Thomson Music has released a second Purple-related app for iPad:

The Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival held on a 620-acre private farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, Victoria, which was staged on the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend from 1972 to 1975. It attracted up to 45,000 patrons and was promoted by Odessa Promotion as Australia’s Woodstock. The Sunbury Pop Festivals signalled the end of the hippie peace movement of the late 1960s and the beginning of the reign of pub rock. In 1975 Deep Purple were head-liners. Folklore is that a fracas developed on-stage between Deep Purple’s roadies and AC/DC’s roadies and members. This app looks back at that amazing period when Deep Purple ruled the charts and the associated audiovisual material highlights the excitement and ‘innocence’ of early Australian rock festivals. A must for all Deep Purple fans and fans of rock music in general.

You can purchase the app at the iTunes store.

Roger Glover explains on his website the convoluted origins of If Life Was Easy artwork. He concludes with an invitation to all fans to take part in a contest:

If […] you would like to win a specially signed copy of If Life Was Easy (don’t faint), here is a little competition…

Visualize text fragments / song titles from the album.

You can paint something, take a photograph, design a CD cover or manipulate one of the photos from the Chiaroscuro gallery to participate. When completed, email a hi-res photograph or a scan of your work to brokenheart@rogerglover.com. The deadline is December 31st, 2011 and the winner (or winners in case of a tie) will be announced shortly thereafter.

Do I have to remind you that it must be your own work? Yes. It must be your own work. By sending it you automatically give us permission to display it. The entrants will have their work shown on this website on or about the 1st January 2012. The judges will be Myriam Freitag, Andreas Thul and me.

Good luck,
RG

And don’t forget to read the whole piece.

Martin Popoff has a follow up to his Purple family book. The new book is called The Deep Purple Royal Family: Chain Of Events ’80-’11.

This picks up where that book left off, offering a few modest milestones within its pages, namely:

• the most comprehensive information on the Gillan band ever stuffed in a book
• the largest amount of detail as pertains the Whitesnake story ever presented
• a fair bit of Blackmore’s Night as well as Joe Lynn Turner and Glenn Hughes solo
• all the play-by-play from Perfect Strangers up to Purple happenings this summer

Also, as with the first one, I’ve made sure that the content was all 100% fresh over and above my first two Purple books, Gettin’ Tighter: Deep Purple ’68 – ’76 and A Castle Full Of Rascals: Deep Purple ’83 – ’09, all 296 pages, including all-new interview footage, all-new quotes from archival press, all text, all. 513 pictures.

The Text:

296 stuffed pages offering an exhaustive and detailed timeline of Purple milestones from 1980 until right now, often to the day, including some similar bands, influences, cultural milieu, tour stuff, recording sessions, charts, singles, certification news, break-ups, personal stuff, trivia for miles, and lots and lots of artist quotes to add to the entries, turning the book into a quasi-oral history but loaded with factual matter. But as you’ve noticed, this is about FAMILY. So the text weaves, in and out of the story of Purple proper, the dastardly diaries of Rainbow, Whitesnake, Gillan, Blackmore’s Night, all the solo projects, guest slots, a li’l MSG, Gary Moore, Black Sabbath and Black Country Communion, always with contextual explanation plus rare and very cool archival advertisements of shows ‘n’ records ‘n’ singles.

The Graphics:

A hefty 513 of them, usually rare, archival, historical shots of record ads, LP and 45 sleeves, CD singles, Japanese issues, picture discs, tour posters and newspaper notices, ticket stubs, endorsement ads, tour program covers, other foreign country releases, and again, contextual things. It’s a gallery, flowed and framed by fully 50,000 words of beautifully displayed timeline, which brings us to.

The Design:

This book marks my second project with awesome Calgary-based designer Bill Harris, and what he’s created for the look of this thing is a triumphant reprise of the first one, same breezy, readable mix of yummy graphics, pull quotes, classy typestyles. a pleasure to flip through and touch down upon the trivia and the rare pictures from deep Deep history. You’ll love it – a killer, comprehensive companion piece to the first edition.

Price including shipping:

US orders: $35.00 US funds
International orders (air mail only): $45.00 Cdn. funds
Canadian orders: $38.00 Cdn. funds

The book is not up on the Martin’s website yet, so wait a couple of days or email him for ordering info.

The new Black Country Communion live DVD Live Over Europe was recorded during their summer tour and will be released on October 24 with Blu-ray to follow on November 15th. Watch the trailer:
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In July 1971 Colin Hart, a Geordie lad from South Shields, was on his first tour of America as a roadie for Matthew’s Southern Comfort. The group was part of a three-band bill with The Faces and Deep Purple. Following the tour he joined Deep Purple’s road crew. Ian Gillan just knew Colin had to join the Purple entourage after seeing him pour a pint of beer over Rod Stewart!

Colin devoted over thirty years of his life to these great rock musicians. This is his story and indeed theirs. A tale of excess in terms of greed, petulance, anger and devotion. It is counter balanced by extremes of pure talent, showmanship and, of course musicianship. He was the constant ‘man in the middle’ through all of the break ups, make-ups and revolving door line-up changes. Joining them at twenty-four years old and leaving thirty years later, he was there every step of their rock ‘n’ roll way. A story of two of the most innovative, often copied, rock bands; seen through the eyes, ears and emotions of their ‘mother hen’ (as Jon Lord described him). He was their minder, chauffeur, carer, provider, protector, father confessor & confidant. In truth he is the only one who can tell this tale of both bands as he was the only one there on the road throughout the life of, not one, but both gigantic bands.

Hart endured a roller coaster ride, working for Purple, during the band’s most successful period. He was there when the casino burnt down in Montreux, and witnessed Smoke On The Water being born; the legendary concerts in Japan; the break-up of the Gillan / Glover line-up; the auditions that saw David Coverdale join the band, and the California Jam performance in front of 400,000.

When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in early 1975 and formed Rainbow, Colin went with him and continued as Rainbow’s tour manager through the ever-revolving line-ups. He was invariably the man who had to break the news to many of the hopefuls that auditioned for the band: “We’ll get back to you” being the stock reply!

In 1984 when Blackmore disbanded Rainbow for the Deep Purple reunion, Colin naturally resumed his role with these rock giants as they embarked on a world tour that included the hugely successful 1985 US leg – the second biggest grossing US tour that year after Bruce Springsteen. A déjà vu situation occurred as Colin was in the middle of yet more band break-ups as first, Gillan departed, Turner joined, Gillan returned and Blackmore departed, while Steve Morse emerged to take the band into the new millennium, although for Colin his thirty years on the road with two of the biggest bands in rock history came to an end in 2001.

A Hart Life is written with life-long friend Dick Allix, former drummer with sixties band Vanity Fare. Hart tells the story of his life from humble beginnings in South Shields, to setting up home in California with Rainbow, and eventually settling in Florida, where he still lives today: Of touring the world several times over with two of Britain’s greatest bands Deep Purple and Rainbow; a story that also crosses paths with Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Def Leppard, The Scorpions and Iron Maiden to mention just a few! A truly fascinating insight into the world of rock ‘n’ roll from the other side of the stage.

A Hart Life

The life story of Deep Purple and Rainbow’s tour manager

Colin Hart with Dick Allix

Includes forewords by Deep Purple and Rainbow bassist Roger Glover & Colin’s nephew Paul Mann.

ISBN: 978-0-9557542-7-2 (Hardback) / 978-0-9557542-8-9 (Deluxe slipcase with bonus book)
Format: Hardback (234 x 156 mm)
Pages: 272 (including 16 photo pages, 15 b/w, 73 colour images)
Price: £19.95 (Hardback) / £35.00 (Deluxe edition)
Publication date: 3rd October 2011

Deluxe edition is limited to 300 copies. Includes a bonus book Hart’s Life 1971-2001: 80 pages of photos and memorabilia from Colin’s collection including tour itineraries, faxes and letters, unavailable elsewhere, plus a reproduction of Deep Purple’s 1974 Burn tour programme, all housed in a slipcase. N.B: This edition is not available to the trade and can only be ordered directly from Wymer.

