Speaking of Argentina… Ladies and gentlemen, we present you (pre)teen sensation — Los Gauchos De Acero (The Steel Gauchos). The Gauchos are brothers Jorge: Victor Emilio (age 15) on guitar and vocals, Martín Gustavo (age 12) on bass, and Agustin (age 11) on drums. Here’s their take on Child In Time, no less:

The brothers got into the spotlight back in 2006, when they recorded a video of several classic rock and heavy metal covers for audition at a local TV talent show. When it was rejected, their dad put the clips on Youtube and the boys turned into an overnight Internet sensation. Personally, I simply couldn’t wipe a stupid grin off my face while watching their clips. The sheer enthusiasm, ferocity, and, even without discounting for their age, skill of these kids are second to none.

The term boy band definitely takes a whole new meaning in the pampas…

Joe Satriani reflects on his Purple stint in a recent interview for Living Legends Music:

It was the easiest thing in the world to step into it. Because it’s just like sitting on top of a perfect wave that keeps carrying you along and giving you a great ride…

Here is the relevant part:

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

The proverbial Purple touring juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down. We have received two festival appearances for 2009. Neither of them have been confirmed by the band’s management yet. Proceed at your own risk. 😉

Valentine’s Day will be spent in Argentina, where the band will be headlinining Cosquin Rock festival held annually in a resort town of Cosquin in Cordoba province. Oh yeah, February is the midst of the summer festival season down there and apparently Cosquin Rock is a big and well known in South America one, with more than 120,000 people attending each year.

Another Deep Purple appearance is announced for another “end of the world” — a place above the polar circle — the Midnattsrocken festival in Lakselv, Norway. This year’s festival will be held on July 9-12. Exact date of the Purple performance not known yet, but last year headliners Europe seem to have played as the last band on the last day, so we took a wild guess there and have it listed as July 12 in our tour dates list. The festival will be celebrating it’s 25th anniversary in 2009, so on November 22 they are releasing 500 tickets at the special “1984 price” of 750 NOK (about $100). The rest of the tickets will go on sale later at undisclosed price.

Update (Nov 21): Deep Purple will play Midnattsrocken on Saturday, July 11.

Thanks to Pollstar.com and Rune Olsen for the info.

Gillan’s brief foray into producing other bands in the early 70-s is getting new attention. Jerusalem was an early 1970s British heavy rock five piece outfit. The band released one self-titled album worldwide in 1972 on Deram (UK catalogue number: SLD 6), which was produced by Gillan. Jerusalem’s only other release was a 45 rpm 7 inch single, the non-album ‘Kamikaze Moth’ backed with ‘Frustration’ from the LP. The album was reissued on CD in 2005 in Japan.

Back then, this is what Gillan had to say about this band:

This is the first album by Jerusalem, a band which excites me very much; they are rough, raw and doomy with their own strong identity. As they are young and a bit green, they don’t follow many rules, so their material is almost crude – but still immensely powerful in content.

I believe that, whenever possible, the work of writers and players in their formative stages should be recorded; before inhibition and self-consciousness set in, before fire and aggression die down, and while they are still absorbing influences and doing things which others might consider ‘uncool’. Most important though, before they might develop that self-imposed rigidity which afflicts so many. I hope none of these things happen to Jerusalem, we’ll have to wait and see, this album is just in case. I hope you like it as much as I do.

The album is about to being re-released in late 2008 on the Rockadrome label remastered from the multitrack tapes.

Track list will include:

1. Frustration
2. Hooded Eagle
3. I See the Light
4. Murderer’s Lament
5. When the Wolf Sits
6. Midnight Steamer
7. Primitive Man
8. Beyond the Grave
9. She Came Like a Bat From Hell
10. Kamikaze Moth (single – non-LP track)*
11. Primitive Man (non-LP demo version)*
12. Beyond the Grave (non-LP demo version)*
13. Hooded Eagle (non-LP single version)*
14. I See the Light (non-LP mono version)*
* Bonus tracks

Thanks to Paul Dean, Blabbermouth.net, Rockadrome and Wikipedia for the info.

It looks like the hotly debated Purple Rainbow story is getting an unexpected twist. A press release from Russian promoters Prestige Concert states that the new band will be called Over The Rainbow and will consist of:

Joe Lynn Turner — vocals
Bobby Rondinelli — drums
Tony Carey — keyboards
Greg Smith — bass
Jürgen Blackmore — guitar (yes, Ritchie’s son)

The band is said to start its world tour in February in Russia.

Thanks to Dima Zykov (deep-purple.ru) for the info.

Update (Nov 28):
Tickets for the first show in Moscow on February 18 just went on sale. We should mention that on the venue’s website the band is advertise as simply “Rainbow featuring Jurgen Richard Blackmore”, not “Over The Rainbow”.

Update (Nov 29):
Prestige Concerts issued a statement that the project is called “Over The Rainbow” and above appears to be a case of unscrupulous advertizing on the part of Moscow club’s management. It will be corrected shortly.

Ian Gillan’s new solo album called One Eye To Morocco is mostly ready, apart from the track listing which is being finalized. DPAS reports a January release date, but we’re being told by the man himself that it will be out in March. The album is produced by Nick Blagona.

Joanna overheard a demo tape being played at a hotel bar in Germany and opined that “if you liked Accidentally On Purpose, you will absolutely love this one.”

The Europahalle was very well filled.

Ian Gillan’s voice was in a very good shape, to my opinion better than in Stuttgart the week before. Especially Steve was in an excellent playing mood. Butt he whole concert seemed to be a bit in a hurry, there were hardly comments or “stories” from IG between the songs.

I can’t remember exactly, but I don’t think that mentioned Contact Lost was dedicated to Pyro. However IG sand Bruce Payne left the venue directly after the show. Although the departure to Munich was announced for 2:00 o’clock, everybody was rushed into the bus already at 0:30.

The setlist was almost the same as in Stuttgart, except Kiss instead of Wrong Man and no Lazy:

Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said
Into The Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Contact Lost – Solo Steve – Well Dressed Guitar
Knocking at Your Back Door
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Wring That Neck
The Battle Rages On
Solo Don
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water

Encores:
Hush with Solo Paicey
Solo Roger
Black Night with Guitar Parade

One week and a couple of shows after Frankfurt I was excited to watch the show in Karlsruhe yesterday… absolutely brillant!

I still don´t know what it was in Frankfurt, maybe I had the wrong idea, but yesterday no doubts: amazing show and concert from the very beginning. All in all 10 minutes shorter than Frankfurt (1h 50min), no Lazy in the encore, but Ian Gillan in much better shape and mood. The crowd went wild! Ian was leader from start to end.

Excellent keyboards by Don (Gotthard keyboarder playing SOTW with him) and excellent guitar work by Steve. Knocking at your back door, Rapture of the deep, Into the fire, The battle rages on, Perfect strangers, Things I never said and Black night were the highlights.

The band was doing absolutely fine, thanks for a great evening! Thinking about going to Bamberg now.

Setlist

Pictures of home
Into the fire
Things I never said
Strange kind of woman
Rapture of the deep
Kiss tomorrow goodbye
Contact lost
Well dressed guitar
Sometimes I feel like screaming
Wring that neck
Knocking at your backdoor
Keyboard solo
Perfect strangers
Space truckin´
Highway star
Smoke on the water

Encore:
Hush
Drum solo
Black night

The audience in Karlsruhe was great!!

Dirk

This was my DP Concert #25 or so… Festhalle was crowded, upper balcony not sold, maybe 8.000 to 9.000 people there.

In brief, I was a little sad about the evening. At first: a great opener Gotthard! Then at 9:30 pm Deep Purple: a good setlist but no surprises, not even Mary Long that night. They started with MH´s Pictures of home.

Then I saw big Ian and thought “my god, is he seriously ill, so thin, even skinny, voice not in good shape, barefooted as we seen it by now but very “unheavy” movements. Reminds me a bit like a mixture of Joe Cocker and George Harrison…

That was not my hard rock group Deep Purple. Also: no smiles except from Roger´s and Don´s faces, they were the driving forces that night. Steve somehow tired. Little Ian with high standard performance as always.

Second half was much better, the guys were somehow getting in the mood. But Ian G. seemed to have some trouble with a security guy in the front row. Also he couldn´t have any smoke around his face and waved with his hands a couple of times… Is he alright?

All in all: I have seen better concerts of the band and am excited about tonight in Karlsruhe.

Dirk

The Schleyerhalle was well filled, newspapers reported 10,000 visitors. The organisation around it was ok, although a handball game took place in the add-on Porsche arena. Entrance was half an hour earlier than announced, which was not wrong due to the already waiting masses.

Gotthard was the perfect opener, totally different to Andrew Paul Woodworth in August. Also the sound was first class, which unfortunately isn’t a matter of course for opening bands. The Swiss boys started punctual at 8 o’clock and heated the crowd up well for 70 minutes.

After half an hour break for rebuilding the stage our boys came in and the hall boiled. All five were in a good mood as usual. However there was no solo from Paicy and no explicit Guitar Parade from Steve. Ian Gillan had some problems during the first verse of Into The Fire finding the right pitch. I recognized the same in August in Ravensburg and Benediktbeuren, maybe this isn’t a problem but on purpose?

The setlist was a great walk through 40 years of Band history, from Shades to Rapture of the Deep almost everything (except the Coverdale era) was present – and therefore absolutely met the 40th Jubilee tour. While many fans in the audience looks interrogative during Wrong Man or Rapture. What didn’t cool down the good vibes.

The setlist in detail:
Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said
Into The Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Wrong Man
Contact Lost followed by a solo of Steve
Well Dressed Guitar
Knocking at Your Back Door
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Wring That Neck
The Battle Rages on
Don Airey Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Trucking
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water

Encores:
Lazy
Hush
Roger Glover Solo
Black Night

Playing time appr. 2 hours.

Here some additional information I got from Ian Gillan:

They are thinking (and speaking) about a new DP album (IG: „Shall we make another album?“ – RG: „Yes, why not.“), but there are no concrete plans. In March/April a new Gillan album will be released. But unfortunately there will be no tour as his calendar is full with DP dates – South America and Africa are on the list for beginning of next year. New dates in Germany/Europe are not in sight.

Helge Mayschak