The Greek Reporter announces four Greek dates for Deep Purple in May:

• May 20 – Athens
• May 21 – Patra
• May 23 – Thessaloniki
• May 25 – Ioannina

The tickets are supposed to go on sale on January 26. Athens, Patra and Thessaloniki shows will be opened by Vasilis Papakonstantinou, while George Gakis and the Troublemakers will open in Ioannina. Venue info for the last three shows is still to be figured out (and that’s where we are asking for your help as the referenced ticket vendor looks, well, all Greek to us).

Thanks to George Kikonishvili for the info.

The Classic Rock fan pack for the upcoming new Whitesnake album Forevermore will be released in UK on March 25. The fan pack will include the album on CD, a 132-page magazine, a pin badge and a “giant-size” poster. Classic Rock has been given exclusive UK distribution of the album for the first 3 weeks after the release, after which it will hit regular record stores. The fan pack CD will feature different artwork and 2 bonus live tracks from Donington Monsters Of Rock festival in 1990.

The magazine is being edited by Geoff Barton and will include a brand new interview with Coverdale conducted at his home in Lake Tahoe, plus interviews with Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach, bassist Michael Devin and drummer Brian Tichy. Travis Shinn contributed photographs from the album recording sessions at David’s house. The magazine is rounded up with interviews from people who knew Coverdale back in pre-Purple days, an article on the megaselling 1987 album, review of Whitesnake’s entire back catalogue and list of, ahem, Coverdale’s Top 20 Friskiest Lyrics.

The fan pack can be preordered through myfavouritemagazines.co.uk

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

The Mexican tour dates in February have been confirmed by Purple management. The Zapopan show has been moved from February 22 to the 27th to accomodate a second Mexico City date due to the first one being apparently already sold out (at a 10,000 capacity arena, no less). Tickets for the new date are expected to go on sale soon, check your local outlets. Full details in our calendar.
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Joe Lynn Turner has contributed vocals to debut album of the Jan Holberg Project which is due out on March 28 on Nordic Records. Jan Holberg is a Trondheim, Norway, based bass player who wrote ten original songs for the project. The album is called Sense of Time and was recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland, with participation of “some of Europes finest musicians”.

Jan says:

The idea behind the album is that music should be free, there are no musical borders, on this album. You can hear ballads, pop-songs, instrumentals and funk. This is what I am all about as a musician.

Turner adds:

I had a great time stretching out the vocal style on Jan’s songs. I’m always interested in something different with quality. Looking forward to the concert dates!

The album release will be supported by three live dates in Norway: April 27 in Trondheim, April 28 in Oslo, and April 30 in Hemne.

Nordic Records has some preview tracks which you can listen on their website.

Thanks to Lisa Walker for the info.

The Quietus has a lengthy interview with Roger Glover that covers his illustrious career as a songwriter, producer and bass player. It is a joyful read (despite the fact that they’ve managed to misspell ‘Paice’ in two differently atrocious ways).

You played in what is now regarded as the classic Deep Purple line-up. In how far were the additions of you on bass and Ian Gillan on vocals responsible for the sound that was created in those years?

RG: I didn’t really know of Deep Purple before I joined the group. If they were known for anything it was for the virtuosity within the band – Richie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paiste were masters of their instruments. Gillan and I however came from completely different background. We were basically naïve songwriters. So I think there was a great combination there, with their musical ability and our very much street value simplicity. And it was a combination that worked, right from the get-go, I mean the first song we wrote was ‘Speed King’. All that playing they could do and yet we just took rock & roll and turned it into a song.

Were you not intimidated at first by that advanced musicianship?

RG: I was, yeah. But I don’t know, it didn’t stop us, it was a very natural thing. All the songs came out of jams, everything was made up as we went along. And as much as I couldn’t play my instrument and couldn’t play solos the way they could, it wouldn’t have resulted in the way it did without us. So right from the start we said, ‘Let’s all share the publishing.’ So all those early songs were written by the five of us. Keeping that in mind, on that first album, Deep Purple In Rock, despite the fact that Richie was a far better player than I was, I could still come up with riffs that he’d play. He was interested in simple riffs, he was wise enough to know that you can’t be too musical because people won’t understand it. So it’s that combination of high musical values and yet simple, strong ideas. I started ‘Speed King’, for example and ‘Maybe I’m A Leo’ is one of mine.

