Back in 1996 Tony Ashton recorded a song in tribute to John Lennon. The song is called The Big Freedom Dance and is named after Hamburg’s Grosse Freiheit Strasse, which housed the famous Star Club, showcase for many of Britain’s young musicians in the 60s. This was where the Beatles first made their mark, and where the young Tony Ashton, playing keyboards in another Brian Epstein band, The Remo Four, did his musician’s ‘apprenticeship’, as he put it.
Some years after John Lennon’s shocking death, Tony recorded this personal tribute to John — a song made even more poignant by the death since of his old friend George Harrison, and by Tony’s own death in 2001.
The song is being released by Tony’s widow Sandra and should be available worldwide on iTunes from this week.
Thanks to Drew Thompson for the info.
Although there has been no word yet from Thames Talent, it looks like the summer Deep Purple tour is shaping up. New tour dates are being announced by the local media and are trickling in almost on a daily basis. For some of these, tickets are already on sale or going on sale shortly.
So far we have a string of Scandinavian dates in July and one show in June, an open air in Bavaria, Germany. As the past experience suggests, time between them will hardly go to waste. Details will be posted as soon as we receive them.
If you have any further information — additions, correction, new dates, venues, ticket info — do not hesitate to let us know. And we will make sure the rest of the world knows too. 😉
Here’s a video clip from the finals of Slovakia Got Talent TV show. The performer is a 12 year old Rony Janeček, who has been playing guitar for 2 years. Between this kid, Los Gauchos, and the Japanese girls that rule, perhaps after all there is hope for the new generation.
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On the eve of the first ever Whitesnake concert in Ukraine, David Coverdale appeared at a press conference in Kiev. Here we present you with the complete video recording of the event (about 20 minutes long). There’s quite a few of Purple reminicencies in there and plenty of trademark David’s joviality going on.
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Russian promoters SAV Entertainment have announced that Ian Paice will visit Moscow to perform a drum clinic on February 8, 2009. The clinic will be at the Central House of Artists and tickets will be available via www.kassir.ru.
Thanks to Dmitry Zaretsky for the info.
Big Noize, featuring Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, together with bassist Phil Soussan (Ozzy Osbourne, Vince Neil), guitarist Carlos Cavazo (Quet Riot, Ratt) and drummer Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio), have cancelled their tour of South America, literally hours before the first concert on December 4th in Lima, Peru. Band’s management and promoters are blaming each other.
On December 3, 2008, Argentina-based promoters 4G Producciones have issued the following statement:
Unfortunately, once again, for issues unrelated to our production, the band Big Noize decided to arbitrarily and unilaterally cancel the shows in South America without giving further explanations. We know the harm caused to those who bought their tickets and ask for sincere apologies for what happened. We also remain very hurt by the cancellation of two days of the show and having paid the cost of production and having met in a timely manner with our obligations towards the band Big Noize. It is available for the return of the money in places that were acquired sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The next day, December 4, 2008 Big Noize and booking agent Sullivan Bigg released their side of the story:
Although there were several promoters involved, all of them were in breach of contract by failing to make arrangements and provide the funding as agreed, despite repeated requests from band management and agent. Big Noize waited to cancel until “the last minute” in good faith that flight/hotel arrangements and funding would show up. As of today, neither flight/hotel arrangements or funding has been sent to band management nor their agent. The members of Big Noize were looking forward to playing to fans on this tour. The band, management and booking agent are all sad and disappointed that this has happened but they are looking forward to an opportunity in the future to reschedule a tour to South America with more reputable promoters.
Thanks to BraveWorlds.com and Lisa Walker for the info.
French station Radio Mercure 93FM will air a 90-minute Blackmore’s Night special on December 5 at 21:25 CET. Radio Mercure also broadcasts online in a variety of stream formats.
Blackmore’s Night have a string of European dates pencilled in for the late January and early February. A tour of US South and West coast is planned between April 16 and May 6. Details are posted in our tourdates section as we receive them.
Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.
Another one from the weird covers department — an anonymous Japanese 22 year old girl amuses herself by recording guitar covers and posting them on Youtube. And did I mention she can play? See for yourself: Continue Reading »
Monday December 1st, from 7:00-8:00 am (central time) Stormin’ Norm from KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City will be having John Herdt and Johnnie Bolin as special call in guests. Norm will be discussing all things Bolin, from the new guitar by Dean to the new books on Tommy and the new Hartman Pedal. Norm has hosted several Tommy Bolin related radio specials in the past. You can listen it online by going to KKFI.org and choosing broadcast stream (Win or MP3).
Thanks to Trace for the info.
My girlfriend and me, had trawelled from Denmark to see Deep Purple….and only for that.
Well we came early to Munich on Saturday and spent all the afternoon and night in Olympia Park..
It’s was a sunny day, like the evening should be.
The evening stared with Gotthard…. a german rockband…. and I can tell you… They kicked ass, but under the crowds influence…. it was hall with about 15000 people….
After an hour and a half… Purple get on stage… and what a performance…. It was stunning…I was exited to see if they could follow up the show as they did in Kiel 10 days before… and they could, indeed.
The sound was good and in my point of seeing, Stevie played like it was his last time but the other guys followed up on him…all I can say
What a concert
Thank you Deep Purple, the best band ever!!!
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Back in 1996 Tony Ashton recorded a song in tribute to John Lennon. The song is called The Big Freedom Dance and is named after Hamburg’s Grosse Freiheit Strasse, which housed the famous Star Club, showcase for many of Britain’s young musicians in the 60s. This was where the Beatles first made their mark, and where the young Tony Ashton, playing keyboards in another Brian Epstein band, The Remo Four, did his musician’s ‘apprenticeship’, as he put it.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing