Leave it at that
While on tour in São Paulo, Brazil (the gig there was on April 22), Roger Glover spoke to Rock Hard Greece.
Among other things, he was asked about the possibility of announcing a “special” final show:
No, I don’t think that’s a great idea. I’ve never liked that idea. In fact, I don’t even like the idea of announcing the last show: ‘And here they are. This is their last show.’ I mean, the stress involved in that would be ridiculous. Where would it be? When would it be? For me, the ideal ending for Purple is that we just carry on until it stops. No announcement. We’re not gonna announce, ‘This is the last one.’ People would buy tickets: ‘Oh, this is the last one.’ It’s an exercise in making money. It’s not very good. I’ve never liked it. I’d rather go and play and play and play and play, and one day when something happens and one of us drops dead or gets really ill or whatever, [we say], ‘Well, that’s that.’ And leave it at that.
Yes, it ends rather abruptly, but that’s what we’ve got.
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.
Way to go, Roger. Die with your boots on!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ8FyShfnFc
June 1st, 2023 at 16:56Yes all that bullshit ‘Farewell’ tour rubbish certain artists milk is exactly that, a conn job for the filthy lucre. Then there is the ‘oh were back again’ tour & then the bullshit keeps happening. So yes Glover has that right idea if you are going to keep on rocking like Lemmy did for as long as you can. Although the sight of anyone dropping dead on stage has happened before, but we all hope it doesn’t actually happen in front of us. Cheers.
June 1st, 2023 at 22:01Well said Mr.Glover ! And I’m sure there’s still plenty of miles to cover further down-the-road first !
A new era has opened up, & new albums plus celebrations are to be had !
Peace !
June 2nd, 2023 at 00:13I like Roger, met him a couple times. Great guy, smart, erudite. But he’s wrong here. To say bringing in Ritchie to participate in a one-off album recording wouldn’t be “going backward.” It would be going forward, showing that he, Gillan and Paice have finally grown up in their 70s and can bury hatchets. These not-so-subtle backhanded slaps at Ritchie show a great deal of immaturity and an inability to forgive. Indeed, it is Ritchie who has been standing on the higher ground in recent years, and showing the class that Glover and Gillan once exuded in droves.
June 2nd, 2023 at 03:07I have a theory on this. I think they want to keep going because if they break up or “retire” Coverdale and Hughes are waiting to pick up the Purple moniker with or without Blackmore. Coverdale has said he wants to do something special for the fiftieth anniversary of Burn. Hughes has done tours featuring,”The Music Of Deep Purple.”
June 2nd, 2023 at 04:20The longer the current lineup stays out there the less likely that is to happen. Just my humble opinion.
Thinking about all of the bands who did tours, festivals, or a charity shows after what was announced to be their “last show”. Heck, I became a DP fan 6 years after their last show in 1976 in Liverpool.
June 2nd, 2023 at 04:20Still asking him about the rumours of Ritchie coming back is just a pure joke and a waste of air time.
June 2nd, 2023 at 06:31But still I love how the guys deals with these kinds of silly questions in a polite manner.
As for retirement, I think the guys had a good taste of retirement during COVID along with millions like us in our late 50s or 60s and it sucks.
As Jon Lord once said you can’t retire from your hobbies.
Peace ✌️
Adel said…
qt.”As for retirement, I think the guys had a good taste of retirement during COVID along with millions like us in our late 40s, 50s or 60s and it sucks.
As Jon Lord once said you can’t retire from your hobbies”.
Excellent points !
@5…Possible but unlikely imo. At this stage of their lives, I’d suggest all the members that have ever been in DP are grateful for the time spent in there, & in some cases, the lessons learned. And as for GH & DC, they have the right to perform, sing songs & tour as they wish, but they’d be silly to even think about touring as “DP” again lol ! And of course, they don’t have to either.
Peace !
June 2nd, 2023 at 09:04Agree 100% with Roger, just play until you can’t play anymore & then call it a day with out any fanfare. just glad
June 2nd, 2023 at 13:39I got to grow old with this band that has been an obsession with me since 1973 ! Keep on rockin !
Yes, I agree. One day, one of the guys, or two or three, looks at each other and says “man, I’m too old now, there’s no joy anymore. I want to quit”. That’s what Neil Peart did, Ozzy did. I think Ritchie is on the way now, I think Rainbow is retired now. Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi seem retired too. That’s it friends, our generation and rock heros are getting old 😀 (I’m soon turning 57). Probably the last man standing will be Jagger/Richards, those two seem to be unbreakable.
June 2nd, 2023 at 13:47If an Englishman (those inventors of understatement) says about someone else’s health “not very well, it’s a struggle”, it’s high time to be really concerned. : – (
June 2nd, 2023 at 14:09Gregster, it’s a question of monikering things correctly. If Glenn and David go out as themselves “playing the music of Mk III”, I don’t have issues with it (if they are up to the job, Glenn certainly is). Hell, I wouldn’t even have had issues if Rod Evans had gone out as “DP’s original singer performing Mk I material” even if he had encored with Smoke On The Water.
The current Purple don’t play any of that music (Hush excepted), nor will they in the future.
And you’re right, nobody’s career has suffered by having been part of Purple. Everyone left more famous than before. And more wealthy too, even Nick Simper though he made the long term mistake of forfeiting royalties in exchange of then valuable, but rapidly in value decreasing equipment.
June 2nd, 2023 at 14:19@Dave: that’s a good theory and I think they would like to do this… But Purpletuity, the firm that rules the band, is up to the members of mark II and their heirs so I think it wouldn’t be so easy for them to use Deep Purple moniker. Plus the name of the band belongs to Paice, Gillan and Glover (and maybe Lord heirs and Ritchie of course, who is legally trying without success to gain it)
June 2nd, 2023 at 15:47Nowadays, when I want to see Deep Purple songs played correctly I go to a Glenn Hughes show.
June 3rd, 2023 at 12:36Hang on a minute “Bullshit farewell tour rubbish” What is the Long Goodbye Tour then if it isn’t a cynical ploy to reel in punters thinking it will be their last chance to see live. Now the Long Goodbye Tour moniker has been quietly dropped. Come on, no different from other bands in that regard.
June 3rd, 2023 at 16:42In Long Goodbye there is the word Long, which means that the band and its members are so many years old that each concert can be the last, and even if they call the Eternity and Immortality tour, I will still try to get to any possible concert (unfortunately for I get such an opportunity very rarely), so as not to miss the opportunity to see them for the last time on stage. My parents are 77 years old and I know what this age means.
June 3rd, 2023 at 21:26@ 15 – wordplay, double entendre, humour, splitting hairs perhaps? Yes one could look at it that way & that does leave it open for different scenarios. Not calling a tour a ‘farewell tour’ it could go on & on & then they could end up saying ‘we didn’t say it was our last or final tour’. It depends on who thinks what that means. And of course how desperate some fans are willing to pay a fortune for tickets to see their favourite artists live in concert, as they fear they will never see them again. Those rich artists like Elton John, Paul Simon etc who seem to charge exorbitant prices & for what? Cheers.
June 3rd, 2023 at 22:32Pretty childish after all these years. Good thing these immature attitudes aren’t the standard for all affairs at political or personal levels, humanity would cease to exist ….. I have been a fan since 1969 but this nonsense is getting very tiring ….
June 4th, 2023 at 01:27Andrew @15
June 4th, 2023 at 08:34DP is a very enormous commercial machine for lots of people involved in the touring schedule. It’s never about 5 guys making money.
They always gives the crowds 100 percent and people get value for money. They don’t cancel tours and make the fans try to get their money back like other artists do.
I can’t understand why the hatred towards what they label it as farewell or play till you drop tour.
For these guys touring is a way of life and part of big family of friends worldwide. It’s cruel to see it as only a money making machine. For them touring is their life so please understand that retirement sucks for them.
Peace ✌️
It’s off the topic. I just finished watching Not On The Heep. Lee Kerslake’s wonderful 94 minute documentary. I ordered it through Xfinity my cable and internet provider. It was $5.99. Kiss, Joe Elliot, Bob Daisley, Uriah Heep, (individual interviews with Mick Box and Ken Hensley) among others….. and our own Ian Paice is heavily featured throughout. I’m so glad it got completed and put out. When Lee died, I thought it was just some partly completed thing that would be in a closet somewhere, eventually popping up partly finished on YouTube. It was great to see Lee getting his multi-platinum records for Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Lee completed his bucket list. RIP Lee Kerslake 1947-2020.
June 4th, 2023 at 09:44Dylan did it best by calling his tour – which has been going on for decades – The Never Ending Tour. Of course that is the untruth too as one day it will, but it’s a beautiful lie.
June 4th, 2023 at 11:58An over reaction adel@19. No, neither hatred or cruelty. I bet I have seen these guys on stage more times than you over very many years. I’m just saying they are no different from other acts in playing the farewell tour card. These things need calling out. Peace.
June 4th, 2023 at 21:08@ 20 – many thanks for the Lee Kerslake review. I will keep an eye out for it & yes it is a wonderful thing that good people have passionately worked hard to get that completed. Nice to see Ken Hensley is on it, as we know he passed not long after Lee. Cheers.
June 4th, 2023 at 21:47True, lots of bands have had “farewell tours” or announced their breakups, then kept on playing or started up again in a year or two. The Who announced their breakup in 1982, but they’re still touring (and sounding GREAT). With Purple, I always read that the “Long Goodbye” idea was forced on them by their management or record company. The band members themselves didn’t like it, & said that they had no plans to stop. But, just like Seventh Star magically becoming a Sabbath album at the last minute, sometimes the bands don’t have any control over it.
June 5th, 2023 at 04:13A hearty “Right On” to Hollywood Joe #9. DP almost literally exploded into my consciousness in 1970 when In Rock came out (the European version with the blazing intro to Speed King). I’ve also been a major fan since then, even going back & picking up all of the Mk I albums. We’re all incredibly lucky to have this band still around and touring after 56 years. I didn’t get to see them with TMIB, but with Morse, incredible, and no tantrums! Now looking forward to seeing them with the new guy. Hope they add a few shows in Southern California…
June 5th, 2023 at 05:10Here is a good cover Uwe that may have slipped under your radar. Don Powell band & My Sharona. Jimmy Lea in the band also. Who says old geezers cannot still rock?Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t93MGfpi1jE
June 5th, 2023 at 09:39Steve has been “forced to retire” and “for the meanwhile Simon McBride has stepped in”.
Interesting choice of words to say the least…
June 5th, 2023 at 09:53I like what Roger has to say. It’s the Tom Brady Attitude play untill you suck.
June 5th, 2023 at 12:24Danke, Herr MacGregor, for the Powell/Lea clip! As a bassist, I of course deplore that an overplaying bass brethren like Jim is relegated to underplaying lead guitar here, but his solo sure makes up for it.
Much like Glenn, Jim Lea had real attitude in his bass playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFU5vawwUJk
Those two have really left a mark on my bass playing. Add Martin Turner and Roger Glover to the mix.
June 7th, 2023 at 14:33