A Glenn Hughes’ South American tour has just been announced for November 2025. The São Paulo date on November 16th has been on sale for a while, and listed in our calendar as unconfirmed. It is confirmed now, along with 10 more shows in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, albeit the last one with an asterisk.
Curiously, the tour is billed as The Chosen Years in English, but local promoters advertise it as Turnê/Tour de Despedida, which in Portuguese and Spanish means The Farewell Tour. Take it with a grain of salt, it’s not the first time promoters took to gimmicks to boost sales.
Promo blurb reads:
The shows promise to be a dynamic, turn-back-the-clocks, two-hour live extravaganza homage to his illustrious career spanning 5 decades in music – including songs from Trapeze, Deep Purple, Hughes/Thrall, Iommi/Hughes and Black Country Communion – some of music history’s most seminal and influential rock and roll groups. Not only that, the shows will feature brand new music from Glenn’s upcoming solo album due for release in Summer 2025.
Glenn comments:
To all my fans in South America : This is a very special tour for me, and I’m thanking you for all the years of your incredible LOVE and support. You have my heart. I can’t wait to be with you ✌️
As well as Glenn on lead vocals and bass guitar, the touring band features Soren Anderson on guitar, and drummer Ash Sheehan.
In this instalment of Tales from the Tavern, Ritchie Blackmore plays a tune that he heard in ’64 or ’65. That’d be 1564-65, presumably. Continue Reading »
Bob Ezrin is among the recipients of the Canadian 2025 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. This award recognizes artists who have “made an indelible contribution to cultural life in Canada and around the world”. The awards ceremony will be held on June 14, 2025, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Bob Ezrin, O.C. – Music and entertainment producer, music education advocate and serial activist
In a legendary career as a music and entertainment producer and entrepreneur, Bob Ezrin has worked around the world on recordings, TV, film, and live event production with such prominent international artists as Pink Floyd, U2, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Taylor Swift, Alice Cooper, Edward Burtynsky, Kiss, Lou Reed, The Canadian Tenors, Aerosmith, Hollywood Vampires, Berlin, and Nine Inch Nails, among many others. One of the most highly respected and sought-after producers in the world, he is also a generous philanthropist and a passionate advocate for music education.
Congratulations to Mr. Ezrin on this well deserved honour!
A couple of items from the desk of our trainspotting department.
British TV series SAS Rogue Heroes is a WW2 action/adventure drama based on “mostly true” events. What it lacks in historical accuracy, it makes up in the entertainment value. And a very anachronistic soundtrack. Season 2, episode 5 features a convoy of said rogue heroes spiritedly driving behind the enemy lines to blow something up, accompanied by the studio version of the Highway Star. It was a big chunk of the track — from the main riff to just after Jon’s solo, then skipping to the end.
From the other side of the pond, an upcoming episode of a “tough guy in a pickle” series Reacher (season 3, episode 6) is titled Smoke on the Water. No further details yet. The episode is scheduled to be released on March 13, 2025.
[Update March 16]:Soap Central has an update on the Reacher S03E06, and it is chock-full of spoilers. Suffice to say, there is water, there is fire, and there is smoke in there.
Thanks to Mad Hatter and Kick Koopman for the info.
A piece in Ultimate Guitargoes all drooling over this guitarist’s take on Blackmore’s solo in Burn:
Here’s How Ritchie Blackmore’s ‘Burn’ Solo Should Sound in 2025
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “What do you mean it ‘should’ sound like anything?” Of course, you’re right, Ritchie Blackmore’s solo section in “Burn” is the stuff of legends. Just listen to it, he really did a number on that guitar, definitely made it scream like never before (possibly). “Burn” simply stands out among Deep Purple’s songs because of how well the solo complements the energy of the other sections.
But, if for a second, we tried to imagine this solo in a new context, modernized to meet the standards of rock and metal music in 2025, we’d really have to open up our minds to the possibilities. Let’s not go too far and imagine some kind of proggy, techno-industrial nightmare spin. We could just imagine a shredder taking the solo to the next level.
Feel free to discuss. 😉
Credits:
Andre Nieri — guitar
Levi Clay — transcription
Continuing with the tidal wave of Gillan news, the 2011 documentary about Frédéric Chopin narrated by Big Ian has been recently posted on ’em intertubes. Due to the scarcity of archival footage of Mr. Chopin, we get to see a lot of the narrator, riding horse carriages and tractors, and even partaking in a village dance. Continue Reading »
Louder Soundteases Gillan’s interview appearing in the current (#337) issue of the Classic Rock magazine. The interview largely deals with Gillan the band years, and the teaser is the story that most of us have heard before — of Blackmore trying to recruit Gillan to sing for Rainbow.
The reason I had left Deep Purple was that they were moving into a kind of territory [later filled by Rainbow]. I didn’t want that. I wanted a group with grit, excitement and edge. Also one that had balls. That’s no reflection on Ritchie, who was a fantastic, amazing guitar player – in fact I said: ‘You can come and play in my band if you want’ – but Ritchie has firm ideas about how things should be, and there were things that we disagreed on.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan8.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride1.jpg)
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing