Blabbermouth has some quotes from Glenn Hughes’ appearance on the Trunk Nation radio show aired on SiriusXM on August 8. He spoke about the state of Black Country Communion, their new album and prospects for touring.

I was in the studio last week completing vocals. And Joe was there with me last Wednesday before I had to leave to go to somewhere up north. I finished the last vocal track last Friday afternoon at three o’clock. Now the album is in the hands of [producer] Kevin Shirley to — he’ll probably go back to Australia after Joe does the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow, and then the mixing process will start. I would imagine that the album will be out in the first quarter of next year.

It sounds like BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION. There’s not too many left turns, there’s nothing happening that’s weirdly different. We followed a vibe of the first four albums, so it it’s an extension, but it’s really a progression, if you can call it a progression. Everybody’s playing out of their skin. The vibe in the camp has never been so friendly and fun. It’s a really, really great vibe in the band. And we had a great time at Sunset Sound [studios] in Hollywood. And I can’t wait for you to hear it.

If you go back 10 years when I wanted to… well, we all wanted to play more shows. And Joe has been very busy from the get-go of his career. What I want you to know, and I want everybody to know, that, of course, we want to play with BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNITY, but Joe’s schedule is crazy busy, and we all get it. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. So my priority is playing my own music with my own band and doing what I need to do to have fun on my own.

Would I like to play some shows with Joe, Derek and Jason? Of course I would. I think everybody would like that. But what I can’t do is say we’re gonna do this, this, and that… I’ve done it before and it didn’t happen, so I won’t… I’m glad Joe has [said in a recent interview] he wants to do something like that, because I think we all wanna set some time out to do that, and we’re hoping that we can play in North America next year.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the transcription.

Another historical article, announcing the dissolution of Deep Purple Mark 4. It originally appeared in the issue of Sounds from July 24, 1976.

Purple: the end

By Hugh Fielder

DEEP PURPLE is no more — officially. One of Britain’s longest running and most successful heavy rock bands have split up — as predicted exclusively in SOUNDS:
The announcement made this week by Purple’s manager Rob Cooksey says that the band ‘will not record or perform together as Deep Purple again’.
Purple’s singer, Dave Coverdale, in fact resigned from the group after their final concert in Liverpool last March but the news was kept secret until the other members of the band had decided on their future plans. Coverdale spoke this week of the pressures of staying on top in the ‘hypocrisy and falseness’ of the pop world. “Being on stage was nearly always great,” he said. “Purple make terrific music but off-stage I haven’t been happy for a long time”.

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

It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine has a long(ish) interview with Nick Simper, published back in June 2022. It covers pretty much all of his career, from the early 1960s to this day.

Your career is really profound and it would be simply impossible to touch on everything, but let’s start at the beginning. How do you recall the very early years when you were playing in bands like The Renegades (1960–61), The Delta Five (1961–63), Some Other Guys (1963–64), Buddy Britten & The Regents (renamed Simon Raven Cult (1964–66))?

The early days were incredibly happy and exciting and I think I was extremely lucky to have so much fun at such a young age. I was still at school when I became lead guitarist of The Renegades. When I joined The Delta Five I was able to learn the business from slightly older and more experienced people which was a great learning curve! After a two year period with them I was beginning to find a musical direction and ambition which led me to leave and try to form what I hoped would be a better outfit. This did not prove to be easy as it was difficult to find a good bass player, whilst guitarists were in abundance, and most of them better than I was! This realisation led me to take on the role of bassist, which I found extremely satisfying. I considered Some Other Guys to be a great group, good enough to be professional, who were able to achieve great audience reaction and with a good future ahead. Sadly the band folded when I left to take my first professional gig with Buddy Britten and the Regents. This was a great offer that I could not refuse, as Buddy Britten was one of my all time musical heroes.

Continue reading in It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Just remember: his advice on public health matters, unlike music, is of no consequence.

Meanwhile, on his own site, Nick continues to publish his memoirs Nick’s Story. It is now up to Chapter 24, ending in May 1969.

Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the info.

Speaking of Glenn, Metal Rules has an interview with him prepared during his recent visit to Finland.

On this tour, you’re only playing classic Deep Purple stuff, but when will we see a tour where you’re playing songs from your entire career?

You’re asking me extremely important questions, so I’m going to answer them appropriately. And honestly, I think with the legacy music with Purple, all songs by Purple, the whole show, maybe another 18 months. Maybe the end of next year. And then I would see myself doing a Glenn show, which would have solo music, Trapeze, Hughes/Thrall, Black Country Communion, but more Glenn Hughes. I’ve got 53 years of music to choose from. Maybe California Breed too. So there’s a whole selection of music that needs to be heard. I think a lot of people would like that. Definitely.

So are fans going to see you two [GH and Yngwie Malmsteen] on stage playing some Purple classics together?

Yeah. If you see, Yngwie and I did ”Mistreated” at the Marshall 50th anniversary party ten years ago, and he was great. Yngwie playing ”Mistreated” is incredible. The guy is incredible. So when you look at Glenn and Yngwie together, you would imagine there will be a moment when. But we don’t know. I would imagine something will happen.

Read more in metal-rules.com

Glenn Hughes will be a guest on THAT Rocks! podcast hosted by Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine. The show will be streamed live worldwide on YouTube on Thursday, August 3, 2023 at 22:00 UTC, as well as available there for watching later. Continue Reading »

Metaltalk has an illustrated review of Glenn Hughes doing his Deep Purple set at the Maid of Stone Festival on July 22:

Maid Of Stone – Saturday. By the time the Headliner, Glenn Hughes, arrived, we had stopped caring about the rain and the weather. Many had since departed, yet those who stayed to the bitter end, bitter being the operative word as the wind had not eased, were presented with a pure masterclass of Deep Purple classics.

Though, in view of their soaking wet and cold state, probably many fans were happy for the headliner to play a shortened set, this was my one main gripe of the weekend. How come the Headliners played the same length of time as all the rest of the bands on the bill?

Surely, they were entitled to more than an hour. Answers on a postcard, please.

That said, this was a well-packed hour, and despite a slippery stage, Glenn brought his ‘A’ game to the park. Playing a set built entirely around Deep Purple songs, this was a delight and a wonderful slab of nostalgia with which to finish the day.

Continue reading on Metaltalk.

Photo: Robert Sutton/MetalTalk

Goldmine magazine has another one of those top-something lists (yep, we can hear the eyes rolling from all the way up in our editorial ivory towers). But it is a list on a topic rarely discussed outside the hardcore fan forums — it’s a top 20 of Morse era tracks, and it’s rather eloquently penned by Martin Popoff. So try it out as food for thought. We are sure each one of you has an opinion on the matter. 😉

20. “The Surprising”

We begin this tour of wonders with a vaulted progressive epic from the band’s second album with Bob Ezrin producing, namely Infinite from 2017. What I love about this one is how busy Ian Paice is on the mellow bits (with Steve playing spaghetti Western), and then how two minutes in, the song explodes into a heroic Middle Eastern-tinged heavy prog, featuring spooky, cool keyboards from Don Airey. Don features prominently in the ethereal cool-down as well, and then there’s even more surprises. “The Surprising” was the fourth single from the album, whatever that means.

Continue reading in Goldmine.

Thanks to Mike Whiteley for the heads-up.

Cherry Red Records has a 6CD live box of Gillan (the band): Back In The Game – Live (1978-1982). It includes:

• Live at The Marquee 1978
  Recorded at The Marquee Club, London, 27th December 1978; with guest appearance from Ritchie Blackmore
• Live in Tokyo 1978
  Recorded at Shinjuku Koseinenkin Hall, Japan, 23rd October 1978
• Live at Hammersmith 1980
  Recorded at Hammersmith Odeon, London, 14th October 1980
• Live in Aachen 1981
  Recorded at Eurogress, Aachen, Germany, 17th June 1981
• Live in Glasgow 1982
  Recorded at the Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland, 6th November 1982
• Live at Wembley 1982
  Recorded at Wembley Arena, London, 17th December 1982

Promotional blurb includes a disclaimer about sound quality of some “material drawn from various, non-standard sources”, so probably there’s no magic happening here. Please report if you have heard this particular release. See the label site for further info and complete track listing.

Thanks to dal1962ton for the heads-up.

Geir Myklebust posts on his blog a Rainbow Rising review by Geoff Barton that first appeared in the issue of Sounds from May 22, 1976:

“WITH RAINBOW’S music I intend to carry on and expand upon the essence of Deep purple — aggressiveness — and at the same time add a kind of medieval feel to it all.”
Thus spake Ritchie Blackmore in a SOUNDS interview dated August 2, 1975 — the last time, to my knowledge, the one-time Deep purple guitarist visited Britain. Of course, it’s been even longer since he actually played here and while this is disappointing I can’t help but feel, in a twisted, abstract sort of way, that this lengthy absence from his home country hasn’t altogether worked to his favour.
Bearing in mind the recent, much-discussed poor British displays of the Tommy Bolin incarnation of Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore is now, to most people, a hazy, indistinct, albeit fond, memory. A good deal of mystique surrounds not only the man but his band as well.
For, at the moment, Rainbow is an uncertain, undiscovered property, not being the band that appeared on last year’s amorphous debut album. Gary Driscoll, Mickey Lee Soule and Craig Gruber have long since left the fold, only Blackmore and vocalist, lyricist Ronnie James Dio now remain. The rest of the group is, to British audiences at least, new and untried.
The Rainbow has, however, been carefully crafted, put together with no small amount of precision by Blackmore and Dio. The outfit now comprises, besides the aforementioned duo, Scottish bass player Jimmy Bain, late of Harlot; Tony Carey, Keyboard player, California-born, ex- of a band called Blessings; and old-timer Cozy Powell on drums, whose past credentials vary from the ‘Ruff And Ready’ Jeff Beck Group to a teenscream ‘Dance With The Devil’ solo career.

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

Back in May, when Steve Morse was intermittently touring with his eponymous band, he spoke to WITH 90.1 radio station, broadcasting out of Ithaca, NY. They have published the transcript of the conversation. Here are some Purple-related bits, not that the rest is not just as interesting…

Q: Did your technique or style change at all after playing Deep Purple songs for 28 years?

SM: Yeah, I think so, in my phrasing and just a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more patience with letting things develop. But you can hear that, and a little bit more relaxed approach, a little bit more competence at improvisation. And I’m not driven so much to cram as much in as possible into a segment. So yeah, I feel I’ve grown as far as being able to write and improvise more melodically.

Q: I saw you with Deep Purple on the 2002 tour with Dio and Scorpions, and was impressed that the band’s musicianship was still so strong.

SM: When I first joined them, we only committed to four shows together – they weren’t sure of me, and I wasn’t sure of them, especially since I didn’t want to be in a nostalgic band where the guys couldn’t play anymore.

I was warming up, with just me and my amplifier, and I played something. And Jon Lord had just sat down at his organ and played the exact same thing back to me without any hesitation. I played something else, and he played that back and then modified it. And then I played that new modification back to him. By then, the whole band was on stage playing a beat underneath us – even Ian Gillan started playing the congas – and it was just this wonderful, organic jam. And that’s what really brought me into the band – like, here I am trading licks with a keyboard player who has ears like a great jazz pianist. I couldn’t believe it.

And then when Jon left, Don Airey turned out to be just as capable with the musicality – he had a different style, different personality, and different upbringing, but he was exactly the same caliber of musician, so I was very impressed.

And from his mention of Janine, sounds like she’s doing fairly well:

[…] I’m focused on helping my wife transition back to the land of the living. We’ve had appointments all this week, and it’s been just constant stuff. But it’s definitely worthwhile and this is definitely what I was meant to do.

Read more on withradio.org.