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.

Hate to say this but the Blackmore’s Night show in Cleveland was one of the most boring shows I have ever seen.
Candice seemed to lose her enthusiasm half way thru the show. If you have insomnia, this show would have cured it.RB was non-existent, very unenthusiastic playing.
Could it be because it was the first show of the tour? I don’t know. I have seen them 8 times, this show was the worst. Very disappointing.

Doctoral dissertation on the music of Deep Purple (Helsinki University, Finland):
“Theory and Analysis of Classic Heavy Metal Harmony” by Esa Lilja.
The thesis was published 17 October 2009.

ABSTRACT:
The study looks into heavy metal harmony from the point of view of music theory and analysis; the main focal point is the era that has been called “classic” or “traditional.” This era ranges roughly from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s, including bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. The study illuminates characteristics – from the elementary to the complex – which may be considered central to the harmonic language of heavy metal in that time period. Meanwhile, the applicability of traditional theories and methods of music analysis are discussed in the context of this music.

The thesis explores melodic and harmonic features of heavy metal, and while doing so, explores various methods of music analysis; their applicability and limitations regarding the study of heavy metal music. The study is built on three general hypotheses according to which 1) acoustic characteristics play a significant role for chord constructing in heavy metal, 2) heavy metal has strong ties and similarities with other Western musical styles, and 3) theories and analytical methods of Western art music may be applied to heavy metal.

It seems evident that in heavy metal some chord structures appear far more frequently than others. It is suggested here that the fundamental reason for this is the use of guitar distortion effect. Subsequently, theories as to how and under what principles heavy metal is constructed need to be put under discussion; analytical models regarding the classification of consonance and dissonance and chord categorization are here revised to meet the common practices of this music.

It is evident that heavy metal is not an isolated style of music; it is seen here as a cultural fusion of various musical styles. Moreover, it is suggested that the theoretical background to the construction of Western music and its analysis can offer invaluable insights to heavy metal. However, the analytical methods need to be reformed to some extent to meet the characteristics of the music. This reformation includes an accommodation of linear and functional theories that has been found rather rarely in music theory and musicology.

A Swedish promotor in Gothenburg, Sweden, has been fined by the local authorities for not being able to keep sound levels at legal limits. One of the shows this summer that reached an illegal level was the Deep Purple show at Trädgår’n in Gothenburg where the band played at an average of 102 dB. The allowed decibel level for concerts held in Sweden and much of Europe is an average of 100 dB with peaks at 115 dB. Lower volumes are allowed for concerts where children under 13 are present (97 dB and 110 dB respectively).

Sources: Swedish, English

Blackmore’s Night Official Scandinavian Fan Club has posted two new exclusive interviews with Joe Lynn Turner and Bobby Rondinelli on their website. The questions for the interviews were sent in by fans.

Planet Rock will be running a contest between October 12th and 26th:

How do you fancy seeing Deep Purple live? OK, how do you fancy watching the gig from the stage? Now, how do you fancy sitting next to Ian Paice’s drumkit for the duration of the show? We thought so.

From Monday 12 October we will be offering you the chance to win a place onstage with Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice for an entire show on the band’s forthcoming UK tour.

So head back here on Monday to find out exactly how you can win your once in a lifetime opportunity (CLUE – you might want to dig out your Deep Purple records this weekend and listen closely to the drumming)

I would like to add that I was lucky enough to be on the side of the stage on a couple of occasions and it was one of the most exhilarating experiences in my life. You get a whole new level of appreciation for the talent that is on the stage. I can’t recommend any stronger to try your chances. Good luck.

It’s Bombay calling again and it says that nothing is new under the moon.

Many years ago there was a Canadian band called Warpig. Their music sounded clearly inspired by Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. They even shared a sound engineer with Purple — Tom Brennand:

It was during a concert by Deep Purple, that keyboardist, Jon Lord, asked if there was anyone in the audience that could rectify the feedback problem during the bands intro. Tom was pushed up and introduced, rectified the problems and was asked to continue on the tour, but due to commitments, that was impossible. Deep Purple, the band, hired him as their sound and recording engineer at every available opportunity. During this period some of the notables with whom tom worked, were Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Deep Purple, Bee Gee’s, etc.

But check out their track Rock Star — it was recorded in 1970 and thus predates Fireball. Interesting, eh? 😉

Here’s another interesting thing. This is a song called Maria Moite (Maria Quiet) performed by Brazilian jazz singer Astrud Gilberto (of the Girl from Ipanema fame). You might recognize the tune as the jazzy intro the band does for SOTW from time to time, most notably in Montreux 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owOCJTDfJKs
What’s even more interesting, the above recording first appeared on the album Look to the Rainbow Astrud Gilberto did with Gil Evans, which was released back in 1965 or 1966. Very interesting. 😉 😉

I’m pretty sure Jon Lord, being jazz aficionado that he is, was aware of Gil Evans’ work and it is not inconceivable to imagine him jamming around the riff at one of the Purple’s sessions. And perhaps then the guitar player went thinking “Hmm… I wonder how it sounds in fourths”.

The point I want to make here is not about accusations of plagiarism. It is about creative process. All the musicians, writers, artists, creators of any kind stand on the shoulders of giants. They constantly reinterpret what was done previously and do it their own way.

Your hear/read/see (sometimes even smell or taste) and idea and it gets the train of thought rolling. Then you seemingly forget about it. If it’s not your mind every day it does not mean that the brain has stopped working on that idea, subconsciously. Then, many moons or years later, one of those heureka moments happen. The idea was thoroughly processed and surfaces as if it’s your own. Sometimes we remember what exactly got that train of thought rolling in the first place, sometimes we do not. And let’s not get too harsh on those moments when someone does not. That’s how creative process works.

But of course, in the end, credit should be given where credit is due. Whenever possible.

Ah, and by the way, you can buy Astrud’s album or songs from it at your nearest Amazon store:

It’s full of very smooth bossa-nova. And if you like your jazz a little edgier, I can recommend her work with Stan Getz.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov and Dan for bringing Warpig to your attention. Also thanks to whoever brought Maria Moite to my attention many years ago.

Child in Time, Edinburgh, Usher hall, October 5, 2009. The singer’s name is Grant Barclay. He had been given a tremendous voice and talent to use it, as evidenced by this recording. We wish him all the best in his endeavours.

Thanks to weissheim for uploading and to Daniel Bengtsson for spotting it.