To commemorate release of the new album, Classic Rock Magazine will publish a limited edition special issue (number 184):

A limited edition with a foil cover, it includes 12 pages of additional Deep Purple content including Q&A’s with all members of the band and an extended buyers guide by long-term fan and Purple expert Geoff Barton.

The issue will be on sale April 24 and can be preordered directly from the publisher.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

It appears that the ill-fated appearance in Nepal, first scheduled for March 15, then postponed until April 26, now has been scrapped alltogether. Metal Hammer quotes a statement from the band’s management:

The agreed fee was not paid as per the contract they had with the promoter of the show, Richard Coram, of Talent Brokers in Dubai.

Despite several assurances, Talent Brokers failed to deposit the fee into its registered escrow account, even though the band’s management allowed extra time for payment to be made.

Deep Purple are deeply concerned that fans may feel that the band have let them down, and that those who bought tickets may not have been refunded. The band wish to make it abundantly clear they were ready, willing and able to come to Nepal. Nevertheless, in view of Talent Brokers’ failure to comply with its payment obligations under the contract, the band had had no alternative but to withdraw from the performance.

Gillan adds to this:

I hate it when this sort of thing happens – the first time ever in Nepal and it gets cancelled.

I want to assure everyone that our management and agency bent over backwards to make this work. But every promise from the promoter was broken. Things dragged on to the last minute and then went past the deadline for our equipment to be delivered.

Deep Purple will go through hurricanes, earthquakes, riots, and all kinds of hazards just to get there and do the show – but you do need competent connections to be able to achieve this.

We are truly miserable that we couldn’t get there and would love to come over at the first opportunity.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen and Metal Hammer for the info.

It’s come as a big surprise, but today Edel Records offer a select few of you a chance to hear then new Deep Purple album, Now What?! in an exclusive world wide web streaming event.

Marking a new first in internet activity for the band, one lucky person in each time zone will get a chance to hear the new album stream at 12 pm your local time via the record company. The link will only show until the lucky person in each time zone has found it. Happy hunting folks!

For those of you who miss this, there will also be an exclusive online event later in the evening where the band will perform the whole album in its entirety live. This link will become available later in the day.

Naturally, we at The Highway Star are very excited about all this new fangled Purple promotion. Do enjoy! 🙂

NOW What?! has been produced by Bob Ezrin, one of the most important rock producers of all time (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Kiss and many others) it features 11 new songs. It was recorded with no musical rules… and it shows a modern and fresh production… to the point that Deep ?urp!e have never sounded so close to the spirit of the 70s in the last 20 years as they do NOW. The record has the excellence and elegance of „Perfect Strangers“ and the wild freedom of Made in Japan.

It will also be released as a limited edition with a bonus DVD featuring the band discussing the new album and one bonus studio cover version. It will be released as double vinyl LP and will be released in the UK on April 29th. Worldwide release dates can be found at www.deeppurple-nowwhat.com which will be updated daily with news, lyrics, photos & more.

Bob Ezrin gave a keynote interview on Saturday, March 23, at the Canadian Music Week in Toronto and told the story of how he got to be the producer of Now what?!:

I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea because I didn’t want to be pegged as ‘the guy who does old people,’ so I said, ‘No.’

I got convinced to go see them here at Massey Hall here in Toronto and 15 minutes into the show, they went into this big long fully prog jam.

Steve Morse stood up and played Rock God and played the most amazing guitar I’ve ever heard and then Don Airey filled it with these huge keyboards and then the drums and the bass and everything came in and the whole audience went nuts and then I realized we never see that anymore.

That used to be a staple at every concert you went to when I was a kid. The only people doing that are like Dave Matthews and jam bands but that’s all like hey-yo (toke sound) but this is all like YEAHHH, this was rock power.

I said, ‘If you want to be a contemporary rock band and be relevant give up, forget it, it ain’t gonna happen and I’m not the right guy to produce it. No one will pay this record on radio; no one will care about it in the contemporary business, but I you want to make THAT record – if you want to make that unashamed musically brilliant record, I’m in,’ and they did.

It was Roger Glover one of the great bass players of all time, he said, ‘We want to put the ‘deep’ back into Deep Purple.’ And I said, ‘You’re on. Let’s go.’

