In anticipation of the short 3 date Blackmore’s Night stint on US East coast, ProgSheet published an interview with m’lord and m’lady:

PS: When you look for musicians to play in Blackmore’s Night, what are you looking for beyond a certain level of musical ability?

RB: With most bands, with my history being with Purple and Rainbow, if anybody joins they know there’s lots of people that want to be in that type of band. With this project people are a little bit more reluctant. It’s like “What are you playing? What are you doing?” It’s a cross between renaissance rock music, folk ballads, and mystical music. I don’t know too many bands that have done it. I can’t think of any. You have purist bands that don’t do the rock side. We try to do both. It’s a very strange concoction sometimes. To me it’s not.

It is tricky because sometimes we get people auditioning for the band and all they want to do is play rock and roll. We say “this is not what we’re doing here.” Then we get the other extreme. We’ll have classical musicians who don’t want to play any rock and roll. We always have that challenge.

CN: I feel like we have a long list of criteria when we audition people to be in the band. One of the things that really narrows down whoever’s left is the fact that they can’t only play one type of music. There’s a lot of people out there that can play one type of music really, really well. That’s the skill that they’ve honed. It’s very rare to find someone who is versatile enough to be able to play Gypsy music, pop music, tavern music, renaissance music, rock music, and instrumental music. Really, that’s the variety that we provide on stage and on our albums. It’s harder to find people that have that versatility. Once you find those couple of people that are left standing – that can actually do that – you have to make sure that they’ve got a personality that will fit with the band. That they’re willing to dress up. If it’s a male – he’s willing to wear tights and a renaissance shirt.

RB: Women’s clothing.

Read more on ProgSheet.

Thanks to Mirko Dörner for the info.

The seminal Purple album of the past 20 years — Purpendicular — will be reissued on CD on June 16th in the UK on an independent label Cherry Red Records. We have not been able to obtain from the label any clarification regarding whether it will be remastered or not, but my money is on the latter. This reissue will include two bonus tracks: Don’t Hold Your Breath and a single edit of Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming.

Cherry Red Records seem to have secured licenses to the rest of the band’s BMG back catalogue (now owned by Sony) as well.

The expanded edition (2002 remix) of the original 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra recording will be issued on 3LP vinyl on June 27 in Germany and June 30 in the UK. Was this remix ever released on vinyl? — feedback appreciated.

Track list:

1. Malcolm Arnold’s 6th Symphony Op.95 First Movement: Energico
2. Malcolm Arnold’s 6th Symphony Op.95 Second Movement: Lento
3. Malcolm Arnold’s 6th Symphony Op.95 Third Movement: Con Fuoco
4. Hush
5. Wring That Neck
6. Child in Time
7. Concerto for Group and Orchestra – First Movement: Moderato – Allegro
8. Concerto for Group and Orchestra – Second Movement: Andante
9. Concerto for Group and Orchestra – Third Movement: Vivace – Presto
10. Encore – Concerto for Group and Orchestra – Third Movement: Vivace – Presto

The label, rather surprisingly, is Parlophone. Both the original album and 2002 expanded edition were on another EMI label Harvest. Only the first two Mark 1 albums originally appeared on Parlophone. When EMI was put on the chopping block in 2012, Parlophone was acquired by Warner, while most of the rest — by Universal. So even after 40 years of corporate dog eat dog, it appears that the band’s back catalogue is still split between 3 major labels. This time it’s Universal, Sony and Warner.

Thanks to Lutz Reinert for the info.

Clif ‘Cooky’ Crawford was Blackmore’s guitar tech between 1981 and 1988. A couple of months ago his reminiscences started being posted on Facebook and elsewhere. They are, for the most part, an amusing read. Quotes below are unedited for extra flavour 😉

Making of Bent Out of Shape:

by the end of 1982 it was time for another personnel change.this time it was my old friend and employer bobby rondinelli.this came as such a shock to me as it was bobby who brought me to these heights in the music business.i had been on and off with bobby since 1977.anyway a new drummer was needed and we went about auditioning drummers for a long time.we must have had 4-5 guys that were supposed to have made it in but once in the studio it didn’t work out. every drummer i knew came down to play but none really worked out for one reason or another.we were also playing alot of soccer and the new recruits were expected to play.many a drummer who thought they were in good physical shape were very disappointed in themselves as a couple of hours on the soccer pitch usually killed most of them off!!they’d head into the studio after playing soccer and were so tired at this point that their timing would be shot…

Rainbow — Live Between the Eyes:

“live between the eyes” recorded in san antonio texas in middle of 1982 american tour shows rainbow at their peak with this lineup, in my opinion.while joe lynn turner wasn’t as heavy metal a singer as ronnie james dio he did have an incredible voice and range and was always in great vocal shape.bobby rondinelli on drums was a powerhouse and also played better when people were watching. david roesenthal was again in my opinion the best keyboardist to play in rainbow and you could tell by the interaction with ritchie. he loved playing back & forth with david as david was pitch-perfect and could mimic anything ritchie came up with. roger glover was the catylist who held it all down and was a jack of all trades and producer of the album…

Rainbow — Straight Between the Eyes:

after multiple tours in 1981 we went to killington vermont for rehearsals for new lp and new member david rosenthal this was another ski resort area where you can get a large house in the woods and not have to worry about waking anyone up at all hours when inspiration struck. they also had multiple bedrooms and were fairly easy to rent for short periods of time. from there to morin heights canada to le studio 100 miles north of montreal in the heart of the winter. this studio had great reputation and great facilities. the Police had just been there for parts of “ghost in the machine”. it was the home base for Rush as they did multiple things here. the owner guy carboneau was a great guy and nick blagona was the best engineer around and all around fun guy. ritchie liked the snow and solitude of being kind of stranded up in a chalet with nothing but the people working with him and very few distractions. we burned more wood there for staring into fires than the locals did in 6 yrs and then some of the furniture went !

Rainbow Live in Japan and Deep Purple reunion:

…once we got home to new york maybe a week went by and ritchie called me and asked me to pick him up in the morning and take him to greenwich conneticut where he was to attend an important meeting…little did i know i was bringing him to meet with his manger(bruce payne) and ian gillan,jon lord,ian paice and of course roger glover…. i think he told me halfway there but it didn’t sink in until i opened the conference room doors and sitting at the table was these same famous chaps.i was quickly introduced to each of them and immediately shook their my hands.they were all extremely excited to be together and it was a magical feeling as this was the first time they were in the same room together in 11yrs!!….when i got home i called raymond d’addario(production manager) to tell him he didn’t work for rainbow anymore! then i added…because we now work for deep purple!!!!!i think this blew his mind as he had worked for elf when they opened for deep purple back in the day..now he was the production manager for a super group about to start rehearsals in stowe vermont followed by a reunion album recording and a gigantic reunion tour to start in december 1984 in perth australia…

Perfect Strangers rehearsals:

…as all the equipment arrived so did the band and we set up at a place called horizons which was a large ski house on the side of part of a mountain over looking stowe. we used the basement to jam and it came together pretty quickly as they just started playing like they were never apart.ritchie had lots of ideas and i remember roger saying how they were now going to start playing and making a very heavy album.they were all on the same page there…ritchie and jon lord played alot of classical sounding things by themselves and were very much in tune with each other.roger and ian paice would jump in and off they’d go.there was nothing but smiles all around as everyone knew this was going to be big!…we even had some locals sneeking around the property having heard thru town that deep purple were here. it was a very special time as most of the locals soon heard rumours about us being in town and were soon joining us in games of soccer and drinking with us at the pubs…

Thanks to Dima Zykov for heads up.

Jon Lord being interviewed by Jools Holland about his friend, the late Jim Capaldi, drummer and co-founder of Traffic:

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

It took only 42 years, but finally Smoke on the Water now has an official video:

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Glenn Hughes gave an interview to UK radio station Harborough FM, appearing on the Friday Night Rock Show. He spoke about California Breed, set the record straight about his experience in a trio environment, shared which drummer he played with never made a mistake, and explained the difference between big rock and proper rock.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

In a new interview with One On One Glenn Hughes explains why after the BCC fiasco he and Jason Bonham didn’t want to continue with another big name guitar player.

Listen here (mp3, 28MB) if the player above doesn’t work.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

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.