Here is a small collection of various odds and ends that accumulated in our mailbox over the past few weeks. They might be of interest, but probably each of them don’t warrant a separate post.

A German band called Santiano has been spotted recycling props from the inFinite photo shoot Continue Reading »

25th anniversary of Whitesnake’s Restless Heart album is the cover story of issue #2022-02 of the Japanese Burrn! magazine. This issue also includes an interview with Roger Glover about the Deep Purple’s first album of covers. Continue Reading »

Don Airey was interviewed for the Rolling Stone Unknown Legends series. It’s a long form interview, with a lot of ground covered — from the humble beginnings in a cruise ship house band to the next Purple gigs, once again on a cruise ship. And everything in between.

So how did the Rainbow period start?

I got a phone call from Cozy Powell. They’d phoned me twice before and I was always leaving on a tour or something. I could never go and audition. But Cozy said, “Airey, get your ass over to New York tomorrow.” And when the boss speaks, you do what you’re told. He met me when I got off the plane at JFK and took me to a hotel in Connecticut. Next day, they took me to meet Ritchie [Blackmore].

He said to me, “Do you like Bach?” I said, “Yeah.” He gave me a piece of Bach to read, which I kind of knew, but I pretended I’d never seen it before, so he thought I was sight-reading it. We played it together. I forget what piece of Bach it was, but we kind of rocked it up together. And then he said to me, “Do you know Beethoven’s Ninth?” I said I did. We worked on the song that became “Difficult to Cure.” That was kind of my audition with the band. And then I went into rehearsals with them. It was just me and Cozy and Ritchie, just the three of us, in the middle of winter.

Read more in Rolling Stone.

AntiMusic reports that a Whitesnake special will be shown on a US cable/satellite channel Reelz on February 19, 2022, at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT. It will be a part of the Story of Their Songs series.

Spawned from the mind of former Deep Purple frontman David Coverdale the British rock band Whitesnake first appeared on the English music scene in 1978 and would soon achieve global stardom.

Story of Their Songs celebrates six of their hits from the hard-hitting rock epics ‘Love Ain’t No Stranger’ and ‘Still of the Night’ to heartfelt groovy ballads ‘Is This Love?’ and ‘The Deeper the Love’ to the heavy blues of ‘Fool for Your Loving’. It’s a band with an everchanging lineup as they battled against the odds only to emerge with the chart-topping giant ‘Here I Go Again’.

Original members guitarist Bernie Marsden and bass player Neil Murray recall the group’s early days and the drive that they saw in lead singer Coverdale who engaged in a relentless pursuit of perfection.

Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa offers his unique appraisal of what makes the Whitesnake sound so memorable while recording engineer Mike Fraser explains the sonic qualities of Whitesnake’s multi-platinum breakthrough U.S. album ‘1987’.

Emmy Award winning music video director Marty Callner shares his experience directing Whitesnake videos and how model and actress Tawny Kitaen became a vital influence on their huge success.

Whitesnake six string legends Adrian Vandenberg and Steve Vai give the low down on their part in helping the band become one of the biggest rock acts on the planet.

Thanks to AntiMusic for the info.

Roger Glover has contributed to a new book PRAVDAoNAZ: The Truth About Nazareth being prepared for publication by a Russian photographer and journalist Mikhail Vaneev.

I’ll tell you something about Nazareth… they saved my life, maybe not literally, but spiritually. In June ’73, six months after we’d recorded Razamanaz, and after gruelling tours of Europe, USA and Japan, I was jettisoned from Deep Purple. It’s very difficult to be forced to leave the biggest band in the world, which is what we were by then. For four years, we’d been on this incredible journey from In Rock to Machine Head and Smoke on the Water. An incredible journey, and all of sudden – I’m off the cliff. I arrived back from Japan feeling very low until I read in the music papers that Broken Down Angel was high up in the charts. What a great surprise and totally lifted my spirits. I had produced a hit – with Nazareth! And that made me feel so good. I happily changed my career and became a producer.

They were a solid band and went down well with the people. The crowds liked them. The thing about Nazareth is, they always meant it. They had great commitment. They stormed on stage every night and gave a hundred percent. That’s why people liked them.

The interview in full is presented in the book, illustrated with pictures taken by the author over the years. The book is a 252-page photo album, 300*300 mm format (roughly the size of an LP vinyl), that will get a limited release this spring. It can be preordered through the Russian crowdfunding site planeta.ru at the price of 5,000 rubles (approximately $67 / €57), plus shipping, with shipping costs to be paid on delivery. Target publication date is February 28, 2022.

Yet another cover of Smoke, this time swinging jazz style. Description claims it to be a ‘1920s cover’. We’re no experts in intricacies of early jazz, but to our editorial ears this sounds more like 1940s. Anyways, enjoy! Continue Reading »

Tommy Bolin along with his brother Johnnie will be inducted this year into the Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Tommy has previously been inducted there in 1999 as a member of A Patch of Blue, one of his early bands, which he joined in Sioux City at the age of 13. Johnnie has been inducted in 2010 (as a member of a band called DVC), in 2012 (as a member of Rockestra of Sioux City), and in 2014 (as a member of Instant Blues Machine). This time both brothers are honoured as individual artists. Tommy has also been inducted in 2016 into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just up the road from Sioux City.

The induction ceremony and associated festivities will be held in Arnolds Park, IA, on September 1-4, 2022.

Thanks to Jim Collins for the heads up.

In this new installment of the Drumtribe, Paicey provides us with the fascinating look behind the scenes of how the sausage is made. Here is a video of pre-production rehearsal for the Bodyline from Now What?! Continue Reading »

David Coverdale has sold rights to his back catalogue to a company called Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Limited.

This deal includes:

• recordings from Coverdale’s career as a solo artist and as the frontman of Whitesnake;
• master royalty participation from recordings during his tenure in Deep Purple;
• music publishing assets and long-term administration rights for his neighbouring rights income.

Other interesting tidbits from the press release:

The catalogue has diversified revenue exposures including, on the master side, streaming, comprising 23% of revenue mix, with the balance being comprised of 17% physical, 4% download and 6% sync. Revenue from the music publishing assets comprises 39% of revenue while neighbouring rights royalties comprise 11%. In terms of geographical exposure, 47% of the revenue is from the US, while the balance is from other countries.

The top songs ranked by revenue are: “Here I Go Again”, “Crying In The Rain”, “Fool For Your Loving”, “Is This Love”, “Still Of The Night”, “Slow An’ Easy”, “Burn” and “Stormbringer”.

All figures above are based on the catalogue’ s royalty statements in the calendar years 2018-2020.

The sale price has not been disclosed, but recent similar acquisitions of David Bowie’s and Bruce Springsteen’s catalogues brought in $250 million and $500 million respectively. The current wave of catalogue purchases (which also includes Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young, among others) can be explained, on the one hand, by the loss of income from live performances due to the pandemic restrictions, and on the other, by pending changes in the US taxation.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info and to CBC for additional background.

In this 1987 interview George Harrison talks about the first time he saw Deep Purple in concert and jammed with them. Which happened on December 13, 1984, in Sydney, Australia. Continue Reading »