Heaven on Their Minds: The Creation of Jesus Christ Superstar is a documentary about the original London cast of the album (they call it the Brown Album), which has been in on-and-off production for a couple of years now. The last update (March 27) from the producer Megan Park says:

Next, we are meeting Shannon Park and Sean Pollock to discuss resuming (or should I say “resurrecting”) production of Heaven On Their Minds.This documentary about the creation of Jesus Christ Superstar (the original rock opera album) began three years ago and picked up a lot of momentum along the way.

We’ve already interviewed Ian Gillan (Jesus) and have verbal confirmations from the cast and the band. We even have Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice on board if we can prove financing. But the project stalled because we needed money and an editor to cut a Kickstarter video so that we could fly to London to interview the players. And then I moved to Ohio. But now that I’m working with Michelle who is an editor, I think we can get this project started again. Cross your fingers.

There is an interview from October last year with the filmmaker Shannon Park on Yahoo Voices that further delves into motivation, status, and goals of the project:

What made you decide to do a film documentary on your love/passion for the album?

I was searching on the Internet back in 2009, looking for answers to questions I had about the making of the album. I was stunned that nothing exists about it. No interviews, photos, or TV shows about it. How could that be? So many credible people were on that record- no one cared to document this history?

The only thing I had was a book by Ellis Nassour called Rock Opera. I took it from the Brookville public library when I was 17 and have had it all this time. The book was about it’s meteoric flight to the top, but didn’t have the pre-story: how the original album was made.

Of the cast and crew, who haven’t you been able to interview for this documentary?

I have pre interviewed via phone and email almost all of them. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s manager Peter Brown called and we spoke a while. I was told ALW was very interested in my project. I met Tim Rice here in NYC, he assured me he’d love to sit for an interview as soon as proof of funding for the project was made. Of the singers I’ve communicated with Murray Head, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen, Brian Keith (O’Shea now), John Gustafson, Victor Brox and Mike d’Abo. I spoke to Pianist J. Peter Robinson and Saxophonist Chris Mercer as well. I filmed Ian Gillan and got a great interview. I have top executives from Decca Records and the album artist and creator, Ernie Cefelu, who gave me permission to use the angels. They all said yes to being in the film.

So far, so good!

But for the life of me, I cannot locate Joe Cocker’s Grease Band. To me, they’re the heart and soul of this project. Their playing was incredible and the film cannot be made without them. I got a cheeky email from Guitarist Henry McCulloch and thought, eureka! But then it went cold and he never responded to me again and I was crestfallen. With the exception of bassist Alan Spenner, who died a while ago, the remaining members are out there and I want them to sit with me and tell me a tale!

Do you believe that this film documentary will create a whole new generation of fans?

It has the potential to awaken a lot of people who are susceptible to superb playing and melodies. It’s infectious music. It emotionally takes you by the soul and whips you around. Musically it is an incredible masterpiece. For instance, the use of different time signatures to build tension in the story, the lush string arrangements with the intricate, and often funky, bass and drum rhythms underneath along with the timeless production quality is a musician’s dream.

It has a strong theater following, but there are also people who love it who are not into musical theater. I actually feel it’s been totally co opted by musical theater when it’s roots are in rock and roll.

I don’t think Deep Purple fans even know one of Ian Gillan’s most incredible vocal performance exists on this album. And that’s a shame.

Shannon, I have a sneaking suspicion you might be slightly mistaken on the account of Deep Purple fans.

Ian Gillan was asked to do the film, and wanted his band members to be paid for the time he was away from them. What do you think about this?

He’s a rock star and his band comes first. He told me there was no negotiating, he wasn’t ever going to do it. The Deep Purple tour had been booked already and Jewison interviewed him as a courtesy. Perhaps if Gillan did request that, it was a way for him to put the screws to the director. See how badly they really wanted him, you know? All conjecture.

While filming, did you sense any bitterness or anger from cast/crew, or was the making of this album pure joy for everyone involved?

All in all, everyone pretty much loved the experience and said so. The wonderful enthusiasm the cast has had toward me and this project has been overwhelming. The passion from the fans encouraging me to keep going has been mind-blowing. People really want to know all about how these two unknown collaborators, who had moderate success with Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat got London’s top shelf rock vocalists and session musicians to make this crazy concept album about JESUS!

Really, how on earth did they pull it off?

Links:

• facebook
• IMDB
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• Twitter

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Get Ready To Rock have posted an interview they did with Glenn Hughes on April 1. There, amongst other things, Glenn vehemently denies that California Breed is a continuation of Black Country Communion.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

See the photo gallery of Ian Gillan receiving Friend of Armenians award at St. Vartan Cathedral in New York on May 2.

Thanks to Karine Abalyan, James Gemmell, Ara Tadevosyan, and Monika Schwartz for the info.

