An online petition to induct Ritchie Blackmore to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was started by Gary Entler and Brent Soileau. Go there, read it and sign if you agree.

Thanks to Rainer Klos for the info.

Here endeth the fact and starteth the opinion.

Why I’m not going to sign the petition? Couple of reasons.

• First of all, I do think that Ritchie deserves the recognition for all his influence and contribution. That being said, I don’t think he should get all the recognition alone. Deep Purple as a band should get it. Deep Purple is a fine example when the whole is much bigger then the sum of it’s parts.
• Many years ago, The Highway Star conducted a similar campaign to induct Deep Purple into the R’n’R Hall of Fame. It resulted in exactly nothing. No response from the Hall of Fame whatsoever. The powers to be that are running the show do not have a slightest interest in listening to the people. Given that, I question the value of recognition, if any, received from the Hall of Fame.

Any one of these would be enough for me. You make your own mind.

In late 1997 – early 1998 Deep Purple did a string of shows in the USA and Mexico, in between Abandon sessions. These came to be known as the House Of Blues Tour as most venues stateside were HoB’s in different cities. The January 28, 1998 show at the House of Blues in Hollywood, California, was recorded on video and broadcasted live on the Internet, which was just becoming fast enough for video streaming.

A couple of new tracks for the upcoming album were previewed at these shows, including Seventh Heaven, which by the time the band reached West Coast developed into a wonderful live number.
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Performance energy peaked in Dallas. It was clear that they gave it all for the final show of the North American Tour. No sound problems here. Good job Dallas, for feeding their energy.

The set list changes included playing both Woman from Tokyo and Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye. For the encore they played a killer Speed King with solos from Roger and Paicey before the final Hush.

Eric Slivon

25 August 2007 — The last stop of Deep Purple´s 2007 North American Tour.

This is what I love so much about this band. They were on!

Of course, I arrived 6-hours early (no chance of being late that way), talked to a couple of the HOB ladies, and asked them what of sight-seeing significance was close.

To my amazement, the Sixth Floor Museum/Dealy Plaza was just blocks down the street! Dealy Plaza, of course, is where my childhood hero, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered. I get chills typing this now just as I got chills standing in almost the exact location where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired the fatal shots and then in Dealy Plaza proper looking back at the Texas Schoolbook Depository.

In the Marine Corps we are taught about choke points and ‘no go’ areas and that area fit the definition to a tee. IMO, there is no way he could have done it alone… the area is just SO small.

Now. To the show.

At 20.00, a local Dallas band called One-Love hit the stage. At 20.45 they finished. Yea!!!!

At 21.10, the greatest rock band in the world, took the stage and played the following set list:

1. Pictures of Home
2. Things I Never Said
3. Into the Fire
4. Strange Kind of Woman
5. Rapture of the Deep
6. Woman From Tokyo
7. Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye
8. Contact Lost
9. Steve Morse solo to include Purple Haze/Ain´t it Ashame/Sweet Home Alabama/Sweet Child O Mine (SWEET!)/Girl, You Really Got Me
10. Well Dressed Guitar
11. Knocking At Your Back Door
12. Lazy (MH) — SUPERB INTRO BY DON AIREY!! Jon Lord-esque.
13. Don Airey solo
14. Perfect Strangers
15. Space Truckin´
16. Highway Star — Awesome Glover/Morse Intro
17. Smoke on the Water

Encores:
18. Speed King to include Roger Glover bass guitar solo (very rare!), Ian Paice drum solo and Ian Gillan solo to include: I Got A Woman/Sweet Dreams Baby/It´s Now or Later/High School Hop
19. Hush

Steve Morse is a guitar god! He did not seem happy with the sound on stage… he almost seemed out of sync at times. After show, he inidated that he was getting feedback harmonics from the floor (?) and that was screwing him up. These profesional musicians are amazing. He was telling us how many decibles above normal and stuff like that… I was yep, don´t have a clue what you are talking about.

Anyway, they were definitely on… IG was having fun… RG was having fun… Ian Paice (what a joker he is) was having fun… Don Airey was playing link a mad man and spinning and doing all other such antics… and SM was smiling (though not as big as normal, me-thinks, because of the harmonics issue).

They all looked pretty darn tired since they hit tree Texas shows in three days (Houston, San Antonia, and then Dallas) and Texas is not a small state. It´s actually the size of five in one. I was happy because they played songs from the new CD, I love KAYBD so I got to experience that live again, and I got to meet my favorite band again. So, this 46-year-old left feeling like a 16-year-old again.

After the show, I was priviliged to get backstage to rub elbows with my childhood and mid-life heroes (cannot call it a mid-life crisis when it´s a life long passion can you?). The first of my retirement coins went to Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Steve Morse, and Don Airey.

Ian Paice was kind enough to take one coin which he will deliver to Jon Lord when he sees him next week. Nobody seemed to have access to Ritchie so I kept his. The guys were so dang gracious! Their comments about the coin and their logo being on it are priceless. I am totally honored to have had the pleasure to meet them again.

Only bad part of my day — my camera ran out of juice though it indicated a full charge when I left NOVA.

With the show over, and my return to NOVA, thus ended two fantastic concerts in two weeks. Dave Matthews Band on 11 August and the immortal Deep Purple on 25 August.

Mark H. Bryant

In the wake of Monteux’2006 release, Classic Rock Revisited has published Peter Lindblad’s interview with Roger Glover. Roger discusses special connection the band shares with this swiss town, the infamous Casino fire that laid down the story told in Smoke on the Water, their appearances at the Monterux Jazz Festival, and the upcoming French tour.

On the matter of a new Deep Purple album, nothing is written in stone yet:

Peter: Is there another studio album on the horizon?

Roger: Intentions yes, but no plans; right now, we’ve been touring after Rapture of the Deep, which came out what …. 18 months ago? We’ve been touring continuously on that all around the world … and I think pretty much through the end of this year we’ll be touring. I would imagine next year … January, February, March or something, we’ll be back in the studio, but no plans yet.

Read the interview here.

Thanks to Mike Garrett and Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Ian Gillan spoke to his local newspaper Dorset Echo backing the opposition against a road project, over which the tempers are apparently flying very high (just check the comments to the article on newspaper’s website). The bone of contention seems to be the Dorset County Council’s plan to build a relief road from Dorchester (county seat town, population 16,000) to Weymouth and Portland (combined population about 64,000), 11 km / 7 miles south of Dorchester. The two areas are now linked by a railroad and A354, which for the most part is a two lane country road. Gillan lives in Lyme Regis (population 4,400), which is about 35 km / 22 miles west of Dorchester, so his involvement is not a case of “not in my own backyard” syndrome.

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Big Ian takes a very unequivocal position on the issue:

As a Dorset resident I fully support the group Bypass the Bypass that stands in opposition to building the proposed Weymouth relief road.

The opposition group has asked the court for a judicial review of the project, but it’s application was declined.

We were very disappointed. No-one, the pro-roaders included if their case is that strong, should have anything to lose or worry about. We feel that such damage to the countryside has been planned with no alternatives adequately explored. The scheme needs further independent scrutiny.

The next stage of the battle is a six-week public inquiry into compulsory purchase orders on the site that has been scheduled to start on November 6. Gillan will be on tour with Deep Purple from October 31 to November 28.

Thanks to Dorset Echo and Blabbermouth.net for the info.

It has become a good tradition during Steve Morse’s tenure in the band to invite other musicians to jam on stage with Deep Purple. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Hey, it’s only a jam after all!

Here is an example where it worked beautifully. On February 11, 2004 Deep Purple played a gig at the Warfield in San Francisco. Joe Satriani happened to be in the neighbourhood and was invited to jam for the encore of Hit the Road Jack and Black Night. This is a little gem that resulted from it:
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Here are seven excerpts of Gillan singing that illustrate his vocal range:
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Jon Lord & The Hoochie Coochie Men have a new website, launched in time for release of their new album, ‘Danger, White Men Dancing‘.

Find info about the band, video clips and – most importantly – sound clips from the forthcoming album with guest appearances by Ian Gillan, Jimmy Barnes and Jeff Duff.

Check out www.hoochiecoochiemen.com.

The August 23rd and 24th 2007 shows in San Antonio and Houston make shows 12 and 13 for me since first seeing the band in Dallas in 1985.

