114K on the clock

While researching the Machine Head book one of the rabbit holes we spent far too long down were the band’s personal cars.  It was determined that Jon drove himself down to Montreux in his careworn 1969 Jaguar E-Type 2+2.  Given the iconic status of the E Type we figured it ought to be easy to find out what happened to this but despite the efforts of the owners club who reckoned it had not been scrapped, it took some finding.  When we did, the current owner, who was restoring it, didn’t have a clue about this part of the car’s history.  He did however tell us it would be for sale eventually, and has now chosen to put it up for auction.  It looks effing wonderful as you can see above (or tease yourself at the auction site below, the link is at the bottom). 

Above – you can hardly get better provenance! He has restored it back to black, it was cream when Jon owned it (which I think I would prefer, although the temptation to spray it purple must be high.).  The sellers Evoke Classics are really bigging this up due to the immaculate restoration job and unless you have six figures burning a hole in your back pocket (maybe you sold Matt Hancock a load of dodgy napkins a while back) don’t even go there!  If of course you do, we expect a visit!   A “my other vehicle is the Rolling Stones Mobile” sticker would also go a treat on the back window.

The sale was spotted by Gary Critcher.  Photos courtesy Evoke. Extra research Stephen Clare.

1969 Jaguar Series 2 E-Type 2+2

Jon Lord-tastic

It’s something of a bumper month for Jon Lord fans with four recent or forthcoming vinyl reissues hitting the shops (well if you can find one – as I write HMV are playing tag with their landlords over rent at some of their stores, and threatening to close some).

First up there’s a Concerto vinyl box. Matthew Kean, who says going to his local indie store now feels like more like a record buying trip in the 80s there is so much vinyl in there, spotted this. It packages up the 2010 special edition audio as a triple LP set.  The split is Arnold’s opening piece on side 1, Deep Purple’s set on two sides, then the Concerto itself over remaining three sides. Which as Matt points out is shorter running times than the Rainbow On Stage set we all moaned about at the time. Well those of us old enough to remember those heady days. Still, it ought to mean good audio quality. The cover seems to be as the original EMI sleeve, but many sellers are getting it muddled up and showing the more recent sleeve art. It’s on Parlophone.

Meanwhile Ear Music are promoting their reissues of the three Jon Lord “solo” albums Gemini Suite, Continuo and Sarabande by commissioning new (or in millenial speak, ‘reimagined’) versions of the sleeve art. Windows is tweaked so you can see Jon’s eyes behind the shades, Sarabande gets a strange new drawing which sort of copies the old one but is more 3D looking (and ends up looking like a Whitesnake cover), while for Gemini they’ve gone all out with a brand new illustration which is very well executed but seems a strange thing to do fifty years after the original. Still it now becomes a great pub quiz question, which Jon Lord solo album has had the most cover revamps? By my reckoning it’s the fifth vinyl edition with a different sleeve (new and old show above).

There is no new music, but they have gone back to the quarter inch vinyl master tapes for two of them. Although so did the CD editions from Purple Records way back, so it’s a case of how they mastered them I guess as to whether we will spot much change.  The packaging is revamped too, and Simon has revisited his sleeve notes for two of them, but I’m not sure how many people will feel the need unless they lack earlier reissues.  Still nice to see Jon’s catalogue being treated with some respect and care again as we reach the fiftieth anniversary of his original Concerto this month.  My thanks to Ear Music, Matthew Kean and Tom Dixon for his help.

You can check out our archived Concerto original discography at the old website:

http://www.deep-purple.net/discography/concerto/disconcerto.htm

Concerto Five O

You see, a nice poster design says it all, no need to add anything. Well done whoever designed this and carefully referenced the original typography and colouring.Tickets are on sale now, goodness knows what a plane ticket to Quebec costs but it must be tempting. Thanks to Nicholas Houle, programme co-ordinator.

 

Dance Coming

Paice Ashton Lord‘s only studio album Malice In Wonderland is getting reissued by Ear / Edel soon.  The music includes the original album and eight bonus tracks from the abandoned follow-up sessions.  At the time of the old Purple Records CD edition back in 2001 this was long thought lost, but chatting with Sandra Ashton one day, she said Tony had been playing his cassette only a few days earlier…  Jon and Ian had given him permission to take the tapes an maybe make his own album from them, but it never happened.  The CD comes in a digipak with a nice booklet featuring lots of unseen photographs from the rehearsal sessions in London at the end of 1976 and band images from the publicity shoot at Jon’s house (check out the atmospheric shot of Jon from the BBC recording above).  Sleeve notes are by Simon (these have been revised, updated and tweaked he promises!).  It’s certainly one of the most played albums from the Purple family here at DTB towers. Despite sounding very unfashionable when it first appeared it hasn’t really dated at all. So if you missed it before, then we do recommend it. Just sad that neither Tony or Jon are not around any more to pester for new quotes…

Ear are also reissuing the original Ian Gillan and The Javelins CD this month to back-up the recent follow up album.  This is musically the same but with revised artwork and they have gone with one of Simon’s designs for the sleeve. It will also appear on vinyl.

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!”

Remembering Jon

There was a fascinating concert in Athens, Greece the other week (Nov 16) done as a tribute to Jon Lord’s music. With a big orchestra backing, they performed the three movements of “Concerto…”, “Sarabande” and an encore of “Hush”, “Lazy” and “Child In Time”.  In some ways this points the way to how Deep Purple and Jon might be part of the world’s musical heritage in decades to come.  You can read a review of it on the Greek rock site rockpages (in English!). My thanks to Sakis Nikas for the details.  And what a fab ticket design too!

 

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.

Shy (but not retiring)

David Coverdale appears to have backtracked on his early retirement plans; perhaps he’s seen the rubbish interest rates offering on annuities these days! I confess I’d missed the story, so may not have been alone in this. We’ll wait and see how this manifests itself tour / LP wise next year.
Meanwhile Here I Go Again has been targeted by two advertising agencies this last few months. Nescafé in the UK have been playing it under footage of a long-haired young bloke sauntering about, getting a coffee bean shower and doing the hoola hoop at a bus stop.

In America WalMart have gone to town a bit using the song in a more interactive way, using young kids to each sing a line of the song before the real thing slides in underneath to end the short commercial. It is very nicely done.

So, that should be David’s Xmas shopping taken care of! All these cover versions made me hanker for a listen to the real thing, so here they go again in one of the last of the good old days courtesy EMI. Then I got all miserable realising that half this lot are no longer with us…

Dylan Blue

We posted an item about a French perfume launch which used Deep Purple’s Child In Time as their backing music not long ago, and now Versace have raided the band’s back-catalogue as well.  Quite whether Jon Lord would ever have imagined a section from his Concerto For Group and Orchestra being used to promote men’s fragrance is hard to know,  but whoever came up with the idea certainly earned their fee, as it fits really well.  As with the way of these things, the company have treated this like some sort of new Hollywood blockbuster with long cuts, directors versions and goodness knows what else, so I’m unsure how it will work as a 30 second TV advert.  Nor can I find any reference to the music whatsoever on Versace’s long-winded self-congratulatory puff pieces on their web site.
They forked out for everyone’s go to homoerotic photographer Bruce Weber to film it, who has obliged with lingering monochrome clips of fit guys rolling around in wet t-shirts or less, so one suspects this may be a post-watershed commercial if it gets shown.  Still £66 is little enough to pay for 100ml of perfumed alcohol if you’re going to end up looking like that I guess!

http://www.perfumeanorak.com/versace-dylan-exclusively-available-harrods

Some wag (hello Tim!) suggested that we see what other products Deep Purple tunes might suit, but the results were largely unprintable.  If you have any to add to the list let us know!  Strange Kind Of Woman for a Henry Moore sculpture exhibitions?  Kentucky Woman for a KFC recruitment ad?  Hard Road for the local tarmac surfacing consultants…

Jon Lord in print

Trond Strøm has put together a book of his photographs of Jon Lord’s concert at Nidaros Cathedral in Norway back in May 2010. It is available in a number of editions and page sizes to order as a print on demand only title, with nearly sixty photographs across 46 pages. This is all explained on the order site which is at:

http://jonlord.trondjs.com/?page_id=507

Here is one of the images by Trond from the show.  He is at pains to explain the camera in the press picture above is not the one he used at the gig…!

The show was issued as a web only film which we previewed on the site in 2013.

https://darkerthanblue.wordpress.com/deep-purple-musicians-news/jon-lord/trondheim-experiment/