And they said the download era would be good for music? Tom Dixon has just spotted a download only album of Metal tracks done in Lullaby fashion. It’s called “Hair Metal Goes Lullaby” by Jammy Jams.
I’ll post the link below, because if I had to go and look I’m not letting anyone else get out of it. The producers include a sing your baby to sleep version of Here I Go Again by Whitesnake…
So there I was writing an article about one of the long lost local Sheffield record shops when Neil Anderson, who writes a lot of books on local history, let me have this rare shot of the inside of Philip Cann (The Music Man!), which was one of my regular haunts in the early 1970s. And there in the racks sits Deep Purple In Rock. I have dated the photograph to 1972, so it can’t have been the copy I bought, but great to see the place again. If you’ve any interest in such history you can read the full piece on my album sleeve art blog here. Some people are having fun trying to see how many sleeves in the photo they can spot!
Where’s ex-Deputy Chief Constable John Stalker with his sun-blinds when you need him? And if it’s this hot here, what’s it going to be like Stateside when the Purple’s get stuck into recording next month?!
Graham with Rainbow – biography on the way, see below
NEW ALBUM – Ian Gillan has also confirmed Bob Ezrin as the producer of the next DP studio album in an upbeat interview with Geoff Barton for Classic Rock magazine (who ran the story about Ezrin from this site and credited us). He explains their thinking thus: “We’re looking for one of those old-pro type approaches where you have guidance and a great sound. He came up to see us and talk it through and everyone fell in love with him.” Start date for the recording which will take place in Nashville (Dolly Parton on backing vox?) is June 23. with a six week studio booking.
Steve Morse was talking to Record Collector recently and said while IG may have spent the entire Spanish writing session week talking about football, the rest of the band actually got an album’s worth of music demos laid down. These will form the basis of the recording sessions, with Gillan having had the time in between to get vocal and lyric ideas together. So writing on the plane over then!
MACHINE HEAD TRIBUTE – Some details of the upcoming Machine Head tribute are slipping out. Metallica have mentioned it while talking about the Dio tribute project (which they also hope to help with). “We were asked if we’d contribute to the anniversary of ‘Machine Head’ – we can’t turn that down. We’re circling the Dio and Purple catalogues and hopefully we’ll come up with something that is worthy of these wonderful men.”
Joe Bonamassa has confirmed that he’s laid down a version of Lazy for the album, with Jimmy Barnes on vocals.
Meanwhile Polish band Panteon will be playing the whole of Made In Japan live at a special tribute show for the 40th anniversary of that album on Aug 17. in Warsaw; thanks to Adam Panasiuk for the heads up.
As for the anniversary edition of Machine Head itself, this has now gone back to September release and we still don’t know what will be on it. However some filming for a documentary has been going on, with Claude Nobs going on camera recently.
VINTAGE PHOTO SETS – plans for two posh sets of real vintage Deep Purple photos are being finalised, from 1976 and 1970. We’ll send details out to DTB people soon but I’ve seen test versions and they look amazing.
S&M and VINYL – no, not a new Fetish corner, but a vinyl reissue of the Slaves & Masters album is upcoming (though the album did come out on vinyl originally). Let’s hope the label has improved their packaging, their work on Purpendicular was a bit skimpy. It’s on the DTBOnline store.
DEMON GIVER – Just hammering a live version of Demon’s Eye the other day and realised how similar the start of the track Ballad Of Mr. Giver by Ashton / Lord is to it.
FAULTY MONTREUX – That Live In Montreux triple album limited edition on purple glitter vinyl from Italy we flagged up some time ago? People tell me that it has a pressing fault, and repeats Maybe I’m A Leo twice at the expense of Rapture Of The Deep. Ouch. Someone didn’t check the test pressing properly, which with something as expensive and limited as this seems a bit much.
GLENN HUGHES – Black Country are planning to cut their third album we think in June, with a view to a November release. One of those rock and roll Allstars shows with Glenn Hughes guesting has gone out on FM, and finds Glenn doing a Cult track and Highway Star. A number of the proposed dates were pulled. Glenn himself had three UK show in May supported by Fish of all people. Andy Hardman says most of the Fish fans upped sticks and left at the London date once their hero had been on.
WHO CARES – Details are emerging of a compilation album (including some rarities) as a follow-up to Gillan and Tony Iommi’s charity single release of last year under the Who Cares banner. We’ve added the early track listing to the site here.
IAN PAICE – Will guest on a new CD by Jettblack out in June, titled Raining Rock. There is also promo footage about of him thrashing one of those limited edition signature kits on the web, as well as a lot of techie stuff about the specs. We’ve just been in touch with a guy who went to school with our Ian, and says he got a rollicking off his Aunt after IP practised his paradiddles on a brass vase she owned!
LORD SUTCH – There’s a new Lord Sutch & The Savages CD collection out; the usual early material with Blackmore’s contributions, and some later bits and bobs. Actually it looks like a re-release of the old EMI 18 track job to me but if you’ve not got anything from this era it’s worth a listen. It’s on the store.
GRAHAM BONNET – There is a proper authorised Graham Bonnet biography on the cards, which will cover his early career in detail, time with Rainbow and an even rockier spell with Schenker. It’s being assembled by Steve Wright who used to publish the fanzine Under The Bonnet. You can see a list of who has been interviewed on Graham’s website – www.bonnetrocks.com. The interviews cover most of his ex-band members from the local bands in Skegness, right up to Andy DeGilsomina from Lyraka and from every part of his career in-between just about, as well as a few producers too (producers eh? Martin Birch has refused point blank to talk about Machine Head for the Smoke book). Steve is trying to find anyone who went to see MSG on ‘that’ night at Sheffield Polytechnic (a warm up show to Reading) when things got out of control on stage (well got out anyway). If you were there and recall the events, or took photographs drop me a line and I’ll pass it on.
WHITESNAKE – Someone has got around to dissing the Whitesnake LE Bio at last, albeit a journalist who got his copy for free. Still, we look forward to being able to add said journalist’s description of Coverdale in the review as “Pigheaded” should we ever do an update. And hopefully the new book will be as useful as the old edition was when he needs to update the next set of Whitesnake reissue sleeve notes…
There are some more vinyl reissues scheduled for later this year and we’ll have details soon.
GILLAN – That reissue of Future Shock is being pressed at 45 rpm as a 2LP set. This is a recent development (well it’s been seen before but appears to be gaining ground again) to improve audio quality, though a bit of a blow to people like us whose deck is set at one speed. I have to take off the turntable and mess with the pulley to switch speed! There will be two editions, one is a regular gatefold, the other is done as a hardback book, which is quite pricey but limited to 1,000 copies. As I’ve done the sleeve notes for them, we’re getting a good price for the DTBOnline store where you can pre-order. Expected to ship in June.
COLIN TOWNS – has been touring the UK with an outfit called Blue Touch Paper during May. “…occasional suggestions of latter-day Weather Report and Frank Zappa in the more complex items. Overall, an expertly conceived and articulated series of compositions that hung together superbly as an evening of music full of engagement and appealing sonic surprises.” according to the Herald in Scotland.
ROGER GLOVER – A lot of the Tolo Martin / Roger Glover show in April in Italy is on the web. As for Deep Purple content, there was a sort of Mk 2 medley with Lazy, Mary Long and Highway Star, then Smoke for the encore.
RITCHIE BLACKMORE – The DVD of the bard in black’s most recent UK tour is ready for release at the end of June. It was filmed at the Blackmore’s Night show in York (Opera House 30 Sep. 2011), titled A Knight In York, and issued in multiple formats; DVD, Blueray, CD and triple vinyl limited editions. You can pre-order at the DTBOnline store. Blackmore’s Night have said they will not be touring for the rest of this year. There is a reason for this, but we’d better wait for an official announcement!
ROD EVANS – There is a documentary on the 1972 Bickershaw festival out on DVD. It was shot by Granada TV. Captain Beyond played the gig but sadly only a short clip of them appears in the film and it seems unlikely Granada saved the rest. But if you want to see what 70s festivals were like (and why I did my best to avoid them – though I do recall an all-nighter in Leeds at the Queen’s Hall if that counts! And recall it despite Lemmy offering us access to his stash) it’s said to be a good place to start. Roll on a DVD of the Buxton festival around the same time, with weather and conditions so bad Chuck Berry took one look out of the window of his limo as it climbed up into the mist via a the rutted hillside cattle track, and told his driver to turn round and drive him back home!
TOMMY BOLIN – Some confusion over the upcoming Bolin & Friends CD set Gypsy Soul, with the compilers telling people the 2CD edition was exclusive to Amazon. We checked with the label who say this may be true for America, but they’ll be issuing it properly in Europe, and with revamped and upgraded packaging as well. Again you can pre-order at the DTBOnline store. We’ll have a review of the music on the blog very soon.
RADIO 4 – Comedian / musician / etc. Tim Minchin picked a DP song as one of his Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 the other week, the first time a castaway has ever done so we think. “Well, there are so many great Deep Purple songs but this song is just ridiculously cool. It’s from the era where Richie Blackmore was playing guitar and Ian Gillan was singing and I, .. er, .. I just love it. It just rocks. It’s ridiculous. It’s called I’m Alone.” Mr. Minchin was also on The One Show recently where he said that the Gillan/Head JC Superstar was a major influence. He is touring a production of this in the UK at present. The day before, the same programme had a snippet of Black Night too… we’ll let James Bateman off for watching such quality TV as he knew someone on the show! It was almost me last year James, doing a piece on pre-war seaside photographers, but then some deprived inner-city folk rioted and all the regular strands (and myself) were dropped as too lightweight.
Radio 4 had two learned gents comparing Smoke On The Water to Mozart’s music on the show Key Matters recently. As you do.
CALIFORNIA JAM – the special photo biography book on perhaps Deep Purple’s most famous show is edging closer. We’ve opened a page on the blog here to keep people updated and there is also a special California Jam page on the publisher’s site. There you can register your interest, and will be kept up to date with progress, special offer information etc. One or two people have emailed to ask if we’re involved, and the answer is you bet. We’ve helped co-ordinate the project and done the text. I’m hoping we’ll be able to show some page layouts soon, they’re looking good. And we’re so excited about one very special person being involved – but have to keep quiet for the moment!
DTB COLLECTORS LIST – the new list is ready now. Ann has sent this out to our regulars but if you haven’t seen it then it can be downloaded as a PDF file from the DTB blog. Over 340 mostly one-off rarities from Deep Purple and family; CD, vinyl, printed material and more.
Thanks to everyone who has helped this newsletter, with special house points to Michalis Salahoris, Nigel Young, Tom Dixon, Matthew Kean and Stuart Hamilton.
Links corrected on that Cologne cover posting below! It was very hot and it had been a long day…
The publishers have caught us on the hop a little and gone live with the announcement of the California Jam book. You can read our page on this title here and follow a link to the publisher’s site to pre-register for updates and deals.
Another great rare magazine cover unearthed in Germany – see the full cover and story here.
There’s a live recording of Blackmore’s Night from last year in York due out. Full details on the site here.
Details of the planned Who Cares charity album involving rarities from Gillan and Iommi are being announced, read our story on the DTB Blog here.
There’s something about old tape reels boxes which sparks the archivist in me (it’s in the blood – my great Grandfather’s collections became the first Hull Museum). The batch on this shelf have been looked after for forty years by a former DJ and engineer who worked for a college radio station out in California. Long John Baldry… Chuck Berry… and Deep Purple?
As well as doing a radio show he also worked with one of the big local area sound companies Tychobrae (one of whose engineers later opened a studio where Mk 4 auditioned and rehearsed) and together with them recorded a few shows for airing locally, with the permission of the bands.
At the end of July 1971 a three band tour arrived in town and the DJ, Eliot, recorded them. His deal was that if the band’s cleared it, he could then air the tape on his show. The Faces wouldn’t play ball and asked for the tapes back (leaving Eliot $20 out of pocket for the cost!). Matthew’s Southern Comfort gave permission and so did Deep Purple.
The reels are of course the long lost Long Beach July 30. 1971 performance. Southern Comfort opened the show, with Deep Purple on second. Legend has it that they worked their socks off and gave The Faces something to think about. Even though the tour was in support of the newly issued Fireball album, the band only did one new track, the single Strange Kind Of Woman (just out on Warners and included on the new album). Speed King and Child In Time came either side and they ended with a lengthy Mandrake Root.
After some of the show was aired American bootleggers produced the Hard Road bootleg, and other titles since have used tracks (one even appeared officially albeit cleaned up off vinyl on the CD New Live & Rare) but we always wondered how the show came to be taped and hoped that someone might have kept the broadcast reels. And what’s more, there is also a stereo mix.
Eliot has dug back through his written archive. “My last radio show at KPPC FM was a 1-hr. show at midnight in early 1973. I’ve been going through my garage and found and old calendar book. This is what the show consisted of: It opened with Dr. John; Deep Purple live; Sunny Terry and Brownie McGee; Jimmy Hendrix doing Dolly Dagger. ..”
Sounds worth staying in for to me! Negotiations are going on to place the various bands he has (we wish him luck with Randles Island!) but we’re hoping a deal can be done to secure the Deep Purple reels for release (and for this reason we have not given out Eliot’s full name as we don’t want to pre-empt this).
While we’re looking at archives, there has been some progress on soundboard tapes of Mk 4 captured by an engineer including US and UK gigs. And that Mk 1 show from 1969 has also fickered into life again as well. We will try and bring you updates on those. Needless to say whether any of these will appear on CD soon is another matter, but we live in hope.
A copy of Shades Of Deep Purple fetched over £700 at an online auction the other week. Before we all dash to our record racks…
Up for sale was the first EMI pressing, with the yellow and silver on black Parlophone £ label. Which is rare I agree but even so. What seems to have driven this one up to such a high price was the condition; it looked like it had just been taken out of the factory. The cover (the back with the purple colour of course) was in absolutely stunning condition, with a lovely gloss on the front. The record itself looked unplayed.
Unusually there were still several bidders interested even as it climbed the £300+ mark. It reached nearly £400 and then one buyer slapped what must have seemed like a game sealing £600 bid on it, only to find two other buyers push it up another hundred pounds or so to the closing price in the last few minutes.
And before you ask yes we do have a copy in the archive, but it is not in anything like such great condition, with a couple of scuffs on one side of the disc and one or two of those crease marks which affect a lot of early laminated sleeves.
This auction was for a stereo copy; heaven knows what might have gone on were it the even rarer mono pressing.
My thanks to Tonny Steenhagen for flagging this up for me.
 | simon robinson on Shopping at Cann’s |
| simon robinson on Long Beach 71 |
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| simon robinson on Deep Purple • New Live & R… |
