Over the years, it’s been fun to try to figure out various quotes that Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore threw into their lengthy improvisations in the 70’s. A bunch of the classical ones has been covered in Janell Duxbury’s list in this site.

There is one quote I have been trying to locate for years. This particular one appears at around 16:20 into Wring that neck on Live in Stockholm 1970 (AKA Scandinavian Nights). There’s a soundclip included below so you can check out what I mean. Does anyone know where this is from? It can of course be a Lord original, something he improvised at that spot but I have a feeling it comes from somewhere else. Anyone?

UPDATE
Here is a soundfile with the quotes from Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” and Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance” for all to compare to the Lord quote above.

Big Ian has appeared with an interview on the Montreal’s CHOM-FM show The Metal File. Nothing really new was said there, but for the sake of completeness, here is the podcast.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.

Ian Gillan will appear on the Bruce Dickinson Friday Rock Show on Friday, May 22. The show airs each Friday on BBC 6 Music between 9 p.m. and midnight and is available online for a week after that.

In other news, a new installment of the Wordography is up on Caramba: She Thinks It’s a Crime.

Thanks to Blabbermouth, Daniel Bengtsson and Steve Campbell for the info.

Glenn Hughes has been confirmed as one of the guest artists on this summer’s Rhapsody in Rock tour of Sweden. The tour will do seven shows in Sweden this summer. Other guest artist at the shows will be Albert Lee and LaGaylia Frazier.

“Now this really lives up to the name Rhapsody in rock. This summer’s concerts will lean more on the rockier side,” Rhapsody in Rock leader Robert Wells said to the Swedish edition of Metro.

Rhapsody in Rock is a music project started by the Swedish piano player Robert Wells in 1989. Every summer the project featuring a symphony orchestra, a rock band, guest artists, backup singers and dancers is one of the most visited tours in Sweden. Rhapsody in Rock has also done appearances at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The music performed is a mix of Wells original compositions, rocked up classical pieces and rock songs done in an orchestral arrangement.

Robert Wells also composed the theme music for the television broadcasts from the olympic games in Beijing 2008.

Here is a clip of Rhapsody in Rock performing Smoke on the Water.

The tour dates:
July 13th – Dalhalla, Rättvik
July 14th – Dalhalla, Rättvik
July 15th – Dalhalla, Rättvik

August 14th – Kastellet, Vaxholm
August 15th – Kastellet, Vaxholm
August 28th – Dalhalla, Rättvik

Rhapsody in Rock on Myspace.

Two months after Deep Purple concert in São Paulo, we had the great pleasure to see another gig of Purple family in our city. Jon Lord played the the Concerto for Group and Orchestra as the opening act of Virada Cultural, a 24-hour annual event sponsored by the municipality with hundreds of cultural events around the city – concerts, dance performances and all forms of art for free!

As hard die fans of Jon Lord we of course can’t miss this opportunity. Some people in the audience traveled over one thousand kilometers to see the the show.

The stage was set at one of the main avenues in the centre of the city. Me, my wife and daughter got very close to the front row, which contained mainly Deep Purple fans. Some were familiar with the Concerto, others expected a rock show. Some people also just showed up to enjoy the free music.

Jon Lord arrived onstage and was greeted warmly by audience. The Concerto start and the crowd went crazy when the Hammond finally was put into action.

The second and third parts of the Concerto were marked by improvisation, both from Jon as well the group musicians. The exciting drum solo was extented more than expected while Jon signaled to maestro Rodrigo Carvalho to wait a little before adding the orchestra.

After the Concerto we were granted with Wait a While and three Purple songs. Pictures of Home is a perfect hard rock song to play with a orchestra. The line is just perfect. Then Soldier of Fortune. Singers Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska made a great performance, and the amazing Child in Time closed the show.

We got 1 hour 20 minutes of the best music in the world which shows the versatility and genius of a true hero. I think the Lord could have play one or two more songs if the stage wouldn’t have had to be adjusted for the next act.

Jon Lord and Orquestra Sinfonica Municipal de São Paulo
Rodrigo Carvalho (maestro)
Steve Balsamo (vocal)
Kasia Laska (vocal)
Chester Kamen (guitar)
Guy Pratt (bass)
Steve White (drums)

Concerto For Group And Orchestra
Wait a While
Pictures of Home
Soldier of Fortune
Child in Time

Live at the Mars’ Fields, Wroclaw, May 1st, 2009.

I must admit that although I do not support Mk VIII in their approach to the live shows, I certainly enjoyed going to their gig in my hometown.

I went with no expectations to be surprised or thrilled at all, which is in a way typical when you go to the tribute band concert. And this is certainly The Best Tribute Band in the world that you ever can go to see. So it was quite a bit of fun. Good to listen, lovely to sing and jump around to the beloved songs.

Capable of making the die hard Purple conservative enjoying himself for some moments.

Overall impression: A decent show, if only you can go for it leaving any expectations for being thrilled, excited or surprised in your home. Or if they just stumple upon your city – when they’re near – you could go, see them and have some fun.

Would I recommend anybody going to see them to score the musical and spiritually exhilarating experience? By any means no. Those days are over now. Lot of fun for the casual audience, nothing to brag about for the long time follower.

I decided to group my observations in the plus (+) and minus (-) – easier to put it down this way.

[+]

– “Rapture Of The Deep” – this always reminds me of a”Stargazer” a bit and live it really sways. Great live staple off the last album.

– “Wring That Neck” had a little extended bit of Airey – Morse duel in the middle, probably to help Gillan to catch more breath as his voice was struggling. I guess they learned the trick during Sunflower Jam, can’t be sure ’cause I only have read the reviews. Nothing stunning craftwise, but it was a nice reminder of a good times 10-11 years before, when they used to mess around some songs a minute or two.

– “The Battle Rages On” – slowed down in pace to the typical takes, it became a monsterous crawler. Amazing, ripping into the ground, truly hypnotic. The biggest highlight of the show. Stunning.

– Don Airey’s solo spot – wonderful, even if totally predictable. Lovely portion of the spacey Moog, a lot of Chopin bits on the coloured piano, some boogie, national anthem and no Star Wars (yeah!!!). Just perfect, appreciated by the crowd and yours truly.

– “Smoke…” – the ending with Airey having a solo – nice reminder of the best Purple live album.

– “Black Night” – this is always exciting when the 10.000 + throats sing it around. A showcase track for Glover and Morse, a lot of good playing and bits of improv – Steve even threw in a chorus from Queen’s “We Will Rock You” – it took a few bars for the crowd to recognize it. Plus a great audience – Steve duel for the very end.

– spontaneous reaction of the crowd; typically those who drop in to Purple concerts ocassionally were stuned with what they saw and heard.

[-]

– Ian Gillan’s voice, between song banter and stage antics – below any standards as for him. He did his best to hide the bad throat day, but it was obvious that he will suffer on this four nights in a row string. Perhaps the days of saving the voice are over. All in all, this is just another ‘The Best Of Tour’. The banter forumula is ‘play one -> repeat’ CD programme, some of the stage moves show that his libido might be very unfulfilled. Not a very inspiring shape of the legend really.

– Don Airey’s solos in-songs: no improvising, just copying Lord’s parts from records. In the context of Purple praised live formula this is the hardest crime. Sound of the Hammond was, especially at the start, very thin, but luckilly got improved as the set went on.

– the selection of material from the Morse’s era was apalling. If “Things I Never Said”, “Contact Lost” and “Wrong Man” are the most representative tunes for the 15 years period of Steve’s tenure in the band – then passing on the condolences to the band is really worth a thought.

– “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” still suffers from the slaughtered ending. Even the single edit from 1996 had a better arrangement. Shame.

Set List:

Highway Star
Things I Never Said
Wrong Man
Strange Kind Of Woman
Rapture Of The Deep
Fireball
Contact Lost – Steve Morse Solo
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Well Dressed Guitar
Wring That Neck
The Battle Rages On
Don Airey Solo – Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Smoke On The Water

Southern Rock Wobble – Hush – Paice Solo
Glover Solo – Black Night

There was a time before Ritchie went from being evil to mediæval. The time was 1988 and the place was Frankenstein Castle in Germany where Deep Purple were having Nobody’s Perfect release party.

Read the contemporary report with more (bordering on hilarious) pictures at the Stars and Stripes archive.

P.S. I think it was at that party Ritchie first met a German folk band called Des Geyers Schwarzer Haufen and the seeds of what he is doing today might have been sown.

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited has done an interview with Gillan:

Jeb: Are you comfortable that your music makes up some of those deep roots?

Ian: I have constantly said, with the greatest respect to everyone, that you only have a very short time where you have any contemporary value. The rest of it is really your life’s work. We had that short window of opportunity with great commercialism; it was part of our generation. Contemporary art and music can never be judged from a different perspective because you have to be part of it to appreciate it and value it. The previous generation doesn’t like it. My uncle, who is a great jazz pianist, ran screaming from the room when he heard Deep Purple In Rock. He said, “This is a big racket. It is nothing but noise.” From where he was standing, he was right but from where I was standing, it was a glorious racket.

Read the interview at the Classic Rock Revisited.

German TV channel ZDFdokukanal is currently showing a documentary about Montreux Jazz Festival. From what we understand, the film includes an extensive interview with Claude Nobs and covers both the story of burning down the gambling house and the recent Deep Purple appearances at the festival. The documentary started airing on April 25 and will be shown again on May 1 at 12:00 and 23:00.

Thanks to Denis Zürcher for the info.

I discovered DP in 1972 thru the Machine Head album, I was 16, immediately I got hooked to these guys and became a DIE HARD fan till these days.

Never had the chance to see them in those days… until the dream come true on 1997 during the Purpendicular tour. Even though I missed Ritchie a lot, the band was superb. Power, groove, almost a perfect machine as I was used to. Then i saw them again in 2000 with the Orchestra, different show but still Deep Purple.

I was at the last show now in Buenos Aires, I have to say it was boring. Sorry for saying this but I left the venue (poor sound) lack of excitment and emotion. Sad is the true term.

My all time ROCK HEROES (they always will be no matter what) seemed to be just a bad copy of the originals. Big Ian fails with his screaming (he should stop doing it), Steve is not Ritchie and Don is not Jon. Only little Ian (god bless him) still keeps the sacred fire, but this isn’t Deep Purple anymore.

I am very sad and never imagined myself saying this but this is how I feel. Please guys, it’s time to retire and keep the glory alive. I am Daniel From Argetina, as I said I will love you all no matter what.

My TRUE respect and admiration for you guys. The best rock band ever in earth.

Hope you post this.
Thank you.