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.

Don Airey, the mainstay of the band for the last 20 years, is celebrating his 75th birthday on June 21, 2023. Many happy returns, sir!

Joe Lynn Turner appeared on The Real Music Observer podcast. It starts with talking about music (Slaves & Masters, in particular), but quickly deteriorates into JLT ranting. About stuff. And nothing says ‘level-headed individual’ better than a good old-fashioned rant into a wide angle lens. /s

Proceed at your own peril. Continue Reading »

Our contributor Tobias Janaschke writes:

Hello from the Baltic ocean,

I would like to take this opportunity to say a few open and appreciative words to/about Ian Gillan:

This man (like the others) gives everything for this band and is the only one who cannot change his instrument — his voice.

And he has no reason to!

The whiners always point out that he can’t scream like he used to… Funnily wise, the same don’t say how wonderfully Ian can SING. Expression, dedication, and skill on a level never seen before.

Check out his latest rendition of When a Blind Man Cries

It doesn’t get any better than that.

Ian, I raise my glass to you,
Tobias Janaschke

We raise our glasses too.

Thanks to Tobias for the passionate words, and to Steel of Silesia for the video. It was taken on June 12, 2023 in Kraków, Poland.

In the latest installment of Question Time with DC (hat airs on Whitesnake TV), the aforementioned DC shares a story of how he traded autographs with Hollywood icon John Wayne (the Alamo, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo not included).

There used to be a lovely dark bar at the Beverly Regent hotel called the El Padrino bar. And the amount of discreet assignations that went on there was quite remarkable. Anyway, I’m sitting there with our agent at the time, having a drink, and we have a show coming up at the weekend – this is Deep Purple.

And I went, ‘Oh my God. There’s John Wayne, for God’s sake.’ John Wayne in the corner with this beautiful young blonde. I’m sitting there tortured, going, ‘I should get an autograph for my mum. It would be amazing.’ And I’m going, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it. Oh, fuck it.’

So I got up, and I’m in those big snakeskin high-heel platform boots, and I wander over. And it’s happened to me a thousand of times. I said, ‘Excuse me, Mr Wayne. I’m so sorry to disturb you.’ And the blonde just sort of looks away, like, ‘Here we go.’

And he goes, ‘Yeah, kid.’ I went, ‘Listen, my mum’s a huge fan.’ I said, ‘Could I ask you for your autograph?’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And he got a coaster, and he wrote ‘To Win. Love, The Duke. John Wayne’.

And I went, ‘Oh my God. This is amazing. Thank you so much.’ He said, ‘What are you doing in this place?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got a show at the weekend.’ He went, ‘Really?’ And he stands up, still a very imposing man. But his suits were kind of hanging off him – he’d kicked cancer.

And he went, ‘What’s the name of the group?’ And I said, ‘Deep Purple.’ He went, ‘God, my daughter’s been driving my office mad. It’s been sold out forever. Could you do anything?’

I said, ‘Just a moment, Mr Wayne.’ So I went over to the agent, got all the numbers for his office and came over. Then they asked me for my autograph. So I thought that was pretty spectacular.

Thanks to Louder Sound for the transcription and to James Gemmell for bringing it to your attention.

A three part documentary about the Montreux Jazz Festival, titled They All Came Out To Montreux, will air in the UK on BBC Four starting at 10:15 PM on June 16. The film was directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray. If you are interested in music documentaries, you might have seen his previous works Ronnie’s — about the fabled Ronnie Scott’s club in London, and The Quiet One — about the founding member of Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. His latest work tells the story of the legendary festival and its founder, ‘Funky’ Claude Nobs. It includes performances and testimonials from over 70 artists — from our own boys to Shania Twain.

The documentary was completed last year and received world premiere on Swiss TV in March 2022.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.