Ritchie Blackmore was featured in the French/German TV program Tracks that aired on Arte TV Germany on September 28. The show is posted online and, as far as we know, will be available there for 7 days:
Continue Reading »

St.Petersburg, Russia, March 17, 2002. That Russian tour marked the official arrival of Don Airey as the new keyboard player and the last tour that Child in Time was performed live. Even though Gillan did a remarkably good job that particular night (help from guitar on the high notes notwithstanding), you can hear why it is highly unlikely he will ever sing it again.
Continue Reading »

Another installment of Q&A with Steve Morse has appeared on deeppurple.org. Phrygian dominant scale, tips on changing your point of view, and the reality of keeping your bags packed — read all about it here.

Purple family will be featured in the upcoming 4CD compilation The Heavy Metal Box planned for release on Rhino. The compilation spans history of the heavy metal from 1968 to 1991.

While normally a yet another Deep Purple compilation would not deserve mentioning it in THS news, it’s good to see acknowledgment of Purple and Rainbow’s influence on the the genre, particularly as it comes from an American record label.

Track Listing

Disc 1

1. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” — Iron Butterfly
2. “Summertime Blues” — Blue Cheer
3. “Easy Livin” — Uriah Heep
4. “Highway Star” — Deep Purple
5. “Billion Dollar Babies” — Alice Cooper
6. “Lost Johnny” — Hawkwind
7. “Bad Motor Scooter” — Montrose
8. “Working Man” — Rush
9. “Man On The Silver Mountain” — Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow
10. “Detroit Rock City” — Kiss
11. “The Ripper” — Judas Priest
12. “Cat Scratch Fever” — Ted Nugent
13. “Lights Out” — UFO
14. “Godzilla” — Blue Oyster Cult
15. “Demolition Boys” — Girlschool
16. “White Witch” — Angel Witch
17. “The Phantom Of The Opera” — Iron Maiden
18. “Neon Knights” — Black Sabbath

Disc 2

1. “Ace Of Spades” — Motorhead
2. “Am I Evil?” — Diamond Head
3. “Nice Boys” — Rose Tattoo
4. “Attack Of The Mad Axeman” — Michael Schenker Group
5. “Denim And Leather” — Saxon
6. “Blitzkrieg” — Blitzkrieg
7. “Gangland” — Tygers Of Pan Tang
8. “Witching Hour” — Venom
9. “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” — Judas Priest
10. “The Number Of The Beast” — Iron Maiden
11. “Star War” — Raven
12. “Say What You Will” — Fastway
13. “Black Funeral” — Mercyful Fate
14. “Animal (F**k Like A Beast)” — W.A.S.P.
15. “Mean Streak” — Y&T
16. “Holy Diver” — Dio
17. “Queen Of The Reich” — Queensryche
18. “Whiplash” — Metallica

Disc 3

1. “Rock You Like A Hurricane” — Scorpions
2. “Metal Health” — Quiet Riot
3. “Into The Fire” — Dokken
4. “Balls To The Wall” — Accept
5. “Round And Round” — Ratt
6. “I Wanna Rock” — Twisted Sister
7. “The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” — Hanoi Rocks
8. “Big Bottom” — Spinal Tap
9. “Midnite Maniac” — Krokus
10. “I’ll See The Light, Tonight” — Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force
11. “Crazy Nights” — Loudness
12. “Shake Me” — Cinderella
13. “Watch The Children Pray” — Metal Church
14. “To Hell With The Devil” — Stryper
15. “A Little Time” — Helloween
16. “Wrecking Crew” — Overkill
17. “Caught In A Mosh” — Anthrax
18. “Peace Sells” — Megadeth

Disc 4

1. “Still Of The Night” — Whitesnake
2. “Rock Me” — Great White
3. “Talk Dirty To Me” — Poison
4. “Bathroom Wall” — Faster Pussycat
5. “Hall Of The Mountain King” — Savatage
6. “Kiss Me Deadly” — Lita Ford
7. “Hail And Kill” — Manowar
8. “Trial By Fire” — Testament
9. “Welcome Home” — King Diamond
10. “South Of Heaven” — Slayer
11. “One” — Metallica
12. “Cult Of Personality” — Living Colour
13. “Youth Gone Wild” — Skid Row
14. “Cowboys From Hell” — Pantera
15. “Beg To Differ” — Prong
16. “Dead Embryonic Cells” — Sepultura

The 4CD set will be also offered in limited edition packing — the faux-amp box featuring an authentic, turn-able Marshall knob that one can turn it up to 11.

Thanks to Arbell Camron for the info.

Durham Concerto by Jon Lord will be performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mischa Darmev at the Durham Cathedral in England on October 20. Jon will take part in the performance as a soloist playing Hammond.

Durham Concerto is a piece of music that Jon had been working on since he left Deep Purple and is dedicated to the City of Durham and 175th anniversary of the Durham University (which gives it a strong claim to the title of the third oldest university in England after Cambridge and Oxford):

2007 marks the 175th anniversary of the founding of Durham University, the oldest English university after Oxford and Cambridge. The University wants to use this opportunity to correct a mysterious imbalance in its reputation – strong in the UK (consistently ranked as one of the UK’s top universities), but less well-known further afield.

In order to maximise this impact, when seeking a suitable composer Durham turned to Jon Lord, who, early in his long career with Deep Purple, wrote a Concerto for Rock Group and Orchestra, which has been hugely successful and has remained one of the most regularly performed works for symphony orchestra. Jon Lord has a wide international following, and is now established as a highly regarded composer of music for classical forces.

The project was conceived by a Durham University alumnus, John McLaren, a former diplomat and investment banker and now novelist, who is founder of Masterprize, the world’s leading prize for classical composers.

McLaren together with the University comissioned Jon to write the concerto back in 2001. The musical influences for the piece span jazz, ragtime, rock, and even Northumbrian folk music, including an old miners’ lament.

The 45-minute Concerto consists of six movements, arranged into three parts: Morning, Afternoon and Evening. Morning describes the Cathedral at dawn and then the town coming to life. Afternoon starts with a movement representing the historic event where monks carried St Cuthbert’s body from Lindisfarne, and concludes as the composer contemplates the wonderful view from Prebends Bridge. The last section, Evening, captures the high spirits of a student dance and a Miner’s Gala, and ends with an imposing, but uplifting, movement in praise of the Cathedral.

There are solo parts for violin, cello and the Northumbrian pipes, and Jon Lord will play the Hammond organ in the first performance.

Jon, who is giving his services free of charge, said:

When I first went to Durham, I was speechless. There is something about the space which is awe inspiring. Until then I had only seen Durham’s Cathedral from the train. Walking up through the old town to Palace Green and that astonishing Cathedral, I knew that I had said yes to the right project.

If people who hear the music get just ten per cent of the buzz I got from Durham, I will have succeeded in my mission.

Classical music is something I have held in my heart since I was a young boy. I had always written music and I started to play the classical piano at the age of six. Rock and roll snapped my head around and indeed has defined my career, but it never stopped me from loving classical music.

The Durham Concerto world premiere:

• Saturday 20 October 2007, 7:30PM
• Durham Cathedral, Durham, UK
• Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
• Soloists: Jon Lord (Hammond Organ); Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian Pipes); Matthew Barley (Cello); Ruth Palmer (Violin)
• Tickets range from £3 to £12 and can be booked through
  Tourist Information Centre
  Millennium Place,
  Durham, DH1 1WA
  0191 384 7641
  email: touristinfo@durhamcity.gov.uk

Further information at www.durhamconcerto.com.

Thanks to Patrick Turnham for the info.

Blackmore’s Night will release a new live DVD called Paris Moon. Release date has been set November 2 for Germany, November 5 for the rest of Europe and November 6 for USA (the latter presumably in NTSC format). The DVD package will also include an audio CD. Track listing as follows.

DVD

Format: DUAL LAYER DVD9 PAL
Screen Format: PAL 16:9
Running Time: 128 min.
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital | 5.1 Dts | 2.0 Dolby Stereo

1. Introduction
2. Past Times With Good Company
3. Rainbow Blues
4. Play Minstrel Play
5. World Of Stone
6. Under A Violet Moon
7. Soldier Of Fortune
8. Durch Den Wald Zum Bachaus
9. Diamonds & Rust
10. Minstrel Hall
11. Home Again
12. Streets Of London
13. Renaissance Faire
14. Keyboard Solo
15. Ariel
16. Loreley
17. The Clock Ticks On
18. Fires At Midnight
19. St. Theresa
20. The Village Lanterne

CD

1. Past Times With Good Company/Rainbow Blues
2. Play Minstrel Play
3. World Of Stone
4. Under A Violet Moon
5. Minstrel Hall
6. Home Again
7. Ariel
8. The Clock Ticks On
9. Fires At Midnight

Bonus tracks

1. The Village Lanterne (studio version)
2. All because of you (radio edit)
3. The village lanterne (enhanced video track)

Thanks to Kevin Dixon, Mike Garrett and candicenight.ru for the info.

Glenn Hughes is in Bulgaria and is doing a television blitz. Tonight, September 25, he will be a special guest on the TV show Komicite which will air on September 28 at 21:00. On September 27 he will appear on Slavishow and will perform Mistreated with the in-house band. The show starts at 22:30 on BTV.

On September 28 he will perform with the Bulgarian band BTR at a concert for the 15th anniversary of Bulgarian national newspaper Standart. The concert will be held outside of NDK in Sofia and Glenn’s performance will start at 19:00.

Thanks to GHPG.net for the info.

According to the freshly redesigned deep-purple.com, Roger Glover’s appearance for the Concerto performance at the Malcolm Arnold festival has been confirmed. He will join Jon Lord and an “all star band” on October 7 at the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton, UK.

The charity concert happened last weekend, and we’ve gotten some pictures from the event thanks to Fabian Gastellier; we’d like to hear your impressions if you were there.

As we have reported previously, Blackmore appeared on the Richard Quest’s show Quest For Rock’n’Roll which aired over the weekend on CNN International.

The segment runs for 10 minutes and is rather well done. It revolves around the SOTW riff, with the bad old days aptly illustrated by the Hofstra footage, and then Ritchie appearing in the studio with his acoustic. He demonstrates the right and the wrong way of playing the riff and talks about his affection to medieval music, all of this on the backdrop of his very dry wit.

The second half of the segment is entirely devoted to a British air guitar contest, where SOTW soundtrack (Made in Japan version, if I’m not mistaken) is featured briefly.

For those of you who missed the show for one reason or another, you can now watch it online.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the link.