In a recent interview with webzine Antenna, Deicide drummer Steve Asheim, talked about how Deep Purple blocked the band’s cover version of “Black Night”.
How did the Deep Purple cover “Black Night” come about?
Asheim: “It came about because Glen had been toying around with the idea for three years about doing a cover song, but no one was into it. The Hoffmanns weren’t into it, I wasn’t really into it either, but when Ralph and Jack came into the picture, he mentioned it to them, and they were both into it. I at the point said: ‘Well, since I’m the only one who’s not into it I’ll just go along and do it because these guys want to.’ So the song itself Glen picked it and kind of worked it the original way and for me that just wouldn’t work out. The slowness of it — what kind of drove me into playing extreme drums in the first place was not having to play slow stuff like that, but the idea of still doing a cover was cool. We played around with it a bit and what we did was that we turned it into a DEICIDE song. We turned it into a death metal song and changed up a few things, the speed and the time signature and just went nuts with it and to kind of further that story we have not had permission to put it out in Europe because word came down directly from DEEP PURPLE’s management who heard the song and said it’s just too far out, and we don’t want you to put it out, but in the U.S. they somehow found a way around that so it will make it out somehow. People will end up hearing it in Europe somehow eventually.”
Read the entire interview at www.antenna.nu.
In a statement released to media on Monday, Deep Purple says they intend to honor their commitment to perform at the Baalbeck Music Festival outside Beirut on July 28.
“The band has never cancelled a show and has no intention of doing so,” the statement said. “If the festival promoter decides to cancel the show as a result of the current conflicts, Deep Purple will vow to reschedule in the near future.”
In a news article in the Swedish morning paper Sydsvenskan, there was an article on Monday about a Swedish citizen trapped in Baalbeck. It describes Baalbeck as one of the places worst hit by the ongoing conflict:
“Baalbeck is in eastern Lebanon close to the Syrian border and is regarded as a Hezbollah stronghold. Because of that, the city is under constant fire. According to the BBC, Saturday’s attack against Baalbeck was aimed at local Hezbollah leaders who had gathered in the town.”
(…)
“Mamdoh El-Dakkak tells us that he and his friend are ready to pay big money to get out of Baalbeck.
‘We offered a taxi driver 1000 US dollar to drive us to Beirut, but he didn’t dare to do that. No one dares to drive on the roads here.'”
This just in from gillan.com:
“We are looking for a couple street team members in each of the cities the tour is in to put up posters to help promote the shows. In exchange for your help, we will give you a free ticket to the show and a backstage pass.
In order to get the tickets, you must take a picture of each of the posters that you have posted up, and send them to us. The posters should be posted in bars, record stores, and anywhere where people like to ROCK!
Send a message to marketing@immergent.com with your email address, area you can cover, and number and we will contact you to let you know that you have been selected as a street team member and we’ll send you the posters. This is going to be a great tour, and we look forward to coming to your city.”
Bob Daisley has posted an update about his upcoming studio album with his blues band Hoochie Koochie Men. Jon Lord will be on the album and Ian Gillan has agreed to guest on two tracks. Daisley says the album is a blues album but with a rock edge and some good arrangements.
Deep Purple’s scheduled performance at the Baalbeck International Festival in Lebanon on July 27 has been postponed after the Israeli attacks on Beirut. The festival was celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year. Festival organizers issued a statement Thursday to announce that Thursday’s performance was postponed until further notice.
Did you know there’s a bar in São Paulo called Blackmore Music Bar?
From deep-purple.net:
“John Coletta, former manager of Deep Purple and Whitesnake, died on July 9th 2006. Tony Edwards approached 35 year old John, managing director of an advertising agency (in an office above his own), to help him launch Deep Purple in late 1967. Coletta remained an integral part of the management of the band through the years 1968 to 1976, often touring with them. After the group split, the two managers set up their own operations but retained their interest in the band’s back-catalogue. John took on David Coverdale’s Whitesnake, and managed them for many years. In recent years John lived in Spain, and was involved with concert promotion there until he became ill last year. He had also been working with Derek Lawrence on some record ideas.”
Jon Lord’s “Concert for Group and Orchestra” will be performed live in Italy by an Italian jazz trio and the “Arturo Toscanini Foundation” orchestra. The jazz band’s members are Vito Di Modugno (organ) , Mimmo Campanale (drums) and Massimo Sutera (bass). Special guests will be guitarist Ricky Portera and popular Italian singer Alberto Fortis.
The shows will take place 20 July in Salsomaggiore Terme (Parma) and 21 july in Rimini. Full details on Deep Purple Italia.
Holland’s musicians magazine “Musicmaker“, has a coverstory (6 pages) on Deep Purple in their latest issue (06/06), which is available in shops in the Netherlands and Belgium since July 5th. Musicmaker has spoken to all bandmembers (except Ian Paice, although he is featured in the article). All instrumentalists list their gear for the current tour.
Mick Box of Uriah Heep has collected a bunch of famous names in rock to sign a white Telecaster which will be sold on eBay with the proceeds going to a cancer charity. Among the people who signed the guitar is the current line-up of Deep Purple and David Coverdale.
Mick has also posted some pics from the gig Uriah Heep did with Deep Purple in Bad Brückenau.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/glover2.jpg)
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing