Continuing the Deep Purple month, Planet Rock is giving away 3 pairs of tickets to see Deep Purple live at London Wembley Arena on Saturday 28th April. But you’ll have to be quick though, the “competition” closes at midnight on Wednesday 25th April.

Now this one looks like real fun. Identify small fragments of 30 albums covers for the Purple family. If you do it right, you enter the draw to win all seven Ian Gillan reissues. Play here.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night interviewed on Bulgarian radio: listen from candicenight.ru (MP3, 21 min).

The new issue (#28) of the Fireworks magazine is out in May. It features interviews with Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Joe Lynn Turner all in one issue.

Fireworks magazine: http://www.rathole.com/fireworks/

Fireworks at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/fireworks_magazine

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

Hot on the heels of the Roger’s interview, ICWales.co.uk comes up with one with Steve Morse:

THE pre-tour checklist for Deep Purple’s lead guitarist sounds pretty strange to many people.

1. Practise guitar technique.
2. Pack clothes and toothbrush.
3. Get someone in to cut the hay.

Read the complete interview.

Blackmore’s Night, Sofia, Bulgaria, April 17, 2007

Setlist:

1. Ritchie’s Intro
2. Past Time With Good Company
3. Rainbow Blues
4. Play Minstrel Play
5. Under A Violet Moon
6. Soldier Of Fortune
7. Durch Den Wald Zum Bach Haus
8. Bard David piano solo
9. World Of Stone
10. Diamonds And Rust
11. Mond Tanz / Child In Time
12. Bard David piano solo
13. Ariel
14. Loreley
15. Minstrel Hall
16. Ma O Tzur
17. Home Again / Bard David singing “Drink”
18. I Still Remember
19. Renaissance Faire
20. Avalon
21. Streets Of London
22. Ghost Of A Rose
23. Difficult To Cure / St. Teresa
24. Smoke On The Water
25. Back Night / Woman From Tokyo “riff”

Thanks to Kevin Dixon for the info.

Deep Purple North American tourdates started appearing on Pollstar. Although until anything is confirmed by the band’s management and posted on the official site, it is still on the shaky grounds, Pollstar draws it’s information from an industry wide database populated by announcements from promoters and booking agents. So the negotiations must be progressing.

The Moondance Jam appearance on July 12 that was rumoured previously have fallen through, but another gig on the same day in Atlanta, Georgia is already announced.

Check our tourdates page for the full listing at the moment.

Here is the situation with the North American version of the Ian Gillan’s DVD “Highway Star – A Journey In Rock”, straight from it’s producer.

1. Exactly what does “cut a different version” mean? Does this mean the NTSC might not be 2 discs or will contain substantially different material than the European release?
2. Any idea how much longer it will be before a general release in N. America happens? I’m guessing months, not weeks.

Can’t answer your questions exactly as it’s all in the hands of the people at Universal (although both our company and IG will have a say). What I can tell you is what is anticipated by Universal.

The ‘different cut’ is quite different from the currently released DVD in many respects. The reason for this is due to the music publishing laws in North America which mean we’re charged per track used (or part of a track used). In most of the rest of the world, we pay a flat rate 8.5% of the dealer price to the music publishers and we can use as many tracks as we want (although we have to pay the owners of any recorded music on top of that!). So where we’ve used around 100 short clips of songs to keep the narrative moving along on the film released in the rest of the world, we are limited to around 20 tracks for the North American version. Therefore we’ve chosen 20 tracks and used them long. It means some parts of the original film have had to go, but some music tracks are
used in their entirety.

I have no idea how long it will be before there’s a US release. There’s talk of movement but I think it may rely on a US tour by Deep Purple taking place. So maybe in the summer… I’ll ask and if there’s an answer I’ll get back to you. By the way, the current disc is an NTSC hybrid and so should play on US machines anyway.

We can confirm that the “NTSC hybrid” he is referring to is the European version which is mastered as a Region 0 NTSC DVD. This means that it should seamlessly play on any North American DVD player. You can order the European version from Amazon.co.uk.

Thanks to Jim Collins for the info.

Planet Rock is in full swing of promoting the upcoming UK tour. This week you get:

Purple Reflections

• Tuesday 17th April: 7pm
• Wednesday 18th April: 11pm (Repeat)
• Saturday 21st April: 6pm (Repeat)

Planet Rock DJ, Nicky Horne met the band in Strasburg in March 2007. His aim was to let the band do the talking and let them reflect on the ups and downs of the band’s illustrious career. What you get to hear is a real insight to the band by the band with all the highs and lows and all the bits in between. Highlights include the full story of Ritchie Blackmore being found inside a wardrobe!

Child in Time: Interview with Ian Gillan

• Thursday 19th April: 7pm
• Friday 20th April: 11pm (Repeat)
• Sunday 22nd April: 6pm (Repeat)

Ian Gillan talks to Planet Rock about his life from his time at school to his introduction to music, then onto his time in and out of Deep Purple and as a solo artist.

This is a UK based radio station. so all times are British, I presume.

Also be sure to check out their DP minisite at www.planetrock.com/deeppurple

In anticipation of the UK tour, a Welsh website published an interview with Roger Glover. The usual Roger’s eloquence didn’t fail him this time either:

Putting it mildly, as a band we’ve had a few ups and downs. But over 40 years you show me a life that hasn’t. Whatever people think of us, right now we are really happy playing together and that’s the best reason for doing this.

I love a blank canvas because you start filling it from nothing, sometimes with no idea of where you are going, and it ends up as something. It’s the same with an album – you start off with an hour of silence that you have to fill and you don’t know where to begin. Pretty much all our songs are accidental.

Read the full interview here.

There’s a new interview with Ian Gillan in the latest issue of Sweden Rock Magazine. On the Gillan split:

Q: The Gillan split was a bitter one. In case McCoy and Underwood would be reading this article, what would you say to them?

IG: Well, what can one say? They claim that I cheated them on their money, but the facts are: We split all profits between the 5 of us, and I had to add from my own pocket. I was broke by 1982. Those guys were brilliant musicians, especially Mick Underwood. And I had a lot of fun with John McCoy. But when he hit my manager with his bass guitar, I lost all respect for him. If you’re going to fight, at least pick somebody equal to your own size. I wish they could have done something better with their lives than to sit and complain.

On when we can expect a new DP album:

IG: We have tours booked up until November. Then we go on a vacation, and after that maybe we’ll go into the studio. So, maybe there’s a new album in 18 months.

Thanks to Daniel Bengtsson for the info.

Ian Gillan will be signing copies of ‘Smoke This’ at the following Borders bookstores during the UK tour:

• Bournemouth – Friday 27th April @ 5 pm – 6 pm
• Brighton – Sunday 29th April @ 2.30 pm – 3:30 pm

Thanks to Caramba! for the info.