The first single from =1 is upon us. Continue Reading »

Steve Morse has appeared on the Stalwarts Of Music podcast. From inside his tractor in Florida, no less. The Bandland festival is mentioned as “happened last month”, so the interview must have taken place some time in January 2024. It’s a long chat, with lots of hay overturned, and Steve’s tenure in Purple discussed in depth. Dig in! Continue Reading »

A gentleman going by Mr. Zero has published in his blog a pretty detailed write-up of Tommy Bolin’s collaboration with Alphonse Mouzon on the latter’s album Mind Transplant. That recording, along with Tommy’s work with Billy Cobham, got him noticed by the big boys and an audition with Deep Purple a year later.

> The Real Thing <
Here’s where the story really unfolds for me.
Tommy Bolin (1 Aug 1951:Sioux City, Iowa – 4 Dec 1976: Miami, FL) had left the ‘James Gang’ in Aug ’74 & he & Stanley Sheldon (19 Sep 1950: Oattwa, KS) on Bass & Mike Finnegan (26 Apr 1945: Troy Ohio) on Vocals & Keyboards & Guille Garcia on Percussion & Marty Rodriguez on Drums were trying to reform a new version of ‘Energy’ which fell apart in a mere 3 weeks, although some demo recordings were made like “Sooner Or Later” (found on ‘Whips & Roses:2’), “Side Walk Strut” & “Shot My Baby Down” this Line-up did perform @ least 1 live show in Denver as a 9 song live tape exists. Then Bolin & Sheldon recorded 3 demo songs for Dr. John’s ‘Hollywood Be Thy Name’ in Nov ’74 the title track “It’s Your Freedom” & “Stick With Me”. Also sometime in ’74 Bolin sat in with ‘Weather Report’ & recorded 11 songs, perhaps as demos or jams.

Bolin was always prone to sit in with anyone who would let him, one time he had sat in on a jam with Mouzon & Coryell of ‘Eleventh House’ in a club in Boulder, CO. sometime in late ’74, Mouzon knew of Bolin by his guitar work on ‘Spectrum’ (1973 Atlantic Records), by; Billy Cobham (16 May 1944: Panama) with Jan Hammer (17 Apr 1948: Prague) both formerly of the ‘Mahavishnu Orchestra’. Mouzon was wanting to record a Fusion Jazz LP of his own, in the vein of ‘Spectrum’, so Mouzon booked some studio time on 6 Oct ’74 @ ‘Glen Holly Studio’ (named after the street it was located on), in Beechwood Canyon- Hollywood Hills, with Bolin on guitar, as it was one of Bolin’s favorite places to record, because it was owned by Bolin’s sometime business partner; Phillip Polomeni (23 Jul 1951: Brooklyn, NYC, -3 Feb 2014: L.A.) along with Stanley Sheldon from Bolin’s band ‘Energy’ & Rocke Grace on Keyboards. As with almost any sessions held at ‘Glen Holy Studios’ they were recorded,

Read more on mrzeros.com.

And we’ll leave you with some very topical fusion extravaganza for your listening pleasure:

Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the Mr. Zero’s link.

Ian Gillan was interviewed by Singapore’s The Straights Times. He spoke about the gig Deep Purple are about to play in the country and the upcoming new album:

We haven’t done a show since before Christmas because we’ve been working flat out on a new record. So everyone is like a caged lion at the moment. We’re going to explode with energy when we hit Singapore. Everyone’s very excited.

We’re going to do one song from the new album. It will also be the world premiere of its live performance, which is very exciting too.

I found myself being asked by a robot to prove that I’m a human being by filling in a matrix of traffic lights. And I tried, but they were all blurry and hard to pin down, and I failed to prove to a robot that I’m a human. The world is going totally insane.

And I suddenly had this desire for simplicity. So I started doodling, and I made a long equation. It was a really long, complex equation, but it equalled one. This is what we do in our lives every day, all these complications.

Read more in The Straights Times.

It is official — the new Deep Purple album is called =1, and the release date has been set to July 19, 2024.

But Deep Purple is more than just their members and ‘=1’ embodies the essence and attitude of their 1970s incarnation possibly more than any other album in recent memory. With the legendary Bob Ezrin once again producing, the record evokes the pioneering band’s classic sound, without relying on nostalgia.

The enigmatic title ‘=1’ symbolises the idea that in a world growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one.

Its full meaning will be revealed in the coming weeks, with the artwork also playing its part. Fans have already been speculating after mysterious equations and depictions of multiverses appeared in London, Paris, and Berlin in recent days.

Track listing:

1. Show Me 03:59
2. A Bit On The Side 04:10
3. Sharp Shooter 03:44
4. Portable Door 03:48
5. Old-Fangled Thing 04:08
6. If I Were You 04:42
7. Pictures Of You 03:51
8. I’m Saying Nothin’ 03:28
9. Lazy Sod 03:40
10. Now You’re Talkin’ 04:05
11. No Money To Burn 03:21
12. I’ll Catch You 03:20
13. Bleeding Obvious 05:50

The first single is due on April 30th, and little birdie told us that it might be Portable Door.

Available formats for the album will include CD jewel case, CD+DVD digipak, 2LP (in crystal clear, picture disc, black, and purple vinyl), and cassette (sic!).

DVD content:
Access All Areas documentary with exclusive Deep Purple Behind-The-Scenes footage
Duration: 57 min
Screen Format: NTSC, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo
Region Code: 0
Disc Format: DVD-5
Language: English
Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, French

There will also be a box set (pictured above), including

• 2LP Gatefold (180g)
• CD+DVD Digipak
• 3 x exclusive 10“ vinyl editions featuring live recordings from 2022
• Exclusive Collector’s T-shirt (Size XL)
• 2x exclusive guitar picks
• Art print
• Lanyard

Pre-orders are available via this link, and there is plenty of merchandise in the official store.

Thanks to janbl, Nohrmann, Stathis, and our editor emeritus Benny Holmström for the heads-up.

Glenn Hughes will embark on another US tour this September. He will be performing his Purple set, the tour is billed under the ‘Celebrating 50th anniversary of Burn‘ moniker. It will start on August 30 in San Juan Capistrano, CA, loop around the country in 16 dates, and finish back in California on September 28th, 2024. Chris Lafferty will provide support for the shows. Full details in our calendar.

A series of cryptic messages appeared over the past few days on various social media accounts affiliated with the band. They revolve around a new handwritten logo and an elaborate math equation, which (if my calculus serves me right) equals to one.

The timing and style of the said cryptic messages make some people to believe that this is the start of the promotional campaign for the anticipated new album.

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.

Guitar Player reprints online an excerpt from a vintage interview with Ritchie Blackmore that was first published in the July/August 1973 issue of the magazine.

Did you ever have lessons?

I had classical lessons for a year. That helped, because I learned how to use my little finger. A lot of blues guitarists play with only three fingers, so they can’t figure out certain runs that require the use of their little fingers.

Besides getting you to use your little finger, has classical training affected your playing in any other way?

I would say that it shows up most in the music I write. For example, the chord progression in the Highway Star solo – Bm, to a Db, to a C, to a G – is a Bach progression. The classical influence is always there somewhat, but I don’t intentionally use it that much really. I play a lot of single notes, and that’s not classical.

Continue reading in Guitar Player.

Rufus Stone publications have announced a new photo book Portraits of Gillan, covering Big Ian’s career after his first departure from Deep Purple.

ON LEAVING DEEP PURPLE IN JUNE 1973 IAN GILLAN seemed to turn his back on music. Instead of joining or forming a new outfit the vocalist instead invested heavily in a number of business projects and to all intents and purposes appeared to have retired.

But there was more to Gillan than just his work with Purple, and he’d been singing for over a decade by this time so it was inevitable that he would eventually go back to what he did best – fronting a band and so in September 1975, in Paris, the world was introduced to the Ian Gillan band.

Over the next few years the band expanded and transformed into Gillan, releasing a batch of successful albums and singles, sell-out tours, headlining the Reading Festival, guesting at the third ever Monsters of Rock event and playing a final show at Wembley Arena before the band disintegrated. What happened next surprised everyone and in April 1983, Ian Gillan, flanked by Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, was officially announced as the new singer of Black Sabbath.

PORTRAITS OF GILLAN – is a photographic celebration of Ian Gillan’s post Deep Purple career, published as a brand-new coffee-table book tracing his career with a mixture of well-known, rare and unseen photographs from some of rock’s greatest photographers. The book includes an 8000 word essay from rock journalist and writer John Tucker, tracking Gillan’s career through this period. This unofficial book is 230mm square, case-bound, 240 pages, printed on luxury 170gsm matt-coated paper. The book comes with a fold out poster and is presented in a black slipcase with a gold foil logo. The main edition comes in 500 numbered copies and sells for £55 plus shipping. In addition to this, a much larger, ultra-limited Black Leather and Metal Edition measuring 375mm square and presented in recycled leather and a hand welded aluminium metal slipcase with a screen printed logo in a run of 50 numbered copies. This edition also comes with a unique lenticular for framing and will sell for £350.The books will go on sale on Wednesday April 24th at 3pm UK time and will feature a 10% pre-order discount if ordered before April 30th. The first 200 orders will also come with a free Gillan enamel badge worth £6.95. The books will ship worldwide at the end of June 2024.

The book can be pre-ordered through the publisher. Pre-ordering opens on Wednesday, April 24th, at 3pm UK Time.

Scottish newspaper The Courier has a historic account of a Deep Purple concert at the Caird Hall in Dundee on April 18, 1974. It is accompanied by some never before published pictures from the gig.

These rare colour photographs document the night Deep Purple kicked off their UK tour in Dundee 50 years ago.

They give us a front-row seat to what it was like to be there.

The band performed at the Caird Hall in 1970, 1971 and 1972 where chunks of the ceiling fell down because of the face-melting volume.

Deep Purple was a much different proposition on returning to Dundee in 1974.

The band had cracked America with two new members in the ranks.

Lead singer Ian Gillan and bass player Roger Glover had left the band in 1973.

They were replaced by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes who would make their British live debut at the Caird Hall.

See more in The Courier.

Image credit: Graham Kennedy