Thames Talent has announced the North American tour schedule for August this year. The grand tour of county fairs and casinos will start on August 5 in Ventura, California, and finish on August 31 in Hollywood, Florida.

Full details in our calendar. Apart from the Casino Rama show there is no ticket information at this point in time.

Smoke on the Water is in the quarterfinals of the Ultimate Classic Rock’s March Riff Madness playoffs. It’s pitted against the Ace of Spades and so far is losing 2:1. Final whistle will blow on Sunday, March 16 at 11:59PM EDT. One can vote multiple times once an hour. You know what to do.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Tickets for a Deep Purple show at Casino Rama (just north of Toronto) on August 22 go on sale this week. There appears to be no information at this point about any further North American dates, although I’m pretty sure they should start surfacing soon. Please report by email or in the comments.

And this time it’s the one you most likely haven’t seen before 😉

Deep Purple (Overseas) has posted on YouTube a teaser for The Rise of Deep Purple MK II documentary (which, from this teaser, actually sounds more like The Fall of Deep Purple MK II 😉 ). The full documentary will be included on the DVD part of 4CD+DVD Made in Japan edition due out on May 19 together with many other formats.

Updated (March 5): Artwork and track listing for Glenn Hughes’ new project California Breed self-titled debut album have been released. The album is due out on May 19 (in the UK) via Frontiers Records. It was produced by Dave Cobb (Jamey Johnson, Rival Sons, Lindi Ortega, Shooter Jennings).

1. The Way
2. Sweet Tea
3. Chemical Rain
4. Midnight Oil
5. All Falls Down
6. The Grey
7. Days They Come
8. Spit You Out
9. Strong
10. Invisible
11. Scars
12. Breathe
13. Solo *

Solo is a bonus track that will appear on deluxe edition of the album, which will also include a DVD with 2 video clips for The Way and Sweet Tea, plus a documentary.

No release date has been specified at this point.

In a related promo feature in Classic Rock, Glenn tells his prospective on the demise of Black Country Communion:

For whatever reason, Joe and his manager [Roy Weisman] wanted to own the name, even though Jason and I came up with it. They just weren’t interested in leasing it to us. So I’ve moved on with California Breed.

Joe and I are talking again – everything is fine. I should’ve listened better when he said that he is a solo artist; Black Country were [just] a project for him. I’ve absolutely no regrets about being in Black Country Communion because it made me a rock artist again, which is something I should’ve done as long ago as 1983.

Nobody really knows this but I resigned on September 21st, 2012 – the night before the Jim Marshall 50th anniversary concert. I did that because there was no hope of touring. Jason [Bonham] and I did want to continue as Black Country, and we spoke to some very famous friends such as Zakk [Wylde], Steve Vai and Joe Satriani who were all interested but couldn’t commit to touring – so it was back to the Joe Bonamassa scenario.

Thanks to GlennHughes.com and Classic Rock for the info.

Listen to a track from Don Airey’s new solo album Keyed Up. The track is called Mini Suite and features contribution from the late Gary Moore (hint: guitar on the first two sections is actually by Simon McBride).

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

About a month ago Brian May appeared on UK’s Planet Rock radio with an interview. When they asked him to pick his favourite guitar track, his answer was Since You’ve Been Gone. He proceeded showering praise on both Cozy Powell and Ritchie Blackmore:

I suppose you’d call it ‘pop rock’ in a sense, but it’s uncompromising, you know?

You know, people don’t talk about Ritchie Blackmore enough. I don’t know why, but he was such a trail blazer and technically incredible — unpredictable in every possible way. It’s great. That’s what you love, isn’t it? You go to a gig and you want to see something which is not predictable, which is not like just reproducing. So you never knew what you were gonna see when you went to see Purple, when Blackmore was in it, but also Rainbow. You know, this was his own thing and it was wild and dangerous.

The relevant bit of the interview starts at 5:38 (skip automagically). There does not appear anything else purple related, apart from him talking about Queen also having an intimate connection with this sleepy (for most of the time) little Swiss town of Montreux. But if you’re also a Queen fan, the whole thing is rather entertaining and well worth half an hour of your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQeJjhanpmk?t=5m38s

Ah, and before the flame war starts, he concludes the interview talking about importance of working with people whom you are comfortable to be with.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen and Something Else! for the info.

Universal has announced that a new remaster of Made in Japan will be released (at least in the UK) on May 19, 2014. It will come in three gabazillions of different CD, vinyl, blu-ray, and download formats, which we will try to summarize here.

Let’s see what they have in store to entice us to buy it all over again.

Jump to:

• CD/DVD: 4CD+DVD | 2CD | 1CD
• Vinyl: 9LP | 2LP | 7″ single
• Blue-ray
• Downloads: 2CD | 1CD | Blue-ray | remix | remaster

 

• 4CD + DVD box set

  The complete 1972 Japanese tour, newly remastered.
  Includes:

  • 4 CDs
  • DVD
  • 7” promo single
  • 60-page hardback book and memorabilia
  • MP3 and HD Download insert

  Disc 1: Osaka 15th August 1972

  1. Highway Star
  2. Smoke on The Water
  3. Child In Time
  4. The Mule (Drum Solo)
  5. Strange Kind Of Woman
  6. Lazy
  7. Space Truckin’

  Disc 2: Osaka 16th August 1972

  1. Highway Star
  2. Smoke on The Water
  3. Child In Time
  4. The Mule (Drum Solo)
  5. Strange Kind Of Woman
  6. Lazy
  7. Space Truckin’

  Disc 3: Tokyo 17th August 1972

  1. Highway Star
  2. Smoke on The Water
  3. Child In Time
  4. The Mule (Drum Solo)
  5. Strange Kind Of Woman
  6. Lazy
  7. Space Truckin’

  Disc 4: Encores from all three nights

  1. Black Night — Osaka, August 15
  2. Speed King — Osaka, August 15
  3. Black Night — Osaka, August 16
  4. Lucille — Osaka, August 16
  5. Black Night — Tokyo, August 17
  6. Speed King — Tokyo, August 17

  Disc 5: DVD

  1. Made in Japan – The Rise of Deep Purple MK II documentary
  2. Smoke On the Water (Official clip)
  3. The Revolution Germany 1972 (Small documentary piece from Boblingen Sporthalle Stuttgart 10th February 1972)
  4. Smoke On the Water (Live clip from Hoftsra University 29th May 1973)

  UPC: 00602537696383
  Amazon UK: £59.88
  

 

• 2CD edition

  • CD1: Osaka 15th, 16th and Tokyo 17th; 2013 mix/master of the original album
  • CD2: encores from all three nights, 1972 mix
  • 24-page booklet

  UPC: 00602537696406
  Amazon UK: £11.45

 

• 1CD edition

  • 2013 remaster of the original 1972 mix of the album
  • all tracks from the same sources as on the original album
  • no bonus tracks
  • 16-page booklet

  UPC: 00602537712199
  Amazon UK: £9.38

 


• 9LP box set

  The complete 1972 Japanese tour, newly remastered and on vinyl for the first time. Includes:

  • 9 x LP 180g heavyweight vinyl
  • each show comes on 2LPs, with encores on a separate 12″ one sided EP
  • MP3 and HD download code
  • 60-page hardback book + memorabilia

  Osaka 15th August 1972

  Side one

  1. Highway Star
  2. Smoke on The Water

  Side two

  1. Child In Time
  2. The Mule (Drum Solo)

  Side three

  1. Strange Kind Of Woman
  2. Lazy

  Side four

  1. Space Truckin’

  12″ EP – encores

  1. Black Night
  2. Speed King

  Osaka 16th August 1972

  Same format as Osaka 15th August, different encores.

  Tokyo 17th August 1972

  Same format and setlist as Osaka 15th August.

  UPC: 00602537696543
  Amazon UK: £85.15

 


• 2LP set

  • 2013 Remaster of the original 1972 mix
  • all tracks from the same sources as on the original album
  • no bonus tracks
  • 180g heavyweight vinyl
  • MP3 download code

  UPC: 00602537696598
  Amazon UK: £16.95

 

• 7″ Record Store Day single

  Side one: Black Night — Live Osaka 1972
  Side two: Woman From Tokyo — Studio edit

  Originally released on August 25, 1978.

  Caveat: press release said these two tracks are from 1978 (sic!). We are just assuming it’s a typo and they are in fact from the 1973 shows.

  UPC: 00602537731145

 

• Blue Ray Audio disc

  • newly remixed complete August 16th Osaka show
  • 2013 remix and remaster of the original album
  • no encores
  • high definition 24bit/96khz stereo audio
  • includes 320kbps MP3 download

  Remix:

  1. Highway Star — Osaka, August 16
  2. Child In Time — Osaka, August 16
  3. Smoke On The Water — Osaka, August 15
  4. The Mule (Drum Solo) — Tokyo, August 17
  5. Strange Kind Of Woman — Osaka, August 16
  6. Lazy — Tokyo, August 17
  7. Space Truckin’ — Osaka, August 16

  Remaster:

  8. Highway Star — Osaka, August 16
  9. Child In Time — Osaka, August 16
  10. Smoke On The Water — Osaka, August 15
  11. The Mule (Drum Solo) — Tokyo, August 17
  12. Strange Kind Of Woman — Osaka, August 16
  13. Lazy — Tokyo, August 17
  14. Space Truckin’ — Osaka, August 16

  UPC: 00602537719365
  Amazon UK: £14.82

 

• 2CD equivalent download

  Content identical to the 2CD edition:

  • Osaka August 16 Osaka 15th, 16th and Tokyo 17th; 2013 mix/master of the original album
  • encores from all three nights, 1972 mix
  • 24-page booklet

  UPC: 00602537719037 (all except iTunes) / 00602537765171 (iTunes)

 

• 1CD equivalent download

  Content identical to the 1CD edition:

  • 2013 remaster of the original 1972 mix of the album
  • all tracks from the same sources as on the original album
  • no bonus tracks
  • 16-page booklet

  UPC: 00602537727186 (all except iTunes) / 00602537737857 (iTunes)

 

• HD Audio download

  Content identical to the blue ray audio disc provided as download

  UPC: 00602537743803

 

• Remix HD download

  Original album remixed and remastered without encores or other bonuses. Standalone part of the content as appears on blue-ray.

  UPC: 00602537775316

 

• Remaster HD download

  Original 1972 mix of the album, newly remastered, without encores or other bonuses. Standalone part of the content as appears on blue-ray.

  UPC: 00602537765072

There is no pricing information at this point in time.

Phew!

Confused? Me too, me too.

Thanks to SF for correction to blue-ray contents.

Israeli English language daily The Jerusalem Post has a very positive, if somewhat superficial, review of the first gig (February 22) in Tel-Aviv:

The ‘explosion’ on the stage started at 9:30 p.m. Saturday night and did not stop for two hours. Yes they are senior citizens but if you put your hands over your eyes you would not know that the average aged of the members of Deep Purple is 62 years old.

In the first of two shows in Tel Aviv (the second one is tonight and tickets are still available), the British nominees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rocked like it was 1972 and put on a show at the Nokia Arena that had the nearly full room of fans almost as old as the band dancing and singing along to the songs.

Read more in Jerusalem Post (and check out the pictures of a very sharply dressed Gillan once you’re at it).

Hard Loving Man from February 23 show:

Thanks to Michael Rorberger and Yehuda Kaminsky for the videos.