Read the rest on thequietus.com.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

A press release from the Whitesnake camp says that the new album Forevermore will be released on March 25 in Europe and March 29 in North America via Frontier Records. The album’s release will be anticipated by the digital only release of the first single/videoclip Love Will Set You Free on February 21. In the meanwhile you can listen to the preview track courtesy of Frontier Records.

The limited edition of Forevermore will be released on a “Snake Pack” edition for the first three weeks in England only. This special release — arranged in conjunction with Future Publishing and Classic Rock magazine — will come with a collector’s edition 132-page magazine plus A1 poster and metal pin badge and will feature an exclusive cover art and two bonus live tracks, Slide It In and Cheap An’ Nasty, which will serve as an appetizer for the forthcoming Live At Donington 1990, to be released in the summer 2011.

The album will be also be released on a double gatefold vinyl format, with deluxe special editions to be announced shortly.

Track list:

1. Steal Your Heart Away
2. All Out Of Luck
3. Love Will Set You Free
4. Easier Said Than Done
5. Tell Me How
6. I Need You (Shine A Light)
7. One Of These Days
8. Love And Treat Me Right
9. Dogs In The Street
10. Fare Thee Well
11. Whipping Boy Blues
12. My Evil Ways
13. Forevermore

David Coverdale – vocals
Doug Aldrich – guitar
Reb Beach – guitars
Michael Devin – bass
Brian Tichy – drums

Produced by Los Bros Brutalos (David Coverdale, Doug Aldrich, Michael McIntyre).

Recorded at Snakebyte Studios and Grumblenott Studios & Villas in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, with additional work at Casa Dala, Sherman Oaks, California.

After a glorious Pau show (see review), I decided to take a last-minute trip to Tours, for the next-to-last show of this fall tour. The Bordeaux and Pau experiences had been too overwhelming, just incredible, and so I decided to do a third gig.

The setlist didn’t contain any surprises; by the way – for those who don’t listen at the rear of the classroom, let me remind you of the now well-established fall 2010 setlist (since Highway Star, an occasional encore in early november, became the opener in Paris, early november; «Things I never said» was then dropped, whereas they still played it in Bordeaux when I first saw them this year, on nov 7th):

Highway Star
Hard Lovin Man
Maybe I’m a Leo
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Fireball
Silver Tongue
Contact Lost/Guitar solo/When a blind Man cries/Well dressed Guitar
Almost Human
Lazy
No one came
Keyboard solo/Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin
Smoke on the Water

Hush
Black Night

So, nothing new under the sun ? Bien sûr que si ! The gig of course wasn’t completely different, but quite unique: First of all, the band was in a great mood, cracking seemingly endless series of little jokes: Gillan messed around with the big gong introducing HLMan, changed words into some hilarious nonsense on the third verse, sang « Free to be MOI » on Black Night, Roger did an Angus-Young-style duckwalk, Steve was smiling and laughing most of the time, Paicey did his I-can-play-faster-than-anyone-with-a-beer-in-my-hand-trick, etcaetera, etcaetera.

But be sure this wasn’t a clown’s meeting ! The music was oh, oh, so good (to quote « Rapture … »). The sound was just incredible, Gillan unbelievable, even better than three days ago, the four no-transition opening numbers launched off the set into some legendary purple galaxy; this 2010 rendition of When a blind man cries is perhaps the best they ever done …

Lazy and No one came are numbers that turn the quietest spectators into applauding fans … Perfect Strangers, Space Truckin, Smoke … Among the best versions I’ve heard live (although Gillan got a bit tired at the end of Strangers, but nothing really bad).

The encores, usually « only » very nice, were just overwhelming, as the band launched into an orgy of jamming and soloing, making the simple pop tunes of Hush and Black Night sound like the climax of a complex progressive 15-minute-piece.

Even the not-so-impressive Silver Tongue and Almost Human were very good on that night !

So let me end with a short overview:
Bordeaux – I was in a sort of trance, overwhelmed by happiness. 5 stars.
Pau – Extatic. Great fun. 5 stars.
Tours – Emotional, funny, brilliant, a pure moment of perfect appreciation. 5 stars.
No doubt these three shows are among my all-time top 5 or 6 rock shows.

Merci, Deep Purple. Merci beaucoup.

For my second Deep Purple gig of this fall tour after Bordeaux (see review), I travelled to the rather medium city of Pau.

Deep Purple’s touring policy in France is quite amazing: Pau, Limoges, Lorient are minor cities where international rock artists rarely (not to say never) show up (although someone reminded me Robert Plant was here in 2006). The zenith was well filled, something like 3500 people were there (just a guess). My friends and I were in the center, just a few rows from the stage.

Canadian trio around guitarist Philip Sayce did a good warm-up job in a straight-between-the-eyes-rock n roll – style (with class and technique).

At 9 pm, Purple kicked off with Highway Star, and I was immediately relieved, because Ian Gillan had been seriously ill on the first couple of december shows, not fully recovering his excellent november shape in the first week of december: so here he was, and it wasn’t a sore throat, it was just Ian Gillan at his best.

Now let me tell something really unblievable: Ian Gillan reads my reviews on thehighwaystar.com. It has to be ! Evidence ? … I wrote in december 2009 Gillan should reconsider his style and just stop trying to sound like in 1972 (he was globally excellent but almost ridiculous on some spots of some songs, for instance the third verse of Space Truckin).

Now, in 2010, Gillan has finally read this brilliant moment of a fan’s well-meant advice and decided to go through an overall checkup of his vocal lines (rather than changing the songs). This got very obvious in Pau; Ian avoided most of the «neckbreakers», and just did what he felt was right in 2010: it’s what you’d call a rearrangement, no more, no less …

The result is glorious! Of course Gillan has lost much of his power, but that’s not so bad considering his wonderful voice, and so he does some of the high ones, but not all of them, and no one cares, because he’s just DAMN GOOD.

Gillan is an artist, not an athlete. Artists may change. Athletes get old. Gillan seems younger than 10 years ago.

By the way, Big Ian does’nt do any of the backstage stuff, he just drives off in a van right after the show. No more beer on the stage. Of course, he acts weird, which is often mistaken as drunkenness, whereas it’s just because he’s an old englishman (which are all weird, as everyone knows).

When Gillan rocks, the whole band’s on fire: the evening was a crescendo of frenzy, with the climax of Smoke on the Water (anybody who hasn’t noticed that this isn’t just a riff, but a great song ?).

It was a Deep Purple concert I enjoyed in an almost adolescent way, singing, jumping, just going wild, and man it feels good to be young again !

Fantastic performance …

Steve Morse have appeared at this year NAMM to do various endorsements and sometime inbetween them gave this quick interview (amidst lots of background noise) to vintagerock.com. Of interest to our readers is his reiteration that Deep Purple are going to start working on the new album “within the next 60 days” and that they might be touring the USA later this year. As far as the latter goes, perhaps it’s time for all purple-starved people this side of the pond to start bugging their local promoters.

Steve Morse and Dave LaRue jam at the NAMM’2011:

Thanks to vintagerock.com and TheGiggingMusician for the videos and to Blabbermouth for bringing them to your attention.

Encouraged by the success of the two earlier Purple Night shows in 2008 and 2009, this year Perfect Strangers of Finland fan club presents the In Rock-themed Purple Night 2011. The house band will play all the songs of this album, featuring several singers: A-P Louhelainen, Jukka Ilmonen, J.J.Hjelt, Michael Henneken, Kimmo Blom and Taage. In addition to the songs from the In Rock album the attendees will hear other evergreens and rarities from the long career of Deep Purple.

Purple Night 2011 will be opened with tributes to two other classic bands. ‘Eavier than ‘Umble, naturally, plays Uriah Heep. For this special occasion their vocalist Tiina Pesonen joins forces with guest soloist Jukka Ilmonen.

Void in Black covers Black Sabbath from Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes and Ronnie James Dio era. They too, will feature two singers — Antti Railio, who sang in the winner choir conducted by the Stratovarius singer Timo Kotipelto in Finland’s Clash of the Choirs 2009, will join on stage the band’s own Nico Rauhala.

The In Rock house band brings together experienced Finnish professionals who have played not only in many top bands in Finland, like with Michael Monroe, but also on the Finnish tours alongsinde with Joe Lynn Turner, Graham Bonnet and Doogie White. The house band musicians are: Lacu Lahtinen (drums), Mika Lamminsivu (guitar), Klaus Wirzenius (bass) and Risto Lassila (keyboards).

Hosts: sportman Juha ‘Taikku’ Taivainen and PSOF lady Kirsi Pynnönen.

What: Purple Night 2011 – In Rock
When: 15 January 2011, show starts at 7.30 pm
Where: Tavastia Club, Helsinki, Finland
Tickets: Tiketti €12, €14 at the door.

Thanks to Sirpa Hammar for the info.