Music Street Journal has done a interview with Glenn Hughes, which has just been published. Here is a excerpt:

Music Street Journal: There have been rumors you might get involved in the remastering of Deep Purple’s Stormbringer.

Glenn Hughes: I’ve done that. I was in the studio at Abbey Road three months ago to do “Holy Man” and I did it really quick. I put the board tape up from the 24 track from ’74 and it sounded so great that I mixed it. I mixed a few more songs. I mixed “Holy Man,” “You Can’t Do It Right,” “Love Don’t Mean a Thing.” I mixed them in the afternoon. I did a slightly different mix than what you’ve heard already with a little raw vocal, probably more funk on those tracks, more than you probably remember. I’ve added a couple of things on guitar that we didn’t have on the original. And I’ve added a new vocal on “Hold On” so it’s kind of an interesting mix.

Read the full interview here.
Thanks to Music Street Journal for the information.

Photo: S. Belyakov, www.sbelyakov.ru.

Joe Lynn Turner’s upcoming solo album Second Hand Life will be featured this Saturday, March 31 on Argentina radio programme Malicia Pais De Las Maravillas. You can listen to it over the Internet at http://www.lt24online.com.ar/lt24fm.m3u. The show airs at 1pm Buenos Aires time, use world clock converter to convert to your local time or email Gustavo Solinas from the Joe Lynn Turner Argentina Fan Site for further questions.

Gustavo also asks that you email the show at maliciapais@hotmail.com with your location in the world (if you listen to the show, I presume), for example:
To: maliciapais@hotmail.com
From: mario@italy.it

Hi, I am Mario from Italy.

This will help to support his website.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

I came across this on one of the mailing lists. The announcement was for the Steve Morse Band Live in Baden Baden and Dixie Dregs Live at Montreux reviews at the Music Street Journal. Since the announcement didn’t give direct links, I started poking around.

First things first, i know it’s just a matter of personal taste (and some people say the same about The Highway Star), but I’ve found the design and navigation on the site to be particularly hideous.

Now, getting this out of the system, I was very pleasantly surprised with objectivity of the reviews (at least once it comes to Purple material, I didn’t read the rest). For example, here’s an excerpt from the Deep Purple Live at Montreux DVD:

Sometimes it’s all about the impression. I saw Deep Purple once quite a few years back, and frankly, I found them to be boring. Now, I barely remember the show. After seeing this DVD, though, I can tell you that either they were having a really bad night (it happens) or I just wasn’t in the right mood for them. Either way, you never saw the review of the show at Music Street Journal. Why is that? It’s because we don’t do negative reviews. If we don’t like something more than we dislike it, we just don’t review it. That serves two main purposes. The first is that with as much good stuff out there we don’t waste our time (and yours) with sub par material. The second goes more to my central point in talking about this – just because I happen to not find something entertaining it doesn’t mean it’s bad. After seeing this video, my guess is that was definitely the case on that show. I know that I’ve always like Deep Purple’s particular style of hard rock on album. That one particular night left me greatly unimpressed, though. So, why trash them over one night? Well, I’m glad I didn’t because it was probably more about a long day of watching bands than it was about them. As evidenced by this video, these guys simply kill in the live performance venue.

This, in my book, is a pretty good position to start with.

And now do go and check the reviews:

• Deep Purple: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/deeppurplelist.htm
• Steve Morse: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/smorlist.htm
• Dixie Dregs: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/dreglist.htm
• Rainbow: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/rainbowlist.htm
• Blackmore’s Night: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/blackmoresnightlist.htm
• Glenn Hughes: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/glennhugheslist.htm
• Whitesnake: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/whitesnakelist.htm

You can think whatever you want of the direction Blackmore’s music took some 10 years ago, but slowly but steadily he’s being recognised as an accomplished acoustic player. The Fingerstyle Guitar magazine featured him on the cover of issue 61. The issue also includes what is by all accounts an excellent interview done by Ray Flacke. You can get the issue here for $9.95 (plus $8.50 for international shipping).

