It’s an interesting world we live in, wherein The Telegraph has better coverage of a Made in Japan reissue than both the (once) venerable Classic Rock and MOJO magazines, complete with an excellent interview with the drummer and historic photographs (one of them even from Budokan 1972).
Perhaps inevitably, the intermittently fractious Purple were themselves split on the merits of their influential creation. Keyboard player (the late) Jon Lord agreed with his drummer that the record represented the group at their best; singer Ian Gillan, meanwhile, expressed dissatisfaction at the quality of his vocal performance.
Which isn’t surprising. In 1972 alone, Deep Purple performed 127 concerts across three continents. Despite their singer requiring three months’ rest and recuperation after contracting hepatitis, in New York City, they also released two albums.
“Back in those days, if a band lasted for four or five years, that was a miracle,” Paice says. “There aren’t very many bands who can get through that first decade. It’s very, very difficult. You have to liken it to a marriage between four or five people, not two. The possibilities of it all going terminally bang are much greater. As they often do, and as we have done in the past.”
To keep with the times, there are also mentions of Ozzy Osbourne passing, and the anointment of Child in Time by the “television’s hottest show”.
Classic Rock reviews the latest Made in Japanremix. Incredibly for the publication, it contains no information we haven’t known from elsewhere, and the whole review boils down to just one short paragraph:
Incredibly, Wilson has revealed subtleties hidden for more than 50 years. And with the source sets from all three nights newly remixed by Richard Digby Smith, this is Made In Japan not only expanded, but also supercharged. No edits, no overdubs, just the real deal.
The rest is available on Louder Sound (but probably not worth the bother).
Deep Purple official YouTube channel is holding a Made in JapanSteven Wilson stereo remix listening party tomorrow, August 15, 2025. You can listen here and leave a comment, or head over to YouTube for a real-time chat. Continue Reading »
Steve Morse Band will play 14 dates in the United States in October 2025. The tour will start on October 9 in Louisville, KY, and wrap up on the 26th in Ridgefield, CT. Various ticket pre-sales have already started, with general availability for most dates set for August 15.
Glenn Hughes was recently a guest on SiriusXM satellite radio show Trunk Nation. This is what he had to say when asked about his retirement:
The word retirement is something I don’t normally say. A good story for you there. In June, I went on a tour of Europe with Black Country Communion, and Joe and I were talking after two shows in that we were thinking before we started that tour that maybe this would be the end of BCC. Maybe we’ve done, and we’ve done and dusted what we started out to do. And funny enough, we felt on that tour of Europe that we were actually just getting started. You know, we made a live album, by the way, it’ll be coming out early next year. I think sometime early, early this year, I thought, you know, maybe I should slow it down. Maybe I should take it easy, you know, blah, blah, blah. But ever since I came home from the BCC tour, I’m reinvigorated. I’ve got new purpose. I’ve never felt so strong, and I’m really looking forward to doing more shows, both solo and with Black Country Communion.
You’ve heard me say this too many times over the last 15 years, but there’s more coming from BCC and maybe hasn’t happened, but we’re on a new beginning again with BCC in the summer saying to a lot of people. And the live album sounds damn good, and we are planning yet exclusively for you on doing album number six next year. So we are continuing our journey and as you well know if we could keep this thing together and tour more regularly, we are an arena band waiting to happen.
The show was on the air on August 12, 2025, and is available for replay on siriusxm.com for the subscribers of the service.
There is a death in the family — Vicky Lord, Jon’s widow and Ian Paice’s sister-in-law (her and Jacky Paice were twin sisters), has passed away. A statement from the band was posted today, August 6, 2025, on Facebook:
Deep Purple are saddened to report that, after a short illness, Jon Lord’s wife, Vicky Lord, passed away at home on Tuesday, surrounded by her family. She will be missed by her family, all the members of the band, and all those who knew her.
In other sad news, the man who almost made it to the Purple family has lost his battle with cancer. Terry ‘Superlungs’ Reid was offered the lead singer job in 1969 before Ian Gillan, and turned it down. He also turned down a similar offer from the nascent Led Zeppelin.
Credit to BraveWords and Georgius Novicianus for the info.
Candice Night was interviewed by the Iron City Rocks podcast, and among other things discussed, she spoke at length about Ritchie Blackmore’s health issues that affect his ability to tour these days.
One of the things that’s so great about Ritchie is he can recognize — he’s very in tune with his own body, and he stays on top of everything. Thank goodness. And when he doesn’t, I nag him to stay on top of it, which he hates, but at least somebody’s doing it — you know, like eating well and things like that.
There’s the three main issues with him that are going on. He has a heart issue. He had a heart attack a couple of years ago, so we stay on top of that. He’s got gout, so that’s difficult. It’s affecting his feet really badly. And it’s starting in his forefinger, so it’s hurting the mobility in that, so he just had an injection for that. And his back, of course, which has always been an issue. He hasn’t taken any back injections since he had the heart issue. So everything kind of is working together. So, it’s hard — it is hard for him. But he’s at the point now where — he’s very smart when it comes to things like that.
It’s not so much the travel on a plane. Honestly, it’s the aggravation before you even get into the plane and after you get into the plane and it’s all the sitting of traveling. So that’ll affect his back and all the rest of it. And the jet lag that stresses your heart. All of these things. Waiting on those lines when you have to get to JFK [New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport] and you have to go transatlantic, and then coming off and going back through the security lines and the customs lines and all the rest of that stuff, and all of that stuff, it really does take a toll on a human — on a healthy human, so forget about someone who’s 80 years old and going through these issues. But he did just say to me yesterday, which I wait for his… With Ritchie, if you try to pressure him to do something, he instantly says no. He’s like a teenager. And so now I’ve got three of them. But learning how to deal with that a little bit better. So I wait for him to come to the realization, or I drop little seeds here and there and try to wait for him to be ready to talk about it. And he did just say, ‘What about doing some BLACKMORE’S NIGHT dates in the fall?’ So, of course, I got greatly excited about that. So now I’ve gotta contact the agent. But he would rather do places that he can drive to. He takes the night off the next day. Gone are the days where you do five shows in a row, including travel. That’s just way too much. For anybody, it’s difficult to do that. And we don’t have a tour bus and we don’t have private planes. If we go someplace, I’m driving. So it’s like a mini road trip, but not really because we have to just get to the place, rest that night. Hopefully it’s close enough to the venue. You get to the venue, you go back, you get a good night’s sleep that night. Hopefully they’re not doing construction or maintenance in the hotel or the maids don’t wake you up at seven o’clock in the morning. and then you move on to the next place and have a day of travel. So it’s a very slowed down way of doing it. But honestly, I’d much rather take something than nothing at all.
On a related note, Blackmore’s official channel have posted a couple of clips from one of the last Rainbow shows — the 2019 Sweden Rock Festival, that is said being produced for a future release:
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and quotes, and to Daniel Bengtsson for the heads-up on the Rainbow release.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing