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![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride6.jpg)
Anything but heavy
The Mercury News carries a pretty scathing review of the band’s performance from September 5, 2026, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
Deep Purple really had no business following Kansas and, not surprisingly, its headlining set felt quite anticlimactic. Even though it appeared (at least on paper) to have the most impressive lineup of the day — with three members dating back to the classic early-’70s “Mark II” lineup of Deep Purple — the band limped through its 16-song setlist.
Two of those players — bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice (the sole original member remaining in the band) — formed a solid enough rhythm section. But Ian Gillan wasn’t able to hold up his end of the bargain, with his shrill, nasal and highly battered vocals barely resembling those iconic multi-octave lines uttered on “Machine Head,” “Made in Japan” and other hard-rock/proto-metal ’70s offerings.
Read more (if you wish) in The Mercury News.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in my opinion he’s wrong. I saw Purple in Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago and Gillan’s voice was great. He does hold up his end of the bargain but the problem is not with him. It’s with the guy running the soundboard. I’ve noticed the last few times I saw them the vocals during Highway Star are way to low in the mix forcing Gillan to scream to be heard. This could be mistaking Gillan’s voice not being up to it. Actually it is difficult to hear him at this point. An adjustment is made and after the guitar solo then the mix is good. I always do the meet and greets and I am tempted to tell them about this but I never do because who am I to say this and I don’t want them to be pissed at me. I love those guys for all the years of great music and great concerts. I’ve seen them every tour at least once since 1974. All they need to do is get this straightened out beforehand and the problem is solved. Ian Gillan does a great job and at 81 years old. Guys I just still want to be alive at 81 let alone be able to sing like him. To say they limped through a 16 song set list is just plain ridiculous. Hopefully a live album will come from this years touring and everyone will hear just how great they still are.
September 7th, 2026 at 01:23That‘s fair enough, we‘re not in North Korea, bad critiques are a part of any artist’s life. Not everyone likes DP nor does (s)he have to.
As an adult, you should be able to handle criticism even of things you like and even of yourself. I remember a DP that were quite good with the latter as not only the inner gatefold sleeve of WDWTWA showed, but also this brilliant advert for Burn which incorporated a panning of Burn by the New Musical Express juxtaposed with rave reviews from Sounds, Melody Maker and Disc Magazine of the same album,
https://www.etsy.com/de-en/listing/1811206962/deep-purple-1974-original-nme-poster
culminating in the rhetoric question …
With friends like these who needs N.M.E‘s?
only to then answer graciously:
We do. A little heated controversy never did anyone any harm.
https://www.google.com/search?q=deep+purple+Burn+advert+with+friends+like+these+who+needs+NMEs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-de&client=safari&iga=1&utm_campaign=safari_share_1
And even better: That advert was ONLY run in the NME! 😘😂
I have countless albums I cherish that I bought solely on the basis of a BAD review: Judas Priest‘s Sin After Sin, The Doctors of Madness’ Figments of Emancipation, Strapps’ gorgeous Secret Damage
https://youtu.be/wFYl14fMAo4
Rush‘s 2012, KISS‘ Destroyer, Be Bop Deluxe‘s Modern Music, the Bay City Rollers‘ wonderful Dedication …
https://youtu.be/jzJGJ3eHhiI
(And I‘m gonna say it: Les McKeown was a much better singer than Brian Connolly, more melodic, more versatile, better pitch, so there! RnR Love Letter is a Power Pop gem.)
So welcome The Mercury News‘ panning of a Purple gig as an enrichment of the public debate. It‘s when media stops to report about DP – good or bad – that I will truly get worried (and Purple should then too).
September 7th, 2026 at 02:42Just the tone indicates this person is not a fan. Anyone can have a night off and while i dont excuse their performance if it went down this way i believe this band has earned a pass on the occasional night off.
We should all generally perform this well in our 80s.
What is the point in skewering them?
September 7th, 2026 at 03:06Yo,
I really like IG’s T-shirt, it seems he’s catching-on, as with many other folks around the world, ha-ha…
For those in Europe, you have Mr.Billy Meier & his decades-long work to revisit or investigate.
As for the review, take-it-or-leave-it, everyone has their right to enjoy or not-to-enjoy a show I guess…Perhaps the gentleman has forgotten that “=1” made No.1 in the charts in many places around the world, & “Splat” is loved by many.
All that said, California imo has never been a DP state or home-away-from-home, since its home to Hollyweird & its where the bulk of the US-of-A’s entertainment generally stems from…And when you throw-in Bohemian Grove & its historical activities, matters do get complicated…
It’s been a full 52 years since the Jam, when perhaps reviews were more favourable, even with regards to “The gentleman selling ice-cream over there”…
Ciao !
September 7th, 2026 at 03:26bonjour il serait temps d’arrêter!
September 7th, 2026 at 07:08I think the review has something to do with the way the Americans (except Deadheads etc.) prefer to have their music served: hard, fast, direct, vocals focused, under 4 min per song if possible, thank you, Ma’am. No wonder the writer didn’t appreciate Gillan’s banter and solos. It is telling that the writer doesn’t mention guitar and organ work. Hello, mate, this is a hard rock band. They don’t just rap to the bass and drums. They play other instruments, too. They play those a lot, how about that?
But then I haven’t seen the show. Gillan indeed might have gone chatting a little too much. The way he has aged, he reminds me a lot of my late father. And Dad could talk a LOT and there was stopping him. Gillan’s voice might have been in a less then perfect condition. A bit of good ole’ criticism never hurts.
September 7th, 2026 at 08:31Ah – the good old “Gillan can’t sing” review. Criticism is important, but complaining an 81 year old doesn’t sound like he did in his 20s is just lazy journalism. The type often done by reviewers he didn’t get a back-stage pass for the gig 😉
September 7th, 2026 at 09:24The reviewer is just telling the truth. Ian can not sing anymore
September 7th, 2026 at 12:10For starters the reviewer seems to think Ian Gillan should sound like he did in the ’70’s. That ship has sailed. Gillan is 81 years old and is what he is. He still sounds good and that’s all that matters.
September 7th, 2026 at 13:24The reviewer also mentioned Gillan’s between song banter. It’s pretty obvious this clown hasn’t been to too many Purple shows or he’d know that’s what Gillan does.
As for the set list. That’s been a bone of contention for years. It is what it is and, speaking for myself, who cares at this point. Again speaking for myself I’m just happy to see the band when I get the chance cuz I realize it may be the last time.
In closing,one person, I think his name is Gregster, mentioned that Commiefornia has never been a DP state. So Im gonna assume the reviewer is probably not a DP fan either.
He can sing plenty fine for me – within the realms of what is biologically possible for an 81-year-old. And I love his banter on stage – that‘s one thing I always miss with Halford, he never banters with the audience at all.
But fair enough, if instrumental finesse isn‘t that important to you (and it need not be), if strong arena-type chorus parts sung by a multitude of voices are your thing, you find a close reproduction of the album sound on live stage appealing and you prefer the demeanor and agility of performers half the age or less of the DP guys (and there is a thing to be said for the infectiousness of youthful ebullience), then there are bands who will serve you better than current DP. That neither insults nor aggravates me, I just shrug my shoulders at it.
September 7th, 2026 at 13:30I was there Saturday night (Shoreline Amphitheatre) and Deep Purple’s performance was really good, I could hear everything from my seat at the venue, this was the second of “two in a row “ shows , so I was a little concerned about Ian’s voice but he did just fine, Roger was solid, Ian Paice was phenomenal, Don could be a little more creative during his solo spot (he’s been playing the same solo (more or less) for years, Simon McBride is really good at what he does, he only needs play the role of the guitar heroe people are hoping to listen to in a band like Deep Purple, all in all a very good show by the band
September 7th, 2026 at 14:25#7 Doug:
Jim Harrington concludes as follows:
“But, looking on the bright side for the band, at least there weren’t many people in the audience to witness this disappointing performance.”
A conclusion that is highly respectful of the band.
brilliant, worthy of a Pulitzer Prize in the “music critic” category!!
Jim is probably a Zeppelin fan.
September 7th, 2026 at 14:47“The gentleman selling ice-cream over there”…
Gregster, you Hughesian nemesis, will you stop it NOW! 🤣
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSR0Oc2GyiTcdK0_5GEMcpm_AErDypUFhAovza0foe88cfDaWr_97Pf6lM&s=10
🌈 “So you like my outfit? Which flavors again?”🌈
I have no patience whatsoever with people criticizing the sublime sartorial choices of DP members, Beate, no whatboutisms, please don’t interrupt me when I‘m incoherent!!! 🤣😂🤣
September 7th, 2026 at 15:18@6 Maybe the Americans under age 40 like the music served up in under four minutes. But us older ones like it longer. And we dig the instrumentals. That was Purple’s calling hard in their heyday.
September 7th, 2026 at 15:22There are exceptions, but younger Americans have been spoon-fed “Classic Rock Radio” for many decades, not to mention Justin Bieber, rap and other crap.
Purple long ago stopped trying to make “radio-friendly” tunes, thankfully. Because I, personally, have not heard a new DP tune on the radio since Any Fule Know That in 1998.
But Comrade David S, “Commies”’ have always loved DP!
https://www.amiga-lps.de/index.php/deep-purple-1976/
May I translate some of the liner notes for you, ja?
As even the present selection suggests, many Deep Purple recordings are characterized by an effort to portray real-life situations, thoughts, and feelings. This alone sets them apart from the mass-produced output of the capitalist music industry, which is dominated by deceptive idylls and illusory worlds designed to distract working people from the crises of everyday life.
“Anyone’s Daughter” is rooted in the problems young people under capitalism still face when they believe they can marry “beneath their class.” The irony of the closing lines—”Now I’ve got what I always fought for ‘cause I married a rich man’s daughter.”—is unmistakable.
Internationalist regards!
https://media.tenor.com/-EYKZLyxKp8AAAAM/angela-davis.gif
September 7th, 2026 at 17:04Time catches up with everyone so it’s not a crime but what is a crime is for fans to go to the shows expecting fireworks.
September 7th, 2026 at 17:10But IG is always very clever in saying DP is primarily an instrumental band so he takes any pressure off him.
Also this tour schedule is not for musicians in their 50s let alone in their 80s.
My advice is to do several short tours throughout the year but that’s very expensive in terms of back room staff and tour expenses.
Peace ✌️
To Quote The Big Lebowski; ” “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just like, uh, your opinion, man.” There will always be the detractors. I saw the band in Montreal a few weeks back and the band was bang on!
September 8th, 2026 at 13:1560 years of rocking won’t harmed by a non-fans review.
Yes, the topic of Gillan cant sing good enough anymore is old.
But not without reasons.
I think where people are coming from pulling a blanket of love over his limitations.
They possibly did so decades ago.
AGE is not THE thing here.
He went into decline 4 decades ago.
But there were always moments to enjoy and even more enigmatic,he now and then came back with a vengeance.
Nowadays I think he s in relatively good shape compaired to other years.
RELATIVELY.
Gillan is not just the voice, its a package of elements we ve been in love with for as long as we did become fans.
Fans,meaning fanatic,can give 2 things.
Forgiving every fart,or still feeling emotionally attached and enjoying certain parts but with proportional criticism.
The band as a whole is a professional engine that delivers a lot.
But HIS role is pivotal.
I d have loved to see them once more after 2 decades but,….
I dont think its because I m Dutch,hehehe.
September 8th, 2026 at 14:48I feel silly giving a lot money for a product which biggest factor makes me frustrated.
I did miss this one wayback.
https://youtu.be/czx3GNhtWdU
I knew it at once the AI voice rolled in. The images a big mess.
Sigh….
Wasted some more precious time, just to think again how right I am about the filth on this planet.
September 8th, 2026 at 20:31Ian has never commented on what Waters said about Ozzy one way or another, it’s all made up and none of this AI voice nonsense that floods social media like a broken sewage pipe should be believed. Ironically, asking AI the simple question: “Did Ian Gillan …” gives you a semblance of the truth in a few seconds:
“AI Overview
No, Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan did not publicly comment on Roger Waters and Ozzy Osbourne.
The Real Controversy: Roger Waters dismissed Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s music as “idiocy and nonsense” in a September 2025 interview with The Independent Ink. Ozzy’s family, including his son Jack and wife Sharon, fired back at Waters on social media and in subsequent interviews.
Ian Gillan has no known involvement in this dispute, though he famously fronted Black Sabbath for their 1983 album Born Again.”
That Roger Waters would not consider Black Sabbath’s and Ozzy’s strongly escapist and made-to-entertain music to measure up to his own often brooding and sophisticated conceptual work heavy on explicit sociopolitical messages is hardly a surprise to me (for the avoidance of doubt: there are more Black Sabbath albums I like than Pink Floyd or Roger Waters ones, but really: the two bands operated in differen spheres, I don’t think Roger sees the point of pouring buckests of water over oneself and members of the audience though he did spit on one of them at least once and did feel guilty about it 😂). Waters is also someone who always tried to be very much in control of his life and career – The Wall is basically his lengthy lament when outside forces prevented that -, Ozzy didn’t know or care what he was doing at least half the time and had Sharon’s instructions for the other half.
I have no idea how IG would view this, but I doubt he would have accused Waters of seeking out “vulnerable targets”. Water pounces on everyone, strong or weak, he’s abrasive and outspoken and often takes no prisoners in his statements. I would still consider him a better-read person than Ozzy, but he could certainly work on his empathy a little.
That Ozzy was largely not in control of his artistic life (neither were Elvis, Michael Jackson or Britney Spears) is a truism, bringing it up in an interview two months after his death was callous, but that is Roger Waters for you.
September 8th, 2026 at 22:21Yo,
@13…Leiber Uwe, I “was” being quite complimentary ha-ha !
And for the record, since “Splat” reached a peak chart position of No.12, one has to ask the reviewer here if he even knew this, though I suggest the 4,000 strong fans perhaps did. 4,000 people is not a small amount of people either imo. And if you were performing, from the stage, it would still seem like plenty of folks were there.
https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/deep-purple-splat/
Ciao !
September 8th, 2026 at 23:02@ 20- poor Ozzy, not. After saying ‘bless him’ etc in regard to Ozzy’s passing, all Roger Waters said was that O$Bourne was all over the tv for years and he was an idiot and nonsense. Biting the head off a chicken ha ha ha, it was allegedly a bat of course, but who gives a f..k. as Waters said. Regarding Black Sabbath, Waters simply stated what a lot of other musicians have over the years. They don’t listen to or like Sabbath at all. Nothing wrong with that. I agree with Waters in regard to the ‘idiot and nonsense’ comments about O$$Y including the on the ‘tv’ comment. He was a goon and an imbecile during the 1980’s and 1990’s with his band etc. Teenage adolescence big time, not to mention drunken out of it and immature stupidity. Don’t mention the tv drivel which I would never watch as many others wouldn’t either. Once everything settled down after Ozzy’s ‘metal’ and so called tv career, he reverted back to his former self it seems. Likeable, humorous at times and gentle in many ways. Who are O$bourne’s wife, son and daughter again??????????
September 9th, 2026 at 10:48That the Mercury News author’s impressions and opinions do not meet any veracity test is not really up for debate, is it? 😂 The guy is obviously one of those rock and pop journos who thinks that people the age of the majority of DP’s members have no business on stage anymore playing the music they do and that taints everything. People like that have always existed, in the 70s and 80s they simply assumed “too old for rock’n’roll” around the 30+ years mark, now it’s at 70/80 which I guess is an achievement of sorts in terms of rock’s longevity. 🤗
To the defense of American audiences, I don’t think they were always improvisation- and stretching-out-songs-averse. A lot of the stadium and areana acts of the 70s played ony a handful of songs live and stretched them out no end (not just DP). Led Zep, Humble Pie, Rare Earth, West, Bruce & Laing, Robin Trower, Black Sabbath, Foghat … I remeber reading from Noddy Holder that Slade were flabbergasted when they first opened for Humble Pie on a US stadiums tour because Marriott and his men would stretch out like half a dozen songs over two-and-a-half hours and more while Slade played twelve of theirs in their allotted 45 minute time slot as the opener.
September 9th, 2026 at 11:30@20
“AI Overview”
– excuse me Uwe but AI is not to be trusted!
AND YES still on topic – but listen here, a friend of mine googled my name, asked if I were married, and somehow I am now married to a German gentleman by the name Herbert or something like that!
I just did another search, and now I’m apparently divorced and single.
AI is not worth a lot if you ask me.
I don’t know if Ian has been talking bad about RW, but AI doesn’t either 😃
September 9th, 2026 at 13:58Wasting time on AI and then asking truth in another AI is hilarious.
We now admit doing that.
I dont like to smear out everything again but regarding the alleged moral outbursts I say we re all hypocrites.
Waters is too,inconsistent et all.
Still playing that hippie bullshit while he plays for big money in many dubious states except for one.
Gillan and others in the DP family have great qualities but are no innocents either.
He and the Osbournes treated band mates terribly.
“Its not personal. Its buisness,”?
Confusing it can be.
Daisley, rightfully so, saying what he said but still coming back for more.
Extra bonus for Waters : Sharon, partly Jewish did everything the stereotype demands.
KISS members Stanley and Simmons as well.
Like Sharon, they dont give a phuck.
I wonder if hell is still frozen between him and Gilmour and Polly.
Nick Mason seems to care less about Waters political statements.
September 9th, 2026 at 14:34This is just like the story of the emperor’s new clothes—no one wanted to see that the emperor was naked. Until someone saw the truth and wrote it down.
Even though many people still think Gillan *is* the voice of Deep Purple and that he’s still up to the task, we have to put fandom aside and be objective enough to realize that the singer needs to stop.
It’s time to stop hiding behind the argument that he’s 80 years old and we have to accept everything he does. Sadly, life has its moments, and Gillan’s time has passed.
He is destroying the band’s legacy with his stubbornness. He has done enough. There is still time for him to retire with honors. Stop exposing the naked emperor. People have already figured it out…
September 9th, 2026 at 21:09Yo,
@25 stated a well-known quote from Mr.Blackmore regarding the Roger Glover firing that sums-up everything in the music industry circus perfectly…
qt.”Its not personal. Its business”…
Survival is the key ingredient here, along with wanting to stay-on-top-of-the-game by flexing muscle…It also provides the filthy-press with plenty of nostalgia & speculation to feed-upon, or if you rather, free-advertising too.
AI = Absence of Intelligence…You can get rid of it simply by deleting anything that is Microsoft Edge etc from your computers “C” – drive file under “programs” etc. You will find much bollox associated in there, delete it all… – And you may find that it will automatically reinstall itself in a few days if the following hasn’t been removed from your Registry, but keep persisting. After this step, install Auslogic Boostspeed, then search for the “services” folder, & simply delete all the services such as BITS, & Remote Registry Editor, Windows Update, & a whole host of other inbuilt spyware, that’s installed with the 24H2 W-11 package. Then install Duck Duck Go & Mozilla Firefox as your default search engines & browser, & your problems will disappear. See link below for Auslogic Boostspeed…*Ensure that you have the program packages for Duck Duck Go & Firefox before you start. This may be problematic to do, so ensure you know someone that can download these as back-up, since Microsoft won’t allow you to download & install these important things whilst “Edge” is in control of your computer. And not only will you regain control of your computer, your data usage will reduce by 80% or more, & will still search & find & do things just as fast as before. Firefox & DDG allow you to turn off AI & stay off.
Put yourself back into the drivers seat & take control back of you computer, & lose this AI bollox for ever.
https://www.auslogics.com/en/software/boost-speed/
Roger Waters has likely never listened to anything Black Sabbath imo, since if he had, he’d realize that it’s not-so-far-removed from what he was trying to wake-up in people.
Ciao !
September 9th, 2026 at 23:48Indeed, poor ole Bob Daisley. Although we do wonder about why he did return so many times to the O$bourne circus. Sure he had a young family, mortgage etc, but fair dinkum, talk about glutton for punishment. Didn’t he ‘drop’ Uriah Heep to go back into the inferno of the O$$Y spiral into insanity? Easy for us pundits to comment either way. Daisley was still hoping at those times to get his correct overdue royalties from those two early albums with O$Bourne. They (the witch included) just kept dangling that old ‘carrot’ in front of him. Cheers.
September 10th, 2026 at 00:21Uwe,
U.S. rock audiences are not instrumental-averse; artists like Goose and Billy Strings and Tedeschi Trucks and Phish pack the concert halls while playing solos for days.
I think they sent the wrong critic to that concert, though I also think that DP made a mistake in crafting “Splat” without an epic instrumental section in it!
September 10th, 2026 at 02:23Yeah the guy is obviously not a fan, what a bunch of rubbish. Just saw them in Chula Vista last night, as I can’t make it to the very close Long Beach and was booked Sunday. I think Ian started a bit rough but he just got better and better. And once in awhile he would hold a really long high note. Like the lungs of a 20 year old. I kept texting friends, I can’t believe he’s still singing like that at 81. It’s sadly been seven years since their last West Coast visit, wish there had been more. I only have one criticism- I’m as big of a Simon fan as all the others they’ve had- he’s brilliant. But his solo guitar spot was a total bore. Come on Simon, we know you can do much better! Other than that, they were terrific.
September 10th, 2026 at 05:34@26: So funny, this is exactly what some people say about RB. 🙂 And of course, anyone saying that about any of them will be slammed by the other camp.
September 10th, 2026 at 06:10You have to admit life would be boring if it was only fans of bands who were allowed to write reviews? And as we can see on this site sometimes, if you as a fan dare to point out something critical about the band, you are immediately dismissed as not being a fan.
Even in these days of access to everything – I mean, would other than locals have heard about this review 30 years ago? But even today, I guess most people read one or a couple of local papers as they have done most of their lives. You get to know the writers and their opinions. You learn that if this guy dislikes something, you will most likely love it, and the other way around.
September 10th, 2026 at 06:20“Its not personal. Its buisness,”?
Maybe it was the wrong quote for more than 1 reason.
Way back when Gillan wrote his resignation, he wasnt fired but gave several reasons why he felt compelled to do so.
There was firction between him and RB but by them both could ve been aware the band was breaking through.
The success of MADE IN JAPAN was still not there but imho the writings were on the wall.
If only some wise management had decided :
“Ok, boys, maybe its time for a vacation?” friction might ve changed?
Yhings/decisions could ve been re evaluated?
Both Gillan and Blackmore regularly outed pretentious things about artistic integrity but both werent turning their backs on loads of money as well.
They were both, espescially Gillan, to reunite for financial reasons.
It seems weird that during the last Rainbow line up the band was finally breakung tru in the USA,Ritchie decided not to pursue.
I always hated that THAT market was such a big drive for their decisions.
During 1973 it was evident that the band was a big hit and everyone could see MIJ was to credit for it.
They had imho the luxury to feast on that and sort themselves out and pick up the band later.
BUISNESSWISE, it was very stupid to throw in the towell and gamble on changing the line up.
They d had worked so hard
and now they hit GOLD.
I love what it gave us, all the offshoots, etc but DP wasnt stagnating, as Ian suggested, and the final worldwide recognition was there in front of the
September 10th, 2026 at 12:43their eyes during 1973?
@2. Well Uwe, I almost spat my tea out when you said Les was a superior vocalist to Brian. I think it’s down to personal taste. Les has a pleasant enough voice, but it’s a pop/crooning type of voice. Perhaps if he’s really attempted rock music like Sweet then I might have a different opinion. Brian certainly wasn’t perfect, and his off-duty habits may have affected his performances, and when he got beaten up and kicked in the throat the band said his voice wasn’t the same.
If we look and compare both Brian and Les’ studio work then it’s an easy win for me with the former. Les may have had more range and tones than he showed within the Rollers, but going on the albums Brian reveals more range, and a variety of tones than Les. Brian could’ve sang Rollers’ material but I’m not convinced Les would have been convincing fronting Sweet. Oh well, we’ll never know and we’ll have to agree to disagree. Take care.
September 10th, 2026 at 14:48I think it was neither personal nor business that had Roger driven out of DP by Ritchie, but power-political ruthlessness and plain musical boredom.
Roger and Ritchie never had deeper conflicts and there was nothing that Roger did or did not do that had impeded Mk II’s commerciality and rise to the top. He was a “good citizen“, played reliably well bass (if not with the attitude and aplomb Ritchie preferred) and gelled excellently with Paicey.
Rather, to my mind, Ritchie had two motivations to get rid of him:
– He quite rightly saw Roger and IG as a unit and his purge-like instincts told him that you had to get rid of both of them to uninhibitedly rebuild a DP that according to his master plan should be more akin to Free, more under his undisputed leadership, be less dominated by the Gorgan, do less PROGish experimentation and sound altogether blacker/bluesier/grittier in both the vocal and rhythm section departments.
– Ritchie, at least as a young man, had a very utilitarian approach to musicians who played with him. They were good enough as long as they served a purpose and paved the way to success. He simply deemed Roger replaceable (whether that was in hindsight an accurate judgement of his is ANOTHER matter, but it is what he thought at the time). He saw Glenn as the more naturally gifted and edgy bass player, also five years younger and therefore presumably more impressionable than Roger who had after all been alongside Ritchie all the time as he climbed to international stardom with Mk II, and then of course Glenn could sing and provide backing vocals, something the Mk II line-up never could offer. (Maybe Ritchie had heard a little Uriah Heep at the side?)
Never mind how he thereby underestimated how deeply ingrained black music was with the boy from Cannock and that he would soon form an alliance with the boy from Saltburn-by-the-Sea that questioned Ritchie’s musical leadership as much as the Gillan-Glover tandem had before.
Basically, Ritchie was never really impressed by Roger’s bass playing (for the avoidance of doubt: I vocally disagree with him), I guess he regarded it as serviceable. He confirmed as much inter alia in a 1995 interview with Neil Jeffries that has just been republished in the “60 Years of Deep Purple” Classic Rock Special where he is adamant that he did not want Roger back as a bassist in 1979, but saw him as a producer and co-songwriter/lyricist, only acquiescing to pressure from management, record company and band members who all wanted Roger to join Rainbow as a bassist after he had played bass interimistically during the DTE recording sessions in the absence of another bass player to do the job.
September 10th, 2026 at 15:31First you play and then you sup, as the late Bob Weir did sing or
September 10th, 2026 at 16:09We’re only in it for the money, FZ
I think it’s a myth that Rainbow were on the verge of breaking thru in the US in 1983/early 1984. The were doing reasonable business in some states scattered across the country, but an imminent overall breakthrough? Scarcely, DTC reached #50, SBTE #30 and BOOS #34 in the all-decisive Billboard 200, none of them went even silver, much less gold (as had no other Rainbow album before them in the US). That’s nothing to write home about for a band in the sixth to eighth year of its existence featuring two members of a band that in 1973 had been the bestselling rockband in the US. All this mythologizing about Rainbow’s success in the US, you guys listen to too many JLT interviews me thinks … 🙄, but from an accounting viewpoint the necessary KPI figures – bums on seats, records sold, radio airplay & MTV rotation – just weren’t there, please show them to me if you think otherwise.
https://36.media.tumblr.com/81f1bb9bceb37ffea7ae626268f01d33/tumblr_inline_nlsqg2GNE01t1lk8n_500.jpg
Moreover a change was about to come and Rainboow were ill-equipped for it: The late 70s were werer ruled in the US by AOR giants like Styx, Toto, Journey, Foreigner and REO Speedwagon, add Van Halen, Def Leppard and Aerosmith if you want to (their singles were mostly AOR), but with the middle of the 80s approaching the Sunset Strip hit back and “Hair Metal” (= in essence: poppy hard rock with strong chorus hooks) established itself as the new dominant chart-oriented rock genre. I don’t see how Rainbow with Blackmore and Glover could have competed with the Mötley Crües, Bon Jovis, Whitesnakes, Ratts, Night Rangers, Cinderellas, Poisons, Guns & Roses and Warrants of this world, no matter how much Ritchie and Roger would have worked out in the gym and acquired larger wigs to compete.
Blackmore just wasn’t the type to relinquish control – and even if only for a period of time like DC did – to a Svengali like John Kalodner and an invasive record company like Geffen. And that would have probably entailed Kalodner doing away with everyone except Ritchie in Rainbow and structure a new line-up around him to fit the American bill. As a frontman, JLT (good singer he was and is) was never a competition for people like DLR, Vince Neil, Axl Rose, Bret Michaels, Jon Bon Jovi, David Coverdale, Stephen Pearcy or Steven Tyler. And I doubt whether Ritchie would have accepted any of them as a vocalist in Rainbow for fear of being upstaged in his own position, he’s not really a power-sharing guy.
As such, the Mk II reunion in 1984 was therefore a commercial inevitability with no other option nearly as good. JLT-Rainbow had no credible future in the US to (still) establish itself as a top act. Nor did Gary Moore, Ian Gillan outside of Black Sabbath or Jon in Whitesnake (unless he would have allowed himself to be pushed back even further into the background in the presentation of WS, but can you imagine him on band promo pics with DC, Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge, Adrian Vandenberg and Vivian Campbell/Steve Vai? 😂 ).
September 10th, 2026 at 17:22“And as we can see on this site sometimes, if you as a fan dare to point out something critical about the band, you are immediately dismissed as not being a fan.”
You speak in arcane riddles, Svante, this site is a temple of relentless objectivity! WANTAGHAMEAN about people being dismissed as not being fans?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhJ0q7X3DLM
September 10th, 2026 at 17:33Uwe
I doubted it myself for decades but it seems consensus Glover together with Gillan and Blackmore was responsible for the writing of MK2 classics.
So, if true, why give that up and jump into an experiment that later made him leave?
I recall Rainbow fans blamed Roger for the commercial direction when he joined the band.
So what he brought to the table was sensibility what d become popular in mk2 and Rainbow?
I remember a lot , at the same time my memory forgets a lot as well.
And things stay with me, even if I try to delete bagage.
In a Dutch mag it said (Allegedly RB quoting) : ” Without Roger I play meaner, more agressive.”
Ritchie is a strange chappy, dismissing WABMC, aiming for Rodgers ,the original plan though.
BABYFACE was an option as well.
He is living rentfree in my head and I imagine him falling off the couch laughing knowing this.
September 10th, 2026 at 20:28Yo,
Running a circus is quite a testing time, but no-doubt the re-union of 1984 was about increasing revenue whilst ticking a lot of boxes along-the-way, by generally keeping everyone happy, from managers, to the bankers, to the record company people, to your own families, & the fans themselves too etc etc.
It remains a market that continues to survive quite happily, & will continue to do so long after the boys have departed this plane-of-existence. DP is a big dollar trade-name that would have been silly to ignore when the reunion opportunity came “Knockin’ at the back door”, & the longer it survives, the longer it will be remembered in a historical sense. But it’s the quality of the work-effort / music that’s the primary cause of such longevity, regardless of who’s playing within the band.
Sure money is a powerful driving-force that helps one maintain a certain quality-of-life per-se, but if artistic integrity wasn’t there within the bands work-ethic, the venture would have been short-lived, & here we are 42-odd years later !
Ciao !
September 10th, 2026 at 23:53I sure hope that if the reviewer is being honest that it was just an off night and not an indicator of things to come. I am taking my Wife to the Long Beach, CA show Friday night and really need it to be a good show. I took her back in 2017 just after we started dating and that was when Alice Cooper was on the ticket and Alice went first and put on his usual great entertaining show, the kind of set that you really don’t want to follow, but Purple had to. It was a very low key performance by Purple, and not memorable at all. Probably the dullest of all the times that I had seen them and even I was let down. I find it hard to believe that Kansas could blow them off the stage the way that Alice did, but I sure hope that doesn’t come to pass. I really want to see that new Banjo Player in action and enjoy the show and not be left wondering What If, especially since this will probably be my last chance to see them for all realistic purposes…..
September 11th, 2026 at 00:10@39: You are looking at all this from the outside, and in hindsight. Ritchie is/was apparently someone who wants to change things up and renew certain things every now and again. He also apparently wants to be in charge of things. So, regardless of success, why would he want to stay in a band where he is not happy, he is not entirely in charge and he needs something fresh. Enter Rainbow. When it was time for the DP reunion, that probably felt fresh after a decade of Rainbow.
If Rainbow had made it really big in the US, I am sure he had changed something to lose that success anyway. 🙂
September 11th, 2026 at 06:19Another reviewer expecting the Ian Gillan of the early 70s. Sorry mate, you missed it by 55 years!
September 11th, 2026 at 09:05@ 26 Errol, may I ask what “truth”? Yours? And who’s “objective”? You are? And who are those “people” that figured it out?
Me, I enjoy listening to Deep Purple’s new album and the one before a big deal! And I enjoyed the show I saw in Ulm even more – and am really looking forward to seeing the band again in a couple of weeks. As thousands and thousands of others around the globe do. So we got a band that likes to carry on and audiences that want to see them do it. Does that sound like a win-win situation? I think so.
Noone is forced to listen to Ian Gillan. I love to. And I am glad he is still up there. IMHO he sings better than a lot of other people including many that get paid for it.
I just don’t get why some people think they need to tell others when and what to stop. I guess Ian doesn’t sing in your livingroom?
September 11th, 2026 at 09:51@ 42
September 11th, 2026 at 12:30Svante, what is your definition of really big? The last year of Rainbow 1983 they were selling out places like Madison Square Garden, Continental Airlines Arena and the Spectrum. All 20,000 seat arenas. I was at all of them. Most bands didn’t play in stadiums because of the poor sound and weather issues. Rainbow in the US were really big. Like you said maybe Blackmore just wanted to change things up again.
@12
> Jim is probably a Zeppelin fan.
my thoughts exactly.
September 11th, 2026 at 13:32@45: I would personally think of them as a band that was big in the US. I just wanted to avoid Uwe doing another lenghty tirade about exactly how big or not they were. 🙂 (See comment 37)
September 11th, 2026 at 14:00I’m not denying that Rainbow sold out Madison Square Garden in 1982 (not 1983) though the Scorpions as the opener might have helped a little. But selling out even a large hall in one State does not mean that you are doing brisk business in another – lots of European bands have learned that the hard way on US tours.
And it doesn’t mean that you have huge record sales to go along with it. Enya stacked up record sales in excess of 80 million worldwide (almost three times as much as Rainbow) – without touring once in her career (she thought her layered vocals in the studio could not be reproduced live and also had the most severe stage fright). Blackmore always knew how to entertain and grab people’s attention live and Rainbow in the 70s and 80s were a tightly rehearsed band, they were apparently more attractive as a live act than their records were. Or maybe people just wanted to see Blackmore the myth and man who had smashed his guitar and exploded his amps live on national TV, but being relatively oblivious to what current music he was making. Not every concert goer has the artist’s complete oeuvre at home nor buys it after a gig he or she liked, people are selective.
Just do the math: Rainbow sold 28 million albums worldwide (for comparison: UFO sold roundabout 20 million, Nirvana roundabout 75 million) during their 8 years of existence, only four million of those were actually North American sales (and those likely in the main attributable to the JLT era). At the same time (70s and 80s) the US was the largest record sales market in the world with a share between 30 and 40% of global music sales. Unlike Purple, Rainbow were a commercial heavy hitter only in the UK, Continetal Europe and Japan. In the US they were – if you want to be nice about it – “moderately successful” as record sales go.
And Ritchie was never satisfied with anything “moderate”.
And I’m a bit puzzled that poining out the blank economic facts is now captioned as a “tirade” here. At least my analysis according to which Rainbow never had sufficient commercial clout in the US to make a Mk II reunion economically unattractive for Ritchie and Roger is coherent with later developments while those qualifying Rainbow as a “major band” (they weren’t, Journey was a “major band”) in the US in the latish 70s and early 80s have the issue explaining why that alleged golden goose was then decapitated for the DP reunion in 1984. Cui bono?
When I spent three weeks in Detroit (then a Midwest hard rock hub) in the early 8os listening to rock radio stations all day, I never heard Rainbow once (nor GILLAN or Whitesnake for that matter). I would have noticed. Journey + Foreigner, but also AC/DC, Rush, Billy Squier, Judas Priest and Scorpions were all over the place on the other hand, there was no escaping them. And of course local boy Bob Seger! 😂
September 11th, 2026 at 15:05@ 47
September 11th, 2026 at 16:27I totally understand. I’ve got nothing against Uwe but to be honest with you, for the most part I skip reading what he writes because life to to short. I try to keep it brief and to the point.
Forgive me, but sometimes it takes a few words to counter entrenched (but very seldom supported by facts) conventional wisdom once it has taken on a life of its own.
That Rainbow (with not a single song of theirs ever entering the regular Billboard charts) were popular and influential in the US is such a myth – to the vast majority of record buyers there they were irrelevant. We have this microcosm view of things here, and that’s alright among us fans, but it’s no indication for what the rest of the world was and is thinking.
Or the alleged brilliance of Rising about which the Maestro himself has disparagingly said in his 1995 interview with Neil Jeffries: “With the exception of Stargazer, it is a very mediocre album.” And before the usual suspects crow how Ritchie always tries to pull the rug from underneath people, I have never heard him say that In Rock, Machine Head or Burn were “mediocre”.
September 11th, 2026 at 23:44@ 48 – “In the US they were – if you want to be nice about it – “moderately successful” as record sales go.” That would have been a difficult sentence for you to type out me thinks, he he he. Uwe, where did you get those 28 million album sales from? Not that I have ever cared about sales or chart positions with music, If I like it is what it is ALL about for me. That almost sounds too high a figure for Rainbow, maybe I am out of touch with all that, but I do appreciate you waving the Rainbow flag, so to speak, well done. Diverging away from the Rainbow acolyte Uwe’s comments now. I also don’t believe the one we have often seen over the decades about DP having sold 120 million, yeah right. Cheers.
September 12th, 2026 at 06:12#50 Uwe:
I wouldn’t place much weight on the 1995 interview, for a number of reasons:
Ritchie always tends to downplay his work and often disparages it.
Ritchie doesn’t like heavy metal, and he disregards the influence *Rising* had on the entire metal movement.
Ritchie was turning towards medieval music and no longer cared about his past.
If SIUA had been a massive success and spawned a follow-up album, I am sure Ritchie’s words about *Rising* would have been different.
And finally, whether or not Ritchie likes one of his albums doesn’t automatically mean it’s trash.
September 12th, 2026 at 10:09@ 50 -“And before the usual suspects crow how Ritchie always tries to pull the rug from underneath people, I have never heard him say that In Rock, Machine Head or Burn were “mediocre”. So predictably one sided in his comments again is Mr Uwe Hornung. And what about all those Deep Purple albums that Ritchie does dismiss with contempt? Oh that’s right, we better not include all those. Seriously, who gives a f..k what the musicians themselves think of their music. Time and time again we hear of musicians praising or dismissing their music. It means absolutely nothing at all to the listener. Meanwhile back on planet earth, where both sides of the coin are visible, life goes on. Cheers.
September 12th, 2026 at 10:11Uwe
Any God of mine dismissing When a blind man cries I cannot take serious all the time.
30 years of BN and not giving us these albums with instrumentals or a blues album…
Or an effort to play real MiddleAges music instead of teeth ruining syrupy lullaby s
An album with just Lord ought to ve been something they could ve done in their sleep after they dined and wined.
Btw, your premisse Rainbow might ve to thank Scorpions for playing MSG is speculative.
September 12th, 2026 at 11:21One cannot present that as a fact.
@26 Errol Arias,
You are of course entitled to your own opinion. But it is indeed YOUR opinion, not mine! Not at all..
As I may have said before in here, I really enjoy Ian’s voice.
Come on! The man is 81 yo, and he sings really really good.
And then you say:
“He is destroying the band’s legacy with his stubbornness.”
– well you don’t need to listen to him if you don’t wanna.
He is the voice of Purple, I gladly say that and you can say whatever you want.
Ian Gillan made Purple what it was.
Yes, I know David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Tommy Bolin and Joe Lynn Turner sang also but I guess most people connect IG as the voice of Deep Purple..
But you are of course in your own right to think and say as you please, but don’t make the assumption that a lot of people agree with you, I for one don’t.
And this:
“Stop exposing the naked emperor. People have already figured it out…”
– this is just so wrong in so many levels.
Stop listen to the emperor of you don’t like to. And stop talking for other people why don’t ya!
September 12th, 2026 at 15:42I actually believe the 120 million or some such figure, Purple have been at it a while, they were huge for half of the 70s and covered many geographies. The three largest national record markets in the 70s (and probably still today) were the US, Japan and Germany, Purple were strong – somewhat belatedly in the US, but you know how they are there – in all three major markets, that accounts for a lot. And from In Rock to Burn (in the US: from Fireball to Burn) they had five/six consecutive releases (I’m counting Made in Japan in too) that all charted highly everywhere, record sales only began to dip with Stormbringer, perhaps also as a result of heavy rock being past its zenith by 1975 (I’d say it peaked from 1970-73, pretty much DP’s golden era too).
You think 28 million for Rainbow is too high? The other figure you find in the web is 30 million. Both sound about right to me, over a period of eight years for a band with reliably good sales in the UK, Continental Europe (though in Germany at least, Rainbow’s sales were a pale shadow of DP’s from 1970-75 which were outright stellar) and Japan. That is 3,5 million a year, maybe a little high given Rainbow’s non-existent chart placings in many countries and the dearth of silver and gold as well as the total absence of platinum successes. Possibly, Rainbow just sold consistently okay-ish …
Of coure record sales and bums on seats aren’t everything. There are bands like the MC5, The Stooges, The New York Dolls and The Ramones who were never good sellers, yet are rightly regarded as influential. But for the majority of their existence – Dio era excepted, we’ll get to that in a minute – Rainbow weren’t artistic leaders, they were followers. I know it’s heresy here, but Rainbow was a derivative of DP – for the mere reason that Blackmore puts his stamp on everything he does and that he is not that flexible as a musicuan due to his music tastes being somewhat limited too. (Not a knock, keep your pitch forks in the shed, but Ritchie was a musician who worked a comparatively narrow musical field with great artistic intensity, he wasn’t wide-ranging like, say, David Bowie was.) And the Bonnet and JLT eras were an attempt by Ritchie to AORize his sound and pattern it after other bands, but good AOR is largely an American craft and I don’t think its history would have needed to be rewritten had Rainbow split up for good in 1978 after Dio’s frustrated departure (and we had never heard them with either Graham or Joe).
Which brings us to the Dio era – commercially the least successful in the US (somewhat strangely so, because all line-ups featured two to four North Americans: four Elf guys initially, then Dio & Carey and finally Dio & Canuck David Stone), but perhaps also the one with the most lasting impact at least in the niche of heavy music/heavy metal? I guess you can say that. Dio era still sounded a lot like DP (to be fair: Ritchie never said he wanted to get radically away from the DP sound with Rainbow, it was more like Rory Gallagher leaving Taste and continuing to play much the same music as a solo artist with more control over the band), but RJD’s idiosyncratic voice, the way it gelled with Ritchie’s guitar, the fantasy lyrics and image was at least a variation to the core DP sound they retained (with the organ relegated to more of a backing and less second lead instrument role). And it did leave a lasting mark, not on the larger public, but among the knowing and devoted.
But the main difference in public appreciation of DP and Rainbow has always been that DP had the wider appeal even among people with an otherwise low affinity for hard and heavy rock while Rainbow were in the main liked by people whose record collections consisted largely of the albums of other heavy rock acts. Even AOR/JLT era Rainbow, for all its commercial ambitions, did not reach as much across the aisle as DP.
We’ll discuss some other time whether that had to do
– with Ritchie’s DP compatriots not being quite as entrenched in heavy music as he was: Big Ian, Little Ian, Jon, Roger, David & Glenn all released non-heavy rock albums in the 70s while it took Ritchie until 1997 and the charms of a Lond Island girl to attempt something outside of his usual turf,
– or whether Rainbow’s lesser mainstream appeal had to to with rock music becoming more fomatted in the second half of the 70s and early 80s.
Probably a little of each!
September 12th, 2026 at 19:25Yo,
@2…
Finally, I had time to read through this thread slowly, & for sure, you mentioned some timeless, & ground-breaking albums that everyone needs to have in their collections, at least as representative works that defined an artist / band…
Rush’s “2112” is a definitive example of extraordinary musicianship, progressive song-craft, & hope. It probably holds an equal footing with “Hemispheres” as the the desert island choice for myself.
Be Bop Deluxe’s “Modern Music” is simply sublime…I cannot fault this recording as all the planets aligned for Bill & the band with this one. The whole album flows beautifully from start to finish.
KISS’s “Destroyer” (& “Love Gun”) are certainly recordings that display a band that’s going for all it’s worth, where they successfully explored music & themes well beyond the regular hard rock’n’roll of the first 3 x studio efforts. These recordings remain timeless in their appeal & delivery, just like the previous albums mentioned.
And just to stir matters-up a little bit, I would probably throw “Led Zeppelin III” in with this batch of albums, (even if I see/hear it as LZ’s acoustic album). LZ I & II defined a heavy sound that’s still with us today in a loose-way with DP, but LZ III expanded their brand of sound textures via rock’n’roll rather than blues with this album. It’s where they defined their own sound. There’s some incredible mood & melody within.
Ciao !
September 12th, 2026 at 23:14#56 Uwe:
Yes, the sales figures should be accurate; I remember hearing about Deep Purple having sold 100 million records back when the Live in Japan triple box set came out in 1993.
As for Rainbow, they certainly won’t be in the top 5 most famous AOR bands of all time, but they might well make the top 20, maybe even 15.
September 13th, 2026 at 00:24@1 You make sound very easy. Just move the fader a few millimetres and the microphone is loud enough.
September 13th, 2026 at 04:16If it was that easy anyone could do it.
The truth is a little more complex. A microphone needs a voice that is loud enough to be picked up in the first place. How loud you may ask. Well at the microphone it needs to be louder that all the other instruments at that place.
Here you may want to read up on Signal to Noise Ratio ( so important that Peter Gabriel wrote a song about) and try read up on electro acoustics in general.
Deep Purple have great people working for them. So the Mix on the day was, depending on room acoustics and equipment probably as good as it gets. But feel free to go to the sound board on your next show and ask. Maybe they let you run the gig whilst they enjoy a pint at the bar. 😉
@ 51 The 28 million and 120 million for Rainbow and Purple have been out there for a loong time bro. Don Airey claimed his manager told him some time ago, that Purple are close to 150 million sales..
September 13th, 2026 at 10:06Looks like the Long Beach show was very well attended, not sold out but still a big crowd. So what happened in the Bay area..? small crowd and lousy reviews, seen more than one. As someone said, the above review is negative from the go.. really bad vibes.
September 13th, 2026 at 10:10@48
September 13th, 2026 at 10:47Uwe, I think the comparison with the so-called Enya is completely pointless. Comparing Rainbow and
I don’t even know what to call this “artist” makes no sense..
Somehow I vaguely remember stumbling upon it before but right now listening to it as if it is the first time.
Uwe contributions espescially are often loaded with suggestions.
I appreciate that a lot but,I think some trimming down d help not to put of people
I seem contradictory here cause, in this one as well, I can write too long texts as well.
This BE BOP DE LUXE sounds indeed like something I missed out on for decades.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_pD3wY-UM&list=OLAK5uy_lGpwt9gpNM8O8SHxN30vgYUrhXA6lKUTI
Not sure how to label or categorise it but whatever one taste is imho one needs to be very cranky or bitter to right away dismiss this.
Healthwise its a very bad day for me but I m still able to enjoy this.
Tried to find more info.
One of my questions is if they didnt become big due to the Zeitgeist, punk and other drivel pushing them out the way.
WIKI recently has become very insufferable in their attempts to push for subscriptions if you re used to just click and read.
So maybe I should find an alternative.
I m not on x and fb anymore due to them asking more and more personal info to get in.
I was a lot on x and it served me well as a source for breaking news and , step 2, linking me to a world of info.
Its only been 2 or 3 weeks but I m already missing it, national news sources are too biased, limited for me.
Internet is the main dissociation for me when I seem unable to do really needed works.
Inbetween I walk short strolls to massage my “pains”away.
Recently, though maybe seemingly futile and not a priority as well I re started “gardening”.
Re planting and re organising parts I adopted give me a Zenfeeling though my lowerback is aching like it used to years earlier.
But way back the formula was much more balanced, swimming my ass off,enjoying
sauna, biking around a lot.
So now I m off
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aEur9VMrS80
September 13th, 2026 at 12:31“Btw, your premise Rainbow might have to thank Scorpions for playing MSG is speculative. One cannot present that as a fact.”
No, one certainly cannot if one doesn’t know the facts, RV, but maybe the fact that the Scorpions sold out MSG three nights in a row exactly two years after they had opened for Rainbow there? One may perhaps credibly deduce and trace back then? BTW: The opening act for the three nights was an up and coming New Jersey band called Bon Jovi. Maybe the Scorpions profited from them too a little?
And if that doesn’t sway you, how about the fact that the time the Scorpions opened for Rainbow their Blackout had been at #10 in the Billboard charts while SBTE hadn’t climbed any higher than #30? Wikipedia writes about Blackout:
“In the US, the album was certified gold on 24 June 1982 and platinum on 8 March 1984 by RIAA.“
A status SBTE has not achieved in 44 years since its release, just sayin’ … But hey it wen’t gold in Finland for all of 25.000 sales, that’s a sizeable reindeer herd! Compared to the meager 1.000.000 sales those five Krauts needed for their platinum status in the US, that’s kinda impressive too.
[Tsk, tsk tsk, always this attorney type Uwe, lying through his teeth and not being able to prop up evidence for his wild allegations! 😎]
Another fact: In the mid 70s, the Scorpions were for German tours of international acts the go-to-band to ensure that German halls were reliably full: Sweet,
KISS and MMEB all toured with them as their opener. At that point, ze Scorps could not yet fill anything larger than small halls and large clubs in Germany, but they did attract their own fan base to fill out empty seats in larger halls. Manfred Mann actually tried to poach Uli Jon Roth for his band to replace Mick Rogers on guitar, but Uli stuck to his
insects, excuse me, arachnids. Both Sweethttps://youtu.be/EqvPHb8DL9k (The admiration was apparently mutual!)
and KISS lauded the Scorpions’ performances as their opener. The Scorpions were regarded as a safe bet, disciplined, scandal-free and respectful to the main acts. As did Germanophile Ritchie btw who in 1982 described the Hannoveraner as the best openers Rainbow ever had, dismissing Saxon, Krokus and AC/DC in the same interview as also former openers of Rainbow as “a bit heavy-handed and not very melodic”.
Lastly, ze Scorps sold about 110 million copies worldwide, about 10% of those in the US. As German rock exports go, there is quite no one like them … 😂
https://youtu.be/6VwbyBGbqPY
I might make things up, but I’m still hard to catch. 😎
Doei – und jetzt kommst du! 😂
September 13th, 2026 at 18:52A common description for Be Bop Deluxe was “British Art Rock” at the time, a field otherwise populated by Roxy Music and David Bowie. But it had hard rock ingredients. Be Bop Deluxe is miraculously one of the favorite bands of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, their Sunburst Finish is one of his island records.
Am I suggestive? I sure as hell am, I regard it as a a key quality in debate culture. Is it now – along with irony and sarcasm – verboten too? 🤗
September 13th, 2026 at 19:01Pacuha, the point was that bums on seats do not equate to record sales nor the other way around. Touring is not even necessary in certain genres of music to have great record sales, Enya, Pet Shop Boys and Kate Bush being prime examples.
I’m ok with Enya’s interior design ambient music, it’s like room fragrance, she (and her brother or husband I think as the musical director) made (more than) a living from it. I would imagine that many Enya households also listen to Blackmore‘s Night and vice versa, their albums are equally inoffensive. Easily digestible musical tofu, sodium-, fat-, gluten-, cholesterol- & cane sugar-free.
I do ike this one song of her because of its lullaby character.
https://youtu.be/EZ98IJ0usoE
It‘s kind of the “Magic Kingdom Experience Park”-version of this here:
https://youtu.be/mto47BMT3yA
No, I’m not suggesting at all that Enya and Suzanne Vega are in any way comparable, don’t sharpen your knives! 🙈
September 13th, 2026 at 21:12@ 64- you use the dreaded Wikipedia for your ‘facts’ Uwe???????????????????Oh dear. Two years after MSG???????? So that is evidence that two years before, The Scorpions were the reason Rainbow ‘sold out’ MSG, approximately 20,000 music aficionados.???? I have no idea about how popular either of those two bands were in drawing crowds at that time, but Uwe’s supposition sounds a little shaky to say the least. But let’s not spoil his anti Rainbow tirade. Keep digging Uwe. It is amusing to say the least. Maybe it was a simple combination of the two acts that created that attendance. Of course the headline act usually gets the ‘glory’ with official attendance figures. We do wonder though how many Scorpions fans left the venue after their band finished performing? Oh wait, hang on, Rainbow of course is involved in this, how could any of us forget that it is Rainbow that ‘failed’ here, just like they did elsewhere. According to Rainbow’s biggest distractor, Uwe Hornung. Ha ha ha ha, oh the irony of it all Uwe. Sing along now “Somewhere over the Rainbow, Uwe hides in his lair, somewhere in that lair a Rainbow just isn’t there”. Not too bad eh? All things considered, I would probably get nailed for copyright breach of the tune, and even some of the lyrics. At least it may give Uwe something to sing to help him get to sleep, better than counting sheep. On a positive note regarding Enya, I have her early albums, three of them. The Celts, as the first album is known for its film soundtrack connection is my favourite. Not as polished as in the production as the second and third albums and not as mournful at times. You know the Irish lament thing, it can get a little toooo sorrowful and dreary at times. I wouldn’t lump Enya in with BN at all. At least Enya is from that part of the world and has the background of her upbringing and family to boot. If you know what I mean. Cheers.
September 14th, 2026 at 08:10@ 65 I have the album Sunburst Finish (Be Bop Deluxe) and I have always liked it. And still today.
September 14th, 2026 at 14:33It’s an immaculate album.
September 14th, 2026 at 15:23Usually one buys a ticket to see the headliner.
Of course its possible that Ritchie didnt know the Scorps d blow them out of the water?
Ritchie being a Germanyfreak must ve been easy to reach the scorps being Germans.
Did he ever
say something about Roths part in their history?
Them both having huge admiration for Hendrix and classical music must ve been enough for many hours of ralking about it. And beers of course.
Uwe s eclecticism is impressive.
Walking like a music Encyclopedia and considering the rest of his content, his profession….
Does Uwe have more than one brain to stall all that data?
September 14th, 2026 at 18:24#67 MacGregor:
Ahahahah Mac, your digs at our lawyer crack me up!
But I have to put in a good word for him:
In the 1980s (setting aside AC/DC, and with bands like Queen and Deep Purple on hiatus and Iron Maiden not yet household names) the Scorpions were the most famous European hard rock band on the planet, at least until 1983; they weathered the shockwave of punk and cemented their fame with the celebrated albums Love at First Sting and 1990’s Crazy World, thanks to the massive power ballads that were staples of MTV and FM radio.
September 14th, 2026 at 20:11@ 71- indeed Fla76, the Scorpions were rather popular and influential too. It wouldn’t be the first or last time a support act upstages the main one. Also not the first time a support act and the main act are poles apart in their music. Sometimes it doesn’t matter and all is good, other times it can be a match made in hell, to put it mildly. Personally speaking I don’t really get into the support band at concerts. It does depend who it is of course, but most times it doesn’t matter to me. Sometimes there can be a nice surprise, other times I wait outside the venue with other punters for the grand finale. Cheers.
September 14th, 2026 at 22:21I find the Scorpions lovably hammy, I’m not waving their flag, they’ve always been a bit cringe.
Did Ritchie know the Scorpions in 1982? Depends on whether you think he played Donnington in 1980 …
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4g89bpfpjUJ81QhGb-D4dVTJ7rRfVnchV3tTnIvbX5CbOIOvOoMtHTnA&s=10
I mean maybe he didn’t, just like NASA never went to the moon? More recently, there is a certain tendency here to conduct discussions fact-free, uninformed opinions are as good as informed ones just as long as they are proclaimed loudly enough, stimmt’s, Herr MacGregor? What happened that you stopped arguing – you used to be quite good at it I recall – in your posts here and instead now yell exasperatedly from your box on the market square, a change of medication perhaps?
Anyway, more trivia, Rudolf Schenker was a Purple fan and first saw them 1970 in Berlin. And his (second) son is called Ritchie with a “t”.
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/2245169950/de/foto/berlin-germany-rudolf-schenker-ritchie-tatyana-sazonova-at-the-palazzo-dinner-show-premiere-at.jpg?s=612×612&w=gi&k=20&c=6xLLOqNa-8EV-jwysMuv7wZBq_zFS-kK2Wflv_vEoPY=
https://youtu.be/wBlXcg6wOOk
Ps: As of late, discussions here develop along the following script:
A: This and this happened.
B: No, it didn’t.
A: Yes it did, look at the facts here.
B: I don’t like your facts and therefore don’t believe them. And I don’t need any facts for my opinion, so there!
A dialectic tie then, so I guess it didn’t happen, just like the moon landing didn’t. 😂
PS: Isn’t it reassuring to know that our newly found discussion conduct finally mirrors modern social media culture so closely? Anything goes. All opinions are facts, all facts opinions or misleading lies. Alternative facts are just as good as science. History doesn’t count because it happened in the past and we’re so enraged about the present.
If you listen to fools, the mob rules.
September 14th, 2026 at 22:57Yo,
@71…
You could probably say the same with UFO, where not only did they make some excellent recordings, they were well received & approached the top-tier in the circus.
Micheal Schenker appears to be the glue here, & he’s a great hard-rock guitarist.
Ciao !
September 14th, 2026 at 23:08Of course I’ve been to gigs just for the opening act! I forced myself to one of the last gigs AC/DC did with Bon Scott because a then in Germany still comparatively unknown band by the strange name of Judas Priest opened for them. It was my first chance to see Auntie Roberta and her boys live. I ignored Foreigner’s corporate image (and left somewhat arrogantly – I was young – early in their set) to see my beloved Blue Öyster Cult opening for them. I trudged to Dortmund for Robert Halford solo who opened for Iron Maiden (freshly reunified with Bruce Dickinson) even though I have a hard time telling Iron Maiden songs (and album covers!) apart, they all sound similar to me. Openers Whitesnake have lured me to Status Quo and Alice Cooper gigs as the main acts at times when I had seen both only recently.
I’m kind of baffled, what other alternatives do you have if you want to see a band that as yet cannot afford a main act tour of the same scale? Or are you then supposed to not see them at all? Some kind of fans you all are!
September 15th, 2026 at 10:56Gregster, ze Scörps beat intermittently Germanic ÜFÖ at one thing: consistency/reliability.
It helps in the conquest of a foreign market if your showpiece circus pony/guitarist doesn’t go AWOL all the time. Schenker’s not so stellar career (given his unquestionable talent) is fairly and squarely his fault and his fault alone. He is his own worst enemy.
The Scorpions had line-up changes (six drummers, four bassists, three lead guitarists), lost key players, but the central tandem of Rudolf and Klaus always kept on chugging and was never endangered. Michael never found a foil like that.
September 15th, 2026 at 11:19Not to nag but Ritchie has been known to be a person who keeps to himself a lot.
So I d not be surprised if that was the case at Donnington as well.
Thx for the Scorps singing in German and the temple of the king.
September 15th, 2026 at 14:19I have no idea how Ritchie truly rates the Scorps, he is a Germanophile and he has said he likes their sense of melody. Bad English of a singer has never deterred him (or Ronnie Romero would have never gotten the job), so Klaus Meine is safe and you’re guess is as good as mine. When touring with the Scorps he always asked them for soccer tournaments and according to Rudolf Schenker the Scorpions team always won. Like most Brits, Ritchie likely hasn’t fully mastered the art of the penalty shoot yet. 🤣
Certainly, at least for early Scorps I would say that if you like Ritchie as a guitarist, then you’ll probbaly not consider Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth utter crap, they all come from a similar school of playing (which Ritchie co-invented; both Uli, a Hendrix fan, and Michael, a Leslie West diehard, were roughly a decade younger than Ritchie). I’d be surprised if Ritchie didn’t rate Uli as a guitarist, but I’ve never heard him say anything about him or Michael Schenker while both Michael and Uli have said favorable things about Ritchie. Apparently, Klaus Meine and Ronnie Dio got along like a house on fire too, midget solidarity I guess. 😈
In Germany at least, if you liked Purple and Rainbow in the 70s, you could be expected to have a soft spot for Schenker era UFO and Roth era Scorps too. They were the first successful German hard rock exports.
September 15th, 2026 at 23:17It seems that the Scorpions made it much bigger in the USA from 1983, according to this article. Annoying Van Halen as the second billing band at the outdoor festival. Then the breakthrough commercially in 1984. We don’t want to let ‘facts’ get in the way of supposition now do we? As in ‘presuming’ that as the Scorpions were big in 1984, therefore they would have been the main drawcard compared to Rainbow in 1982 at the MSG concerts. Hypothetical hogwash? Perhaps. I also cannot find any comments from Scorpion fans about leaving the venue after the Scorpions performed. Everyone is saying that it was a great night overall, no matter which band they follow. Mind you, none of those fans would have a chip on their shoulder about Rainbow, would they? Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/scorpions-love-at-first-sting
Another little bit of info from the Rainbow and Scorpions 1982 MSG concerts. The bands celebrating after a show below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc9e7IhPKRO/
September 15th, 2026 at 23:58@ 75- of course you can do that Uwe, Germany is a gateway for international concerts in’t it. Or it was at least back in the day. How many artists continually tour throughout your country, zillions. Plus you don’t have to travel a lot to all these concerts, compared to other folk in other countries. Your folk have been ‘spoilt’ in that regard and I am not saying that in a spiteful way at all. As that saying goes, “the agony of choice”. Cheers.
September 16th, 2026 at 00:12The connection with musicians once playing for Ritchie went on and on.
Where in this timeline did they, according to RJ Dio ask him to replace Klaus?
Dio didnt like the move out of respect for Klaus.
Or did they just wanted him to do what Dokken did on the demo s while Klaus was in recovery?
September 16th, 2026 at 18:48Where did I write that Scorpions fans left in droves before Rainbow played? Nine out of ten Scorpions fans would listen to Ritchie any day, they’re all fishing from the same pond.
Fact is, however, that the Scorps were #10 with their 1982 album in the Billboard 200 and Rainbow were twenty rungs lower at #30 with theirs and that the Scorpions album turned gold for sales in 1982 and the Rainbow one didn’t – not to this day even. So the Scorps sold 500.000 copies in 1982 and Rainbow didn’t nor at any point after, can we agree on that? Moreover, the Scorps doubled their sales of their 1982 album in 1983 and 84, achieving platinum while Rainbow once again didn’t. Facts are facts. What makes it so hard for you to accept them? Some kind of a belief that in the early 80s Ritchie and his outfit must have by celestial rule been more popular than a bunch of guys from Hannover, Germany, quite a few years younger than him? If so, prove it to me with facts and figures, don’t just mumble in the background.
It’s not that unusual by the way: Billy Squier was higher up in the US charts than Queen when he opened for them on the Hot Space Tour in 1982 (ensuring a semblance of drawing power on a tour that went so disastrously for Queen it was the last one they would ever conduct in the US while Freddie lived) and DC’s WS were selling more copies of 1987/Serpens Albus (8x platinum) than Mötley Crüe with their then current album Girls, Girls, Girls (4x platinum) when he opened for them. It happens.
It strikes me as somewhat naïve to think that getting halls sold out plays no role when main acts and openers are paired by promoters, it’s a business you know? Unless you want to pay an outrageous amount of money to the main act for them to let you be their opener, arguing that you will also draw fans of your own is your best bet getting picked as an opener.
September 16th, 2026 at 23:41#82 Uwe:
Billy Squier was the perfect archetype of the hard-pop artist: focused on exactly what was needed to succeed in those years:
songwriting, melody, stage presence, and the right amount of distortion.
What Gary Moore didn’t quite manage to pull off (partly due to his background) Billy Squier, Brian Adams and Richard Marx did.
September 17th, 2026 at 14:21I saw Billy Squier give WS a hard time on their Come & Get It Tour. They struggled and managed in the end to go down as well as he did, but just barely. He was an excellent frontman, great range, always had stadium-geared chorus parts and his band was shit-hot. I knew like three or four songs from him when I saw him opening (from my trip to Detroit before where he was powerplayed by the Motorcity radio stations), but the way he very nearly upstaged an excellent live band like Marsden/Moody era WS became etched in my memory.
And then he had the nerve to approach both Paicey and Lordy to join his band, cocky skinny bastard! 🤣
The thing with Gary Moore was, anything he did, he always tried a little too hard. That speaks for an excellent work ethos, but good pop & rock also requires ease of delivery and a certain slapdash attitude – Gary wasn’t the type for that which is why being in Thin Lizzy drove him mad.
September 17th, 2026 at 21:23Yo,
@63 stated…qt 1.”This BE BOP DE LUXE sounds indeed like something I missed out on for decades”.
R1. These guys made some great music, but perhaps the fact that a constant changing line-up affected their successes ?…EMI suggested Bass & Drum replacements were needed following the debut album “Axe Victim”, & so the next album “Futurama” ( My personal favourite) had Charlie Tumahai on Bass & backing vocals, & Simon Fox on the drums, & though recording was completed, the addition of Andy Clarke followed that allowed a better sounding touring unit. *There’s lots of piano played by Bill Nelson on Futurama, so the addition of Andy was a bonus…This line-up completed their most successful album “Sunburst Finish”, that also included Bill’s little brother on saxophone…And with “Modern Music” the line-up was expanded further for touring duties with a 2nd guitarist.
Apparently during the “Drastic Plastic” recording session, Bill “gave the bird” to EMI & their pressures, & decided to retire the band, though they did successfully tour the record, & then Bill gradually faded away with his own solo career, where he produces his own material to this day…And most of it is quite good too imo.
Ciao !
September 17th, 2026 at 23:51“Futurama”, “Sunburst Finish”, and “Modern Music”, what a run! Three outstanding albums in a row.
First and fifth LPs also quite good, though “Drastic Plastic” was very different-sounding.
Think Bill had planned to record “Plastic” as a solo LP, but was persuaded to use the band by the record label? IIRC Be-Bop Deluxe might have continued even after that, but when Charlie Tumahai’s work visa expired Bill decided not to delay going solo any longer.
BBD were yet another example of musicians not being very business-minded. Read somewhere that EMI paid the royalties for ALL their albums to the lineup which performed only on the first one. No-one had thought to update the contract when the first band were sacked and replaced by Tumahai and Fox, with the later addition of Clarke.
The result was that the later “classic” lineup never received the majority of the money they earned. The situation didn’t come to light until many years later, and the label washed their hands of responsibility, IIRC, saying that Bill had waited too long to bring the matter to their attention.
September 18th, 2026 at 09:09FUTURAMA as a word first came to my attention seeing that sci fi cartoon on tv .
The one eyed woman with the purple- or was it pink hair whose voice was done by, melt melt, ex Married with Children actress Kathy Sagal.
September 18th, 2026 at 19:53#86 Skippy:
Futurama and Dratic Platistic are my favorites—an incredible band with a 100% 70s sound. In some ways, they don’t even strike me as a British band, given the way they blend funky and jazz elements with touches of disco, proto-punk, and rock, ranging from the Beatles to the Bee Gees.
Almost impossible to categorize, to my ears, at least, because of the sheer number of things I hear in it.
September 18th, 2026 at 22:43brilliant band
Yo,
@86…
Awesome post ! And I’m glad you wrote it out instead of myself ha-ha ! And I completely agree with your comments on “Drastic Plastic”…I’m quite sure they recorded this one in France…The tunes sound much-much better in the live arena for sure.
I do have a copy of the book “Bill Nelson & Be Bop Deluxe”, but haven’t as yet got around to reading it, I’m sure it will reveal more about the royalty issue.
*(I suggest that the legal issues are unclear I imagine, especially since the album credits reveal it all, though who knows ?…Sadly, Charlie passed-away in the 1990’s when a re-union tour was shaping-up).
I’m pretty sure that Cherry Records released around 10-years ago many of these albums in 6-CD box-set format, that sold-out very quickly, & the live album “Live in the Air Age” is a great representative work of the band…
And like Robin Trower, there’s a 3-CD set that has all five studio albums within it, but the best option imo is the “Original Album Series” from WB’s, where all 5 x studio albums come in mini LP packages. And there’s also a BBC set too, with multiple CD’s & a DVD featuring them playing live on TV, via the “Old Grey Whistle Test” etc etc.
There was certainly a BBD revival around 2010 onwards, when year-for-year, more & more material appeared. Leiber Uwe has acquired the bulk of these sets, as we discussed these a few years ago.
Ciao !
September 19th, 2026 at 01:59EMI‘s clerical blunder (I don’t believe there was any intention behind it, they did pay royalties after all, just to the wrong people) turned out well in the end, first they let Bill participate in their 2011 about to be released remastered boxed set of Be Bop’s complete work
https://www.discogs.com/release/2625411-Be-Bop-Deluxe-Futurist-Manifesto-The-Harvest-Years-1974-1978
+ an undisclosed amount paid directly to him, then a few years later they sold him – one presumes: guilt-ridden 😈 – their complete Be Bop catalog including the master tapes which would form the basis of Cherry Red’s Prog sublabel Esoteric Records’ more recent very successful remixed and remastered multi CD boxed sets of the individual editions of the six Be Bop albums – including the Live in the Air Age one: https://www.loudersound.com/news/be-bop-deluxe-announce-15-disc-live-in-the-air-age-set – plus the Bill Nelson’s Red Noise one. The sales of those likely were better than any vinyl ones in the 70s and Bill for the first time had full artistic control. He became debt free because of it (his cottage industry of a multitude of solo albums incessantly released never made any money for him).
Those Be Bop boxed sets under his supervision are treasure troves and highly recommended, both from a sonic and a historical viewpoint.
Around the 40th Anniversary of Machine Head, Bill reviewed the album for Classic Rock stating at the beginning that he had never been a Deep Purple fan nor followed much what they did, only to then deliver the best MH review I’ve ever read, really appreciative and, now I wanna use that word too!, sagacious.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+nelson+review+of+deep+purple+machine+head&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-de&client=safari&iga=1&utm_campaign=safari_share_1
Unfortunately it does not seem to be available on the web, time for a reprint by Louder Sound!
September 19th, 2026 at 16:58Uwe and others
Thx for let me go dig deep and back in other waters and older THS threads I appearantly skipped or just missed out on.
September 20th, 2026 at 15:23Yeah, Be-Bop Deluxe (or Be Bop Deluxe, they were never consistent in how they wrote themselves) is my (not so) secret love. It’s the kind of style of music I would like to play myself (nearly no one else does, they are basically unknown in Germany where to my knowledge they never toured), more so than DP music even. It’s between Rock, Pop, Prog, Glam & New Wave, right up my alley and a little similar to what The Cars did on the other side of the Atlantic.
September 20th, 2026 at 20:03@90 Uwe – it may have worked out well for Bill in the end, and come at an opportune moment, too, since in latter years he has had his share of medical problems. Including hearing loss which precludes him from playing live.
But for other members, not so well. Charlie Tumahai died at a young age without receiving his share. If he HAD been receiving all his rightful royalties… Who knows, perhaps he could have afforded better representation and been able to renew his work visa, rather than returning to obscurity in New Zealand.
Simon Fox, as well, only lived for a short time after Esoteric’s BBD reissues, after decades of having missed out on his share of the proceeds.
September 21st, 2026 at 17:33Skippie, I remember the almost weekly NME and Melody Maker reports in the mid to latish 70s about Charlie’s shaky immigrant status and lack of a permanent work permit (the Musicians’ Union was being excruciatingly difficult) well, but while it hovered over him like a dark cloud and also gave Bill Nelson (who loved Charlie’s outgoing stage persona in a band of withdrawn introverts like BBD) considerable headaches, he was ultimately never forced to leave the UK (marrying an English Rose helped …). He only left of his own volition as late as 1985 – after having first arrived in the UK in 1974 as a member of an Australian band
https://youtu.be/mGLvOALADXU
which would later on morph/downscale into Little River Band (from “Mississippi” to “Little River”, geddit?! 🤣)
https://youtu.be/-GHv0euvt6A
(Charlie not featured in this early line-up) –
to head back to his native NZ.
There he had a national rock star status of sorts, eventually joining local heroes and considerable sellers Herbs (a band with a Māori and reggae background).
https://youtu.be/MT4iB8WM2eg
co-penning their NZ top ten hit (which he also sang, he always had a good voice)
https://youtu.be/XDmZRvJBS-E
and gaining an award for it + becoming an activist for Māori affairs. That sounds like a good, “rich” (if perhaps not necessarily overtly wealthy) life.
When he died of a heart attack in 1993 out of the blue (he did enjoy a notoriously hedonistic rock star life style with BBD, the only member who did, so he likely more than dallied with cocaine which is never a good thing for your heart), it was big news in NZ, there was even a TV documentary about him eventually. Tragic as his extremely early death was, I don’t think that by then he had any inclination to leave NZ again. (And why would you? It’s a blessed place on not only Middle Earth, less dry than the adjacent other, slightly larger island too.)
That said, I’m sure he would have appreciated the royalties! He did like to spend money apparently. 😎
Great, quirky, yet tasteful bass player, very much an influence on my playing. Also the only guy with a bunch of stiffies like BBD who could move his butt! 😂
https://youtu.be/eF1NfXHenws
(Everyone else in BBD had a tendency to look like Kraftwerk with guitars, Bill Nelson wasn’t much of a shapes-throwing performer to put it mildly.)
Now that was a small tribute to a great (and rather tall) Māori man who never ever played with Purple 🙈 on the hallowed pages of the HS, thanks for bearing with me, but he sure deserves it!
PS: Waaaaaiiiit!!! Liebe “Stay On Topic”-Central Site Agency, there is a connection after all, he played the Sunbury Music Festival in Jan 1974 in Australia which was headed by this Limey Dan-Dan-Daaan-band, name escapes me for a moment … 🤗 with his then outfit Mississippi:
https://audioculture.co.nz/content/images/9904/modal_MISSISSIPPI-Sunbury-Pop-Festival-January-1974–L-R-Derek-Pellicci_-Harvey-James_-Charlie-Tumahai_-Beeb-Birtles_-Graeham-Goble.jpg
September 22nd, 2026 at 13:49Didn’t we have Sunbury as a topic just now in our constant evolving theme genesis? The Dan-Dan-Daan guitarist just released something about it …
https://youtu.be/TFoDs-w9xOg
Apparently, he wrote another riff on his D and G string in the key of G minor (Gregster’s cherished minority opinion: Bb Major) that was not Dan-Dan-Daan, but rather DaDaDaDaan DaDaDaDaDaan …
https://youtu.be/UVnKosu_Qng
Who says our threads don’t meet their logical conclusion? They all end in Blackmore. 😂
September 23rd, 2026 at 13:12Yo,
@94…
Thanks for the update & tribute for Charlie Tumahai, I’m sure it’s appreciated !
It’s unclear if any bands from NZ made any impacts on the world stage, but here’s link to the debut album from Mi-Sex, called “Graffiti Crimes”, & these guys were great, certainly imo a better outfit than INXS with more consistent quality albums, but regretfully were retired during the making their 5th album ( in the 1980’s ) even though they were in-the-charts with a few singles from it. It’s unclear what happened here, the trail goes cold…
( I followed these guys up recently, as I always loved their 4th album “Where do they go”, as it was a regular on my playlist way-back-when, only do discover that it’s never been released on CD, even though it was successful… Qobuz thankfully had an acceptable version available for streaming, (probably an LP rip to my ears), so I recorded all 4 x 1980’s albums & remastered via my digital recorder. They sound most excellent ).
That said, the band reformed circa 2015 with a new line-up, & delivered a self produced album “Not from Here” that’s incredible. It remains an earworm, & like “Splat”.
Anyhow, the debut album linked here sounds fantastic, stands the test-of-time, has humour & really good tunes. Well worth downloading & making your own.
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-JS8QD8EIGaqbCV-N5_gOgO0FwPI1fes
This is simply a hint of the music made from the land where Charlie was born, & that good music can be found everywhere 🙂 !
Ciao !
September 23rd, 2026 at 23:31I never held the view that NZ and/or Australia rock and pop is irrelevant, you’ve always had good stuff. AC/DC is a lamentable exception from the rule, but the Bee Gees, Split Enz, Sad Café, Skyhooks, Midnight Oil and Crowded House as well as Kylie and Delta to name but a few more than make up for it.
You guys have a chip on your shoulder for no good reason at all.
September 24th, 2026 at 16:13I do remember the Mi-Sex band and many others. I went to the Narara open air festival 1983, Very hot and dry that year. So many of the well known Aussie and NZ acts were there. The following years festival was a mixture of Australian and international bands, very wet and windy. Eurythmics, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, Taking Heads and Def Leppard. Def Leppard performed in horrible rain from my memory, I don’t think they finished their set and the remaining bands were cancelled after their appearance. Not that I was worried about that, not a fan at all and many people stayed in their rain sodden tents as by Sunday evening everyone had had enough of the mud, rain etc. I remember Talking Heads sounding great, and The Pretenders too. Cheers.
https://australianmusichistory.com/narara-music-festival-1983/
September 24th, 2026 at 23:21Yo,
@97…qt.”You guys have a chip on your shoulder for no good reason at all”.
I suggest that this is true for most people around the world, where it’s assumed that the home-grown product is inferior…eg. Look at the the US-of-A & the response to the so-called “British invasion”, which was basically the Brits playing their own interpretation of music that originated State-side…
Furthermore, Jimi Hendrix had to acquire success in the UK & Europe before being accepted back home…
And our beloved Mk-I DP had massive success State-side with Hush, & no interest whatsoever back home…
*(You perhaps forgot to mention Died Pretty & say Flash & the Pan in your list lol)!
And on it goes lol !
Ciao !
September 25th, 2026 at 01:20Gregg
I love MK1, espescially the much overlooked gem of the third.
I know of the reasons they gave but I think the band was really doing great.
Imagine, 3 albums in such a short timespan, we got used to bands not releasing new stuff and accepted it.
Make 1 long CD of the first 3 and then say what you think.
October 20th, 2026 at 12:07