Win a copy of Ian Gillan’s new book “Smoke This”. Check out our Gillan’s Inn Special.

There is a TV documentary the 4th of January 2007 about the 70’s in Montreux with the backround of “Smoke on the Water”. It will be broadcast on the German TV channel 3Sat.
Thanks to Volker Sarnes for the information.

Santa Claus has been visiting and he’s brought presents! First off, we now have a shiny new Fan Forum, all ready for you to play around in. There’s a couple of groundrules you need to read first, and then you are off and running. Go check it out.

Roger Glover will start to record his next solo album in February. Roger also took some time off and wrote a X-mas letter to his fans. Here is a cut:

We have traveled a year’s worth of gigs to get here (Bangalore, India – Ed.) and what a diverse and wonderful twelve months. It seems an age since we were rehearsing in Hanger Lane, or maybe Park Royal, for our only Londongig at the Astoria. Although we’d played songs from Rapture Of The Deep the previous year, notably at the Hard Rock in London and some dates in South America, the Astoria show felt like the real start of the Rapture tour.

Read the full letter here.
Thanks to The Aviator and Roger Glover for the information.

KNAC.com has a rather lengthy interview with Ian Gillan about Gillan’s Inn album and tour and about DP. Nothing really groundbreaking and a usual sprinkle of Gillan’s exaggerations (somebody please tell him that the average age at Purple concerts is far from 18, even outside of America). But here it is anyway.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

Indian newspaper The Economic Times has a rather interesting (for a mainstream publication) article about pitfalls of Deep Purple being labelled as a “classic rock” band:

And yet, the classic tag is not something Ian Gillan, the band’s frontman for the largest part of its existence, is comfortable with. “We’ve been an underground band since we started and just coincided every now and again with a major label. We don’t think of ourselves as a classic rock band though we’ve had albums that are considered ‘classic’. We’ve been called hard rock, underground rock and lots worse! We are what we are — basically a live band. We make music and put out records to rejuvenate ourselves.”

Read the full article.

Thanks to Mike Garrett for the info.

I finally got to see Deep Purple in India. Although I’ve seen Deep Purple several times in the US, beginning in 1996 in support of ‘Perpendicular’, I’ve always wanted to see them in my home country. Since relocating to the US, I’d missed the band in 1995 in Mumbai and Delhi, and subsequently in Bangalore and Goa in different years.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in India since 2004, and I was looking forward to a date in India. When I saw in ‘The Highway Star’ that a Bangalore data had been announced for Dec 17, 2006, it was a very
pleasant surprise. The event caused quite a stir in Bangalore, with several banners coming up all over the city, as well as posters stuck on city buses.

A chance meeting with the General Manager of the West End Hotel in Bangalore (where the band stayed during this visit) led to my being roped in to help with the band’s arrangements in Bangalore – this was described Times of India, and has already caught the keen eye of the editors at The Highway Star.

The band arrived in Bangalore on Jan 15/16. On Saturday, Jan 16, the hotel were to host a private brunch for the band, at which I was invited to DJ. I took my music collection along with my laptop with iTunes playlists all set and ready to go. Unfortunately the brunch was cancelled at the last minute because the band members were too tired from the journey, so I lost a great chance of meeting with the band in
an intimate setting.

I did manage to sneak into the press conference later that afternoon at the same hotel. The band were relaxed, and answered questions with wit, humor and a ton of intelligence. [E.g., Roger had the microphone when a question was asked to the band that Big Ian wanted to answer, and Roger went, “Ian’s got a good answer, but I’ve got the microphone”; another one was where Big Ian said that a bunch of idiots with no knowledge or love for music decided which bands to sign up and promote].

I got a number of pictures of the band (including one of Roger taking a picture of me taking his picture!), and managed to get a couple of questions in –

Q1: Will the band use Bradford for their next album? Little Ian’s answer was that it depended on schedules, since Bradford had other clients as well, so nothing can be said now. After which Don related the “Moreblack” incident involving Bradford filling in for Steve, which produced a big laugh.

Q2: Can we expect the next Dixie Dregs album anytime soon (Full Circle came out in 1994), so it is time!). Steve’s answer was that it took a lot of effort to do an album, which involved time away from family and kids, so things had to be balanced – I think the answer was not any time soon. At the end I managed to play the fawning fan and got a number of autographs, although the rush to the stage was huge, and I couldn’t get as many autographs as I would have liked.

Later in the evening, I saw Roger, Little Ian and Steve at the bar, but they were having a great time with the bunch that they were with, so I didn’t interrupt them, much as I wanted to speak with the band. I did play DJ while they were there, and got to play some tunes off ‘Snapshot’, ‘Live At The Olympia’, and a few tunes from the ‘In Concert with the LSO’. I consciously did NOT want to play SoTW, or Highway Star or one of the hits.

Onto Sunday, the day of the concert – the show was to start at 7:00 PM at an open air venue, the grounds of Cathedral School. I reached the venue at 3:35 PM, only to find about 20 people already in the line. Most of the people were youngsters – teenagers and people who looked to be in their early twenties, with only a couple of oldies like me.

By the times gates opened at 5:00 PM, the crowd before me swelled to about 75, with people joining their friends in line. My 15-year old nephew was with me, keen to attend his first Deep Purple concert. I managed to get to third row from stage, right in front of Steve’s Engl stack. I couldn’t really estimate the size of the crowd, but I thought I heard that it was around 10,000 people.

Promptly at 7:00 PM, a local band ‘Galeej Guru’ started an energetic set that included a mix of covers and some original tunes. While they were good, I was glad when they ended their set at 7:30 PM. A little past 8:00 PM, the lights dimmed, and the Purple guys strode on stage. Little Ian started the proceedings. The set list was:

Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said (now why did they leave this gem from the album again?)
Into The Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Fireball
Wrong Man
Contact Lost
Steve solo (including ‘Back in Black’, “Sweet Child of Mine’ among others)
Well Dressed Guitar
When a Blind Man Cries
Lazy
Don Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Highway Star
Smoke on the Water

Encores:
Hush
Roger solo
Black Night

Pretty much the same as the tour so far, except that they left out ‘Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye’.

The show was absolutely amazing – one of the best I have seen from the band. I do believe that they were surprised at the energy in the crowd, and they fed off of it, delivering a blistering performance. I thought that the three RoTD songs fitted in well in the set, particularly Wrong Man. Steve’s solo pieces, from Contact Lost to WDG went down really well with the crowd – I saw many, many folks shaking
their heads in disbelief during his solo.

Ian was in fine voice, and interacted frequently with the crowd. He was clearly having a wonderful time, as were the rest of the band, who wore permanent grins on their faces almost throughout the show. The crowd sing-along during Roger’s solo, introducing Black Night, was terrific, as was the mandatory sing-along during SoTW.

The show ended much too soon (in a cold month ;)) – I would have loved to go back to the hotel to try and meet the band at the bar, but I had to play responsible Uncle to my nephew after his first DP show (who had a rocking time), and drop him home.

Since the organizers did not allow cameras to the venue, I couldn’t get pictures of the show, but a friend I made at the DP press conference, Girish Menon – a fine concert photographer – took some outstanding pictures during the show, whose link appears at the end of this review.

All in all, the band conquered Bangalore, clearly showing why they are billed as the ‘Gods of Rock’. Thank you, guys!

Mahesh Srinivas

See Mahesh Srinivas’ photos from the press conference.

Excellent concert and more press conference photos by Girish Menon.

Cathedral School Grounds – How appropriate for the Gods of Rock!

Before I talk about the show, here’s some trivia. This time I was a privileged concert goer. The reason: as a creative professional handling the business of Deep Purple’s main sponsor (Royal Challenge Whisky), I was involved with the promotional activities leading up to the concert.

Our theme had been “Deep Purple and Royal Challenge – Forever Young”. There could not have been a more emphatic vindication of this theme than my 20-year-old niece, who plays bass in a local band. I discovered just a few days ago that she was a huge fan of Deep Purple, and that she knew almost as much about them as I did.

I managed to get her into the press conference, where she met the band, chatted with them and got her guitar strap signed. Then, at the concert itself, she was right up front – close enough for Morse and Glover to spot her and send out a gesture of recognition.

Now for the concert. This was my fourth time, and I thought the band had never played better. It’s amazing how big and impressive Gillan’s voice sounds at 60+. While the screams weren’t vintage Gillan, they were good enough for the crowd to go wild.

Morse was outstanding, and so was Airey. Paice and Glover had their solo spots, which drove the crowd wild. The power and precision in Paice’s drumming was amazing. As far as I am concerned, the best performances were Perfect Strangers, Lazy, Highway Star, Wrong Man and Blind Man.

The mistake of the evening: Things I Never Said, slotted in at #2, a pedestrian song that hardly anyone was familiar with (the Indian version of ROTD does not feature TINS). The sorely missed song of the evening: Speed King. It was otherwise a set list that could have been any die hard fan’s wish list.

For the first time, the flanking screens showed crisp, clear images of the band from several angles. The sound was excellent, too. All in all, a 4 on 5.

I went away fully satisfied – and a trifle sobered by the thought that I might have seen them live for the last time. I mean, who knows whether they’ll come here again while they’re still a touring band. It took them 6 years between the first time and the second, and 4 years between the third and the fourth.

Such thoughts aside… Long Live Deep Purple!

G S Shridhar

More Bangalore photos.

Deep Purple blows minds at the Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires

For the third time in (almost) a year I was able to enjoy of one of the greatest bands in the history of rock n’ roll. Even though the band has not its original “Mark”, Steve and Don do a great job.

But anyway we should not forget those two magnificent musicians that are Blackmore and Lord. Getting back to the show…

The show was amazing. I arrived few minutes before it started. It started with the great Pictures of Home with the sound of which I got 2 meters (6 feet) away from the stage. After some good songs (but not very exciting for me) arrived Strange Kind Of Woman. Great song with twisted lyrics.

Then Rapture Of The Deep, that’s one of the best songs in the album along with Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye and Junkyard Blues). After this followed Fireball. What can I say? Paice really rocks in this song. Unforgettable!!!

Once in a while Gillan uttered a “Superb!” or “You’re the champions of rock n’ roll fans”. Although most people did not understand, it turned the crowd mad. Great song selection in Steve’s mini-medley guitar solo. Lazy’s intro is awesome and so is the song.

Just after came Don Airey’s keyboard solo. As he did last time here, he played Adios Nonino, a tango masterpiece by Astor Piazzola. During the tango a couple appeared and danced a most enticing tango. Bizarre! For me those were wasted minutes that could have been replaced for Demon’s Eye (which they didn’t finally play).

After the Imperial March (Star Wars, also repeated) Perfect Strangers began. I didn’t actually like this song before but eventually after some long listening it seduced me. Now I love it and I really enjoyed it on the show (despite the fact that Gillan missed the lyrics). After this followed hit after hit. Nothing can I say about these. They’re great and cannot be absente in a Purple’s show.

Songs I’m still waiting for them to play after the last 3 shows are: Child In Time, Kentucky Woman and Woman From Tokyo.

No matter what people can say about their age or anything. Something is true: DEEP PURPLE STILL ROCKS.

My review score: 10 out of 10.

01. Pictures Of Home
02. Things I Never Said
03. Into The Fire
04. Strange Kind Of Woman
05. Rapture Of The Deep
06. Fireball
07. Wrong Man
08. Steve’s solo – (Sweet Chile O´Mine, Back in Black, Voodoo Chile y Stairway to Heaven)]
09. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
10. When A Blind Man Cries
11. Lazy
12. Don’s solo (Adiós Nonino – Marcha Imperial de Star Wars )
13.Perfect Strangers
13. Space Truckin´
14. Highway Star
15. Smoke On The Water
16. Hush (incluyendo un breve solo de batería a cargo de Ian Paice)
17. Roger’s solo – Black Night

Jerónimo Ulloa – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Pictures and review in Spanish.

Desde hace 3 meses que conoci la noticia ..Increible noticia, que Purple venia a Cordoba, no deje de pensar en el show.

Sabia que si venian solo a Bs. Aires cabia la posibilidad que no pudiese verlos, pero se me dio y anoche tuve mi “primera cita” con esta Impresionante banda de Rock and roll pesado.

No voy a olvidar jamas las expresiones de los rostros de los tipos cuando vieron tanta locura y tanto fervor en gente de un lugar mediterraneo de la Argentina. Se miraban entre ellos como diciendo “¿y estos nos conocen tanto?”, si yo no se si sabrian de la existencia de un lugar como Cordoba, pero esa noche se enteraron y de que forma.

Creo que debemos haber sido 3 o cuatro generaciones juntas. Recuerdo haber visto gente de mi edad (47) y mas grandes aun, de hecho fui el primero de la cola.despues llegaron dos paraguayos, un guardia carcel de franco y una salteñita, todo esto a las 3 de la tarde o sea 7 horas antes del comenzo del show.

Fue todo muy loco muy extraño porque espere 30 años escuchar y ver a Roger haciendo ese solo de bajo en medio de Pictures of home, yo estaba adelante porsupuesto y la masa nos aplastaba contra las vallas pero no me di cuenta que eso pasaba porque mi extasis era tal que solo existia Purple.

Con mis 47 recien cumplidos llevo pegado en mis retinas la imagen de los Purple y mis oidos todavia zumban con la musica de ellos. Fue realmente un sueño hecho realidad. Ojala algun dia pueda saber la opinion de ellos sobre esa (para nosotros) inolvidablke noche en Cordoba, la ciudad del cuartetazo, cuando la banda le falto el respeto y se convirtio en la ciudad de DEEP PURPLE.

Aunque fuera por una noche nomas.-

Miguel Angel Salvador Rizzotti
Cordoba, Argentina