All South American dates that we had listed for a while now, have been officially confirmed by the Deep Purple management. The only additional date is March 5 in Florianopolis, Brazil. We still do not know anything about the venue in Antofagasta, Chile, so if anyone has more information, please get in touch or leave a comment here. Likewise for any other additions, corrections, etc.

Another date have been added (unconfirmed so far): a special appearance at the Dubai Bike Week on March 20. This one comes from the local media.

Los Angeles sleaze rockers Snew get a gold star in the “somewhat innovative covers dept.” because they:

a. Didn’t choose Smoke on the Water as a Deep Purple cover to record.
b. Invited an unlikely guest musician to solo on the track.

The guest is legendary prog/fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth who delivers two of his trademark insane solos on this track. One solo on his regular electric guitar and one on his SynthAxe, playing an organ sound to make his best Jon Lord impression.

The result? Well, if you’re into Mötley Crüe-type sleaze metal then you might like it. Me, not being a fan of many things sleazy, and being a fan of Allan Holdsworth, thought the solos were the coolest thing about the song.

The song will be exclusively available free for the entire month of February on the Snew website as a free download to all who registers on the site.

If you get more curious about the great Mr. Holdsworth, there are as usual several great recordings to check out on YouTube. Here’s a couple of goodies.

Whitesnake will play this year at the Download festival in Castle Donington. The festival will run on the weekend of June 12-14 with Coverdale and his boys reportedly appearing on the 14th, just before headliners Def Leppard. Festival passes and packages go on sale Friday, February 13, at 9 a.m. (more info). Live Nation presale starts on Thursday, February 12, at 9 a.m. on www.livenation.co.uk (you need to register at downloadfestival.co.uk and/or livenation.co.uk for the presale). Individual day passes might be available at a later date, depending on the sales of weekend packages.

In preparation for the Donington show, Whitesnake will also tour for three weeks around Europe, starting with an open air in Sandnes, Norway on May 21. That tour will include headlining several festivals, and playing some low-key, smaller venues outside of major cities. We will post the details as soon as we get them.

Thanks to Blabbermouth.net and Nigel Young for the info.

Joe Lynn Turner has a couple of interviews out, dealing mostly with Over The Rainbow, with some old time Rainbow anecdotage thrown in for the good measure, and also the recent JLT’s Live in Germany record.

The first one is with AntiMusic:

Morley: I understand you’ll start off by touring. Do you anticipate recording new material down the road?
Joe: Yeah. Good question Morley. It’s been discussed. Already it’s been discussed, you know, whether or not, or when we should do new material. Right now we really feel that we’ve got to get this thing off the ground and it’s got to be a good show and novel enough and valuable enough for people to want to come and see it. Which I think just the concept it already is. I mean, when I found out that Jurgen was going to do it, I said: “You know Jurgen,” I said, “Even your father will come to the show out of curiosity.”

Read the whole interview at antimusic.com.

The second one is with the Metallville Magazine:

What is the funniest thing you have ever read about yourself?
JLT: That I am gay!! LOL!! That is by far the most rediculous, yet, finniest thing I have heard. I am SO FAR from gay it’s crazy. I guess the fact that I am more refined looking, polished in appearance and have good grooming habits that some people might have that incorrect impression…LOL! Very funny.

Read the whole thing here. And no lipstick jokes! 😉

Thanks to Lisa Walker and Mike Garrett for the info.

Last October Deep Purple toured Russia and for the first time performed in the city of Perm. The people there are not (yet) spoiled by the international rock stars of such calibre, and the visit drew significant attention in the local media. If you ever were interested what do the eat and drink backstage, now you have a chance to see for yourself 😉

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the link.

In Brescia and Trento the man in black was in the mood for some encores. Here are the setlists and a few video clips.

Brescia, February 6:

God save the keg
Locked within the crystal ball
Queen for a day
Under a violet moon
Soldier of fortune
Durch den wald zum Bachaus
World of stone
Bard David solo/Theme from “Carmina Burana”/Squire Malcolm solo
Ariel
Loreley
Home again
Toast to tomorrow
Far far away
Fires at midnight
Renaissance faire
The clock ticks on
Diamonds and rust

Encores:
Difficult to cure
Saint Teresa
The Village Lanterne
Now and then

Levico Terme (Trento), February 7:

God save the keg
Locked within the crystal ball
Queen for a day
Under a violet moon
Soldier of fortune
Durch den wald zum Bachaus
World of stone
Home again
Bard David solo/Theme from “Carmina Burana”/Squire Malcolm solo
Ariel
Loreley
Toast to tomorrow
Wind in the willows
Ghost of a rose
Fires at midnight
Renaissance faire
The clock ticks on

Encores:
Difficult to cure
Saint Teresa
Smoke on the water
First day of May

Thanks to Mike Garrett and Luis Hoyo for the info.

Roger Glover’s Love Is All continues to pop up in different cartoons. This version by Florabelle et la Mushroom Family has been listed for 40 weeks in the France Singles Top 100. It entered the chart at number 65 in the week starting July 10, 2006, and it’s last appearance was in the week of July 9-15, 2007. It peaked at 19th position in the chart, where it stayed for 2 weeks.
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The Moonstone Project has signed a deal with Swedish label Blistering Records to release their new album Rebel On The Run. Glenn Hughes contributed music and vocals on the track called Closer Than You Think. Moonstone’s guitarist Matt Filippini recalls:

Closer Than You Think is a beautiful gift from Glenn. He wrote that magical piece while I was at his house in LA. We were watching TV in his living room & suddenly he ran into his studio, picked up his guitar & 5 minutes later the song was born!

Ian Paice also is making a guest appearance on the album, along with Clive Bunker and Ken Hensley. The lineup is completed with Matt Filippini (guitars), Alessandro Del Vecchio (keyboards), James Christian (lead vocals), Nik Mazzucconi (bass), Francesco Jovino (studio drums), Alex Mori (live drums), Robin Beck and Roberto Tiranti (both backing vocals).

There are four live dates announced so far in support of the album, three of them with Glenn Hughes (Tirana, Albania, Cermenate, Italy and Varese, Italy), and another one with Doogie White, on May 15 at the Motorock Festival in Cremona, Italy.

Ross Halfin reminisces in his blog:

Jerry Bloom the editor of www.moreblackthanpurple.co.uk and www.bloomsbagels.com (more Purple than Black Bagels) has written a very good letter making some valid points on Deep Purple and how the story could have been, well, better. It wasn’t that bad a story, it was just a bit matter of fact. At Wembley in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I don’t remember the date) I was watching Deep Purple with Peter Makowski from behind Ritchie’s amps. He was not happy with the show and kept making W signs with his hands at Ian Gillan. This meant that he might as well have been playing to a brick wall. As they finished the show Ritchie said ‘Lets do one encore and go.’ Ian, who had been drinking thoughout the show, poked Blackmore in the chest and said, ‘You’re not embarassing me in front of my family, we’re doing three encores.’ Blackmore looked at him straight-faced and said, ‘You’re absolutely right,’ then walked on and started the riff to Smoke On The Water. As the band joined in Ritchie walked back behind his amp, took off his guitar handed it to his guitar tech, Cookie, looked at Peter and I and said ‘Come on, we’re going.’. We followed him off the stage into his car and went to the bar at the Sheraton Hotel in Kensington. Not very funny in hindsight but at the time we were pissing ourselves laughing. An indignant Ritchie said while drinking a scotch and coke ‘He’s not poking me!’

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Russian English language weekly St.Petersburg Times in it’s article “Buyer beware” writes about the practice of local promoters misrepresenting the artists for something they are not. Advertisement for the upcoming Over The Rainbow show in St.Petersburg is given as one of the examples:

As the advertising campaign for the show began late last year, posters and smaller advertisements for the upcoming local concert had a different version of the band’s logo. The word “Rainbow” was in the largest type, while the words “Over the” are inexplicably hidden in small type somewhere below.

The posters also describe Over the Rainbow as a “Legenda Roka” (the Russian for “A Legend of Rock”), even though the band’s formation was officially announced in a press release only in December. (“Legends of Rock,” in plural, perhaps would be correct, as related to some of the members, but “A Legend” in singular over the word “Rainbow” implies that it will be a concert by none other than Rainbow itself.)

The whole article is posted online (with photos of questionable posters). The Highway Star gets a couple of name checks in there.