Ronnie Romero will release his first original solo album Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters on September 15 via Frontiers. His two previous offerings — Raised On Radio and Raised On Heavy Radio — were both cover albums. This new release features only original material, written by Romero in collaboration with drummer Andy C. and guitarist Jose Rubio.

Video clip for the opening track Castaway On The Moon:

Tracklist:

1. Castaway On The Moon
2. Mountain Of Light
3. I’ve Been Losing You
4. Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters
5. Girl, Don’t Listen To The Radio
6. Crossroad
7. Not Just A Nightmare
8. A Distant Shore
9. Chased By Shadows
10. Vengeance

Lineup:

Ronnie Romero — Vocals
Andy C. — Drums
Jose Rubio — Guitar
Francisco Gil — Keyboards
Javier Garcia — Guitars

The album can be pre-ordered here.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes appeared on the Rockonteurs podcast hosted by Gary Kemp (of Spandau Ballet fame) and session bassist extraordinaire Guy Pratt. That happened on or around June 27, 2023. Listen to this rather interesting conversation Continue Reading »

Glenn Hughes was a guest on Bulgaria’s Z-Rock radio (his gig in Sofia was on June 24th, and he mentions it as being “tomorrow”).

Glenn reminisces about writing and recording Burn, leaving Trapeze and joining Purple, working with Blackmore, meeting Coverdale and the prospects of collaborating with him again.

On the last issue, in particular, he said:

We have spoken about it in the last 10 years a couple of times. But David — he’s been very busy; I have been very busy. So, the window of opportunity is closing, because I’m not sure how long David wants to continue. And I am so damn busy that… If he said to me tomorrow, ‘Let’s get together and maybe do something,’ I would find the time, but I don’t wait for that opportunity, because we’ve had that time. We had a great legacy.

A lot of people would love to see Glenn and David together on one more tour. But I’m not sure [it will happen]… I mean, I think fans would like that. You never know. But I’m not sure.

Watch the whole thing:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and the quotes.

There’s one member of the band that is truly irreplaceable. He has been in every lineup, on every record, and on every gig. His name is Ian Anderson Paice, and he was born on June 29, 1948. Which makes him 75 today. Happy birthday to The Boss!

David Coverdale has donated his 1974 Yamaha FG-160 acoustic guitar to the Download 20 Auction for Heavy Metal Truants to be auctioned for charity.

It is claimed to be the very guitar used to write nearly every song ever written by DC for Deep Purple and Whitesnake. The minimum bid is £1,000.

The auction will be going live on Thursday 29th June at 10am BST and will close on Thursday 6th July at 23.50 BST.

Deep Purple played a gig in the picturesque setting of the Ducal Palace of Parma, Italy, on June 27. Local press carries reviews of the proceedings. Unfortunately, none of us speak the language, but judging just by the pictures, good times were had by everybody involved. Continue Reading »

David Coverdale was a guest on The SDR Show and spoke. A lot. The whole thing is almost an hour long, and (full disclosure) we didn’t have time to sit through it. But Blabbermouth has some quotes that sound promising:

Well, there’s something we’ve got planned, obviously. It’s a very, very big year. I’ve got something planned for October… And I’ll be doing significantly more promo. It’s a lot to talk about. It’s gonna be very interesting.

“I’ve just been working with — I’ll give you some little clues — an amazing string quartet, beautiful women out of the Reno Philharmonic and a great string arranger called Jeff DePaoli. [Producer] Tom Gordon and I were sitting, like, ‘If we do another ‘Unzipped’ [WHITESNAKE’s 2018 collection of rare and previously unreleased acoustic performances], this will be great with a string quartet. Get me a string quartet.’ [Laughs]

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads-up.

Steve Morse shares in Guitar Player magazine his tips on how to improve one’s playing skills:

You might think that master guitarist Steve Morse never gets in a rut with his playing. But guess what? He’s just like the rest of us in that regard. However, being that he’s Steve Morse, he’s figured out some ways to dig himself out of any kind of hole he finds himself in.

“I’ve found that changing my perspective always helps me,” Morse says. “One way I do that is by imposing limits on myself. We tend to gravitate toward choices that are easy on the guitar, and because of that we wind up playing a certain way.

“Let’s say you’re playing too many box patterns,” he suggests. “What you can do is say to yourself, ‘I’m only going to solo on the D and G strings.’ To make an octave phrase, you’re going to have to move your left hand. By doing that, you’ll play in a more linear manner. It’s a cool trick.”

He laughs. “It sounds counterintuitive,” he admits, “but by taking away options you’ve opened yourself up to playing in a way you never would before.”

Continue reading in Guitar Player

Tony Carey appeared on the VintageRock Podcast to talk about his experience of being in Rainbow.

We explore the making of the iconic album ‘Rainbow Rising’ at Music Land Studios in Munich, while Tony gives us a rare glimpse into how the band created their unique sound and the culture within it. Tony goes on to discuss how he was asked to join the band, and the free-form way in which they approached improvisation. He also shares stories about the personalities within the band and the conflicts that ultimately led to his departure.

Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.

Rufus is gearing up for another photo book — this time it’s Portraits of Rainbow — The Dio Years with words by Geoff Barton.

From the publisher blurb:

Portraits of Rainbow – The Dio Years book is a photographic celebration of Ritchie Blackmore’s supergroup, formed in 1975 by the guitarist as he left Deep Purple and recruited four members of the band Elf, including singer Ronnie James Dio. However, the band really took off when Blackmore recruited Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain and Tony Carey and recorded the seminal album “Rising” in 1976. Sounds writer Geoff Barton remembers: “I marvelled at the fist-thunderin’ maelstrom depicted on the cover, a pulse-poundin’ paintin’ by Ken (Kiss, Manowar) Kelly. I also offered the following description of the album’s musical content: THERMO-NUCLEAR ROCK’N’ROLL!” Rainbow were underway and although this less commercial variant of the band that went on to conquer the rock world in the 1980s was relatively short-lived it remains, for most fans, the definitive sound and image of Rainbow with the combination of Blackmore, Dio and Powell creating a powerful, progressive rock band. It all came to an end in 1979 when Ritchie decided to take the band in a new, more commercial direction.

The book features hundreds of classic and unseen, carefully restored, black and white images of Rainbow at play and playing live at a series of stunning, unforgettable shows. Wendy Dio has also supplied a range of personal, candid shots from this time. Legendary writer and journalist Geoff Barton has written an introductory text based on his
professional experience with Ritchie and the band in the 1970s.

The 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 666 numbered copies and sells for £55 plus shipping.

The first two hundred orders ship with a FREE WHITE STRAT GEEPIN BADGE worth £6.95.

In addition to this, a much larger, ultra-limited 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 will sell for £500 and includes a FREE replica of The Pirate Sound T-shirt worn by band members at the time. The books will go on sale on Friday June 23rd at 3pm UK time and will feature a 10% pre-order discount if ordered before July 31st 2023. The books will ship worldwide in September 2023.

There will be several editions/bundles, ranging from £49.50 to £900.00, plus shipping. The pre-orders are now open.