According to this Swedish interview, Big Ian was writting with Tony Iommi and a plan to start a “charity band” project is in the works:

Shouldn’t you do something with the guys in Black Sabbath?

– Weird that you should mention that because I was in Armenia with Tony Iommi last week and stopped by his house on my way to Manchester to finish a song we have started working on. The song is for a charity band we are thinking of putting together. Me, Tony and some other musicians we don’t know about yet. But these things take time and sometimes nothing happens in the end.

While in London on the UK tour, Roger Glover has found the time to draw a sketch and donate it to the No Surrender Charitable Trust to be auctioned off as a part of their Art of Music ’09 program. The trust provides an online cancer related social network and a Fellowship which researches into cures for pancreatic cancer.
Continue Reading »

Good concert, no low points, some averages and mostly highs.

Steve and Roger in a playful mood, and Don was really showing off during the whole concert. Some interplay sections with Steve was excellent. Some particular nice bass solos from Roger, and behind everybody Ian Paice was to be trusted as always.

Wasted sunsets was a joy to hear live for the first time, very nice by both Ian and Steve! Space truckin’ was a monster, likewise No one came. And hearing Rapture of the deep and Sometimes I feel like screaming makes you really want to hear more Steve Morse era songs!

Once again an evening with DP to be remembered. Brought back fond memories of last year’s concert in Steinkjer (which truly was awesome….). Now I need to plan for a concert next year also….!

Attendance: Around 8000.

Set list:

Highway star
Things I never said
Maybe I’m a leo
Strange kind of woman
Wasted sunsets
Rapture of the deep
Fireball
Contact Lost
Steve Morse solo
Sometimes I feel like screaming
Well dressed guitar
Wring that neck
No one came
Don Airey solo (with bits from Norwegian classics!)
The battle rages on
Space truckin’
Smoke on the water

Encores:
Speed king (incorporating bits of Peggy Sue & It’s now or never, & great solo by Roger)
Hush
Black night (long version! – Roger & Steve in good form!)

Time: 1 hour 55 mins.

Hans Peter Jenssen
Trondheim

Joel McIver has been working since 2006 on an autobiography with Glenn Hughes, to be published by Foruli Publications.

“We are very excited about this project, and working with Glenn Hughes is an absolute pleasure. The book is Glenn’s autobiography, written with Joel McIver (author of the bestselling book ‘The Truth About Metallica’). It will be a very high quality numbered limited edition with many special features, signed by Glenn and Joel. There will be two versions, the Regular limited edition and a Deluxe limited edition.

We are not divulging further details just yet, but will keep you informed.

If the readers of your website go to www.foruli.co.uk and click on the ‘Contact Us’ link they can add there details to our mailing list and will be the first to receive details of the book.”

thanks to Deep Purple Italia for the info.

Several days ago it was announced that all Dio’s European tour dates are cancelled and refunds are being issued, with Ronnie himself being in a hospital for unspecified reasons. Today his wife and manager Wendy has released more details:

Ronnie has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer. We are starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic. After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans.

Long live rock and roll, long live Ronnie James Dio.

Thanks to all the friends and fans from all over the world that have sent well wishes. This has really helped to keep his spirit up.

Thanks to Blabbermouth.net for the info.

Don Airey has contributed some Hammond to the recording of Fly Free — a tribute to the legendary Scottish race driver Jackie Stewart. The song was written by Jackie’s son Paul as a gift for his 70th birthday. Eric Clapton contributed his guitar playing (Sir Eric is apparently a close friend of Sir Jackie). Other musicians included Matt Prior on guitars, Lee Pomeroy on bass, Adam Wakeman on piano and mellotron and Alex Toff on drums.

If you ask me, they should have simply gone straight for Highway Star. The lyrics are more than appropriate and the songwriting is, ahem, slightly better. 😉

As Gillan put it, we got to hear some songs not played too often. Tonight it was Bloodsucker, or rather closer to the Bludsucker version from Abandon, where Gillan doesn’t take the easy way to try to protect his voice, so lots of screaming. And it worked.

We also got Wasted Sunsets which is a perfect tune for Steve who really gets into it. Nice surprise and please keep it in the show.

The rumour said that the whole band was present and actually rehearsed during the soundcheck (true) and played bits of Hard lovin’ Man (time will tell). Over to Oslo tonight!

Roger Glover played a mean slow bass line in No One Came and Gillan put a lot of passion, humour and dynamics into it. Clearly a favourite of the band. We still get quite a selection of Made In Japan stuff, and thanks to Paicey and Glover the tracks sound fresh and interesting. People were rocking.

Don Airey really contributes nowadays with extended solos and delivering with refreshing energy. Fireball proved it and Wring that Neck is now luckily arranged with a call-and-answer section where Steve and Don get to trade licks.

I think I have mentioned most of the songs and that should tell you that the intensity was there all the way through the sold-out show. Gillan was chatting and making fun in-between songs. So highly recommended if you happen to live close to the next venues.

Intro: Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet (Prokoviev). Sounds good at max. volume.

P.S.
The new “LP” as it it called should be recorded early 2010, according to a normally reliable source close to the microphone.

Per Sorensen

It had been a while since Deep Purple was doing a gig in Belgium. Standing on the first row, the atmosphere and information exchange was taking my interest level up high at the beginning of the concert.

A very dedicated nicy German lady introduced me in the wonderful world of touring with Deep Purple, their management and their families. Those stories took me in the good mood to listen to the head line up we were all waiting for.

As soon as Prokofiev’s song started, lights gone out and the show was about to begin. The set list was equal to the previous European concerts. The specials in this tour were Wasted Sunset, Contact Lost and No one came and The battle rages on.

I was very happy to hear my all time favorite Sometimes I feel like screaming. In the category of classic songs, Highway Star, Wring that neck, Maybe I’m a leo, Fireball and of course Smoke as final song before the encores.

It has been a while since I heard the voice of Ian sounding so well, even the screems were very clear and lifted the audience into good moods.

The sold out concert proves that our all time favorite band is still alive and kicking as never before, I am really happy when Ian told the audience to write & release a new album in 2010.

Many thanks to Katie for sharing the true Purple stories with me!

Wesley Vandewalle

“Intensive tasting and enjoying every single minute of a Deep Purple concert, because it always can be the last”. This was again my motto for the gig in Antwerp last Wednesday.

After the gig my feeling was that the Purps didn’t bring their best performance. Only Steve & Roger played with heart and passion and with flickering in their eyes. Don & both Ian’s played rather like good mechanics doing their job as usual.

Indeed, the set list was not bad at all with a good mix of new & old material inclusive the newcomers Wasted Sunset & No One Came but in terms of intensity we got a strong begin with Highway Star and a strong end with Space Truckin’, Smoke, Hush & Black Night but the middle didn’t bring the same excitment except the marvelous guitar master piece of Steve Morse.

In my opinion, Deep Purple is touring too much & they give too many concerts in a year. As a normal consequence there is too much routine coming up and the passion is sometimes slipping away. Also I saw tiredness in the eyes of Gillan & Paice.

As a conclusion we never can say that Deep Purple plays bad concerts but I missed this time the sparkling elements who gives their gigs something brilliant.

Till next time my great old heroes…

Mickey Moody gave an interview to RockPages.gr. Not surprisingly, good three quarters of it revolves around his days in Whitesnake:

Rockpages.gr: Did you feel a full member of Whitesnake or just a player in David Coverdale’s band?

Micky Moody: Full member, indeed. I wasn’t getting the full money, but that’s another story! The only time when I didn’t feel a full member of Whitesnake was in 1982 when David asked me to rejoin the band. I had left in late 1981, because I had had enough of the business side of things…anyway, when I returned Cozy Powell and Mel Galley were in Whitesnake…great musicians, to say the least. But, I kinda felt like a session guitar player in that line-up. We had a different management and the vibe was not the same, by any means. I don’t blame David for this decision…we weren’t making any money and he needed something better for his career. But, in that particular line-up, I was treated like a session player…it was all about David and Cozy. I didn’t enjoy that period with Whitesnake.

Read the resy of his interview at RockPages.gr

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.