On December 29 Black Country Communion played their first public gig in the heart of Black Country — English city of Wolverhampton. The setlist was:

Black Country
One Last Soul
Beggarman
Revolution In Me
Down Again
Too Late For The Sun
Song Of Yesterday
Ballad Of John Henry
The Great Divide
Medusa
No Quarter
Sista Jane
Black Country**Reprise
—-encore—-
Burn

The local paper Express & Star has a rather enthusiastic review of the gig:

The 3,000-strong Civic crowd took up Cannock-born Hughes’ battle cry: “I am a messenger, this is my prophecy, I’m going back . . . to the Black Country.” From there it was no holds barred as the band ripped through almost all of its self-titled debut album, Hughes continuing to justify his “Voice of Rock” reputation.

Read more and see the photo gallery at Express & Star.

In other news, Glenn Hughes have just confirmed another extensive solo tour of the UK scheduled for May. Full details in our tourdates calendar. An exclusive presale is available from 9:00AM January 5th via www.ents24.com. General sale date is set for January 7th available through www.seetickets.com and www.thegigcartel.com.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson and Express & Star for the info.

Nigel Young provides some background for this, ahem, unusual piece of cinematography:

It is the bizarre, avant garde and arty film, P2, by Werner Schretzmeier and Juergen Schmidt-Oehm, which also includes Steppenwolf and Savage Rose and was filmed near to Stuttgart in early October ’69.

It runs for 47 minutes and opens with And The Address with the band out in the countryside on a motor bed (!), so the studio footage of them miming the track is minimal. They’re almost acting (Gillan: “Where’s my breakfast?” Jon: “Who turned the light on?” — these phrases are later spoken by schoolchildren in class). John Coletta also appears during this part, in a night shirt!

April, also mimed, is the full song but from one static camera. Two guys in hard hats set up the seats and music stands for the orchestra whilst Purple do the first part. The band are facing out onto a quarry, Ritchie is virtually unseen and Gillan can only be seen when he’s having a smoke. There are hundreds of men in swimming trunks (also in the opening number).

Hey Joe (mimed) was filmed at night and the (pre-The Stig) mystery biker (also seen in the opening track) delivers soap for the workers. It was shown on TV in March 1970, mid-afternoon.  

Originally posted in 2010, updated in 2025 with a new YouTube source (thanks to Inge Niefer and Gary Poronovich) as the original one appears to have been deleted.

Joe Lynn Turner is slated to appear on Russia’s most popular New Year’s Eve television broadcast: Channel One’s Olivier. Sting, Elton John and Roxette are other musicians scheduled to appear on the show this year. Although Joe did not perform at the show’s taping, he was interviewed. Olivier airs at the New Year’s Eve and is repeated on January 7th (Russian Christmas).

In mid-December, Turner was also summoned to appear as a member of the “jury” on the Russian show Fashion Verdict. It’s a fashion makeover show with goals that are similar to the former American TV show Style Court and current USA cable TV programs What Not To Wear (The Learning Channel) or How Do I Look? (Style Network). Joe gave advice to the woman “on trial.” You can view the entire show, with Joe’s remarks in English, at the Channel One website (he appears approximately 26 minutes into the show).

Thanks to Lisa Walker for the info.

Sweden Rock Festival has just announced Whitesnake’s appearance at the 2011 fest which will be held on June 8th to 11th on their usual grounds near Sölvesborg. The announcement certainly ain’t no stranger to hype:

…We’re mostly referring to certain very special guest performers. We won’t reveal who — let’s just say that any fan of Whitesnake will be very thrilled to see them. If you are one of them, you definitely do not want to miss this concert.

Let the speculations run wild.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Whitesnake have revealed title and artwork for their new album. It will be called Forevermore and will be released in late March 2011 on an Italian metal label Frontiers Records.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson and BraveWords for the info.

“Stay Tuned” is the title of Austrian drummer Bernhard Welz’ first solo album released on December 18 2010.

It features a slew of prominent guest musicians, including Roger Glover, Steve Morse, Don Airey, Ian Paice (live drum solo 2002) and Jon Lord – along with Neil Murray, Steve Lukather, Mike Stern, Mark King, Katrina (Ex-Katrina and the Waves) and many more.

The album was originally planned for release in May 2010, but things didn’t go according to plan, explains Bernhard Welz:

– Due to some unforeseen technical problems and hardware failures in the mixing process, we had a very long delay, for which I want to apologize to everybody, who pre-ordered the album. We tried our best to finish the additional editing and mixing during our short tour breaks, which we finally did now. Thank you again for your patience and I hope you will enjoy the record.

Jon Lord features on a limited edition of 1.000 copies, that include a bonus live recording of “Child In Time” with the late Steve Lee on vocals (Gotthard) and Bernhard Welz on drums. This was recorded with the Nota Bene Symphony Orchestra in Zürich, Switzerland January 2009.

The studio tracks were recorded between April 2009 and March 2010. Most of the international guests recorded their parts at home, but not all, explains Bernhard Welz.

– I worked in the studio with Steve Lukather, Mike Stern, Ernesto Ghezzi (Zucchero, Eros Ramazotti), Kaitner Z Doka, and most of the local artists.

– There was one funny incident. When I recorded with Steve Lukather in Frankfurt, I had come straight from a show in Stuttgart. We talked about travelling and then he asked me “did you do it in A440″. I said “no A81″. I meant the motorway I’d used to get there. He meant tuning the guitar in 440 Hz! He looked at me like I was a ghost, then he said: “Ah, nevermind, I play everything.”

Sales of the album supports the Childhood Foundation, founded by H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden.

Order and listen to sound clips.

Concerto’99 officially known as Deep Purple In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra Live at the Royal Albert Hall has just been released on vinyl by a boutique label Night of the Vinyl Dead. The release is said to be limited to 500 copies and contains the album spread over no less than 4 LPs with colored innersleeve and inlay.

Side I
Pictured Within
Wait a While

Side II
Sitting in a Dream
Love Is All
Via Miami

Side III
That’s Why God Is Singing the Blues
Take It off the Top
Wring That Neck

Side IV
Pictures of Home

Side V
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Mov. 1

Side VI
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Mov. 2

Side VII
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Mov. 3
Ted the Mechanic

Side VIII
Watching the Sky
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Smoke on the Water

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Black Country Communion promised a summer tour of Europe and the dates are starting to roll in. Below are the scheduled dates so far. They will also play the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain. The festival takes places June 23-25 but it’s not yet clear which day BCC will play. Do we dare to guess they will show up on other big festivals as High Voltage in the UK and Sweden Rock Festival too?

THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2011
Freilichtbühne Killesberg
Stuttgart, Germany

FRIDAY 01 JULY 2011
Jahrhunderthalle
Frankfurt, Germany

SATURDAY 02 JULY 2011
Leipzig Parkbühne
Leipzig, Germany

MONDAY 04 JULY 2011
Zenith
Munich, Germany

TUESDAY 05 JULY 2011
Zitadelle Spandau
Berlin, Germany

WEDNESDAY 06 JULY 2011
Stadtpark
Hamburg, Germany

THURSDAY 14 JULY 2011
Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle Bonn
Bonn, Germany

Glenn’s performance in Programma Todo Seu on December 9th:

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Steve Morse writes in his blog:

Well, it’s been a long time on the road. I’ve been able to use up every minute of every day without ever catching up on all the things I should get done. This tour seems like 2 lifetimes ago that it started, and indeed it’s close to 2 months gone by the time I get home.

Musically, things have been great, we started with a different set list, with a lot of different songs in reserve to change around. Most everybody liked the list that we settled on in the first 2 weeks, so it’s sort of stayed that way. For the first time I can ever remember, I have been able to get online, in some fashion, almost every day, albeit sometimes unfathomably slowly.

Continue reading on SteveMorse.com.