We have a bunch of new Whitesnake summer dates. The European leg of the tour has lost the Classic Rock Festival in Norway (where the parent company went bankrupt), but gained a gig in Århus, Denmark on June 1.

The North American tour of corporate sheds on both coasts and open air festivals in the Midwest will start on June 26 and work it’s way around the continent until August 11. And we use the ‘North American’ moniker in a very broad sense as it includes only one date outside of the US — July 7 in Toronto, Canada. Many of these dates will indeed be on a double bill with Judas Priest, and whatever indications are available at this time point to Whitesnake opening for Priest.

Full details in our Purple Calendar.

Please note that the North American dates (nor the new Danish show) have not been confirmed on Whitesnake.com.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

A classic Purple interview with Ritchie Blackmore, conducted by Chris Welch and originally published in Melody Maker on September 26, 1970:

When Deep Purple smashed up their equipment on a TV show recently, there were howls of protest throughout the land. A flood of complaints hit MM’s Mailbag, and there were rumbles of discontent from Caithness to Beccles.

Chief among the targets for abuse is Purple guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, a mild-mannered, dark-haired chap who occasionally sets fire to his amplifier.

(Don’t you love the British sense of humour?)

What did he think of all this controversy?

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” he smiled slightly, sipping tea. “The TV show from the South Bank just didn’t go off as well as we expected. It was a tele-recording, and they cut out some of our numbers and just showed the climax, which was annoying. Apparently the sound was bad and everything was cut to pieces. We just did our usual stage act and it didn’t come off. But so what? If we want to do it—we will. We’ll be changing our stage act completely soon. A lot of people have seen it now—especially reporters.”

Ritchie talked about his early influences: “I used to idolize Les Paul and Wes Montgomery. But it’s more of a challenge for me to play rock than jazz, and control a 200-watt amplifier. Sure rock is harder to play than jazz. You see, rock is so limited. In jazz, you can play anything. I don’t think there is a single guitarist who has MASTERED rock guitar playing.”

Read the whole interview at Wolfgang’s Vault.

We have previously featured the Southbank Summer footage discussed in the interview. Sadly, it’s no longer available on YouTube, but will be included on the upcoming History, Hits & Highlights 1968-76 2 DVD set to be released in June.

Thanks to Jim Collins for spotting the interview.

Gillan did another radio appearance on the weekend, this time on Planet Rock in the UK. We apologise that we have not been able to give you an advance notice. The show will be repeated on Tuesday, March 31, at 6 p.m.

We’ve got a couple of great features this weekend, starting on Saturday when Ian Gillan drops into the studio for My Planet Rocks

Tune in to hear Ian talk about his new album One Eye To Morocco, about his time in Deep Purple and their upcoming tour and of course the music that influenced him in the early days.

My Planet Rocks is on Saturday at 6pm, and repeated on Tuesday at 6pm.

Thanks to Doug A for the info.

Ian Gillan did an interview with UltimateGuitar.com and by all accounts he was as baffled as we are that a guitar site wants to interview him. Besides the obligatory talk of his new album, some insights into Big Ian’s reading habits, early music influences, and mildly amusing anecdotage have floated:

Two to three weeks ago, I took part in a photograph session in Milan. It was quite weird, actually. Quite a few girls were present, such as my personal assistant, the hairdresser girl, the makeup girl, the translator, etcetera etcetera. Quietly in the background, they gave ‘One Eye to Morocco’ a spin.. They chattered over the album, and no-one really listened. I saw something in the corner of my eyes though; I tried to concentrate on having my photograph taken, and noticed all their bums moving. I thought “Ahh. Mission accomplished here”. That’s exactly what I wanted. As opposed to Deep Purple type material, you might describe ‘One Eye to Morocco’ as more thrusting. The album is much more intimate, and seductive.

And as for the plans of Purple’s next album, the answer is not encouraging at all:

Could you provide an update regarding Deep Purple’s plans for the next several months?
Well, we have shows booked up until January 2010.. I’m just home for a day or two to do some laundry. We’ll be performing little one nighters in Brussels, Berlin and Dubai, and then we’ll perform dates in Japan, Russia, and a batch of European concerts. We have shows booked in South Africa and North America, as well as a UK tour in November. We’ll then tour France over Christmas and January, and on it goes.
Are there plans to record Deep Purple’s nineteenth studio album?
There are no plans, no. It’s like everything, I guess. We don’t make plans – it’ll just happen.

Read the whole interview

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Wolfgang’s Vault has posted an entire recording of the much bootlegged radio broadcast of the 1981 Rainbow show at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, Mass. We are not sure how long it will stay there as previously Wolfgang’s Vault had to pull off some material because of licensing issues, but enjoy while it lasts.
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One of the biggest and most prestigious rock festivals in Europe — Sweden Rock Festival — has booked Over The Rainbow to play at the festival this year. The exact date has not been released yet. Sweden Rock 2009 will run June 3rd to 6th at their usual location near Solvesborg in Sweden.

Thanks to SRF for the info.

BraveWords report that Blackmore’s Night are currently in the studio with producer Pat Regan. No further details are available at this point.

No, they are not jamming together. Unfortunately.

Rick has been pre-recording a new music talk show called Rick Wakeman – Face To Face. One of the episodes features an interview with Jon Lord:

Update: Jon Lord’s official website features a longer trailer for the interview – watch it at JonLord.org.

The complete episode is 52 minutes long and can be purchased for $6 via rockondigital.com. You’ll have to go through a rather convoluted process of registering with them, purchasing “credits” through PayPal, and then exchanging credits for the download.

Thanks to Rick Wakeman Communication Centre for the info.

Unfortunately, Wednesday Gillan’s appearance on Rockline radio show didn’t happen. Big Ian was supposed to appear on the show via a link between London and Los Angeles, but there appeared to be technical difficulties with the link. The host of the show, Bruce Coburn, first played a couple of tunes off One Eye To Morocco trying to buy some time, but eventually said that Gillan’s appearance will have to be rescheduled and a recording of the 2006 promoting Gillan’s Inn was put on the air. We will let you know of the new date (if any).

Since printed word does not have such limitations (especially when published online), Martin Popoff interview with Gillan have appeared on BraveWords without further delay:

“Brilliant, amazing, best thing they’ve ever heard; of course, this is only from the first 200 journalists I’ve spoken to,” laughs the mischievous but always charming leader of the greatest hard rock band ever (Gillan) and also the fourth (Purple), on his new rock-lite solo album One Eye To Morocco.

One Eye To Morocco is out now on Eagle Records. Touring it is unlikely, as Ian and his celebrated graybeards are pumped and primed to enter the studio soon to at least consider the idea of a next Deep Purple studio album.

Read the whole interview on BraveWords.

And to relieve the frustration of the botched Rockline appearance, here is Pete Feenstra‘s insightful interview with the man:

Thanks to BraveWords, Glen Miller, Nigel Young and Daniel Bengtsson.

Needless to say, Nick Simper and The Nasty Habits playd an unforgettable show – powerful, rousing, I wish they do it one more time.

On March 14th 2009 Mr. Simper played his third concert here and the Nasty Habits were once again much more than faithful accompanists. Together they celebrated the beloved, but seldom heard Deep Purple hits from the early years.

The Reigen Club in Vienna is a well known location for people who haves an interest in highbrow music.
It is permanent venue of the Blues Spring and the Jazz Festival Vienna and a lot of famous musicians
like Al Di Meola or Brian Auger for example performed there.

The Nasty Habits are a powerful Viennese rock band, specialized to support rock stars in Austria.
The first part of the show contained a couple of usual Nasty Habits songs to warm up. For the second part, Nick Simper came on stage to came true a dream.

I met fans from all over Europe – Poland, Croatia, UK, Germany, Switzerland and of course, from the high moutains of Austria.

Setlist:
And The Address
The Painter
Mandrake Root
Emmaretta
Chasing Shadows
Lalena
Wring That Neck
Why Didn’t Rosemary
Roadhouse Blues
Kentucky Woman
Hush
Gimme Some Lovin`

Text and photos by Ralph Grille