Deep Purple live at Mahaffey Theater (St. Petersburg, USA 2022-02-12)

My 10th time seeing Deep Purple perform. 1st time in that venue. The theatre hold a litttle over 2000 and appeared to be full. The horseshoe shapes made it so that there wasn’t a bad seat in the house and the acoustics were very good. I looked like a much older audience than what I’ve seen in the Midwest, but I guess that is normal for Florida. But the nice perk of that is that I finally got to sit through an entire concert! My back and knees are thankful.

The opening act was The Georgia Thunderbolt, a new southern rock band that just released their 1st album in the fall. They were good with a really good singer and excellent lead guitarist. The singer mentioned before their last song that opening for Deep Purple is the highlight of their career so far. The crowd got into them.

On to Deep Purple. There was no evidene of a two year hiatus. They played with high energy and stellar perfomances from start to finish. They played the same Machinehead heavy set list as the show a couple of nights before. But in addition to Nothing At All, they also played Throw My Bones from Whoosh! Solos by Steve and Don were spectacular on the new songs. The audience sang along to SOTW and Hush as expected, but many also sang along to Throw My Bones. Moving Roger’s bass solo before Space Trucking works very well. Caught in the Act leading to Hush has probably the longest encore that I’ve ever seen. The band’s ability to turn on a dime transitioning to new riffs and tempo changes from song to song in the medley was impressive. Afterwards fans were still singing the chorus to Hush as we walked through the lobby.

Who knows if Purple will do another American tour. If so, then I am ready to turn it up to 11.

review by Dr. Bob

BraveWords has an illustrated review of the band’s first gig of 2022:

If you are one of those who believe that there’s a certain age in which we are too old for rock n’ roll, any of the current members of Deep Purple would politely ask you to hold their beers. Despite being Steve Morse the only one in the current band incarnation – also dubbed as MK VIII – who hasn’t reached the seven decades of life yet, these five veterans have plenty of gas in their tanks, enough to get the audience all amped-up and fist-pumping in the air during the initial night of their now underway 2022 tour.

Continue reading in BraveWords. And if you happen to be at any of the gigs, do not hesitate to write your own review.

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the heads up.

An embryonic version of Fools, with ad-lib lyrics Continue Reading »

The band have played their first live show in nearly 2 years yesterday, February 10, 2022, at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida. Let’s see how the gentlemen have weathered the storm. Continue Reading »

Dominus Orchestra is a project that is a tribute to all things Jon Lord. It is a brainchild of a Greek musician Panos Politis, who plays the Hammond, piano, and other keyboards, and makes the arrangements. Their latest release is a live tribute to Paice Ashton Lord‘s Malice In Wonderland, recorded in Athens on December 9, 2018.

This release can be ordered by contacting the band at dominusorchestra@gmail.com.

My name is Panos Politis, founder member, pianist and Hammond organist of Dominus. A student of the piano and the theory of music, during the second decade of my life I also became actively involved with rock music, especially that of the British music scene. In particular, I become involved with the music of Jon Lord, playing and promoting both his work as a solo artist and with his bands, notably Deep Purple. The Dominus project began to take shape in 2013 [we’ve announced it — THS] and brought together the most capable Greek musicians who were willing to support and share in its ideals. It was an enormous challenge. It had to be undertaken with the seriousness and respect, the devotion and dedication that the music deserved. For me, it was a labour of love. The Dominus Orchestra is a versatile band that can adapt from being a basic five-member rock group into an extended band of rock musicians performing with a string chamber orchestra together on the same stage. The Orchestra’s premiere took place in 2013, accompanied by an eight-piece string section, when it presented a concert of the music of Jon Lord. Since then, Dominus has performed three more concerts devoted to his music, the last of which was a tribute to the unique album by Paice, Ashton and Lord, ‘Malice In Wonderland’ in 2018. If you are interested in the music of Jon Lord and Deep Purple, and our tribute to their music, then do please browse our website. Here you will find out more about who we are and what we do, and can keep up to date with the band’s latest news. Thank you very much for your time.

And we leave you with a recording of their complete show from 2013:

Thanks to andreas leutgeb for the info.

Radio BOB! in Germany has a monthly show hosted by our own Ian Paice and Don Airey. The Deep Purple Rockshow is on the air every first Saturday of the month from 18:00 to 19:00. We are being told that the radio announcement also mentioned that from time to time they might be joined by Roger Glover. Radio BOB! can be streamed worldwide from their website.

Thanks to Timo Teichert (aka Deep Diography) for the info.

The Dead Daisies released a new digital single — live version of Rise Up, which originally appeared on their 2018 album Burn It Down, before Glenn joined the band. Continue Reading »

Goldmine magazine has a six-page feature on Turning to Crime in their February/March 2022 issue. It is written by Dave Thompson and based around an interview with Ian Paice.

Vintage Rock magazine has has a 2-page article on the Green Bullfrog project in their February/March 2022 issue.

And last, but not least, Classic Rock has a short feature on how it all started — the original 1968 Purple’s version of Hush. It is published in their March 2022 issue as a part of the Rock’s Greatest Cover Versions series.

Thanks to Yvonne for the heads up.

Ian Gillan was interviewed for the Palm Beach Post in anticipation of resuming the touring activities in Florida later this month.

If there is one thing that is true about Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan, it’s that not everything he says is true.

“Somebody once asked me, ‘Are you a truthful person?’ I said yes — except when I’m doing interviews,” Gillan said with a sly chuckle.

Hard to believe that someone who so passionately played Jesus could be anything less than honest.

Continue reading in the Palm Beach Post.

David Coverdale was recently interviewed by the Radio Forrest podcast. New projects, reissues, Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, Coverdale/Page, and a few other things were discussed. Continue Reading »