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.

Extended play

Deep Purple are releasing Johnny’s Band from Infinite as an audio CD EP in early August.  It’s just the album version (a video has been out for some time) but to tempt collectors comes with a rehearsal jam and three live tracks (two oldies) listed as unreleased, but I’m not sure where from or when.  The cover looks like an old cast-off Gillan band offering!  Thanks to Marcin Zalewski for the notice.

Tracklist: Johnny’s Band (Album Version) / In & Out Jam (Rehearsal Recording) / Strange Kind of Woman / The Mule  / Hell to Pay (All Previously Unreleased)

On TV

UPDATE : Airing July 29th, see details people have posted in the comments below.

The fairly recent Deep Purple set at Hellfest 2017 was filmed and a one hour special will be aired on ARTE sometime this month (July). A few clips were shown already as part of a compilation. Get checking those TV guides! Thanks to Thomas Meyer.

Down Under

Glenn Hughes is doing his own Deep Purple tribute act later this year in Australia, and will do a full set of Purple songs. Dates announced so far are: September 20: State Theatre, Sydney; 24; Concert Hall, Perth; 29: Hamer Hall, Melbourne; October 1: Qpac, Brisbane. The band are fairly familiar to Glenn followers – Jeff Kollman on guitar, Lachy Doley keyboards, Pontus Engborg drums, all of whom have worked with Glenn on tour in the past. Thanks to Lutz Reinert for the news.

Rainbow set

Bit of a set list spoiler here for those who aren’t going to see Rainbow, so don’t go futher down the page if you don’t want to know!

On first glance it’s not that different to the 2016 tour but changes have been made.  Spotlight Kid / I Surrender / Mistreated / Since You Been Gone / Man on the Silver Mountain / Sixteenth Century Greensleeves / Soldier of Fortune / Perfect Strangers / Difficult to Cure / All Night Long / Child in Time / Stargazer / Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll

The set list has been changing too, with Black Night and Still I’m Sad in one show, Perfect Strangers dropped from another, and also the running order later on has been moved about. NOTE : Burn, SOTW and Temple of the King have also been aired at some shows according to Stephen Gillott.  Check out people’s thoughts on the show in the comment section below or add your own.

Gross

This great advert turned up recently, from one of the American music trade papers, bragging about the earnings of Deep Purple’s Perfect Strangers American tour back in 1985.  The tour run from January through to May (with breaks) and generated nearly $7 million in ticket sales, over half a million sold. It was later was recognised as the second biggest grossing tour by anyone in America that year.  And the UK got one show, which happens to be 32 years ago this week!

Off

Rainbow have had to pull the Manchester concert. Last week the Arena was saying shows would restart (and we reported this below) but clearly work is taking longer than hoped, and they will not now be able to reopen until September.  It’s probably too late to find an alternate venue.  Ticket holders are being refunded and we know some people who have had their refund already.  UPDATE – forgot to say, the refund also offers a discount on tickets for other shows to make up.

June 9th

Someone sent us this nice old promo 10X8 and reminded me it is Jon Lord’s birthday today, so a nice way to remember the old gimmer. It was taken back in 1969 at Mk 2’s very first photo shoot.  And it’s always nice to see him “at it” on stage, as in this nice pic taken on the final Mk 2 US tour in early 1973.  Thanks to Vince Chong.

Hard at work

Perhaps mindful of the comments on the three Rainbow shows in 2016, Ritchie and the band have been putting some serious time in for the shows later this month. As well as rehearsals back in America, they are having a week of production rehearsals in the UK immediately before the tour, and posting photos to prove it!  Thanks to Tim Summers for the info.  The show at Manchester Arena is going ahead, as are other gigs at the venue.

47th anniversary reprint!

What were you doing on June 5th forty-seven years ago?  Me I was probably trying to dodge flying board rubbers in double english (the teacher had this habit of lobbing them at high velocity in the vague direction of anyone he thought wasn’t paying attention…)
Some however were lucky enough to be in town picking up Deep Purple In Rock, released that day (or perhaps the single Black Night, issued at the same time.)
I was reminded of this only because the reprint of the book Deep Purple – Wait For The Ricochet is at last back in stock at the publishers.  Everyone who pre-ordered the reprint has had their copy shipped, but if you missed it first time round, now is your chance (but don’t dilly dally as a third of the stock has apparently shipped already.)

The book basically covers the entire build up from the first days of Mk 2 through the recording sessions for the first Mk 2 studio album and then the In Rock tour, an intense two year period, researched in remarkable detail, chock full of photos and memorabilia. From Jon Lord’s mum defending her lad in the Melody Maker, to Roger Glover’s hints for dying crushed velvet trousers green. From the location of the gig where Gillan was auditioned, to Ritchie shopping for strobe lights. From the In Rock engineer’s matter of fact description of Ritchie recording the guitar solo for Child In Time,  to Ian Gillan explaining the need for tight trousers to sing the vocals, it’s all here.  What’s more there is a discount on the retail price which is extended for the next two weeks if you order through the publisher’s shop. The links below will give you more information and page visuals.
And if you already have the book, celebrate like I am by playing a cut or two off the album later today (to get Liar Liar out of your brain if nothing else!).

link to shop
link to publisher’s pages about the book
reviews of the first edition