Dubai’s The National has a short but sweet interview with Ian Gillan. He talks about the benefits of being older, the new album, holding up cigarette lighters, the leapfrogging equipment, being snubbed, and factual accuracy of Spinal Tap.

On not showing any respect on the album

We’ve made a conscious effort to not show any respect any more as we’d been pressured to do over the years, for radio play, because they don’t bloody play the thing anyway. I was shocked to look back recently and found there were only seven tracks on Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball and Machine Head albums. And some of them were eight to nine minutes long. And that’s because the music has dynamics and texture and it was a new form of music, not confined to radio discipline. We’ve gone back to that, which gives a lot of freedom to the development of the songs, some of which are quite long.

Read more in The National.

David Coverdale gave an interview to The Rock Pit, in which he reveals that Made in Japan (due April 19th in Europe, 22nd in the UK, and 23rd in North America, via Frontiers Records) will be followed in July by another live release, Made in Britain, recorded on the 2011 UK tour and an extra CD tentatevily called The World Record, recorded “all over the fucking place”.

Regarding the upcoming UK tour:

We’ve got our tickets for Nottingham (the county we’re from) and Sheffield (the county you’re from) on the tour are there any surprises we can expect from this year’s set list?

Probably the best surprise for me is that I’m still touring in my bleedin’ 60s…& enjoying it beyond words!!

We’re also most likely digging into the musical past a bit more for the UK & hopefully, feature some surprise guests…who may be surprised to get a call from me…We’ll see…

On the title of the new live album:

The new live album ‘Live in Japan’ echoes the title of your previous band’s live highpoint ‘Made in Japan’ but it’s great to see a complete Whitesnake set-list on this release. How much fun are festivals like Loud Park to play?

It’s called Whitesnake ‘Made In Japan’ cos’ it’s all recorded in Japan…simple…& really there is no comparison to the stand alone fab Deeps album, which I thoroughly enjoyed promoting when I was Purple’s singer, by the way…

Anyone who’s confused should immediately see their doctor & change whatever medications they’re on…

Also, if I want to call an album ‘Burn’ I fucking will…

Read more in The Rock Pit.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Date: 2013-02-26

Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Brisbane

Australia

Great to see DP at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Brisbane. This venue seems to pump up the volume more than other venues in our city.A nice a nd loud set which is a DP must.Great to hear a few different tracks of In Rock……”into the fire” was a personal fav! Nice work big Ian! All the old time fav’s were played but a big applause for getting the Deep Purple Family to Australia yet again! Great night out!

Music Radar has an interview with Glenn Hughes, from which we learn what he thinks of his days in Deep Purple, as well as the nerdy stuff like the fact that Geezer Butler has Glenn’s old Rickenbacker. And he won’t sell it back to Hughes!

What was it about your playing that made you a good fit for Deep Purple in the early 70s?

It’s a fine line to walk here, because Deep Purple were more traditional, in-the-box, white rock ‘n’ roll. Trapeze were really heavy funk/groove/American, but ‘Purple was distinctly British. They had really, really iconic players, like Lord, Paice and Blackmore, who were virtuosos on their instruments, both as soloists and as components for writing those songs in MK II.

Here come MK III with me and David [Coverdale, vocals] and everyone knows I’m not Roger Glover – A) I can sing and he doesn’t sing and B) Roger is a completely different bass player to me. He basically follows the riffs, pretty much, whereas I found those ‘holes’ on the first album [Burn], like Sail Away and Mistreated. It wasn’t funky in Deep Purple, it was more groove-orientated. The word ‘funk’ has been thrown around, so much but that’s a word that really belongs in American music.

Read more in Music Radar.

German promoter KBK has announced the first tour dates of what is billed as Deep ?urp!e Now What?! tour. The German leg will start in Dresden on October 22 and finish in Mannheim on November 2, covering 8 major cities (announced so far). Peter Frampton will be opening on all nights.

Full details in our calendar.

EarMUSIC has circulated a press release confirming the title of the new Deep ?urp!e (sic!) album:

Deep Purple announce the first studio album since 2005 and reveal details for the first double A-Side single to be released on March 29th.

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)

NOW What ?! features 11 new songs.

NOW What ?! 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.

NOW What ?! has the excellence and elegance of „Perfect Strangers“ and the wild freedom of Made in Japan.

NOW What ?! will also be released as a limited edition with a bonus DVD featuring Deep Purple discussing the new album and one bonus studio cover version.

NOW What ?! will be released as double vinyl LP.

NOW What ?! is also the name of the World Tour to be announced shortly.

NOW What ?! will be released in Germany on April 26th. Worldwide release dates can be found at www.deeppurple-nowwhat.com which will be updated daily with news, lyrics, photos & more.

The first taste of NOW What ?! will be the release of a double A-side single on March 29th (as a limited and numbered vinyl 7“, CD single and digital download).

7“ VINYL (limited to 1000 numbered copies)
Side A: “Hell To Pay“ (radio edit)
Side B: “All The Time in The World“ (radio mix – edit)

CD SINGLE
1) “All The Time in The World“ (radio mix – edit)
2) “Hell To Pay“ (radio edit)
3) Perfect Strangers (bonus track live)
4) Rapture Of The Deep (bonus track live)

The official Deep Purple Facebook page has got a new logo reading Now What?! In what we’re sure, is a total coincidence, the mysterious site deeppurple2013.com is also accessible as deeppurple-nowwhat.com. Both domains were registered on the same day late last year by a German-based media company.

Just sayin’…

Roger Glover gave an interview to MyDubai MyCity. He spoke about Swiss women, honesty in music, the value of those rare private moments on tour, crazy as they come fans, and why he doesn’t use social networks. Oh, yeah, and the seemingly inevitable question of that song also came up.

And a bonus snippet from the press conference with Paicey talking about playing a jazz festival:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Deep Purple gave a press conference in Dubai ahead of the first show of the tour. Looks like everybody had a lot of fun, however only Ian Gillan’s answers were published.

On the favourite song to perform:

No. The show is an entity and it goes from one thing to another. They all have dynamics, and if you had a favourite, song, the rest would become less important. They are all important and they all present different challenges. It’s quite important to realise the joy of performing embraces in part the joy of listening, so an awful lot of my enjoyment comes from what the other guys in the band do. I like that awesome identity that Purple has. You’re a very small part of that. I get off on what the other guys do. Sometimes on certain evenings, a slow song, like Maybe I’m A Leo, because the groove is perfect and it’s the most understated song of the whole evening, will be my favourite. It changes.

I think the songs that we do present different personal feelings. So ok if you want me to choose one, Maybe I’m A Leo is my favourite. Mind you if you ask me tomorrow I’ll give you a different answer.

Read more in Gulf News. Watch the slightly expanded version. And check out the photo coverage.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

EarMusic has posted another teaser for the upcoming new Deep Purple album: