This cover of Highway Star was done by a band of siblings from the Philippines, who apparently have become a minor YouTube sensation with a following of reactions, no less. The band is called Missioned Souls and includes ICE (age 11) on the drums, Stacey (12) on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Neisha (14) on lead guitars, Naces (16) on bass and keyboards, with the whole affair produced and engineered by their dad Secan.

That was the studio version, and if you think too much studio trickery was involved, there’s also a live performance:

Thanks to Louder Sound for the heads-up.

Internationally renowned graphic artist and designer Ioannis Vasilopoulos has passed away.

Ioannis was the author of the cover art for Abandon and Rapture of the Deep and graphic designer for Bananas. He also designed numerous other record covers and merchandise for other bands, from Alan Parsons Project to Sepultura.

The following message has been posted on his Facebook page yesterday, April 8, 2025:

We announce with heavy hearts the passing of Ioannis, our beloved artist, husband, father, brother, grandfather, uncle, and friend. He has left us for the great beyond. We find comfort in knowing he is reunited with his father, mother, family, and friends.

Ioannis was an internationally renowned artist and designer born in Athens, Greece. Arriving in the US in 1967, he grew up influenced by comic books, animation, fantasy art, and music. Music inspired his admiration of album cover art, specifically of Roger Dean and Storm Thorgerson (Hipgnosis). While he was in college, he created his first record cover and art directed the music video for the group Art in America, an MTV video breakout in 1983. The cover would later be featured in the book ‘1000 Record Covers’ by Michael Ochs. Ioannis’s work was featured in the books “Fade To Black’ with Martin Popoff and “Get the Led Out” written by Denny Somach with a foreword by Carol Miller.

Over the years, he created award-winning campaigns, logos, and art for his clients. These included Universal Music, Sony Music, Starz, IFC Films, EMI, Virgin, and XM Satellite Radio. Ioannis also has designed over 350 record covers and merchandise for groups like Deep Purple, Allman Brothers, Bon Jovi, Uriah Heep, Styx, Blue Oyster Cult, Dream Theater, King Crimson, Bob Weir, Alan Parsons Project, Starship, Yngwie Malmsteen, VoiVod, Biohazard, Sepultura, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Fates Warning, Quiet Riot, Johnny Winter, Extreme, Jon Anderson (YES), Michael Bolton, and more.

He had several shows of his works throughout the US and continued selling his artwork worldwide until his passing.

Ioannis is survived by his wife Lisa, daughter Maria, son-in-law Conor, grandchildren Henry and Jack, brother George, sister-in-law Gaylene, niece Sophia, and sister Elizabeth.

The outpouring of love for Ioannis and his work is a great comfort. Ioannis wanted to do so many new things, and as a family, we have been tasked with continuing his work. His energy will live on through his incredible art. His bright smile and child-like excitement live on in his works. Ioannis will undoubtedly be remembered as one of rock’s all-time great artists.

Vermonter.com has an article about the connection that Deep purple formed in the 1980s with the quaint ski resort town of Stowe, Vermont. With input from Colin Hart, and some locals what befriended the band. The piece is well illustrated with photos, some of which may have never been published before.

In the tranquil mountains of Stowe, Vermont, an unexpected musical revival took place that would reshape rock history. In 1984, one of hard rock’s most influential bands, Deep Purple, chose our unassuming New England ski town as the birthplace of their remarkable comeback.

Far from the prying eyes of the music industry and surrounded by Vermont’s serene landscape, the “Mark II” lineup reunited after an eight-year hiatus to create what would become their platinum-selling album “Perfect Strangers.”

Continue reading in Vermonter.com.

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.

Pictured: the “Horizons” property in Stowe, where Perfect Strangers album was recorded using Le Mobile studio truck manned by Nick Blagona. The recording sessions started on July 10, 1984, and continued for six weeks.

Roger Glover was interviewed by the ROCK TALK podcast out from Argentina. There was no apparent occasion, so lots of things were discussed — what the band is up to these days (spoiler: working on a new album apparently, the interview was recorded before =1 came out), the writing process, Turning to Crime and Whoosh!, the new guitar player, Roger’s career as a producer, his gear, and state of music today in general. Continue Reading »

Glenn Hughes is currently touring Germany with the Rock Meets Classic package. Here is some video evidence of the proceedings and a brief witness report. Continue Reading »

There is a new book out — it is called Deep Purple From 1984: every album, every song, written by Phil Kafcaloudes, and published by SonicBond. David Black got himself a copy and shares his review with the rest of us. We also received a copy for review, which we hope to complete and publish as soon as possible.

In 2019 SonicBond published Deep Purple and Rainbow 1968-1979: Every Album, Every Song and it was a patchy affair written by a fan of the band but not a hardcore fan and was therefore lacking in depth or insight. When it was announced that the follow-up Deep Purple: From 1984 was to be published but with a different author, I was hoping for an uberfan revealing things I didn’t know. In that respect, the book is a disappointment.

There are three principal failings: lyrical analysis, live recording reviews, and general errors.

From the extensive bibliography listed at the end the author has done some research but his attempts to analyze the lyrics are undermined as he doesn’t appear to be aware of the Caramba! website and Big Ian’s explanations in the wordography section. This results in numerous misinterpretations, which fatally undermine the credibility of the text. For example: he tells us that Knockin’ at Your Back Door is about an uptight woman oral sexed back to life when, as any fule kno, and in the words of the man himself “What I was talking about was good old upright Christian heterosexual buggery as opposed to the other kind.” And this is the very first track reviewed! He is baffled that The Unwritten Law is about venereal disease, misses the point that Ramshackle Man and the “stumbled through the door” line is about Big Ian nakedly crashing into an argument between Ritchie and his girlfriend, that A Castle Full of Rascals is about parliament, gets the source of Hey Cisco wrong, misses that Pictures of Innocence is about the EU commission. Wrong Man is apparently about an unnamed villain whilst we know that it’s Wayne Williams, Rapture of the Deep about “lovin’ and carin’”, and so it goes, and so it goes. There are several more, but it becomes depressing to list how badly the text misses.

The author also sets out to review the live albums but is selective in his choice and the choices are very odd. Perfect Strangers Live is reviewed (without any mention of Ritchie’s less than stellar playing) but In the Absence of Pink isn’t. Nobody’s Perfect is reviewed (and he seems to think in some cases that Ritchie is on top form!) as is Come Hell or High Water, but he reviews the DVD not the CD or the Birmingham/Stuttgart box set. Live in Montreux 1996 is ignored, but Live at the Olympia is reviewed. Live In Rotterdam isn’t. In Concert 1999 concerto is reviewed, but Total Abandon isn’t – which is odd as the author is Australian. The Soundboard Series and Live in London 2002 are absent, but Live at the NEC 2002 DVD is included even though it was part of a larger set. Live in Montreux 2006 is reviewed but yet again it’s the DVD and the last set to warrant reviewing, so Live in Montreux 2011, Verona, Wacken and Setting Sun in Tokyo are all absent.

Compounding all of this are sundry other errors: when reviewing Nobody’s Perfect to not know that the “cool jazz blues, probably the most effective since ‘lazy’ is yet another of the band’s surprises” when we all know this is Ritchie’s Blues and has been in the set since 1973. Blues is described when prefacing A Gypsy’s Kiss from Perfect Strangers Live as “Blackmore improvises over some subtle Lord organ work in a 52 second jam.” The NEC’2002 DVD review is illustrated in the photo section with a cover of Birmingham NEC from 1993. And then there are some track listing mistakes (which to be fair may be a function of Australian editions) but the review of the tour edition of Rapture misses The Well Dressed Guitar and the Hard Rock Café Live tracks. Infinite adds the tracks from the singles release, but not all of them, or the Hellfest live tracks from the gold edition. The shame is that for a true fan, these errors jar so heavily that any enthusiasm for the content is lost.

In conclusion, the book is a big disappointment for the hard core fan and such a missed opportunity. The real shame is that the author has an engaging tone and that, if he was an uberfan, this would have been a worthy purchase – but it’s not!

Review by David Black

An addendum to the recent series of classic Gillan clips, all restored and upscaled. This time it is M.A.D. as mimed on the Top of the Pops Continue Reading »

Another interview with Candice Night, in which she reveals that Ritchie Blackmore’s touring career is, ahem, on hold. He was told by the doctors not to fly (at least for now), so any shows now can only be within the driving distance from their home in Long Island. Continue Reading »

Candice Night was interviewed for the Folk N Rock podcast. She explains the title of her upcoming solo album, how exactly her hubby became involved in it, what it’s like to live in the house with a thousand guitars, and you get a peek at the medieval interior decor of the humble abode. Continue Reading »

On February 17, 2025, Don Airey has appeared on Mick Wall’s podcast Season 4, Episode 9, promoting his new album Pushed to the Edge. The conversation veered wide of the release, however, and ventured into Don’s years with Gary Moore, Colosseum II, Rainbow, Ozzy, Whitesnake, etc, etc. Continue Reading »