The Mk.4 DVD Phoenix Rising was released in Europe on May 20 and went into the charts in several countries:

• #4 Finland Album charts
• #2 Sweden DVD charts
• #38 Norway general charts
• #50 Austria Album and DVD charts
• #25 UK Indie charts
• #22 Germany General Music Charts

This release came out in several packages, which we detailed earlier. You can still order it from a store near you:

DVD+CD

CD+DVD

Blue-ray

2LP+DVD

Bernie Marsden (right) and Arian Vandenberg (background) performed onstage with Whitesnake at Sweden Rock Festival tonight.

This is the news fresh in from The Highway Star’s on-site reporter Svante Axbacke, tweeting from the festival site.

‘He helped me start this band,’ David Coverdale said about Bernie Marsden, and the two hugged and played Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City with Marsden taking the second solo after Reb Beach took the first.

Marsden also performed Fool For Your Loving with Whitesnake – though without trying to upstage Coverdale’s young guns at the edge of the stage.

‘Please say hello to my Dutch brother,’ said David Coverdale to welcome Adrian Vandenberg to the stage. With four guitarists – current players Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach with both guests, Whitesnake closed their main set with Here I Go Again.

For the encores both guests came back onstage and did Still Of The Night.

Follow The Highway Star’s tweets live on twitter.com/highwaystarcom

This hodgepodge collection of songs reveals or obscures a range of emotions over a turbulent decade; separation, divorce, injustice, uncertainty, new love, escape, fatherhood, grand-fatherhood, emigration, touring and losing my mother are some of the extreme highs and lows during this storm-tossed period. All were written wherever I was living – on a MacPro with ProTools and a few instruments and gadgets – extra musicians were added in the studio as needed. By the way, I know that it should be If Life Were Easy – it’s a subtle irony.

I am most grateful to The Guilty Party, my collaborators, whose patience and alent has graced these humble efforts; Joe Bonadio – musical director, Randall Bramblett, Oz Noy, Nicky Moroch, Joe Mennonna. My guests; Gillian Glover, Dan Cafferty, Pete Agnew, Walther Gallay, Mickey Lee Soule, Sahaj Ticotin, Sim Jones, Don Airey, Eliot Denenberg, Harvey Jones.

~ Roger Glover, Mai 2011

Tracklist:

• DON’T LOOK NOW [EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED] (Roger Glover/Randall Bramblett)
  Randall Bramblett – vocals, keyboards, saxophone
  Gillian Glover – vocals
  Roger Glover – bass, baglama, guitar, piano
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Oz Noy – guitars
  Harvey Jones – synthesizers
• BOX OF TRICKS (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – Vocals, bass, guitar, programming
  Eliot Denenberg – drums, guitar atmosphere
• MOONLIGHT (Roger Glover)
  Gillian Glover – vocals
  Roger Glover – Godin fretless bass
  Randall Bramblett – keyboards
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Oz Noy – guitars
  Joe Mennonna – horns, horn arrangement
• THE CAR WON‘T START (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – vocals, guitar, harmonica, Godin fretless bass, keyboards, percussion, programming.
  Nicky Moroch – guitar
• THE DREAM I HAD (Roger Glover)
  Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew – vocals
  Roger Glover – guitar, bass, percussion
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Oz Noy – slide, guitar
• STAND TOGETHER (Roger Glover/Randall Bramblett)
  Randall Bramblett – vocals, keyboards
  Gillian Glover – vocals
  Roger Glover – bass, keyboards, programming
  Don Airey – pianet
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Oz Noy – guitars
• IF LIFE WAS EASY (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – vocals, Spanish and electric guitars, Godin fretless bass, percussion
• WELCOME TO THE MOON (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming
• SET YOUR IMAGINATION FREE (Roger Glover/Gillian Glover)
  Gillian Glover – vocals
  Roger Glover – bass, guitar, strings
  Randall Bramblett – keyboards
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Oz Noy – sitar guitars
• WHEN LIFE GETS TO THE BONE (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – vocals, guitar, bass, percussion
• WHEN THE DAY IS DONE (Roger Glover)
  Walther Galley – vocals
  Roger Glover – guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming
  Sim Jones – strings, string arrangement
• STARING INTO SPACE (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – vocals, bass, guitar, synthesizer, percussion, programming
• GET AWAY (CAN’T LET YOU) (Roger Glover /Gillian Glover)
  Gillian Glover – vocals
  Randall Bramblett – piano
  Roger Glover – bass
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion, electric drill
  Oz Noy – guitar
  Nicky Moroch – guitar
  Joe Mennonna – horns, horn arrangement
• THE GHOST OF YOUR SMILE (Roger Glover)
  Mickey Lee Soule – vocals
  Randall Bramblett – keyboards
  Roger Glover – Godin fretless bass, keyboards, percussion
  Oz Noy – acoustic guitar
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Nicky Moroch – lead guitar
• CRUEL WORLD (Roger Glover)
  Roger Glover – vocals, bass, acoustic and ‘Tin–Tone’ guitars, percussion, programming
  Randall Bramblett – keyboards
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Oz Noy – sitar guitar
• FEEL LIKE A KING (Roger Glover)
  Sahaj Ticotin – vocals
  Roger Glover – vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass, programming
  Joe Bonadio – drums, percussion
  Nicky Moroch – guitar

The album will be published by earMusic/edel on July 08, 2011.

Jon Lord is turning 70 today.

Not resting on his laurels, Lord is busy recording the definitive version of Concerto for Group and Orchestra and priming Jon Lord Blues Project for a string of shows in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Holland later this year.

Wish the Maestro Happy Birthday on JonLord.org’s birthday page.

Photo: Daniel Reichberg

The latest issue (No. 6/2011) of Teraz Rock, a Polish hard rock magazine, has just appeared and contains lots of Purple related stuff:

• It’s the 100th anniversary issue of the magazine, and it publishes a list of 100 the greatest albums of all time. Three Deep Purple ones are mentioned: In Rock, Machine Head and Made in Japan (pages 22-32).
• Michal Kirmuc interviews Dough Aldrich, who talks about two of Whitesnake’s latest albums on pages 49-51.
• Editor-in-chief Wieslaw Weiss interviews Ian Gillan, who talks about WhoCares, Armenia, Tony Iommi, Steve Morris, and Born Again. He also remembers his friend Tomasz Dziubinski (pages 60-61).
• Wieslaw Weiss interviews Glenn Hughes who talks about Black Country Communion albums on pages 66-67.
• Wieslaw Weiss interviews BCC guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who talks about Glenn Hughes, Black Country Communion, his concerts in Poland and his own album Dust Bowl (pages 68-69).

Teraz Rock also invites fans to the Deep Purple concert in Slupsk at the Dolina Charlotty festival on July 24, 2011.

Thanks to Joasia Ostrowiecka for the info.

Yiannis Dolas of RockPages.gr did a lengthy interview with Ian Gillan regarding the WhoCares project:

Rockpages.gr: You performed in front of the crowd in Armenia, both just after the earthquake in 1990, as well as now, 20 years later. What was the reaction you got, now, and twenty years ago?

Ian Gillan: Well, times are different, people behave differently. Everyone thinks that in ‘69 and the ‘70s the crowd used to go crazy… well the didn’t actually, they were very quite! They used to applaud politely, and clap, and dance, and whatever… it wasn’t the complete mayhem that it is today. When I was in Armenia I played four nights at the Sports Hall in Yeodrum with the Gillan band and I was there with Deep Purple, we played the same venue. And, the audience, generally speaking on the Deep Purple gig was 18year old kids, so that was very strange… an entirely different generation enjoying the music. And should I say different generation? Yeah, they behaved differently…

Read more on RockPages.gr.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes recently spoke to Jeb Wright and his interview now appears on Classic Rock Revisited:

Jeb: I think Derek is the band’s secret weapon. His solo albums have great guitar players on them like Zakk Wylde. He is amazing.

Glenn: Derek’s role is very, very important to our band. He is like Jon Lord was in Deep Purple. He is featured more on 2 because he is simply brilliant. Musicians are a weird breed, as is Derek, but he brings something very special to this band. With Joe, Jason and myself, what you see is what you get. Derek is really the glue that holds us all together.

Jeb: How does Black Country Communion, in terms of a band feel, compare to the version of Deep Purple you played in?

Glenn: It is very simple, around 1973, before all the shit started, things were great in Deep Purple. Being in the room with these guys is very much like being with Deep Purple at their peak. The musicianship in this band is of the highest quality and you’ve got to be very strong to be in this band.

Jeb: At what point will the business interfere with the music?

Glenn: I know what you’re referring too. The elephant in the room is that there is no such thing as record sales anymore. There are no CDs and everyone just downloads music. Young people growing up will not even know what CDs were. Now, we are looking at the 3D performance and we are looking at Blu-rays and the visual aspects of the performers. People want to look at, and try to touch, the live aspect of the band. This band, BCC, is embracing this. We are shooting a Blu-ray in July in Germany that will come out around Christmas. We are looking at the visual side of our band. I am very involved in the marketing of the band. Joe is not too involved with that as all he wants to do is play guitar. Kevin Shirley and I are the ones who are dealing with where this band, visually, will go in the future.

Read more on Classic Rock Revisited.

Black Country Communion tour starts on June 9 in San Diego, California, and will continue until early August throughout United States and Europe. Their new album, simply called 2 is due out on June 14.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Prior to the beginning of this North American tour Roger Glover spoke to Boston Herald. His interview now appears online:

It’s a Deep Purple gig. There’s no concession to the fact there’s an orchestra there, and it’s not really even an orchestra. It’s some strings, some horns and it’s as much jazz as it is orchestral-classical stuff. It’s a rock concert with added heft. We don’t quite know how it’s going to sound.

Do you have new material in the works?

We do actually. We had a writing session in March. We did manage to get together and agree to do an album. People were saying the business has changed, people don’t buy albums anymore. I’m not of that belief. We’re an album band. We were born and should die that way. An album is almost like a school report of a particular era, a great tradition.

Read more in Boston Herald.

The picture above is from Quebec City on June 4. There’s more where it came from.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

In anticipation of the June 11 gig in Atlantic City, NJ.com has an interview with Steve Morse:

Steve Morse’s idea of a week off from touring as part of the rock band Deep Purple?

Putting in 18-hour days at his Florida hay farm.

“I am arranging to do a little cutting” of the hay, Morse offered. “I have to fix the flatbed dump” truck and there are assorted parts to order for some of the farm machinery.

“I go to work (with Deep Purple) to relax.”

Regarding (lack of) a new album:

“We are sort of set up for it,” Morse said of a new recording, one he offered would “keep to the band’s roots” of blues-influenced heavy rock. But no recording dates have been set up.

“A (new) recording for a band like Deep Purple is like charity,” Morse suggested. “There is no compelling business reason.”

Factor in the cost of a new album and the marketing costs with the return and “it is a wash,” he said.

What about slipping in a new song here and there on tour?

“We used to do that. You Tube has derailed that concept. The first time you do a new song, it’s immediately pushed out on You Tube.”

Read more at NJ.com.

As we hear from reliable sources, long time THS contributor Axel D. has managed to make his dream come true. He talked Jon Lord into performing Concerto at his hometown of Wiesbaden, Germany. The papers have been signed and the show will take place on November 6th, 2011. They chose the beautiful historic Kurhaus of Wiesbaden, a world-wide known landmark which delivers the appropriate class and atmosphere for this outstanding piece of music.

Since Jon’s scheduled German shows in May had to be canceled, and the remainder of the year he is performing with his Blues Project, this seems to be the only opportunity to hear Concerto performed live in the foreseeable future. The Friedrich von Thiersch Saal in Kurhaus is of rather intimate capacity of approximately 1,200, with many seats reserved for seasonal pass holders. So if you’re in the neighbourhood in November, we suggest you better hurry in to grab yours. Tickets will go on sale next week at eventim.de.