The “Dregs meets Transatlantic” project has finished it’s first studio session. They’ve recorded demos of 11 songs. Mike Portnoy was reporting daily on his forum. About Steve Morse:
And Steve is absolutely the greatest…I’ve known him forever (DT [Dream Theater] opening for Deep Purple in 98, The Dregs opening for DT in 00), but to be making music with him is really a bit of a dream come true for me….he really is a musical genius…the way he writes and composes and thinks is truly inspiring…and his playing, well that speaks for itself! (He is JP’s [John Petrucci’s] biggest influence afterall) Just to hear him soloing away over some progressions in today’s song gave me goosebumps!
Steve Morse together with Craig Goldy, Chris Impellitteri and Victor Smolski (Rage) will be at the National Association of Music Merchants show on January 14th to do a signing session. The session is organized by Engl. The convention is held this year on January 13th to 15th at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.
Steve “can’t just be sitting around” Morse has teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse (no relation), his old buddy Dave LaRue, ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, and vocalist Casey McPherson for a brand new, yet unnamed project which just has entered the studio to begin working on an album.
Blabbermouth has some quotes from Neal Morse on this new venture:
Last April I got together with Steve Morse to do some writing and to see what would happen with a collaboration between the two of us and how I went down to his house in Florida and spent some days with him, getting to know him and writing some music and we had a really good time. So we’ve been talking about doing a project together for a while.
There are some demos and some things that Steve and I did in April that we’ve worked on and so we’ll have some things to start with, but I think the plan is to get together and see what happens and write in the room.
We’re all excited about the project, but it is a bit of a mystery as to what will come. The vision is to do something a little more song-oriented and not quite so riffy, as one might expect. But still, of course, having the musical elements that people like Steve Morse, Dave LaRou, Mike Portnoy, and myself can provide.
We’ve mapped out about 10 days [in the studio for the project’s first session]. We’ll see what happens and see how much we can get done, if we can’t get the basics down enough for an album then we’ll have to continue on later.
Everyone’s schedules are a bit in flux and their very busy people so I don’t know how long it will take us to actually finish and release the record.
Pittsburgh’s online outlet Iron City Rocks has an extended interview with Steve Morse which he gave in early December while being on tour in Southern France. The interview covers a lot of ground — from Dixie Grits — to Deep Purple — to Angelfire.
In the groundbreaking news department, Steve said that Deep Purple have a “writing session” booked at a Spanish studio some time in March, between Mexican and Russian dates.
You can listen to the podcast (episode 85) online from their website (mp3, 45MB).
Some time last year Ian Gillan was in Poland where he narrated a new documentary called Chopin — The Polish Years for the local company TV Project. The studio has released a teaser while putting final touches to the film. Expect to see it on a TV channel near you or on DVD in 2011.
Roger Glover writes about what’s been on his reading list recently in the new installment of Road Life:
Yet another story about the road, I hear you say. Is this guy obsessed or what? I suppose I am. The thing is, there will always be road stories because the road goes on forever. It’s not a place – it’s a way of life. It’s not a destination – it’s a journey, an odyssey, a means of discovery. You don’t ever really want to reach the end of it because then it’s all over. Arriving at somewhere is not the objective, getting there is what is important. Street, lane, boulevard, avenue… none of those words conjure up the mysterious images associated with the word “road”.
Black Country Communion’s setlist at the London’s Shepherd Bush Empire on December 30 by all accounts was the same as Wolverhampton. Here are a few rather good quality videos from the gig.
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.
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).
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing