As Deep Purple quite obviously prefer stages around the globe to studios, the fact that the British hard rockers are on tour is not exactly headline news. The “new” album “Rapture of the Deep” dates back to 2005 and was presented on stage, among other places, in Wetzlar in 2006.

During the current leg of the tour, however, there are bigger things to celebrate, namely the 40th anniversary of the band’s foundation. In 1968, the group began to establish themselves on the British market with a concert in Denmark and an album that still lacked a little direction (“Shades of Deep Purple”). 1969 saw the third album called “Deep Purple” with its early classic “April”, but at that time the first line-up (aka Mark I), was already history. When vocalist Ian Gillan and bass player Roger Glover joined guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice the legendary Mark II line-up was completed. It survived until 1973, only to be reunited ten years later.

After endless battling with Blackmore Gillan was once again shown the door in 1989, but has been in the band since his return in 1993. Since 1994 American axeman Steve Morse has been the guitarist in Deep Purple, Don Airey replaced Jon Lord at the keys in 2002. With Airey being a member of the extended Purple family tree anyway, this latest change of personnel has not led to any serious musical consequences, even though Jon Lord the gentleman, the man responsible for crossover projects like the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, is certainly missed.

Steve Morse, the permanently beaming master of the strings, might lack the spark of genius that Blackmore was able to ignite on a good night, but on the other hand he allowed the quintet who had so long been quarrelling to rediscover the joy of playing together, guaranteeing a constantly high quality of all of Purple’s shows. His guitar sound is richer, more distorted, his way of playing more virtuoso and less raw than Blackmore’s. But of course he delivers the mother of all hard rock solos, the legendary run in “Highway Star”, with the same clarity – and when the monster riff of “Fireball” starts crashing from the speakers, the question who is up there on stage becomes irrelevant anyway.

Purple have never been famous for changing setlists around on a daily basis, but on each new tour they keep delighting their fans with little surprises. “Into The Fire”, whose riff had formerly only been tagged to the end of “Fireball”, is now presented completely, pleasing the fans of the furious masterpiece “In Rock” (1970) in Siegen, where the band hit the stage last Friday [1st August, 2008].

“Strange Kind of Woman”, another mega success, has reappeared on the setlist, followed by those tracks from “Rapture of the Deep” that have passed the road test, namely the title track, “Contact Lost” and – later – “The Well-Dressed Guitar”, all of which give Morse a chance to shine with lots of his guitar sound wizardry.

“Wring That Neck” from the second album is a genuine surprise, being – with the exception of “Hush” – the only song that is actually as old as the band. In the late sixties it was often stretched to more than thirty minutes, whereas the Siegen rendition was even shorter than the original LP track. After all this instrumental is a very welcome vocal pause for 63-year-old Ian Gillan, whose voice sounds as pleasant and unmistakable as always. In some passages, like “Highway Star”, however, the strain is painfully evident in Gillan’s face. It is probably out of consideration for his vocal chords that the band omit “Speed King” as the third encore.

The band have brought back “The Battle Rages On”, the majestic title track of the last album with Blackmore (1993). Both melodious and heavy, it resembles “Perfect Strangers”, which still seems firmly established in the setlist. Some in the audience seem slightly disappointed about the playing time of only about 95 minutes, but with their exuberant joy of playing and their dreamlike musicianship they still never fail to rock the house. The next chance to see them on stage [in the Central Hesse area] will be in Frankfurt on 7th November.

Axel Cordes, Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung

Bravewords has a Martin Popoff’s interview with Nick Simper (with contributions from Mick Underwood). Simper talks about his current projects — The Good Old Boys, Purple Mk1 shows with Nasty Habits, and the old days. Although no groundbreaking revelations there, Nick is not being inertviewed too often these days, so it’s an interesting read:

Jon Lord came up to me one day when we were working with a band called THE FLOWERPOT MEN, who were an enormously big outfit at the time, and he said, ‘Would you give all this up, all the money, to do your own thing?’ And I said, ‘Yes, you bet your life I would!’ (laughs). We went from sort of, well, we were earning hilarious money for the time, and we went to about 10% of that to start Deep Purple, but it was worth it.

Read the rest at bravewords.com.

The video above is from the Nick Simper and Nasty Habits gig, Club Reigen, Vienna, Austria, May 27 2008.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

I just got back from Odense, from my second concert with DP in a week.

The first one was on Wednesday in Copenhagen, and I have to say Odense was the best one – a better sound, Ian Gillan sounded much better, Steve Morse in outstanding topform – not that Copenhagen was bad, absolutely not. Again sold out in Copenhagen 3500 people, and approx 4000 in Odense, almost full.

The set list in Odense was

Fireball
Into the fire
Strange kind of women
Rapture of the deep
Steve Morse solo
Somtimes I feel like screaming
Wring That Neck
Well Dressed guitar
Mary Long
Don Airey solo
Perfect Strangers
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water

Extra
Hush (Ian Paice solo)
Roger Glover solo
Black Night

In Copenhagen there was no Mary Long or Perfect Strangers. But we got Ted the Mechanic and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.

I met the band in a meet’n’greet before the Copenhagen concert. It was nice to say hello to them. I asked Ian Gillan among others about the concert in Israel, will it be recorded. He said no, so no news there.

Carsten Ankjær

At Deep Purple’s show in Ystad, Sweden last, guitarist John Norum from Europe (who supported Purple) got onstage to jam on “Smoke on the Water”.

Steve Morse and John Norum preceded the song with a lengthy jam – with Ian Paice and Roger Glover looking on – before tearing into the Purple classic.

The show’s setlist was:

Fireball
Into the Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Contact Lost
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Wring That Neck
Well Dressed Guitar
The Battle Rages On
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water
– – –
Hush
Black Night

I’ve been wanting to submit this “lost treasure” for a long time, but I couldn’t find it. Well I couldn’t wait any longer. While digging through my Deep Purple Collection, I recently unearthed this one of a kind collector’s piece. This is the actual finished cover for the Gillan “Glory Road” LP which was rejected for the one they ultimately used. It is was ready for production when at the last minute, someone changed their mind and shelved it. Luckily for me, it wasn’t destroyed. How did I become the proud owner of this “one of a kind” piece? Read on……

At the time (early 80’s), I was already well into collecting all things Purple, and I was in contact with anyone I could find who could help me work on completing my task — Acquire All Things Deep Purple. Deep Purple was no longer a band at the time, and therefore, finding everything from the Deep Purple Family was the game, along with anything Deep Purple had done in the past. I live in the US, and I found myself corresponding with many a chap overseas in Europe through the mail system. There was no such thing as e-mail and websites. I found myself totally consumed in this hobby in just a short time. This is where this little gem comes in.

One day in 1982 the mail carrier knocked on my door holding a package from London, which I wasn’t expecting. Upon opening it, I found this amazing and one of a kind item. It was sent as a token of appreciation due to some favors I had done in return for Purple Findings. I can’t disclose the name of the individual whom sent me this, but let’s just say he was one of the “Big Guys” and high up in the food chain in the Gillan camp. He obviously was the “Real McCoy”. It’s been packed away all of this time, in my “Rare and Special” Box, and I decided to look for it and share it with fellow Purple fans here on THS.

The contents of this package goes beyond just an album cover. There are also these pieces which were included. Various other original hand drawn variations of cover art concepts, an 8×12 black & white glossy of the band, actual negatives of the pictures of the band and model used for the cover. The album sleeve is laminated and opens like a book cover. This thing was ready for production and is complete.

Now that I have unearthed it, I intend to take it along to the next Deep Purple meet & greet I attend and surprise Mr. Gillan with it. He is given credit on the sleeve notes for some of the concept and design. It will be interesting to witness his reaction, and whether or not he recollects it at all. The only thing missing from it is his autograph, and I intend to acquire that. Of course with my luck, I will probably be hand-cuffed and taken away for having this “misplaced” piece of Gillan history for the past 26 years.

“Aye, Caramba”!

