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Orlando, Florida
February 1997

Dear Friends,
Welcome to 1997, a year of gathering momentum. After some searching I find myself in...Orlando. Roger is here sharing a house with me and we're vibing for the next Purple album. Here we go again, but this time it's going to be something special, I feel it in the air.

Colin Hart (Deep Purple's tour manager) and Charlie Lewis (Production/Stage Manager) have both moved down here to Orlando, and with Steve Morse living just up the road we seem to have triangulated, with Roger in Connecticut together with Bruce Payne and our management office, and Jon,Ian P. and myself in England. I don't know what that means, but it seems geographically and spiritually more stable than the old rope bridge across the North Atlantic. We've made some good friends here and we shall start work with the whole band sometime in April or early May, when everyone dribbles back. We'll no doubt take a few weeks break after the South American tour, which looks like this at the moment.

Please check before you make plans in case of any late changes...these things happen! The only other date I know about is Daytona Europe, a 3 festival in Fulda, Germany. We perform on the 5th July. There is talk of other shows but no information as yet.

I got very depressed about the condition of Dreamcatcher until last week. It seemed to be losing its sparkle and every time Steve Morris and I did some work on it the damned thing got flatter. Steve has saved the day however (not for the first time). He brought the entire contents of his famous "Ocean Reach Studio" down to my house, and tweaked the e.q. until the fizz came back. I think the mixing process often does more harm than good. The 'monitor mixes' (i.e. the sound you have whilst recording) always sound better to me, even if they are a little rough around the edges. Anyway I think we have it now, well...very close, and I'm sorting out the distribution for a Summer (?) release, along with a video for Gunga Din - watch this space for updates.

The Christmas and New Year was spent with my family and friends. I indylged in the usual round of abandoned gluttony and the wintery pub nights were liberally sprinkled with ad hoc meetings of the committee for "Westworld U.D.I."

Thanks to all of you for helping me (and all of us) throught these last couple of years and thanks for the response to my page on the net. See you on the road somewhere. Have a very sexy 97.

Peace and Love