Jon Lord will deliver a lecture on improvisation and musicianship at the University of the West of Scotland on Thursday, 24 February 2011. The lecture will take place at 2pm in the Brough Hall, Paisley Campus. The lecture is free and open to all UWS students as well as members of the public but seats are limited so please apply quickly to book your place.
The lecture will cover Jon’s career and especially focus on improvisation and musicianship which was a key part of his position in Deep Purple and something that is still at the centre of his performances today.
Those wishing to attend the lecture should complete the online registration form and will be notified by email if have been given a place.
Here’s a snippet of a press conference the band attended in Mexico. Questions are in Spanish only, but are not difficult to restore from the context and the answers. Continue Reading »
German band Demon’s Eye, better known as a Purple tribute act who have performed with many members of the family, is putting out an album of their original (albeit heavily influenced) material aptly called The Stranger Within. Why aptly? Well, Doogie White is singing and from the snippets I’ve heard it sounds like a followup to Stranger in Us All. And I mean this as a compliment.
You might want to switch the video to fullscreen if the subtitles are difficult to read.
If you like what you hear, the album can be preordered from the band’s webstite. Release date is set to March 18, after which Demon’s Eye featuring Doogie White will embark on a short promotional tour:
While being on tour in Indonesia with Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson spoke to the local edition of the Rolling Stone magazine. In the interview he revealed his top 5 favourite albums of all time. We list them here so that you can commend him on his music tastes. “In no particular order”, here it is:
Deep Purple – Made in Japan
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
We all like to moan and groan about unimaginative/poorly designed merchandise that can often be found online or at the shows. Now we have a chance to do something about it.
The new online Deep Purple store will be launched in the coming weeks. The Highway Star has been asked what kind of interesting merchandising ideas would fans like to see pertaining to the classical era of the band (1968-1976)? Apart from the usual t-shirts? What would you like to see in the store? What would you buy? We are being told that the management will be happy to review all your ideas.
Perhaps no other property so distinctly epitomized the excesses of 1970s rock’n’roll lifestyle as the infamous Starship plane. Back in 2003 the New York Times has run an article about it’s history. Bruce Payne, who was band’s US booking agent at the time, and Ian Paice were interviewed for the feature:
Ian Paice, of Deep Purple, fondly recalls being in Miami and, on a whim, flying to Boston for a lobster dinner. ”It was a time when everything was doable,” he says. ”And we weren’t shy about spending the money.” Groans Bruce Payne, the band’s manager, ”That probably cost $11,000.”
For the members of Deep Purple and their roadies, it was more about watching X-rated movies on the high-tech video monitor and using the Starship to entice groupies. ”The girls would get on the plane and fly to wherever the next show was,” recalls Bruce Payne, the group’s manager. ”Fathers two states over were calling the cops.” But Deep Purple’s drummer, Ian Paice, has no regrets. ”The Starship was a great place to join the mile-high club,” he says.
If you have missed it first time around, read more on NYTimes.com (that is, if you manage to get through their paywall). Also, check out pictures by Fin Costello of the band aboard the Starship.
Whitesnake have released a promo video for a track called Love Will Set You Free from their upcoming album Forevermore:
[update] We are being told that for whatever reason this video is not available in some countries. If that’s the case with you, try this link. [/update]
The new album, titled Forevermore, will be released on March 25 in Europe and March 29 in North America via Frontier Records. Preorder the album from a store near you:
This year Sunflower Jam is taking it up a couple of notches. First of all, it will be held at the Royal Albert Hall, on July 8. Second, the lineup they have so far secured for the event looks pretty spectacular:
Jon Lord
Rick Wakeman
Keith Emerson
Joe Bonamassa
Newton Faulkner
Deep Purple with special guests
Sunflower Jam is a charitable event which has become an annual tradition for the past few years. It raises funds for the advancement of public health in the UK through alternative therapies.
Universal Music will release a “deluxe” edition of Rainbow Rising on February 28 in the UK and on March 8 in North America. The new edition will come on 2 discs. The first one will contain two different mixes of the album, known as the “New York mix” and “Los Angeles mix”. The second disc will contain rough mixes/demos for the album, plus two tracks from the tour rehearsals at the Pirate Sound studios. The album will be packaged in a fold out double digipak with a 16 page colour booklet.
On the last date of our tour a couple of months ago, Gary was playing on Roger’s MP3 player backstage through an amplified speaker. It was Gary and our Don Airey, I think, playing with Colosseum II. They sounded great, of course. Don always spoke fondly of his playing, and I’m a fan as well. His playing was lively, energetic, but tasteful at the same time. I never knew him but all of us in Purple were shocked at the loss.
Joe Lynn Turner:
Gary Moore was one of the greats. He had his roots in the blues and the power of rock, which is a brilliant combination. I have played with some of the best guitarists in the business and when asked if wanted to do a project with someone else, I always said, “Gary Moore.” Maybe it’s little known but I am a guitarist myself. I became a singer by pure accident. So, I can really appreciate Gary’s playing from a musician’s point of view. He was an amazing talent and let’s not forget his voice, which was pure and honest like his playing. I had the great fortune to meet Gary while in Denmark during the Rainbow days. He was a great guy and very down to earth, which is impressive to say the least. We shall greatly miss him for he was an original who stood out from the rest. I send my sympathies to his family and friends and to the rock world who is truly saddened by this loss. RIP Gary.
Bob Daisley:
Gary was one of the greatest guitar players ever and a nice bloke with it. He was a brilliant technician and musician but above all, his playing came straight from the heart and soul. I have many fond memories of our years together. mere words can never convey such sadness in such loss. Long live Gary Moore and may he rest in peace, we’ll miss you mate.
Neil Murray:
My memories of Gary will be of someone who was dedicated to playing the guitar as well as he possibly could and with total focus, energy and intense commitment. I don’t think I ever heard him play a wrong note and he was able to effortlessly become Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Carlos Santana or Jimi Hendrix if he felt like it. He was a very funny, down-to-earth guy and for over 10 years we seemed to share identical, wide-ranging taste in music, more so than anyone else I’ve played with. I wish I’d had the opportunity to play blues with him but that came later in his career. I do remember that in the mid-70s he was very casual about how he looked after the priceless Peter Green Les Paul – then again, he could make just about any guitar sing and cry. His passing is a giant loss for music.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey2.jpg)
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing