We’ve announced earlier this year a cover of Sail Away done by an Austrian trio Restless Bones with Don Airey adding the Hammond magic touch from his home. The video is now available on Youtube. Continue Reading »

Steve Morse has been spotted among the musicians on the first solo album of violin player and a fellow Kansas alumnus Robby Steinhardt (albeit they never were in the band at the same time). The album is naturally called Not in Kansas Anymore and is touted as a prog opera. This Steinhardt’s solo outing also proved out to be his last, as he died in July this year of acute pancreatitis, which apparently delayed the release until now.

Besides Steve and Steinhardt himself, musicians in the cast include Bobby Kimball on vocals; Ian Anderson on flute; Patrick Moraz and Chuck Leavell on keyboards; Rick Derringer, Pat Travers and Les Dudek on guitars; Billy Cobham on drums, and many, many others.

See also: review from The Prog Report.

The album can be ordered from the label.

A contemporary report from deep in the bowels of a certain Grand Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland. This was originally published in January 1, 1972, issue of New Musical Express.

Charlie Chaplin would approve

Richard Green, mixing with the Rothschilds, reports from the bizarre home-made studios in Switzerland where Purple are cutting their new album, `Machine Head`

TAKE a plane to Geneva, drive to Montreaux, pass the shell of the burned-out Casino, pull up at the rear entrance of the Grand Hotel, climb the marble steps, cross the lounge, enter room 62, walk through the French doors onto the balcony, go in through the windows of room 56, pass through two bathrooms and room 57, open the door into the corridor and there you find Deep Purple cutting their next album!

That may all sound just a little bizarre, but it’s just what I had to do at the weekend when I flew out from London to catch up on the progress of the successor to “Fireball” which has just re-entered the NME album chart.

Deep Purple had gone to Montreaux to appear at the Casino and they planned to cut an album there under simulated live concert conditions and then to cut another in a studio and issue them as a double package. But the fire put a stop to all that.

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

Many thanks to Geir Myklebust for posting this.

Metro UK e-paper has an interview with Glenn Hughes in their Lifestyle section. It covers an angle of Glenn’s life that probably hasn’t been covered before — his experience as a homeowner.

When did you buy your first home?

The first home I bought was in Penkridge, Staffordshire in 1971. It’s a very beautiful area of the Midlands, very green and tranquil. A lot of my music friends moved to Penkridge. It seemed the place to be for a few years.

What prompted you to buy?

I wanted to buy a property for an investment and to have a base and home to return to after a tour cycle. This was at the very start of my career, and it was important to me to have a place to call my own.

Was it a party house full of rock ’n’ roll excess?

There was no rock‘n’roll excess at this home. I was young and the home meant more to me as a break from touring, rather than bringing the touring home, if that makes sense. It was a beautiful home that I could escape to.

Read more in Metro.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Far Out magazine just published an opinion piece on the much maligned Velvet Underground album Squeeze. Yep, the one featuring the one and only Ian Paice on the drums. There’s not a whole lot on how exactly Paicey came into the picture, but more on how the album itself fits into the VU legacy.

Reed’s departure didn’t end the group, however. Yule, Morrison, and Tucker soldiered on for a few more shows, with Powers taking over bass and Yule becoming the band’s new frontman. Morrison left in 1971, with Tucker departing in 1972. But even that wasn’t the end, as Yule was dispatched to the UK by manager Steve Sesnick, complete with an entirely new band of musicians, to perform as The Velvet Underground. Sesnick basically stranded them there, and Yule was informed that he had to record an album to satisfy a contract made with Polydor Records.

Over the course of a few weeks, Yule and Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice recorded an ad-hoc album that was eventually released as Squeeze. Upon release, it was immediately dismissed and vilified by the rock music writers who had previously championed the original Velvet Underground. Rolling Stone writer David Fricke called it “an embarrassment to the VU discography”, while Allmusic’s Steven Erlewine said the album “doesn’t just ride the coattails of VU’s legacy but deliberately co-opts their achievement”. When the band’s back catalogue was collected as part of the box set Peel Slowly and See, Squeeze was deliberately excluded.

Read the whole thing in Far Out.

For the guitar players out there, Premier Guitar has a tutorial focusing on “a very refined technical and compositional approach steeped in classical studies” of Steve Morse.

The classical influence of Morse’s playing is where I want to focus. Below, I’ve touched on a few examples in the style of some of Morse’s more well-known songs, both with the Dregs and his namesake trio. Each of the examples showcases his clever composing style and innovative classical approach which will help expand your arsenal of guitar tricks.

This is marked as intermediate in both skills and theory, so if you think that matches your abilities, dig in.

Roger Glover, Bruce Dickinson, et al. tout the upcoming performance of Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra in Hungary. Continue Reading »

A vintage interview with Ian Gillan, originally printed in the December 26, 1970, issue of the New Musical Express.

Snob groups make Ian purple with rage

By Richard Green

It becomes a bit strong when groups get so selective in their attitude towards work that they cut their dates down to one or two a week, thus denying fans the chance to see the people whose record they have spent money on. Chicken Shack’s Stan Webb is all against this type of thing and now Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan has entered the fray.

Normally a pretty content person, happy making good records and touring with Purple (though he’d like to alter this slightly later), he cannot tolerate pop snobbery.

During the group’s recent German tour, Ian gave me his views on the subject, beginning with: “We play for whoever wants to hear us. If the hall is full of heads smoking their joints that’s okay and if the next night it’s all schoolkids dancing about yelling `Yeah, Black Night, Black Night’ that’s okay as well. “It really annoyed me when Black Sabbath said they weren’t going to make any more singles because they didn’t want that kind of audience. The kids come out of school and borrow the money from their parents to come to the concert, there’s nothing wrong with them. “You can’t play to heads all the time. If you adopt that kind of attitude you’re killing your market. There’s a lot of musical snobbery, which I hate. “About five years ago a lot of people were making very good records, there was a lot of good music coming out, from U.S. Bonds and ‘New Orleans’ right through. It was just music that people liked, there were no labels like teenybop and underground being applied like they are now.”

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

Many thanks to Geir Myklebust for posting this.

Apparently the promotion campaign for Turning to Crime has already begun, quietly so far. Roger and Big Ian have been spotted doing interviews on October 11 at the Park Hotel in Oberhausen, Germany. Check the photo gallery at a stock photography website. Continue Reading »

A lengthy interview with david Coverdale in the Antihero magazine provides a nice distraction certain criminal activities going on around us.

Antihero Magazine: Taking you back, what would’ve been the first music that you remember hearing?

David Coverdale: Oh, the first influential song? It’s so interesting, after losing my mom some years ago, I was talking to my aunty who I adore, and I’ve lost her sadly. But she was a teenager at 14 when I was six. She and her brother Eddie, but much more Sylvia, they’d spend their own pocket money, their allowance, on singles. And I remember she had an EP, and I’d touch these tunes like they were religious objects or something sacred. I have no idea, but I could feel the energy, and it was a huge old gramophone, enormous, where you literally had to put the needle into the arm, and then very slowly and delicately put it on the record. She said, “You can play my records, but don’t scratch them.” So, I was ridiculously careful.

And hearing the song Jailhouse Rock was just a life-changer, Elvis Presley and Jailhouse Rock. Then she introduced me to Little Richard, Chuck Berry. I was only a kid, but the music was so… the same reason as Hendrix is my muse. I know musically, and through my awareness magnet, all the elements that he would connect together to be Jimi Hendrix, to play and like his music. But I have no idea why I was so connected so immediately, and so electrifiably with him. That’s the mystery, the magic of music. But look, I can hear a song from Revolver, and I’m immediately 15 years old in Saltburn-by-the-Sea with a beautiful blond girlfriend. I can hear certain songs and they’re time capsules of where I was, who I was with, friends.

Read more in Antihero.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.