There is more Purple content in the latest issue of Polish Teraz Rock magazine, November 2010:

Page 38: a 2 page interview with Joe Satriani, dealing with his new album Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards as well as Chickenfoot and Deep Purple.

Page 46: a 2 page interview with Glenn Hughes, dealing with his project with Black Country Communion, Jeff Beck and Deep Purple Mark 3.

Page 48: a 2 page interview with Jon Lord. About his Concerto in Warsaw, Deep Purple and his solo albums Sarabande, To notice such things, as well as Come Taste the Band, Burn and Stormbringer.

All interviews are by Wieslaw Weiss.

Thanks to Joasia Ostrowiecka for the info.

Ian Gillan had a big interview published in Polish Metal Hammer before the beginning of the current tour leg. Now, with many thanks to Marcinn, we can present it to you in reverse translation from Polish.

MH: Before our conversation I just had a glance at Deep Purple official website and the news item I found there was: ‘It is not the end.’ Obviously it’s an official commentary denying rumours that had it the leg of the tour starting in October was going to be your last… Have you got any idea why such rumours?

IG: You say our website? It’s not our website. We don’t run it. I don’t even read it. These are trash. Every one of us, Deep Purple members, runs his own website and you can find the most accurate information there. We don’t read anything else and we don’t recommend reading anything else. It’s pure disinformation. You know… putting the last tour together would require a lot of special preparations, something extraordinary, special and at the same time it’s pretty hard for us to get together to record a new album so how could we even possibly thing about the last tour. You see, the Internet is music press of today. It’s full of shit. Don’t believe a word you read there.

MH: Let’s explain this once and for all. It’s not going to be the last tour of Deep Purple…

IG: How am I supposed to know? Things happen but I can tell you we don’t plan the last tour. We haven’t even had a single discussion about it yet… We never discuss things as such. We don’t even talk about new records, another tours; when the moment is right we just take the day off heading our own directions and then a short question arises: ‘When are we going to meet up again?’ It’s followed by a short answer like now: ‘Ok. See you in October.’ Things have always been like that with Deep Purple. We don’t read music press, we don’t listen to the radio and never done that. It’s a different world. Totally different from the one we exist in. We don’t and we don’t want to have anything to do with the music business. Everyone of us has an interesting life. We like each other and we’re great friends. We all love music, love playing live and it’s fantastic to be on stage together. We’re even better on stage when we get back after a longer break, long holidays. Everything happening around us – things people talk, write or gossip about us – has absolutely no influence on our inner relations… Let me tell you this… When we’re going to eventually meet in October… if I correctly remember we start in Prague… I can tell the content of our discussions on the night before the show in a hotel bar. It’s going to look more or less like this: ‘Well, how are you? Did you buy that new car? How’s the football team doing – heard they had a good start of the season? How’s your daughter? She married yet? How’s your mum? Is she having a swift recovery after the operation?’ That’s the way we talk… I remember, it was about two years ago, at the beginning of the tour we all got together in a bar and when I was on my way back to the hotel room I just had to smile to myself because during the two-hour talk, with a couple of beers and in a fantastic atmosphere none of us mentioned music. Nothing about music.

MH: Then I begin to wonder do you ever discuss the set list before the start of the tour?

IG: Of course we talk about it… just around 45 minutes before the show… It’s always been like that. I remember when we were kids: ‘Oh, what’s the set list tonight? I haven’t got a clue, make something up.’ Sometimes Ian Paice puts the set list together and sometimes Roger does that, and there’s the time I do that… Sometimes one of us goes: ‘You know, I’m tired of this or the other song…’ and then we just change it for another. It’s so simple with Deep Purple. You know the thing is our concerts are not those big productions with all the special effects preordained. There’s no need to tell the lightning guys, the sound guys and all the people responsible for production what songs we’re going to play so they could make the appropriate show. In our case these things are unnecessary. Lights on, we go on stage, play our music and when we’re done we go off stage and the lights are off. That’s the whole Deep Purple show.

MH: You’ve said it’s even hard for you to meet up and record a new album. In the meantime, after the fantastic ‘Rapture of the Deep’ our appetites are big. Can you tell us approximately when we can expect a new album?

IG: I can’t tell you because I don’t even know when I can expect it. You know, albums tend to HAPPEN. They are SPONTANEOUS. You see, we’re non-stop being accosted about a new album, because the record labels and the managers want new albums so I think we’re going to eventually record one day but the greater the pressure we’re under the further the new album is. It’s like gripping a soap bubble… Just do it and watch the outcome… The more we’re asked about the new album the less we want to go into the studio. If you’re being nagged about it all the time, how’s your attitude towards it going to be in the studio? We’re not commercial songwriters. We CREATE music. We write and record stuff that come straight from our HEARTS. We don’t write because we are forced to or because someone expects us to. We do it because it’s fun and we LOVE it. That’s why if we’re being constantly poked and asked: ‘When’s the new record? When’s the new record?’, the first thing that comes to my mind is: ‘Ah, maybe next year.’

MH: I guess you can understand the impatience of the fans who always wait for the new record with a fair amount of excitement…

IG: Well… what can you do… If you follow this train of thought what’s going to be next? It will eventually come to the situation when fans are going to tell us what songs should be on the album and they’re going to demand we record those songs for them. You have to ask yourself: ‘Do you write the songs for the fans or for yourself?’ We’ve always written for ourselves. The other question you have to ask yourself is: ‘Do we write commercial songs or the material that is honest and comes from our hearts, our emotions?’ Commercialism, writing at a push, for demand is an entirely unknown concept to us. I think to be completely honest with our fan base… you know, I’ve noticed that for the past 10 years the average age of our audience oscillates around 18 years old so I guess the thing they enjoy the most is the concept of listening to Deep Purple participating in the live experience. I think that’s the thing they want now and I guess they don’t really care about the new record. The journalists, managers, publishers, record labels, people from the business and our older fans – yes, I think they’d like the new album to see the light of the day, but we aren’t very willing to even discuss it because we’re simply getting bored with it. That’s enough for us. I’ve just spent the past two weeks in the studio working on my new songs. I’m in the process of recording another solo album. I love writing new songs. If the guys from Deep Purple called me now and ask me to come over because we’re doing a new album, I’d be there immediately. Yet no one calls me. Everyone is really happy with the ‘live’ situation of Deep Purple and the deep, mutual understanding on stage. That’s really a lot and it’s sufficient. One day you’ll hear the new album… You know, if for the next three months we won’t get a question about the new album then probably we’re going to record it.

MH: Okay. So I’m going to forget all the questions on the new Deep Purple record I have in my mind. Let me ask you about some older albums of yours instead. Recently ‘Clear Air Turbulence’ and ‘Scarabus’ from Ian Gillan Band have been reissued. You touched jazz-rock on those albums. Why jazz-rock back then?

IG: Imagine you’re going to have beer with your friends at a local pub. If most of them are avid fans of football, you can tell sooner or later the conversation is going to be about football. If you have a basic knowledge of football you will be able to join the conversation and even have some fun. The next day you’re going to your cousin’s party and everyone talks politics and again you’re able to join the conversation and even throw in some ideas. You know where I’m getting at? I used to work with Colin Towns, John Gustafson, Mark Nauseef, and Ray Fenwick, and those guys at that time were pretty much fascinated with jazz-rock-fusion and that was the music they wanted to record and I had to adapt being with them in one team. When you listen to my records you can see at once they’re not homogenous. They’re very versatile because I used to record them with different people and the final outcome was up to those people in this respect. You don’t talk politics with people who are football fans…

MH: Do you like to adapt?

IG: If you read Darwin you’re going to understand my answer. Adapt or die. The adaptation to different situations is the only thing human beings are really good at. We don’t understand many things, we can’t control breathing but at least we know how to… feed ourselves (laughs)… wait … I’m slowly losing my drift… yes… you have to adapt.

MH: I’ve read in the internet recently that you’re planning the release of a live album ‘Live in Armenia’ supposedly recorded with an orchestra…

IG: First of all, it’s not an album. It’s just a single song. Second off all, you won’t hear any orchestra there. Third of all, it’s going to be a song I co-wrote with Tony Iommi. I’ve already finished laying down my vocal parts and now we’re waiting for Jon Lord and Nico McBrain adding theirs. The song is for charity, for further help to people from Armenia who are still contending the aftermath of the earthquake that struck this country 20 years ago and took the lives of 25.000 people. Those people still need help and I decided to do something about it.

MH: So I let myself fell into disinformation’s clutches…

IG: Let me tell you this. When I have a beer with my friends and we run out of jokes we turn on the computer and read Wikipedia… (laughs). There’s so much shit there it’s even difficult to imagine. Unfortunately that’s where most of the journalists seek information because the traditional ways of obtaining information are now unavailable… 50 % of the time of the interviews I give is devoted to correcting information spread over the Internet. On the other way, please, don’t panic! Come to think of it not much has really changed. All the information delivered to the journalists in the times when the Internet has not yet existed… Who do you think wrote them? Of course some people wrote them… and do you think there wasn’t disinformation at that time? Do you think that in the ‘70s when the music press was in fool bloom people weren’t writing rubbish about us? You think we only met with understanding back then? After we recorded ‘Who Do We Think We Are’ in 1973, the press started to produce utter rubbish writing how dared we recording such an album when they’d wanted us to record only hard rock not blues, funky and whatnot. For this sole reason the press expected us to record something different and they were badmouthing us and showing us in a bad light. Utter junk… Then we were reading all of that and wondering if they were really writing about us, about Deep Purple? Did they really understand us?

MH: The new leg of the tour begins in Czech Republic and then you’re coming to Poland for three shows. I realise there are countries you visit more often but I think you’ve been to Poland frequently enough to have your own opinion about our country. I wonder what’s your opinion about Poland?

IG: (laughs)… Dear God… I haven’t got a clue. How am I to answer this? I have friends in Poland and that’s why I’m often here. I also have friends in Portugal and they also come to see me. I have a small house on the hills in southern Portugal. I go there to relax, ease off a bit, enjoy the weather and good food. I have a couple of friends there but friends from America, Germany… and Poland too… and Argentina, and Brazil drop by for a visit. You think they come to Portugal because they like the country’s geography? No. They like nice weather and good company… we meet… make music together… sip wine… whatever. I come to Poland because I have friends who from time to time invite me to play there. I clearly remember my show with orchestra in Gdansk – it was fantastic. If you like generalizations I can say I really have a liking for and feel bonding with Polish culture. I was chosen for narrating a documentary about Frederic Chopin; I’m to do this soon and I’m really looking forward to doing this. The recording sessions are going to be in Warsaw. When I come to think of it all now, I certainly don’t like Poland just for its geography. It’s culture. I like Polish attitude towards life.

Welsh radio station GTFM has featured Come Taste The Band reissue on it’s recent The Rock Show. The show was based around an interview with Glenn Hughes which he gave during the recent UK tour. Jon Lord also chimed in with his memories, which sound strangely similar to what he recently said to Planet Rock.

You can listen to the show online (MP3, 25 mins, 23Mb).

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

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)