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Sunbury’75 app
Thomson Music has released a second Purple-related app for iPad:
The Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival held on a 620-acre private farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, Victoria, which was staged on the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend from 1972 to 1975. It attracted up to 45,000 patrons and was promoted by Odessa Promotion as Australia’s Woodstock. The Sunbury Pop Festivals signalled the end of the hippie peace movement of the late 1960s and the beginning of the reign of pub rock. In 1975 Deep Purple were head-liners. Folklore is that a fracas developed on-stage between Deep Purple’s roadies and AC/DC’s roadies and members. This app looks back at that amazing period when Deep Purple ruled the charts and the associated audiovisual material highlights the excitement and ‘innocence’ of early Australian rock festivals. A must for all Deep Purple fans and fans of rock music in general.
You can purchase the app at the iTunes store.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
so is this just taken from the phoenix rising DVD or is their more onstage footage? i for one was disappointed when i saw the 10 second clip of the band onstage as i know there must be more of the sunbury footage.
September 3rd, 2011 at 17:08Bought it. But it was quite a disappointment. Unlike the previous app, this one has too little enlightening content. It’s not a look back, it’s a souvenir. It’s basically a crash course on names of Australian bands from the mid-70s, with some DP-related ads (“Deep Purple flies British Airways”). Great stuff for hardcore completists, a breed of fans I’m trying hard not to be anymore. The price, though, is quite payable – more or less the same as a comic book – around one dollar less than the first digital edition of the new Justice League series, my disappointment of the week. It’s worth paying that at least to listen to the sound clip.
September 4th, 2011 at 02:01I remember this festival & never being interested at all because of the joke that Purple had become! From reports I read from their gig, they were woeful, Bolin being the problem with Hughes as well. The name Deep Purple was sullied a little with this lineup, especially the live concerts. The further they went on, the worst it became & we know the rest of the story.
September 4th, 2011 at 21:43Scott, no footage here. It’s the festival’s program in PDF, with an embedded soundclip of a nice radio interview with Coverdale and Lord when they went with Mk3 to Australia – their only gig in the first quarter of 1975, before Mk3 had their last tour in Europe.
I really support the idea of the publishers releasing digital versions of those old clips. (I loved the one which came with Phoenix Rising, for example.) Just think they should be more dense in content. The Getting Tighter app was great on that sense, but it was tied to a DVD release, so it had clips of footage to include. The printed that became this new app was just curious.
September 4th, 2011 at 22:45Agree with you (3) MacGregor, by that stage the beginning of the end was in sight for that Mk of DP….Hughes’ squealing and the erratic guitar playing and slipshod performances were becoming too much the norm….compared to the raw excitement and inventiveness of Mk 11, it had become a pale imitation trading off the name DP only from Mk 11 days…..when they ruled the rock world
September 6th, 2011 at 06:28@3 live in california ’76 is the best live album ever after MIJ…so you can’t judge for what Tommy line up did when Bolin was under drugs (yes, I know, he was under drugs most of the time but when he was ok he could show he was a genius)
September 6th, 2011 at 13:05MacGregor , Tommy wasn’t even in the band at this concert. It was held earley in the year, Ritchie was still the guitarist. Would like to know more about these problems with the AC/DC people? Have heard they had some problems with Rainbow too. Maybe they can’t stand Ritchie . I know there is a bootleg recording of ths concert . What happend there , the band took all of the money & none of the other bands got paid. Why did this happen?
September 7th, 2011 at 12:35Mark 4 were not a total disaster . They sounded very good on the US leg of the tour . Some of the bootleg recording ‘s sound impressive . Plus the band were in great from at Long Beach . They had great potential , had it not been for the bands managment adding on more dates for the UK. They were ment to have a break. They had this fresh grundge type of sound .
September 7th, 2011 at 12:53@ MacGregor – Deep Purple never played the Sunbury Festival with Bolin, only with the Blackmore/Coverdale/Hughes (Mk III) line up. The Bolin line up (Mk IV) tour of Australia started later the same year (1975), and was highly successful, both in terms of reviews and audience reaction.
September 7th, 2011 at 14:39Uh,MacGregor,Bolin wasn’t in the band at Sunbury,it was Ritchie.Bolin actually was on fire in Australia when he toured there later in the year.
September 8th, 2011 at 18:05here’s a brand new Deep Purple community page on Facebook…
Let’s make it BIG!
http://www.facebook.com/DeepPurpleCommunity
September 9th, 2011 at 13:15I stand corrected! I knew the woeful mk4 live version of “Purple” was in Oz in ’75. From my distant memory, I thought this version played Sunbury. Being still at high school back then, I was hearing raves about them being woeful at their Oz concerts. Immediately thought the other day, that would be Sunbury wouldn’t it? I was out by 11 months & a slight discrepancy, Blackmore not being there! Just a slight difference. Also missed Dio & Powell version of Rainbow here in ’76.
September 11th, 2011 at 03:35Glad Mark II started their reunion world tour in Australia/NZ in 1984, made up for missing Blackmore line ups earlier during my school years! They were fresh & on song & Blackmore & Gillan were having a laugh & enjoying themselves at that stage of the reunion. Also, they jammed with George Harrison at the Sydney gig I was at, which added a nice bit of nostalgia I suppose! At least I have seen 1 of the Beatles playing live, & with Purple, it was great!
Story about Purple and ACDC was that the festival ran late. ACDC was supposed to close the show after Purple but because of the time didn’t get to play. Apparently ACDC’s roadies blamed Purple’s roadies for being to slow. With the money, Purple were offered $100,000Aus to do the one show, which was probably the only reason they did it. The festival ran at a loss and so a lot of the Aus acts were in danger of not being paid. In the end they got paid ‘award rates’. There was a rumour at the time that when Purple heard about this they donated an undisclosed portion of their fee to help pay the Oz bands.
September 12th, 2011 at 06:15@ 13
So that’s why AC/CD did not say no when offered to play as a support for Rainbow later on ! : )
September 12th, 2011 at 22:51@14 when Ac/Dc supported Rainbow? how is it possible that Deep purple should play before Ac/Dc during the ’70??!!
September 13th, 2011 at 19:35Re: 13 – Neil, I wonder if Blackmore had anything to do with the timing of Purple’s final “slot” or at least Blackmore may have had other ideas, if ACDC were supposed to close the show! Apparently at the California Jam in ’74, he wasn’t happy about ELP possibly closing that gig & deliberatley delayed going on to gain from the dusk lighting show effect etc. At least that is what I have read from other musicians raves, who were there & were affected in some way by Ritchie’s antics, as they called them.
September 14th, 2011 at 07:59Something along those lines at least. Classic Blackmore, and he kept everyone on their toes so to speak!
Re: 15 – Roberto, it is because Purple are a superior band to ACDC in my book, & back then ACDC were not that commercially big, at the Sunbury time at least! I recall reading about the Rainbow/ ACDC brawl back then also. It does make you wonder, if there was an altercation at Sunbury, then why (unless motivated for possible paybacks, He, He) would ACDC support Rainbow, a year or two later, in England I think it was. The Man in Black was as we know, in both bands & takes no prisoners it seems! hmmmmmmmm………..we can only surmise I feel…
Roberto
I do recall loving AC/DC and at the same time starting to know the DP family, already quite big then.
When I visited a cinema with my parents around 77 or 78 in Rotterdam I encountered a guy with a t shirt with The Let There Be Rock cover art on it.
Later on I heard/read that AC/DC HAD supported Rainbow in The Hague.
Around that time I, like I said, just got into music in general(NEVER BOTHERED BEFORE I HEARD LIVE IN JAPAN!!!!).
I still remember the feeling came over me when the single Long Live Rock Rock and Roll was aired.
The DJ began with telling us that it it was ex DP guitarist Ritchie Blackmore who played on it.
The hairs on my neck rose, I almost took a dive into my radio and is was incredible!!!
And that was before hearing RISING and ON STAGE. : )
By the time I was mentally into it all it was 1980 and Down To Earth was something we had to “.appreciate”.
Although sad about Ronnie’s departure(I still feel bad about never having seen Rainbow with Dio live : ( I loved DTE and soon after that I heard the single NEON KNIGHTS.!!!
The 80’s in general were terrible but things like these…….
Deduction way back was : That guy in the cinema must have visited the The Hague gig.
I wasn’t there : (
I was 12 or 13 and it was not untill 1980 the idea(…)of attending gigs became a reality in my head.
The show in Rotterdam was incredible and I was glad to tell Graham about 27 years later after a gig in Kerkrade.
September 14th, 2011 at 22:49@16 ” ACDC were not that commercially big” so why they were supposed to close the show and play after Deep Purple? Thanks
September 15th, 2011 at 12:09@17 I never loved Ac/Dc, just 4-5 songs not more but thanks for telling your story…
I felt a bit insecure about my memory and felt obliged to do a bit more searching.
There are many sites which documents things like this.
Don’t we love the Internet in moments like these? : )
Appearantly rumours about AC/DC joining the RISING tour in the USA, late 1976, seem unconfirmed.
BUT they did join in Belgium, Germany and Holland it seems.
So, for now, my memory did not quite serve me completely right.
After all I did NOT see the shows in 76 and 77 myself.
And LTBR was recorded early 1977, so the guy from the cinema can’t have bought that in The Hague : ).
In Holland they befriended dj Alfred Lagarde who endorsed them quite strongly overhere.
I think they did gig on their own in 77 in Holland after supporting Rainbow in 76.
So the t shirt problably was bought in 77.
It might have been a shop with merchandise in the city : )
And it the cinema thing might have been in 78 or 79 as well : (
Getting old sucks!!!
I bought my grey Ritchie Blackmore(Live close-up) shirt in Hoogvliet, near Rotterdam.
Maybe it’s still somewhere in my DP library, stuffed somewhere inbetween.
I had(…)the intention to copy the worn and ofcourse quite small shirt onto a new one, but I never came around to it.
Still a good idea though : )
Just 2 of the related links :
http://www.angelfire.com/band/ACDCLair/History.html
http://www.dio.net/tour/rising.html
September 15th, 2011 at 12:40@ 18
It might have been a “chauvinistic attitude”?
September 15th, 2011 at 12:42Or was AC/DC in those days really bigger than Deep Purple in Australia ? 🙁
I think one has to remember, things were a bit different in those days, compared to now. I belive many times the “headliners” were asked what time they wanted to go on, and could chose freely if they wanted to close the gig/festival or go on early, or… Wasn´t that the case for instance with “Cal Jam”, they chose themselves to go on before ELP? And i think it was the same thing with “Sunbury”. Or am i completely wrong here?
September 15th, 2011 at 14:19/Soren
@21, yes, I would like to know as you…
September 16th, 2011 at 21:11@21. You are completely correct. With the Cal Jam, Purple had the choice of when to go on and they chose sunset because they wanted to be under the lights and as for them the Cal Jam was just one gig on an American tour, their roadies wanted to be able to get the equipment out without getting stuck in the inevitable traffic jam after the show. The show ran an hour early and when Purple were told to go on an hour early, Blackmore refused, sticking to the terms of the contract. The fact that the sun was setting behind the stage so the audience would be looking into the sun may have had something to do with his decision.
I’m not sure why Purple didn’t close Sunbury but as their performance was a fly in fly out affair it may have had something to do with flight schedules.
With regards to ACDC and Rainbow, ACDC were unknown in Europe at that time and would have needed the exposure that supporting Rainbow would have given them.
November 8th, 2011 at 02:14