The Rock & Roll Allstars package, including Glenn Hughes, were scheduled to headline the Metal Open Air festival in Brazil this weekend (April 21). However, the festival was plagued with problems and they have cancelled the gig issuing the following statement:

Rock N’ Roll Allstars are saddened to annouce the cancellation of our performance at Metal Open Air Festival in Sao Luis, Brazil.

We regret not being able to attend. We are in South America and are ready to rock, but the circumstances are beyond our control: We were informed before flying to Brazil today that many other artists have pulled out of the event, as well as local security. We are very concerned for the safety of the fans and artists whom are already at the festival.

We are receiving confirmed reports from other bands and friends on the ground that the event is dangerous and a disaster. Please be safe, and we look forward to rocking for you in the future.

Antiquiet provides the background:

The first set of problems came up when attendees found out that the camping area was set at nearby horse stables, devoid of any bathrooms, light or water supply. Due to a delay in getting the stages ready, as well as having the festival grounds meet certain security standards, the concerts began nearly five hours late – but the crowd was already aware that they weren’t getting what they came for.

At first, the line-up looked strong enough for a metal-only event. However, it suffered its first loss on Thursday, as third-day headliners Venom announced that they were no longer participating: according to a statement by the group, their South American visas were mistakenly sent to Africa. Things spiraled down from there, as a handful of Brazilian acts began to cancel their performances, stating, one by one, that they weren’t paid in time. Furthermore, Saxon, one of the main international acts, also announced they weren’t showing up, with a clear-as-crystal reason: ”Saxon is sad to announce that they have to cancel the performance at Metal Open Air in Sao Luis Brazil due to a serious breach of contract by the promoters. Having waited since march the 15th for the fee to arrive as of Friday 2pm no money has arrived.”

But the worse was still to come. “Supergroup” Rock & Roll All Stars (comprised of Gene Simmons, Sebastian Bach, Matt Sorum, Duff McKagan, Mike Inez, among others), arguably Metal Open Air’s most eye-catching act, were set to headline the second day, making their only appearance in the country, with Charlie Sheen as a master of ceremonies – for some reason. Surely enough, as with so many other acts before, the group simply didn’t get paid; Shannon Tweed, Gene Simmon’s wife, tweeted: “Allegedly the local promoter in Brazil can’t be located so we can’t pay the crew, musicians, pilots, etc & won’t make that show! #shyster.”

Eventually, the rest of the festival had to be cancelled alltogether.

Likewise, the Rock & Roll Allstars’ upcoming performance in Chile on April 25 has been cancelled as well. No reasons are given.

Update (Apr 26): It appears that the rest of the tour apart from Lima, Peru, on April 27 has now been cancelled. The official press release provides few insights as to what happened:

Rock ‘N’ Roll Allstars regret to inform our fans that the shows we had scheduled in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and Venezuela have been cancelled. An incredible effort was made to work with local promoters to bring our show to the fans but they made it impossible for us to do so. We are saddened that we will not be coming to Central America and will do everything possible to ensure that our fans receive refunds for all tickets purchased. We are in South America and just had amazing shows in Paraguay and Argentina where thousands of fans came to hear the hits of Guns N’ Roses, Kiss, Def Leppard and more. The show in Lima, Peru [on April 27 at Jockey Club] is still on sale and the band is still playing this show. Thank you for your support and we hope to see each and every one of you soon.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the heads up and to Ultimate Classic Rock and Antiquiet for the details.

Roger Glover posts an update on his website. Except it’s not an update, really, but one of those semi random collections of musings which are always a fascinating read.

Sometimes I write music. I am excellent at imagining a song in my head and then battling to get some semblance of it down on tape before I forget it. Unfortunately, the simple series of notes plucked out on an acoustic guitar rarely seem to convey the mammoth-sized roar of energy I hear in my head. I promptly forget it! I have literally thousands of these snippets scattered in boxes through all kinds of formats – cassettes, CDs, DATs, cameras, Dictaphones, pieces of paper, and even reel-to-reel tapes. Without being too modest, approximately almost exactly roughly about 97.8% of these ideas are rubbish. Obviously, what I heard in my head could not be replicated, or at least I couldn’t do it. I listen to some and wonder where on earth my head was at when I pressed ‘record’! Of course, there’s the odd one that actually does turn into a song, but I have this notion that photographers take hundreds of shots to get the perfect one, artists paint over their mistakes, and so I have to write enormous amounts of crap to get one decent idea.

And the update part is:

I have the concert with Tolo Marton in Venice next week followed quickly with a writing session with my old band in May.

Read more on RogerGlover.com.

Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes will appear on the Ronnie James Dio tribute album that is being put together by Wendy Dio for a release later this year. Other artists involved are Anthrax, Rob Halford, Lemmy Kilminster, Alice Cooper, Sebastian Bach, Chris Jericho, Dave Grohl and Metallica. Metallica is also mentioned to have been asked to contribute to a Deep Purple tribute album.

Lars Ulrich:

We were asked if we’d contribute to the anniversary of Machine Head, too — we can’t turn that down. We’re circling the Dio and Purple catalogues and hopefully we’ll come up with something that is worthy of these wonderful men.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

In the spirit of celebrating the 40th anniversary of machine Head, we present you with this gem: Highway Star and Smoke on the Water performed by an octet of double basses aptly named Octobass.
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This one is for the sound geeks among us. Deep Purple were profiled in the February 2012 issue of the Total Production International magazine. They have interviewed FOH engineer Gert Sanner at the Birmingham’s LG arena last year during the orchestral tour. Gert talks about pitfalls and challenges of working with an orchestra and his approach to miking the drum kit:

The orchestra is taking the place of Steve [Morse] or Don [Airey] at times, if you like, so I have to move things about a little bit more than normal. For the second song in the set, Hard Loving Man, which is normally guitar-heavy, the orchestra is now the main focus, but the guitar still plays the part that it previously did, so I find myself having to force the guitar down a bit.

Read more in TPI Magazine.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Darker Than Blue reports that in an interview to the French magazine Rock Hard Steve Morse said:

Well I think it’s now confirmed, it’s Bob Ezrin who will produce the new Deep Purple album

Bob Ezrin is, of course, known for his production and songwriting work for Alice Cooper (most recently on Welcome 2 My Nightmare), Kiss (Destroyer, Music from “The Elder”), Pink Floyd (The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell) and many others. His previous Purple connections include producing Kansas’ In the Spirit of Things when Steve Morse was in that band and Dave Gilmour’s About Face, to which Jon Lord contributed keyboards.

Ian Paice will be in Istanbul this Saturday, April 14, to be on the jury for the Vodafone Freezone 15th High School Music Competition. His video announcement is posted here. If we understand it correctly, you should be able to watch the proceeding on the competition’s Facebook page.

Thanks to Tarik Burcoglu for the info.

EMI will be releasing in UK a 7″ vinyl single of Smoke on The Water for the Record Store Day held this year on April 21. Simon Robinson reported a while ago that the version being prepared is from the 1972 In Concert show, newly remixed from 8 track masters. This print will be limited to 1000 copies.

The Buddy Rich memorial concert was held on Monday, April 2, at the London Palladium. Ian Paice was one of the several drummers paying tribute to the maestro. He was also interviewed by the Rhythm magazine:
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Glenn Hughes was a last minute addition to the double bill show of Slade and Suzi Quatro in Kiev, Ukraine on March 30. Turned out, he was in town to play an acoustic set at a charity event organized by professional boxers brothers Klitschko the day before.

March 29 setlist:

1. Mistreated
2. Holy Man
3. Medusa
4. Catch the Rainbow (dedicated to RJD)
5. You Keep on Moving

There are a couple of his pictures among glitz and glamour on JetSetter.ua (scroll down the page).

Thanks to Vladimir Dribuschak for the info and to fassemen for the videos.