Music Radar has an interview with Roger Glover presented in the form of a monologue. Interestingly enough, Now what?! gets a fairly brief mention, with the bulk dedicated to Roger’s illustrious career with Purple, solo, Rainbow, as a songwriter, and as a producer.

We’re not very good at planning things to be honest. We’re a democratic band and it’s difficult to get an agreement going. After [2005 album] Raptures of the Deep, which came out eight years ago…the thing is we tour all the tour whether we have an album out or not, so it wasn’t the Rapture of the Deep tour, it was just another tour.

Doing an album didn’t really surface until three or four years after that one. We couldn’t figure out where, when, who with or even if to do a new album, because albums aren’t what they used to be, they used to be real signposts, but then maybe this album is another signpost. Albums seem to be old fashioned though, but then again we’ve never been in fashion.

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Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

“Somebody tell me why I’m talking to myself, I never listen to a word I sing, nor does anyone else.”

The opening lines of First Sign of Madness set the tone for a straight forward rock’n’roll track complete with boogie piano.

This Deep Purple song is available exclusively to German fans as a download from Media Markt’s website – either for free with a voucher from NOW What?! purchased at one of their stores, or for €0.99. They do however only accept German credit cards…

The track itself is a bit of up-tempo fun, possibly a little more light hearted than the rest of NOW What?! – and thus works wonderfully as a bonus feature.

More than just a throw away jam session, it features intense breaks, a storming piano solo from Don Airey and one of Steve Morse’s signature guitar solos.

“Rambling on again, no one’s listening, all in all again, don’t believe a single word,” sings Ian Gillan in the chorus.

Word from earMUSIC is that the track will surely be made available outside Germany in some shape or form – details will be revealed soon.

If in Germany, download/buy First Sign of Madness here.

Now what?! is featured in the latest podcast of German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle lifestyle show Euromaxx. It is rather bizzare to see the band covered in a show that features such things as luxury real estate on Mallorca, a Bouroullec retrospective in Paris, and eating raw cuisine. They also offer a free CD signed by Roger Glover and Ian Gillan at the end of the segment if you get in touch before May 10. Watch it on dw.de: in English and in German.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

The issue of Metal Hammer that went on sale in late March has a two page spread featuring Ian Paice interviewed by Matt Oliver of Jettback. If you have any further details, please leave a comment. Back issues can be ordered from the publisher, we just need to figure out which one it is 😉

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen and London Hand Therapy for the info.

With all the anticipation and excitement about the impending release of the new album Now What?! by the current version of Deep Purple, we can’t forget that there are still other members of the Purple family out there making and playing great music.

On Monday April 22nd, 2013 Glenn Hughes treated us to some Purple several times during a two hour performance at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. First he ran through a half hour acoustic set including Coast to Coast (Trapeze), Faithless (Black Country Communion), Nights in White Satin (from the F.U.N.K. album), Crossfire (BCC), Imperfection (F.U.N.K.), and Cold (BCC). Glenn’s voice was strong and clear, and his acoustic guitar playing was highly impressive as well.

Then came the electric set starting off with Muscle & Blood (Hughes/Thrall), and next, a great rendition of Might Just Take Your Life (from Deep Purple’s Burn). In between songs Glenn told a story about how the National Enquirer had erroneously mixed him up with the other Glenn Hughes of the Village People, when reporting on the death of the latter. The article was accompanied by a photograph of Purple Glenn himself and wrote how he had been buried in his favourite leather chaps! Glenn added that for a year he did not receive any royalty cheques owing to the confusion about his “death”!

On with the show, Glenn played Medusa (Trapeze), and next up was Sail Away (from DP Burn).
Introducing the next song, Glenn paid tribute to the great Jon Lord and described how Jon was a mentor and father figure to him, and the reason that Glenn joined Deep Purple. And not only that, Jon was an amazing musician. Glenn says he thinks of Jon every day, and is so grateful that he himself is still breathing on the right side of the grass. At that moment Danish guitarist Soren Andersen ripped into a Blackmoresque guitar extravaganza that culminated in the unmistakable riff of Mistreated. Glenn’s voice was clear and powerful in all the ranges he sang of that Purple classic.

Following on was Can’t Stop the Flood (from Building the Machine) which got everyone’s head bobbing.
Introducing the next song, Glenn again spoke of Jon Lord and mentioned David Coverdale. To that he added “Ritchie Blackmore is truly one of the greatest guitar players ever”. Next he said “Long Live Ian Paice!”, and God Bless Tommy Bolin. Glenn told us that Purple played the next song here (Melbourne) at Sunbury in 1975, and launched into Getting Tighter (from Come Taste the Band). Extended jamming then took us through Dance to the Rock and Roll, a drum solo, an amazing bass solo by Glenn, and a reprise into Getting Tighter.

