Marking the beginning of the Mexican tour, yesterday, May 26, the band held a press conference in Puebla. Here are various bits and pieces of the proceedings.

Ian Paice and Roger Glover comment on “that was then and this is now”, with Ian Gillan chiming in that the band is now looking to start recording of a new album in February 2016:

Steve Morse comments on the new bands “going back to the basics”:

Roger comments on technology influencing music (warning: video runs in a loop):

Deep Purple (Press Conference) Conferencia de Prensa Deep Purple Deep Purple En Puebla 27 de Mayo 2015 Centro Expositor #pressconference #deeppurple #tour #Live #deeppurpletour #deeppurpleinmexico

A video posted by Kevin Luna (@kevin_theedge) on May 26, 2015 at 12:51pm PDT

Thanks to pueblaonlinevideos, Synchro Channel, and Kevin Luna for the videos, and to Nigel Young for bringing them to your attention.

Ever since Whitesnake’s The Purple Album came out a few days ago, it has been the talk of the town in Purple quarters of the ‘net. Love it or hate it, DC managed to get lots of attention to this release. One of our readers shares his thoughts.

Well, I have listened to The Purple Album three straight times now, and before I get into my track-by-track thoughts, here’s a bit of an intro.

The thought of David Coverdale revisiting his old Purple tracks is a pretty interesting one. Some people might think he did such a thing just because of potential dried up creativity, but I don’t think so. I think his words about wanting to pay a tribute to the band who put their faith in him by hiring him are genuine. The idea is a cool one, I think. Does this idea work throughout the disc? Sometimes.

Coverdale’s voice is heavily produced here and there and, of course, isn’t what it was 40 years ago. Tommy Aldridge’s drum sound throughout the whole thing is pretty crappy – especially the snare which I think sounds like a brown paper lunch bag. Of course, these versions of the songs don’t match the originals. That would be a very tall order, and probably not possible for many reasons. Tommy Aldridge’s drumming style being one of them. I also don’t think that bettering the originals was the intention. However, some songs did surprise me.

Burn

Not a bad version. There are a few omissions which bug me and the organ solo is too low in the mix. This version starts with the guitar by itself which doesn’t pack a lot of ooomph. It’s amazing what a quarter note drum/bass shot will do! The guitar solo, however, is pretty good as well as a bit of a medieval new section at the end of the solo. It’s nice that Aldridge has respect enough to play a straight beat, pretty much, through the verses. Trying to duplicate Paice’s fluid fills or coming up with fills of his own would have been sacrilege. There is some pretty good backup singing in the absence of Hughes, and I like the 4 ascending shots during the keyboard solo. They have kept the same ending as when they played it at the Sound Academy back in 2005.

You Fool No One

One of my favourite tracks from the Burn album. This version starts off with harmonica followed by a screeching guitar – which is definitely different – before breaking into the main riff which has been Metallica-ized with staccato guitar notes complete with a matching double bass drum pattern. This works, I guess, but of course this makes the feel completely different from the original. The cowbell pattern helped make this a great song on Burn – no sign of that pattern here. As well as that, I find that the middle instrumental section is a bit overblown. However, Coverdale’s voice sounds pretty good on this as he sings his and Hughes’ parts. All in all, different, and not too bad aside from the Metallica-ized riff.

Love Child

A pretty unsatisfying version even though Coverdale sings this a lot better now than he did on the live recordings 40 years ago. This version doesn’t contain the instrumental bridge where I would have thought some fun could have been had. What it does contain is a pretty annoying arpeggiated guitar part during the main riff from time to time, and chorus gets pretty annoying by the end. Not entirely bad – but far from great. It’s a memorable song from Come Taste The Band – not entirely memorable here.

Sail Away

Now THIS is more like it. A wonderfully played acoustic version which suits Coverdale’s voice very nicely. Some nice harmonies, and the song flows along very well. A definite highlight.

The Gypsy

Not exactly what I would call my favourite Purple track. I don`t hate it, but I have always thought of it as being a bit drab. This version doesn’t change my mind about it. The `Tell Me Gypsy’ parts are quite corny, and the guitar solo is too 80s like for my liking.

Lady Double Dealer

A pretty satisfying version as this is the one song where Tommy Aldridge doesn’t sound out of place since the song demands drumming more along the lines of his style. This version does not contain the `Oooh Baby’ in the bridges which is more than okay with me! The final bridge is done a capella style which I can’t really make up my mind about whether I like it or not. All in all, one of the better songs on the album.

Mistreated

No. Horrifying. A skipper for sure.

Holy Man

This song REALLY surprised me. I couldn’t believe it was included on this album because I couldn’t see how they could do it without Glenn Hughes since he sang it by himself on the original. I know it was co-written by him, Coverdale and Lord, but still… it seemed to be a song mostly associated with Hughes, in my opinion. However, this version is is very good, and is
another song that fits Coverdale’s register very nicely. I enjoy Coverdale’s singing on this better than Hughes` singing on the original.

Might Just Take Your Life

After a pretty cool dirty slide guitar/vocal intro, it falls into the main riff where the song chugs along quite nicely. Of course I miss the organ, and the vocals could be better, but all in all pretty listenable.

You Keep On Moving

Not too bad of a version. One memorable thing about the
original is the punched up organ sound – which is lacking here. I know Whitesnake is more of a guitar band, but come on. However, I don’t hate this version… it stays quite close to the original for the most part.

Soldier Of Fortune

A very nice take on this song – once again complimenting Coverdale’s lower register. Some very nice sounding acoustic guitars on this. Straying too far from the original would have been nuts…

Lay Down, Stay Down

This is an AWESOME song off of Burn, and a TERRIBLE song here. They have made it sound dumb, and it’s evident that no care was put into this version at all. It contains a pointless guitar intro as well as some thoughtless drumming from Aldridge. Another skipper.

Stormbringer

This version has grown on me even though Coverdale’s vocals are FAR from natural sounding. It rocks pretty well and I like how the guitar solo ends off with some pretty cool finger tapping.

Lady Luck

It’s amazing what a drum pattern will do. The original sees Paice play a pattern which fits the song perfectly – open and closed hi-hat 8th notes. Aldridge decided to just play a straight flat beat which makes the song itself sound flat and lifeless. Close to another skipper.

Comin’ Home

A great opener from Come Taste The Band, and a pretty forgettable closer on The Purple Album. Not a fan of Coverdale’s voice at all on this version, and the guitars for the most part sound like they are trying to copy Thin Lizzy – which doesn’t really work for Purple’s music. Close to a skipper as well.

Having said all this, I am glad I purchased this recording. I was quite curious about the idea, and the idea, in some cases, works quite well.

Review by Moe Cullity

California band Rival Sons will be supporting Deep Purple on all dates of the European tour this Fall.

In my opinion, this is a rather welcome addition to the bill. I’ve seen Rival Sons at a small club in my home town last year and the band’s music has a definitive vintage hard rock vibe to it. I’d like to encourage everybody who will see that tour not to skip the opening act and check them out.

Roger Glover posted some very heartwarming words on the late great B.B.King:

I well remember a time in the early ’70s when Ian Paice and I shared a flat in Parsons Green. Despite, or maybe because of, the intense hard rock that we were performing on the road, we had a surprisingly eclectic listening taste at home. It veered, one might say alarmingly, from The Carpenters to Mountain, with the likes of Taj Mahal, Prokofiev, James Taylor, Hendrix, Vaughen Williams, Dr John, Elgar, Dave Brubeck et al. in between.

And B.B. King. Indiana Mississippi Seeds was the album that grabbed us. And for many reasons – great production, great musicians, great grooves (respect to Russ Kunkel), and an orchestra that doesn’t sound at all out of place, sitting with the blues.

Read more and listen on RogerGlover.com

Photo credit: Ronzoni, CC-BY-SA-3.0

Joe Lynn Turner recently spoke to Metal Express Radio. The conversation was inevitably steered to the Rainbow reunion, for which JLT outlined his vision:

There`s been so much chatter on the internet about a Rainbow reunion. Is that all it is chatter or is there something of great substance there?

There`s been a lot of miss-speak from the journalists about this who like to twist phrases and twist words. All I can say is this. I`m in touch with the camp. I am not delusional, I know what I`m talking about and I`m not over talking it. I`m telling you as each month goes by what the news is. We are going to meet in the late Fall and that`s it. It`s probable but that`s it at the moment. We are going to get into a room together and if it works fine but if it doesn`t then we`re on our bikes. I think the only way it wouldn`t work is if we didn`t want to work at it. We both have the full intention of getting together and working on it. I have some ideas already knowing exactly where we should go and I`ll present it to Ritchie and I know he`ll say that I`m absolutely right, this is who we are. He`s also asked me if I remember about a song that I once wrote over 20 years ago, I have that stored away. He wants me to get it out and bring it down to work on.

Read more in Metal Express Radio.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

When looking at my “In Rock” anniversary edition today, I noticed the same symptoms of self-destruction that appeared on some copies of “Live In Japan” years ago:

Starting from the center, the disc shows several scratches that look like frost patterns while the majority of the disc seems to get covered with little dots and oily looking clouding.

The defective disc reads “EMI UDEN 8340192” and “4-1-2-NL” on the inner ring, while a copy with the text “EMI UDEN 8340192 @12” and “6-1-4-NL” on the ring doesn’t show the symptoms.

The three 1979 Rainbow shows, first of which — Denver — was released on vinyl on May 12, will be released on CD on August 21 this year. Meanwhile, the Denver show is already also available as a digital download.

The 3CD red velvet lined box will include Denver, Chicago, and Long Island shows, each on a CD in individual sleeve, a 1” color button, an embroidered fabric patch, a Ritchie Blackmore signature guitar pick, and a combo bottle opener/keychain.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Mike Eriksson (of the Deep Purple Forever Swedish fan club fame) has published on his blog a lengthy interview with Glenn Hughes. The interview was conducted in 1996 by himself and Coast To Coast editor Lennart Hedenström, and covers many things — some educational, some inspirational, some boisterous, and some — with the benefit of the 20-year hindsight — quite naive.

ME: Let´s spend a few minutes in the past before we talk about the current things. Here´s a question about the 70s. I read somewhere that Tommy Bolin had asked Robert Plant to sing with him at some stage. Was that just a rumor or is that something that you know about?

– Robert was introduced to Tommy by me. They had a friendship happening there. As far as any working relationship I didn´t know anything about that. It´s possible. Might be a rumor but it could be possible. Tommy, as you know, was very varied in his musical taste. I don´t think that Robert might have done it, but… it probably would have been interesting.

ME: With the Zeppelin connection, I wanted to clarify a thing that happened in New York on the last tour, with John Bonham strolling up on stage…

– Yes, absolutely…

ME: OK, what happened exactly?

– John Bonham and I have a history together. We were friends. Trapeze was John Bonham’s favorite English rock band, and he used to take me to gigs in his car, and he would jam with Trapeze on the encores. So John was a very good friend of mine. The night we played at Radio City Music Hall, in NYC, the second night, he was very drunk, and he wanted to come on stage to tell the audience about the new, “Song Remains The Same”, film coming out. So he got the microphone, and he was very drunk, and he started playing around, you know. And after that it took me… Well, something happened really bad that night. I mean he was out of his mind and he started getting a bit strange.

Read more in the Trinkelbonker

Thanks to Mike Eriksson for the info.

Another show has been added to the Deep Purple summer calendar: they will perform at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ, on July 29. Tickets are on sale (albeit ticketing agency site appears to be down for the moment).

…And not just the album.

Jeb Wright did an interview with David Coverdale for Classic Rock Revisited. It is one of those longish, in depth interviews that you’ll never see in the mainstream media. David talks at length about his Purple days and tells many revealing stories.

One of them is that a major motivation behind the Purple Album project was raising Purple profile stateside:

Jeb: Let’s jump in and talk about The Purple Album. I am 48 years old, so I was introduced to Whitesnake when Slide It In came out in America. I, then, went back and discovered the earlier Whitesnake albums and I had no idea you had even been in Deep Purple until I later discovered those albums. When I saw the press release for this album, I just about shit. I could not believe Coverdale was going to revisit the Purple era.

David: What was fascinating for me was that Purple in Europe was the equivalent of Zeppelin over here; they were huge. Whenever I would go to Europe to do promo, invariable the first question was, “David, how was it with Deep Purple?” The interview would have an immediate transition. I am the least nostalgic person I know, as I am totally happy with who I am, where I am, and with what I’m doing now and what I plan to do tomorrow.

In America, it was really underreported when we had the success of Slide it In, then the fucking POW of the 1987 album. It was a shock to most people over here. When we first played “Burn” in 2004, which was at the bands request, this is prior to Facebook and Twitter, Whitesnake.com lit up with people going, “Oh my God, what is this song? Is this a new Whitesnake song?” I think a lot of these songs may be new to a lot of fans in the USA.

Quite a bit of new light was also shed on the abortive Mk3 reunion:

Jeb: How close did a Deep Purple and David Coverdale reunion come to being a reality?

David: Glenn Hughes and I are very close and Glenn’s been after me to do some sort of a Purple reunion for some time. To be honest, and I mean no disrespect to my former colleagues, but it was never something that was interesting enough to stop me from doing what I love, which is Whitesnake.

I certainly loved working with Deep Purple and it was the beginning of my journey. I am forever grateful to those guys for having the courage to give me the opportunity, but it was not something I was wanting to do. I am totally happy to create new stuff working as Whitesnake.

A representative of Jon’s called me just after he’d been diagnosed with cancer, to give me that information, which was chilling enough. He said, “Jon said, on his recovery, would you be up for doing some kind of Deep Purple reunion, whether it was Mach III, or whatever?” I said, “Absolutely, I will be there for you.” As we know, sadly, Jon passed away. This opened up an opportunity to reach out, after thirty years of acrimony, with somebody that I truly respected, as a musician, which is Ritchie Blackmore. One reason was to express and commiserate the loss of Jon.

Regardless of whatever, those guys basically formed Deep Purple and were incredibly influential to me. I’ve been able to tell everyone else I worked with how much I appreciated the opportunity, and still do to this day, other than Ritchie. Ritchie doesn’t really bother reading rock mags and stuff like that. When I’ve said these things before, he doesn’t see them. It was important for me to reach out to him for those reasons, with no other agenda whatsoever.

Jeb: When was this happening?

David: This was in 2012, and we communicated into 2013, and then he asked me if I’d speak to his manager to which, of course, I said, “Absolutely.” She came on and said, “Can you keep a secret?” I said “Of course not, I’m a fucking singer.” She said, “Would you be interested in doing something with Ritchie? My first thought was like Blackmore Coverdale like I did with Jimmy in Coverdale Page. That would be a very exciting musical premise because he introduced me to his first songs that he did on the first Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow album. They were initially songs he was proposing for Deep Purple.

I love the early Rainbow stuff. Rainbow Rising, are you kidding me? When Cozy Powell came on board? That was fantastic. The idea of being able to do Purple, Rainbow and Whitesnake was interesting, but then she said, “Ritchie is curious, who would you go for, Roger [Glover] or Glenn?” I said “I really appreciate the musicality of Roger, and he produced two of my solo albums, but Glenn is my soul brother.” I recommended Keith Emerson as the keyboard player. He was a fan of Purple and Jon and Keith had a very healthy musical rivalry. Keith is a breathtakingly gifted musician. Nobody had spoken to Keith, as this was just a discussion.

It was during the talks for this that I started digging into our original work. I was going, “I hope he’s into a fresh coat of paint on some of these songs.” I was a fucking kid then. It was the first time I had written for an album. I can hear naivety all over the place. I started working on bits and pieces. I thought my arrangement of “Sail Away” could have been a nice transition for what he is doing with his Blackmore’s Night and we could tie it in with that thing and maybe even do something with Candice on that song. Once Carol, his manager and I, started talking about their vision for touring and stuff it just did not resonate and I wrote her a very, very respectful email withdrawing from whatever that project could have gone forward with.

There’s lots more of interesting stuff there. This is just scratching the surface. Just go and read it.