Roger Glover has posted the first studio report covering events that transpired behind the purple curtains between March last year and today:

March 2011 – The quest starts at a mountaintop retreat in the south of Spain – a hidden studio in a house called El Cortijo, ruled by a veteran skin-beater by the name of Trevor Morais. There, as the rain and wind pound on the windows, they capture a couple of handfuls of rough-hewn seeds of songs harnessed from the bittersweet (mostly sweet) fruit of their experience over the preceding five hard-working, post-rapture years, visiting countless corners of the known and unknown world.

Continue reading on RogerGlover.com. And make sure to check the photo gallery.

Polish fans will be celebrating the upcoming 40th anniversary of Made in Japan in style. A special event will be held in Warsaw on August 17 — the whole Made in Japan start to finish, including the encores, will be performed by a local band called Panteon. The event is dedicated to the memory of Jon Lord.

What: Made in Japan 40th anniversary concert
When: August 17, the celebrations will kick off at 18:00 with performance by PGR
Where: Amfiteatr Bemowo, Warsaw
More info: madeinjapan.pl, Facebook

Thanks to Lukas for the info.

Deep Purple (Overseas) and EMI have announced a 40th anniversary box set edition of the Machine Head, to be released on October 8, 2012 (in Europe, presumably). This five discs special edition will be accompanied with illustrated 60 page hardback booklet.

Contents of the box set include:

• CD1: original album 2012 remaster
• CD2: 1997 remix by Roger Glover
• CD3: original album quad SQ mix in stereo (2012 remaster)
• CD4: In Concert ’72 – 2012 remix (recorded live at Paris Theatre, London 9th March 1972)
• CD5: 2012 high resolution remaster and surround mix (DVD)

Booklet features:

• Detailed essays from original bassist Roger Glover and Mojo magazine editor Phil Alexander
• Quotations from Deep Purple fans Mikael Akerfelt, Luke Morley, Sebastian Vettel, Eddie Jordan, Brian Tatler, Janick Gers and Peter Hook.
• An interview with famed photographer Didi Zill, whose photos of the legendary recording sessions in Switzerland illustrate the booklet.

The WhoCares 2CD compilation album will be released in North America on August 28th via Eagle Rock Entertainment. Tony Iommi writes on his website:

Many thanks to everyone who bought the WhoCares single or album, we’ve heard from our buddy in Armenia that construction work on the school will start on August 15th! This is just the beginning so please continue to support us! The album will be available in the US at the end of August, more news at that time.

All proceeds from the release will go towards the construction of a music school in Guymri, Armenia, which was destroyed in 1988 earthquake.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

One of the biggest (if not the biggest) heavy metal festivals in the world — Wacken Open Air — has just concluded this year run and has announced that next year lineup will include a headlining performance by Deep Purple. In 2013 the festival will run on the weekend of August 1-3. Weekend passes are already on sale.

The exact day when the band will perform at Wacken has not been confirmed yet and will be posted in our calendar as soon as it’s available.

Thanks to Marco Kupfer for the info.

Total Abandon will be released on vinyl by Back on Black label some time in September this year. So far, we have not been able to obtain any further details on packaging, bonus tracks (if any), etc.

Thanks to Alex Chornyy for the info.

In his recent interview to The Boston Phoenix Lemmy reveals this curious bit of anecdotage:

…Jon Lord was to a large extent responsible for me being in rock and roll. He was in a band called the Artwoods years ago, with Ronnie Wood’s brother Arthur. They were sort of a jazz-blues band, I guess. They played at the place in Wales where I was living, this dingy little boozer, and I was talking to Jon and, like an idiot, he gave me his address in London. So of course I went down there and he wasn’t there, but he was living at Art’s mother’s house where Ronnie Wood, who was in a band called the Birds, was living and they let me crash on the couch. I woke up and I’ve got all the Birds standing around me going, ‘What are you doing on Mom-mom’s couch?,’ all poking me with this terrible cockney rabble.

I never forgot that Jon — a complete stranger, and I’m some kid — gave me his address to come down to London and see him. I often told him thanks for that. I saw him late last year in a hotel in Germany in Cologne. He was over there doing some orchestral stuff, and we talked in the bar for awhile. . . . I’m glad I saw him, since he’s since departed.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Steve Morse and Joe Lynn Turner both took part in the Supertramp tribute album Songs Of The Century due for release on August 14 via Cleopatra Records. Steve contributed for The Logical Song (together with the original Yes keyboard player Tony Kaye), while Joe sang on Bloody Well Right. Other guests on the album include Annie Haslam, Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, John Wetton, Tony Levin, Robby Krieger, Peter Banks, Geoff Downes, and Jordan Rudess. The album was produced by Billy Sherwood.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Japanese blog Muse on Muse has two interviews with both Steve and Neal Morse of the Flying Colors project:

Muse On Muse: All of your guitar solos, especially the one on “Kayla”, are very beautiful and match the songs perfectly. Are your solos improvised, or do you make them prior to recording? Please tell us about your approach to guitar solos.

SM: The solos are improvised. I do several at one time, and keep erasing the worst one. When I get one that I like, I listen and fix some parts that could be a little better. Usually, I will keep the ones that accidentally have little melodic sections that surprise me. In the end, I will probably quote something from these solos such as Kayla, since they are melodic. However, thinking back on that one, I intentionally referred back to the intro melody in the solo since I felt it wasn’t brought back enough during the song.

MM: What are your future plans with FLYING COLORS? Do you have plans for another album?

SM: Yes, I’m sure we do. At the moment, we haven’t even done our tour yet, and everybody has busy schedules, so we don’t know when that will be, but we all love the product of this chemistry and want to do more, I’m sure.

Read more in Muse on Muse.

Flying Colors embark on a short tour this September. Check the details in our calendar.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Tommy Bolin Memorial Fund has opened a new official website dedicated to Tommy: tommybolin-official.com. It has much of what one would expect from it (an RSS feed for updates would be nice though) and is well worth a visit.

The Tommy Bolin Memorial Fund is a charitable foundation in memory of Tommy run with active participation of his brother Johnny. They have been involved with all the archive releases of the past few years and also organize the annual Tommy Bolin Festival in Sioux City, Indiana.