Barely stopping for breath, Glenn shouted out “I am a messenger!” which heralded in Black Country, from BCC’s first album. After an outstanding performance by the band on that last official song of the set, Glenn bid us a good night. The crowded shouted and stamped for more.
After a few minutes we were rewarded with an encore of Soul Mover, the title track of Glenn’s album from 2005. And then the grand finale, Deep Purple’s Burn – the heat was up full blast for that song.
Then it was all over, Glenn thanked everyone for their support over the years and promised to return next year.

I hope that Glenn does keep writing and playing. He is a massively talented musician, very adept on acoustic guitar, hugely funky and rocky on bass, and heavenly of voice. For a man of 61 years to be able to sing with such power and to hit the notes he does, is absolutely astounding.
Deep Purple Mark III and IV will never play again, but their spirit lives on. Long Live Glenn Hughes!

with thanks to Gary Halverson for this review.

Roger Glover chats with Martin Popoff about musical blitzkriegs, styles, sonics, prolific players, dull strings, abrasive admirals, leaping out, and being easy to get along with:

DEEP PURPLE’s first platter in eight years, NOW What?!, began life on the internet with a light advance track called ‘All The Time In The World’, one that had the mighty Purple eaters of the world bickering with stomachs grumbling.

You’d have to ask the record company that. Yeah, it wouldn’t have been my choice. But then again, ‘Smoke On The Water’ wasn’t my choice either. I know nothing about that. I know nothing about the selling of music. They felt, I guess, that ‘All The Time In The World’ would get play on the softer stations, the Radio 2s of the world, or… I don’t know; I don’t know what their plan was. They’re a great company and they really believe in this record and I can’t remember… I thought to myself, how did they come to that decision? And I can only think that they had a meeting of all the staff and said, ‘Right, what are your feelings?’ I have no idea. I thought at first, you know, that’s not a good thing to put out. But then I thought, it’s certainly going to make the album much more of a blitzkrieg when it does come out.

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Ian Paice will be inteviewed on French Metal XS show on May 2 during a Deep Purple special (presumably timed to promote Now what!?). Metal XS is part of L’Enorme TV network. If you know the details, e.g. what time it’s on the air, please leave a comment below. The show should be available for replay at www.metalxs.com afterwards.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Now what?! has been released in a number of countries today, April 26, and is charting very well on Amazon.de. At the time of this writing (23:43 CEST) the limited edition is at #2 in overall album chart (with only a Bravo magazine compilation sneaking ahead) and #1 in ‘Hard Rock’, ‘Rock’, and ‘Limited Edition’ categories. MP3 dowload is #1 in ‘MP3 Albums‘ category, and regular CD is #50 in ‘Music’, #2 in ‘Hard Rock’ and #13 in ‘Rock’. The Hard Rock Top 20 chart is absolutely dominated by Deep Purple with six entries (sic!): two editions of the new album at #1 and #2, Rapture of the Deep at #8, 30: Very Best of compilation at #9, self-titled 1969 album at #16, and Made in Japan at #19. Add there Whitesnake’s Made in Japan at #6, and Purple family domination is utterly absolute. Like Bayern München this season 🙂

Even knowing that Amazon charts are a feeble thing and change on an hourly basis, this leaves us here at the THS ivory towers with warm and fuzzy feeling. 😉

Well done, gents!

Not to distract you all from the enjoyment of the new album, but it was announced today that Steve Morse with his band will be supporting Joe Satriani on the latter’s upcoming tour of the United States. (Or shall we say it’s a double bill of family guitar extravagaza?) The tour will start on August 29 in San Diego and finish the second leg on September 28 in Philadelphia. Details in our calendar.

All the venues are theaters with all reserved seating, so get your tickets early. Ticketing info has not been announced yet though.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Music Radar has track-by-track commentary of Now what?! from Steve Morse:

A Simple Song

This was Rog playing a dyad riff on the bass. We had a lot of variations on that part. Whenever anybody brings in an idea, they have to be prepared that it’s going to change. But this thing of Roger’s was simple and elegant enough that we pretty much wanted to leave it as was.

I made a little melody, and Ian worked up what he was going to do vocally. It is what the title says it is: a simple song. No big guitar solo. It didn’t need it.

Read more on Music Radar.