Bernie Tormé

Sad to learn that Bernie Tormé has lost his battle with Pneumonia.  He died on Sunday 17th. Bernie of course featured in arguably the classic Gillan era, and cut the albums Mr. Universe, Glory Road and Future Shock (both of which were top three releases) and sneaked onto a bit of Double Trouble. Few who witnessed those album tours will forget them. Certainly to me they were some of the most enjoyable post-Purple live shows thanks to their anarchic energy which derived in no small part from Bernie’s own Punk era career dating back to his days playing at the Vortex Club. Bernie had numerous post-Gillan projects (including a trio with John McCoy for a time) and was always busy; his last solo album came out in 2018.

The photo below shows his guitars on stage in 2014 before a special concert for rock promoters Mundell Music…

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Hellboy, meet Ritchie Blackmore…

A big fan of the first two Hellboy films, once the creative team were dropped for the third film (shot in London and due here in April) and Ron Perlman turned it down, it’s hard to know if it can recapture the spirit. Still, the second trailer rocks with a clever update of Smoke On The Water featured throughout which is pretty nifty!  It’s been a while since Purple got to figure in a soundtrack, Children Of Men was the last I recall seeing (Hush), but whether Smoke is just for the trailer or will feature in the film we don’t know.  As its also starring Ian McShane and Milla Jovovich we’ll probably jog down to see it on a big screen…

Thanks to Kenny Brown for the heads up.

Rock, meet Classic

Here’s the flyer for the Rock Meets Classic event in Switzerland this week, sent by Denis Zuercher. The concept is celebrating a tenth anniversary this year, and while I’ve not checked back IG must have done a fair few of them!

Concerto fifty

Marc van der Velden  tells us that on Saturday 23rd February Jon’s Concerto For Group & Orchestra (fifty years old this year, see photo below!) was performed in the Markant, Uden (Netherlands). “It was a unique concert experience, performed by the renowned 110-strong orchestra of the Royal Harmony Sainte Cécile and The Group. After The Group had opened with some Deep Purple classics including Wring That Neck, Black Night and Highway Star, after a short break the complete Concerto was performed. The evening ended with Smoke On The Water. After two hours it was unfortunately over, but it was magnificent!”

Smoke stories

Don’t forget to check our Smoke On The Water Stories page, where a growing list of short stories, links and videos devoted to the song in popular culture, music and TV resides. F1 driver Sev Vettel trying the riff? A German military band playing it for their departing government minister?  Ian Gillan mixing it with Johnny Cash?  Ideal for the coffee break!  And do send us your contributions.

CD of fame

We covered the shemozzle surrounding Deep Purple’s elevation to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 (“I’m not going if he’s going” etc.), but missed this nice little collectable, a compilation CD featuring the five nominated artists.  The cover is great, would have made a nice LP. I don’t know what the tracks were apart from I assume Smoke On The Water. My thanks to Pericle for the scan. Can’t he tell me the tracks? No, he’s kept it mint ‘n sealed!  Does it not list them on the back? No!

On the drums

Exciting news that IAN PAICE is heading up this year’s Buddy Rich Memorial Concerts. The shows take place at Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club in London from May 20th to 25th 2019. There are two shows each evening. The details on their site are a bit confusing, but Ian Paice will be part of the actual band alongside Gregg Potter, so play all the shows. There will be a string of guests but these have not yet been confirmed. Tickets are from £35 – £55.
Ian has always cited Buddy as a big inspiration in taking up the drums, so it should be a good evening. Bookings are already being taken at

https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/performances/view/5180-buddy-rich-big-band-ft-ian-paice-cathy-rich-gregg-potter

Many of us will have fond memories of Ian’s solo spot at the Concerto concerts in 1999 and would like to see him do more in this area. In the meantime here’s an interesting short chat from Ian about Buddy Rich recorded in 2012 for an earlier memorial event by Rhythm Magazine.

Thanks to Mark Maddock for the heads up, I don’t do much Facebook! Mind you if Zuckerberg would take $8 off me a year and in return agree not to spy on my computer then I’d pay up…

Sharp suit

Who is the dude in the sharp suit? It’s Otis Redding. What’s he doing? Trying to get tickets for an Episode Six concert by the look of it!  We were looking for the release date of (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay recently, and hadn’t realised it was only issued after his early death in 1967.  But there were some promo photos and one of them showed him looking at a this great poster showing upcoming concerts.

I like an archive hunt so went looking about. The poster suggested it was The Upper Cut Club, and sure enough there was such a place on Woodgrange Road in London. The name? It was opened in December 1966 by boxer Billy Walker, who with others ploughed money into converting this former East End skating rink into a music night club.  The opening week was to die for, with The Who, The Animals, Jimmy Hendrix (sic) (Boxing Day afternoon, 5/-!), Pretty Things, Spencer Davis Group and more.  Otis himself played there on March 18th the following year when this snap was taken for the NME, and Episode Six were there the night before.

The club itself apparently suffered by being in an out of the way spot, and didn’t get the crowds needed. It turned into a bingo venue after twelve months. The building has survived and is now marked out by one of those blue plaques. Thanks also to Tonny Steenhagen.

On display

Have we shown this on the site before?  A couple of people were discussing it recently as one turned up for sale, so I though it was worth a look. Basically it’s a large in-store display item for the Made In Europe album release. It’s printed on corrugated card and cut out around the logo. Main record shops were sent one of these each to staple to the wall along with a few sleeves. It’s quite large too, and I remember trying to get it on the bus after I managed to get the local Virgin Records shop to part with it before anyone else got their hands on it!  Because they were printing it onto quite a crude surface, the dot resolution was quite high but it does make a stand out piece of memorabilia (the image here is off the web so a bit low fi).  I don’t remember cut out card pieces like this for many Deep Purple albums, except for Come Taste The Band. EMI did a large thick card version of the glass from the cover for that. We don’t have one in the archive (though I do know a shop owner who has one, and said I can have it once he empties his store room. I’m still waiting Barry!).  Thanks to Tonny and Pericle.

Right To The Top

David Coverdale is celebrating the 35th anniversary of Slide It In with a slew of editions to suit everyone. Rhino are issuing a 6CD version which bulks out the original 1984 UK and US mixes with “unreleased live and studio recordings, music videos, concert footage, and a new interview with founder and lead singer, David Coverdale…” and a book. So you get remixes and alternate versions of every track.
This is entitled The Ultimate Special Edition. If that’s a stretch, then Rhino will also put out a 2LP / 2CD with both mixes, and a single CD of the US mix.
I’ve already bought the record about eight times (including that lovely original Japanese vinyl edition – see below) so might hang fire as the last CD edition from 2009 was more than enough for these ears. I generally only bother with the U.S. mixes anyway. But the hard core can start saving as it comes

.

And it pips anything Deep Purple did to mark their 50th!
Thanks to John Tucker for the heads up.