Roger Glover gave an interview to Guitar International, which, quite naturally, started out with the talk of the new Deep Purple album. After opening with excuses for the eight year wait, he proceeds straight to the catalytic role of the new producer, the eminent Bob Ezrin:

Robert: I have to say the band sounds really energized. Was it exciting to start writing with the band again?

Roger Glover: It was. Bob really injected a great stimulus into us. He was blown away by the musicianship of the band. He said some very astute things. He said “Trying to get ahead with a big riff on the radio ain’t gonna happen. Times have changed.” He said, “What I saw last night in the concert, that’s what people want to hear. You should stretch out.”

And those words, “stretch out,” hung with us. Then the next writing session we had, we took him at his word. And just having him on board and eager to produce us was a stimulus in itself, because he’s a man with a huge track record. Those writing sessions were very productive and I think we came up with some very original stuff. Original when you’ve been around as long as we have.

Read the whole thing in Guitar International.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

First of all, let’s dispense with the hype : the record label claim that the new Purple album is a cross between Made in Japan and Machine Head (or words to that effect) is just that, hype, and a bit unfair to both incarnations of the band, the current and the one responsible for those masterworks. After all, the two main soloists in the band are different people, impossible to compare to each other.

What is definitely NOT hype is that on this new album, Deep Purple do what they do best, what they have done on numerous occasions in the past : dispense with the rule book. Consciously or not, they look at what people expect from Purple, and then proceed to not pay any attention to it. They’ve done it with In Rock, Fireball, Come Taste The Band, Purpendicular and now once again with Now What?!

This is the most unusual, interesting, unexpected album Purple have done for a very long time. This is the definition of a progressive rock band.

I shall not go into the usual track-by-track thing, I’l just single out things like the plethora of circular riffs on “Aprez Vous”, the complex construction of things like “Uncommon Man” , “Body Line” and “Blood From A Stone”, the hooks and melodies on “A Simple Song” or “Out Of Hand”, the horror movie atmosphere on, appropriately enough “Vincent Price” (a standout with Gillan’s weird, treated vocals), oh, lots and lots of interesting stuff.

It’s telling that the single features two tracks so vastly different to one another – a classic Purple rocker and what is perhaps the most…sly song they’ve ever done, see, “All The Time In The World” is so simple, almost unremarkable at first listen, but gets you well and truly hooked, until you feel it’s one of the absolute best songs the have ever written.

This is an album so densely packed with ideas that it can only be fully enjoyed through repeated listens.
Not having had access to a full resolution copy, I can only imagine the full extent of Ezrin’s production-if we’re to judge from the two tracks on the single, it’s definitely widescreen. Certainly I don’t think anyone has managed to capture Gillan’s voice so well in recent years, he sound incredible on all tracks.

Instrumentally the album is dominated by Morse’s “bluesier” playing, the one that regular concert goers have been experiencing on recent tours, and by Don’s immense variety of sounds. Rhythm-section watchers will have a LOT to sink their teeth into.

In closing what is, of necessity, a short review, two points :
“Now What?!” has been well worth the eight year wait since “Rapture…”. This is a Deep Purple album to enjoy, explore, cherish and be proud of.
Seeing as the CD is dedicated to Jon, I only wish he was around to enjoy it. He would have been very proud indeed.

P.S. The bonus track, “It’ll Be Me” is a Jerry Lee Lewis song that the Javelins used to do back in the day.

Stathis Panagiotopoulos

Perfect Strangers of Finland is celebrating their 15th anniversary by organizing a traditional Purple Night concert. Who Do We Think We Are will be the theme for this Purple Night, which is being held for the fifth year in a row now.

What:

• Solid Faces (Pietarsaari): the band that toured with Doogie White in 2009. They will perform a set of Purple covers.
• Angry Machines (Oulu): will perform a set of Dio, commemorating 30th anniversary of Holy Diver.
• White Shade of Purple (Kouvola): will play mostly music of Whitesnake.

Guest singers for the night will be Jari Tiura (e.g. Former Michael Schenker Group, Stargazery) and Peter James Goodman (e.g. Conquest, Purple Society).

When: Saturday, May 18, 2013, from 9pm — 4am.
Where: Virgin Oil, Kaivopiha, Mannerheimintie 5, Helsinki, Finland.
Tickets: €12/€14 at www.tiketti.fi.

Thanks to Jari Kaikkonen for the info.

Deep Purple live at Heineken Music Hall (Amsterdam, Netherlands 2012-12-04)

I have been to several concerts of DP and each concert was superbe.
The crowed was very enthousiastic and the band was playing wonderfull.
Looking forward to see them in Zwolle and Lokeren this year. Hopefully they will play a lot of new material, because their new album sounds great.

review by ERIK

Over The Rainbow live at Aladin-Music-Hall (Bremen, Germany 2009-10-25)

Just back from Bremen, “Aladin”, after my visit to the first OTR-Concert in the north of Germany. At first: It was WOW !!!!!!

After my own long history of Deep Purple and Rainbow-Concerts with the Master himself: Ritchie Blackmore, now I was very very curious about this event. At first: Only 250 – 300 viewers at a Rock-Club venue and … it was very loud !!! But loud is rock’n’roll !

Because I have seen the other members of OTR already a few times, so I gave JR. my full attention, like his father many times before. JRs guitarwork in combination with this music was in a technical sign more than okay, for a no-name-guitar-player, nearly brilliant ! But because of his genes and the heritage of the Rainbow music, it is necessary to have another way of seeing. In this respect, JR. was a worthy replacement. In his playing, you can hear JR and Ritchie. If you see him as the person, his gesticulation, his facial expression, his presence on the stage, you see his father in a consimilar body. With a lot of friendlier, warmly presence, than the great shadow who is hovering over him. Not so perfect like his father, but also a real talent. Of course a BLACKMORE !

I think, after a view years on stage and with the endorsement of this routiniers like J.L.Turner, Bobby Rondinelli … he would be brilliant, maybe like his father… ! … ? Lets wait a while …

For the resume of this gig. Everyone who likes Rainbow will like OTR. A great professional performance. Still like the original, clearly better than the studio-recordings. But with a clearly gap between Ritchie and JR. Blackmore and the opinion for JR. to fill this distance in his own way. And if the rumors will come true, this guys will create some new songs and the historie will start over (the rainbow).

The setlist: Tarot Woman / Kill The King / Cant Let You Go / All Night Long / Death Alley Driver / Paul Morris Solo / Eyes Of The World / JR Blackmore Solo / Ariel / Wolf To The Moon / I Surrender / Man On The Silver Mountain / Jealous Lover / Bobby Rondinelli Solo / Stargazer / Long Live Rock n Roll

1. Encore: Gates Of Babylon (JR used a very special Fender Stratocaster*)
2. Encore: Since You Been Gone/Cant Happen Here
3. Encore: Spotlight Kid

-Kraatzy- Bremen, 2009-Oct.25

(*A very nice Fender Stratocaster I have never seen before: With body in vintage olympic white with 3 single coils with white covers (like Ritchie’s dummy pickup in the middle position) without inscription. A very nice Stratocaster neck with golden mechanics and a very special inscription: “Fender” (? not sure). JR.Blackmore” (instead of the Stratocaster inscription). The neck is a very special neck with an unusual dark neckcolour (like cherry tree) with a maple fingerboard with pearl ornaments or colour around the hole neck an around the headstock.)

review by kraatzy

Nimbus School of Recording Arts is a music production, audio engineering and recording facility in Vancouver, Canada, of which Bob Ezrin is one of the co-founders. In October 2012 students of the school got an opportunity to be on the new Deep Purple album:

Bob Ezrin was recording with Deep Purple at his studio in Nashville when he gave GGGarth Richardson (Nimbus co-founder and producer) a call. He needed vocals for a track on the album. So, GGGarth gathered 40 Nimbus students into Studio D here at Nimbus and lead them in a recording session to capture gang vocals for Deep Purple track “Hell to Pay” which appears on the new album.

Of these 40 students, many were only in the first month of their program at Nimbus. GGGarth lead the session, saying to one of the new Nimbus students, “Not bad for your third day of class, eh?”.

And it resulted in…

Thanks to Nimbus School of Recording Arts for the info.

Well, it’s not really a chart success, but what exactly are sales charts in this day and age?

The single from upcoming album Now what?! — All the Time in the World got to #1 place on Classic Rock Magazine’s Track Of The Week poll, which is voted by regular punters.

Well done, boys!

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

Glenn Hughes gave an interview to Australia’s Tone Deaf. He spoke about Sunbury 1975, his collaboration with Tony Iommi, writing his book, and getting clean:

I had to look at the darkest period of my life, which is ‘83 – ‘91, when I was on crack and I was like really fucking out of my tree. Really, really bad man.

I had to go back and look at that and go, ‘what was my part in this and how can I become a better man, and a better person, when I look back at that behaviour?’ If people like me, who are in recovery from drugs and alcohol, do not look at their behaviour then it may happen again.

I don’t put anything in my body that affects me from the neck up.

That means no mood altering drugs, no chemicals that will make me do things I shouldn’t do. Can you imagine if I was on crack on the fucking Twitter?

I can’t imagine Glenn Hughes, on crack, naked on the roof, on Twitter. That’s what it would have been like 25 years ago.

Read more in Tone Deaf.

Glenn will do a shor tour of Australia in late April. He well play two gigs in Melbourne and Sydney, plus there will be two special events: a book signing and a spoken word session.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Blackmore’s Night will release in North America their new album Dancer and the Moon on June 11 via Frontiers Records. The album will be released in two editions: a regular CD, and a digipak deluxe edition with bonus DVD. The DVD includes music videos of Dancer And The Moon and of The Moon Is Shining (Somewhere Over The Sea), plus an extensive interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night. A digital single of The Moon Is Shining will be released on May 6.

Take your pick from the songwriting team of Candice and Ritchie: the acoustic ‘Somewhere Over the Sea (The Moon Is Shining)’, the rocking track ‘The Moon Is Shining (Somewhere Over The Sea)’, along with the title track ‘Dancer And The Moon’, the nature-inspired ‘The Last Leaf’ and the Russian-influenced ‘Troika’.

Blackmore’s Night own their versions of classic rock chestnuts: RANDY NEWMAN’s ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’, URIAH HEEP’s ‘Lady In Black’, and ‘The Temple of the King’ that Ritchie and the late RONNIE JAMES DIO collaborated on originally for their band, RAINBOW.

Dancer And The Moon is made complete with its inspiring instrumentals, including the waltzy ‘Galliard’ and the DEEP PURPLE-esque ‘Carry On… Jon’, that Ritchie wrote as a heartfelt tribute to his former band mate, the late Jon Lord.

Tracklist:

1. I Think It’s Going To Rain Today
2. Troika
3. The Last Leaf
4. Lady In Black
5. Minstrels In The Hall
6. The Temple Of The King
7. Dancer And The Moon
8. Galliard
9. The Ashgrove
10. Somewhere Over The Sea (The Moon Is Shining)
11. The Moon Is Shining (Somewhere Over The Sea)
12. The Spinner’s Tale
13. Carry On… Jon

Thanks to BraveWords and Ann Leighton Media for the info.

This year Zermatt Unplugged festival, which runs April 9th to 13th, is featuring a special tribute lounge in memory of Jon Lord and Claude Nobs. Both were long time patrons of the festival, and both passed away last year. The lounge will be open at the Mont Cervin Palace daily, from noon till midnight. Documents, interviews and film clips will be shown.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.