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Here’s the latest triplet of snippets from that Ritchie Blackmore interview, talking about days long passed, Don Arden, Jerry Lee lewis, the other Man in Black, earning hemorrhoids with Screaming Lord Sutch, and taking the blame for Gene Vincent. Continue Reading »
Ian Gillan was interviewed by Dubai 92. The hosts have obviously skimmed the relevant Wikipedia article(s), but managed to get it “nearly right”. Nothing groundbreaking was revealed, but probably with regard to another of his recent interviews, from which too many people seem to have read way too much, Big Ian reiterated that the band has no immediate plans to retire. Continue Reading »
The second instalment of Ritchie Blackmore interview snippets talking about the olden days, going back to Charles Dickens. Continue Reading »
Classically trained pianist Alexandra Kuznetsova, known under nom de guerre Gamazda, performs piano covers of rock compositions to the effect that her YouTube channel has amassed almost a million subscribers. Check out her performance of Smoke in an Amsterdam church from earlier this month. Continue Reading »
Georgia Today reviews in most transcendental terms the recent Deep Purple gig in the country:
The evening of 16 November in Tbilisi transformed the Sports Palace into an environment that resembled a vast anthropological chamber. Deep Purple appeared onstage as the custodians of a fifty-year cultural archive, and the audience moved through the space as visitors inside a living museum. The hall filled with people long before the lights dimmed, and the delayed start charged the air with a slow ritualistic tension. The venue’s acoustic brightness carried the sound with an immediacy that framed the performance as an intimate encounter between legends and listeners.
Continue reading in Georgia Today.
Whitesnake have released what is claimed to be the last ever music video — 2025 remixed title track from the Forevermore album. This is the “unzipped” version, featuring the Hook City Strings ensemble and a gracefully aging DC. Continue Reading »
In the anticipation of Deep Purple’s gig in Dubai, local newspaper The National publishes an interview with Ian Gillan.
Three years before joining the British band that is regarded as one of the pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, Gillan was singing the harmonies of American jazz and doo-wop groups with Episode Six, a band that also featured future Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover. The Lebanon summer residency was Gillan’s first official international gig.
“I still remember the smell of the cedar trees when we landed on a Boeing 707 at the airport,” Gillan, 80, tells The National ahead of Deep Purple’s Dubai return to Coca-Cola Arena on Thursday. “I was there for three months and Casino du Liban was probably even bigger than Vegas and Paris put together at the time. In the three months we spent there, I absorbed the culture of Lebanon so much.”
Part of that memory is the contrast between the venue’s glamour and the city’s rough edges. “It was still a raw country, but the casino was very cosmopolitan, very international, and we had everything we wanted,” says Gillan. “We were staying in a derelict farmhouse up on the hills overlooking Lebanon. Not much there, but we had some good parties and a lot of stories to tell. We would do five shows a night and then a matinee show with no alcohol on the weekends, so it was full of kids. It was full-on and we learnt a lot.”
Read more in The National.
Deep Purple 2026 tour dates started filtering through some time ago, as you may have surmised from our front page graphics. The summer European tour is whimsically dubbed as Mad in Europe, and there’s a corresponding Mad in Japan tour earlier in the year.
Today another massive European tour has been announced. It starts on September 29 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and wraps up at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, UK, on November 24, and covers 22 countries for a total of 35 shows. Support band is announced as Jayler, with Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth added for the UK shows except London. Tickets for most dates go on sale November 21, 2025, with various presales starting earlier.
Full details in our calendar.
Thanks to Trond Strøm, Ondřej Kubín, Nigel Young, Merlijn Rotte, Thomas, gary carr, Tobias Janaschke, and Ralf Otto for the heads-up.
In this undated interview, Ritchie Blackmore tells that the original motivation to play guitar was basically his desire to impress his school teacher. Continue Reading »
On November 16, Deep Purple have played their first gig in 5 months, and that happened in Tbilisi, Georgia. Several pieces of video evidence have already surfaced on them intertubes. Here is what appears to be a complete show. The quality is not bad for an audience recording; starts a little shaky, but get better as the gig progresses. Check out Gillan’s headgear on the encores.
Intro tape: Mars, the Bringer of War (Gustav Holst)
Highway Star
A Bit on the Side
Hard Lovin’ Man
Into the Fire
Guitar Solo
Uncommon Man (Dedicated to Jon Lord)
Lazy Sod
Lazy (with extended keyboard intro)
When a Blind Man Cries
Anya
Keyboard Solo
Bleeding Obvious
Space Truckin’
Smoke on the Water
Green Onions (Booker T. & the MG’s cover)
Hush (Joe South cover)
Black Night
Thanks to Bootlegs In Purple for posting the video, and to Ivica for bringing it to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing