Don Airey has donated £83,100 (approx. $129,000 or €114,500) to the children’s ward at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge News reports. He visited the ward, presented the cheque, spoke to the patients and even played some keyboards with them.

Don raised the money over more than two decades by playing charity gigs, including the annual Gransden Blues and Soul, which he has been organising since 1993. About 1,000 people attended this year’s concert on June 27 which raised £6,000 on this occasion alone.

Don’s son has received treatment for a serious illness at the hospital in 1992.

When I was a regular visitor to the children’s wards they were a real oasis of compassion when life was hard for our family. Addenbrooke’s was such a help to us. We’re forever grateful. I will keep supporting as best I can.

Addenbrooke’s is one of the leading hospitals in the UK and is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Cambridge. The donation could not have come at a better time, as the hospital has fallen on financial hardship recently, projecting a £64 million deficit in 2015-16, and was placed in “special measures” administration.

Thanks to BraveWords and Nigel Young for the info.

Last year, while the band was in Israel, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover made a cameo appearance on the local TV show Atlantica. Video clip of the scene has been posted online. Watch it here, or if it does not work for you, head over to Facebook.
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Flying Colors will be releasing their second live video album Second Flight: Live At The Z7 on November 13 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group. Recorded at the Konzertfabrik Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland, on October 12, 2014, the set will come out (as is usual these days) in multiple of formats: 4K UltraHD, Blu-ray, DVD, LP + MP3, CD, iTunes, Headphone Surround, iTunes, Pono.

Track listing:

1. Overture
2. Open Up Your Eyes
3. Bombs Away
4. Kayla
5. Shoulda Coulda Woulda
6. The Fury Of My Love
7. A Place In Your World
8. Forever In A Daze
9. One Love Forever
10. Colder Months
11. Peaceful Harbor
12. The Storm
13. Cosmic Symphony
14. Mask Machine
15. Infinite Fire
16. Peaceful Harbor (Orchestral Version) *

* bonus track on 3LP and digital

The promo blurb describes several technical innovations, some of them sound awesome, while others, ahem, rather questionable:

Viewers can listen in 5.1-surround from the two best seats in the house: behind the front-of-house soundboard, or right in the front row. In another first, an audio-only version of the concert is available in Headphone Surround, which recreates the front-row surround mix entirely in headphones. The headphone mix will be available in formats up to uncompressed 24 bit / 192 KHz from HD audio distributors, such as Pono. For the warmest sound and highest possible fidelity, every one of the show’s mixes was mastered to 2″ analogue tape, and digitised separately for each audio format, by mix/mastering engineer Rich Mouser (Transatlantic, Weezer).

The album can be preordered directly from the label.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Blackmore’s Night are featured in a short article Billboard. The article premieres new video for the upcoming album and has a few quotes from the titular couple.

On the much-talked-about recently Blackmore’s plans for a foray back into heavier rock:

I’m now 70, so I just felt like playing some rock ‘n’ roll for a few days. We’re going to do four or five dates of just playing the old rock stuff, Purple stuff and Rainbow. I’m doing it for the fans, for nostalgia, and the singer I found is very exciting; he’s a cross between Dio meets Freddie Mercury. So this will mean exposing a new singer to the masses, and I’m sure he’ll become pretty famous because of his voice.

The following is not a verbatim quote, but a paraphrase from the author:

Blackmore isn’t revealing the other musicians yet because contracts are still being negotiated, but none will be known names from his previous groups as has been rumored. He plans to film and record the performances for future release.

On the upcoming The Ritchie Blackmore Story documentary:

I haven’t seen it myself. People are always going, ‘Why haven’t you seen it?’ I leave it to other people to OK. Candi’s seen it and our management’s seen it, and I go, ‘Well, how is it?’ and They go, ‘It’s very good,’ and so that’s good enough. I’m too self-conscious to look at myself on film, so I take their word for it it’s good.

Read more in Billboard.

Thanks to Blabbermouth and LRT for the info.

Child in Time (all 30 seconds of it) is featured in the new Kenzo commercial:

The making of video provides a bit of background. Too bad that they talk about everything, from design of the bottle, to choice of the model, but never mention the music. More so, as it looks like choice of the music was definitely not accidental — commercial aesthetics was inspired by late 60s flower child photo, with Child in Time fitting perfectly with the time frame and mood of the film.

Thanks to Andres for the tip.

The upcoming Ritchie Blackmore documentary appears to have undergone a facelift — it has been retitled from the quirky Uneasy Rider — The Talented Mr. Blackmore to more pedestrian The Ritchie Blackmore Story and release date has been pushed back to November 6.

It will come out on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download.

The documentary (at least, the Japanese edition) will include fragments of the following:

• Concerto for Group and Orchestra (London, 1969)
• Speed King (Beat Club, 1970)
• Mandrake Root (French TV, 1970)
• Child in Time (Granada TV, 1970)
• Black Night (Live on TV, 1970)
• Strange Kind of Woman (Live on TV, 1971)
• Smoke on the Water (Hofstra, 1973)
• Highway Star (Budokan, 1972)
• Highway Star (Australia, 1984)
• Space Truckin’ (Denmark, 1972)
• Space Truckin’ (California Jam, 1974)
• Mistreated (California Jam, 1974)
• Burn (London, 1974)
• Long Live Rock’n’Roll (Munich 1977)
• 16th Century Greensleeves (Munich 1977)
• Do You Close Your Eyes (Munich 1977)
• Gates of Babylon (promo, 1978)
• Since You’ve Been Gone (promo, 1979)
• All Night Long (promo, 1980)
• All Night Long (Donington, 1980)
• Difficult to Cure (promo, 1981)
• Street of Dreams (promo, 1983)
• Perfect Strangers (promo, 1984)
• Call of the Wild (promo, 1987)
• King of Dreams (promo, 1990)
• Battle Rages On (Birmingham, 1993)
• Black Masquerade (Dusseldorf, 1995)
• Play Minstrel Play (promo?)
• Renaissance Fair (promo?)
• Fires at Midnight (promo?)

In addition, there will be a 2DVD+2CD deluxe edition. The extra material will be the subtly elusive Rainbow Budokan 1984 show — Live In Tokyo, which to the best of my knowledge have been previously released in full only in Japan on laserdisc. The second DVD, along with both CDs, will contain this last Rainbow performance from March 14, 1984, right before the Purple reunion.

Live In Tokyo track list:

1. Intro Medley
2. Spotlight Kid
3. Miss Mistreated
4. I Surrender
5. Can’t Happen Here
6. Catch The Rainbow
7. Power
8. Keyboard Solo
9. Street Of Dreams
10. Fool For The Night
11. Difficult To Cure (Beethoven’s Ninth)
12. Guitar Solo
13. Drum Solo
14. Blues
15. Medley: Stranded / Hey Joe
16. Death Alley Driver
17. Fire Dance
18. Maybe Next Time
19. Medley: All Night Long / Woman From Tokyo
20. Lazy
21. Since You’ve Been Gone
22. Smoke On The Water

Japanese “super premium” limited edition in addition to the above will also include Live In Tokyo on 3LPs and two original design t-shirts.

Thanks to Blabbermouth, Ultimate Classic Rock, Ward Records, Lutz Reinert, and mr.trinity for the info.

Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night gave an interview to Noisey. In which Ritchie, like many times before, professed his aversion to noise. But that is not new. The new (and more interesting) bits are:

When I first heard ‘All Our Yesterdays’ [covered on the new Blackmore’s Night album — THS] I thought of some of the people you have lost recently including Ronnie James Dio.
Ritchie: Yes, Ronnie Dio. I had not seen him in 30 years, so it was kind of like an old friend that I knew a long time ago. So it didn’t [impact me] as much as Jon Lord’s passing; he and I put Purple together… Ronnie was a good friend of mine in the beginning. Although I ended with Ronnie not as friends, we did some great music together. And he was very serious, great singer and musician. Sometimes I would ask him, “What are you hearing in this riff?” I would sing it to him very quietly, and he would grasp it immediately and know exactly what I was talking about… He was very easy to work with as far as knowing how to sing and where to go.

I know you’ve said many things about Jon including ‘Without Jon there would be no Deep Purple. What should people know about him on a personal level?
Ritchie: Jon was always a gentleman, sort of like Rex Harrison. Anyone who met him found him full of old-style charm.

Thinking of Jon, I must ask why you decided to do the Deep Purple and Rainbow dates now?
Ritchie: I turned 70. And arthritis is starting to set in. Jon’s not around. So many others aren’t around. You start to see your friends pass and just feel it’s time to play some of the old songs. Nostalgia is a big reason to do it, but not the only reason.

Read more in Noisey.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Glenn Hughes is a guest vocalist on the upcoming album from classic rock band The Lizards The band is featuring another member of the family as well — Bobby Rondinelli. Titled Reptilicus Maximus, the album is due out on Hyperspace Records in September.

Bassist and band leader Randy Pratt talks about Glenn’s contribution:

We did a two-month tour with Glenn Hughes and he came to New York to record four songs on our sixth CD, ‘Against All Odds’. ‘Miracle Man’ is a song that he wrote specifically for The Lizards, and I believe we slay it. He and Mike DiMeo do another one of their over-the-top duets on the closing number on the record.

The Lizards are:

Randy Pratt — bass
Mike DiMeo — vocals, keyboards
Patrick Klein — guitars
Bobby Rondinelli — drums

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Fireworks magazine has an interview with Blackmore’s Night as their cover story for issue 71 (September-October 2015). They talk about their new album, a bit of the past, and at the end, the future.

The story behind Writing On The Wall, which back in the day have caused a raised eyebrow or three:

R: There’s quite a few songs, when I look back, that I think we could have done better. ‘Writing On The Wall’ for definite, that’s probably our worst song. I don’t know what happened with that one. I think we were in a hurry to get out, left it to Pat and he thought we wanted a disco thing.

I have to say, I do like ‘Writing On the Wall’, but it’s sound is very different to the rest of the album, it sounds a bit at odds with the rest of the material.

R: I think the idea is good, but the finished product is nothing like we wanted. We should do that one again.

C: I think what Ritchie explained to Pat and how Pat interpreted it turned out to be two different things, and at that point we needed to be delivering it to the record label and didn’t really have chance to go back and make it what we wanted it to be.

On the planned foray back into rock’n’roll:

However, I’ll probably do something next June, doing all the Rainbow and Purple songs for a few nights, maybe four nights. I don’t know whether it’ll be a festival or what yet, but I’ll pick some people to do those old songs and jam some Rock N’ Roll, that I would find exciting. I won’t know who the singer will be yet for a few weeks. I have a good idea who it is, but I want to try and recreate the sound… there will be a lot of Dio stuff, but he can’t be the singer, obviously. That would have been something! I noticed when I wrote the list of songs I wanted to do, it was a lot of Dio stuff. There was some Deep Purple, and probably ‘I Surrender’ would be in there too, that kind of thing. That’s still in the talking process at the moment, but yeah, looking at doing three or four festivals or shows in June. Hopefully somebody will be interested and turn up.

You’re not going to tell me who the singer is when you haven’t got anything confirmed – is it someone you have worked with before, or somebody new?

R: Somebody new. I like finding new singers, I like to think I’ve done a good job of that in the past.

This issue of the magazine can be purchased from Rocktopia in both dead tree and paperless incarnations.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Graham Bonnet was interviewed for Metal Mythos AfterShock, and while the bulk of 1-hour long conversation was devoted to Alcatrazz, it started with discussion of Rainbow and possibility of Blackmore returning to hard rock.

Graham’s bottom line: “I would not be surprised if nothing happens.”

He further elaborated his stance to Classic Rock:

The last time I had any communication with Ritchie about this was several years ago, when the subject of Rainbow reforming last came up. At the time, I thought there was just one man for the job – and that’s Ronnie James Dio. Sadly, his death in 2010 put paid to that idea.

I remember talking to Joe Lynn Turner back then. He insisted he was the logical choice for the band. But to most fans, it was always about Ronnie.

Joe still talks openly about being the only man for the job. However, I reckon he’s making a fool of himself by going on and on like this.

People can fantasise all they want about the Down To Earth five reuniting. But Cozy Powell is dead, and I can’t honestly see Roger Glover giving up Deep Purple for that. Nor, for the matter, would Don Airey.

If I were Ritchie, and determined to revive Rainbow, I’d find the best young talent out there and go for a fresh, new approach.

Ask yourself, what would be bigger? A Rainbow reunion with me or Joe, or Purple with Ian and Ritchie?

Before getting any speculations started, remember that Blackmore never mentioned any sort of reunion, be it with Rainbow or Purple. All he was talking about, whether seriously or not, was a few shows next June, playing Purple and Rainbow tunes with unspecified people. Gillan, on his part, just last year reiterated that although they have buried the proverbial hatchet, never the twain shall meet again.