now — Deep Purple.

The typeface and logo for the album artwork were designed by an independent artist Elena Schneider.

Thanks to Deep Purple Tour Page blog for the info.

German online retailer Nuclear Blast specializing in exclusive coloured vinyl editions, among other things, is advertising inFinite on purple vinyl. This edition is said to be limited to 1,000 copies and available exclusively through them. Caveat: while it is only €3 more expensive than the regular black vinyl edition from the same retailer, the shipping fees are quite hefty.

Glenn Hughes has posted this on his Facebook page:

RIP MOM : Sheila Born dec 1, 1928
Passed away Feb 1, 7.15pm UK time 2017
Now with my father William
I was holding your hand at your bedside for 18 hours Mom , and God took you into the light to join our loved ones… Each person in their last breath drops all that they are carrying…
Each breath is a little death that can set us free… words cannot describe how deeply sad I am, but I will do as you wish , and stay on tour and be of service. Losing you & Dad 9 months apart is massively heartbreaking. For those reading this, please reach out to your loved ones to let them know they are loved. #loveistheanswer #musicisthehealer

Our sincerest sympathies from all of us here at THS.

While doing one of his low key gigs in Italy this January, Ian Paice spoke to Radio 2.0 from Bergamo. This resulted in an very interesting interview:
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A new interview with Graham Bonnet, where he is introduced as “talkative and often brutally frank”. And brutally frank he is all right.

On the second disk of his latest album The Book that consists of re-recorded classic tracks from Graham’s career:

How did the idea of doing the re-recordings for the second disc come about?

That was the record company’s idea – much to my chagrin, actually. It’s hard to do those songs again and feel enthusiastic about that after 30, 35 years on some of them. To record them again means you have to put them under a microscope and make sure that everything is kind of living up to as good as the old version or better than the old version, or that it’s good in its own way. I think the band actually reinterpreted the songs pretty much in a really good way; I just was worried about the vocals being sort of like the old ones. It’s a long time ago; it was hard to get through those songs and re-record ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ and ‘All Night Long’ and whatever else because the originals, to me, are still the better versions… To be honest with you, I can’t listen to them again because I like the way it felt to do those songs years ago. To do them now was harder work than the original sessions.

On his days in Rainbow:

In addition to your voice, you’re known for having one of the more unique images in the scene. How were you able to maintain your identity and image back in a time when the industry was perhaps calling for a much different look for a frontman in your genre?

I really didn’t think I belonged when I joined Rainbow, for instance. I went to sing the audition with a suit and tie on; I looked like a bank manager or whatever. There were a few jokes and snickers around the room when I approached ready to sing my audition piece. But after I had done the song, they all smiled and laughed and made me sing two or three more times over to make sure I wasn’t kidding when I sang it. I got the job not because of my suit or whatever, but because of my voice, I hope. The music comes before the way you look. But I’ve always been into 1950s music and the 1950s look, and I wasn’t going to change just because I was asked to join a so-called ‘hair’ band, a Heavy Rock band or ‘Heavy Metal’ band, if you will. It wasn’t my thing; I never knew who Rainbow was, so it was totally different for me. Eventually, I fit in; they got used to me looking the way I looked. As long as I sang okay, everything was good. With the album I sang on, I sang my heart out because it was something I had never done before; it was all new music to me. I learned along the way from [then-Rainbow bassist] Roger Glover and from [Rainbow founder] Ritchie Blackmore how these songs were written, because I was used to more sort of R&B-type songs… I thank Ritchie and I thank Roger for guiding me through it, but it felt absolutely wrong for me to be there. [After the audition], I went home to my manager in London and said, ‘I don’t think I belong in this band.’ He said, ‘What the hell are you talking about? I heard you sang your balls off on the audition piece.’ I said, ‘But I look wrong. The music they’re playing is sort of classically influenced; it’s not like the stuff I do.’ He said, ‘You’ve gotta do it.’ I went back again to finish off the album… It worked out well, but it was a long procedure because it was something totally new to me. I felt very, very green and pretty much like a baby being introduced to this genre of music.

Read more on joelgausten.com.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and to Jari Kaikkonen for the videos (which were shot in Helsinki on April 21, 2016).

Don Airey was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History at the ceremony held on January 18 in Anaheim, California. Here is his well thought out and pretty rousing acceptance speech and bits of rather interesting backstage interview:
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The record company posted a promo clip for the documentary included with some editions of the upcoming new Deep Purple album inFinite:
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