American heavy metal band A Sound Of Thunder is releasing their new album Tales from the Deadside. The album features two bonus tracks: covers of Rainbow’s Death Alley Driver and Dio’s Last in Line.

And they’ve got Tony Carey playing keyboards on Death Alley Driver:

As far as my part goes, I threw down some old-school Hammond and played a much-too-fast solo bit on a Minimoog (remember those?) and woke up on the Sunset Strip in pre-Apocalypse 1976… lots of fun, and not something I do very often. Hollywood Swingin’! Thanks for having me.

The band’s guitarist (and longtime THS follower) Josh Schwartz adds:

Tony is an immensely accomplished musician and producer and I can’t overstate how honoured I am to have him on our recording. His work with Rainbow only scratches the surface of his many talents. Fans will know that Tony didn’t play on the original version of “Death Alley”. By adding wall-to-wall Hammond organ and his own personal style, Tony has warmed up the song and given it a kick in the pants and a very cool ’70s vibe not present on the original.

The bonus tracks are available either separately or together with the album through the band’s Kickstarter campaign, which runs through August 17.

Thanks to Josh S for the info.

Rock Scene Magazine has posted an interview with Don Airey that they’d done back in 2011. Don looks back on his career, from a school bus in Sunderland, to joining the Purple.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Voodoo Hill, an on-and-off project of Glenn Hughes and Italian guitarist and producer Dario Mollo, will be releasing their third album Waterfall on October 16 via Frontiers Records.

Mollo comments on the album:

It was right in the middle of this creative spring that Serafino of Frontiers called me to see whether I wanted to finally work on a third Voodoo Hill album after all these years. He said Glenn Hughes was available in principle, so the next thing I did was to choose the 11 songs which I thought suited the project the best. In comparison to the previous albums, I wanted to have Glenn more involved in the artistic decisions, so I sent him the songs before the final mixes in order to have his advices on the final result. That was a precious process that brought substantial changes, for instance on “Last Door”, where I literally changed the entire guitar riff to make it work better with the vocal melodies. In the end the song was basically rewritten and dramatically improved. It was a fabulous creative process, which I am truly confident will last more than a bunch of listening sessions and will offer a lot of enjoyment to all those will want to follow Voodoo Hill in this exciting musical venture.

Track list:

1. All That Remains
2. The Well
3. Rattle Shake Bone
4. Underneath And Down Below
5. Waterfall
6. Karma Go
7. Evil Thing
8. Eldorado
9. White Feather
10. Sunflower
11. Last Door

Dario Mollo — Guitars
Glenn Hughes – Vocals
Dario Patti — Bass, Keys
Riccardo Vruna – Drums
Andrea Maiellano — Additional Bass on 3, 4, 6
Vladimir Ruzicic Kebac — Drums on 7, 9, 11

Thanks to BraveWords and Frontiers for the info.

David Coverdale gave an interview to the Noisey, a Vice magazine musical offshoot. Amidst the now familiar story of him getting in touch with Jon Lord, then after his death reconnecting with Ritchie Blackmore, which resulted in The Purple Album, he mentioned that he’d be ‘totally down’ for a one-off show involving all the members of Deep Purple:

I don’t wanna do anything I can’t stand behind. It’s why I stepped away from the project with Ritchie. I would have fucking loved to do it, and even earlier this year his manager had called me and asked if I’d do a song for Ritchie, and I said, “Yeah, but not an old one that we’ve done. He must be sitting there jamming on some riffs. Tell him to send me some riffs, and I’ll make a fucking song out of it.” It’s what I do. So far I haven’t had any new Ritchie riffs to mess with, but it would be fantastic for me as it would be in fulfilling one of Jon Lord’s ambitions to have all surviving members of Deep Purple do a fucking big show as a “Thank you” to the insanely loyal fanbase that Purple has, and not only Deep Purple, but all the splinter groups. I’m totally down for that.

Read more at noisey.vice.com.

In slightly related news from our home decorating celebrity gossip department, if you happen to be shopping for vintage furniture in Munich, a store called JJ Company in Thierschplatz 4a might be worth a visit. Exklusiv-münchen.de reports that it boasts Madonna, Uma Thurman, Victoria Beckham, and Barak Obama among its customers. Oh yeah, and it is being run by David’s daughter Jessica Schröder-Coverdale.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Joe Lynn Turner gave an interview to Norwegian metal webzine Eternal Terror. Quite frankly, nothing of consequence has been said, but in the interests of complete coverage, here it is:

One of the most memorable and fun shows I have ever attended was the Over the Rainbow gig in Malmø (Sweden) back in October 2009. The house was packed and everybody was so into it, and you guys just ROCKED! Do you recall that gig? Do you ever miss performing with Over the Rainbow? I thought you guys were awesome, and given that I was born in 1984 and missed out on all those early Rainbow tours that gig in Sweden in 2009 was like a dream come true for me. That was the closest to Rainbow I could possibly get, so for me it has a special place in my heart.

