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.

Steve Morse has contributed a solo for the track called Pilgrim’s Wake on the new album of Kerry Livgren’s pre-Kansas band Proto-Kaw (now reformed for the third time). The album is called Forth and was released earlier this month. You can order the album here.

Thanks to Alwin Bastiaansen for the info.

Glenn Hughes was in Berlin earlier this summer and gave an interview to More-Classic-Rock.com:

Live performance, July 5, 2011, Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin, Germany.
Beggarman:

Burn:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

After some months of preparation, Jon Lord has released a new live album titled simply LIVE. Listen to the exclusive teaser below.

Recorded in Bucharest, Romania in 2009 with a full symphony orchestra, the album includes a selection of orchestral pieces that represent Jon Lord’s touring repetoire since leaving Deep Purple in 2002.

The album includes three completely reworked Deep Purple classics with full orchestral arrangement by Jon Lord; Pictures of Home, Soldier of Fortune and an immense Child in Time.

Also featured are Pictured Within (voted everybody’s no. 1 favourite Jon Lord track on JonLord.org); The Telemann Experiment; two pieces from the Sarabande Suite and the female voice delights Wait a While and The Sun Will Shine Again.

Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska handle vocals throughout. The Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Nayden Tadorov with Darin Vasilev (guitar), Ivaylo Zvezdomirov (bass) and Venko Poromanski (drums) completing the line-up.

Listen here to snippets of Bouree, The Sun Will Shine Again, Soldier of Fortune and The Telemann Experiment:

Jon Lord Live CD teaser by JonLord.org

For all you good people who have expressed words of support and encouragement to Jon in his fight against cancer, please go and check out the album. After all, there is no better way to show you appreciation to the artist than to admire his music.

Watch a clip of Child in Time filmed at the Bucharest concert:

Ian Gillan will take part in the Rock Meets Classic Tour 2012. The tour will also feature Steve Lukather (Toto), Jimi Jamison (Survivor), Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band), Robin Beck, The Mat Sinner Band & The Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Prague.

The line-up also includes Jimmy Kresic (keyboards), Alex Beyrodt (Primal Fear, Voodoo Circle / guitars), Oliver Hartmann (Avantasia / guitars, vocals), Martin Schmidt (drums), Amanda Somerville (Trillium, Aavantasia / vocals), Tiffany Krikland (vocals), Verena Schock (vocals), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear / vocals), Sascha Krebs (vocals), Bernhard Fabuljan (conductor) and Mat Sinner (bass, vocals).

They will play a busy schedule in January 2012 covering most of Germany, plus a few dates in Austria, Switzerland, France and Denmark. Tickets are on sale for most of the dates starting from €40-€61. Full details in our calendar.

Thanks to George Kikonishvili for the info.

Eagle’s Polish distributor Mystic Production reveals that this year’s Deep Purple appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is due to be released on November 7 on DVD and blue ray.

Track list:

1. Orchestral Intro
2. Highway Star
3. Hard Loving Man
4. Maybe I’m A Leo
5. Strage Kind Of Woman
6. Rapture Of The Deep
7. Woman From Tokyo
8. Contact Lost
9. When A Blind Man Cries
10. The Well Dressed Guitar
11. Knocking At Your Back Door
12. Lazy
13. No One Came
14. Don Airey Solo
15. Perfect Strangers
16. Space Truckin’
17. Smoke On The Water
18. Hush
19. Black Night

Thanks to Kuba Stawiarz for the info.

UK cable/satellite channel Sky Arts will be showing highlights from this year High Voltage festival on Saturday, August 20 at 10pm. We are not sure as to the exact content of the programme, but the following artists are mentioned in the announcement along with Black Country Communion: Judas Priest, Dream Theater, Slash, and Thin Lizzy.