Back in 2021, around the time Nature’s Light was released, Ritchie Blackmore gave an interview to the German magazine Gitarre & Bass. And for a change, he seemed to be completely serious throughout.

Which phase of your rock career is your songwriting today closest to? And which one is it most different from?

To be honest, even in the past I almost always had Renaissance music in mind when I was composing, the only difference being that I always incorporated a little blues into my chord progressions. During my time with Deep Purple I often composed riffs plus the chord progressions to go with them and then let Ian Gillan find the melodies to go with them. So in that sense I had no idea how the melody would go when I was writing songs. But that changed later in my career. When I founded Rainbow in 1975 I automatically knew what the melody would be while I was composing. There were some significantly different compositional approaches between Deep Purple and Rainbow.

The interview was published in German, and you can read more of it in Gitarre & Bass, or take your chances with Google’s automatic translation.

Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the info.

A vintage article about Roger Glover and his then upcoming project Butterfly Ball. This originally appeared in Sounds on November 9, 1974.

Glover has a ball

By Pete Makowski

Roger Glover is a satisfied person nowadays. Since his departure from Deep Purple, Glover has steadily been building up a good reputation as a record producer and now his new venture, “The Butterfly Ball”, will gain him respect as a musician and composer.
“I always felt that people expected certain kinds of things from me,” said Roger, “when I was approached to do this project, I thought `shall I do something really heavy and rocky, or shall I do the complete opposite`. Then I decided to do exactly what I felt was right, not just live up to everyone else’s expectations.”

Continue reading in My Things — Music history for those who are able to read.

Bonus: review of the Royal Albert Hall live performance from Sounds, October 25, 1975:

What a pleasantly different experience! After all the doubts and warnings of impending disaster `The Butterfly Ball` live was just about as good as it possibly could have been oratorio-style without the costumes and full trapplings of a dramatic production.
A full orchestra sounding in high spirits put a brassy weight behind most of the numbers. The rock band, including a gaggle of keyboard players and Eddie Jobson in joyful form on the electric violin, made it all a lot more raunchy than the rather precious imagery of the `Ball`s` sundry packaging would suggest. And the infinite queue of eager lead singers suggested an opulence of talent such as is too rarely gathered together on a British stage. The musical edifice sustaining all this, last year`s Mr R. Ex-Purple Glover`s album is nice rather than magnificent, but there were times when most of the Albert Hall and your reviewer got quite carried away.

Continue reading in the same blog.

Thanks to Geir Myklebust for digitizing these and to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.

On this slow(ish) news day, we will leave you with a couple of items that the mailman delivered to our trainspotting department.

Sir Elton Hercules John writes about the keyboard geniuses who blew his mind for The Guardian. Jon Lord gets a mention:

And as the decade progressed, keyboard players progressed too, away from their soul-jazz roots. We think of heavy rock as a guitarist’s art, but in Deep Purple, Jon Lord was experimenting with distortion to give the organ a sound as hard-driving as the guitars. So did Rod Argent when the Zombies broke up and he started Argent. Gary Brooker left the Paramounts, abandoned his electric piano, formed Procol Harum and made A Whiter Shade of Pale, a record that sounded like nothing anyone had heard before. In the Small Faces, Ian McLagan changed and adapted a rhythm and blues style of playing until it perfectly fitted the psychedelic era: it’s him that’s really driving Itchycoo Park or the title track of Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. Keith Emerson was bringing his training as a classical musician to bear on the sound of the Nice: it was the start of progressive rock. And Rick Wakeman seemed to come out of nowhere: he’d only just left the Royal College of Music when he played that amazing Mellotron part on David Bowie’s Space Oddity.

Meanwhile, in Budapest… A set of Russian nesting dolls vaguely resembling members of Mk2 was spotted in the wild:

Thanks to Uwe Hornung for reading The Guardian, and to sterling gunn and his sharp-eyed better half for the pic.

Deep Purple opened the final leg of the 2024 tour with a show at the Spodek in Katowice, Poland, on October 17. The setlist got a bit of a shakeup, with 6 songs off the last album being played live.

Setlist:
(as reported on setlist.fm)

0. Intro: Mars, the Bringer of War
1. Highway Star
2. A Bit on the Side
3. Hard Lovin’ Man
4. Into the Fire
5. Guitar Solo
6. Uncommon Man
7. Now You’re Talkin’
8. Lazy Sod
9. Keyboard Solo
10. Lazy
11. When a Blind Man Cries
12. Portable Door
13. Anya
14. Keyboard Solo (with snippets from Chopin and the Polish national anthem)
15. Bleeding Obvious
16. Space Truckin’
17. Smoke on the Water

Encore:

18. Old‐Fangled Thing
19. Hush
20. Black Night

A recording of the show has already surfaced:

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the proofpic (that is actually from Berlin, October 19), to Mariusz Florek for the video, and to Mike Whiteley for the heads-up.

A new instalment of tales from The Tavern by His Blackness. It’s short and sweet. Continue Reading »

7 Gillan the band albums will be reissued as a box set on February 14, 2025, by Demon Records.

The albums featured in this set are as follows:

Gillan (The Japanese Album) – Originally released in September 1978, this was the debut of the band formed by Ian Gillan after leaving the Ian Gillan Band. It marked a shift away from jazz fusion to a heavier rock sound.

Mr. Universe – Released in 1979, this was a key album that solidified their success, featuring a mix of hard rock and NWOBHM influences.

Glory Road – A 1980 release, this album is considered the height of the band’s success, both commercially and musically.

Future Shock – Released in 1981, this album continued the band’s momentum, but guitarist Bernie Tormé left shortly afterward.

Double Trouble – A double album from 1981 that combined studio tracks and live performances and marked Janick Gers’ debut as guitarist.

Magic – Released in 1982, this was the band’s final studio album before they disbanded after their last performance at Wembley Arena in December 1982.

Live From Reading ’80 – A live album capturing the band’s powerful live performances at the Reading Festival in 1980.

The collection includes a new interview with Ian Gillan conducted by Rich Davenport, providing deeper insights into the band’s history and the albums. The audio has been remastered from the original tapes where possible, ensuring high-quality sound. The packaging is designed in a 7” x 7” format, with 32-page booklet, offering a unique visual presentation for collectors.

Townsend Music is taking pre-orders for £35.70, plus shipping, for the signed box set (presumably, by Big Ian himself). Amazon UK offers unsigned ones for roughly the same price. Both sites have detailed track listings for all the CDs.

Thanks to Benny Holmström for the info.

The two Iommi/Hughes albums — The Dep Sessions and Fused, were reissued October 4, and both entered the UK charts. The Dep Sessions at #7, and Fused at #11 in the Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart, at #62 and #77 respectively in the Albums Sales Chart, and at #63 and #80 in the Physical Albums Chart, all for the week of 11 October 2024 – 17 October 2024.

Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up.

Ronnie Romero has contributed vocals to the self-titled album of a studio project called A Circus. The driving force and main songwriters of the project is the father/son duo of Alfredo (bass, father) and Luca (guitar, son) Federici. The band is rounded up with Gian Marco Verdone (keyboards and arrangements), and Canadian drummer Shane Gaalaas. The music is definitely rather Rainbow-esque, so it might be of interest to some of our readers.

Track Listing:

1. Out Of The Hat (1:24)
2. Burn The Witch (4:25)
3. A Snow Covered Road (4:47)
4. Two Ghosts (3:40)
5. Rainbow Tears (4:43)
6. The Sleeper (7:01)
7. Judas (4:18)
8. Shadowy Man (4:46)
9. Swing Little Girl (3:06)

Full paylist for the album:

The album was released on October 11, 2024, via Rockshots Records. One can order it via this link.

Thanks to Luca Federici for the info.

Prior to his recently concluded Australian tour, Glenn Hughes appeared on the Scars and Guitars podcast. He talked about Purple marks 3 & 4, the Hughes/Thrall project, collaborations with Tony Iommi, Dead Daisies, and many other things. Continue Reading »

Since the first collection seemed to go down well, the inimitable aficionado of Gillanisms David Black has sent us another one. No Staffordshire bull terriers were harmed while preparing this for publication. Or so we’re told.

Smoke On The Water — Nobody’s Perfect

This may seem like a devilish ploy, but it’s one way to bring the proceedings to an end.

Hard Lovin’ Women – Pforzheim 1987

This is a little folk song. Actually, genuinely, this song is about nothing to do with anything apart from tits. Nothing to do with the person attached to them or anything. An entity, I mean, give them a fair shake. Let’s be fair. It’s called ‘Hard… (band kicks in Gillan’s pause) …Lovin’ Women’

Knockin’ At Your Backdoor (clarification) – Paris, 1985

One thing I ought to tell you before we go any further. In case you got the wrong impression earlier on. When we were doing Knockin’ At Your Backdoor and I was talking about nice slippery bums and all that, anal sex and everything else. Heaven forbid that you got the wrong idea. What I was talking about was good old upright Christian heterosexual buggery as opposed to the other kind.

Perfect Strangers – Nobody’s Perfect – Irving Meadows, 1987

Untold crimes. They used to asphyxiate people with a bunch of cohorts. It’s named after him in fact, and it’s called Perfect Stranglers

The Unwritten Law – Irving Meadows, 1987

The inspiration for this song we found in a bowl of entrails of a barely dead Staffordshire bull terrier. We did. Jon wasn’t there. It’s a thing called the Unwritten Law.

Bad Attitude – Budapest, 1987

It’s a new song from the new album, and it’s deadly serious, so shut up. It’s called Bad Attitude.

Dead Or Alive – Stockholm, 1987

This one’s all about what you shouldn’t be doing with hard drugs. It’s an anti-cocaine, anti-smack, anti-whatever. It’s a serious story. It’s a gentle ballad called Dead Or Alive

The Unwritten Law – Kalamazoo, 1987

While recently examining the entrails of a Staffordshire bull terrier we discovered the secret of diseases, and it’s not only coughs and sneezes, but it’s also an unwritten law. That’s the title of this song. It’s called don’t give people what you got in the first place. Staffordshire bull terriers, entrails, diseases. That’s what this song is about. The Unwritten Law.

Child In Time – Budokan, 1973

— It’s an old one, a great favourite of ours.
— (possibly Ian Paice) Oh no, it’s not.
— Oh yes, it is. Did you understand that? Have you ever been to a pantomime? It’s called Child In Time.

Talk About Love – Nancy, 1993

Thank you very much. Just sitting here thinking about Jamie Lee Curtis. Practising my overture and what I wanted her to do with my neck. Here’s one that make you go ooh! It’s called Talk About Love. Ooh!

Twist In The Tale – Nancy, 1993

Here’s another one about Jamie Lee Curtis, and it’s all about her tail.

Lazy – BBC In Concert 2017

This is from a long while ago. It was on a windy day, actually, and she was walking down in front of us. She leant forward into the wind, and I could see her nib-nubs rising above her wellies, closely guarded by four perfect tendons. The like of which you won’t see better this side of Wembley. And then she licked her lips lasciviously, and I thought I’ll do the same.

All I Got Is You – BBC IN Concert 2017

That was a few marching tunes to get us going, now time for a little light jazz with a few involuntary avant-garde passages about two disgruntled flat mates.

The Surprising – BBC IN Concert 2017

Beware of the chair that isn’t there, it’s a furniture illusion. If you ever squat on a chair that’s not, you’ll suffer some confusion. The monks of vine, crush the wine, get in on their smocks. It dribbles down their legs to their intoxicated socks…
(Don interrupts to start.)

Perfect Strangers – Osaka 1st night 1985

This is a story of an affair I had once with our manager’s dog. And has since had to have a hysterectomy because we weren’t truly matched. We still communicate with each other from time to time and I send her flowers, and I still point my finger in the right direction. This is very important when you’re thinking about the whole story because you have to bear in mind due to the underlying emotion. It’s called Perfect Strangers

Under The Gun – Osaka 1st night 1985

This is something that’s about the things that generally piss us off. Annoying things like god brothers, perpetrators of the worst crimes possible — like people who think they can leave stupid spotlights on during a laser show and everything else you can think of. This one in German is called — Under Ze Gun. Thank you.

Child In Time – Osaka 1st night 1985

This song was written in 1969 in a small room about half the size of this stage. Well, maybe four seventeenths or five seventeenths and a half. It’s stayed with us for a long time, and it’s called Child In Time.

Anyone’s Daughter – Birmingham, 1993

We now have the imminent arrivement, arrivement? arrivement, arrivement. The imminent arrival of a stool. Upon this tool will be sitting a person, here is a microphone and here is a pedal. This pedal will become a blur as the evening wears on. And I’d like to introduce our guest percussionist, Elton John.

Battle Rages On – Birmingham, 1993

A song about love and hate and how hate always seems to come out on top.

Space Truckin’ – Birmingham, 1993

A little, a little err, a little – what was it? — a little Rock and Roll, that’s right. A little Rock & Roll. Nice Bristols, see the tits on that, Rog? Corrgh.

Smoke On The Water – Genoa, 1973

Just over a year ago now we were in Montreux in Switzerland recording the Machine Head album and this tells the story, this song of the burning down of the casino in Montreux while we were there and all the other silly things, insignificant things that happened while we were there. Actually, basically it’s about the burning down of Claude Nobs. We tied his elbows together behind his back, so I think it’s chest Nobs – if you don’t believe that, then I’ve nothing else to say. It’s called Smoke On The Water, this one.

Mary Long – Genoa, 1973

Here’s one now, it’s a new thing off our platter out at the moment. It’s all about an evil situation in England which we’re trying to put to rights. And it’s basically about doing away with people like Colin Hart and that sort of person. It’s a thing called Mary Long.

Space Truckin’ – Osaka 1973

Here’s a song you can fiddle about in your trousers to.

Battle rages on – Stockholm 1993

Here’s a song about love and hate. And how, over the years, over the times, hate always seems to win.