Thanks to MikeY for the info.

getreadytoROCK is running a competition to win a couple of tickets for any show (except Bornemouth and Glasgow) of the upcoming Deep Purple UK tour. The competition includes one unbelievably difficult question, for which I’m sure none of our readers know the answer. It runs until April 15. Enter here.

UPDATE (March 30): Once you’re there, you may also want to check review of the Glenn Hughes’ gig at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on March 25th.

Thanks to Mike Garrett and Keith Thompson for the info.

Australian singer Jimmy Barnes is recovering from an open heart surgery. Jimmy is a member of the Purple Family most widely know for his participation in the Living Loud project. Last year Drew Thompson also introduced him to Glenn Hughes and they’ve been writing songs for Barnes’ next album together. Returning the favour, Barnes sang The Rolling Stones’ Monkey Man on Music For The Divine.

Commenting on Jimmy’s surgery, Glenn said:

Jimmy Barnes is a soul brother to me, man. I know he isn’t well at the moment but we are exchanging emails and he tells me he’s getting better and I thank the Lord for that.

I’ve no doubt that he’s going to emerge an even stronger and better person when he’s fully recovered and that he will produce a great album. I only heard about his heart condition over the news wires so it gave me quite a shock. I’ve had trouble with the old ticker as well.

We all at The Highway Star wish Jimmy a speedy recovery and all the best.

Thanks to the Herald Sun for the info.

Deep Purple were featured on British radio Planet Rock yesterday. The DJ Nicky Horne mentiond that:

• April will be Deep Purple month on Planet Rock.
• He saw DP in Strasbourg the other day.
• Did a 90-minute “tell-me-some-anecdotes” session with Ian Paice, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.
• Also did an interview with Ian Gillan.
• These will be aired in April.
• Said that the UK tour will reprise the 2004 US tour idea to play “Machine Head” in its entirety and running order through the second half of the set.

Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.

EMI has set a May 31 North American release date for Whitesnake 1987: 20 Anniversary Collector’s Edition. The edition includes CD and DVD and will be packaged in a fold out digipack with PVC slipcase with sleeve notes written by Geoff Barton of Classic Rock magazine.

Originally released in 1987, the album hit No. 8 in the U.K. charts and went on to sell a eight million copies worldwide. The album also spawned three hit singles: Still of the Night, remake of Here I Go Again and Is This Love (a.k.a. Is This A Jaguar Covered With A Scantily Clad Tawny Kitaen). The CD features the original European album (with two more tracks than its American counterpart) and four bonus tracks taken from Live…In the Shadows of the Blues. The DVD features four videos, all of which got huge airplay on MTV at the time of release; which may have been influenced by the ample charms of aforementioned Ms. Kitaen; and four live performances from the Live, In the Still of the Night concert.

You can preorder this through our Amazon shop.

Track listing on the CD:

01. Still of the Night
02. Bad Boys
03. Give Me All Your Love
04. Looking for Love
05. Crying in the Rain
06. Is This Love
07. Straight for the Heart
08. Don’t Turn Away
09. Children of the Night
10. Here I Go Again 87
11. You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again
12. Still of the Night (Bonus Track)
13. Here I Go Again (Bonus Track)
14. Is This Love (Bonus Track)
15. Give Me All Your Love Tonight (Bonus Track)

Bonus tracks on the CD are taken from Live in the Shadow of the Blues.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

The Rainstorm Project is releasing a self titled album on March 30. The album features some very Blackmoresque guitar playing by Thomas Pihale (ex-Blind Faith) and Bob Curiano/Sir Robert of Normandy (ex-Blackmore’s Night) as the producer and bass palyer. The album also includes Blackmore’s tune Memmingen reworked with lyrics and called Tell Me Why. Check it out, they have audio samples posted. I could swear that it’s Ritchie himself is playing on the Alerik’s Daughter.

Photo: S. Belyakov, www.sbelyakov.ru.

There is a new DVD out featuring Joe Lynn Turner touring in Turkey with Cem Köksal. More information on www.cemkoksal.com.

Thanks to Tarik Burcoglu for the info.