Back in 2006, when Deep Purple undertook a massive tour of France, their support was a French band called Café Bertrand. Their guitar player Stéphane “Steph” Honde moved to California a couple of years ago and there he befriended Tim Bogert of Vanilla Fudge fame and convinced him to play on his debut album. The project took name Hollywood Monsters, and recently signed with Mausoleum Records to release their debut album Big Trouble.

And undoubtedly, in 2006 Honde made a good impression on Don Airey, as the latter is among the guest musicians on the album.

Track list:

1. Another Day In Grey – Pt 1
2. Move On
3. Big Trouble
4. The Only Way
5. The Cage
6. The Ocean
7. Oh Boy!
8. Underground
9. Village Of The Damned
10. Song For A Fool
11. Fuck You All (bonus track)

Steph Honde – Vocals, Guitars, Piano, Bass
Paul Di’Anno – Vocals (track 11)
Denis Baruta – Guitars (tracks 5, 9 & 11)
Tim Bogert – Bass (tracks 1, 2 & 10)
Olivier Brossard – Bass (track 11)
Vinny Appice – Drums (all tracks except 7, 10 & 11)
Don Airey – Hammond B3 (track 2)
Emmanuel Lamic – Drums (tracks 10 & 11)
Laetitia Gondran – Drums (track 7)

Check out more sound samples on Soundcloud.

Big Trouble by Hollywood Monsters is due out on May 23 via Mausoleum Records.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

California Breed will play two gigs on both US coasts, which appear to be one-offs: May 28 at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles and May 31 at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City. Tickets for LA are already on sale, with NYC starting on May 7.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Glenn Hughes was interviewed during the Newport Beach Film Festival at the premiere of Well Now You’re Here, There’s No Way Back: The Quiet Riot Movie documentary. He spoke about his connection to Frankie Banali and late Kevin DuBrow, California Breed, and things he learned from David Bowie:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Deep Purple have won in the Comeback of the Year category at the Golden Gods 2014, an awards show organized by the Revolver magazine. The awards are based on the results of online fan voting, and the comeback in question apparently refers to the excellent last year album Now what?! The band came on top of stiff competition in the face of Black Sabbath (they’ve won Album of the Year instead), Carcass, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, and Suicidal Tendencies.

The awards were presented on April 24 at the Nokia Club in Los Angeles. The band did not attend, opting for a prerecorded video appearance to a largely indifferent crowd:

Thanks to Andrey Barabanshchikov for the info.

For his efforts in rebuilding the musical school in Armenia, Ian Gillan has been named Friend of the Armenians 2014 by the Eastern Diocese of Armenian Church in America.

He will be presented with the award at the 112th Diocesan Assembly in New York City. The presentation will be made during the assembly’s gala banquet on Friday evening, May 2, starting at 7 p.m., at Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium of the Diocesan Complex. For information on the banquet, contact Lorraine Marootian at (201) 560-1482.

Thanks to the Armenian Church of America and Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

An author going simply by the name Pozzo has published an account of his personal quest to find Rod Evans. And while it contains many digressions (or maybe because of them), it’s quite an amusing read. Joanna’s call for arms here gets a name check, along with DPAS and Simon.

… I handed over my two pounds and took the album home. My parents’ stereo (old enough to merit the archaism, “gramophone”) was not the greatest sound system in the world, but it was better than nothing and I carefully placed my booty on the turntable, positioned the needle, sat back and listened. The music was heavy, complex, involving but – er – bluesy and there was even a hint of something calypso-like on one track. It was wonderful, sure, but not quite what I expected. Most seriously of all – what was wrong with Ian Gillan? There were two singers, apparently, one screechy, one souly, but neither sounding remotely like the guy I’d heard on “24 Carat Purple”. It was only then that I checked the names of the band’s membership. There was no Ian Gillan, no Roger Glover, but someone called Glenn Hughes (never heard of him!) and David Coverdale of whom I had heard, but only as the lead singer of the then-currently-popular Whitesnake.

This was an epiphany. It was the realisation that there had not merely been one Deep Purple, but many, different incarnations of the band – or different “Marks” as they preferred to call them – each with their own distinctive sound. It was like the moment I realised that there had been more than one Doctor Who. I discovered that “Burn” was by Mark III and that Ian Gillan and Roger Glover had belonged to Mark II. This begged a question: what had Mark I been like? My investigations began…

Read the whole book at autonomy.com. Word of caution: while not quite a novel in size, at 25,000+ words it’s a lengthy read. But it’s worth it. If you’re a regular on our site, you’ll probably find yourself chuckling once or twice, recognizing certain feelings and trepidations.

Thanks to Roberto Scortichini for the info.

California Breed’s record company apparently decided to inundate us with hype about their first album by posting a new promo clip every week. This one is supposed to be behind the scenes from recording, while in reality is just talking heads.

Subsequent episodes will premiere every Tuesday until the album is released on may 20 on Guitar World

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.