If there’s another thing about which Steve Morse is as passionate as about his guitar playing, it’s flying planes.

Last summer, while on tour in Italy, he managed to find time to slip across the border to Slovenia to visit Pipistrel, a light aircraft manufacturing company of which he’s a happy customer. Of course, it helps somewhat when CEO of the company happens to be a Deep Purple fan 😉

Read (and look at itsy bitsy pictures) about the visit on the company website.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

The Oxford Mail reports that The Springs Hotel in North Stoke, Oxfordshire, (the one with the guitar shaped swimming pool) once owned by Ian Gillan is closing down. Current owners cite increasing costs of upkeep the 1874 “mock Tudor” building and increasing comissions from the internet booking agencies that cut into the bottom line.

The 32-room hotel will close in October, although a golf club located on site will continue to operate. Present owners have not decided yet what to do with the building.

Gillan bought the property in 1973 for £100,000 and then invested further £443,000 into renovating it and converting into a hotel. The fate of the enterprise is covered in his autobiography.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

A new book by Simon Robinson and Stephen Clare, Wait For The Ricochet, detailing the history of In Rock has been published by Simon’s Easy on the Eye Books. This has been several years in the making, but the copies are finally printed, in stock and being shipped. You can preview pages and order the book from the publisher.

Title: Deep Purple – Wait For The Ricochet. The Story Of Deep Purple In Rock.
Authors: Simon Robinson and Stephen Clare
ISBN: 978-0-9561439-6-9
Format: 168 pages / colour / softback / 210mm by 210mm
Publisher: Easy on the Eye Books
Date: January 2014

Update (Feb 5): An independent book store in UK called Wordery lists it in stock for £11.89 with free delivery to most countries. In North America. Amazon promises to have the book in stock on February 13.

A Fender Stratocaster guitar autographed by Blackmore’s Night in Dunfermline, Scotland, is being auctioned for British charity Rockin for Tots help to raise funds for Simpsons Special Care Babies, which is a registered charity (SC002013). These funds will help with the purchase of a travel incubator for the Neo Natal Unit in the New Royal Infirmary Of Edinburgh.

Blackmore’s management has confirmed that the item is genuine, so this is one of those rare chances to obtain a Blackmore signed guitar. And help the world in the process.

The auction closes on February 5. Place your bids on Ebay.

Update (Feb 5): the auction concluded with the winning bid of £2,617 (approximately $4,260 or €3,150). Our congratulations to the generous winner.

Classic Rock has a feature story on Mary Long, based on interviews (which may or may not be from the archives) with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover:

If there’s anything likely to upset Ian Gillan more than a self-styled moral crusader with a viewpoint diametrically opposed to his own, it’s two of them. Back in 1972, with Deep Purple Mark II at the height of their fame and touring to promote Machine Head, that holier-than-thou duet were Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford.

Committed Christian Whitehouse, in her assumed role as guardian of Britain’s moral standards led the ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign, railing against anyone who dared swear the word ‘bloody’ on television. She was driven apoplectic, therefore, by the Alf Garnett character in Johnny Speight’s seminal anti-racism sitcom Till Death Do Us Part (much loved by Gillan), as well as comedians Dave Allen and Benny Hill, and just about everything else that made the rest of us laugh.

Then, as Purple were about to commence sessions for what would become Who Do We Think We Are, news broke that former Labour minister and Knight of the Garter Lord Longford was campaigning for the release of Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

Read more in Classic Rock.

Glenn Hughes has announced that he will appear at the Sunflower Jam in London on April 4:

My manager and I have been working with Jon’s manager , Tarquin and Jacky Paice and Vicky , Jon’s wife , so that I could clear my schedule to appear – to thank Jon and our MK3 &4 fans for their love ..so glad to announce this to you ..

He later added that reunion with Coverdale is not in the books:

David cannot attend : I will gladly be there for him to share his love for Jon

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Following up to the Captain Beyond post the other day, it turns out that Cleopatra Records imprint Purple Pyramid has reissued their first two albums (the ones with Rod Evans) — self titled from 1972 and Sufficiently Breathless from 1973 — last year on vinyl. They are accompanied by Live In Texas – October 6, 1973 on CD and vinyl, originally issued in 2002 via fan club as Far Beyond a Distant Sun – Live Arlington, Texas, and a 2CD Live Anthology containing material from Montreux, September 18, 1971, Miami, August 19, 1972, New York, July 17, 1972, and Los Angeles, May 26, 1977 (sans Evans). Caveat: from what we can ascertain, sound quality of the live releases is less then stellar.

These releases can be ordered via Cleopatra’s online store. They also pop up in different Amazon stores around the world from time to time.

This went under our radar at the time, so we are reporting it now.

Thanks to Axel for the info.

Fancy yourself a Deep Purple show on a New Year’s Eve? You’d have to buy yourself a time machine first, because (to our knowledge) the only time the band did such a thing was on December 31, 1968, at the Electric Circus in New York City, a legendary nightclub that at one point had The Velvet Underground as their house band. It’s All In The Streets You Crossed Not So Long Ago, a blog dedicated to rock’n’roll landmarks of the city, has reproduction of an ad that appeared in Village Voice issue dated January 2, 1969 (which probably hit the streets a week before that):

Let’s spend the night together.
New Year’s Eve at The Electric Circus.

23 St. Marks Place (Bet. 2nd and 3rd) East Village, from 9 P.M. till 6 A.M. DEEP PURPLE, Sirocco, The Mighty Tornados and You ($7.50). For information 777-7080. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Get Ready To Rock radio has an early review of Don Airey’s solo album Keyed Up. Don himself will appear on the air on Sunday, February 2, at 18:00 BST to talk to the host David Randall, while later on, at 20:00 Stuart Hamilton will profile him in his Purple People series.

Get Ready to Rock broadcasts online and worldwide in a variety of formats and without any silly geographical restrictions.

Thanks to Chris Hewlett for the info.

Mickey Lee Soule, who not only was the keyboard player in Elf and Rainbow, and not only worked as a keyboard and guitar tech for Purple for years, but also was on a very short list to stand in for Jon Lord when the latter injured his knee back in 2001, has a new project going — self-deprecatingly called Steaming Pile of Mick.

Steaming Pile of Mick is basically Dave Salce playing drums, plus Mick himself playing everything else and singing. Last year they’ve quietly put out a 5-track EP called Pet Wounds. You can check it out on YouTube and/or purchase it via cdbaby.

Thanks to deep-purple.ru for the info.