Vinyl Guide

‘The Vinyl Guide’, a podcast for fans and collectors of vinyl records, interviewed Ian Gillan recently about his records, his time with Black Sabbath, his avoidance of nostalgia and the history and future of the Deep Purple. Ian says they have dates next year and confirms that they have talked about another studio album. He also mentioned that if and when DP get around to actually finishing, his retirement plans include … solo albums and tours! Thanks to Tim Summers for spotting this, and if you fancy a listen the link is below. Not sure how the current set sits alongside the “avoidance of nostalgia” mind you!

http://www.thevinylguide.com/episodes/ep092-the-long-goodbye-with-ian-gillan-of-deep-purple

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More Glenn

Black Country Communion (see below) also get hefty coverage (and the cover story) in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine (October)) and via a tie-up with their label Mascot, there’s a ‘best of’ cover mount CD as well which acts as a good taster if you’ve not bought the earlier albums. Thanks to Tom Dixon for the info.

The black crows circle

The fourth Black Country Communion album is due around Sept 22nd on both CD and vinyl (thanks to Tonny Steenhagen for the info.) From the taster track studio video I found on the Ultimate Guitar site (Link below), it seems to be more of the same, and just as Zeppy too (check Joe’s solo out!). So if you were up for it before, you’ll not be disappointed. Glenn delivers a solid performance as always but I’m not sure what all this hard work actually adds to the pantheon. It all starts the build up to the tour which reaches us in January, let’s hope it’s more of a band thing than the last one which came over to me as Joe Bonamassa plus guests.
Title? BCCIV.
Actually that’s probably meant to be some sort of a phoenix on the front, sorry crows. Glenn is interviewed in this months Record Collector magazine too.

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/upcoming_releases/black_country_communion_is_back_with_first_new_music_in_4_years.html

Here’s five discs for ya!

I guess it makes sense to mark the occasion, even if I don’t see any mention that it’s the 30th anniversary of the seminal 1987 Whitesnake album. Thirty years ago.
Anyhow DC is pushing the boat out with a monster five disc set. The catch is if you bought previous editions (the 25th anniversary edition for example!) you will have a fair chunk of this already, and although the mastering is new I’m not really certain what they could add to previous CD versions (and it sounded pretty effing powerful even back on vinyl!) So it’s make your mind up time: you get the album, a 12 track CD of live recordings from the album tour and potentially of interest on CD3, a disc of album demos. Disc four rounds up the zillions of 12″ and alternate versions, mixes and radio edits which confused collectors so much back in the day, and the videos are on disc 5. I guess at the right price it may be worth upgrading, it’ll be interesting to hear what the new to CD stuff (marked *) is like, though a 2CD set of the rarities might have been a nice guesture.
It’s easy to forget what a phenomena all this was in America at the time, and just how many zillion units it all sold. And that production sound on David’s voice can still send shivers down the spine on the best cuts.
Thanks to Tom Dixon for the gen.  Track list below the search montage.

WHITESNAKE “1987”: SUPER DELUXE EDITION

4CD/DVD Track Listing

Disc One: Original Album 2017 Remaster
1.“Still Of The Night”
2.“Give Me All Your Love”
3.“Bad Boys”
4.“Is This Love”
5.“Here I Go Again 87”
6.“Straight For The Heart”
7.“Looking For Love”
8.“Children Of The Night”
9.“You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again”
10.“Crying In The Rain”
11.“Don’t Turn Away”

Disc Two: Snakeskin Boots [Live On Tour 1987-88]
1.“Bad Boys/Children Of The Night” *
2.“Slide It In” *
3.“Slow An’ Easy” *
4.“Here I Go Again” *
5.“Guilty Of Love” *
6.“Is This Love” *
7.“Love Ain’t No Stranger” *
8.Guitar Solo – Adrian and Vivian *
9.“Crying In The Rain” *
10.“Still Of The Night” *
11.“Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City” *
12.“Give Me All Your Love” *

Disc Three: 87 Evolutions [Demos and Rehearsals]
1.“Still Of The Night” *
2.“Give Me All Your Love” *
3.“Bad Boys” *
4.“Is This Love” *
5.“Straight For the Heart” *
6.“Looking For Love” *
7.“Children Of The Night” *
8.“You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again” *
9.“Crying In The Rain” *
10.“Don’t Turn Away” *
11.“Crying In The Rain” (Lil’ Mountain Alternate Take Ruff Mix) *

Disc Four: 87 Versions [2017 Remixes]
1.“Still Of The Night” – Remix *
2.“Is This Love” – Remix *
3.“Give Me All Your Love” – Remix *
4.“Here I Go Again 87” – Remix *
5.“Standing In The Shadows” – 1987 Versions, Japanese Mini-Album
6.“Looking For Love” – 1987 Versions, Japanese Mini-Album
7.“You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again” – 1987 Versions, Japanese Mini-Album
8.“Need Your Love So Bad” – 1987 Versions, Japanese Mini-Album
9.“Here I Go Again” – Radio Mix
10.“Give Me All Your Love” – Single Version

DVD
1.“Still Of The Night” – Music Video, Restored and Remixed in 5.1
2.“Here I Go Again 87” – Music Video, Restored and Remixed in 5.1
3.“Is This Love” – Music Video, Restored and Remixed in 5.1
4.“Give Me All Your Love” – Music Video, Restored and Remixed in 5.1
5.Documentary about the making of 1987 Album *
6.“Here I Go Again” – Purplesnake Video Jam *
7.“Crying In The Rain” – 1987 Tour Video Bootleg *
8.Band Intros – 1987 Tour Video Bootleg *
9.“Still Of The Night” – 1987 Tour Video Bootleg *

Bonnet biography on sale

The publishers are now taking pre-orders for Steve Wright’s exhaustive  Graham Bonnet biography The Story Behind The Shades, with a September delivery date confirmed. Anyone who orders ahead of then from here gets a bit of a discount too.  There is a regular softback, 176 pages (plus 160 rare photos and 170 items of memorabilia!), and also a signed copy in a deluxe slipcase with a laminate which is exclusive to the publisher’s online store. Details of the editions on their site.  The Rainbow saga is included, and there is a nice forward from Purple’s Don Airey too.

Graham’s band have a new drummer (who actually joined for the UK tour late last year) and a new guitarist, but did bring in three members of his original 1967 group for the one-off encore at Skegness last month.  There is a new studio album in progress, a live set from 2016 in Italy out on CD and DVD, and he will be guesting with Michael Schenker in the UK later this year. Incredibly Graham got to see Deep Purple for the first time ever the other night and met up with his old mates Roger and Don afterwards (first time in 37 years!), posting a selfie we’ll show below.

U.S. tour set list spoiler

The double-header American tour (dates on the site) kicked off last Saturday, and finds Deep Purple clipping back the set a bit to allow for Alice Cooper (and their crew, and Edgar Winter). They have also dropped some of the new album and the show includes just two numbers from Infinite, one as the first encore. It’s hard to know how much of an issue this is as the tour is more ‘three classic bands’ sort of evening out, but dropping Birds Of Prey is a shame and we hope this gets brought back when they return to Scandinavia and Europe in November. One report says they did rehearse Woman From Tokyo for the US leg but not seen it logged yet. Anyhow here’s the set so far, look away now if you want it to stay a surprise!

Highway Star / Fireball / Strange Kind Of Woman / Contact Lost / Uncommon Man / Lazy / The Surprising / Don Airey Solo / Perfect Strangers / Space Trucking / Smoke On The Water. ENCORE Back To Bedlam / Hush

Thanks to Tim Summers and others. One U.S. site lists the dates along with the exact number of unsold tickets! So we know that as of now there are just 391 left for the show in Atlanta, but 1660 for the mad looking open air Jones Beach Theatre in New York State…

It’s Arte

That German broadcast of Deep Purple’s current tour from Hellfest is finally on line, you can check it out via the link below.  Thanks to Tim Summers for the info. Really well filmed and a pretty decent performance, and great to see Paice back on top form too.

http://www.arte.tv/de/videos/076475-000-A/deep-purple-beim-hellfest-2017

C’mon, let’s go…

If Galaxy Quest is one of your rainy Sunday film treats, you may enjoy the trailer/s for a new 2017 US Sci-fi parody series called The Orville.  You may even recognise one of the Machine Head classics used as the music for the first one!  Thanks to Karl-Heinz Baier for the heads up. Will certainly be waiting for a DVD release (unless of course BBC2 could find a gap in between perpetual repeats of Dad’s Army to squeeze it in?).

A Fire In The Sky

No, not a story about the upcoming Machine Head book of that name, but the title of a new Deep Purple US compilation (though we do wonder where they got the idea!) due in September, most likely to tie in with the band’s tour there.  It’s the first extensive collection for America in a good few years (the Rhino box set being the last biggie I remember), but from the looks of it they’re a bit short on ideas and there isn’t one rare or unissued track across 3CDs (though this does of course mean we can gaze on from afar and leave wallets untroubled.) Two of the discs take the story from 1968 to 1976, but backwards (so track one is off Come Taste, track twenty six is Hush!), the third covers the reunion in 16 tracks. Also backwards.
On top if this there is a stand alone CD set covering the hit singles, half of which are the often weird US radio edits. Plus the immortal Child In Time Part 1. These have just about (it would take me hours to check!) all been curio bonus tracks on reissues and compilations in Europe before. Again, also programmed backwards!
For vinyl lovers they are also putting it out as a SIX album set, which will test the resolve of many collectors; imagine the shipping alone! Not sure about the sleeve, it does kind of remind me of those neat off the wall Warner Brothers mail order compilations they used to offer in the 1970s; I’d probably like it more if they’d used a proper logo. They probably had their orders…  Thanks to Mark Maddock for the info.

South America

Five Deep Purple shows over in South America in December 2017 if you fancy a bit of a pre-Christmas break!  Added to our date list. Argentina, Brazil (three venues) and Chile.  Thanks to Mark Maddock.