Blues Rock Review (somewhat belatedly) reviews Simon McBride’s Recordings 2020 – 2025 that came out a few months ago.

While hype around this collection of personal tracks (a original material and covers) has been very much hush hush (Deep Purple pun intended), it’s an exciting and intriguing glimpse into McBride’s accomplished, passionate, and versatile guitar playing,

The reincarnations on this LP are certainly a tick for the latter, with the Belfash native taking a straight ahead rock approach to songs by the likes of Free, Duran Duran, and…..Bill Withers. Funnily enough, it’s the Withers cover “Grandma’s Hands” (originally recorded by Bill Withers) that’s the biggest triumph. McBride’s hands and creativity bring funk, groove, and bluesy lines, without pumping out that all-so-important heart and soul.

Read more in Blues Rock Review.

Classic Rock magazine reviews Gillan’s Future Shock for their Album of the Week Club.

Fondly regarded in their day, mainly because of their proximity to the classic Mk II Deep Purple sound, it wasn’t until the release of Future Shock in 1981 that Gillan really came into their own. Preceded by the success of singles like the covers of Trouble and New Orleans, it also contained some of the best material vocalist Ian Gillan had leant his name to since his Purple heyday, not least the witty No Laughing In Heaven.

“It was really the start of me being publicly irreverent,” Gillan told us. “It harked back to when I was 13 years old, asking questions at Sunday school like, ‘Father, what was the immaculate conception?’, and getting answers like, ‘You have to have faith in God, my son. Faith will guide you’.

“And I began to realise that I didn’t believe in religion, and that God didn’t create Man, it was the other way round. The idea of going to heaven was anathema to me. The last thing I want to do is be stuck in heaven with the sort of people I’d like to avoid! That’s where this song comes from.”

Read more in Louder Sound

Thanks to Georgius Novicianus for the heads-up.

Steve Morse took part in a jam that happened in Annapolis, MD, on May 31, 2025. The occasion was the release of a novel Punk Force by Steve’s friend Ward Carroll. Ward is a retired navy F-14 Tomcat pilot, an author of books about life in an F-14 squadron (Punk series), a military commentator, and YouTuber. He plays rhythm guitar and sings here. The rest of the band consisted of SMB stalwart Van Romaine on drums, TJ Collins on bass, and Tom Butwin on acoustic guitar and vocals. They performed a set of hard rock standards, although nothing from Purple.

Thanks to SteveMorse.com for the heads-up.

CBC profiles Bob Ezrin with a lengthy interview, published on the occasion of him receiving a Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award today, June 14, 2025. Music-wise, the interview focuses on just the two “genre-defining” albums from his vast portfolio — Pink Floyd The Wall and Kiss Destroyer. He also mentions that he just got back home after spending a month in Nashville working with Deep Purple on a new album under the heading of Some guys never learn, which may or may not be the working title.

Thanks to CBC for the info, and to Nigel Young for the YouTube link.

A pretty comprehensive documentary on the life of Cozy Powell, who weaved in and out of the Purple family much of his career, and had played with… Perhaps it would be easier to list whom he hadn’t played with. It is lovingly put together from archival footage, contemporary and posthumous interviews with the people who knew him well. Enjoy! Continue Reading »

There was quite a bit of talk on these pages recently about the production of Rapture of the Deep, and the role of Michael Bradford in particular. Here is an extended interview with him from a couple of years ago, where he talks about working with Deep Purple, among many other things. The interview doesn’t provide all the answers, but it’s good insight into the mind of the producer. The whole chat is well over 2 hours long, so we’ll steer you straight to the Purple bits, which last for about 15 minutes.

Thanks to EveryoneLovesGuitar for the interview, and to Uwe Hornung for bringing it to your attention.

P.S. You won’t regret listening to the entire 2+ hours of the conversation. Michael is a fabulous storyteller, and boy oh boy, does he have stories to tell!

An acclaimed pioneer of psychedelia, funk, soul, and racial integration in music, Sly Stone (real name Sylvester Stewart) of the Sly and the Family Stone fame has passed away at the age of 82. Louder Sound quotes Glenn Hughes in their obituary:

The big turning point for me was when I first went over to America with my band Trapeze in the very early 70s. I turned on the radio and heard Sly & The Family Stone. The likes of Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding and Donnie Hathaway had influenced me vocally, but Sly Stone’s music had a deeper resonance. Especially on [fifth album] There’s A Riot Goin’ On. Thank You For Takin’ To Me Africa, Family Affair… songs like that. It sounded just superhuman to me.

When Sly sang he used two or three different voices, which influenced the way I started to sing, from real deep down to kinda screamy – that was just me. Well, it was going to be me.

When you play Stormbringer and you listen to You Can’t Do It Right, Hold On and Love Don’t Mean A Thing – the way Ritchie played, it’s funky. The way Ritchie hooked in with me, Paicey and Lordy, that’s some funky stuff. We didn’t use the word ‘funk’ then because that might’ve offended some rock fans. But it’s the whole core of who I am. Thanks to Sly Stone, when I joined Purple I added a swagger that wasn’t there before. I feel good about that.

Thanks to MacGregor for pointing this out.

Black Country Communion is on tour in Europe, and on June 7, 2025, they have performed at the Sweden Rock Festival, and Glenn Hughes was interviewed backstage by the Sweden Rock TV podcast. Continue Reading »

A bit of family history here. Cozy Powell’s interview from 1979, where he talks about Rainbow, their new album, and the arrival of Bonnet and Glover into the band. Interesting to note, that neither Cozy nor the interviewer have any qualms describing the music he’s playing (and yeas, that includes Down to Earth) as heavy metal. Continue Reading »

In a recent interview the ex-Queensrÿche frontman Geoff Tate told this mildly amusing anecdote how he witnessed David Coverdale’s contribution to the Spinal Tap lore:

Well, my ‘Spinal Tap’ moment would be the scene in the movie where — I can’t remember the characters’ names, but the guy’s complaining about backstage in his dressing room with the sandwich meat. I saw the reality of that, the real one.

Before the movie came out, I was on tour with WHITESNAKE, and David Coverdale was having a meltdown in his dressing room regarding the same issue about the catering and the meat didn’t fit the sandwich. And I swear, somebody heard that and they wrote that into the ‘Spinal Tap’ movie years later, because it was the exact same scene.

At the time, I remember I was very young and I remember thinking, ‘Why is [Coverdale] upset about that?’ But the older I get, I really understand that he wanted it done — he wanted his dressing room set up the way he wanted it to be set up. It makes it better and easier for him, and that’s why he has it there. And so it wasn’t done right. And so he was letting his guy know that he wasn’t gonna take it anymore. [Laughs]

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and quote, and to Tumma Nuotti for helping to unearth the truth.