Blackmore’s Night record company is running a ruffle. Two copies of the black vinyl set of the Shadow Of The Moon 25th anniversary edition will include golden tickets that can be redeemed for Ritchie Blackmore signature Fender Stratocaster signed by the man himself. As attested by the video. Continue Reading »

A 1969 Jaguar E-Type once owned by Jon Lord (in which he drove himself down to Montreux, no less) is up for sale at the Evoke Classics auction site. The starting price is £20,000, and as a carefully restored low mileage classic car it is expected to fetch well into the six digits even without the ‘nobody gonna take my car’ connection.

Deep Purple performing on February 16, 2023, out at sea, on the deck of Rock Legends Cruise. Pretty good quality audience recording. Check out the ‘all hands on deck’ moment during Lazy Continue Reading »

Ultimate Classic Rock has a story of the making of Woman From Tokyo:

One of Deep Purple’s best songs came out of one of their worst times.

The band was in disarray while recording “Woman From Tokyo,” which arrived in March 1973 as the lead single from Deep Purple’s seventh studio album, Who Do We Think We Are. “We had burned out,” keyboardist Jon Lord told this writer during the Mk II reunion tour in 1984. “We were working non-stop — recording, touring, recording, touring – no down time, no rest. It was just a treadmill, and it was wearing us down.

“We should have taken time off,” Lord added, “but management told us we couldn’t.” Instead, they gathered to start work on Who Do We Think We Are in July 1972 in Italy just seven months after recording the landmark Machine Head – and less than four months after its release.

Continue reading in Ultimate Classic Rock.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the heads-up.

There was no official announcement, but judging by the social media posts (here and here), Deep Purple had a writing session in Nashville, slotted between the short US tour and the upcoming visit to the Far East. They are once again working with Bob Ezrin at the helm.

Special thanks to Tobias Janaschke for reporting from behind the Instagram paywall.

The latest issue (#312) of the Classic Rock magazine has making of Machine Head as the cover story.

How many times does a freak accident change the course of hard rock history? Not all that often, we’d wager. But had a suspended ceiling in a Swiss casino not caught fire, then Deep Purple’s sixth studio album would have been a very different beast altogether.

I’m referring, of course, to Machine Head, and its signature song Smoke On The Water. In the new issue of Classic Rock we discover the inside story on the making of a true classic, in the band’s own words.

Individual issues can be ordered in both digital and dead tree format via MagazinesDirect.

Thanks to Reinhard Lackner for the info.

The Steve Morse Band delivered a solid performance in front of a packed house at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, CT, on February 26, 2023.
With, obviously, Steve at the helm, the three-piece group’s other two members included Dave LaRue on bass and Van Romaine on drums. Each band member got their time in the sun during an almost two-hour performance in front of 500 appreciative fans.

I am not too familiar with Steve’s material outside of Deep Purple and have not seen many three-piece acts live in the past, but SMB’s performance went down very well and was a true joy to witness. The band was tight and delivered the goods in a truly unique fusion of rock, classical and jazz. Some folks would simply call it rock fusion, but plenty of classical arrangements, harmonies, and scales came across throughout the set.

Our man Steve seemed happy and, as usual, came across as one of the nicest and most grounded individuals in the music business. As others might have reported in the past, he did not wear a hand brace during the performance, which pretty much ran the gamut from relaxed, to intense – and everything else in between. The encore lasted roughly 20 minutes and it was during this time that the audience stood up and remained standing until the end.

LaRue is an absolute monster on bass, and it was clear that he and Steve have a tremendous musical chemistry and work very well together. Romaine played a nice drum solo, and, with his energy and ferocity, he seemed like the right man behind the kit for a power trio. There was no singing at all, and yet the show did not feel repetitive or dragged out.

Around halfway through the set, one of the friends that I went with stated that the piece being played then sounded like a rough version of Ted the Mechanic. I agreed with him. Around three quarters through the set, I stated that the piece being played then sounded like a rough version of Hey Cisco. He agreed. On the ride home we played Purpendicular and felt even stronger in our beliefs that the two pieces that the SMB had played earlier in the evening did indeed sound like the aforementioned tracks from Steve’s first album with DP. As someone not very familiar with Steve’s work outside of DP, I wonder if he played those two pieces to the lads during the making of Purpendicular and they each added something to help turn them into what eventually became Ted the Mechanic and Hey Cisco. No disrespect to the two SMB pieces in question, but if the two tunes from the February 26 show were indeed the basis for each Ted the Mechanic and Hey Cisco, then I would consider the added value by the rest of the gang during the making of Purpendicular as truly immense.

After the show, the band came out in the lobby to chat with the fans and sign merchandise, but we did not stick around for that part. Regardless of whether or not you are into power trios or rock-jazz-classical fusion, I would highly recommend checking out the SMB if they come to a theatre near you. You won’t be disappointed.

“Albania”

Shout out to the fellow purple maniacs Nathan and John at The Deep Purple Podcast. They’ve started in 2019 and now are up to 200+ episodes. Each episode is about 2 hours of Purple-filled banter from the hardcore fans. The latest, #202 is dedicated to the recent shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with our humble site getting a name check. Below is the YT version, and there is a variety of audio only options available via their website.

Thanks to Rich for the heads-up.

A branch of the family tree rarely explored — an interview with Shoshana Feinstein, a former Blackmore’s girlfriend, who sang background vocals on the first Rainbow album.

Christopher: How and in what circumstance did you meet Ritchie Blackmore? Would you tell me when and where the story with him begins?

Shoshana Feinstein: I met Richie in the summer of 1972 at an outdoor concert in the Bronx New York.My drummer from Uncas loved Ian Paice and the two of us were die-hard Purple fans so we drove down to NYC to see this outdoor concert. I was standing outside waiting for the band to play. I had black hair down to my waist, a scarf tied around my breasts and a long flowing skirt on. I looked like a very exotic Gypsy. Ritchie came up to me immediately as he was perusing the audience and invited me backstage. That is when it began … our romance. We communicated through the mail and phone calls. When we met, we had an immediate connection, that I was rather surprised about because I considered Ritchie to be a rather dark brooding type of guy (he was) but I must have brought something out in him that was vulnerable and more gentle.

Read more in the Suwałki Blues Festival blog.

Thanks to Andres for the heads-up

A review of the St. Petersburg, FL, gig on February 20, 2023, from the Creative Loafing Tampa Bay e-paper. Forgive them for their ‘Mr Grover, Mr Gillian’ snap of judgment, if you can.

There aren’t a whole lot of bands around who have the tenure, the hard rock royalty, or the status of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted-band Deep Purple still boast; still touring constantly, still pleasing their longtime followers, and still wisely combining their many classic cuts with their newer, impressive compositions, Deep Purple is still going strong and earning every accolade they’re so richly deserving of for being one of the pioneering bands to make hard rock and heavier music a bone fide force for the last 50 years.

Read more in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the info.