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“No plans for a new album” from Coverdale

David Coverdale at the Waerdse Tempel, Netherlands, 2009; Photo: Arthur Nazarian http://www.fotovriend.nl/, CC-BY-NC-ND

David Coverdale posted to his message board on what he’s been up to:

At this time there are no plans for a new studio album of new material… we are busily mixing & editing a ‘live’ album & a separate in concert DVD from the ‘Forevermore’ world tour, plus mixing an special expanded editions of ‘Into The Light’… ‘Restless Heart’… plus archiving so much audio & visual material & content from so many years… ( & we have hardly touched the tip of THAT iceberg… )… plus other assorted goodies to hopefully whet thy collective appetites… but, definitely not a whole new studio album at this time… Quite simply we wouldn’t have time to write & record a new studio album… It was never on our agenda for 2012…

(Sorry, we can’t provide a direct link as his web site appears to be, ahem, a tad overengineered. Go to the message board and look for DC’s post #172065 dated 7/6/2012 3:09:16 PM).

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

News from Nashville

Steve Morse, Toronto, Feb 12 2012; photo © Nick Soveiko cc-by-nc-sa

Steve Morse has posted a message in his blog:

Hi, everybody. I’m in Nashville with Deep Purple. We’ve been all over the place with this album project, writing, writing, rehearsing, changing…………finally, we’re working with Bob Ezrin, our producer. There were some scheduling delays, but finally everybody is in the same room making the final changes to the material. Lots and lots of great stuff, in fact, too much to put on the album, I think. We’ll be working here until the moment I leave for G3, and they’ll go on with keyboards, bass and vocal overdubs. Somehow, I will get in synch with Bob to finish or redo any solos or overdubs on my end.

Read more on SteveMorse.com.

Thanks to Vladimir Drybushchak for the info.

A Hart Life paperback edition

Colin Hart — A Cart Life cover

A Hart Life, the book of Colin Hart’s memoirs first published in Japanese and, finally, last year in English, will now see another edition, this time in paperback, in US and Australia. According to Wymer Publishing, publication date is set for July 30th.

Title: A Hart Life. The life story of Deep Purple and Rainbow’s tour manager.
Authors: Colin Hart with Dick Allix
Format: Paperback (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN: 978-1-908724-04-5
Pages: 280 (16 photo pages, 88 b/w images)
Price: $24.95
Category: Non-fiction, music autobiography

WhoCares album samples

WhoCares charity compilation release date has been pushed back to July 13. Meanwhile, their record label has posted teaser samples:

Lego Ritchie Blackmore?

Lego Ritchie Blackmore

Rory Dartanyan

They’ve managed to keep it under wraps for quite some time, but now it’s official: Rory Dartanyan Blackmore was born on February 7 this year and is doing fine.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Russ Ballard on Rockpages

Rockpages has an interview with Russ Ballard — the man who wrote Since You’ve Been Gone and I Surrender, among many other tunes:

Rockpages.gr: How about Rainbow…? Their biggest hits were two of your songs…did you have the chance to meet Ritchie Blackmore?

Russ Ballard: I’ve never met Ritchie.

Rockpages.gr: Have you talked on the phone with him…?

Russ Ballard: I’ve never spoken to him. I recorded an album called “Winning” in 1976 that included the song “Since You Been Gone”. The interesting thing about that album was that it included songs that were later covered by a variety of artists and became hits. For instance, the title track was recorded by Santana and “Just A Dream Away” by Roger Daltrey. Apparently, what actually happened was the following: a band called Head East heard the song and thought that it could be a good single for them…and they were true! The song became a big hit of theirs in the States. So, they did a tour in America with Rainbow and Ritchie heard Head East’s version of the song and really liked it. At least, that’s what I thought happened. I do speak a lot to Graham Bonnet. He phoned me a few days ago asking me for Don Airey’s number and we started to e-mail each other quite a lot…Graham wanted to write a song for him. I asked him what kind of a song he wanted and he said something like a progressive rock tune.

Read more on Rockpages.gr.

Nick Simper interview

Nick Simper Vienna09 by Ralph Grille 6Metal Shock has an interview with a fairly rare guest in the press — Nick Simper. He talks about the good old days, Screaming Lord Sutch, Purple, his collaboration with Nasty Habits, and his plans:

Even thought it was now so long ago, you incorporate Deep Purple tracks in your sets, do the songs hold a special place in your heart?

The main reason for playing the purple tracks was to present these tunes to new audiences. The majority of the MK1 songs had never been played live since 1969, and of course some of them, particularly the ones that I had a hand in composing, were special to me. It is amazing to see the reaction to these tunes by young and old who come to our shows. The fact that the mk1 albums still sell well proves that they have stood the test of time!

Read more in Metal Shock.

Thanks to BraveWords for the tip.

Red Herring of Rock’n’Roll Business

Last week news went around the musical blogosphere that Ian Gillan will appear at one of the business seminars in UK. This was a case of a misread press release, which mentioned

Meet and greet with Bernie Tormé, guitarist to Ozzy Osbourne and Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan

When the article appeared in the British newspaper The Independent, it became

Cook will be joined by Bernie Tormé, former lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, and Ian Gillan, the Deep Purple singer.

Note subtle differences in punctuation.

From there the story was picked up by a number of music news outlets around the net where Gillan’s name was promoted to the title.

Rest assured, Gillan will not be appearing at the event. Bernie Tormé will.

Thanks to Nigel Young and Yvonne Osthausen for the detective work.

All Out tour

Don Airey in Kingston, Canada, February 9, 2012; photo © Nick Soveiko CC-BY-NC-SA

Don Airey will go on tour this September in support of his last album All Out. European promoter Six Concerts has announced dates in Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. The gig in Vienna on September 21st will be of special interest as Don will be supported by Nick Simper, who is performing with the Nasty Habits. Full details in our calendar.

Don Airey’s band lineup for the tour will include:

  • Carl Sentence –- vocals (Krokus, Geezer Butler Project)
  • Darrin Mooney –- drums (Gary Moore, Primal Scream)
  • Rob Harris –- guitars (Jamiroquai, Kylie Minogue, Gary Numan)
  • Lawrence Cottle –- bass (Sting, Cher, Black Sabbath, Eric Clapton)

Thanks to Rudy Neises and Reinhard Lackner for the info.

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