Cheers,
Tracy Heyder

Last Sunday, August 3, Deep Purple played a show at one of most unusual rock’n’roll venues — a monastery in Bavaria, Germany. Kloster Benediktbeuern dates back to the 10th century and still serves as home to about 45 monks of the Salesian order. What’s even more unusual is that the Archabbot Notker Wolf joined them on stage with his electric guitar to jam on Smoke On The Water.

The prelate also played opening act with his own band Feedback. They did some songs from their recent album and a cover of Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath (with Father Notker, who is now the “boss” of 8,000 monks and 16,000 nuns all over the world, covering flute duties). The band was founded in 1978 by five school boys of the monastic high school in Sankt Ottilien. Wolf, who was the abbot of that monastery from 1977 until 2000, knows young musicians and they stared working together ten years ago. His life long dream of performing on the same stage with Deep Purple finally came true last weekend.

The story of the Benediktbeuern concert made headlines on the national news in Germany. You can watch the TV coverage at tagesschau.de.

Thanks to BR-online for the info.

Blackmore’s Night have released a new video Locked Within The Crystal Ball in support of their new album Secret Voyages. The album enjoyed reasonable commercial success and was at number 1 for two straight weeks on the New Age Billboard charts in USA.
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Frontier Records is set to release as a live album Joe Lynn Turner’s performance at the United Forces Of Rock Festival in Ludwigsburg, Germany on September 30, 2007. The new live album will be aptly (if a little unimaginatively) titled Live In Germany and will hit the street on October 10. This will be the first JLT’s solo live album. Track list will include: Death Alley Driver; I Surrender; Power; Street of Dreams; Power of Love; Can’t Let You Go; Jealous Lover; Your Love is Life; Blood Red Sky; Stone Cold; Can’t Happen Here; Spotlight Kid; Burn.

In the meanwhile, the second Sunstorm album is in pre-production stage for the recording. JLT will contribute 4 tracks: Standing In The Fire, Forever Now, Save a Place in Your Heart, I Found Love and Walk On, while Jim Peterik (ex Survivor, Pride of Lions) has offered 3 more songs. Four more songs written on purpose by Tom and James Martin (Khymera, House of Lords) will round up the album. Musicians confirmed include Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) on bass and guitars, Uwe Reitenauer on guitars and Chris Schmidt on drums. Frontiers hopes to release the album in early 2009.

Thanks to Elio Borgi of Frontier Records and to Tatti Oscarsson for the info.

Eigentlich ist es ja nichts Besonderes, dass die britische Hardrockgruppe “Deep Purple” auf Tournee ist, denn auf den Bühnen rund um den Globus ist das Quintett offenbar lieber als in Tonstudios. Das “aktuelle” Album “Rapture of the Deep” datiert von 2005 und wurde im Februar 2006 auch in Wetzlar präsentiert. Bei dem aktuellen Tourabschnitt gibt es Größeres zu feiern, nämlich das 40. Jubiläum der Bandgründung.

1968 begannen sich die Briten mit einem Konzert in Dänemark und dem noch etwas richtungslosen Album “Shades of Deep Purple” langsam auf dem britischen Markt zu etablieren. Das dritte Album “Deep Purple” enthielt 1969 die Kultnummer “April”, aber da war die erste Besetzung (“Mark I”) schon Geschichte, Sänger Ian Gillan und Bassist Roger Glover bildeten mit Gitarrist Ritchie Blackmore, Keyboarder Jon Lord und Drummer Ian Paice die klassische “Mark II”-Besetzung, die bis 1973 hielt und zehn Jahre später reformiert wurde. 1989 wurde Ian Gillan nach endlosen Streitereien mit Blackmore mal wieder vor die Tür gesetzt, ist aber seit 1993 nonstop dabei.

Seit 1994 ist der Amerikaner Steve Morse der Gitarrist von “Purple”, Don Airey löste 2002 Jon Lord an den Tasten ab. Weil Airey ohnehin schon zum erweiterten “Purple”-Stammbaum gehörte, blieb dieser letzte Wechsel musikalisch fast folgenlos – auch wenn man den Gentleman Jon Lord vermisst, der maßgeblich für Crossover-Projekte wie das “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” verantwortlich war. Der immer gut gelaunte Saitenhexer Steve Morse lässt vielleicht den Funken Genialität vermissen, den Blackmore an seinen guten Tagen zu zünden imstande war.

