Black Country Communion has circulated a press release in which Glenn Hughes provides a track-by-track breakdown of their third album Afterglow:

BIG TRAIN
It’s very quirky and British-sounding. Jason Bonham is an incredible timekeeper. I love the way he provides the engine room on that song.

THIS IS YOUR TIME
Let’s give Jason Bonham a little more love. He writes his songs on an iPhone whilst driving his car, which is completely nuts. It really helps the groove factor. He emailed me some footage of him playing this song. He wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics. It has a huge chorus, too. Jason is not just a brilliant drummer – he’s a great songwriter.

MIDNIGHT SUN
I had my wallet stolen in a Starbucks and arrived late at the studio. When I got there the guys were fooling around with a song that sounds quite a lot like The Who, thanks to those Rabbit Bundrick-style keyboards. I picked up my bass and joined in. It’s quite a romp; there’s a definite vibe of Moon and Entwistle.

CONFESSOR
The first album had ‘No Time’, which was slow and groovy. I wrote ‘Confessor’ that way too, but when Jason heard it he insisted upon playing it – in his own words – like his dad would have done. We’re a democratic band and I went along with that. When he turbo-d it up it really came to life.

CRY FREEDOM
I sang this one alone originally until Kevin pointed out that the album didn’t have a song with split vocals. Joe and I sing well together. I’ve never had a problem sharing a microphone with other great singers. We really let rip off one another on this one, which has a ZZ Top/Humble Pie kind of a vibe.

AFTERGLOW
[At more than six minutes long] it’s an epic song. I was adamant that this album should have a proper title instead of a number. I played it to the band right at the end of sessions – purposely so. When they heard it on acoustic guitar, everybody agreed that it should name the album.

DANDELION
I wrote it slower than we recorded it; maybe I had too much coffee that day. Had we done it that way then maybe it would have sounded a bit dirge-like. Jason sets the tempos – he’s got a really good ear for the way that a song should sound.

THE CIRCLE
It’s one of my favourites on this record. It gives me the chance to use my ‘breathier’ voice. Kevin asked me to sing it an octave higher than I intended, and it worked. The high voice in the chorus is not my falsetto, it’s my upper register natural voice. I’m singing about being powerless; being in a dreamlike state. People have spoken about my voice and bass playing for so many years, I hope that this time they notice my lyrics because I’m very proud of them.

COMMON MAN
That’s another of the songs that came from Jason. When he sang me its melody acapella I could hear myself singing it. It could have been a song from Deep Purple’s ‘Stormbringer’ album; he wrote it for my voice.

THE GIVER
When you listen to the end of the song, if people are trying to figure out what key it’s in, I’m playing a capo [a device that raises the pitch of notes] on the fifth fret. When I wrote it, I deliberately held back from completing it because it needed Joe’s input. Kevin helped as well.

CRAWL
Some people may know that this song was going to be on ‘BCC2’ but we held it over because there simply wasn’t enough room. To me, it fits this album a lot better. It’s a really aggressive song – it’s dangerous and angry. I love it. It’s a great way to finish the record.

Afterglow will be released on October 29 via Mascot Records.

Thanks to Noble PR and Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

In the first episode of a new project called Whitesnake TV David Coverdale is being interviewed by his granddaughter Georgina for her school project:
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It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine has an interview they conducted recently with Ian Gillan on the occasion of promoting his and Tony Iommi’s charity release of WhoCares:

The list of musicians, that also appear on this project is amazing! How was it to work with them and how did you and Tony got along musically?

I know Tony well and love working with him; when he comes up with an idea I know exactly what’s expected of me. Old mates John Lord and Nicko McBrain were in the studio with Tony and myself, and the others were added remotely.

The album features a lot of new songs and also some rare ones. How did you guys decided what to add and what not?

The list was mostly compiled by Max Vaccarro at Edel records. Max has been a driving force behind the project.

Read more in It’s Psychedelic Baby.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

On September 28th. 2012, earMUSIC releases the studio recording of  Jon Lord’s “Concerto For Group And Orchestra”

“Over these last years since leaving Deep Purple, I’ve played it over 30 times with different orchestras and conductors all over the world, and, of course, in 2000 I did it well over 30 times with Purple on the Concerto tour, so I’ve been honing the piece live on stage, and I’ve had the opportunity to change things in the score that weren’t sounding quite right. It is therefore  a  marvellous  and  exciting  prospect  to  have  the  definitive  recording  of  the definitive version of the score.” (Jon Lord May 2012)

Jon Lord recorded the rhythm section – Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd, Madonna) &  Brett Morgan (Jon Anderson, Sting) and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom Jon had recorded twice before) in June 2011 in Liverpool – conducted by Paul  Mann. The production then moved to Abbey Road Studios in London to record Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson  (on vocals with  Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska)  and Joe Bonamassa, Darin Vasilev and Steve Morse on guitars.

Happily, Jon got to hear and approve the final mixes a few weeks before he passed away.

Black Country Communion’s 3rd studio album will be called Afterglow and will be released on October 30, 2012. Pre-ordering will start on September 11 and will be available at BCCommunion.com.
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BBC Radio 4 has aired a programme on fusion of rock and classical music titled Rock ‘n’ Roll in Four Movements. It prominently features Concerto for Group and Orchestra, with all the Big Three keyboard players of the classic rock — Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson — being interviewed. Jon’s contribution is from his last interview conducted just a week before his death.

The programme was on the air yesterday, August 23, and is available for replay until noon BST, August 30. (BBC’s iPlayer requires Flash plugin.)

Thanks to DPAS and Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

In addition to the Machine Head 40th anniversary box set, EMI will be releasing on October 8 two more anniversary editions, both on vinyl: a remastered Machine Head and remixed In Concert’72. Here’s the rundown.

Machine Head

• Original album, newly remastered in 2012 by Jon Astley;
• audiophile 180gram heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold sleeve reproducing the original cover;
• features a 6 panel lyric sheet;
• package includes bonus 7″ single Never Before / When A Blind Man Cries in a Purple Records house bag.

In Concert’72 Deluxe 2LP Set

• Recorded at the BBC’s Paris Theatre, London on 9th March 1972 (previously available on the second part of In Concert 70/72);
• Double LP set on purple vinyl;
• features a new 2012 mix from the original 8 track tapes with the original set list in its correct order;
• remixed at Abbey Road Studios;
• new artwork and photographs by Barry Plummer taken at the concert itself;
• because of the duration of the concert and issues with sound quality in relation to the length of audio on sides of LPs, the encore Lucille is being issued on the A-side of a 33 1/3 purple vinyl 7” housed in a Purple Records bag;
• single’s B-side features an exclusive to this edition and previously unreleased version of Maybe I’m A Leo recorded during the soundcheck; Simon Robinson describes it as “very rough indeed – with Gillan singing just a few bits (to save his voice)”.

Track list:

Record 1
Side 1

1. Introduction
2. Highway Star
3. Strange Kind of Woman

Side 2

1. Maybe I’m a Leo
2. Smoke On the Water

Record 2
Side 1

1. Never Before
2. Lazy

Side 2

1. Space Truckin’

Bonus 7 Inch

Side 1: Lucille
Side 2: Maybe I’m a Leo (Soundcheck)

The British Music Experience is introducing The Practice Room — “a series of mentoring sessions that allow musicians to learn from professional players and songwriters.” Our own Ian Paice will launch the sessions on September 17 between 7pm and 9pm. Tickets are on sale through the Ticketmaster at £5.75, and that includes admission to the BME on the day.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Powers That Be™ have released an electronic press kit for the Re-Machined tribute album
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The Fireworks Magazine features several members of the family in Issue 53 (out now).

In the five page spread, Ritchie and Candice discuss their new DVD A Knight In York, the supernatural, the origins of Blackmore’s Night, some of Ritchie’s favourite practical jokes and, for the first time, reveal the true reason for Rainbow splitting up.

I loved the DVD Ritchie, not only is it a really good show, but I was there in person when you filmed it so it brought back great memories. I thought it was absolutely superb. Was it one of the best shows of the tour?

R: I think it was a good, average show – considering that whenever you make plans to record a show something invariably goes wrong and it turns into a disaster. I was pretty happy with how we played. There were a few mistakes, but that is normal. I was quite pleased with it. The night before, two nights before, we were in the most wonderful castle in Germany but it rained. That was originally where we planned to record it, so we would have the video of the castle, but it’s a good job we changed our minds the week before. We were having problems with the promoter, it started a couple of months before we did a show in Germany. We saw the ticket prices and we said it was too much money for people to pay. We complained about the prices being too high and that led to all sorts of confusion and people getting annoyed, saying it was a typical price. We said we weren’t going to play for that, so in the end things started getting given away at the show like medallions and merchandise. So planning to record there and then having things like that, we said “You know what? We’ll do it in England.”

Also on page 80 of the magazine are interviews with Ian Gillan, who talks about the Who Cares album with Tony Iommi, and a chat with Nick Simper, who talks about Nasty Habits.

Read a longer extract from the Blackmore’s Night interview and learn where to get the printed copy here.

Thanks to James Gaden for the info.