DPAS reports that Tony Edwards, the former manager of Deep Purple, has died on November 11 at a London hospital at the age of 78.

Ritchie Blackmore has this to say in Tony’s memory:

WITHOUT TONY EDWARDS THERE WOULD BE NO DEEP PURPLE. With deepest respect — and with great sorrow — we honor Tony Edwards — who passed on November 11, 2010. Tony was the man behind the scenes for Deep Purple. He was instrumental to the existence and sustenance of the band and its music from its inception to present day. Tony’s insight and intuitiveness were unparalleled in the music business. He will be thought of often — and missed greatly.

Jon Lord writes about his memories of Tony Edwards:

A few days ago – fittingly, on Remembrance Day – I lost a friend. He was my manager from 1968 to 1976, my daughter Sara’s Godfather and the man who was instrumental in helping me to realise, in 1969, the dream which defined my musical life – that of a Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

Tony Edwards was a good man and a man also of deep-seated enthusiasms. He had a passion for, and a great interest in, Deep Purple and its various member’s careers, as well as a genuine enjoyment of the band’s music.

He was the reason that Richie and I were able to get together at the end of 1967 and the sole reason too for our being able to form the band that changed our lives. Without him and this early financial and emotional support, there would have been no Deep Purple.

He was a rock and a firm foundation on which we could build our musical house. It still stands, and it stands as a monument to him.

Thank you Tony.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Black Country Communion has announced two shows in the UK at the end of this year. Fittingly, the first concert will take place right in the heart of the Black Country at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Wednesday 29th December, followed by a concert at London’s o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Thursday 30th December.

Planet Rock Radio will launch an exclusive 4-day ticket pre-sale from Monday 15th November, for full details visit www.planetrock.com/bcc. Tickets will then go on sale to the general public from 9.00am on Friday 19th November, via the National 24 Hour Box Office – 0871 230 1101, www.seetickets.com, www.eventim.co.uk.

Set list :*HardLovin’ Man – Things I Never Said – Maybe I’m a Leo – Strange Kind of Woman – Rapture of the Deep – Fireball – Silver Tongue – Contact Lost – When A Blind Man Cries – The Well-Dressed Guitar – Almost Human – Lazy – No One Came – keyboard solo – Perfect Strangers – Space Truckin’ – Smoke on the Water.

Encore: Hush – Black night.

I saw DP approximately twenty times and the set list was a real good surprise: “Hard Lovin’ man” as an opener is terrific, with an incredible energy: it works much better than “Highway star” on the last tour. Songs like “Silver tongue” and “Almost human” sound fresh and exciting. I was just a little bit bored to hear again (and again) Space truckin’, I would have prefer a song maybe from the “purpendicular” era.

I noticed several highlights : “Things I never said” for the superb instrumental passages between Morse and Airey ; “Fireball” played at the speed of light with perfect vocals and terrific solo from Airey ; “When a blind man cries”, very stirring because of Ian Gillan performance ; “Almost human” because Don solo was incredibly good. For a lot of people in the crowd, he was the star of this night.

Maybe because it’s one of the first dates of the tour, the band was in fine form, especially Ian Gillan who sang very well from the beginning to the end. And you know, when his voice is good, everything works, the rest of the band seemed relax and played with passion and power.

From the last album, “Rapture of the deep” was introduced by Big Ian as “a song from the last album … the last album before the next album!!” everyone laughed on stage!

As always in France, during his solo, Don Airey played several notes of “La Marseillaise” our national hymn, and he was really well welcomed.

The classics songs were played perfectly and it was definitively a very good concert, much better than the last one I saw in Chambéry, in France, a year ago, where they looked tired. I was so disappointed last year that I didn’t send a review!

The band seemed really happy at the end of the show, and it was the same for the crowd. The band received very good reviews in the newspapers the day after.

– Lionel Bouvet – Annecy (France)

I’m so glad my larger half Zenek could go to this “DP show marathon” with me. He happily managed to recover. He likes Deep Purple, too.

Our pal Marcin asked us if we knew the setlist. We didn’t, but we asked him not to tell us. He assured we would be completely surprised. And in fact! I thought I’d fall off the chair when I heard “Hard lovin’ man”. Wow! I’ve never heard it live so far! The audience went crazy at once, all the more so as a storm of lights broke out on the stage.

“Things I never said”, OK, it’s nice, but then… Wow again! “Maybe I’m a Leo”! “Strange kind of woman”, “Rapture of the deep”, “Fireball”… and a surprise again: “Silver tongue” came back. Great! But it wasn’t the biggest surprise. After “The well dressed guitar” I thought I’d fall off my chair again: oh, bother, “Almost human”!!! Marcin was right, I was totally surprised.

Another attraction: the scenery of the show. Those lightnings, especially in “No one came” (another surprise of the setlist). Those unbelievable colors of lights. Those photos, videos and neon rosettes, especially in “Perfect strangers” and “Smoke”!

The band was in excellent form, although Mr Gillan sometimes sang out of tune… But “Fireball” sounded superb, as if a real fireball crossed the hall. So did “Hard lovin’ man”. Lots of brilliant solos from Steve and Don, as usual. And something new occured: before encores Don took a glass of beer and drank our health, like Lynyrd Skynyrd a few years ago. 🙂 Cheers, Don!

The audience was much more enthusiastic than I expected. Those young girls lifted up by their friends! If they could, they would start to fly. In front of our chairs some people of our age stood up and started dancing. So did I. Yes, the show was great, young people enjoyed, so did older people… Deep Purple were in Rzeszów (Resovia) for the first time, and I think the band fell in love with Resovian fans and will come back there soon. I hope so, as I like this town and will visit it again with pleasure. Long live Podpromie!

Many thanks, Pawel, for giving us a lift after show. Thanks to you we didn’t need to look for a night-bus. Cheers!

– Joanna Ostrowiecka

In case you haven’t heard enough of Smoke on the Water, here is another one for you. During the grand opening of Roger Glover’s exhibition in Köln, he joined acoustic cover band Krysmah for a bit of fun:

Thanks to Evi Ivan and Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Roger Glover contemplates in his usually eloquent manner in his next installment of Road Life:

Immediately my brain goes into overdrive, the scene of the crime is replayed many times over and analyzed down to the nanosecond. How could this have happened to me, a seasoned traveler with countless airport miles to his credit? Scrambling for plausible explanations as to how I could abandon my beautiful, priceless, irreplaceable computer in such a public place, I go for the first thought whenever I have screwed up –- can I blame someone else? Unfortunately not, this cock-up can be laid at no one else’s door. Or can it?

Read more at RogerGlover.com.

No One Came, photo by Roger Glover – see more of Roger’s artwork

On October 22, Roger Glover’s artwork exhibition opened at the K-8 e.V. Galerie in Cologne. Throngs of people clustered in front of the gallery, all of them fans who wanted to meet the artist in person and to honour him. It was so crowded in the gallery, that any getting through was impossible.

Roger Glover’s exhibition is something very special. Previously he has let many of his pictures be auctioned in other galleries for good purposes, but this is his first own big presentation.

From outside, you could glimpse through the windows at the inside and the acoustic rock ballads band Krysmah (www.krysmah.de). Detlef Kornrath and Frank Nerger fulfilled the musical part and with their wonderfully played and sung ballads from the Purple family, they provided a great mood, and I was very happy to see and hear them again.

During “Smoke on the Water” Roger was asked by Krysmah to join in, which he of course, willingly did. In the gallery room that was filled to the bursting point, the patrons started to rave with enthusiasm, there was a wonderful, exuberant mood among Roger Glover’s superb pictures and photographs.

Roger Glover himself gave (as always) everybody his best attention. He never grew tired of signing and chatting. Of course, many fans gave a more than happy impression, almost beguiled by his charm. Only about two hours later the rooms emptied a bit more, and thus gave me the occasion to admire Roger Glover’s magnificent pictures.

All objects with the exception of the paintings – high-quality prints – are presented in original. It is possible to buy the limited and signed objects. 100% of the amount realised will go to charitable and beneficial institutions, especially selected by him.

My absolute favourite is “Happy Silence”, it exudes such a calmness, is incredibly well painted in terms of technique, and is a very individual painting. All of Glover’s paintings present an excellent technique, a very versatile skill and many styles, from abstract to naturalistic.

In 2006 I exhibited my Deep Purple paintings at the K-8 gallery Kulturförderkreis K-8 e.V. Köln. The biggest appreciation of my life was when Roger Glover visited my exhibition.

