Glenn Hughes spoke to the Classic Rock magazine and revealed that it was his Twitter tirade that caused cancellation of Black Country Communion one-off gig in Wolverhampton, originally scheduled for January 5:

I was getting killed by a lot of my friends and fans in the Black Country for the ticket prices. I went on Twitter and said, ‘Don’t shoot me, I’m only the messenger, I don’t set the prices,’ and that was the thing that really started the whole debacle off.

I said the same thing in 2010. I have a lot of fans who complain, ‘We’re from Wolverhampton, we can’t afford these tickets.’ This time it was the red rag to the bull.

Bonamassa’s manager Roy Weisman confirmed he pulled the show as a result of Hughes’ comment:

The tickets might have been more expensive than an average rock band, but they’re not an average rock band. They certainly weren’t as expensive as a superstar band. I decided to price the tickets that way. When Glenn decided he wanted to make a comment, and pointed the finger to me – it was really upsetting to me. I’d had enough of it.

The story appears in the issue 179 of Classic Rock that is currently on sale in the UK.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Classic Rock magazine has a teaser from Ian Gillan’s interview that will appear in it’s issue due to hit the newsstands on January 3. Speaking exclusively to the magazine, Gillan revealed that the new album will include 13 tracks including Out Of Hand, Hell To Pay, Weirdistan, Uncommon Man and Above And Beyond. The latter song references the late Jon Lord in the lyric: “Souls having touched are forever entwined.”

There’s a big question mark over the [album’s] name at the moment. And possibly an exclamation mark as well. You can read what you like into what I’ve just said. All will become clear – as mud – later on. That’s all I’m allowed to say. The question mark and the exclamation mark might get you intrigued.

According to Classic Rock, album release date is now scheduled for April 2013.

It was the fifth time I saw Deep Purple since 2006. I could compare the quality of the show compared to other concerts and it was excellent!
The most fascinating thing is to see members of the group with a permanent smile, it’s a real pleasure to see.
I was on the front which is not the best place for sound, but the sound was good nonetheless be distinguished perfectly all instruments.
The room was packed and the audience was enthusiastic.
The set list has not changed: intro Fireball, Into the Fire, Hard Lovin’ Man Maybe I’m a Leo Strange Kind and other great classics except Highway Star.
Steve was brilliant as usual, nothing to say, he made a solo ultra melodic but also technical and it was beautiful to ear.
Gillan was in really good form conducting cries without any problem!
I was impressed by Paice’s solo in the Mule, Don was fantastic too and he showed the extent of his talent especially with the improvisation in Hush with Steve.
Roger embodies the rhythm, he rocked the room in the introduction of Black night when he made a solo.
The modesty of these guys is impressive. These are people who have marked the history of music, they invented a style, they made a song
40 years ago still known by everyone today. And yet they constantly play with a smile, they are an example for a lot of musicians today!
This is definitely the best Deep Purple concert I’ve seen in my life.

Valerio Dossini, France

Forest National, Brussels, Belgium

I had the chance to stand near the stage during the gig. Deep Purple gave a great concert last night in Brussels. After a powerful start (Fireball, Into the fire and Hard lovin’man), they gave us a wonderful “strange kind of woman”. All the members were in great shape and Gillan’s voice was great, too. There were also other highlights, such as a wonderful version of “wasted sunsets”. During the solo’s, Don Airey played “ne me quitte pas” from Jacques Brel : brilliant! The good thing is that the band really rocks : hard rock as it was in the beginning. All the setlist was from the 70’s and 80’s. I never heard Steve Morse playing as heavy as he did yesterday. DP were enjoying themselves and the response of the audience (Forest National was full) was enthousiastic. We had a great time, so don’t hestitate, go to see them and enjoy!

Early Whitesnake stalwarts Micky Moody and Neil Murray have teamed up with Chris Ousey (Heartland), Laurie Wisefield (ex Wishbone Ash, Tina Turner), Adam Wakeman (Ozzy Osbourne) and Harry James (Thunder) to form Snakecharmer. They are releasing a self-titled album of original material via Frontier Records, due on January 22nd in North America and January 25th in Europe.

Track list:

1. My Angel
2. Accident Prone
3. To The Rescue
4. Falling Leaves
5. A Little Rock & Roll
6. Turn Of The Screw
7. Smoking Gun
8. Stand Up
9. Guilty As Charged
10. Nothing To Lose
11. Cover Me In You
12. White Boy Blues

Chris Ousey – lead vocals
Micky Moody – guitar, slide guitar, vocals
Laurie Wisefield – guitar, vocals
Adam Wakeman – keyboards, vocals
Neil Murray – bass
Harry James – drums, vocals

Canadian blog Music Legends did a rather lengthy interview with Ian Gillan, which started with a couple (by now) mundane questions about WhoCares but quickly veered pretty far off the beaten track. Big Ian got to talk about things ranging from record remasters, to the state of the music business, to the future of the space age and computers.
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Speed King is back in the live set and by all accounts it’s a scorcher. Filled with improvisations, bits and pieces of classic rock’n’roll and even occasional croonery. The band is firing on all cylinders like a well oiled machine. Check out this one from Hamburg on November 24:
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Japanese promoters are doing something right. The managed to book a package tour (dubbed the Voices of Rainbow) of the three surviving Rainbow vocalists — Graham Bonnett, Joe Lynn Turner, and Doogie White. Bonnett will apparently headline the show performing with Alcatrazz, while JLT and White will be performing with a very Blackmoresque guitar player Akira Kajiyama and his band. Three dates have been announced: March 12 in Tokyo, March 13 in Nagoya, and March 14 on Osaka. Tickets will go on sale December 15 with presales starting a few days earlier. Full details in our calendar.

JLT and Akiro Kajiyama performing King of Dreams:

In other news, JLT did an interview with Guitar International recently, promoting Raiding the Rock Vault show, in which he took part, and was asked a question that undoubtedly keeps everybody at THS headquarters wide awake:

Robert: I ask because you were in Deep Purple and was wondering if you were going to be included in the [Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame] induction?

Joe Lynn Turner: That would be interesting. I really have no idea. I have no idea which of the other members of Deep Purple will be included. I don’t know if it’s just the Mach 5 line-up. Deep Purple is a band that had a lot of members run through it. I haven’t really pursued it or tried to find out, because I’m personally half and half about it. I have a little bit of Blackmore’s attitude in the sense that Deep Purple should have been in 20 years ago, “what’s that all about?”

Thanks to Juan Ignacio Flier for the info.

Looks like Deep Purple are due to headline yet another jazz festival — organizers of the Dubai Jazz Festival have announced that the band will headline the 2013 event. As their appearance is scheduled for February 21, this will predate the down under tour and moves forward the tentative date for the tentative live premiere of the new material. The festival will run from February 14th to the 22nd at the Festival Park, Dubai Festival City.

To promote the band’s appearance in the region, Al Bawaba has a rather interesting interview with Ian Gillan:

How do you keep up the enthusiasm and energy over the tours and the years? What’s the secret?

Well, I don’t really know. We never planned this far ahead. Possibly it’s the way we set ourselves up in the beginning. We had no ambition, except to make the band as good as possible. Every street where I lived in the south of England had a band, so you try and steal the guitar player or the drummer from the band in the next street, just to improve your own band and all we cared about was just playing music that we loved. We didn’t give much thought to image, in fact we don’t have a publicist — never had one — and we never [gave] thought to the normal business things. So there’s a basic simplicity to the ethos of the band which has survived and I don’t think it’s changed in any way. The music’s kinda matured with us — it’s grown up a little bit I suppose — but it’s still got all the energy and enthusiasm that we had as kids. Apart from that, I couldn’t answer your question because I’m too close to it. All I know is that it’s full of energy and we still love it.

And on the much debated topic of the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame nomination:

Befitting the success Deep Purple has achieved, the band has been nominated for the Rock’n’roll Hall of Fame. How much of an honour is this, or is it?

(Laughs.) Without being asked I was nominated for an MBE a little while ago and I was a bit fed up with these sorts of things and then I rationalised the situation. When I was a kid, the last thing that I wanted was to be institutionalised and sort of fought against the establishment all my life. However, when I had a chance to think about the nomination I realised I saw people getting excited about it around me and I realised it’s for family and friends and it’s not for me alone, it’s for the people who have supported us all through these years particularly through the bad times. So I look at it in a different way now,with a certain amount of humility.

Read more in Al Bawaba.

Caveat: at the time of this writing (November 22), this appearance has not been confirmed by the band’s management.

Ritchie Blackmore has donated a signed Stratocaster to a charity auction. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Sweet Relief Eastern Musicians Fund to provide food and medicine to the victims of hurricane Sandy that devastated big part of the Eastern US seaboard about three weeks ago. Current bid is at $2,161 and the auction will run until December 11.

Thanks to Marcel for the info.