Dafür aber hat er das lange zerstrittene Quintett die Freude am Zusammenspiel wieder entdecken lassen und sorgt für ein konstant hohes Niveau aller “Purple”-Shows. Sein Gitarrensound ist fetter, verzerrter, seine Spielweise virtuoser und weniger roh als die Blackmores. Aber natürlich bringt er die Mutter aller Hardrock-Gitarrensoli, den legendären Lauf in “Highway Star”, genauso sauber – und wenn das Killer-Riff des bewährten Openers “Fireball” aus den Boxen knallt, zählt sowieso nicht mehr, wer da oben auf der Bühne steht.

“Purple” haben sich nie durch allabendlich wechselnde Setlists ausgezeichnet, aber von Tour zu Tour warten sie dann doch immer mal mit netten Überraschungen auf. “Into The Fire”, bisher immer nur am Ende von “Fireball” kurz angedeutet, wird komplett gespielt – Fans des brachialen “Deep Purple”-Meisterwerks “In Rock” (1970) wird es auch in Siegen, wo die Gruppe am letzten Freitag auftrat, gefreut haben. “Strange Kind Of Woman”, ebenfalls ein Megahit, hat den Weg ins Programm zurückgefunden, danach kommen die “Rapture of the Deep”-Stücke, die sich live am besten bewährt haben, nämlich das Titelstück, “Contact Lost” und später “The Well-Dressed Guitar”, bei denen vor allem Morse mit allerhand gitarristischen Soundspielereien glänzen darf.

Eine echte Überraschung ist “Wring That Neck” vom zweiten Album – mithin neben der gewohnten Zugabe “Hush” das einzige Stück, das genauso alt ist wie die Band. Ende der 60er dehnte “Neck” sich mit seinen Gitarre-Orgel-Duellen schon mal auf über 30 Minuten, in Siegen fällt es sogar kürzer als die LP-Version aus. Aber immerhin verschafft der Instrumentaltitel dem 63-jährigen Ian Gillan eine höchst willkommene Gesangspause. Die Stimme klingt angenehm und unverwechselbar wie eh und je, aber bei einigen Passagen – fast Mitleid erregend spürbar bei “Highway Star” – ist ihm die Anstrengung deutlich ins Gesicht geschrieben.

Wohl nur mit Rücksicht auf die Stimmbänder verzichten “Purple” später auf die dritte Zugabe “Speed King”. Mit “The Battle Rages On” hat die Band den majestätischen Titelsong des letzten Albums mit Blackmore (1993) wieder ins Set genommen – ähnlich heavy-melodiös wie “Perfect Strangers”, das nach wie vor zum festen Repertoire gehört.

Auch wenn einige von der mit 135 Minuten knapp bemessenen Spielzeit leicht enttäuscht waren: “Purple” können mit ihren schieren Spielfreude und ihrer traumhaften Musikalität auf der Bühne nach wie vor begeistern. Die nächste Chance, sie zu erleben, ist am 7.11. in der Frankfurter Festhalle.

Wer auch im Pantoffelkino nicht auf “Purple” verzichten will, kann sich das vor kurzem erschienene 4-DVD-Set “Around the World live” genehmigen. Auf drei DVDs sind Konzerte von 1995, 1999 und 2002 festgehalten, die zum Teil bereits vorher erschienen waren. DVD 3 allerdings zeigt die Gruppe mit altem und neuem Keyboarder bei einem Konzert in England. DVD 4 erzählt in der handelsüblichen, also liebevollen, aber etwas zu unkritischen Art die Geschichte der Band mit etlichen Interviewteilen und Konzertausschnitten.

Allerdings werden ehemalige Mitglieder wie Coverdale, Hughes, Bolin oder Satriani wirklich nur in einem Halbsatz erwähnt – dieser Film konzentriert sich ausschließlich auf die Zeit mit Steve Morse, also von 1994 an. Erzählt wird die Historie der Wiederaufführungen des “Concerto” 1999/2000, des unglaublichen Auftritts in den verschneiten Schweizer Alpen – und zum x-ten Male geben Gillan und Glover den Hintergrund von “Smoke on the Water” – vom brennenden Casino bis zu Songnotizen auf einer Serviette – zum Besten.

Wer nur am Rande “Purple”-interessiert ist, gehört sicher nicht zur Zielgruppe der DVD, wer aber mal genussvoll über mehrere Abende verteilt in die neuere “Purple”-Geschichte einsteigen möchte, sollte zugreifen. Sehr zu empfehlen, weil immer aktuell, ist auch die offizielle Homepage www.thehighwaystar.com.

Axel Cordes, Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung

A short report from the gigs in Ravensburg (Saturday, August 2nd) and Benediktbeuren (Sunday, August 3rd):

The sound was excellent, in Ravensburg/Oberschwabenhalle quite bearable regarding volume, at least my ears didn’t ring afterwards although I didn’t wear earplugs (so either my ears are so jaded meanwhile or it was more quiet as usual). In Benediktbeuren (Open Air in the court of the abbey) was significantly louder, but here the open courtyard had to be filled.

The ambience in the abbey of Benediktbeuren of course was extraordinary. But the surroundings were unprofessional. The box office was after the security check! The men’s restrooms were outside. To eat they offered only sausage, cheese or fish rolls (we expected roast pork), to drink they had beer, apple juice and mineral water – no Weizen, no Cola. I expected the abbey kitchen to be much better, and the Lenten season is long over.

The opening band in Ravensburg was not – as announced – Gotthard (for whom a lot of Swiss fans waited in vain), but Andrew Paul Woodworth from Los Angeles. A name you don’t need to remember. I myself will try to forget it asap. Drums, bass, keyboards and acoustic guitar. The style, well how should I call it, Softrockpop? Elevator music might fit best. It was not really bad, but didn’t fit as opener for hard rock at all. And didn’t go down well for the audienc. But at least Mr Woodworth had a good voice.

In Benediktbeuren the opener Feedback was a real highlight. There plays abbot Notker Wolf, the highest man in the Benedictine order. He is a convinced hard rock fan and plays transverse flute (Locomotive Breath) and guitar. Their own songs were straight hard rock, style partly like AC/DC, Status Quo, Purple and other classics.

Deep Purple themselves were in excellent playing mood, in R. almost 2 hours, in B. a bit shorter, because at 10 pm it is sleeping time in the abbey. In R. Ian had a wonderful voice, many screams and duets with Steve, like the good ol’ times. In B. it was much harder for him. Due to the choice of songs and Steves long solos he had a lot of time to recover his voice. Because of that the whole gig was very guitar bound. Steves solos in the songs and his solo pieces were (as usual) first class.

For SOTW abbot Notker came on the stage again and played the famous riff (with a lot of help from Steve with the timing). Both obviously had a lot of fun, and the abbot was absolutely happy and proud to stand on stage together with his idols – who would hold it against him.

Altogether two great evenings, and the long travel froom Stuttgart (and the way back in the night) was worth it.

Little anecdote besides: after the gig in Benediktbeuren the boys disappeared directly from stage into the bus and left everybody waiting for a backstage meeting out in the rain (well not really, it was blue skies, perfect open air weather). The official explanation said that the travel to the next gig was so long and they had to leave immediately.

I heard directly from the tour assistant, that the boys simply wanted to avoid the expected traffic jam around the abbey and wanted to drive as fast as possible to the hotel. However the next gig is in Copenhagen – two days later.

The setlist:
Fireball –
Into The Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Demons Eye (Ravensburg only)
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (Benediktbeuren only)
Contact Lost with solo Steve Morse
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Wring That Neck
Well Dressed Guitar
The Battle Rages On
Don Airey Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Jam of Roger and Steve, leading into Highway Star
Smoke on the Water

Encores:
Speed King with duel between Steve and Don, Solo Roger and another jam with Ian G. (Ravensburg only)
Hush with Solo Ian Paice
Black Night (in Benediktbeuren Solo of Roger as intro)