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!
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.
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.
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.
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
There’s a rare Roger Glover session due in the form of a guest spot on the new Alice Cooper album, out on July 28th. We do not know exactly what he gets to do, but hopefully it’s not just tamborine!* The album is out through Ear Music. Thanks to Mark Maddock for the info.
[* Answers on a postcard as to which this session was!]
Awful news from Manchester today. It’s a city which has always meant a lot to us at DTB. We go back regularly for a mooch and a culture fix at the galleries. We’ve seen Deep Purple (and others) at the Arena and were hoping to catch them there again later this year. Many of us will remember the destruction caused near by to the Corn Exchange during the IRA violence in 1996, and history since then demonstrates both the futility of this sort of action and how a city can recover. But to the people caught up in this attack last night that will be of very little comfort.
Some great shots of the Geneva concert on Saturday evening on the local paper’s website, click to see their gallery. Thanks to Denis Zuercher.
Us old stick in the muds will be tested come May 26th when Rainbow release two download only tracks via iTunes. They’ve done a re-recording of I Surrender with the current singer Ronnie Romero, and a new track, Land Of Hope And Glory. Both tracks are greyed out on iTunes right now, so you cannot get a preview listen but those in the know suggest the remake is more guitar heavy. Thanks to Tim Summers for the heads up, he says Ronnie has been hinting at this for some time now, and it makes a clever gee-up ahead of the live shows.
Nice set of memorabilia here for Saturday’s show in Geneva; the concert poster, a full page press advert (which would look good as a poster) and they even a special ticket design. Thanks to Denis Zuercher for sharing these with us. Guess where he will be Saturday evening!
 | simon robinson on June 9th |
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 | jean-paul marquis on June 9th |
| Leslie Hedger on June 9th |
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