I was working for Swedish Radio at this year’s Sweden Rock Festival and someone in our team brought up the topic of member changes in classic rock bands. Deep Purple was of course accused of being worst, as they always are, even by fans of the band. To prove DP aren’t worst, and as research for a segment in a radio show we broadcast from the festival, me and a friend came up with this list of how many mbers each band has had (and THS editor Nick added a couple of entries):
Yes, Yngwie is a solo artist and should perhaps not be on the list but this was for a somewhat funny show on Swedish Radio so we put him in there for fun. We also included a couple of Swedish “dance bands” which beat Yngwie by far. 🙂 Some of you will also argue that Whitesnake, Rainbow and King Crimson are some sort of solo venture but our criteria was that if you have chosen a band name, you are a band.
Ian Gillan recently gave an interview to QMI Agency that was published in Toronto Sun:
As the ideas come from the jam sessions every day… you get them some kind of working generic title and this one sounded like the soundtrack to a horror movie so we called it Vincent Price.
And when I got to doing the lyrics, I said to Roger, ‘Listen, what would a producer of the ’60s or a director want as the ingredients for a horror movie starring Vincent Price?’ And I started writing down the lyrics: Clanking chains, creaking doors, bloodsucking vampires, howling dogs, sacrificial virgins, zombies. I said, ‘There you go. We’re finished. We’ve done the lyrics.’
In an interview to the Russian newspaper Kultura Ritchie Blackmore mentioned that he would be open to the idea of staging one-off shows shows playing his old material (in reverse translation from Russian, so take it with liberal serving of grains of salt):
Yes, indeed, I’m proud of what I have written in the past, and even thinking of maybe 3-4 shows playing exclusively Deep Purple and Rainbow stuff. Just to appease nostalgic feeling of Blackmore’s Noght fans who still enjoy 70-80s recordings. I will never quit what I am doing today, but such concerts could be enjoyable and a sort of a reward to my devoted fans.
There was no mention as to what personalities could be involved in such a project.
A guitar and (presumably, several) drum heads signed by Glenn Hughes, among many other people, are up for a charity auction to raise money for the Rock Against Multiple Sclerosis foundation.
Guitar auction will close in the evening of Jun 23 (Pacific Time), while drum head auction will run until the supplies last. They also have (unsigned) t-shirts from the Rock Against MS benefit show held in Los Angeles on March 27.
Sunflower Jam has announced that the date for their special event to celebrate late Jon Lord has been set at April 4, 2014. It will take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Artists confirmed so far include Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Don Airey and Steve Morse. Iron Maiden frontman and long-time supporter of The Sunflower Jam, Bruce Dickinson, will also be performing along with Rick Wakeman, Joe Brown and Alfie Boe. The evening will be compered by Bob Harris.
They are also preparing for release The Best of The Sunflower Jam SUPERJAMS Live at The Royal Albert Hall DVD with highlights of the 2011 and 2012 events, which is “in the final stages of production”.
Apparently the music we all love will still be around in the 31st century. Highway Star (the original album version) was featured in a new episode of Futurama — 2-D Blacktop — that had its premiere yesterday, June 19. In the episode, Professor Farnsworth takes to street racing and beats another two crews to the immortal tune in a race that culminates going through a tunnel, against traffic, with Hammond arpeggios as a sonic backdrop.
Watch episode highlights, including the racing scene, on ComedyCentral.com
Watch Ian Gillan and Roger Glover being treated like royalty on a Georgian TV show. Their segment starts at around 21 minutes into the episode and runs for a good half an hour: Continue Reading »
David Coverdale gave an interview to TeamRock Radio’s Classic Rock Magazine Show (to be broadcast next Wednesday, June 19) and said he wants to put his feud with Robert Plant to an end. The two exchanged bitter comments back in 1993, at the time of Coverdale/Page album, and have never spoken to each other since then.
My last words to Jimmy in London were: ‘I’d love to buy Robert a drink.’ I said: ‘When you speak to him, offer my sincere regrets for any negative things I’ve ever said, which were mostly defensive.’
I hold him [Plant] in the highest esteem as a human being, as an artist, and I really would like to, you know, sit down, buy him a drink, shake hands and say: ‘I’m really sorry, you know, can we be friends again?’
[Out of] my love and respect for Jimmy, I know he’ll pass that on to Robert – and Robert might go and tell him to **** himself, who knows, but I don’t hold any animosity, just disappointment in myself that I took the bait and ran with some ugly things. Because it’s not appropriate for somebody I respect so much.
MusicRadar has a preview of the Greatest Ever Rhythm section feature to appear in July issue of the Rhythm magazine.
Roger Glover:
A great drummer. When I first played with Paicey my first impression was that he was just fluid and effortless. Most drummers back then were metronomic, they were there to just keep time, where as Paicey wasn’t like that. Not only did he keep time but the way he played was as much of the music as bass, guitar and keyboards. Very early on, it might have even been the first time that we played together, he had a word in my ear. He said, “By the way, I don’t follow, I lead.’ I said, ‘Ah, got it.’ I learnt very quickly to just tuck in with him. His feel is like no other drummer I’ve ever known.
Ian Paice:
An understanding, understanding each other’s feel and there being a dominant and non-dominant partner. With Roger and I, Roger is happy to give me extra space, he might give me 20 percent so he has 30 percent and I have 70 percent. When I played with Glenn Hughes, he took us 50 percent and then some more because that’s the way he plays and there’s nothing wrong with that.
July issue of the magazine can be purchased online for £6.99 including worldwide delivery (£4.99 UK / £5.99 Europe).
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing