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.

We have 4 dates for the UK tour in November: Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and London Hammersmith. Tickets for these go on sale tomorrow, February 6, at 9 am. Please note that these dates are not yet confirmed by Purple management.

Blackmore’s Night setlist from February 3 in Milan:

God save the keg
Locked within the crystal ball
Queen for a day
Under a violet moon
Streets of London/The times they are a changin’/Soldier of fortune
Durch den wald zum Bachaus
World of stone
Home again
Toast to tomorrow
Diamonds and rust
Renaissance faire
I still remember
Peasant promise
Mr. Peagrams Morris and sword
The clock ticks on

No encores.

Thanks to Luis Hoyo and Kevin Dixon for the info.

One Eye To Morocco is featured at Caramba! Amidst the stories that were already told on the Italian radio, Ian reveals that the album will be released in the following formats:

• CD
• Limited Edition CD
• 12” Vinyl
• gatefold 7” Single (featuring two exclusive tracks as well as the full album on CD enclosed)

We are proud to mention that at the time of this writing the Limited Edition CD is already #1 in Amazon.de charts in the ‘World Music > Northern Africa’ category 😉

The album will be released in Europe on March 6 on Edel/earMUSIC.

Update (Feb 5): One Eye To Morocco will be released in the US on March 31 on Eagle Records (prebook date March 11, retail sales price $13.98).

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson and Blabbermouth.net for the info.

Ian Gillan will perform two shows with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in early September in Germany under the Classics Play Rock monicker. The tickets are already on sale for both Gräfenhainichen and Magdeburg. Both shows are all reserved seating. There are VIP packages being advertised for the Magdeburg show at €250. Please be advised that these VIP packages include a pre-show dinner at the Otto von Guericke Hall in Maritim Hotel Magdeburg and a seat in the first two rows, but there is no promise made of any backstage or meet’n’greet access.