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Godz of War
Don Airey’s new album Pushed to the Edge is now out for streaming and download, and here is another single from it — Godz of War Continue Reading »
What happiness looks like
Armenian agency Mediamax shares an account of two Ian Gillan’s charity performances in Armenia in 2010:
Fifteen years ago, on March 26 and 27, 2010, I was the happiest person in the world. If you were present at Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan’s charity concerts with the Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra on those days, you will understand exactly what I mean.
Thanks to Mediamax for the reminder.
Come up with something good
Yahoo carries a short interview with Don Airey, attributed to DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur). Like many other of his publicity appearances these days, it was done on the occasion of his upcoming solo album Pushed To The Edge. Continue Reading »
The Last Goodbye
A second single The Last Goodbye from the upcoming Candice Night’s solo album Sea Glass has been released. This is the track with Ritchie Blackmore making a guest appearance on guitar, but lowering your expectations is in order. There are no fiery solos, and his contribution can be described as ‘some acoustic accompaniment’. Continue Reading »
Decent bloke with a reputation
The Bass Player magazine (part of the Guitar World stable) has a short interview with Bob Daisley. It inevitably steered towards his stint with Rainbow, before turning the sights on Ozzy.
The Rainbow record you appeared on, 1978’s Long Live Rock & Roll, you played on only a few tracks?
“The reason I just played on some of the tracks was because some of them had already been done with Ritchie playing bass on them ‘cos they didn’t have a bass player while they were recording.
“I played my ’61 Precision bass on Kill the King and Sensitive to Light, and on Gates of Babylon I used an early ’50s Fender Precision. Amp-wise, I used Ritchie’s 20 watt Marshalls and 4x12s.”
“Ritchie and Ronnie were great songwriters and they didn’t need any input. They wrote the stuff, put it together and we just played it. Though I had a fairly free hand; I wasn’t told to do that much. But Ritchie did have strong set ideas on what he wanted.”
Read more in Bass Player.
Fire and passion
Vocalist and violinist Ginny Luke (of Meat Loaf’s band The Neverland Express fame) has a new album out. It is called Devil at My Heels and, along with original material, features a cover of Burn. Continue Reading »
The little annoyances
Roger’s bass playing rarely get the same recognition as the other musicians in the band. Here’s one example when it does — a professional, Berklee educated, and Deep Purple hating (shock! horror!) bass player learns the Highway Star bass line and discovers the beauty of it.
For bass players, tackling a Deep Purple song means stepping into a world of groove-driven rock, and Highway Star is no exception. Roger Glover’s driving bass line locks in with Ian Paice’s drumming to push the song full speed ahead.
In this video, Sharon jumps in as fast as possible, breaking down the bass line and figuring out what makes it tick. With a mix of groove, pentatonic phrasing, and a few tricky surprises, it’s way more than just root notes. Can she keep up with the energy and speed? Watch and find out!
Thanks to Scott’s Bass Lessons for the video.
Thunder in their brains
Here’s the original Deep Purple improvisation vehicle Mandrake Root, performed on November 14, 1970 for French TV show Chorus, and now all cleaned up and upscaled to HD by the latest wonders of technology undistinguishable from magic Continue Reading »
Depth and immediate identity
A couple of vintage Ian Gillan interviews on Louder Sound.
First, was a 2015 contemporary chat with Geoff Barton on the occasion of another snub of Deep Purple by the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame (the band was eventually inducted next year). As such, the interview was a part of Classic Rock feature celebrating the band, in spite of the Rolling Stone-affiliated HoF snub.
Which was the first Deep Purple track you heard, prior to joining the band?
I had the first three albums, but I can’t remember the first track I heard._ This Bird Has Flown_ was possibly the one. I’m not sure. It could have been April, could have been any of them, really. It could have been Hush. I had them all on my old gramophone.How was it going from your previous band, Episode Six, into the melting pot that was Purple?
It seemed quite a natural transition to me. Joining with Roger at the same time made life easy. We joined not just as a singer and bass player, but also as a songwriting team. We were ready for everything except success. That’s the only thing we hadn’t been trained for.
Did you feel a sense of rivalry with other bands?
I don’t think we felt any sense of competition. It was the fans and the press who made big things out of the so-called rivalry between Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. All the bands used to drink together. We never even thought about competitiveness.
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
The second one is a reprint of an interview taken by Malcolm Dome, originally appearing in Metal Hammer issue 155, dated July 2006. This interview deals with Born Again and revolves around numerous anecdotes from the stint, most of which you probably have heard before — from joining the Sabs after having one too many at the pub, to the life-size replica of Stonehenge.
It was agreed that the newly configured Sabbath would record the album at Manor Studios in Shipton, Oxfordshire, a complex that was then owned by Richard Branson]. But, as the singer recalls, the process was anything but normal. In fact, the whole situation was slightly surreal.
“I hardly ever saw the rest of the guys,” he says. “I’d work in the studio during the day, and party at night. Tony and Geezer would party during the day and sleep at night – or something like that. Here’s how it would work. I’d go into the studio until about 5pm. And as I was leaving, the rest of the guys would arrive. We’d probably talk very briefly, and I’d tell them what I thought of one or two ideas they’d recorded the previous night. They would work until about midnight, then go to a club in Birmingham, and get back to the studio about 8am, at which time I was up and boiling the kettle for my first cup of tea – just as they’d be ready to crash out and sleep! It was crazy, but it seemed to suit all of us.”
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
Thanks to the stalwart commentator Uwe Hornung for the 2015 link.
Experience of how to come up with the goods
An outfit called Rock ‘n’ Roll Grad School talks to Dr. Donald Airey about his new album. If you’ve been paying attention, you may have already heard bits and pieces of what Don has to say here. Nevertheless, here it is Continue Reading »
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing