Lyme Regis Radio has an interview with Ian Gillan hidden deep in the bowels of their archives. It is undated as far as the year is concerned, but Gillan’s Inn is mentioned at one point as his new album, so this gives some sort of a time frame. This is 34 minutes of Big Ian talking practically nonstop, so it’s rather entertaining, and for many of us it’ll be as close to sitting down with the man at a pub as we ever get.

Listen to it online (mp3, 47MB).

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Roger Glover pays tribute to the recently deceased Lemmy, iconic BBC DJ Ed Stewart, and David Bowie (who managed to turn dying from cancer onto a work of art):

It’s said that bad news comes in threes. It did this last week.

RIP Lemmy, Ed Stewart and now Bowie. Ashes to ashes.

I met Lemmy in the 80s and we bumped into each other sporadically over the years. The last time I saw him was at the Classic Rock Awards at the Roundhouse a few years ago. We were getting a lifetime achievement award. During the interval, I slipped outside for a breath of fresh air (a smoke) and met Lemmy. After a too-long, one-way conversation I thought I’d better get back inside. Oh dear, Ian Gillan and Ian Paice were already on the stage, speeches done, getting the award from Gene Simmons. I ran on in time to explain that I dream for a living and walk off, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Oh well, that’s rock and roll. Thanks Lemmy. It is an honour to have known him.

Continue reading at RogerGlover.com.

Classic Rock reached out to Nick Simper for a comment regarding his his conspicuous omission from the Hall of Fame inductees:

The first I knew about the Hall Of Fame induction was when I read about it and fans were complaining that I wasn’t being inducted.

Maybe I am being naive, but I always thought that if a band gets into the Hall Of Fame then all members, past and present, are part of it. Obviously not.

Yes, it is a little strange that I am only only one from Marks I, II and III being left out, but I shan’t lose any sleep over this. It’s not as if I need to be given this award to know what we did in Deep Purple made an impact. And I’m sure it wasn’t a decision that came from the band.

He continued on to elaborate that there’s no (more) bad blood between him and the other members of the band:

I was in regular contact with Jon Lord before he died, and Ian Paice is always sending his best wishes through mutual friends like Bernie Marsden. And I have also toured with Don Airey, with whom I get on well.

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

Detroit classic rock radio station WCSX has a quote from Ian Paice regarding the band’s immediate plans:

We all come over to your huge country after the Christmas break. We start around the end of January. We’ll go back into the studio in Nashville with Bob Ezrin; We had such a great time making the last record that we just want to try to duplicate that the next time around. There’s plenty of material, probably more than we need, but there is a weeding process that happens when you start listening back in clarity. So, you know, the runts of the litter will be discarded and the best 10 or 11 tracks will be worked on.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Deep Purple’s monitor company HK Audio interviewed Ian Paice during the last German tour:

Band’s monitor engineer extraordinaire Rob Hodgkinson speaks about the nuts and bolts of the job. Most of you would not be familiar with his work, as he is the man responsible for members of the band hearing each other on stage. The sound he produces is completely separate from the front-of-the-house feed that you hear in the audience. The only chance to hear it is to happen to be on stage (or very, very close to it) during a show. His talk is quite entertaining, the first half should be of interest even to non-techies:

There’s a bonus jazz number at the end.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Norwegian based webzine Eternal Terror has a new extensive interview with Bernie Tormé. The conversation covered a lot of ground, from Bernie’s latest solo work Blackheart, to his thoughts on the state of the music industry, to reminiscing on replacing Randy Rhoads in Ozzy’s band, to his time with Gillan:

I remember reading somewhere that while the Gillan band did really well in terms of touring and selling records and so on, the whole thing was in actual fact a financial disaster. Any truth to that?

BT: The Gillan band was total managerial and financial chaos. It ran well at the beginning when I joined. Colin Towns was running it then, but that all changed as soon as we got the Acrobat recording deal and it was taken out of Colin’s hands. We had no management up to when I left the band, and it was totally unclear as to where money was being spent. It was basically all being filtered through Ian’s companies by various dodgy people who may or may not have been working in their own interests more than Ian’s. Apart from that Ian also had big personal money problems at the time and was not averse to regarding all money as solely his and nothing to do with the band. It was a complete mess. There were also some people in the band just out for their own good at the expense of others. It was the worst run situation imaginable. Just before I left Ian appointed his agent, Phil, who had never managed anyone, as his manager. Not as the band’s manager, we were never asked, just as his manager (though some members of the band seemed confused about that). The blurring of the distinction between Ian and the band was something that was continually used to give reasons as to why there were no royalties as had been originally promised and agreed. Phil’s main skill to qualify as Ian’s manager seemed to me to be that he said ‘yes’ to anything Ian wanted. He was nice guy and did his best, but it was a complete joke; he would literally say one thing to us and the opposite to Ian. He’d make you happy for a very short period of time until you realised it was total complete bullshit. He was in truth completely out of his depth, up shit creek without a paddle, trying to please everybody and pleasing no one (apart from Ian, understandably enough, because Ian was paying his wages!). There was no management there running anything. It was stupid and short-sighted, but it is all a very long time ago. We all had lots of fun. I made a name out of it for which I am eternally grateful to Ian, so all of this is water long gone under the bridge now, and all the money is long spent and life is too short to be bitter. Who cares?! I have no hard feelings against anyone, and I consider all of Gillan my good friends, though I do see some of them more often than others, but I love ‘em all. It was a great experience, wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Read more in Eternal Terror.

Thanks to Jens Nepper for the info.

In his customary end-of-the-year address, Roger Glover reminisces on 2015, which for him culminated with a low(-ish) key 50th anniversary reunion of Episode Six (we admit, that one flew completely under our radar).

Sandy Denny’s song is as relevant now as it ever was. Steve Miller sang about time slipping into the future. Our Time Will Come, Funny How Time Slips Away, Time After Time, Out Of Time, etc., etc. All about the same thing––that elusive and most precious of items.

And now it’s the Time Of The Season.

Back in my sixties, few months ago, I was hunting for my winter socks. That was in December. Now I’m told it’s December again. Huh! How did that happen? Who knows where the time goes?

Continue reading on RogerGlover.com

A memorial plaque dedicated to Cozy Powell will be unveiled in his home town of Cirencester on January 7, reports local newspaper. The town council decided to create the plaque to commemorate the town’s most famous musician. The plaque will be installed at the Corn Hall, which now serves as a community center. The event will be attended by Cozy’s friends and collaborators, including our own Don Airey, plus Tony Iommi, Brian May, Suzy Quatro, Tony Martin, Neil Murray, and Bernie Marsden. [Side note: just add a drummer and they can have a decent jam going…] The reception will include memorabilia display and performances by local musicians. Plans are being made to film the event for Dance With The Devil documentary on Cozy’s life, currently in production.

What: Unveiling of memorial plaque for Cozy Powell
When: January 7, 2016, at 2:30 pm
Where: Corn Hall & Assembly Room, 26 Market Pl, Cirencester, UK

Update (Jan 8): The plague was inveiled, with the event being well attended. Albeit Don Airey is nowhere to be seen or mentioned in reports in the local press (Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard or Gloucestershire Echo), nor in the video report:

Update (Feb 19): Don Airey did attend the ceremony, he was just hiding from the TV cameras. Proofpic:

Thanks to Wilts and Gloustershire Standard (via BraveWords) for the info, to Shaun Moore for the video, and to Mark Jones for the proofpic.

David Coverdale spoke to Metropolis Radio from Macedonia some time before the show in the country on November 25. Along with now familiar story of how The Purple Album came into being, he also explained that this was supposed to wrap up his career, but he felt so revitalized that he started writing new music:

I was 63 years old, and I’m going, ‘Man, how long do I have to do this? This would be a perfect closure for me — to finish as I started.’ But it’s just kind of… In essence, it’s re-energized me. I still write new music. We’ll be recording some new music next year. But it’s just revitalized me… re-renergized. That’s all I can say. So any ideas that I had six months ago of retiring… I was totally honest, when I was making interviews, that I thought, you know, ‘This is probably it.’ But I had an incredibly good time on this U.S. tour with my musicians. It was incredible. […] I have no desire to hang up my rock and roll sneakers just yet.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

John “Dawk” Stillwell has passed away unexpectedly earlier this week. He was a musician and electronics engineer from Ithaca, NY, who started working with the local band Elf in early 60s. When Roger Glover and Ian Paice started producing Elf in 1972, Roger liked the sound of Ronnie’s bass so much, that he commissioned Dawk to do the same modification for his Rickenbacker. Dawk then went on to work for Rainbow and reunited Deep Purple customizing and repairing their gear. He recently worked for Manowar, with whom he was about to go out on tour. His death was announced on Manowar Facebook page.

Thanks to Danny N for the info. Image courtesy of DawkSound.com.