Thanks to Noisecreep for the info.

If you’re in Berlin and want to have your own ‘Abbey Road moment’, location of the very atmospheric ‘antique lamppost’ shot from the Now what?! promo shoot has been identified as the corner of Schlesische Straße and Skalitzer Straße. The shot in question appears to have been taken from the upper level of the Schlesisches Tor U-bahn station.

View Deep Purple – Berlin in a larger map

Thanks to pavel for the info.

Roger Glover is talking about his bass amps made by Danish company TC Electronic:
Continue Reading »

Behind the scenes video from the promo photoshoot for the new album:

New Deep Purple single is out on March 29 in two physical formats:

7” coloured vinyl — 1000 numbered units worldwide

side a) Hell to Pay (radio edit)
side b) All the Time in the World (alternative mix – radio edit)

CD single digipak — 2000 units worldwide

1) All the Time in the World (alternative mix – radio edit)
2) Hell to Pay (radio edit)
3) Perfect Strangers (live)
4) Rapture of the Deep (live)

Timing:

All the Time in the World (Radio Mix Edit) 03:49
Hell to Pay (Radio Edit) 03:42

A shorter 3:35 edit was also produced for All the Time in the World. At this moment, it is not clear which one will be on the single.

Credits:

Don Airey, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Steve Morse, Bob Ezrin
(KT – Composer & original Songwriter)
Produced by Bob Ezrin
Mixed by Bob Ezrin and Justin Cortelyou, Anarchy Studios, Nashville, TN
Edit by Justin Cortelyou
Mastered by Eike Freese
Engineer: Justin Cortelyou
Assistant Engineer: Li Xiao Le
Tracking Room Assistant Engineers: Zach Allan & Jarad Clement
Rainbow Recorders Engineers: Rob Harris, Mike Airey & Nathan Sage
Recorded at: The Tracking Room, Nashville, TN, Anarchy Studios, Nashville, TN, Additional Keyboards recorded at Rainbow Recorders

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Metal Shrine has a very interesting interview with David Coverdale. He talks about his plans for the current year, Whitesnake’s upcoming live albums Made in Japan and Made in Britain, embracing the Internet age, possibility of collaborations with Glenn Hughes and Bernie Marsden, his touring schedule, personal losses, patching things up with Blackmore, and being an international operator.

When conversation steered towards expanded releases of the old material, David said:

“Northwinds” was rereleased in 2000 with two bonus tracks.

David Coverdale: Yeah, I had nothing to do with that. When you find out years later that your contract deny you any artistic involvement after you´ve written and recorded those songs, and the songs are precious to you like children… that applies by the way, to all Deep Purple. We have absolutely no say. It´s astonishing for a band of that power and contractually it was so castrated by the dinosaur elements of contracts in those days. Very disagreeable and of course still in play. Of the current Purple I believe several members tried to change this several years ago and lost in the British courts. I couldn´t stand what they did to “Burn” and “Stormbringer” and it was very disappointing to me and I have no involvement, so I won´t promote those things. Kevin Shirley was very respectful to me. He did “Come taste the band” and did a masterly job on it and I´d love if he did the “Burn” and “Stormbringer” records, but I have no say in that. I just collect my royalties. One of the things that I fully embrace is the freedom and the liberation that I have in my career now.

Read more in the Metal Shrine.

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

Update (Mar 26): it appears that the recording has been removed from the radio station’s website.

Argentinian radio station Vorterix has broadcasted a 13 minute preview of Now what?! with a lot more music than what we have been exposed before. You have to mentally tune out the DJs babbling all over the music, but you do get to hear more of the album.

Timing of the tracks in the clip:
0:53 – 3:52 — A Simple Song
3:59 – 6:00 — Weirdistan
6:06 – 8:25 — Out Of Hand
8:30 – end — Hell To Pay (album version)

Listen on vorterix.com.

Thanks to ptr from Deep Purple Fan Forum (via Daniel Bengtsson) for the info.

Edel/earMUSIC has made available a second preview clip from Now What?! — Hell to Pay. Well, sort of “available”. They really screwed the pooch on this one as the video is actually not available in many countries, including such major Purple markets as UK, Germany and Canada.

Go try your luck, or if it doesn’t work try one of the proxies in other countries.