Immergent, the record company behind the superlative “Gillan’s Inn” release, has given us details about a contest that has a prize to die for: a trip to see Deep Purple in Nice (France) this coming November, including airfaire and accomodation.
The contest runs until June 17, and includes the following:
– Two (2) round trip coach airline tickets to Nice, France
– Three (3) nights hotel in Nice (one double-occupancy room & taxes, daily continental breakfast for two at the hotel)
– Round trip airport transfers in Nice
– Coordination of all arrangements, reservations and ticketing
That’s a Most Excellent Adventure, to mis-quote Keanu, and contest you do NOT want to miss out on. Check here for more details.
Also, note that our own “Gillan’s Inn” giveaway is still happening, so check out our Gillan’s Inn feature and enter our contest as well.
The reporter is flown to Prague from Sweden only to see Blackmore chatting away most of the night with a Polish tv team. Finally the reporter get access to Ritchie for a couple of minutes and the guitar player gives weird answers, praises Abba and Jethro Tull and says he wants to play rock again (but with Blackmore’s Night). All of a sudden Blackmore’s Night manager, and mother to Ritchie’s girlfriend and band partner Candice, Carole Stevens shows up and is angry because an interview is going on after curfew. Ritchie throws a piece of paper at Mrs. Stevens and explains that he was the one to ask the Swedish reporter to stay.
When the interview is over, the Swedish reporter, who is a big fan of Blackmore, asks for a couple of autographs and all is fine as long as RB signs publicity photos of Blackmore’s Night. When the Deep Purple box set “Listen, Learn, Read On” is taken out, Ritchie asks, “who gets paid for this?” The manager runs away with the box and the reporter is reminded of the story about the guy who got his copy of “Machine Head” ripped to pieces by the mother-in-law. The reporter sets off after Stevens and asks if he can get his box back. Stevens refuses and throws the box into the hands of the Swedish record company representative and says, “this is why Sweden never will get an interview again!”
Something seem to be up in connection with Deep Purple’s appearance at this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival. The other day, festival founder “Funky” Claude Nobs said this to Billboard:
Speaking of casino burning and fire in the sky, you are closing this year with Deep Purple, whose classic “Smoke On The Water,” was inspired by the Casino fire.
It is going to be a special evening. I don’t know who they are going to invite. I hope Ritchie Blackmore will join them. I know they are trying.
Earlier, Pete York announced on his site that a gig he was about to do with Jon Lord on the day of Purple’s appearance had changed:
Unfortunately Jon Lord has to be in Montreux on the 15 July and has had to cancel his appearance in Kitzbühel.
So, are we looking at a Mk. 2 reunion, maybe playing “Smoke on the Water” in celebration of the Montreux Jazz Festival’s 40th anniversary? DP is even featured on the posters to the festival so they are obviously a big part of the festival this year. We have no idea what is happening, this is just speculation based on some cryptic facts but if they do reunite in one way or another, I sure hope they release some kind of recording from the event.
Erik Thomsen was a legendary Danish promoter who over his 40 years in the music business became close friends to lots of bands, including Deep Purple and Rainbow. There are lots of funny stories from ET’s meetings with both bands, many involving Ritchie Blackmore and his unusual sense of humour.
Erik passed away on May 20, 2006. Beside his family, he is missed by the entire music industry. Read more about Eric (and one of those Blackmore pranks) in this nice tribute.
Posted in Blog by Svante Axbacke on 2006-05-31 1 Comment
As we reported earlier, Dream Theater covered the entire “Made in Japan” album at some of their concerts in Asia in January. Here is a video of “Highway Star” as performed in Seoul.
Billboard did an interview with Claude Nobs (founder of Montreux Jazz Festival etc) earlier this spring. During the interview, Billboard mention that Deep Purple are closing the festival this year, to which Claude Nobs reply:
“It is going to be a special evening. I don’t know who they are going to invite. I hope Ritchie Blackmore will join them. I know they are trying.”
Jon Lord was in Stockholm last Monday to be involved in the Polar Prize Ceremony. He read the citation to one of the recipients, Led Zeppelin. At the dinner, Jon sat with the Swedish crown princess Victoria and Led Zeppelin guitar player Jimmy Page, as seen on this picture. Jon can also be spotted in the tv broadcast of the event, available at the Polar Music Prize website.
In other Jon Lord news we see on the DPAS site that Jon’s work “Boom of the tingling strings” will be performed by the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Odense, Denmark on December 7. The orchestra will be conducted by Paul Mann who is the current conductor for the Odense Symphony Orchestra. Paul Mann is of course the man who had a vital part in the resurrection of “Concerto for group and orchestra” in 1999-2000. Jon Lord will be present at the concert but will not perform. Tickets are available through the Odense Symphony Orchestra website.
The week after the concert in Denmark, EMI Classics will record “Boom of the tingling strings” and Jon Lord’s work for string orchestra, “Disguises”, for release on CD in 2007.
Posted in Blog by Svante Axbacke on 2006-05-26 3 Comments
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing