Out and about

Ritchie Blackmore will be gathering up his ensemble for a half a dozen concerts near his US home state in late June. Tickets already on sale. Boxes available at some venues for $870! Back stalls a more affordable $40. Thanks to Vince Chong for the news. Ritchie has also posted a heartfelt response to the recent death of guitar innovator Duane Eddie who died recently, citing him as a primary influence during his early learning days (and how he once waited hours at the airport in London to try and get his autograph). You have to admire a man who said his greatest contribution to rock and roll was not singing!

Blackmore’s Night 2024

JUN 22 – Sherman Theater, Stroudsburg, PA
JUN 23 – Norwalk, CT
JUN 29 – Boston, MA
JUN 30 – Northampton, MA
JUL 05 + 06 – Red Bank, NJ

Let’s get physical

For people bemoaning the lack of a physical release for Portable Door (just me then, but I like to keep my run of singles going!), the next one is being issued as a 5″ CD or 12″ vinyl release in Europe albeit in what looks to be quite limited numbers on or around June 28th. JPC for example are only allowing 1 vinyl copy per customer. Thanks to Martin Ashberry for the info. No details of the other tracks.

Our art editor adds: Minus house points for that cheap’n nasty font used on the song title (you didn’t think to get IG to write these out?) but the art looks a bit better in colour.

Doors direct

YouTube says “this video contains content from earMUSIC, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds”. Never mind, try Edel’s official site instead (turn the vol down as it’s full of adverts. I mean DTB can’t afford the monthly fee but…):

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4E3MP5jIMT8

Purple kick off the slow build up to July with a short taster from the new album, Portable Door. And there’s the problem right away; short. They get into a very smart laid back groove at the end and then suddenly stop. I appreciate attention spans are limited amongst the younger gen, but most older DP fans are made of sterner stuff, shirley? Otherwise it’s spot the borrowings – Pictures of Home and No Laughing in Heaven have been suggested – and await the next morsel. Plus didn’t Doctor Strange invent the portable door back in the Sixties? July – New Dp album / Deadpool 3 / Despicable Me 4. I’d better start saving!

Singapore debut

DP will be risking one new song when they hit the road again in Singapore May 1st; as before they appreciate every other person in the audience will be posting video online during the show (is there a sadder hobby?) so don’t want to spoil things. Anyway IG has had a go at explaining the album title to everyone in a local newspaper/site article which Stephen Clare linked us through to.

https://www.straitstimes.com/life/entertainment/like-caged-lions-rockers-deep-purple-to-debut-new-song-in-singapore-their-only-concert-in-asia

And to save you doing the maths it’s £110 UK for tickets! That’s if you have any dosh left after the newly announced limited double vinyl picture disc or the even more limited edition signed “canvas” thingy.

Equals sign

Clear some more space on your shelf (you must have a box set that promised way more than it delivered somewhere that can move?). The new studio album from Deep Purple lands July 14th. See pack shot above for the wealthier out there (it’s 100euros plus) Titled Equals One (or =1), the regular vinyl / CD versions are 13 trackers, while the three 10″ vinyl extras have what look to be live versions of an extra 13 tracks from recent tours (which you assume will be reissued as a stand alone anon, this is Edel Records after all). There is also a clear vinyl 2LP but from a Germany mail order outlet only, who I think we have mentioned here before as an ethical alternative to you know who – https://www.jpc.de/

1. Show Me
2. A Bit On The Side
3. Sharp Shooter
4. Portable door
5. Old Fangled Thing
6. If I Were You
7. Pictures Of You
8. I’m Saying Nothin’
9. Lazy Sod
10. Now You’re Talkin’
11. No money to burn
12. I’ll Catch You
13. Bleeding Obvious

Thanks to Martin, Pericle and others for the info.

Tour 2024

We have finally got all the tour dates for the year logged on the page below, thanks to Lutz Reinert. Let us know of any changes or additions. NEW • North American and Canada dates now confirmed, with Yes as support. Thanks to Vince Chong ($180 poorer!)

Deep Purple & Co. Dates 2024

As chosen by…

DP grab a large chunk of Classic Rock issue 326 on the newsagent shelves now  (“ah, you like the loud music yes?” laughed the lady at the shop where I got my copy before breaking out into some air guitar!).  And rather than yet another Machine Head in depth special, they’ve tackled it a different way, approaching rock musicians from across the spectrum (and over 12 pages) to offer us their favourite DP track and why, interspersed with quotes from the three remaining Mk 2 members – and Glenn Hughes.  It does make for an interesting read for once, and great to see Al Jourgensen refusing to single out any one number from Machine Head and just cite the whole album!

There is an intro feature (“a triumph snatched from the flames of disaster”) and also a cursory review of the most recent box set, which is much kinder than most of the comments people have been sending DTB towers (as if it’s my fault!).  No new images whatsoever beyond the mug shots. All in all though, it’s a good start to the summer promotional campaign which is leading up to the new studio album now due in July.

Deep Purple equals

And here’s the flyer to go with the dates which also confirms the venues.

The design reminds me of my last visit to the cardio department!

Once more, with feeling

The Purple’s sashay around the UK in November promoting their new one. Dates are

Birmingham Nov 4th; London 5th; Leeds 7th; Manchester 9th; Glasgow 10th

Tickets on sale this Friday. Not dared to look up the prices. Assume usual venues and likely the new stadia at Manchester. If you cannot wait that long, they’re doing some French shows in June (or Australia in April if you have deeper pockets). Thanks to Tim Summers who has his eye on things.

All our yesterdays

50 years ago! Sounds printed their 1974 Albums of The Year chart (compiled from chart positions I think) in very early 1975, and as you can see from this cutting, Deep Purple sneaked into the top 50 at Number 46 with Burn. Now I rather like seeing stuff like this as it does put the band’s music into context, even though a peek at the rest of the chart doesn’t make for great reading. Still, at least they came out ahead of Peters And Lee! In the same magazine I also spotted this display advert.

These days if you want to learn music you nip on to YouTube and there are invariably any number of tutorials to follow. Back in the Seventies people did it old school with sheet music! Often transcribed by people at the music publishers from the record rather than be provided by the musicians, they weren’t always 100% correct (and the lyrics were sometimes suspect), but were often a good starting point. Some may recall Ritchie being given sheet music to sign, and him going through correcting them with a pen!
This display advert shows (alongside the typesetting skills of the Sounds ad department) the popular music books of 1974 (the advert again actually appeared in very early 1975), with Deep Purple’s Burn available for the princely sum of £2.75. So they weren’t cheap, mainly as royalties had to be paid on sales in the same way as records. And 10p extra for postage if you couldn’t get to the shop in London. Still at least no effing Bay City Rollers.