Don Airey’s new solo album All Out is now available on Music Theory/Mascot.

Besides Don himself, who handled all the keyboards, musicians on the album are: Bernie Marsden (Guitar), Carl Sentance (Vocals), Darrin Mooney (Drums), Keith Airey (Guitar), Laurence Cottle (Bass), Joe Bonamassa (Guitar), and Rob Harris (Guitar).

Track list:

1. The Way I Feel Inside (feat. Bernie Marsden)
2. Estancia
3. People in Your Head (feat. Joe Bonamassa)
4. B’cos (feat. Rob Harris)
5. Running from the Shadows (feat. Bernie Marsden)
6. Right Arm Overture
7. Fire (feat. Rob Harris)
8. Long Road (feat. Keith Airey)
9. Wrath of Thor (feat. Rob Harris)
10. Tobruk

The album was recorded and mixed by Ewan Davies at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, UK.

Order it from a store near you:

Thanks to Nathan Sage for the info.

In view of the recent news, Jon Lord’s live appearances have been cancelled for the remainder of this year. Attempts are being made (with Jon’s blessings) to salvage the situation and proceed with the shows whenever possible.

Concerto for Group and Orchestra performance in Wiesbaden on November 6 will go ahead with a local keyboard player. This is Jon’s clearly expressed wish and he and his people are still very helpful in the background to make it possible. Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska will be performing Jon’s music as originally planned.

Update (Aug 25): We have been informed that Wiesbaden performance on November 6 has been cancelled as well.

Out of the Blues Project dates, Regensrauf on November 15, Bochum on November 20 and Stuttgart on November 23 will proceed with Brian Auger taking the Hammond duties. Berlin on November 17, Hamburg on November 18, Iserhagen on November 19, Aschaffenburg on November 22 and Uden on November 25 had to be cancelled.

We would like to encourage you to attend the concerts that will proceed to show Jon your support. And if you’re hesitating about Brian Auger’s abilities, here are a couple of clips that should convince you.

Tony Iommi was a featured guest on the last episode of VH1’s That Metal Show, but despite of that most of the show revolved around Purple. Or maybe not even ‘despite’, given the rather incestious relationship between the two bands.

Iommi discussed past experience with Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes as singers in Sabbath. He also discussed the WhoCares recording and working with Gillan again. They talk about Black Country Communion. He actually shares that his favorite “replacement” singer for Sabbath was Gillan. Then there was a ‘Whatever Happened to Ritchie Blackmore’ segment, when the hosts of the show discuss the fact about Ritchie being involved with Blackmore’s Night and Renaissance Music for the past decade and then they, along with Tony Iommi remark loudly “Ritchie, Come Back to ROCK!”

This episode will be airing throughout the next month and beyond.

Thanks to Tracy Heyder and Daniel Bengtsson for the info, and to shireanharrison for the video.

Deep Purple will spend this October touring Latin America. We have confirmed dates starting October 5 in Belem, Brazil, and finishing in Panama on the 27th. Full details in our calendar.

Jam Magazine has a new in-depth retrospective interview with David Coverdale. David talks about what went wrong with Slip of the Tongue, how the Coverdale/Page project came about, and why it didn’t last long.

The Coverdale / Page project would revitalize the spirits of both musicians. Though the album was mostly overlooked by the grunge buying public at large, for those fans longing for the good ol’ rock and roll days of the ’70s, this album was an instant classic. Jimmy Page rediscovered his inner Led Zeppelin, and was musically brilliant. Coverdale wrote some of the smartest lyrics of his career. Unfortunately, the one thing that would have the won public over – a world tour – would never see the light of day, (outside of a handful of select dates in Japan).

For Whitesnake fans the world over, the following interview with David Coverdale fills in a missing piece of a very large puzzle often speculated about, but never actually discussed, until now.

Read the interview in Jam Magazine.

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.