Guitar Player magazine profiles the “new new guy” Simon McBride in their October 2023 issue (the one with Nita Strauss on the cover).

When asked if he felt any pressure kicking off Deep Purple’s epic number, Simon had this to say:

At the moment, no. But the first time I did it I was very nervous, because that was with Ian Gillan in front of about 10,000 people. But it’s such a simple riff. The main secret is just giving it the right tempo. Then Don kicks in with the Hammond playing the same thing, Roger kicks in with the bass, and it’s just a wall of power.

Some people overcomplicate the ‘Smoke’ riff by playing it like a guitar player – you know, they throw vibrato and other things into it – but then the riff loses its essence. You just have to keep it simple.

There are plenty of other places in the set for me to try new things. People always ask me, ‘Do you have freedom to improvise in Deep Purple?’ The answer is yes. But there are certain things you just have to play as they were recorded, like Blackmore’s solo on ‘Highway Star.’

It would be very arrogant of me to think that I can do better than that. That’s a brilliant solo. It’s iconic.

The issue (October 2023, #738) can be ordered via magazinesdirect.com.

Joe Satriani was interviewed for Sonic Perspectives, and there were several purple-related questions — whether he was expecting a call from his former bandmates to replace Steve Morse, would it be more difficult to play Morse’s music as opposed to Blackmore’s, and if he is going to do an album or tour together with Glenn Hughes. (Spoilers: no, yes, and not likely). Continue Reading »

This is highly unconfirmed, borderline on rumour, but we thought it’s worth mentioning on these pages.

The Good Old Boys are having their very last concert tomorrow, August 31, 2023, at the Eel Pie Club in the London suburb of Twickenham. Nick Simper was their bass player for a long time, but left the band a few years ago. According to our long time contributor, Nick will appear at this show as a special guest. This information apparently comes from the Boys’ frontman Alan Barrett. Tickets are available at £13.20, so that’s the grand total you might be laying on the line.

Thanks to Reinhard for the heads-up.

Another sad day in the family — Bernie Marsden has passed away at the age of 72. His PR people released the following statement:

On behalf of his family, it is with deep sadness we announce the death of Bernie Marsden. Bernie died peacefully on Thursday evening with his wife, Fran, and daughters, Charlotte and Olivia, by his side.

Bernie never lost his passion for music, writing and recording new songs until the end.

David Coverdale tweeted (as quoted by Louder Sound):

I’ve just woken up to the awful news that my old friend and former Snake Bernie Marsden has passed. My sincere thoughts and prayers to his beloved family, friends and fans. A genuinely funny, gifted man, whom I was honoured to know and share a stage with.

Thanks to Louder Sound for the quotes, and to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.

Whitesnake’s The Purple Album will be reissued on October 13, 2023, via Rhino Records. It will be available as 2CD, 2LP on gold vinyl, Blu-ray, and digital. Of particular interest in certain quarters would be the second CD that will feature the 4 tracks from DC & The Fabulosa Brothers tape that landed him the Purple gig:

• Everybody’s Talkin’
• Get Ready
• Lonely Town, Lonely Street
• Dancing In The Street

Another bonus track is enticingly labelled as 1974 DC Demo Ideas For The Stormbringer Album. The CD2 is rounded up with live tracks and alternative mixes. CD1 contains the original album remixed. Whitesnake.com has more details, including the complete track listing.

The whole affair is being released under the ‘celebrating 50 years of joining Deep Purple’ moniker.

A promo clip featuring a remix of Burn has been posted today to promote the release.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes was interviewed for Sonic Perspectives. It is not overly long, but fairly informative on Glenn’s numerous past and ongoing projects. Enjoy! Continue Reading »

A vintage review of a Rainbow gig at the New York’s Beacon Theater. It first appeared in Sounds magazine on July 24, 1976.

Rainbow hit nirvana

Blackmore´s Rainbow
Beacon Theatre, New York

Concert review by Peter Crescenti

IT MAY be a few months before Blackmore’s Rainbow appears in Britain for the first time, but even if they have to wait until distant `77, Blackmore freaks, when they finally do see the band live, will no doubt decide that the wait, no matter how long, was damned well worth it. Rainbow, now in its second version, is simply one of the most dynamic and energetic heavy rock outfits in the free world.
Ritchie Blackmore is a happy man again, happy because now that he’s left Deep Purple, he’s once again free to make the kind of rock’n’roll he loves best — visceral and explosive, an atomic dose of chordal calamity — and by no coincidence, it’s the same sweaty brand of rock thousands of rockers have become addicted to over the last ten years, hooked, mainly, by fixes served up by the Main Man of heavy metal, Ritchie Blackmore.

Continue reading in My Things – Music history for those who are able to read.

Many thanks to Geir Myklebust for the continuing efforts on digitizing his archives.

Louder Sound has a short, but fairly informative interview with Glenn Hughes.

What’s the first thing that comes into your mind when you think about either the Burn album or the sessions for it?

Freshness. I had joined the band from Trapeze, and then David [Coverdale] joined seven weeks later. Everything felt brand new. There was a sense of chumminess and back-slapping. Even [Ritchie] Blackmore was a part of that. It felt very cool.

Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire, where the album was written, was supposedly haunted. Did you see any ghosts?

There’s a famous story. Blackers and I were the first two to arrive. That night, as a gag, he rigged my wardrobe with speakers to emit all sorts of scary noises. He had a microphone next door and was going: “Whoo whoo”. We did have a couple of séances, but I didn’t see any ghosts, though I know the place was haunted.

When did you last talk to Ritchie?

Face to face, it would have been a long time ago. But we never had a falling out. He did ask me to join Rainbow six years ago. The night before I was leaving, Carole [Stevens, Blackmore’s manager and mother-in-law] called to say they had found a singer who also played bass. I had wanted to go to New York and have lunch with Ritchie, look him in the eye and give him a hug, but I didn’t fancy playing bass behind an unknown singer… again. So I didn’t go.

He also mentions that the upcoming Black Country Communion album will be called Number Five.

Read the rest in Louder Sound.

Here’s Glenn at the first gig of his US tour in Vineland, NJ, on August 16, 2023:

Video clips courtesy of Greg Jenne.

A historical interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Cozy Powell from the same issue of Sounds dated July 24, 1976.

Blackmore swings the axe

Peter Crescenti dodges the blows

RITCHIE BLACKMORE harbours no love for rock ‘n’ roll journalists. As far as he’s concerned, most of them fall into two unflattering categories, those that are either “embittered people because they’re not up there” on the stage, and those that are “bored and being paid to do a job.”
The tension that’s developed between musician and writer has led to some very distorted portraits of Mr. Blackmore, and over the years, the moody man in black has done little, if anything, to correct or cosmeticise the image that’s been drawn of him in various rock journals.
I myself have put some faith in that bad boy persona. The first time I went out on the road with Purple a few years ago, there were two other writers present, and both were frantic to interview Ritchie. Believing, at the time, that meeting Blackmore alone in a hotel room was something akin to journalistic masochism, I respectfully avoided the competition for Ritchie’s time, and concentrated instead in developing a rapport with the other musicians of Purple.
The end result, after three days on the road, was that I hardly spoke a word to Ritchie, except for a polite hello, and vice versa. What’s more, I only saw the man about four times in those three days, and twice it was when he was playing to an audience. As you might guess then, I was quite surprised recently when Ritchie actually remembered meeting me, when we again confronted each other for the sake of SOUNDS.
“I wouldn’t like to be a critic,” Ritchie still insists, “in a way that it must be very boring. I’d hate to have to go and see bands, especially loud bands.”

Continue reading in My Things – Music history for those who are able to read.

Glenn Hughes seems to be in full promotion mode, and here’s another interview. This one touches upon his current tour, where he is playing Marks 3 & 4 Purple material.

MGM: It must be an exciting opportunity for you to re-visit some of the songs again for this tour, especially as you might not have played some of them in a while.

GH: I haven’t. I’ve been playing ‘Gettin’ tighter’ off of ‘Come Taste the Band’. But I love doing ‘Sail Away’ and stuff like that. And I put my spin on ‘Mistreated’. In general, people are loving the show and we’ve done a couple of runs this year already and it’s been a great success. I’m bringing it to the UK (my homeland), and I think all these shows are going to pretty much sell out.

MGM: You’ve played ‘Burn’ and ‘Mistreated’ over the years with some of your other projects including Black Country Communion, and some fans will remember you playing those songs at the Childline Rocks shows with Iain Paice one year, and the following year with Jon Lord. On this forthcoming tour, are you going to try and stay faithful to the versions on the original album or will you experiment?

GH: Well, over the last few years, I’ve been listening to ‘Made in Europe’ and ‘Cal Jam’ of course, and other recordings like ‘Live in Paris’ to take some of those arrangements from that. I don’t really do the album versions. I do the long live versions with Ian and Jon and Ritchie. So, it’s more inclined to be that route, more of a more musical endeavour. I’m not doing ‘A 200’, that’s the instrumental. We played ‘What’s going on here’ in Europe, but I’m not doing the whole album; I’m basically doing cuts from the album because they’re quite long. I’ve chosen the songs which I think will resonate with fans. I believe what I’ve done, is get the right material for this tour.

Read more in My Global Mind.