Louder Sound has a article on Machine Head remix, based around an interview with Ian Gillan, with some contributions from Ritchie Blackmore, Dweezil Zappa, and Bruce Dickinson.

Couple of quotes from Big Ian:

I can see why [the record companies] are doing it. They have to make the music reach today’s audiences, I suppose. Everyone has to work their catalogue, so from a business point of view it makes complete sense. I think this new version will reach a lot of people who weren’t there at the time.

Roger and I were at my place in Portugal working on the new Purple album when we were sent the new version of Smoke On The Water, and we went: ‘Oh my God’. It’s hard for me to compare the two versions, because obviously one is ingrained in your mind over a very long period of time. But having said that, there’s also the fact that the Smoke On The Water that I know best is the one that we do on stage. From a subjective perspective, I’m quite happy with all of this.

Read more in Louder Sound.

Louder Sound reprints an old Classic Rock feature on the formation of Mark 2, from Chris Curtis to Fireball. This was originally penned by late Pete Makowski for the Re-Machined: A Tribute To Deep Purple special issue.

It all began when Chris Curtis, the former drummer/singer with Merseybeat band The Searchers, approached London businessman Tony Edwards in the spring of 1967 and told him, “You could be the next Brian Epstein. You should be my manager!” It makes no sense, but this invitation to handle these legendary, yet in truth fading, beat boomers led to Edwards, a clothier with rock biz aspirations, becoming involved with one of the most successful yet self-destructive bands in the history of heavy metal.

Chris Curtis was a legendary character, but pharmaceutically challenged by the excesses of the 60s, to the point where his Scouse mate George Harrison dubbed him, “Mad Harry”. Curtis quit The Searchers and intended to put together a trio called Roundabout. He envisaged a constantly changing line-up revolving around himself and two other musicians, fiery guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and classically trained organist Jon Lord.

Continue reading in Louder Sound.

As promised earlier, Sound & Vision publishes their full review of the 2024 Machine Head remix:

The more aurally adventurous among us are in for one helluva ride. Dweezil’s stereo remix will indeed grab you in somewhat unexpected ways (a la “Never Before”), but it’s in Atmos where Machine Head gets to do some literal space truckin’ nonpareil. “Highway Star” is a balls-out ferocious assault wherein you can discern the layers in Ian Gillan’s stacked lead vocal tracks and get blown over by the clockwise swoosh of the keys-and-guitar-solo section. The 1974 quad version of “Highway Star” is a bit more compartmentalized, though you really do feel Ian Paice pummeling his drum kit. Back in Atmos, Ritchie Blackmore’s searing guitar solo on “Smoke on the Water” takes to the upper stratosphere — and be sure to listen for the vocalized, FZ-related Easter egg at the very end. Jon Lord’s keyboard clinic all throughout “Lazy” in Atmos almost makes the 2012 5.1 mix seem like it’s, well, sleepwalking.

Read more in Sound & Vision.

Scenestr has a short interview with Simon McBride on the occasion of the impending release of =1.

When you join a band like that, as you mentioned all the iconic players, there’s always that little bit of expectation from the fans I believe. They all want you to play like they want you to play. Some of them want you to play like Ritchie, some of them want you to play like Steve or Tommy or Joe.

I said to [Don Airey], ‘I don’t know what to play. I don’t know whether to play like Ritchie or play this or do this’, and Don says: ‘Just play. Be yourself. Don’t worry about anything that Steve did or anything that Ritchie did. That’s history, this is a new thing. Just be yourself and just play.’

Read more in Scenestr.

Photo: Stefan Brending, cc-by-sa-3.0 de

The second single from the upcoming new album =1 is out now Continue Reading »

Black Country Communion are on the cover of UK’s Powerplay magazine (#274, June 2024), with a Glenn Hughes interview inside. It should not come as a surprise that being shy is just not in his vocabulary.

Black Country Communion return after a seven year absence with glorious new album ‘V’. We chat to Glenn Hughes about the supergroup, which he believes has the potential to be one of the top five bands on the planet, and we ask him the big question that everyone wants answered: will the band ever tour again?

The issue can be ordered through the publisher, albeit overseas shipping is quite stiff and there seems to be no digital option.

Thanks to Benny Holmström for the info.

New Jersey Stage has an interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night on the occasion of their upcoming shows in the area. Not much in the sense of groundbreaking news in there, just a bit of Ritchie being Ritchie at the end:

When asked if there was a fan or two that really touched Ritchie over the years, he replied, “Yes, there was a fan that touched me – so I punched him in the nose!”

His music may have mellowed, but he’s still 100% rock and roll at heart.

#InfamouslyDry

Read more in New Jersey Stage.

Ian Paice spoke to the Classic Rock History on the occasion of upcoming new Deep Purple album =1. The meaning behind the album title, Steve Morse’s departure from the band, how Simon McBride fits in, the setlist, touring logistics, and life in general. Continue Reading »

A Tommy Bolin exhibition has opened at the Sioux City Public Museum. Many of the artifacts on display are from the collection of Bolin’s brother Johnnie.

What: Gypsy Soul: Remembering Sioux City’s Tommy Bolin
When: Friday, May 31, 2024 10:00 AM to Sunday, August 18, 2024 5:00 PM
Where: Sioux City Public Museum
607 4th Street Sioux City, IA, 51101 United States

Sound & Vision magazine (of an audiophilious inclination) has an interview with Dweezil Zappa on remixing Machine Head in Atmos surround.

Zappa’s Atmos mix of Machine Head—which has quite specifically and very deliberately been dubbed a “remix”—will most definitely challenge the ears of any Deep Purple fan, new or old, who knows the core album inside and out. As I noted in my review of the Machine Head box set (which will post here on S&V on June 7), the Atmos version of “Highway Star” is a balls-out ferocious assault wherein you can better discern the layers in Ian Gillan’s stacked lead vocal tracks, and then get blown over by the clockwise swoosh of the keys-and-guitar-solo section. You’ll also be riveted by the height-channel ascension of Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar solo during the forever-iconic “Smoke on the Water” and the full 360-degree dimensionality of Jon Lord’s literal keyboard clinic on “Lazy.”

Of course, there will be those listeners who don’t want to hear something quite so adventurous—and, hey, no one is stopping them from listening to the original version of Machine Head, if they so choose. But, just like Zappa, I prefer to be challenged as a listener whenever I enter the immersive arena in my listening room. “When you listen to the Atmos version in speakers, you really get to feel the immersive quality, versus what happens just in headphones,” Zappa clarifies. “One of the challenges in this format overall is you have compromises that have to be made when you encounter translation things that happen in headphones versus speakers. I think some people opt to let the headphones be the winner, but I feel like that’s not the way to go. I feel like the speakers should be the winner because, eventually, there are going to be more places where you’ll actually hear it in a speaker environment—and cars are probably going to be the main play.” (Let’s go space truckin,’ indeed. . .)

Read the first part of the interview in Sound & Vision. The second part is due some time later in June.