JLT spoke to Classic Rock Magazine’s Geoff Barton about Ritchie Blackmore’s reaction to Over The Rainbow:

At first Ritchie was fine about it all. Then certain people – two of them – who are very close to him started to put ideas into his head.

Then Ritchie suddenly became very antagonistic. Things got so bad that he insisted Jurgen – his own son – couldn’t use the name ‘Blackmore’. Jurgen’s full name is Jurgen Richard Blackmore – it says so on his birth certificate.

So, he ended up sending a copy of that to Ritchie, to prove he had every right to the name. Thankfully, that’s all behind us now, and everything’s back on an even keel.

Thanks to Blabbermouth.net for the info.

Ian Gillan with a symphony orchestra in Poland? Wow! I thought he would perform in Germany only. So nice to hear he was invited by the promoters of the Solidarity of Arts Festival. I had to see it!

Apart from Ian Gillan, many other artists performed there: Tosh Meets Marley (I like reggae, so I liked them, too), Lech Janerka with Klaus Mitffoch (one of our rock bands that I like, too), Nina Hagen (a very poor show, alas!) and Myslovitz (another Polish rock group). I had a good time, altough I couldn’t wait for Ian Gillan…

At last! But before he appeared, the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra played some classical music. Then Mr Gillan came, sang three songs of Deep Purple – and announced a five minutes break. What happened? Did his throat conk out? In fact, he didn’t seem to be in good form…

But everything was OK. After five minutes we saw a big birthday cake, and then Mr Gillan. One “but”: the compere made a blunder saying IG’s birthday was “yesterday”, i.e. on 21st August! Happily there were no long speeches, Ian Gillan started to sing again, with no more breaks :).

Unfortunately his show wasn’t too long… He sang a few DP standards only. But with an orchestra they sounded amazing! I scarcely recognized some of them, “When a blind man cries” for example. As for “Vavoom: Ted the mechanic”, I didn’t recognize it at all! Apart from Deep Purple songs, he sang “No lotion for that” which came out much better than on his studio album.

All songs, except “Woman from Tokyo”, sounded great. The singer, despite his voice a bit strange, did his best and was very amiable. And he astonished me after show when he kissed a violinist’s hand. Wow! English people never do it, do they? Maybe it’s a new custom in West Europe… Quite a nice one, by the way :).

The gig was cool, but, as I’ve said, too short. A few young fans were shouting persistently “Child – in – time!”. Unfortunately no encores were planned. What a pity.

But I got some autographs from Mr Gillan. And I took a photo, too. He must like Poles indeed since he signs their CDs even at dead of night! Many thanks, Ian, we invite you again!

– Joanna Ostrowiecka

Rockpages.gr has published a recent interview they did with Don Airey. Quite an interesting reading it is, where Don touches upon many things past and present.

On the mood in the band regarding recording a new album:

Rockpages.gr: “Rapture Of The Deep” was released in 2005, Deep Purple are touring constantly, are there any news regarding a new album?

Don: I don’t know… they don’t say much. I talked to Roger about it, I am not sure what’s happening… I am sure there will be another album. The trouble you see is the touring commitments. What’s with the band, it’s a touring band, that’s how it exists. It’s a big organization. Sometimes, there are thirty people on the road, so you can understand the financial pressure. I think that the band at the moment is more successful than it’s ever been. Everything is going well, and it’s a real powerhouse! I think it’s back where it belongs, sounding like it should.

And a recent encounter with His Blackness:

I went to see Ritchie last year, me and my wife went up to Birmingham to see Blackmore’s Night, and it was great! What a show! I think he’s playing amazing! It’s different… that’s a very thing to do, which is change your act. I believe we caught him on a good night, we could have gone the night before, and it wouldn’t have been so good. But, he did a two hour show, and my wife and I went backstage, and he gave us a wonderful welcome. It was great to see him. We talked for about half an hour, just about Rainbow, and we were talking about Purple. And I said “Ritchie I feel really strange”, he asked why, and I said “well, we’re talking about Purple, and I am in, and you are not! Isn’t the world strange?”, “very strange” he replied (laughs).

There’s lots more where it came from.

Nick Simper is scheduled to be interviewed by Roger Day on BBC Radio Kent at 19.30 GMT on Tuesday, September 1. The show is also syndicated to other local BBC stations; Solent, Surrey, Sussex, Oxford and Berkshire.

It can be listened to worldwide on the Internet directly from the BBC’s web site (RealPlayer required).

Thanks to Jerry Bloom for the info.

The new Steve Morse Band album called Out Standing In Their Field will get its international release on September 25 (October 12 in France) on Edel Records.

Tracklist:

1. Name Dropping
2. Brink of the Edge
3. Here and Now and Then
4. Relentless Encroachment
5. John Deere Letter
6. More to the Point
7. Time Junction
8. Unnamed Sources
9. Flight of the Osprey
10. Baroque ‘n Dreams
11. Rising Power (Live)

All songs by Steve Morse, except “Time Junction”, which was written by Kevin Morse and Steve Morse.

Preorder the album from your nearest Amazon store:

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson and the Steve Morse fan site for the info.

Blackmore’s Night management has announced a new United States tour. We have 4 confirmed dates in October with tickets being on sale since yesterday, August 13, and by all accounts going fast. More dates are being promised.

On the other side of the pond, Over The Rainbow will start a 2-month trek in early September which will take them across the continent from Greece to Sweden and from Siberia to Spain. Full details in our Purple calendar.

PS. While it’s pretty useless to post a comment here “please come to …”, OTR management in their press release included contact details for their booking agent Paradise Artists. If you want to see Over The Rainbow at a venue near you, get a local promoter to talk to them. It’s been known to work before.

Ex-Rainbow singer Doogie White will handle male vocal duties at Jon Lord’s concert in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on September 1.

JonLord.org confirms that Doogie White is standing in for Jon Lord’s usual singer, Steve Balsamo, who is unavailable for this concert. Kasia Laska will sing the female parts.

Doogie White has released this statement:

I have been asked to sing with JON LORD (ex-DEEP PURPLE) in Plovdiv Bulgaria on September 1st. I will be standing in for the very splendid Steve Balsamo.

I will be flying there directly from doing vocals with PONTUS NORGREN in Sweden. When I get back from Bulgaria I have a quick turn around and head off to Turin.

In Turin I will be meeting up with Phil Hilborne, Neil Murray and Neil Otupacca to rehearse for a show we are playing together with IAN PAICE (Deep Purple).

The new Tank songs are coming together and we hope to start recording in the near future. The solo album is coming on nicely.

The Italian show with Ian Paice takes place on September 6 and is apparently free entrance. More details here.

‘It isn’t me – so it isn’t the others.’

Jon Lord confirms that the socalled channel mixes of Hush recently uploaded to Youtube are fakes and do not feature Deep Purple.

Jon Lord writes:

‘Just thought you’d like to know that it isn’t me – so it isn’t the others – on those Hush separate channel things on The Highway Star.’

Unimpressed with the perpetrator’s work, he adds:

‘I think I played it a bit better than that!’

Deep Purple fans have discussed the origin of the three clips purporting to be Deep Purple performing Hush in 1968.

Thanks to Jon Lord for reading The Highway Star and for setting the record straight.

Coverdale’s management has issued the following statement to the media:

Unfortunately, last night at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver, Whitesnake had to cut their performance short due to Mr Coverdale experiencing considerable pain in his vocal chords. He was immediately taken to a specialist for examination. The specialist discovered that David was suffering from severe vocal fold edema and a left vocal fold vascular lesion. He was instructed to cancel all performances for the next two weeks & then undergo a further examination. The doctors told us we were fortunate this was caught at a stage where no apparent permanent damage has been caused. We therefore regretfully have to announce that Whitesnake will not be appearing on the remainder of the US tour with Judas Priest, Whitesnake sincerely regrets any disappointment this may cause.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Listen to just bass, just guitar or just organ, drums, and vocals on a studio recording of Hush.

New on Youtube, three clips purporting to offer these instruments played by Deep Purple in separate channels:

Ritchie channel (just guitar):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYzEBQKMWc

Rod Evans, Ian Paice, Jon Lord channel (just organ, drums and voice):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbBJ_pQI5qM

Nick Simper channel (just bass):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQUZe7DEn0g

Sounds pretty genuine – but where’s it from? Could it somehow have been wrangled out of a surround mix? Fascinating still the same. Could we please have all the albums like this. Roger? 😉

Update:
Jon Lord has denied that these recordings feature Deep Purple. Read his comments.

Thanks to landinleonardo for uploading this little gem.