After a few listens to the new album, I would call =1 an “almost” masterpiece.

Review by The Highway Star reader Flavio Romoli.

How much MKII and Blackmore do I hear in here? Not much, very little, McBride’s guitar riffs are different, the rhythms too, and the solos and other solutions are closer to Morse, but I don’t mind, just as I wouldn’t have minded if I had forcefully heard a return to MKII!

How much Morse do I hear in here? Quite a bit, both for what was said above, and because the other four have assimilated a lot of the way of writing from Purpendicular onwards, but I don’t mind this either, and if the Morse-style will be even less evident on the next album, I won’t mind anyway.

What matters are the songs, if they are interesting, and =1 is full of songs that are an incredible bridge between a long past and a future that we hope will give us at least another album!

In my opinion, the real protagonists of this album are two: mr. Ian Paice finally returns to set his skins on fire like he hasn’t done since Abandon, even if he is still a bit penalized in the mix, not like in the recent past at least, but I would have liked to hear him higher up. TOP performance!

The other protagonist is Mr. Ian Gillan, who unfortunately no longer has the range he once had (what would I pay to hear him again with TBRO‘s voice), but guys, thanks to the structure of these songs he returns to sing vocal lines that are lost in the meanders of his career, from the beginning to the recent past! A sort of melodic autobiography!

Roger is the usual fundamental glue with his typical shuffle chromatics and the diabolus in musica that have influenced generations of bass players, and like wine the older he gets the more he exudes class.

Simon promoted with full marks, technique, taste, personality, humility, honestly I don’t care about comparisons with Ritchie and Steve [Yet, that’s how your review opens! Ed], I only know that he proved to be the right man at the right time.

Don Airey’s performance for me is not on par with the other four. A great musician, his work with synths is amazing, only he could replace Lord, but I don’t know about solos, I thought he would surprise me more, and instead except for three or four songs with great duets with Simon, the rest he stuffs with scales and fast passages that demonstrate an exaggerated technique, but they are quite anonymous.

How we miss Jon!!! His solos are unrivaled in terms of writing and taste, if he had still been around the Morse era would not have ended with flaccid and twisted albums. I expected more from Don, let’s hope for the next album: less is more.

1. Show Me
It starts with an incredible guitar riff, 100% McBride!
The song is catchy like no Deep song has ever been! It makes me want to dance with a silly smile like when I was young and I danced at the Rolling Stone to Red Hot Chili Peppers songs!
Paice makes it clear right away that the lethargy is over!
First solo with a guitar and keyboard duel in perfect Purple style 3.0!
One of the best songs on the album that makes you hear new things never done before.
If it weren’t for Pictures of You I would say it’s the best song on the album.
I haven’t heard such an initial bang since Ted and Any Fule Kno That.

2. A Bit On The Side
Another Top song.
At times very heavy for Purple standards, the heaviest ever written in decades, despite not being heavy metal at all!
The cacophonous break halfway through the solo reminds me of Dream Theater in the VII movement of Change of Season.
The vocal line is simply sensational and stays in your head in a nanosecond!
Only Deep can make hard rock like this, leaving all the other 70s/80s bands light years behind!
I always praise them for this!

3. Sharp Shooter
Not at the level of the first two, but a nice song anyway.
Verse and bridge are beautiful and remind me of the solo Gillan of the 90s, but the beginning of the song pays the debt to Steve Morse, it reminds me of something from Abandon.
I thought that if there had been the great Steve Morris on guitar, the intro and rhythm would have been totally different from this.
I would say an AoR vocal line on a song that is not AoR. Very sycophantic as Purple likes it.

4. Portable Door
The riff of Picture Of Home takes us back in time, but it is still a worthy tribute to MK II and one of the most linear and catchy songs on the album.
Different from the other things on the album, but very clever to use it as the first single, it almost seems like it was written specifically for this. To tell the truth I’m a bit sorry that there are no other songs so obviously “nostalgic” on the album.
Forgetting the POH quote, it is masterful.

5. Old-Fangled Thing
A good boogie song, which with its breaks takes me back to the Ian Gillan band, and which in the rhythm and vocal lines reminds me of Moonshine from the masterpiece Naked Thunder.
Airey’s solo is noteworthy.
Will Gillan’s scream at the end be the last we will hear on a studio album???

6. If I Were You
The level rises again with the first ballad of the album, 100% a gift from Simon who plays at being Gary Moore, the other four guys can only build on it a slow song that continues the tradition of Purpendicular, always keeping the ballad standard very high.
Who knows who Ian dedicated the lyrics to …

7. Pictures Of You
The best piece of the album for me, perfect riff, perfect verse, perfect chorus, everything turns to perfection, already a great classic! There are more innovative songs, but this one reminds me of the atmospheres of Perfect Strangers, and I hoped that =1 had been full of songs like this!
Musically there is the same truth and the same seriousness (which I adore, maybe because I have a weakness for Bm) of all the time in the world, but not in the theme of the lyrics, which I would have liked Deep Purple to develop almost in a concept album the theme of existence on this Earth.
I firmly believe that an album of songs like this would have been Deep Purple’s last masterpiece.