The band continues to be in fantastic form, having fun and radiating enough energy to alleviate any need for oil imports. After this many shows, I wasn’t sure I’d have anything new to share, but a couple of highlights are worth mentioning.

First the set list for the two nights. Highlights were getting three songs from “Rapture of the Deep” as opposed to just two as many of the recent reviews have shown. The sets were identical with the exception of switching the first encore song from “Speed King” in San Antonio to “The Battle Rages On” in Houston.

If you haven’t seen the tour, the Montreux 2006 CD/DVD will give you an excellent taste (and four ROTD songs!)

Set list San Antonio, August 23rd 2007:

Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said
Into the Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Woman From Tokyo
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Contract Lost/Morse Solo (no background explanation)
The Well Dressed Guitar
Knocking at Your Back Door
Lazy
Airey Solo (With Yellow Rose of Texas)
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke On the Water
– – –
Speed King (Encore)
Hush (Encore)

Set list for Houston, August 24th 2007:

Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said
Into the Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Woman From Tokyo
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Contract Lost/Morse Solo (no background explanation)
The Well Dressed Guitar
Knocking at Your Back Door
Lazy
Airey Solo (With Yellow Rose of Texas)
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke On the Water
– – –
The Battle Rages On (Encore)
Hush (Encore)

Highlights:

I drove from Houston to San Antonio and was staying at a hotel across the street from the Majestic Theater – beautiful old time ornate theater – amazing. A couple of hours before the show I went down to the Riverwalk, a waterway that winds through downtown San Antonio, lined by bars and upscale cafes, still dressed in my workclothes.

I was looking for somewhere to eat and came around a corner and stepped into a construction corridor about 40 feet long with plywood sheets forming a floor and ceiling with metal poles in between. Down at the far end was someone taking a photograph through the construction area towards me. I didn’t think much of it at first.

As I got closer and started to pass the photographer, I did a double take. He was wearing a ball cap and sunglasses and I wasn’t certain but his build and trim beard looked awfully familiar. “Mr. Glover?”

“Yes,” he said, lowering his sunglasses. Now this is the stupid part. I’ve met him twice before – once through the window of a limo and once back stage in New Orleans but I was nearly dumbfounded and not wanting to impose on what looked like some private chill out time, I was nearly speechless.

“I’m looking forward to the show tonight!” I said. “I am too,” he replied.

We started to move on and I added, “The new album’s fantastic, by the way.” He thanked me warmly, we shook hands and went on in our respective directions.

Should Roger or anyone else affiliated with the band read this, let me just add MY thanks for all the years of fantastic music and for continuing to write fresh new songs! I got to say it ten years ago, but in my stupor didn’t think to this time.

So thanks for all the tunes and two fantastic shows this weekend. They were simply superb. Purple live is unbeatable. I listen to their live recordings at least as much as the studio albums but even then it’s like going to Paris. No matter how amazing the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower look in pictures, there’s no comparison to being there in person. So to with a Deep Purple show. Nothing like it. Thanks guys.

Something funny happened during Highway Star in San Antonio. (What is it with Highway Star anyway? When I saw them in New Orleans in 97, some kid tried to crowd surf. He leapt on stage, turned and dove off. The crowd parted and he smacked straight into the floor!) This was more amusing. Early in the song a young woman got on stage and started running around and eventually got chased off by roadies.

A minute or so later, as the guitar solo was about to come up, another young woman jumped on stage but stayed near the edge and just started to dance, twisting and slowly turning in a circle. Starting into the solo, Morse crossed over to her and leaned his right shoulder against her as he noodled away. The woman then started to really shake it, leaning forward and showing off some serious cleavage.

At this point, her well dressed and somewhat irate boyfriend leaps on stage and shoves her back into the audience. As he’s about to follow her back into the audience, Ian Gillan comes up behind him and taps him on the shoulder. When he turns around Ian takes his hands and starts to waltz around the stage with him, finally sending him off the side of the stage.

After nearly two years, I was starting to fear the ROTD tour would never make it to Texas. Now that they’ve been and gone I’ll be waiting anxiously for the next album. And the next tour. And the next album. And……..so on.

Thanks again to band! It was two fantastic shows.

Scott Holman