T-shirts from the Royal Albert Hall event on April 4 — Celebrating Jon Lord — are still available via Sunflower Jam web store. Jon Lord photo book All Those Years Ago was unveiled at the event and is available for preorder via JonLord.org store.

And last, but not least, The Highway Star Twitter account got a bit of a jolt yesterday with live coverage of the event.

Direct from Paul Mann, here’s complete setlist of the evening of April 4, 2014:

1. Jimmy Smith playback as audience arrives
   Introductory remarks by Vicky Lord
   Introduction by Bob Harris
2. Fantasia from Sarabande
   House Band/Orch.
3. Durham Awakes from Durham Concerto
   Orchestra
   Jacqueline Martens (Violin)
   Matthew Barley (Cello)
   Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian Pipes)
   Nigel Hopkins (Hammond Organ)
4. All Those Years Ago
   Steve Balsamo (vocals)
   Anna Phoebe (violin)
   Micky Moody (guitar)
   (Orchestration by Paul Mann)
5. Pictured Within
   Miller Anderson (vocals)
   Matthew Barley (cello)
   Nigel Hopkins (Piano)
6. Sarabande from Sarabande
   House Band/Orch.
   With Rick Wakeman (keyboards)
7. One From The Meadow
   Margo Buchanan
   Wix Wickens (piano)
   Murray Gould (guitar)
   World Premiere of orchestral introduction by Jon Lord
   Song orchestration completed by Paul Mann
8. Bourree from Sarabande
   House Band/Orch.
9. Afterwards
   (Poem by Thomas Hardy; Music by Jon Lord)
   Jeremy Irons (Speaker)
   Paul Mann (Piano)

INTERVAL

10. Introductory remarks by Joe Brown.
11. I Take What I Want/Things Get Better (Artwoods)
    Paul Weller/House Band
12. Silas & Jerome (PAL)
13. I’m Gonna Stop Drinking
    Phil Campbell (vocals)
    Bernie Marsden (guitar)
    Andy Wallace (Hammond)
    Nick Fyffe (Bass)
    Ian Paice (Drums)
    (Orchestration on “I’m Gonna Stop Drinking” by Richard Whilds)
14. Soldier of Fortune
    Steve Balsamo/Sandi Thom
    (Orchestration by Jon Lord)
15. You Keep On Moving
16. Burn
    Glenn Hughes, Bruce Dickinson, Ian Paice, Don Airey, Rick Wakeman
    (Orchestrations by Richard Whilds)
17. This Time Around
    Glenn Hughes
    Wix Wickens (piano)
    (Orchestration by Richard Whilds)

DP Set

18. Uncommon Man (Orchestration by Paul Mann)
19. Above and Beyond (Orchestration by Paul Mann)
20. Lazy (with Stephen Bentley-Klein, violin)
21. When A Blind Man Cries (Orchestration by Paul Mann)
22. Perfect Strangers
    (World premiere of full orchestral introduction by Jon Lord;
    Song orchestration by Jon Lord & Paul Mann)
23. Black Night
24. Hush (Orchestration by Paul Mann)
    with Rick Wakeman, Bruce Dickinson, Murray Gould, et al

Orchestra is the Orion Orchestra with Paul Mann conducting.

House band:
Nigel Hopkins and Wix Wickens (Keyboards)
Murray Gould (Guitar)
Jerry Brown (Drums)
Neil Murray (Bass)
Mario Argandona (Percussion)

Many thanks to Paul Mann for the info. Photo: Rasmus Heide, JonLord.org

As I write this, a special event is about to start at the Royal Albert Hall in London — a concert to celebrate life and music of the late Jon Lord.

Probably quite a few of our readers will be attending, and quite probably even more couldn’t make it. The lucky ones, please share your experience.

Glenn Hughes is continuing the promo blitz for California Breed, and this time he spoke to Led Zeppelin fansite Tight But Loose (the connection being, obviously, Bonham Jr.):

Jason’s got stuff going on this summer and I’m doing some things with Kings Of Chaos and maybe some acoustic shows. Andrew is also finishing off a project he’s involved with. So everything is clear from mid September – so then well get together in LA and rehearse and then we will come over to Europe. The tour is being booked by the end of April so we will know when we are starting out. I think this year will just be Europe, though there might be some dates in Japan as well.

Read more in Tight But Loose.

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Andrew Watt were on the Sixx Sense radio show (hosted, naturally, by Nikki Sixx). They spoke about the debut self-titled album of their new band California Breed.

Listen to it here: California Breed on Sixx Sense (MP3, 52 min, 95 MB).

Thanks to GlennHughes.com for the info.

The accidentally on purpose freshly baked Reverend (who will be 102 years old next year) preaches the good word of music at the London Bass Guitar Show on March 1. Do yourself a favour — set aside 40 minutes and watch the whole thing. There’s a little prize at the end 😉

For the impatient: Answering the last question, Roger said that the band will do the next album “fairly quickly”. They hope to have a writing session this summer and back to Nashville at the end of the year or early next year.

Thanks to TC Electronics for filming (and posting) it and to Andrey Gusenkov for bringing it to your attention.

Roger Glover has been ordained as a Minister in the Eucumenical Church of Pragmatic Absolute, writes our long time contributor who happens to be a member of the church.

When we reached for a comment from Roger himself, he said:

I’m most definitely not quitting music. I’ve been thinking about a second career on the side for a while now. Being a spiritual person all my life, this looked like a natural progression of things for me.

Reverend Glover is now authorized to officiate wedding, baptisms, bar mitzvahs, handfastings, samskaras, and other sacraments. Requests for service bookings are now accepted for a nominal fee plus travel expenses (if applicable).

Thanks to Hubert Jesslilt for the info.

As Roger Glover wrote, he guested at Don Airey’s gig in Switzerland on March 13. You can check out a video clip on Facebook:

Thanks to Gloria Lu for the video and to Yvonne Osthausen for bringing it to your attention.

Ian Gillan sends a message about Deep Purple in Cyprus scheduled in May:

Dear Friends
There’s a bit of a hoo-ha going on about our forthcoming show in Cyprus, so here are some thoughts on the issue.

As it says in the Caramba disclaimer, my views are not necessarily those of the rest of the guys in Deep Purple. So, please take this as a personal opinion; IMHO as I used to say.

We – DP – have never been on one side or the other when it comes to performing music. I remember – during the cold war – hearing about visits to London by the Bolshoi Ballet and the top football teams from Moscow, also the Cossack dancers, and many other cultural exchanges between The West and The Soviet Union. The diplomatic and cultural side door was always open for art, entertainment and sport, no matter how frightening and confrontational all the rest of it was.

Continue reading on Caramba!

Backgrounder: the gig is to take place in Northern Cyprus.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Don Airey was interviewed in Austria by the Mulatschag TV. Plenty of amusing anecdotage from his illustrious career. He also mentions that he has recorded an album of piano jazz pieces, which shlould be coming out later this year.

And just to make the things even more interesting, we’ll leave you with his band’s performance of Child in Time on March 22:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCtV–EqxbU

Mini Suite from Prague on March 21:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info, and to Franko Koch and chotovice for the videos.