David ‘Rock’ Feinstein told Classic Rock magazine a story of Blackmore the weatherman causing a riot by refusing to go on stage:

It happened when I was in Elf in the early 1970s. We supported Deep Purple at an outdoor show in the grounds of Cornell University, in Ithaca, Upstate New York. It was a three-band bill. We had the middle slot, with ZZ Top opening!

Anyway, I was in the car park beforehand with Ritchie, when he looked up at the sky and said: ‘I think we’re gonna get a storm.’ The next thing, he’s telling his guitar road to pack up his gear because he wasn’t gonna play in such conditions – remember, it was still dry!

ZZ Top were already on stage, but we were advised to pack up and get out of there, because once the crowd –- and it was a full stadium –- realised Purple weren’t gonna appear there would be real trouble.

It was was a wise piece of advice — a riot ensued, with all the bands having their equipment trashed.

The upshot was that it was the last rock gig Cornell University allowed to happen there.

And the weatherman in black was right in his forecast — it did rain that day.

The following feature may contain references to sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Oh, and some bad language too. Dig in!
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Demon Edsel is releasing a triple CD Gillan live set authorized by Big Ian himself.

No specific release date is available at this time. The 3CD set will be released in the UK on November 9 and available in other countries as an import.

Disc One

Recorded at London’s legendary Rainbow Theatre on 4th March 1981, with Bernie Torme on lead guitar. With the exception of one song, the performance is previously unreleased.

1 Second Sight
2 Unchain Your Brain
3 Are You Sure
4 Bite The Bullet
5 No Easy Way
6 Trouble
7 If You Believe Me
8 Mutually Assured Destruction
9 On The Rocks
10 Future Shock
11 Vengeance
12 New Orleans
13 Smoke On The Water
14 Sleeping On The Job
15 Lucille

Disc Two

Features the band’s triumphant headlining set at the Reading Festival on 29th August 1981, with Janick Gers on lead guitar. Only half of the songs have previously been available, on the 1981 release Double Trouble.

1 Second Sight
2 Unchain Your Brain
3 Hadely Bop Bop
4 No Laughing In Heaven
5 Bite The Bullet
6 No Easy Way
7 Trouble
8 Mutually Assured Destruction
9 On The Rocks
10 Vengeance
11 Smoke On The Water
12 New Orleans
13 Lucille

Disc Three

Features five songs recorded in April 1982 for BBC Radio 1’s Friday Rock Show and five songs from a concert in Nottingham in March 1981. None of these tracks have been officially released before.

1 No Laughing In Heaven
2 Hadely Bop Bop
3 Vengeance
4 Mutually Assured Destruction
5 Born To Kill
6 Second Sight
7 Unchain Your Brain
8 Trouble
9 If You Believe Me
10 Lucille

Artist: Gillan
Title: Live: Triple Trouble
Format: 3CD
Label: Demon Edsel
Cat No: EDSX3006
Genre: Rock and Pop

Order it from a store near you:

Thanks to Jim Collins and Demon Edsel for the info.

Steve Morse recently spoke to the Classic Rock magazine. His short interview appeared online:

We are in the sort of position where we don’t have any pressure on us. We’re not a pop act, so nobody these days expects us to sell a lot of records. So, as long as we come up with a good album to satisfy our core fans, then that’s all that matters.

Read the interview on ClassicRockMagazine.com.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Ten days ago I was in Chicago to see Blackmore’s Night with a couple of my friends. We drove 2,600 km (that’s 1,600 miles in medieval units) for that gig and to catch Steve Morse Band in Toronto on the way back next day. Was it worth it? Absolutely. On both counts.

You see, lots of people come to a Blackmore’s Night gig waiting for only one thing — those 15 minutes when he picks up his Strat. And then they expect to hear Rainbow or Deep Purple. And then they go home frustrated and disappointed. Because it ain’t Rainbow or Deep Purple. It ain’t rawk.

It’s something different. And it has been so for 12 years.

Thanks to wodnik35 for uploading the videos, to Daniel Bengtsson for bringing it up, and to James the Mechanic for his heroic driving.

Polish label Metal Mind is releasing remastered versions of the selected albums from Ian Gillan’s discography: Naked Thunder, Toolbox, Cherkazoo & Other Stories, Clear Air Turbulence, Scarabus and Accidentally on Purpose (Gillan/Glover). All albums will be released in a new digipak edition each limited to 1000 copies. Digitally remastered using 24-Bit process, released on a golden disc. The release date is scheduled for November 2, 2009.

Ian Gillan — Naked Thunder (remastered)

[cid:C5AF2DC43B0145E3844EB3C6CE8E1256@Agapromo]
Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1344 DG
Barcode: 5907785035720
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 1000 numbered copies)
Genre: hard rock
Release date: 02.11.2009

Tracklist:

1. Gut Reaction
2. Talking To You
3. No Good Luck
4. Nothing But The Best
5. Loving On Borrowed Time
6. Sweet Lolita
7. Nothing To Lose
8. Moonshine
9. Long And lonely Ride
10. Love Gun
11. No More Cane On The Brazos

Ian Gillan — Toolbox (remastered)

[cid:80FC8B3B2764422A9FDB111153424FA5@Agapromo]
Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1345 DG
Barcode: 5907785035737
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 1000 numbered copies)
Genre: hard rock
Release date: 02.11.2009

Tracklist:

1. Hang Me Out To Dry
2. Toolbox
3. Dirty Dog
4. Candy Horizon
5. Don’t Hold Me Back
6. Pictures Of Hell
7. Dancing Nylon Shirt Part1
8. Bed Of Nails
9. Gassed Up
10. Everything I Need
11. Dancing Nylon Shirt Part2

