Glenn Hughes will tour Europe in September and October this year as a solo artist. We have 22 dates so far, starting on September 15 in Milan and finishing October 16 in Leffrinckoucke, France. Tickets for a handful of dates are already on sale.
There are no UK dates, but here’s a hint: the last French date is essentially Dunkirk.
Support for the whole tour is announced as Jared James Nichols. There’s no word on who will be in Glenn’s backing band.
To celebrate Ritchie’s 70th, The Guardian has reprinted a 1978 interview from Trouser Press magazine with the man in black. And it’s one of those rare gems where he is being thoughtful, open, self reflecting and, for the most part, quite serious. To the bemusement of the interviewer:
Ritchie Blackmore turned out to be a genial model of decorum, and was fully prepared to discuss anything. Indeed, when we got over the surprise of discovering him to be a pleasant fellow, he even fielded borderline tactless questions, unthinkable to ask of someone with his image. My only complaint about the thoughtful and open Mr Blackmore was that he insisted on keeping his juiciest comments off the record.
A lot of ground was covered, from starting to play guitar at age 11, to Outlaws, to Purple, to Rainbow, and everything in between and beyond. Some of Blackmore’s words became prophetic 30 years later:
Ever considered playing another kind of music?
Yeah, I have thought about that, but I’m very interested in extreme rock’n’roll. At the other extreme, I’m interested in medieval modes, quiet 15th-century sitting in a park playing little minuets … I don’t like to mix the two.
Whitesnake’s record label has released another promo video for their upcoming Purple Album. Soldier of Fortune manages to avoid the hair metal clichés and stay closer to the original:
The Rolling Stone magazine has conducted a reader’s poll about artists that should be inducted into the infamous Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. And perhaps surprisingly for them, but not so much for the rest of the world, Deep Purple took the top spot. The magazine explains away:
You can’t blame the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominating committee for not bringing Deep Purple in. They’ve put them on the ballot several times over the past few years, but for whatever reason the voters just don’t seem to be going for them. It probably has something to do with the fact that the vast, vast majority of voters are American. If the people of Europe had the chance to vote, Deep Purple would have been in years ago. Sadly, many people in America see them as merely the “Smoke on the Water” band. Throughout the rest of the world, Deep Purple are seen on the same level as 1970s giants Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. They continue to play huge shows even though guitarist Ritchie Blackmore bolted over 20 years ago. If they ever got into the Hall of Fame, there’s a sliver of a chance he’d reunite with them.
Jacky Paice writes that the Sunflower Superjam 2015, scheduled for September 24th and 25th this year, had to be postponed until some time in April 2016. The reasons are numerous, but can be summed up as “a crazy culmination of circumstances”. Not least of which is the expected arrival of grandchildren twins at the beginning of August.
We have received more information from Cleo Records regarding upcoming Rainbow live releases from the 1979 tour. As we’ve reported previously, the Denver show will come out on vinyl on May 12. This will be the first of the three releases, followed by the show from Long Island, November 30, 1979, and Chicago, October 12.
The Long Island vinyl release is pencilled in for September. A 3CD box containing all three shows should come out around the same time. Chicago vinyl will appear later on.
These soundboard recordings were widely bootlegged, but Cleo’s releases are the first ones properly licensed from Blackmore. Unfortunately, they could not obtain the master tapes, so the audio is “remastered from the best sources that we could find”.
Bernie Marsden has been awarded a honorary Master of Arts degree by his home town University of Buckingham. The presentation speech delivered by Professor John Clarke lists Bernie’s numerous achievements, from scoring a #1 US hit with Here I Go Again, to his recent charity work.
We all at The Highway Star would like to extend our warmest congratulations.
Perfect Strangers of Finland will be holding their 7th Purple Night event on Friday, May 29, in Helsinki, Finland. This year it will be dedicated to Ritchie Blackmore, who has celebrated his 70th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Doogie White will be a special guest of the night, performing Purple and Rainbow classics with local musicians.
Rock City Radio Show Berlin will air an interview with Ian Gillan on Sunday, April 26, between 17:00 and 18:00 CET. The interview was recorded on March 26 when Ian played the Rock Meets Classic gig in Berlin. The presentation of the show is in German, but Ian is not overvoiced.
Rock City Radio Show Berlin broadcasts online and worldwide. You can listen to it at alex-berlin.de.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing