Crossword puzzles, Ritchie’s mother in law, and the Big Bang theory — what do they have in common? Read on. A very entertaining interview with Ian Gillan done by George Anasontzis.

Thanks to Kevin Dixon for the info.

Deep Purple’s appearance at The Sunflower Jam turned into a very different show, high on improvisation and special guests.

Introduced by Yes’ Rick Wakeman, Deep Purple got under way with Pictures of Home and a pumping start.

– That’s Johnny Lord!, exclaimed Ian Gillan after Hush with an extended solo from Jon Lord – and then Gillan introduced Wring That Neck from The Book of Taliesyn – ‘I must have been only 15 in those days.’

For the encores of their 65-minute set, Deep Purple were joined by Bruce Dickinson and Ade Omotayo from Amy Winehouse’s band. Together they did a rare version of Little Richard’s Lucille.

Read the full report and see all the photos at JonLord.org.

Roger Glover has contributed one of his paintings to Status Quo’s ‘Pictures’ Auction, which is taking place on November 5th at Bonhams in London. Proceeds of the sale will go to British charity Prince’s Trust.

Entrance to the auction will be strictly by invitation only, but from 1 October all of the paintings are viewable online. Online bidding for is available on Prince’s Trust website. Online bidding will finish at midday on November 5 and the highest bids will be transferred to the auction room with the highest online bidders given the opportunity to continue bidding.

Further information available on Status Quo’s website.

Roger’s painting is at Lot 14 and at the time of this writing highest bid for it is £45.

Thanks to Mike Paxman for the info.

Richard Hugh and Candice Lauren were pronounced husband and wife at 4:48 pm on October 5, 2008, at a small gathering of friends and family.

Update [Oct 15]: pictures from the wedding are available on Candice Night’s website. More pictures here.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

Yngwie ‘Unleash The Fury’ Malmsteen talks in a recent interview about Purple being his major influence:

How do you write? Music is in your blood isn’t it – are you the sort of guy that has music flowing through you all the time?

Well, in fact, it’s hard for me to listen to anything without hearing it as a producer does. You know, I wouldn’t have put that snare there or in that way. I can sit at home or anywhere and hear something and grab my guitar and start working with it. It was like when I first heard Deep Purple’s Fireball. My sister gave me Fireball and I was like, ‘wow’, and I went out and bought In Rock. I was eight years old and by the time I was ten I could play note for note Made In Japan. In fact I heard Made In Japan before I heard Machine Head. When I did hear Machine Head I thought ‘mmm this sounds quiet you know’.

Now I’m getting a bit out of my depth here, but I would say your music is more Bach or Vivaldi influenced than, say, Purple.

Let me tell you, yesterday I was doing something for television with VH1 and their thing was to ask everyone, ‘who was the most influential heavy rock band Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin?’ When it came to me I said Deep Purple. They looked at me like I was crazy. But it was hearing the power of In Rock that did it. I can remember seeing Hendrix on television and watching him burn his guitar. Then I listened to In Rock and that was it. I knew what I wanted to be.

In case you’re interested, the interview is in Blogcritics Magazine.

Peter Brkusic (drummer from Nasty Habits) writes:

I’m very sorry that I must inform you that the 3 shows from Nick Simper & Nasty Habits in November in Austria and Germany are cancelled. We are very sorry for all the fans who are waiting to see us but Nick has very serious private reasons for that.

We hope to play this shows in spring next year.

We all at The Highway Star sincerely hope that the “very serious private reasons”, whatever they are, will not turn out to be really serious and the gigs will be rescheduled next year.

Good luck to Nick and the Nasty Habits.

Deep Purple were joined by Jon Lord for five songs at this year’s Sunflower Jam on Thursday evening in London.

Photo copyright: Rasmus Heide

Long versions of Hush and Wring That Neck made sure fans of Jon Lord’s Hammond style were sent home happy.

Ian Gillan had the flu and as a consequence the band reshuffled the setlist to include more instrumental pieces:

Pictures Of Home
Strange Kind Of Woman
Hush – w/Jon Lord
Wring That Neck – w/Jon Lord
Mary Long
Highway Star
Contact Lost
Steve Morse solo
Well Dressed Guitar
Smoke On The Water – w/Jon Lord + Bruce Dickinson
Black Night – w/Jon Lord + Bruce Dickinson
Lucille – w/Jon Lord + Bruce Dickinson

A quiet family dinner next to a charity event at a Portuguese resort Santa Barbara De Nexe turned into an impromptu performance for Gillan. The Portugal News Online reports (complete with mistakes and misspelling):

As diners dug deep in their pockets for an Albufeira based children’s charity, former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillham, who had been dining privately with his wife and daughter, was encouraged to provide an impromptu performance of one of the greatest rock classics of all time, ´Smoke On The Water´.

Ian was backed on guitar by resident local musician Howard Scott Parkin who jumped at the opportunity to play with the Deep Purple front man if only for one song.

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