Ian Gillan — Cherkazoo & Other Stories (remastered)

[cid:2A37BBAEDAEB4296AD3C54BD1C48F637@Agapromo]
Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1346 DG
Barcode: 5907785035744
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 1000 numbered copies)
Genre: hard rock
Release date: 02.11.2009

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Cherkazoo
3. Monster In Paradise
4. The Bull Of Birantis
5. Intro
6. Hogwash
7. Driving Me Wild (Take One)
8. Donkey Ride Dream
9. Trying To Get To You
10. Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby
11. Driving Me Wild (Fast Take)
12. Music In My Head
13. You Make Me Feel So Good
14. She Called Me Softly
15. Driving Me Wild (Take Three)
16. You Led My Heart Astray
17. A Little Share Of Plenty
18. Night And Day
19. Hidden Track

Ian Gillan Band — Clear Air Turbulence (remastered)

[cid:CB9B67955B524ABA8C2133C09B54657C@Agapromo]
Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1348 DG
Barcode: 5907785035768
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 1000 numbered copies)
Genre: Jazz Rock/Fusion
Release date: 02.11.2009

Tracklist:

1. Clear Air Turbulence
2. Five Moons
3. Money Lender
4. Over The Hill
5. Goodhand Liza
6. Angel Manchenio

Ian Gillan Band — Scarabus (remastered)

[cid:3E7C6C9D31034152A362E58A83DE2ABE@Agapromo]
Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1347 DG
Barcode: 5907785035751
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 1000 numbered copies)
Genre: Jazz Rock/Fusion
Release date: 02.11.2009

Tracklist:

1. Scarabus
2. Twin Exhausted
3. Poor Boy Hero
4. Mercury High
5. Pre-Release
6. Slags To Bitches
7. Apathy
8. Mad Elaine
9. Country Lights
10. Fool’s Mate
11. My Baby Loves Me

Gillan/Glover — Accidentally on Purpose (remastered + bonus tracks)

[cid:F312CF85752E46F99D1E0C5B3DCA047A@Agapromo]
Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1343 DG
Barcode: 5907785035713
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 1000 numbered copies)
Genre: pop / rock
Release date: 02.11.2009

Tracklist:

1. Clouds And Rain
2. Evil Eye
3. She Took My Breath Away
4. Dislocated
5. Via Miami
6. I Can’t Dance To That
7. Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave
8. Lonely Avenue
9. Telephone Box
10. I Thought No

Bonus tracks:
11. Cayman Island
12. The Purple People Eater
13. Chet

Thanks to Agnieszka Świątnicka-Kulpińska for the info.

This is an interview that Gillan and Glover did circa 1987 for the German TV. Make all you want out of it, but I’ve found it, ahem, entertaining 😉
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Martin Popoff has a follow-up volume to his book Gettin’ Tighter. A Castle Full Of Rascals: Deep Purple ’83 – ’09 follows the tradition of Gettin’ Tighter and Rainbow: English Castle Magic by narrating the band’s history “in their own words”, through extensive original interviews. Which makes for a very entertaining reading, if maybe slightly less historically accurate (we all know how human memory works). The new book is promised (I haven’t seen it myself yet) to cover the history of the band from just before the reunion to present time, and have “bits about side-projects, the intro necessities about Gillan, Rainbow, Sabbath and Whitesnake, plus cool trivia from Nick Blagona, Tom Panunzio, Candice Night, Frank Morgan, and Stuart Smith”.

The book can be ordered directly from Martin’s website.

Promoting his band’s US tour, Blackmore gave to Fender one of his rare interviews. He talked about his writing process these days, castles and ghosts (what else!), why he started to play guitar and not trumpet, ticket prices, and many other things:

FN: Could you talk about your evolution as a guitar player, from those early classical lessons to Deep Purple and Rainbow bassist and producer Roger Glover helping you to recognize that while playing with speed can look flashy, that slowing down and holding a note is also a true art?

RB: I realized when I first started playing the guitar I wanted to be very fast. Then I realized, when that wore off, that playing slower and with more feeling and emoting was much harder. It took me a few years to get used to playing slowly. Now I find it harder to play fast.

Read the interview at Fender.com.

On a related note, still photography is now officially permitted at Blackmore’s Night gigs during the first 2 songs, but not video or audio recording. At least that’s what what announced from stage before the start of Chicago show this weekend.

Thanks to Kevin Dixon for bringing the interview to your attention.

Last night at House of Blues, Ritchie Blackmore again showed Chicago why he is considered among the greatest guitar players on earth.
Ritchie, Candice and the rest of the lords and ladies of Blackmore’s Night turned in a spectaular two and a half hour show whose duration was only limited by Chicago’s youth curfew. In fact, there was not even time left for an encore.
The setlist was very similar to other Blackmore’s Night shows this year highlighted by “Locked Within the Crystal Ball”, “Under a Violet Moon”, “Soldier of Fortune”, and “Ghost of a Rose”.
Most of the instrumental portions resulted in the rest of the band carrying on the riff until Ritchie was done soloing (fine with me!).
As expected, the excitement level picked up when the Stratocaster finally made an appearance on Ritchie (and hour and fourty five minutes into the show). Not long after this the man in black launched into the most extensive Deep Purple medley I’ve ever witnessed from Blackmore’s Night.
Beginning with “Woman from Tokyo”, moving into “Smoke on the Water” and ending with “Black Night” the Purple detour was a searing 15 minutes highlighted by some amazing solos from Ritchie.
As a younger Purple family fan, this was the first time I had ever heard Ritchie play these timeless riffs live and something I will never forget.