8. I’m Saying Nothin’
There’s a lot of Morse in the writing here.
It could come straight from Now What?!
Gillan’s performance is excellent, histrionic, reigning supreme for three and a half minutes, but the structure smells of déjà vu.
Don’s work is also nice, giving interest to the piece with some of his tricks.
It needed a few more BPMs to make it more catchy!
The filler piece of the album.

9. Lazy Sod
The third single in nice hard full of swing, the second and last song that still smells of MK II, an exceptional performance by all five guys.
For me it’s Wring That Neck transformed into a song with vocals 55 years later!!

10. Now You’re Talkin’
Another Deep Purple 3.0 piece along with the first two.
The tempo is Cascades (which in turn is Highway), even if I would have preferred the verse less rock’n’roll, but then Gillan on the bridge and chorus puts a splendid vocal line and Paice and Glover hammer like 30-40 years ago.
The battle of the solos sets my speakers on fire, what more could you ask for from a song that brings together past and future, that works very well from start to finish and seems to be played by forty-year-olds?
Guys, here I enjoy like a porcupine!
At 79″ Gillan drives me crazy!
The break at 1’16” reminds me of something by someone else, but done by the Deep and placed so unexpectedly it’s a second orgasm in a matter of seconds, with the duet between Don and Simon that takes me to Nirvana!

11. No Money To Burn
One of the most “normal” songs compared to the standard of the album, I feel like skipping it, it seems to come out of Infinite even if it is a little more evil, Don and Little Ian do a great job, they could have used it as a bonus track.

12. I’ll Catch You
Second ballad on the album, I prefer it to the first, but still a great tear-jerking song! Here the Gillan of the 70s meets Wasted Sunset and Simon enters Blackmore territory.
Between text and interpretation Big Ian is the absolute protagonist.

13. Bleeding Obvious
In its intentions a great piece.
It begins with an exceptional riff that Purple do not exploit properly, repeating it only one more time, and even then only with the keyboards.
The verse (which however has a bad Bananas-like progression) is too slow and dampens the enthusiasm. the chorus is more convincing.
Then from the first solo onwards the piece takes off with a melodic variation by Gillan that brings us to the Ian Gillan band, and a second main riff also enters that links to the first.
The ending also has a crescendo with Gillan singing in the style of Jesus Christ Superstar, but the verse leaves a bitter taste in the mouth because it could have been a real masterpiece.

With a cool head, I don’t consider this first album of the fourth Purple era a true masterpiece (like In Rock, Perfect Strangers and Abandon, the 10 and praise masterpieces), there are some slightly weaker pieces, but I put it on the level of Purpendicular, mostly for the variety of ideas it contains even if it is very different.
I think it can’t be compared with almost anything done before by Deep, certainly not with the pre-Morse period (except maybe the three singles), with the Morse period instead the points in common are enough.
Paradoxically there are several points of contact with Gillan’s solo career.
In any case, I hope that God gives the strength to Deep Purple to make at least one more album, and that it is if possible better than this one.

Rating 8.5/10

P.S. It’s a shame that Gillan didn’t play the harmonica on one of the two ballads, it would have been the cherry on the cake!

Fla76

Deep Purple Live at Jones Beach Theater, September 1, 2024
– reviewed by The Highway Star reader Albania. Photo: DP WebCrew.

The guys were on fire and delivered an excellent show at the iconic Jones Beach Theater on New York’s Long Island on September 1, 2024.

Having been on the road for the prior two days at a soccer tournament for my 11-year-old, going to the September 1 show was going to be a showtime decision for me. After a four-hour drive from MA to CT, I got home at a somewhat reasonable hour to be borderline willing to buy two tickets last minute, pick up a friend nearby and drive together an hour and a half to the Jones Beach show.

YES had played a couple of tunes by the time we got there. They sounded great and are highly skilled as musicians. The current singer sounds a lot like Jon Anderson. Steve Howe is very impressive as a guitarist and harmonized very well with the singer.

After a two-year, $20 Million renovation, The Jones Beach Theater reopened its doors in July of 2024. It is an impressive venue with a capacity of 15,000. The uppermost tier was empty; my guess is that there were around 12,000 people there. It was a mix of ages, with a somewhat noticeable middle age component present.

DEEP PURPLE sounded great and came across as energetic. They were sharp and exciting. Little Ian and Roger were tight and thunderous. Simon feels even more at home than the first/prior time I saw him with DP in East Brunswick, NJ, in February of 2023. Big Ian was wonderful overall. He exuded happiness and was charismatic and sharp, especially with his in-between-song stories/anecdotes. Don was solid as ever and delivered the mighty wall of sound that has for some time now become his signature with the Purps. The new material (see setlist below) sounds great live and went down well.

The Purple show moved at a fast pace, especially compared to YES (at least the YES part that we were able to catch). Within the opening notes of Highway Star, the crowd got on its feet, but, to my dismay, most people gradually sat down out of respect for those that preferred to stay seated. That is understandable. Every now and then you could see pockets of people that were itching to get and stay up, but chose the opposite so that they would not block the view of seated folks behind them. This all changed with the opening chords of SOTW, with pretty much the whole crowd staying on its feet for the remainder of the show.

After the uncertainty related to the prior few days’ long-distance driving, the so-so food, and some sleep deprivation, I am glad that in the end I was able to muster enough willpower to go to the September 1 gig at Jones Beach, NY. It was an excellent show and the guys did not disappoint. I am now counting the hours until the September 3 gig at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, CT. This time it will be five of us, including a first-timer.

Here are three words for those that are in doubt: GO SEE THEM.

SETLIST (Jones Beach Theater, NY, September 1, 2024)
Highway Star
A Bit on the Side
Hard Lovin’ Man
Into the Fire
Guitar Solo
Uncommon Man
Lazy Sod
Keyboard Solo
Lazy
Show Me
Portable Door
Anya
Bleeding Obvious
Space Truckin’
Smoke on the Water

Encore:
Green Onions
Hush
Black Night

Louder Sound reprints Ian Gillan’s 1973-84 out-of-Purple career retrospective that originally appeared in the Classic Rock magazine issue #92.

There has never been a dull moment in Ian Gillan’s career. From his 60s bands The Moonshiners, The Javelins and Episode Six to his three separate stints in Deep Purple, via an unlikely one-album service in Black Sabbath, he’s been a fixture of the British rock scene for decades.

But there’s one period of his long and sometimes chequered past that often gets overlooked: his solo years between 1976 and 1982, fronting The Ian Gillan Band and, subsequently, Gillan.

These days, with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore long out of the picture, Deep Purple feels like a happy family. That wasn’t always the case. In 1973, a pissed-off and disillusioned Gillan intended to quit both the band and the music industry for good.

“I didn’t know what to do with myself,” he recalls today. “I had more money than sense. Well, I didn’t actually have the money, it was held for me in various bank accounts. But all I had to do was ask for it.”

Continue reading in Louder Sound.

Here’s a nicely filmed audience video of the complete show in Holmdel, NJ, from August 31, 2024. Continue Reading »

Once being in Stockholm, Don Airey spoke to Roppongi Rocks. He revealed that another Deep Purple album is in the plans, and his solo album, tentatively called Push to the Edge, has been finished and is pencilled for release in 2025. Continue Reading »

Ritchie Blackmore reminisces from his bar about various encounters with Eric Clapton he had over the years. Continue Reading »

Engl has introduced a new Steve Morse Signature 20 amplifier. It is a compact, 20-watt all-tube amp. Here’s Steve explaining what, how, and why Continue Reading »

A pretty well put together 20-minute documentary about the formation of Deep Purple. For whatever reason, the channel that published it does not allow us to post it here, so you’ll have to head to YouTube to watch it. Continue Reading »

Our ever so vigilant trainspotting department presents you with news of science and technology.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in USA reports about their new telescope becoming operational after a successful launch into space on August 16, 2024 on board of the NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-R (PTD-R) satellite. The instrument is of a new design for both an ultraviolet and short-wave infrared monolithic telescope in one compact package. The gadget, thus combining ability to observe in both red and blue sides of the spectrum, was aptly named Deep Purple.

“Our observation campaign will begin the week of Sept. 2 and we will survey the Earth background, the galactic bulge and other satellites in orbit,” said Principal Investigator Jordan Smilo.

The proud LLNL Space Hardware team with their Deep Purple creation. Somebody in this picture gotta be a fan.

Meanwhile in Europe, a project to recover energy and other valuable resources from, ahem, urban waste with the help of purple bacteria was also named Deep Purple:

The DEEP PURPLE concept relies in a versatile, integrated and flexible Multi-Platform Biorefinery, based on the metabolism of Purple Phototrophic Bacteria (PPB) to extract and recover high added-value compounds for the bio-based industry such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), ectoine and cellulose in 2 demo sites (ES, CZ).

Somebody must be a fan over there too. Please, do step forward if you are reading this.

BraveWords reviews the Cincinnati gig from August 21, 2024. This, being a specifically musical website, digs quite a bit deeper than the other two recent offerings.

While Yes’ set was perhaps more orchestrated and focused more on earlier material, Deep Purple, on the other hand, gave us a more jam band feel, and played some deeper cuts. Kudos for not playing the same show over and over. I wish more bands varied their set lists. Purple does not have many special effects – just a screen. The stage is pretty bare except for the band. “Highway Star” led off the set. I can’t think of a better song to get the energy pumping. They then went straight into new material with “A Bit on the Side” from the new =1, and then deeper cuts from In Rock, “Hard Lovin’ Man” and “Into The Fire.”

Read more and check out the photo gallery in BraveWords.

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.