I bow before him and will certainly use some suggestions for my own paintings. What makes his photographs so interesting is his good eye for details. Tiny things like contours of sand or indentations in a wall, reflexions and distorted surfaces are adorning the gallery’s walls.

I managed to take a picture of prominent visitor percussionist Mario Argandona (above center). He did percussions with Jon Lord during his “Beyond the Notes” tour and, if I remember correctly, also during Deep Purple’s Concerto tour in 1999.

Photographer’s meeting: Manfred Stoffer, Roger Glover, Didi Zill

Deep Purple photographer Didi Zill and wife were also prominent admirers of Roger’s exhibition.

For me it was an incomparably fine evening with friends and with Roger, who chatted with me totally relaxed after the exhibition in a nearby pub. A great honour as always, not only because Roger is such a magnificent, versatile artist (painter, photographer, lyricist, songwriter, musician, producer), but also because he is by personality incredibly open, friendly and charming.

One of the visitors was Andree Schneider, boss of band Demon’s Eye and fansite The Aviator, Jens from Planet Purple and Manfred Stoffer, great photographer of Deep Purple, Michael Höllen, Karl-Heinz, all of them also visitors of my exhibition at that time, and of course Ralf Schmid, organiser and gallery owner of this exhibition. It was truly great to see all of them again, and to chat a couple of sentences now and then.

Best wishes,
Evi Ivan (Madame Butterfly)

With many thanks to Monika Schwarz (German->English translator)

Warning: spoilers ahead. If you are going to see the band on this tour and would like to be surprised, do not read any further. Everybody else, dig in!

Deep Purple, O₂ Arena, Prague, Czech Republic, October 26, 2010:

1. Hard Lovin’ Man
2. Things I Never Said
3. Maybe I’m a Leo
4. Strange Kind of Woman
5. Rapture of the Deep
6. Fireball
7. Silver Tongue
8. Contact Lost
9. Guitar Solo
10. When a Blind Man Cries
11. The Well Dressed Guitar
12. Almost Human
13. Keyboard Solo
14. Lazy
15. No One Came
16. Perfect Strangers
17. Space Truckin’
18. Smoke on the Water

Encore:

19. Hush
20. Black Night

And now, ladies and gentlemen, you are advised to connect your computer to your stereo and crank it up to 11:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIHrE-mB4PY

May we take this opportunity to remind you to send us your own reviews of the tour?

Source: setlist.fm

There are several Purple items published in Polish press recently:

A long interview with Roger Glover has appeared in the October 10th issue of the Przeglad weekly.

Teraz Rock, a Polish monthly rock music magazine, has a lengthy special called “Deep Purple po calosci” (Deep Purple in total) in October 2010 issue.

And last, but not least, our long time contributor Joasia Ostrowiecka has published a book called “Nie tylko rock and roll. Podróże koncertomanki.” (Not only Rock’n’Roll. Travels of a maniac concertgoer.) which features several Purple accounts from the 21st century. The book is available in electronic form from bookowo.pl.

Thanks to Joasia Ostrowiecka for the info.

David Coverdale spoke to the Wine Spectator about the origins of the new Whitesnake Zinfandel:

Wine Spectator: How long have you been interested in wine?
David Coverdale: Being a child of the ’50s in England, it was only the aristocracy who could afford to indulge in European pleasantries. I didn’t really get to taste wine until an aunt took me to northern Italy when I was 10 or 11. That was just a finger dipped in. The next time, I was an art student of 15 or 16. I and a half-Spanish friend of mine would go to this delicatessen and get a loaf of French bread, cheeses and an old bottle of Chianti, the kind with straw around it. That was a life-changing experience for me in working-class northern England. Of course, when I was blessed with getting a gig with Deep Purple and flying all over the world in private planes and dining in Paris with 13 knives and forks on either side of the place setting, I was introduced to an astonishing array of wines.

WS: The Whitesnake wine is a Zinfandel. Is that a varietal you like?
DC: It’s funny. [Winemaker] Dennis De La Montanya is a huge rock and roll fan, and I’m a huge wine fan. A mutual friend, who runs the Vegas Hilton, said, “Well, this could be an interesting cocktail to put these guys together.” Dennis recommended a Zin. We had no idea if this was going to do anything, so I agreed to 300 cases. And poof—gone! We had an order for 1,000 cases, so we’re putting together a Merlot. You can’t stop an express train.

Read more on WineSpectator.com.