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The year was 1984, the spring was in the air, the video machines were all the rage, and Deep Purple were celebrating their reunion with a red carpet press conference in New York City. The banjo player stayed in his dungeon though. Or something 😉 Continue Reading »
A California company is marketing a 2007 Lodi Zinfandel with a Mk1-ish label design (and, we assume, appropriate colour), and a name of a band which recorded one of the first albums the winemaker had bought. The Gray Market Report has the story:
Turns out McDonald has trademarked Deep Purple as a wine, and that under US law, there’s no possible confusion between products. Despite the recent album cover, one is an aging rock band, and the other is a fresh young wine.
But it turns out that the band shops at Target, because shortly after the wine’s release, McDonald got a call from the band’s manager, who was very excited about the wine, in a good way. He wanted to know if there were opportunities for joint promotions (no, not THAT kind of joint. Well, maybe not.)
McDonald shipped a band member a bottle of wine, though he hasn’t yet heard whether or not it inspired the group to burn down a recording studio. So we might yet see “This Deep Purple concert sponsored by Deep Purple!” Now if McDonald can just use his smooth PR skills to tell them there have to better ways to announce your availability to groupies than that album cover.
Never mind the “recent” album cover (you know, the one with a glass of wine; yeah, it was a comeback album of sorts, but it was in 1976), Gray Market Report it’s a wine and food blog after all. Music history is not their specialty.
And their verdict was
Deep Purple is the way Zinfandel used to be back when Deep Purple had its pick of underripe groupies — spicy, medium-bodied and savory, with red fruit flavors and an earthy, tarry note.
So apparently it’s good news for the lovers of fermented grape juice. Me, I like my juice fermented from malted barley (maybe with a touch of honey), and seasoned with noble hops. 😉
Cheers!
At a press conference in Yerevan yesterday, March 27, Ian Gillan said that his performances with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra will be released on DVD which will be available internationally. He praised orchestra’s professionalism and added that he considers Armenia his “spiritual motherland”.
The proceeds from both shows as well as from the sales of the DVD will go to the reconstruction of Gyumri music school.
On March 27th Big Ian and Rock Aid Armenia project initiator Jon Dee met with the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan who expressed gratitude for all their assistance to the country since 1988.
Thanks to News.am and BraveWords for the info.
The official Deep Purple online store is running a promotion to celebrate it’s recent opening. If you spend over £20 they’ll give you a £5 discount (enter voucher code DP-WTX1-BLMT-GTW3 at the checkout) and you will be automatically entered into a prize draw. Two winners will receive a set of DVDs plus an autographed photo of the band. The DVD set will include:
This promotion runs until May 31st.
Click on the logo will take you directly to the store.
During his visit to Armenia Ian Gillan will appear on local TV on March 28. He was invited to take part in the Hay Superstar show (which is a local equivalent of Pop Idol) and he “gladly accepted”. Three of the show participants will perform Deep Purple songs and then perform two more songs together with Big Ian himself. The show will be broadcast on Shant TV.
He will also perform the planned solo shows on March 26 and 27 at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan with the State Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Friedemann Riehle.
Thanks to Armenians.net and Kevid Dixon for the info.
The band formerly known as Black Country got together at a Joe Bonamassa show in Riverside, CA, March 17, to make their first live appearance.
Glenn Hughes has promsied an announcement of the new band name “soon”.
Russian promoters have announced that Deep Purple will headline this year the biggest rock festival in Russia Rock nad Volgoi, which will be held on June 12 in an open field in the outskirts of Samara. The inaugural festival in 2009 featured Ken Hensley, Apocalyptica and a variety of local bands. It attracted 167,000 visitors and was so successful that the organisers decided to turn it into an annual event.
Thanks to deep-purple.ru for the info.
The brand new official Deep Purple video channel has opened:
Encompassing the band’s ongoing 42 year career, and backed by multi label collaboration, Deep Purple is proud to release DPTV as part of the growing MUZU phenomena:
MUZU.TV is a video streaming site dedicated to music. MUZU.TV serves high quality video and provides a constant stream of Deep Purple videos as part of the viewers’ play list. In the coming weeks more video content will be uploaded, and we can confirm that the stunning 2010 remix of Rock Aid Armenia’s “Smoke On The Water” will be launched through the site.
The channel aslo has an RSS feed to keep you updated of all the official video developments.
The 2010 Tommy Bolin Music Festival will be held Friday and Saturday July 30th & 31st in Bolin’s hometown of Sioux City, Iowa. This years show will feature Johnnie Bolin, Stan Sheldon, The Stella Blue Band, Bobby Berge, Roger Rothwell, and numerous other acts yet to be announced. Friday nights show will be free, with Saturday’s admission being $10.00. Hotel reservations can be made at The Roadway Inn (1401 Zenith Drive Sioux City, IA 712-277-3211) for $59.99 a night. For more information go to www.TommyBolin.com
Thanks to Trace for the info.
JonLord.org has launched an exclusive preview of To Notice Such Things, Jon Lord’s new album, to be released on March 29.
Find out more about To Notice Such Things on JonLord.org/tnst
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing