Glenn Hughes has published a studio report #2 on his official site:

I have just completed my new album… we are mixing @ the moment, and will be mastering in January… I’m always excited about recording new albums, the songs are personal to me, as they are constantly being shaped thru out the year… Well here goes..

Read the report and see pictures from the studio here.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Steve Morse will appear at the NAMM show to do a signing session at the Engl booth on Saturday, January 19th at 1 pm. 2008 NAMM show will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in California and Engl will be in Hall E, Booth 1454.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Rumours were circulating for a while that a South American Deep Purple tour is in the works. Recently DPAS reported that Paicey had to cancel an appearance on February 28 in UK citing that he will be touring with Deep Purple at the time. Now, the first dates started trickling in. So far they are very unconfirmed.

See the dates in our tour central. Please send us any updates and ticket info.

Thanks to Mike McBain for the Last.fm link and to Oscar Garcia Verastegui for the Peruvian promo clip.

This is not really directly related to anything Purple, but we never said that this blog would be. 😉

A must-read article on wired.com: David Byrne talks about the state of music business. Personally, I don’t care much for his music, it’s not my cup of tea. But I care for the state of music business because I care for music in general. David is a smart guy and he’s been around the block in this business a couple of times. And when he has to say something, it’s good to listen.

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

The fact that Radiohead debuted its latest album online and Madonna defected from Warner Bros. to Live Nation, a concert promoter, is held to signal the end of the music business as we know it. Actually, these are just two examples of how musicians are increasingly able to work outside of the traditional label relationship. There is no one single way of doing business these days. There are, in fact, six viable models by my count. That variety is good for artists; it gives them more ways to get paid and make a living. And it’s good for audiences, too, who will have more — and more interesting — music to listen to. Let’s step back and get some perspective.

Read more about it in the David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars.

This morning, January 3, BBC Radio 4 broadcasted a programme celebrating 40 years of Heavy Metal, focusing on founding fathers: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Some short interview clips from the 80s with Robert Plant and David Lee Roth, plus new interviews with the Sab’s first manager and Gillan. Usual stories – why he quit, the story behind Smoke (Eden au Lac version) etc.

You can listen to the show at the Radio 4 web site (you can choose from Flash player with high bitrate and standalone RealMedia stream at 64 kbps max).

Thanks to Doug MacBeath for the info.

Intrigued by the daft packaging, priceless misletoe, silly chateaus and stupid seagulls? See more at CarambaTV.

Thanks to Steve Campbell for the info.

Christmas came early this year …

What would you think, if you get an sms telling you Deep Purple is doing a private gig tomorrow night and you’re kindly invited to it? April Fool’s Joke?

For me being a Purple fan for over 30 years (I’m 41) it sounded like heaven on earth. 20 hours later my brother and me saw a fantastic Concert in the Kongresshalle in Zurich.

The whole band seemed to enjoy the evening and played absolutely relaxed a couple of their greatest hits.

As a big Paicey fan a dream came true to watch one of the greatest rock drummers live so close. Thanks to little Ian for the drum stick!

For the encore songs Ian Gillan wanted us as close as possible near the stage and the crowd did so …

And last but not least: Thanks to the private banker and his friends who organised and financed this evening!

Cheers
Christian ‘Purpendicular’

Carrying on the Rapture of the deep world tour Deep Purple’s 34th show in France (in less than two years) took place in Le Mans, world-famous place of the 24 hrs car and motorcycle races: actually there couldn’t be anywhere better in this country to perform Highway star!

The arena named Espace Antares, usually designed mostly for sportive events (including frequent basket-ball matches), seemed smaller than expected (aproximately 3.500 people roomful) but revealed sufficient acoustics for the very warm audience to ensure a great concert.

Support band Cafe Bertrand was much acclaimed, and DP’s performance was the most wonderfull collective shock, for such rock legends had never been visiting this town.

Among his pals all at their very top, Ian Gillan confirmed himself as an astounding singer and sounded in better form than in Paris one week ago. As an unexpected gift in the set-list Sometimes I feel like screaming offered a shattering guitar solo though it was a quite short version.

Set-list:

Pictures of home
Things I never said
Into the fire
Strange kind of woman
Rapture of the deep
Mary Long
Kiss tomorrow goodbye
Contact lost
(Steve Morse solo)
The well-dressed guitar
The battle rages on
Lazy
Sometimes I feel like screaming
(Don Airey solo)
Perfect strangers
Space truckin’
Highway star
Smoke on the water

Hush (including Ian Paice solo)
(Roger Glover solo introducing:)
Black night

Purply yours
Gilles Colas

I went to Besancon for Deep Purple’s concert with my 14 year old boy who plays guitar. It was a fantastic moment I will remember all my life. I first saw Deep Purple a long time ago and they are still as excellent as they were at the time.

They are very friendly and communicative with the people even if they don’t speak French. It is evident they had a great pleasure to play together and they shared the fun with everybody in the audience. The songs are just a perfect choice and the show is very intense.

Great musicianship also which is usual with them. I saw many young and older people with the same smile on their faces, just like after making love. They gave us everything we need to be happy: a magical moment of rock with sensibility and heart.

Thank you so much for everything you give to all the people who love rock’n’roll all over the world.

Alain Gavignet

11 years after recording their famous live album “At the Olympia” Deep Purple came back to the most famous Parisian club for a brilliant sold-out show, without Jon Lord this time but introducing Don Airey to a mythic place of music and culture.

France was widely toured in 2006-2007, and this very date was particularly awaited by about 2.000 people challenging Rapid-Transit on strike to be part of this memorable stage of the “Rapture of the deep” world tour.

Usual French support band Cafe Bertrand warmed up the audience efficiently as ever. However resonance defects punctually occurred during DP show, surprisingly due to Olympia’s disappointing acoustics.

Other slight disillusions were Ian Gillan’s voice not at its very top (although much more audible than on recently-released “Live at Montreux 2007”) and the unexpected briefness of Steve Morse and Don Airey’ s solos.

The rest was real ecstasy and I doubt tracks like “Mary long” and “Loosen my strings” were for ages or ever performed in France.

Set-list:

Pictures of home
Things I never said
Into the fire
Strange kind of woman
Rapture of the deep
Mary long
Kiss tomorrow good-bye
Contact lost
(Steve Morse solo)
The well-dressed guitar
The battle rages on
Lazy
Loosen my strings
(Don airey solo)
Perfect strangers
Space truckin
Highway star
Smoke on the water

Hush (including Ian Paice solo)
(Roger Glover solo introducing:)
Black night

Purply yours
Gilles Colas