Whitesnake’s Forevermore came out in March and made into Top 50 charts in several countries. The first-week chart positions were as follows:

• Sweden: #6
• Finland: #11
• Czech Republic: #15
• Germany: #16
• Switzerland: #17
• Austria: #27
• Italy: #41
• Netherlands #42
• Poland: #42
• USA: #49

The album sold around 12,000 copies in the US in the first week of it’s release. Which is not an awful lot given the size of that country…

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Born Again will be re-released in the UK via Universal/Sanctuary as a 2CD Deluxe Edition on May 30.

Track listing:

Disc 1:

1. Trashed
2. Stonehenge
3. Disturbing the Priest
4. The Dark
5. Zero the Hero
6. Digital Bitch
7. Born Again
8. Hot Line
9. Keep it Warm

Disc 2:

1. The Fallen (previously unreleased album session outtake)
2. Stonehenge (extended version)
3. Hot Line
4. War Pigs
5. Black Sabbath
6. The Dark
7. Zero the Hero
8. Digital Bitch
9. Iron Man
10. Smoke on the Water
11. Paranoid

Disc 1 is a straight copy of the original album, most likely remastered, but not remixed. On the second disc, The Fallen is a studio outtake from the album sessions, Stonehenge is a 5 minute long version, and tracks 3 to 11 are from the BBC Friday Rock Show broadcast of the Reading Festival, Saturday, August 27, 1983.

Black-sabbath.com covers the release in great detail, including what, why and how.

Take advantage from the low Pound and preorder it from Amazon UK.

Almost all dates on the North American tour in June have been confirmed by Deep Purple’s management. Only June 7 in Boston and the three Canadian dates still remain unconfirmed at the time of this writing, despite tickets being on sale for quite a while. Stay tuned for further developments.

The tour is being billed as Songs That Built Rock and the band will be accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra.

Full details in our Purple calendar.

Update: As of April 8 all North American dates are confirmed.

We have yet to see something official on this but according to reports in our own comments and on the DP Hub, Deep Purple has been recording new material at Ian Paice’s studio in Spain.

Apparently 9 complete songs were recorded in March with Ian Paice overseeing the project. The band have 7-8 other unfinished ideas that they want to finish in a future session and later they will choose the best 10 songs to include on the album. At this time, it looks like the record is produced by Ian Paice and Roger Glover.

Paice said that the musical direction on the songs is definitely harder than the last album Rapture of the Deep. “The kids want to hear hard rock from us”, Paice said.

Thanks to Roberto, fdr@DPHub and Hristo Yankov.

Gillan and Iommi’s charity project WhoCares will release it’s debut single on May 6 via Edel/eARmusic. The single will contain two brand new songs Out Of My Mind and Holy Water. Jon Lord, Nicko McBrain, Jason Newsted and Linde Lindström (HIM) also contributed to the project.

The single will be available in following formats:

• CD with bonus video clip of Out Of My Mind and a 40-minute documentary that shows Gillan’s and Iommi’s involvement with the Armenia cause over the years
• digital download for all of the above
• 7" vinyl limited to 1000 units worldwide

Ian Gillan said:

The idea came as Tony and I flew back from Yerevan together after being inspired by the enthusiasm of everyone there to get this thing done. It was brilliant working with Tony again after all these years; he makes life easy for a singer. The other guys need no introduction do they!?

Tony Iommi added

Some twenty years ago when the call came, I thought, well at least I’ve helped, but it was going to Armenia and seeing the actual devastation caused by the earthquake that really made me realise that funds were still needed. Despite all the money that was raised last time, here was a music school doing their best, forgotten, in basic tin sheds. After the warmth and honour bestowed upon us during our visit, we just had to help make a difference and get the school re-built. And what better way than to
hook up with some of rock’s greatest players and my old mate Ian, both an honour and a pleasure.

All proceeds from this release will go towards rebuilding a musical school in the town of Gyumri that was devastated in the 1988 earthquake.

David Coverdale will be co-hosting That Metal Show (episode 703) on a US cable/satellite channel VH1. The episode will air this Saturday, April 2, at 11 PM EDT/PDT and will be repeated in the following days. Check your local listings. VH1 also makes available past episodes online, but as it’s being run by an Evil Company™, it tells me that they ‘are unable to offer this video to users in my region’.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Deep Purple On a Roll set for release soon, the natural successor to Deep Purple In Rock.

Says Roger Glover of the new CD:

We felt that not only was this a natural progression for the band, it continues our theme of food which has become evident in our recent releases. We really are on a roll with this one.

Lead singer Ian Gillan goes on to say:

Bananas, Rapture of the Deep (which was guitarist Steve Morse’s ode to the Chicago style pizza that he is so fond of), and now ‘on a roll’ not only describes how we feel at the moment as a band, but encompasses our great love affair with the sandwich.

In recent years the trend for many rock artists has been to release their CD in conjunction with supermarkets to counter the loss of many local record shops. To mark this epic release, however, we are proud to announce that this new CD will be available in all 35,000 branches of Subway (Eat Fresh!) worldwide.

Glenn Hughes’ former bandmates Chad Smith, Jeff Kollman and Ed Roth, rounded with bassist Kevin Chown, have formed a band called Bombastic Meatbats. They frequently play at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles. Glenn guested at their gig on March 29 and they went for an extended version of Mistreated:

Thanks to nitsuby for the video and to Daniel Bengtsson for bringing it to your attention.

Whitesnake’s Live at Donington 1990 DVD/live double CD set will now be available on June 3 in Europe and June 7 in North America via Frontiers Records.

On August 18, 1990, Whitesnake headlined the legendary Monsters Of Rock at Castle Donington festival (now known as Download). Whitesnake’s performance at the festival was one of the most memorable events on the “Liquor & Poker World Tour” that saw the band play sold-out shows to over one million people. The footage captures Whitesnake performing in front of more than 70,000 people. Whitesnake in 1990 featured guitarists Steve Vai and Adrian Vandenberg, bassist Rudy Sarzo, drummer Tommy Aldridge and, of course, David Coverdale.

The Live At Donington 1990 DVD also includes a gallery of never before seen stills of the band on the Liquor & Poker World Tour 1990, plus behind-the-scenes documentary of the making-of the Slip Of The Tongue album.

The Live At Donington 1990 will be available in 2CD set, DVD coverpack, combo 2CD + DVD in digipak and digital edition.

Live At Donington 1990 DVD track listing:

1. Slip Of The Tongue
2. Slide It In
3. Judgement Day
4. Slow An Easy
5. Kitten’s Got Claws
6. Adagio For Strato
7. Flying Dutchman Boogie
8. Is This Love
9. Cheap An’ Nasty
10. Crying In The Rain (featuring Tommy Aldridge drum solo)
11. Fool For Your Loving
12. For The Love Of God
13. The Audience Is Listening
14. Here I Go Again
15. Bad Boys
16. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
17. Still Of The Night
18. Bonus content: The Making of Slip of the Tongue; Slide Show

Live At Donington 1990 CD 1 track listing:

1. Slip Of The Tongue
2. Slide It In
3. Judgement Day
4. Slow An Easy
5. Kitten’s Got Claws
6. Adagio For Strato
7. Flying Dutchman Boogie
8. Is This Love
9. Cheap An’ Nasty
10. Crying In The Rain (featuring Tommy Aldridge drum solo)

Live At Donington 1990 CD 2 track listing:

1. Fool For Your Loving
2. For The Love Of God
3. The Audience Is Listening
4. Here I Go Again
5. Bad Boys
6. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
7. Still Of The Night

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

National Examiner has a very, ahem, entertaining interview with David Coverdale:

Forevermore is one hard rocking album, even more than its predecessor, Good to Be Bad. What’s in the engine room these days?
The engine room is just a fuel for life in general. I think if you put a cord in my rear end, I could light up a significant community.

You became a U.S. citizen in 2007. What new things did you rediscover about America in the process that you appreciate?
There was an awful lot of stuff. Of course, I had to learn a great deal about its history, but being a history buff, anyway, as a student of history, it was fantastic. It’s a great honor for me that I can maintain my British [citizenship] as well. So half and half, I don’t know which half—maybe Manland, the theme park between my legs, is the American side.

Read more.