Whitesnake – The Purple Album

And lo…  a Whitesnake 2015 (David Coverdale on vocals, Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra on guitars, Michael Devin on bass and Tommy Aldridge on drums) romp through 15 golden oldies from Mk 3 and Mk 4, entitled The Purple Album in May.
It’s hard not to imagine this was inspired by his talks with Blackmore last year, and it will certainly keep the internet chatterboards going for some time. And while the reaction in our in-tray today to the teaser video for Stormbringer has been largely negative, perversely I quite liked it.  Fairly grungy approach, and I think the vocal register worked in that context.  I’d rather this than a half hearted recreation of the original, and it has more life than Gillan’s lacklustre covers album (Gillan’s Inn) of a few years back.  For me the last few Whitesnake originals have been largely treading water, and at least here we get some strong material.  Mind you, I’d get the guitarist to lay off the beans before they hit the road if the vid is anything to go by!
With it still being strongly rumoured that Ritchie is pursuing what is now a Purple Rainbows approach on stage sometime this summer (in between Blackmore’s Night gigs) it’ll be interesting to see who wins the battle of the monster tributes.  The sad thing is that if you’d put Blackmore into this new album, it would have been properly explosive and we’d all be wetting our trousers today.
Pre-order details, track lists and formats to follow.
Thanks to Tom Dixon and Tim Summers.

Our original news story.

purple wednesday?

David Coverdale, rearranging.

What’s David Coverdale up to?  Teasing the pants off everyone apparently! We normally avoid the wilder outskirts of the rumour mill here at DTB, but promised news of a new Coverdale project any day has set the purple part of t’interweb abuzz this week.  And the word is that his new album is in fact a ten-plus track set of Deep Purple cover versions (from his time with the band…  mind you he did used to cover Black Night in his semi-pro days, so you never know).  In the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine he talks about getting to the point of re-listening to his Purple work and REARRANGING (our caps. Well Tim’s really) some of it too. A date of Feb 25th is shown on the online teaser trailer (which is more akin to a hollywood movie launch) which the singer has put online, so we expect more news to follow on Wednesday.  Someone pointed out that their new guitarist Joel Hoekstra has painted his Gibson metallic purple too… You can watch that short trailer video on Demitry M Epstein’s site (go on, give his server stats a spike!) – http://dmme.net/whitesnake-reveal-a-new-records-date/ Talking of Classic Rock, they’ve gone heavy on Deep Purple in the current edition of the magazine, with a somewhat misleadingly In Rock themed front cover.  The excuse (not that they need one) is a survey of bands neglected by the rock’n roll hall of fame, and for Deep Purple they have spoken to many of the group getting them to argue the case.  It’s mostly sound-bite stuff (and in Ritchie’s case vintage soundbites) but some interesting snippets in there, and yet another excuse to raid the Getty photo archives. The issue also confirms our story of some months back about the Coverdale / Blackmore purple project, with Coverdale commenting: “After several discussions with Ritchie’s manager I felt that I didn’t share their vision of how they saw the project. I sincerely wished them well and respectfully withdrew.”

Today’s mystery object?

Researching for the upcoming Machine Head book (more details…), the subject of that box of tricks gaffer-taped to the top of Jon’s Hammond organ for a number of years cropped up again.  So for anyone not familiar with the Maestro (rather than the maestro’s!) Ring Modulator, first heard by most fans on the Made In Japan (and ringed on this great photo, taken at the Rainbow Theatre at the end of June 1972), here’s a special DTB featurette.

VIP package

Joe Lynn Turner makes a rare solo UK tour this April, seven shows billed as “an evening with”.  Quite a good spread of shows too from Edinburgh, Belfast and London and some smaller places in between.  Curious to know exactly what the VIP package goodies are our nearest venue, the The Diamond in Sutton In Ashfield…!  Perhaps the barmaid winks at you and you get a fresh beermat?  Thanks to Tim Summers and others for the flyer.

Don’t misquote me on this…

Latest piece of fab merch from the official band store.  Can you spot the mistake?  That’s right, it should be a washing machine NOT a motorcycle!  Oh, and someone might like to check back to the lyrics to the song.  They’re on the album sleeve…

Next up, the Stormbringer shirt “Dark cloud gathering, breaking the day, Stormbringer coming, just watch yourself…”

More dust biting

Glenn has announced that his latest band California Breed has folded.  Only formed in February last year, the CD didn’t really stir people up as Black Country’s debut had, and having to tour supporting Slash kind of made it hard for some fans to go and see them (I mean I like a good GH show but you’d have to pay me to see Slash!).  Jason Bonham had already pulled out even before the shows took place. This seems to have been the key to it all, as the band had already got their support shows booked. Glenn has commented: “On June 2, Jason left California Breed. We had just gone on sale with tickets for the USA and Europe tours. I felt it necessary to commit to these shows, as we had recorded an album and we needed to play and promote our work. Joey C came in and played drums and helped us out on tour and I am supremely grateful for this. What I couldn’t commit to was a second album. California Breed was Jason, Andrew Watt and myself – and there was no way moving forward without all three original members.”

Thanks to Tom Dixon for the heads up.  The CD is still available at DTB online shop, before it disappears into the growing list of GH titles which cannot be found for love or money.

Oh well that’s the bad news. Any good news?  Well, the Russians are firing Sarah Brightman into space…

Bolin Radio Special

Tommy Bolin fans will be interested in a two hour radio special on the man and his music coming soon.

It is the work of Denise Faithful and 102.7 FM KYGT Radio in Idaho Springs, Colorado, who have put together a commercial free radio documentary on the guitarist. Contributions come from Kenny Passarelli, Stanley Sheldon, Johnnie Bolin, Glenn Hughes and additional guests are promised. The show goes out on Friday February 6th, from 10:00am -1:00pm Central Standard Time (US).  But you can listen in on the web for free by using the link below (maybe go the the station site first for more details).  Thanks to Trace Keane, who also sent us the photo above of Kenny and Johnnie during the recording.

http://streema.com/radios/play/30279

The F word

Kim Fowley has died aged 75. His mercurial career has covered so many aspects of the music business obituary writers are bound to focus in his most commercial era managing (inventing?) The Runaways. Here is his description of the band’s personalities: “Cherie Currie. Cherry bomb. Sex kitten. Brigitte Bardot in a trailer park. Joan Jett. The rock ‘n’ roll heart, street tough brunette. Sandy West. Miss California with a joint in her mouth and a chip on her shoulder. Lita Ford. The love child of Sophia Loren and Ritchie Blackmore. You do not wanna fuck with Lita.”

And of course Kim had worked with Blackmore. Back in the 60s when independent producer Derek Lawrence was not needed in the studio by Joe Meek, he chanced his arm with raucous Brit pop and instro singles designed to sell in America. He borrowed Ritchie (and other session guys), and put them in the studio with Kim in 1964, where they belted out Satan’s Holiday / Earthshaker, and called the “group” The Lancasters. These two sub four minute gems (that’s both sides together, neither track quite clocks up two minutes!) are mad. The a-side rocks up Hall Of The Mountain King, the flip has recently been included on a CD of Rare West Coast Surf Instrumentals. And the original is very collectable; the single fetches three figures on a good day. Kim and Ritchie get a co-credit on the label as you can see. I borrowed a mint copy off Derek Lawrence to dub from when we helped put together the collection of early Blackmore rarities on RPM (Take It) and was bowled over the hear it for the first time. Shame in some ways they couldn’t have done more with the partnership. But nice to leave behind gems like this.

Who’s the bassist in the black?

Well we know who the bassist is obviously, but couldn’t resist the header!  It’s Ritchie Blackmore, caught by a 15 year old fan at the side of the stage with his instamatic back in April 1971.  Apart from the fact that Blackmore has made a swop with Roger for the Precision bass, the extra interest is that the band are playing at the Montreux Casino just 8 months before they would return there with plans to record an album on this very same stage. I think it’s one of the earliest shots of Ritchie with a bass, there are a couple of Ritchie playing bass with Alex Harvey from 1974.

Jean-Lou who took the shot can’t recall too much about the show (and to be fair my recollections of first seeing the band that same year are a little limited), but he has hunted out his original photographs so we can get hi-res scans which will appear in the upcoming Machine Head book Fire In The Sky later this year.  If there are any other fans out there who saw the band at the time, or went to the infamous Zappa show in December, please do get in touch.

Thanks also to Stephen Clare.  Here’s a recent pic of him doing the same thing, 40 something years on; not sure about the pink finish though!

That’s why Mums go to…

Brilliant project going on in Iceland called ROK, to document their rock and pop scene over the years.  It includes pages on the many visiting bands too, including one on Deep Purple.  Lots of cuttings and material, all of it written in Icelandic but fun to look at nevertheless.  Here’s a cutting from Morgunbladid, June 3. 1971.  Thanks to Tonny Steenhagen.

http://icelandicmusicmuseum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/162-deep-purple-in-iceland.html