Remember the “Bogus Deep Purple” tour that Rod Evans tried to undertake in 1980? We did a special on it a while back, with eyewitness accounts and contemporary press clippings. A set of photographs taken at the Quebec City show has surfaced recently. You can view the photo gallery together with translation of an article from Pop Rock magazine here.

Thanks to Larry Toering for the info.

On December 14 Ian Paice did another drum clinic and played a gig in Forli, Italy, of which we unfortunately learned about only post factum. He spoke about all things drumming, answered questions from the public, and played a few tunes (some of which he doesn’t do any more on his day job) with the local musicians. For the benefit of all of us who are not yet in the habit of spending the cold time of the year in warmer climates, here’s a video report of the proceedings.
Continue Reading »

Back in 2010 Exclusive Magazine did an interview with Jon Lord on the occasion of his release To Notice Such Things. They spoke about Romantic composers, Jimmy Hendrix, spirituality, English Literature, and party tricks. And a little about a couple of bands that Jon had been with.

Let’s kick things off by talking about your newest record. What is the significance to the title – ‘To Notice Such Things?’

The title comes from a poem by Thomas Hardy, the English poet and novelist. In the poem, he’s asking the question “What will people think about me when I’m gone?” And he’s talking about a love of the countryside, what he calls “The things that matter.” You know, the rising of the sun, the setting of the same, the birds, the animals, the way we react with nature, and so on.

And he wonders in the poem if they’ll say that he was a man who noticed such things. And my dear friend John Mortimer used to do a stage show in which he would talk about his life and read bits of prose and poetry that had taken his fancy over the years, and this was the poem with which he would finish. And that is the last line of the poem. He was a man who used to notice such things. And when I wrote this music to celebrate his life, and try to describe some of his life, this seemed like the right title.

Continue reading in the Exclusive Magazine.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

The season is upon us and Steve Morse sends his thoughts:

Holiday Time is here. The reason I know that is that I’m home and can see all the traffic in town. Before any greetings, let me voice all of our sorrow for the tragic murder of all of those children and staff in Connecticut.

Deep Purple’s new album is officially in April. I’ve just listened to some of the mixes and it’s a great sounding album. Flying Colors will be doing a live DVD and apparently, CD of the same performance around that same time, but no official date that I’ve heard.

Read more on SteveMorse.com

Roger Glover sends his traditional end-of-the-year message to the world:

From winter in Canada to another winter in France. In all, three months of touring, several hot months spent recording a new album, get the laundry done and that’s it; a year slips by. A bittersweet year.

It was in the studio in Nashville that we heard about Jon. It was a real blow to the body, even though we expected it. Stories and thoughts of him flooded the following weeks as the enormity of the loss sank in. Back in England we said goodbye to Jon with great dignity, the service was sadness made beautiful with music. When Jon first gave me Pictured Within, I wept at the beauty of it. At his funeral I wept again at the sadness of it. Such moving music. Music that has the power to stir emotions that run deep. He changed my life. I am a lucky man.

Read more on RogerGlover.com

For some reason or another, one of my favourite Deep Purple shows of the last 20 years — Basel 2003 — has made it to Youtube, complete broadcast (which is, sadly, just 60 minutes), and in decent quality. So, if you have nothing better to do on a Sunday night, feed it to your big screen, crank up the volume and enjoy:

Thanks to TheSmokeDP2 for uploading the video.

While being in Berlin right after the last tour leg, Ian Gillan spoke to ABC Brisbane’s radio show Evenings With Rebecca Levingston. A very entertaining interview covered a lot of subjects, including the parallax effect on long hair, that first Elvis record, being a naughty boy, the birth of rock music a s we know it, and the importance of breathing.

You can listen to the interview online (MP3, 6.3 MB) courtesy of ABC Queensland.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Well, it’s official: Deep Purple have been snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Again. After being nominated earlier this year, the band is conspicuously absent from the final list of inductees.

Thanks to Kevin Dixon for the info.

Just a few words about Deep Purple’s Toulouse show last Thursday.

Having been to Nantes in November, I must say this was perhaps a bit weary overall, although quite nice — well, maybe it was the sunday schedule, and a lame audience — I don’t know, but some of the band members (NOT Ian Gillan) seemed a bit uninspired, although the show was professional and enjoyable as always.

In Toulouse, the band were in high spirits, the audience quite hot (about 5000 people, aged 8 — my daughter ! her first concert — to 68).

Ian Gillan (68 — well no, 67 actually) could be my father, but in my opinion, has never been better before: he sounds amazing, especially in the upper middle range. OK, he doesn’t scream around that much any more, but as soon as he started off the scream to Fireball, you could tell that this was gonna be a grand Ian Gillan. And so it was, from Fireball to Black Night.

I love the guy, I love the voice, but I had to say a few 75% positive, 25 % negative things about his voice a few years ago (Toulouse 2009)– earning bitter angry comments from fanatic “praise-the-lord-or-die-by-our-sword, you traitor ” kind of fans. But the fact is, the guy keeps getting better and better (anything to do with lifestyle ? seems obvious). 67 !!!!! Keep on rockin, Ian !

A few highlights, in no particular order:

– The opener, well in fact the openers ! These 5 songs, without any breathing space, really get it on.
– Ian Gillan. Oh — have I said that allready ?
– Steve Morse. Much better than in Nantes, and doing some great interaction with Don. Their playing on Lazy was amazing, as was yhe jam in Hush.
– The Mule: I love that song from the riff to the outro, not forgetting the gorgeous melody line and Paicey’s drum solo.
– Gillan’s singing.
– The total adrenaline rush on Into the Fire and Space Truckin !
– Gillan’s voice.

Setlist as usual (Wasted Sunsets during the Steve-Morse-phase), no Speed King, unfortunately … Well,that was the only thing one could say: the last “greatest hits” part of the show has remained unchanged for years now, except on special occasions. I think this could be rethought, maybe for the 2013 tour, which will figure some more Steve-Morse-era songs (only the 2 instrumentals in Nantes and Toulouse — be proud of your recent history, gentlemen !) And I miss Highway Star a bit … Well, this is just a minor footnote, cause it has to be said once again:

Deep Purple are brilliant !

Deep Purple’s record company Edel/earMUSIC has unveiled release date for the new album — April 26th. A new site and a Facebook page have been launched to promote it.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov and Daniel Bengtsson for the info.