The Asahi Shimbunreports that the famed Japanese music magazine Burrn! is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
It was named after “Burn,” a hard-rocking song by British band Deep Purple, under the belief that beginning a magazine’s title with the letter B promised strong sales.
The letter R is duplicated in the name to rhyme with “Kerrang!” a British rock music magazine.
The longevity and survival of the publication in the age of everything going online-only is attributed to the quality of the content — over the 40 years magazine has printed at least 5,000 original interviews with different artists.
[Editor-in-chief] Hirose, 64, said many artists preferred to be interviewed by Burrn! for its name recognition rather than by other magazines.
He said he himself has taken part in several thousand interviews.
Ritchie Blackmore, former guitarist for Deep Purple who is reputedly hard to please, lowered his guard when Hirose interviewed him.
Hirose said the three-hour-long interview with Blackmore at his home in the United States left a lasting impression on him.
Over the years, we’be certainly featured quite a few of those interviews on our pages.
Thanks to Asahi Shimbun for the info. Pictured: January 2014 magazine cover.
Cometh the hour, cometh the band. After an introductory blast of ‘Mars’ from ‘The Planets Suite’ by Gustav Holst, Deep Purple take the stage and go straight into the classic ‘Highway Star’. Guitarist Simon McBride impresses from the off. I’d heard good reports about him. I’m pleased that they appear to be accurate. Ian Paice isn’t using a drum riser, which is very unusual. We’re given an early warning that tonight isn’t going to be a nostalgia fest by the second song ‘A Bit On The Side’, which is from the current album ‘=1’. However, Purple have such an illustrious back catalogue that it clearly can’t be ignored, so we get ‘Into The Fire’ from 1970’s ‘Deep Purple In Rock’ album third song in. Ian Gillan is in fine voice. Obviously he doesn’t sound like he did in his twenties. The screams aren’t quite so high as back then, but his voice is still strong and his pitch is excellent.
Whilst the line-up may have changed over the years, there is still the undoubted spectacle of seeing genuine rock legends playing some of the best rock songs ever written. Not only is their back catalogue the envy of practically every other band on the planet right now, they have never been content to rest on their laurels.
With their current (ahem) purple patch of great new albums, they are on commanding form.
Many bands seem lost in giant places like The O2, but Deep Purple fill the place with sound, light and sheer force of personality. Here, despite the large and crystal-clear video screens that dominate the top of the stage, the music does the talking.
Two years since they last visited, the veteran band have lost none of their zest for woozy-bluesy solos and progressive time signatures.
Review: “Alright, alright, alright, Leeds,” Ian Gillan pronounces with a short wag of his finger, before the septuagenarian singer waves his arm across the full crowd before him. “It’s great to be back. A few calypso classics to get you in the mood, perhaps?” A steady roll of weathered chuckles and soft titters emerge from out of the darkness, and the frontman rewards them with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge grin.
There is, of course, little in the way of Caribbean vibes when it comes to Deep Purple, unless you count the fronded shirt patterns sported by keyboardist Don Airey. One of the most highly regarded rock bands of the twentieth century, they are considered a key progenitor in the birth of heavy metal by many who followed in their footsteps; a fascinating notion in part when viewed against the prism of the modern-day scene given their lone-guitar approach and woozy-bluesy penchant for progressive time signatures and movements.
It`s quite incredible to think that over 55 years after cracking the American singles chart with ‘Hush’, Rock legends, Deep Purple, have, 23 albums and 100 million album sales later, have finally landed a UK Number One single with ‘Lazy Sod’ from their latest release ‘=1’.
Quite an achievement for a band in the twilight of their career.
Kicking off with traditional set opener ‘Highway Star’, the first of four from their classic ‘Machine Head’ opus and the finest driving song of them all was always going to set things off with a bang. Guitarist Simon McBride`s interplay with keyboardist Don Airey was astonishing. Close your eyes for a moment, it was if the originals Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore were duelling as if their lives depended on it. They were that good.
Continue reading in The Yorkshire Post (and see our notes regarding their paywall). [Update Nov 15]: This review is also available on PressReader.com, apparently unencumbered.
With the energy of the crowd now at an excitable fever pitch, the lights dimmed, and ‘Gustav Holst’s Mars’ the Bringer of War’ echoed dramatically through the arena. Images appeared on screens above the stage, each for the audience to ponder, with a final fiery DEEP PURPLE logo emblazoned in the background, this set the tone for the legendary band about to take the stage. As the music swirled, a sense of anticipation filled the air, the time had come for DEEP PURPLE to unleash their rock prowess.
There are certain things that have to be factored into life: Boris Johnson will self-promote; Five Guys is overpriced; and Deep Purple (and their spinoff bands) will plague the audience with solo spots. Thankfully, those solos are no longer quite as interminable as they were in the days when the band would only fit nine songs into their set because everyone had to have a moment in the spotlight. Tonight, Don Airey’s two keyboard solos and Simon McBride’s guitar spot only occupy 15 minutes of an otherwise tight set of just shy of two hours.
The rest of the time, Deep Purple are not just surprisingly good, but actually good…
In a few days you’ll be embarking on a five-date UK arena tour. Are you looking forward to it?
Absolutely. We’re very much looking forward to it. This tour actually started in May but we are finishing in the UK so we are definitely looking forward to it for sure then we`ll be off the road for Christmas and then I’ll get a holiday but we will be working after the tour is finished.
You’ve called it the One More Time tour. Is this really going to be your last tour or do you still intend to play select dates as and when you want?
We actually changed the name to the ‘=1 Tour’ when we realised what everyone was thinking because that’s what it sounds like but we didn’t think of it like that. We meant it more in musical terms of “let’s go again”. We had a previous tour with similar problems called ‘The Long Goodbye Tour’ so this is definitely not going to be our last tour.
Addendum: we’re being told that the article is behind the paywall. We are also being told by a little birdie that Firefox with Enhanced Tracking Protection feature turned on shows the article just fine. All hail Firefox.
A website aptly called Maximum Volume Musicreviews the Birmingham gig of the band that once held the title of the loudest band in the world:
From that song to that riff, and the main set ends with arguably the best ever, and as Simon McBride starts it up, all of a sudden the crowd are up, but there’s a chap who’s a steward, and he’s walking around doing that involuntary head nod thing that people do when there’s a riff you can’t ignore.
But here’s the thing about “Smoke On The Water”, it’s recognised the world over because it’s fantastic.
There are many in the course of this hour and 50 minutes, but for every “Highway Star” here, there’s something new.
Ahead of the current =1 More Time UK tour, Ian Gillan spoke to the PA News Agency, and the conversation steered, of all things, onto the ’72 tour that produced Made in Japan.
In Japan, I noticed the first thing was the cultural change. I was able to do two things, one to learn about the different cultures and the values, number two was from a distance, to be able to see my own culture in England in a different way, from a different perspective.
And there was a real eye-opener, how other people see you and how you see yourself from a distance. I suddenly realised what an undiluted culture was in Japan.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing