Good to see Glenn Hughes is on the ball, preparing to tour in celebration of Burn’s 50th anniversary, albeit only in sunny Spain so far. As sharper minds than us have pointed out (hi Tim), GH has in fact already played the bulk of the album on previous Remembering DP jaunts. Still he rarely disappoints live so should be a good night out. And maybe he will have a go at A200 to complete the set?! Thanks to Steve Clare for the flyer.
There have been so many releases based around the Phenomena project by Tom Galley I confess I struggle to keep up, especially with all the reissues thereof. But this latest CD might have a place on your shelf as it brings together all the tracks featuring Glenn Hughes on lead vocals (as the cover sticker clearly indicates!). So if you never investigated this is as good a chance as any. The disc is out now, and our thanks to Stuart Hamilton for the info.
Whitesnake have announced another set of reissues, we can do no better than to quote the publicity blurb: “(They) bring together some of their hardest-hitting songs of (their) multi-platinum career on The Rock Album, a new collection that features revisited, remixed and remastered versions of the group’s best rock songs. The album is the first release in the band’s “Red, White and Blues Trilogy,” a series of fresh, new collections organized by musical themes that will include: Love Songs (red), The Rock Album (white) and The Blues Album (blue). Pre-order ‘The Rock Album’ now on White Double Vinyl, CD and …” box set.
If Guinness Book of Records have a category for most recycled rock back catalogue then nominations are now closed. We are told that the “revisiting” includes new Hammond overdubs (on post-JL material) as well…
Glenn Hughes‘ first full track off the now delayed Dead Daisies album has been trailed on an animated YouTube vid – takes us back to those Old Great Whistle Test fillers! Great singing but not sure it has enough of a musical identity (or the visual theme is particularly appropriate at this time), although as with Purple you wouldn’t give away your best cut online! Talking of which, they’re promising another album teaser very shortly…
Thanks to Martin Ashberry and Tom Dixon
Ahead of Rock Candy magazine (below), Glenn cropped up on another magazine cover just before Christmas, the altogether much better looking Blues In Britain. Blues you say? That’s exactly what I asked when author Nicholas John first approached me about doing the feature. But he took a round about route, leaving aside the fairly well worn story of the bass player’s career in favour of an interview looking at Glenn’s relationship with blues music over the years. And when you learn that Glenn had a school band called The Hooker Lees, you just know the blues had to figure. Anyway a nice feature all round. So nice in fact, that Rock N Reel magazine have also run it in their January issue (albeit it dropping Glenn off the cover in favour of Peggy Seeger!).
Nicholas has also put the audio of the phone interview online at his YouTube channel, which you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i-jNfPFqh8
Coming right up to date, Glenn and his new project with The Dead Daisies is on the cusp as they say, and Mark Maddock spotted that they have posted a number of nicely shot videos online with clips from the sessions, etc. which give a good idea of what it will all sound like.
After a week or two of speculation it’s been confirmed that Glenn Hughes has joined rock band The Dead Daisies (a sort of collective supergroup formed in Australia back in 2013 who already featured ex-Whitesnake/GH guitarist Doug Aldrich). Glenn let the news slip during a live set at the Stonedeaf festival on August bank holiday weekend (which has had mixed reactions from fans, and was marred by long delays due to power issues). Glenn replaces both singer John Corabi and bassist Marco Mendoza in the band. A new track ‘Righteous Days’ has already been recorded, and can be heard here
It is planned that a new album will be completed later this year and touring in support of it will commence next year.
Glenn has also mentioned in a recent interview that another Black Country Communion album may possibly perhaps happen in 2021. Tim Summers.
Glenn Hughes’s promoters have been swift to reorganise his cancelled UK tour, with some dates rescheduled, and some alternatives where venues were not available. Dates are on the 2019 concert diary page. Thanks to Tim Summers.
Glenn Hughes has delayed the second leg of his “Plays Deep Purple” British tour due to begin on May 14th (tonight) as he needs medical treatment, but a statement from his website says that while this is urgent he should be back on the road again before very long, and the tour will be rescheduled. Anyone with tickets will probably be contacted by their agency. The latest is that some of the shows will be rescheduled for November, but some have had to be pulled as the venues are not available then. Best wishes from everyone here to Glenn for a speedy recovery.
It’s strange, as I was only watching a home made video of some amateur slides from the first show I ever saw him at in Sheffield back in 1974 just yesterday! A guy has found some old slides (I only took black and white myself, colour film was too expensive back then!) he took from what we would now call the mosh pit, so they’re a bit blurred but full of atmosphere and brought the excitement of that night right back to me for one. I was a rabid Mk 2 fan but those shows were blistering. Thanks to Mark Maddock for flagging this up for me and to Tim Summer for tour info.
UPDATE : John Tucker tells me the new CDs slack all the bonus tracks which turned up on previous editions, not sure why! UPDATE 2 : apparently there is a dispute over ownership.
The first three Phenomena albums, the brainchild of Tom Galley, have been reissued, I think this is the third time they’ve been re-released. But if you haven’t picked them up before, then now’s your chance. The first one features Glenn Hughes of course, alongside Cozy Powell, Mel Galley, Neil Murray, Don Airey and Ted McKenna, who all have mostly lengthy connections to the Purple family tree (Ted worked with Ian Gillan on his solo project). Glenn also turns up on Phenomena 2 but had jumped ship for the third disc. There are new sleeve notes and a remaster for all three discs. The press release does not give a label, but the music is now on iTunes.
CD suppliers? We tend to recommend https://www.keymailrecords.com these days, as they play fair with suppliers and everyone and can order most titles.
More concerts shaping up for 2019; one or two we have touched on before but this brings us up to date! All these are logged on our 2019 tour date page on the site.
The concerts include a lengthy tour by tribute outfit Purpendicular with Ian Paice manning the drum kit, lasting through much of February and March in Europe. Still nothing for the UK! Deep Purple by the way found a number of dates on their Mexican tour previously announced cancelled at the last minute. Donald Trump probably expected them to move up and invade America by the back door…
Ian Gillan is also filling in the break in Deep Purple touring (which as we noted before seems to have been scaled back this last couple of years) with a dozen or more shows under the Rock Meets Classic Tour heading (now in the tenth year), again all in Europe. Well all in Germany except one!
The continuation of the Glenn Hughes Does DP tour (inspired by Debbie Does Dallas?) is also booking up with the second leg of the UK during May, but also a couple of showcase gigs in New York in April and then in Germany in September. It has been suggested that Glenn tried to use the current Deep Purple typeface logo on his publicity but was told to stop, so his name is in this style instead!
Meanwhile David Coverdale gets the chance to road test his all-new titanium knee joints (we’re all getting to that age it seems) across America in April / May 2019 with whoever is in Whitesnake this week, before eight shows in Europe, of which the only one in the UK is the Download Donington festival in June.
Then last up is another batch of shows from Don Airey and Friends through March. I had heard that Roger Glover might be planning some shows as well but no news on that just yet.
A huge thank you to our special tour manager Lutz Reinart for bringing us up to speed as usual! Lutz was also a big help on the German edition of the Deep Purple In Rock history which is finally out.
Don’t read if you don’t want to know! Thanks to people who have nodded me over the Glenn Hughes tour list (we’ve not been able to make this tour ourselves). Quite a good selection, although I might have expected one or two more Come Taste songs. As a tour it is what it is, I kind of prefer his regular solo shows when we get more of a mix and the Purple songs come as part of that, but maybe this makes more sense commercially. 1400 attended the show in Bristol according to our man on the gate with the clicker.
Stormbringer / Might Just Take Your Life / Sail Away / Gettin’ Tighter / You Keep on Moving / You Fool No One / High Ball Shooter (someone tells me this was just interpolated!) / You Fool No One (reprise) / Mistreated / Smoke on the Water / Georgia on My Mind. Encore: Highway Star / Burn
By my ready reckoner that’s five from Burn, two (or one and a few bars) from Stormbringer, two from Come Taste and two from Machine Head!
Pic of the decorated Orange amps and speakers by Jeff Breis. Glenn has just announced a second batch of shows for May next year, so they must have gone well:
Holmfirth Picturedrome – May 14th
Edinburgh Queens Hall – 15th
Birmingham O2 Institute – 17th
Norwich UEA – 18th
St Albans Arena – 20th
Salisbury City Hall – 21st
Liverpool O2 Academy – 23rd
Nottingham Rock City – 24th
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| simon robinson on C5 show not about bargain… |
| simon robinson on Ian Paice home visit |
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