Yes, I do remember that show. The times spent in Over the Rainbow were fun and exciting. Thank you for your kind words. Glad you liked the show so much! We did hear from a lot of younger fans that this was the closest they have come to seeing Rainbow because they did not get a chance to see the band in the 70s and 80s. Glad we could fulfill that dream for so many fans.

Read more in Eternal Terror.

Thanks to Jens Nepper for the info.

On July 21 Blackmore’s Night has appeared on German TV miming to two tracks from the upcoming new album All Our Yesterdays:

• All Our Yesterdays
• The Other Side plus a short interview

Promo video for the title track was also posted on YouTube by the record company:

In related news, The Guardian has published an opinion piece by Tim Hall highlighting 10 Blackmore’s songs from th early part of his career:

Deep Purple – Speed King
Although it was their fifth album, In Rock was the record that established Deep Purple as one of the genre-defining hard rock bands. The early albums by what became known as the mark I version of the band, featuring Rod Evans on vocals, had been a mixture of late-60s psychedelia and pop with few hints of what the band would later become. All that changed with the arrival of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to form Deep Purple mark II. The album’s opening number begins with an ear-splitting wall of shredding guitar, before Blackmore unleashes that raw and dirty riff while Gillan cut-and-pastes fragments of well-known rock’n’roll lyrics. For the instrumental break it changes tack, with a call-and-response between Blackmore’s very bluesy licks and Jon Lord’s organ. There are strong echoes of the rock’n’roll that Blackmore paid his dues playing at end-of-the-pier shows in the 60s, but this was rock’n’roll turned up to 11.

Continue reading in The Guardian.

Thanks to Nigel Young, BraveWords, and Hein Bierman for the info.

The band have performed Smoke on the Water on The Today Show live this morning. The video has been posted officially on today.com, and unofficially on YouTube:

The Montreal Blues Society is preparing a review of Deep Purple’s appearance at the Ottawa Bluesfest. In the meantime, we are happy to offer you their review of Now What?!

Ok, blah, blah, blah. What about the music? I pour myself a frosty Kool Aid and set myself on the king’s throne and hit play. Expecting a big ass riff to kick me in the bollocks, I am instead greeted with a mellow bass riff with some soon added guitar fills to start off ‘A Simple Song’. A subdued Gillan chimes in and the vibe is kind of Gabrielish or Gillan solo (not a bad thing)…but then BANG… Hammond, Ball, Pearl, Vigier, and Shure explode and come at me with a vengeance. A skull penetrating rhythm invades the prior serene lead in. It didn’t take long and I now keel over in pain from what I wanted. I can’t believe how prominent the bass sounds. The standard guitar solo is switched out for a great Hammond piece by Airey before the song 360s back to how it began. Beautiful. I don’t even make it to track two…repeat.

Read more at the Montreal Blues Society.

Thanks to Sean Willoughby for the info.

Watch this space for further developments.

Le Soleil in Quebec City has published not only an excellent review of the Deep Purple performance at the Festival d’été de Québec, but also did a great feature on the band in the days leading to the show. Written by Nicolas Houle, a rock journalist, longtime DP enthusiast and also a longtime THS reader. It is all in French, but even from the rough automated translation one can see that it’s a work of love for the band. He even dug into the newspaper archives and found a picture of Randy California standing in for Ritchie Blackmore on April 6, 1972. Kinda makes you wish that every newspaper on the planet had a staff Purple enthusiast.

The feature includes an interview with Roger Glover, followed by a who-is-who writeup of everybody who has been a member of the band over the years. Roger spoke about his very beginning, his debut with the band — Hallelujah, the 1984 reunion and how the band was irritated by the fact that only the money side of it draw attention, on how the band never thought that Smoke on the Water would be a hit, about his opinion on Joe Lynn Turner choice as a singer for Purple, and many other things.

In the second part of the feature Nicolas spoke to Steve Morse, who explained that talking of the end of the band is a taboo thing with other members. He fears that DP may be one of those bands who crashed on the road. Among other topics, he shared his opinion on Whitesnake’s The Purple Album, explained why the band doesn’t have the same following in the US than in the rest of the world, and the chemistry with Bob Ezrin.

Thanks to Nicolas Houle for the info. Pictures are from Ottawa, July 18, by truly yours.

Deep Purple at Festival d’été de Québec (Quebec City, Canada, 2015-07-19)

On a cold windy evening on the Plains of Abraham, Quebec – site of the historic battle between the French and British in 1759, Deep Purple came, saw and conquered the 60,000 or so faithful who braved the bitter temperature, high winds and the constant threat of thundershowers.

I was at the show and the weather was absolutely brutal…13c and winds of around 50km/30 miles per hour with threat of thunder and lightning all through the show. People were dressed in winter coats. Yours truly shows up in a t shirt and jeans, having left a balmy 36c in Montreal.

When I arrived in Quebec City two and a half hours later….I knew I was in trouble because the temperature had dropped to 19c. At the show the winds were so high the speakers were swinging on their cables like they were going to fly away. The Festival Été Québec is a huge outdoor music festival that lasts about 10 days. This was the last show of the festival. The boys didn’t give a damn about the bad weather. They played a blinder of a set. Ian Gillan’s voice sounded better than ever. Not sure if he changed something in his style but I aint questioning it. He looked refreshed and rejuvenated as did the whole band. After the show I got to chat with Roger Glover and Don Airey for a while. They were really pleased with the tour thus far and the crowd reception.

I have seen many a Purple show over the years and I believe this tour is not to be missed. If you can get out to see the band then please do. No one knows how many tours the boys have left in them and DP are bringing it stronger than ever on this one. Sorry to babble…now to the reviews.

Two reviews here from the show in Québec City; one from le Journal de Montréal and the other from La Presse, the two largest French language papers in the province. Apologies for the rough translation but I think everyone will get the gist of it….. Cheers !

LE SOLEIL

(Quebec) Neither the threatening sky or wind or chilly weather are able to scare away fans from the Quebec City Summer Festival (QEF) Sunday on the Plains of Abraham. The Deep Purple machine managed to warm up the crowd with a formidable performance, fueling the crowd with classic songs, new songs and neglected pearls of the past.

A point worth noting is that initially Nickelback was scheduled to headline the closing concert. However, following health problems of singer Chad Kroeger, Deep Purple were asked to take on the job. Good idea! At the opening, with the inevitable Highway Star, we knew we had the drive: Ian Gillan was in fine voice form and behind him, the group could not be more in sync. The band had an excellent sound system to play through.

Although they do the festival circuit this summer, the guys did not opt for the easy musical route. Also, no fewer than four titles of the recent Now What ?! album snuck into the evening, without necessarily undermining the pace of the show. Among them, Vincent Price was particularly good. It must be said that the musicians are top notch, as witnessed during the organ virtuosos, courtesy of Don Airey, and those of guitarist Steve Morse who took care to cover one of his hands with a glove, were enough to sustain attention from the crowd. The musicians rose to great feats without falling into the excesses or demonstration. They never lost the melodic dimension of sight.

As an aperitif to a Perfect Strangers meal, Don Airey has allowed a segment where he resumed Gens du Pays [unofficial national anthem of Quebec — THS] to the sheer delight of the crowd. Morse, meanwhile, served the impressive instrumental The Well Dressed Guitar, in addition to dialogue with the wider public, at the end of the show, during Black Night. Moreover, dialogues, we also had dialogue between Ian Gillan and between Steve Morse, with a friendly Strange Kind of Woman or between Morse and Airey, during Hush, first success of the British band.

In addition to highlighting Hard Lovin ‘Man, rarely performed play on stage, Deep Purple also unearthed The Mule, which allowed Ian Paice to call upon his expertise behind the drums – light wands included!

Besides the instrumental flights (solos) , we must emphasize the cohesion and the overall sound of the group in each song. It was also pleasing to see how Gillan, down from its 69 years, was able to make good use of his voice. Certainly, he no longer has exceptional flexibility of spring, but his singing was assured, just, and veteran could afford here and there his famous shrill cries, his usual signature.

No doubt the crowd was conquered. And when it came time to support Gillan during the chorus of the must Smoke On The Water, nobody held back. Even the rain had the foresight to spare us throughout the concert. A successful finale.

JOURNAL DU QUEBEC and JOURNAL DE MONTREAL (same newspaper owner)

A band that delivers…..big rock and pleasure. Deep Purple has offered a solid and furious performance on the Plains of Abraham to conclude the 2015 edition of the Quebec City Summer Festival.

The site was not full, but there were lots and lots of people, even in the hill, on a windy night that had absolutely nothing to do with the summer.

A gray sky, low clouds that pass quickly and hanging sound speakers that swayed with the wind. You had to love the rock. Those brave enough to agree to leave the cozy comfort of their homes were rewarded with a nice big rock evening with Deep Purple.

The five members of the celebration that approaches 50 years of career are all in their sixties. Guitarist Steve Morse, who wore a black glove on his right hand to keep out the cold, is the youngest at 60. Ian Gillan and Roger Glover are veterans at 69. You’d never give them that.

Sound, although excellent in front of the stage, was affected somewhat in the rear, because of the wind.

Danny N