Wring That Neck appeared in the setlist this summer. The grand premier of the track, performed live for the first time since those two days in September 1999 (by the “Ian Paice Big Band”), happened in Montreux on July 17. The rumour mill has it that the track never was rehearsed or intended to be played. But when Ian Gillan needed a couple of minutes to recuperate from the extremely hot venue, the band had to fill the gap with an instrumental. Don Airey started the riff and the whole band jumped right in. The song have stayed in the setlist ever since, albeit being a far cry in length from the 15-20 minute versions of the early days.

And for those who didn’t manage catch it live yet, here’s a clip from Big Twin Festival, Castellon, Spain, September 13, 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd1IhrR21FY

I wanted to share with you an incredible experience from last week’s DP gig in Caesarea Israel. Excluding the incredible venue – a real Roman Amphitheatre aged 2000 years – in front of the Mediterranean and with splendid acoustics, I treated myself to a 1st row ticket, just in front of the mike, perfect middle of the stage…

So I was a few feet away from Ian singing is lungs out, thin, with a clear voice and barefoot of course… I just couldn’t believe being there so close – singing my lungs away myself too in Space Truckin’, Mary Long Strange Kind Of Woman, Pictures Of Home and more…

They were so connected to the public, so happy, giving it all away, superb bass from Roger, that made me a “you give me the chills” sign and threw me his pick! And Steve that just hypnotized 20 thousand people with his riffs and solo, and Don that included in his solo a quick rock-version of “Hava Nagilla” for the laughs of the israeli public, and Ian Paice who was splendid like always – and the public – I must say – was surprisingly fantastic and warm and frenzy, singing along all the gig, and bringing the house down at the two encore’s end with Smoke On The Water and Lazy…

We had the time of our lives, they made us feel like teens again, even though we’re 50…

So long everybody, we’ll cherish this gig and we’ll keep on rockin’ with DP 4ever.

Shalom from Israel, Machi

My friend, Dave, and I attended the shows in Copenhagen, Linköping, Tallinn, and Riga, amid a Scandinavian adventure that included a stop in a remote struggling fishing village at the northeast tip of the European continent. All of the shows were excellent, and each had its own little variety or nuance.

KB Hallen was kinda like a pilgrimage for us, having enjoyed the 1972 DVD from the venue. The venue was pretty cool, bearing its age, and the band was very comfortable. We enjoyed the rendition of Fireball that replaced Pictures of Home as the opening number. I thought that Steve’s guitar solo was a little edgier than I heard in the past. It was the first time that I heard Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming in concert. Though I thought that Steve could have extended the guitar solo on the song a bit, it was still great, and I can understand it, since the song followed immediately after his virtuostic solo. It was an inspiring night, even with us spending the night on the streets of Copenhagen because we couldn’t find an hotel room.

Next we were on to Linköping, Sweden. The Cloetta Center was a very nice modern venue. The setlist added Ted the Mechanic, performed exquisitely. It was a great surprise. The only drawback – an attractive woman employee of The Cloetta Center who welched on her promise to allow Dave to purchase a hockey jersey for his son from the local hockey team’s shop.

We interrupt this review for breaking news. Two American idiots were observed travelling to Vardo, Norway for no purpose other than to go to a desolate land. Americans visiting Vardo are not uncommon, but are universally there to tend to a US radar installation that the US claims tracks ‘space debris’, while the Russians believe that it is really spying on them, ‘the site’, as it is called, being only 40 miles from the Russian coast. The two wayward Americans spent one night in Lila and Svane’s basement and one without lodging in this Arctic town. The event leaves one open question – How stupid can these two be?

Now, back to your regularly scheduled review.

Dave and I landed in Estonia in the early morning hours of the day before the Deep Puple show. Attendance was light, and I mean very light. Nevertheless, the band offered another tight performance. I do not think that the crowd was unappreciative, but since it was small, it did not exude the energy level that usually permeates a Purple show. Ian wore a pair of funny white sunglasses for the show, which was quite odd, but, as we were to learn, had a necessary purpose about it.

The highlight of the Estonian trip was stumbling across the band at their hotel on the night before the show, and spending a little time with them immediately after the Estonia show. By dumb luck we were at the same place at the same time.

We met all the bandmates except Steve and I cannot say enough about how gentlemanly and down to earth all of them are. They were polite, witty, personable, and comfortable. It really was a dream come true for these American idiots, and provides me with cherished memories.

Riga was the last show of the journey. The band pulled out some neat stuff for the endearing crowd, which included a youngster of about 6 to 7 years near the front, on his father’s shoulders, who attracted the band’s attention with his enthusiasm, drawing direct interplay with each bandmate at various times. The encore was unique, concluding with the expected Hush and Black Night, but beginning with a great version of Speed King that included extended solos and an R&B-like interlude that I would call ‘The High School Hop.’ It was a slightly longer show, with great energy to conclude this leg of the tour.

To all you Americans out there–get this. Our odyssey included 12 airplane flights, 3 ferry boat trips, and 1 train ride. Every conveyance departed and arrived on time, and no one lost our luggage, consisting only of one large backpack each. The longest wait to clear security lasted no more than 5 minutes. What’s going on in the states that makes it impossible for us to travel reliably, while the Europeans could have been no more efficient than they were?

It was a long trip. But, to see 4 awesome Deep Purple shows and meet the band along the way is just an unbelievable experience, though our wives still don’t think that it justified the time and financial investment.

It proves, however, that you should follow your dreams because if you don’t your dreams will never come true.

Thanks to Deep Purple for affording us a truly once in a lifetime experience. May good fortune have them continuing their musical journey for many years to come.

Craig Neely
Emmaus, PA, USA

A new wordography is up at Caramba! — if you ever wondered what the intricate English pub culture has to do with Into The Fire, read on.
Continue Reading »

Blackmore’s Night enjoys coverage not only in fanzines:

Castles and Dreams DVD sold enough copies in Germany to achieve gold status. An award to that effect was presented to the band on September 3rd at the Aegi Theater in Hannover.

Secret Voyage stayed atop of the Billboard New Age charts in the US for 8 straignt weeks.

Discovery Channel HD Theater in the US featured Renaissance festival in the Czech town of Český Krumlov on it’s regular show Fantastic Festivals of the World. This year Blackmore’s Night were part of the festival and the episode includes interview with Ritchie and Candice and performance footage. The episode was aired on September 15 and will repeat on Sep 21, 4:00 am, Sep 21, 5:00 pm, and Sep 27, 5:00 pm. We have no idea if the show appears on Discovery Channel incarnations in other countries, so check your cable/satellite listings.

Thanks to Blackmore Productions for the info.

Second issue of Cartouche — an online Blackmore fanzine — is out, and it’s a big one. 112 pages, no less, with everything from Blackmore’s Night cover bands to the latest Deep Purple DVD.

In this issue:

• “The paranormal interview” with the man himself
• News, reviews, setlists and photos
• Secret Voyage album and tour
• Under A Violet Moon retrospective
• Candice Night interview
• Fires At Midnight retrospective
• Perfect Strangers retrospective
• Knebworth’85
• DP Mk4 retrospective
• A look at Glenn Hughes’ new album
• JLT in Iraq
• Guy/McCoy/Torme review
• Interview with Bernie Torme
• …and lots more

In other words, you’ll find something to read there even if you’re not into wearing tights 😉

Download the magazine (18MB, PDF format).

Kudos to both editors — Mike Garrett and Kevin Dixon for their good work.

Update (Sep 30): The first issue is now also available for download in PDF format (7.4 MB).

Thanks to Kevin Dixon for the info.

A very amusing and offbeat interview with Roger taken probably in the summer of 2007 when the band was touring North America and stopped in Chicago. Roger handles the reporter (who had one too many) with his usual class and eloquence.

Their website also has transcripts of two lengthy and rather interesting interviews with Roger and Steve (not the same as in the above footage).

Roger Glover talks with Ken Payne about:
• Writing music with the band as a unit
• Ritchie Blackmore’s departure (In the middle of a tour!)
• Jamming with Steve Morse
• Being a producer
• How he met Ronnie James Dio

An in-depth conversation between Steve Morse and Kim Katz on:
• Being a pilot
• Joining Deep Purple
• Steve’s new project with Sarah Spencer
• Stem cell treatment
• Staging a protest in high school
• Guitarist awards
• An unusually cool wedding

Read them both at Buzznews.net.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for spotting this.

Fin Costello did a lot of photograpy for the Purple family back in the 70s. He is now taking his work on the road for exhibition around Norway. Roy Hilmar Svendsen from NRK spoke to him and published an interesting interview. ‘Cos Fin has a heck of war stories to tell:

At the time I was also putting together «Long Live Rock & Roll» for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. It was originally called «Kill The King», a title taken from one of the songs on the album. We shot a photo in California on a hill, with a skeleton in a suit of armor, as if a king had been killed in a old medieval war, with grass growing up through the skeleton, and a sword sticking in it which went around the fold of the cover. The shield of the fallen had the cover of the previous album, «Rainbow Rising», on it. A concept cover, and all that. My sister even found some rattlesnakes in the grass, and we put one around the sword. We thought it was a great idea, it looked really good. And we took it to Polydor, the record company – and they said: «Forget it! No snakes!».

The story behind the Kiss Alive cover, how Rush got pissed at Fin, and advise for young music photographers — read it all at nrk.no (don’t get spooked, it’s in English).

There’s a full-page interview with Don Airey in the September issue of BBC Sky at Night magazine.

In the interview, Don talks about his passion for astronomy and how it inspired his solo album Light in the Sky. Interestingly, he also mentions how he takes inspiration from Rob Hodgkinson, Deep Purple’s sound engineer. Rob recently won our monthly ‘Hotshots’ competition when he sent in an amazing picture of a galaxy.

There’s more info about Sky at Night magazine at www.skyatnightmagazine.com

Thanks to Graham Southorn for the details

Russian press has coverage of the last weekend’s Deep Purple visit to Khanty Mansiysk. They have headlined the eighth annual Yugra Festival, which was sponsored by oil companies and this year was dedicated to the 9,000,000,000-th (metric) ton of oil extracted from the fields surrounding the city (10 billionth ton is expected somewhere in 2012, so we can only assume that will be a really big deal over there). Italian duo Ricci e Poveri and Swedish pop band Secret Service, along with local acts, were also on the bill.

Regional edition of the rather respectable Russian business oriented newspaper Kommersant speculated:

Of course, artists’ fees for the festival are not publicized. But according to the president of Premier company Veniamin Kontraktov, Deep Purple’s fee for such a festival could not have been less than $200,000. “And after the Gazprom show in February and news that Deep Purple is the favourite band of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, their fees have doubled”.

Remember, kids: there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov, Kommersant Yekaterinburg and Tiumenskiye Izvestiya for the info.