![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan2.jpg)
In a different league
Members of Metallica Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo confess their love and admiration for Deep Purple Continue Reading »
Heating has improved since then
Back in 2016, when Deep Purple were performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Simon Robinson arranged a visit of Roger Glover and Don Airey to the building that used to be The Grand Hotel in 1971. Here is Roger talking about the events that unfolded 45 years prior right where it happened. Continue Reading »
Let’s see the accounts
Here’s a “preview” of the second part of John McCoy’s interview with Rock Daydream Nation. Mind you, the complete first part, of which we also featured just a preview, clocked at an hour and 14 minutes. Here John continues lamenting the many wrongs that happened during the run of the Gillan band. Continue Reading »
Hold tight
Another Friday, another (yep, you’ve guessed it) classic Gillan video clip. This time it’s On the Rocks off the Rock Goes to College from February 23, 1981. Continue Reading »
Simplicity is what hangs it all together
And another contribution to our quickly growing better-late-than-never section. British newspaper The Sun had an interview with Ian Gillan published in July 2024, around the time =1 was released. Our regulars, particularly those who’ve been around the block once or twice, aren’t very likely to learn anything new from there. Curiously, the article is illustrated by a video clip (among other things) of Mark 4 Paice/Ashton/Lord jamming in the studio with Martin Birch at the soundboard helm. Worth checking out.
Thanks to David Black for the heads-up; to Nigel Young, Drew Thomposn, and Uwe Hornung for the correction.
Play nicely and burn the candles
A couple of trainspotting items of marginal interest, probably not warranting their separate posts.
In a recent interview, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull talked about guitarists who played “nicely” – Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Ritchie Blackmore — “Precise, accurate, they sang melodies.” This bit starts at 3’20” and wraps up at 5’40” into the conversation.
On other news, Japanese manufacturer of bathroom fixtures Kakudai has released their 2025-2026 catalogue with a cover art that is a remake of the Burn artwork.
It is not the first time this company uses a classic album cover as inspiration for their catalogues.
Thanks to Nigel Young on both counts.
Sign of the Wolf
Our better-late-than-never department presents you with the self-titled album of the studio project called Sign of the Wolf, released earlier this year. The project lists several members of the extended Purple family in their ranks: Doug Aldrich and Steve Morris on guitars, Tony Carey on keyboards, and Vinny Appice on drums. The lineup also includes Andrew Freeman (Last in Line) singing, Fredrik Folkare (Unleashed/Eclipse) on guitar, Josh Devine (One Direction/Lavera/Turkish Delight) and Johan Kullberg (Hammerfall) on drums, Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot, House of Lords) on bass, Marl Boals on bass & backing vocals, Steve Mann (MSG/Lionheart), and Mark Mangold on Hammond.
The project was created by Fireworks magazine’s Bruce Mee, who co-wrote most of the material together with Fredrik Folkare.
Here is the playlist of the album tracks:
Reviews: Get Ready to Rock, Metal Temple.
Thanks to Fla76 for the heads-up.
Banned
Ian Paice not only continues to tour with Purpendicular, but they also completed recording a new album together. The album is whimsically called Banned, and release date is pencilled in for October 10, 2025.
In the hot summer of 2024, the band decided to write their fourth album in a remote village high in the mountains near Porto, Portugal.
The concept was agreed on the first night, but that concept took a twist when the devastating fires took place that very evening, putting the lives of the band in grave danger.
The band were rescued off the mountain from their villa, to a safer option and to an alternative accommodation, where they spent the night watching the fires rage on the veranda.
It was here titles and more ideas came to fruition, to add to the already conceptual theme of Banned, which summarizes today’s sensitive culture, in that the slightest wrong word can get you banned, adding the pun Banned with the last two letters before the last D in the word being crossed out equaling the word Band.
With all this in mind and the whole band in agreement, it was then decided to add an autobiographical theme also, telling the story of events as they unfolded that treacherous night where many people lost their lives and homes.
The final recordings of the album were completed in Italy, Poland, and the UK. The record is produced by Alessandro Debiaggi and Robby Thomas Walsh. It is a fresh modern look back at the ’70s.
Track listing:
- Inferno
- Beast
- The Escape
- Blood Red Moon
- You Better Behave
- Banned
- Too Hard To PLease
- Seventies Kid
- The End
Purpendicular lineup:
Robby Thomas Walsh (Ireland) – vocals
Ian Paice (UK) – drums
Murray Gould (UK) – guitars
Alessandro Debiaggi (Italy) – keyboards
Mauricio Torchio (Italy) – bass
Thanks to BraveWords for the info.
After all we said today
A second single for the upcoming remix of Rapture of the Deep has been released. Behold, it’s Clearly Quite Absurd. Continue Reading »
The tall skinny kid
More of the Derek Lawrence recollections of the days gone by. Some of it overlaps with what you may have seen on these pages previously, but it never hurts to do it again. Continue Reading »
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing