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You can’t hold him
Fans of Mark 3, rejoice! Glenn Hughes has opened his 50th anniversary of Burn tour with a couple of shows in Gothenburg, Sweden. Here is a video from the concert on May 6, 2023.
On stage:
Glenn Hughes — bass & vocals
Sören Andersen — guitar
Ash Sheehan — drums
Bob Fridzema — keyboards
Be sure to check our calendar, as new dates for the tour keep being added.
Thanks to Richard Hoffman for the video and to Mike Whiteley for bringing it to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Drummer Ash is intense! “I’ll smash your set to bits, then”
May 9th, 2023 at 01:50I don’t know why he is singing Highway star. That’s not a MK3 song.
May 9th, 2023 at 08:14I think DP needs to get their lawyer to sort this one out.
He is touring as DP mark 3.
On a more positive note.
Glenn is awesome and on fire and his band mates are suburb and full of energy and hunger.
I just wish David Coverdale could show up for one or two shows and record it professionally live in time for Xmas.
Well done Glenn, you are still in my eyes the most talented member that ever joined DP
Peace ✌️
All in all a very good performance, although for my taste the organ is too low in the mix, the drums are a bit too loud. Regarding Glenn: He’s sure still a first class screamer, maybe the best one arount, but his singing was much better in the older days. His performance of Highway Star is plain awful … He really should drop it. Wouldn’t Coming Home a good alternative?
May 9th, 2023 at 11:02VERY GOOD!! It’s nice to hear MK 3 and MK 4 material! probably does Highway Star to showcase he can sing it better than IG and DC can anymore (not a complaint – just the truth) wondering about how many people in attendance?…entertaining show GH is a special talent!
May 9th, 2023 at 11:31No one except Mk III themselves ever did the Mk III stuff as well as he still does, nuff said. His band is good too. I’ve always liked that guitarist who has a very nice 70ies feel (even though I’m sure he could modern-day-shred if asked!).
Any song Mk III or IV performed in their time is fair game for Glenn to play today in the context of this tour. That includes Highway Star which was regularly Mk III’s final song in the set or encore. If Glenn isn’t allowed to play it, then what are Don or Simon gonna do? Besides, he also did a tribute version of it at the advent of MH’s 40th anniversary. It’s perfectly legitimate for him to play that song.
That Highway Star was never Mk III’s strongest performance, is another matter. Glenn could do Hold On or Love Don’t Mean A Thing more convincingly, sure, and his audience would most likely lap it up. I don’t need him to play Highway Star for me. I would even prefer any Trapeze number to take its place.
My only issue is Glenn’s attempt to replicate Coverdale’s deep voice in Sail Away. That was already at the deep end of DC’s low range back then and he only sang it on one take like that (it became the final one). Glenn can get down there too, but it’s just not his natural range or style to sing that deep. He should sing it an octave higher throughout (like his parts always were), where he is more comfortable and flexible. Sacrifice faithfulness to the original to what works better for him (and us).
What I find curious is that he always adopts a lead vocals-only role when performing it (he has done that on his past past Mk III tours too). It can’t be because he can’t sing and play it on bass at the same. Glenn is great at playing contrapuntal bass lines while singing something else (really in the Jack Bruce or Paul McCartney league doing this), he takes to it like a duck takes to water, the bass lines in Highway Star would not demand anything from him he can’t do in his sleep. Maybe he wants to demonstrate that he can match the lead singer role too, but I always prefer him with a bass in his hands, he looks cool with it and has always bee a physical player.
May 9th, 2023 at 12:50I agree with every word of Uwe Hornung. It’s exactly what I think. I would love to hear “Hold On” in a live version and “Love Don’t Mean a Thing” is my favorite song from the Stormbringer album.
May 9th, 2023 at 13:55I always thought Burn would turn 50 in February 2024, but what do I know.
May 9th, 2023 at 14:23He said at the beginning of the tour that he is commemorating the preparatory sessions for the album in Clearwell Castle in the second half of 1973 and its recording in Montreux in November ’73 which again used the “Rolling Truck Stones Thing parked outside”.
But I assume that he already has other commitments for 2024 with either The Dead Daisies of Black Country Communion, so he slotted something in for this year while The Dead Daisies are on a break.
May 9th, 2023 at 15:43Why doesn’t perform “Holy Man” ?It’s his universe,best swimming… after DP , I love Glenn in “Black Country Communion” great band
May 9th, 2023 at 18:04Reading the YT comments I understand they started with STORMBRINGER but filmer was late(…)
May 10th, 2023 at 00:56#8: this tour will go around the world twice and last until the end of next year, according to GH himself from the stage the other night.
May 10th, 2023 at 01:47He also said that he has come home to his music and band after doing “some other things” for the last 3 years, so who knows about the Dead Daisies. Ash Sheehan left a lasting impression on the drums, driving the band with his energy, so hopefully this tour will be successful enough to let Glenn continue solo, covering other parts of his career than Purple. There are many chapters to revisit and new ones to be written 🙂
May 10th, 2023 at 01:51When Glenn Hughes is mentioned
..it would be a sin not to mention his long-time musical partner (not DC) guitarist and co-author Swedish guitarist JJ Marsh.
He was so close to the “Strato sound” of Ritchie seasons 74/75…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWKxQV6OL2g
A talented musician
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlnWNGgG14w
May 10th, 2023 at 05:26I agree with #3, Highway Star is just awful, Gillan still does it far better, it has to be percussive not plain singing.
What I can’t avoid to find sad is that GH is still capitalizing on his (great) 3 year-stint with DP, after 4 decades and more…
A man with that talent should have had a great carrer after that (like DC or RB, or even IG or SM) but failed (even though I like some of his stuff) to move on (and he tried hard!)…
I’ve talked about that with him twice and he honestly told me that he was frustrated himself about that but hey, those DP gigs sell better than normal solo ones so I understand.
Nice to see he’s on form though !
May 10th, 2023 at 07:54I really can’t workout how financially better off him doing all this instead of BCC or the DD
May 10th, 2023 at 08:37The max capacity of this arena is 600.
I will be surprised if he does this for two years.
Financially he won’t make enough selling associated merchandise as it’s a DP brand so he has a slim cut.
My guess as I know nothing about touring cost but I only use common sense.
I am happy to be corrected
Peace ✌️
@15: But he isn’t the one calling the shots with BCC and DD. If they aren’t doing anything soon, a DP related show will draw more people than him solo.
May 10th, 2023 at 08:40GH has been happy enough to make negative comments on Gillans voice, and yet its quite apparent his voice certainly isnt what it used to be.
The necessity to scream at every chance he gets makes this difficult to listen to and enjoy.
May 10th, 2023 at 09:06Glenn is a gifted musician, but he has never written a commercial hit to save his life – not with Trapeze, not with Purple (neither Mk III nor Mk IV ever had a relevant single hit) and not with other bands or in his solo ventures. He’s stuck in this ompositional no man’s land, too rock (and too little pop) for the funk crowd and too funk (and too little pop) for the rock crowd. Don’t get me wrong, I love most of what he does, but it’s a minority program. The one and only hit song (#4 in the UK Charts, #6 in the German ones) of sorts he is connected with is a house music/rave/techno stomper 31 years ago to which he lent his great voice, but had zero writing input (the trademark guitar riff is from Motörhead’s Ace of Spades):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_253-HURY8
But he feels comfortable with the kind of music he makes and definitely wants to retain artistic control. He could have joined some more popular hard rock or AOR outfit decades ago (after he had become clean and word had gotten round that he was), but mostly didn’t/doesn’t feel compelled too, though I would regard his joining of more popular acts in the past such as Deep Purple, Gary Moore, Black Sabbath and of The Dead Daisies as at least in part commercially driven moves.
But I’m happy & thankful that he is the one guy that actually takes sizable amounts of Mk III and Mk IV material on the road, without him that music would have otherwise remained mostly unplayed live for the last half-century.
May 10th, 2023 at 13:21“GH has been happy enough to make negative comments on Gillans voice …”
When and where, Rascal? He has been nothing but diplomatic/reticent on DC’s apparent vocal deficiencies and I’m not aware that anything Ian Gillan does or does not do bears great relevance for Glenn. Glenn has his issues with the current Purple organisation, yes, but I’ve never read anything from him putting Ian Gillan’s past or present vocal performance down.
May 10th, 2023 at 13:29#14: Mk 2’s body of work enables current DP to tour today. I don’t see how that is any different. The brand sells tickets, it’s as simple as that. Which presentation you prefer is a matter of opinion.
May 10th, 2023 at 14:18I simply hate Glenn for doing Highway Star . He shouldn’t touch any songs of Mark 2 . Period.
May 10th, 2023 at 14:26He simply can’t let go those 2 years he luckily spent with Purple .
Imagine if Gillian went on and on about those two years in Sabath – but you don’t see that happening
Mk 3 is the second most commercially successful line-up of DP. Glenn offers 70s style renditions of these songs together with a young and hungry, energetic band. I urge anyone to go and see them while this tour lasts. Before he changes his mind 😉
May 10th, 2023 at 16:17@19
May 10th, 2023 at 19:13https://rockcelebrities.net/ian-gillans-deep-purple-performance-glenn-hughes-found-embarrassing/
James, I’d crawl over broken glass to see Big Ian perform the Born Again material!
And Glenn wasn’t just “lucky” to join DP, he didn’t even audition for them (!). DP POACHED him from Trapeze, solely based on the live performances they (Ritchie, Jon and Little Ian) had seen of him fronting the Brummie trio. Because – I know this pains Mk II diehards, but it can’t be repeated often enough – Ritchie thought him the more exciting bassist than Roger and wanted harmony vocals within DP going forward. There is this prevailing narrative even here that Glenn somehow snuck (sneaked?) into DP under false pretenses when the exact opposite is true – they wanted him for his skill set, his looks and his flamboyant stage presence, all of which they had witnessed at Trapeze gigs. And made a 21-year-old an offer he couldn’t refuse.
https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2021/02/GettyImages-179605589.jpg?w=980&q=75
And if I may add on a personal note: To me, Glenn Hughes was very much a prominent face of DP. When I became a DP fan in the mid-70ies, Mk II was history and there was zilch live footage of them available on TV. But what you did see occasionally was Mk III at California Jam (with Glenn prominently ‘working’ the huge audience) and Mk IV at the ’75 Budokan gig (with Glenn likewise prominently interacting with Tommy Bolin all the time, those two were platonic lovers!). So I was actually nursed on the later line-ups as a novice DP fan.
Of course I owned and knew all the Mk II material available then, but I only saw Ian Gillan live for the first time in 1979 (Mr Universe Tour) and Roger Glover only in 1980 (with Rainbow, Down to Earth Tour), where he confused me greatly because he appeared on stage playing a Gibson Thunderbird and not his Mk II trademark Rickenbacker 4001, LOL. It wasn’t until the release of the Live in Denmark/Copenhagen VHS, that I actually got a glimpse of the legendary Mk II live.
May 10th, 2023 at 21:30Talking of Glenn Hughes, Rock Voorne recently sent that clip from 1996 with the talented Swedish guitarist (who’s name escapes me at present) & that was very well done, a good Strat sound & player indeed playing Burn. The surprise of seeing Hughes with very short hair & being so laid back was a good one, especially the laid back approach. No screaming & vocal histrionics at all, maybe he was coming out of the detox stage of his life. Anyway much more enjoyable to watch & listen to for me, why can’t he be like that more often. Well we know why, it is in his nature to be out there, he is a hyper sort of chap, adrenalin & all. As Uwe says & others here also, at least Hughes is playing that MK 3 & 4 material. Just drop HS & anything else from MK2. Cheers.
May 10th, 2023 at 22:13@25: Joakim “JJ” Marsh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JJ_Marsh
May 11th, 2023 at 06:42#24: Yes, Trapeze’s ”You are the music” album shows that Glenn’s talents as a singer, songwriter and bass player were already well developed by the age of 20. Impressive really. No wonder Blackmore and Lord saw what he could bring to Purple.
May 11th, 2023 at 08:00GH wasted the whole decade of 1980s. That’s the major blunder of his career. He should have teamed up with Gary Moore in 1978 and stayed with him for ten years at least. For now, he would have had a much better charts record.
May 11th, 2023 at 08:34Gary Moore was a restless soul too, so any collaboration with him was bound to be short term. Life outside the mothership (DP) isn’t all that easy. Only Blackmore and Coverdale were able to make the big time on their own, on an international level.
May 11th, 2023 at 09:46@18/19
Well said. I dig his stuff too, just the other day I enjoyed listening to Pklay me out for the fist time in years big time. But bothers me is his ongoing praise of …himself. And anytime he changes direction – from funk to hard rock to stadium rock to metal to funk and back again he tells anyone who doesn’t want to know something to the effect that he “always was a funky guy and Blackmore made the mistake of his life to get him into Purple” or the on the other hand he “gladly returned to his true roots in rock music and I mean rock music…” and so on. He seems to be be full of himself and hard to work with as his resumee shows. I wish he would stick to the more funky stuff I believe is what he really likes doing. Had he been more constant in that field who knows what might have happende. Maybe get a few songwriters in … voice and looks sure are eceptional so he might have been sucessful there. Sadly that never happended. It was a winding road noone could really follow it seems. Just like you I am happy he does Mark III stuff live and he does it very well. Attended his Purple tour a couple of years ago and it sure was a great night out. Could have done without Smoke and HS of course.
May 11th, 2023 at 11:06BTW @ 2:) Anyone can play Highway Star or any other song as far as I know. Take a look at all the cover bands. You may have to pay a certain amount for doing stuff that is not yours and taking money for it.)
Yes, Daniel, and both only with music that was heavily tailored not to demand too much from Deep Purple fans. Rainbow picked up Deep Purple’s more dark intent and commitment and amplified it, Whitesnake (the early incarnations at least) the organic nature of the former beast. I knew a lot more casual DP fans back then who were totally distraught about Coverdale’s first two solo albums, Glenn’s Play Me Out, Lordy’s and Paicey’s PAL, Bolin’s Private Eyes, Big Ian’s jazz excursions with IGB and Roger’s more esoteric ventures with the Butterfly Ball and Elements. That’s almost a dozen albums in the aftermath of (or close to) the demise of DP that did not fulfill fan expectations at all (of course, quite a few of them are today cult classics).
Gary Moore was a musical and social control freak + a perfectionist, Glenn (then still at the height of his addiction) all about cutting corners and making do plus getting things done quickly in the studio. Gary had fallen in love with the Hughes Thrall album and wanted Glenn to replicate that role, albeit now under the control of Gary. That bore ill for a more stable cooperation between them. To Gary’s defense: He had of course had his share of experiences with drug-addicted singer/songwriter/bassists during his various tenures with Thin Lizzy and understandably did not want to repeat that.
I thought Glenn’s officially released work with Glenn (Run for Cover era) so constrained and perfected, it had sucked all the life out of it. If you want Glenn, you have to give him room and freedom. OTOH I’ve heard bootlegs of the original G-Force demos from a few years before (before everything went pear-shaped there too and they got a new bassist and the guy who replaced Rod Evans in Captain Beyond in to take over from Glenn) and that material was a lot more promising, both in songwriting and execution. Mark Nauseef & Glenn would have been one hell of a rhythm section.
And finally, I don’t quite get all the bad vibes about Glenn playing just two (!) Mark II songs in a 90 minute set, namely SOTW and HS. That is hardly riding on the coattails of Mk II. Based on what he played with Mk III + IV in the past, he could have added Space Trucking, The Mule and Lazy as well. And to give the man some credit, his Re-Machined version of HS is suitably OTT (we’ll, what did you expect with Steve Vai on lead guitar?), but I’ve heard more boring renditions from a lot of other bands.
Speaking of Mk III doing material from other line-ups: What I really would have liked to have heard back in the day is Mk III or Mk IV doing Hush, no joke. I think the rhythmic nature of the song would have been reinforced by Glenn’s propulsive bass playing and the Coverdale/Hughes RnB-colored two-pronged lead vocal attack would have fitted great with the vocal lines of that particular chestnut from DP’s oeuvre, just imagine both of them doing the “na-nana-na” thing together!
May 11th, 2023 at 11:23I do remember a story in 1985/6 about Gary Moore warning Tony Iommi not to go on tour with Glenn Hughes because of his drug problems & health issues. Iommi foolishly didn’t listen & paid the price in regards to Hughes causing all sorts of problems on the ‘Seventh Star’ tour, he only lasted 6 concerts I think from memory. That song Out in the Fields with Moore & Phil Lynott is a great rock song indeed. However I didn’t buy any Gary Moore after Victims of the Future as he became too commercial & cliched in many ways. And then there was the ‘blues’ thing. Give me the earlier Gary Moore any day. I also remember years ago reading or hearing a comment from Hughes regarding Mark 2 Purple. He didn’t like it at all. He obviously has changed his mind in recent years, for whatever reason. @ 26 – thanks for that link. Cheers.
May 11th, 2023 at 12:07I was very pleased to hear that Glenn was going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Burn however I was expecting to hear the album in it’s in entirety, from Burn through to A200, perhaps with a segment of Coronarias Redig thrown in for good measure. Extended solos on You Fool No One and Mistreated, probably 55 minutes or maybe an hour with band introductions.
A couple of other Mark III or Mark IV songs and good night, thanks for coming.
#31, agreed, Glenn’s version of Highway Star for Re-Machined (bonus track) with Steve Vai, Glenn Hughes, Chad Smith, Lachlan Doley is insanely good.
May 11th, 2023 at 12:34Going back to #29. Gillan’s solo path hasn’t exactly been super consistent either. IGB (jazz), Gillan (hard rock), Naked Thunder (AOR), Rakintzis (Eurovision Song Contest), Dreamcatcher (drum machine celebration), One Eye to Morocco (late night radio). Isn’t this all over the map-ness one of the reasons why the Purple family is so interesting to follow? I think so.
May 11th, 2023 at 12:38I’m with you, Daniel, I love the variety and all-overness of the Purple Family! Even the Eurovision Song Contest track, hey, it’s cheesy, but it’s at least Greek goat cheese with some Aegean Sea aroma!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–IQ3i7Igu4
Herr MacGregor, Glenn has indeed said that Mk II’s music – though professionally played by great musicians – was not to his liking and that he didn’t see or listen to Purple much in the early 70ies (I believe he saw them at Madison Square Garden on special invite shortly before he signed his contract with the Purple organisation). He’s also given a reason why he wasn’t too exited about them, their music lacked black content for him. Which is fair enough (and also true), especially coming from him and given how Trapeze incorporated much more black sounds than his next band (but come Stormbringer he sure made himself felt and heard of course …).
But I’ve never heard or read a bad word from him about the Mk II line-up as musicians. He’s regularly lauded Blackmore’s, Lord’s and Paice’s playing skills, he made special mention of Roger Glover at the RRHoF for doing the ground work of establishing DP so he (Glenn) could make himself comfortable in an already well-feathered nest. And I’ve never heard or read him mentioning Ian Gillan one way or the other.
Roger Glover went to see Mk III incognito in 1974 on their UK tour and said he didn’t like it, adding “but I was probably prejudiced, it still hurt”. So just like Roger didn’t get exited by Mk III, Glenn can say that Mk II left him cold. Though both line-ups have musical commonalities, there is still enough to set them apart.
And there is one other aspect: Glenn has been identified with Smoke On The Water for half a century now, especially in the US where the California Jam was widely broadcast, by anyone not really acquainted with Purple’s convoluted family tree. How many times do you think that he and his wife Gabi have been invited to dinners with other couples in California where the conversation eventually turns to Deep Purple and someone makes conversation: “Oh, I didn’t know that you were in Deep Purple, but I really loved that song Smoke On The Water you did, that was always on the radio!”? And how many times can you then say “I didn’t even play on that …” and follow that up with a lengthy explanation until Gabi kicks you underneath the table and admonishes you on the way home “If people praise you for that darn song, let them, don’t be rude, Glenn!” And as a good husband you then say “That’s very kind of you!” the next time someone says how much he liked your work on SOTW … ; – ) Alas!, the things we do for love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0rf3_viTxk
May 11th, 2023 at 14:03You forgot Accidentally on Purpose from the IG ouvre.
May 11th, 2023 at 14:24Not sure what you call that – other than good.
And Jesus Christ Superstar!
Actually, I found almost everything that Big Ian did ultra vires of DP at the very least enjoyable. Some of it was lackluster, but nothing plain awful. Accidentally on Purpose, the studio side of Double Trouble, Born Again and Clear Air Turbulence are my favorites. Given the chance, Ian can be enjoyably eclectic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkXcjCEyt88
May 11th, 2023 at 15:14#33. I forgot to say that I thought it was unprofessional for Glenn to be in a position where he is jet lagged. Poor form on behalf of his management, there really is no excuse – none.
May 11th, 2023 at 19:26I could do without the “Echo”, kinda distracting.
I was not able to go see Coverdale on his Purple tour a little while back, but I hope I can make it if/when GH comes to somewhere in the Los Angeles area.
May 11th, 2023 at 21:44I think Iommi always wanted to be Purple’s guitarist instead of Sabbath, Dio, Gillan, Hughes, Powell, Neil Murray were all from the Purple family tree. The only one that wasn’t was Tony Martin who was the least capable singer in that band.
May 11th, 2023 at 23:17#39: Several LA area shows in September.
May 12th, 2023 at 06:55I’ll be there at the concert in Budapest, then Deep Purple in July.
May 12th, 2023 at 09:56Sidroman, you forgot Don Airey (played on Never Say Die), Craig Gruber (played on the Heaven & Hell demos and rehearsals) and Bob Daisley (played on Eternal Idol)! ; – )
May 12th, 2023 at 15:36@ 40 – ‘the least capable singer’ in any version of Black Sabbath belongs to Glenn Hughes, circa 1986. Couldn’t even perform apparently, now that is not capable. Only lasted 6 gigs from what we have heard. Tony Martin never let that band down & was a fine vocalist. Well at least I haven’t heard of him doing anything untoward during the years he was a member of that band. Now I know that you are talking about vocalist’s in general, career wise, but the least ‘capable’ in Black Sabbath? Cheers.
May 12th, 2023 at 21:53Uwe
May 12th, 2023 at 22:08That’s right, and at one point he also wanted David Coverdale as a singer as well.
I also found it interesting that Mick Box from Uriah Heep never had any Purple members in that band, although after Purple demised in 76, they had auditioned David Coverdale, and a few years ago Don Airey filled in for Phil Lanzon.
May 12th, 2023 at 22:10Speaking of Heep, it seems that Lee Kerslake’s documentary Not on the Heep has been completed.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLr4NIeREWU
May 13th, 2023 at 01:56Stunning performance from Glenn Hughes and his superb band at the Casino Estoril in Portugal. An excellent venue together with THAT Voice meant for a very special evening. These Mk3 songs deserve to be heard…….
May 13th, 2023 at 10:49Pete Goalby auditioned for Rainbow in 1979 and almost got the job, but then Graham Bonnet power-roared his way in. It was so close that his name as Dio’s successor was already mentioned in the German music press. Once again, Trapeze would have been the spare parts shed for something Purple-related!
I liked Goalby’s voice and the albums he did with Heep (I even liked Equator at the time although it has aged badly), but for the vintage Heep stuff his singing was perhaps a bit unoperatic, Heep need some drama. Bernie Shaw has/had that in spades, Byron fans must have been in a state of bliss when they heard him first.
May 13th, 2023 at 13:15Aber Herr MacGregor, don’t you know that Glenn had a bar room brawl with someone from the Sabbath organisation shortly before the tour started? He got hit in the face near the eye socket and something broke. Come the first gigs he had blood clots in his sinuses and on his vocal cords making singing nigh impossible. It got worse and worse and he had to give up after a few dates, spitting and sneezing blood clots during the gigs. It wasn’t because an unharmed Glenn couldn’t have dealt with the material. As this amply shows (though Jorn Lande is admittedly closer to the Dio sound, but Dio was a fan of Glenn’s singing throughout his career and would have been happy to see him there***):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2bs-OPqnN8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e-Jlg_yoHw
That said, I considered Glenn and Sabbath always an ill fit and so did Glenn. He had nightmares from the fantasy lyrics, he says, and he found it harder to come to grips with the Ozzy material than the Dio one “because that Ozzy monotone with the same emphasis on every word is the hardest thing to replicate in the world”.
*** Glenn sang at Dio’s funeral at the deceased’s request:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP3iFu7d_Fo
May 13th, 2023 at 16:39@ 47- thanks for that info on Lee’s documentary & they did finish it as they said they would, bravo. I had forgotten all about it these past few years since he passed. I would imagine that filmed segment of him & Ian Paice on the drums will be on it. Cheers.
May 13th, 2023 at 22:29I’ve seen GH a few times over the last 10 years, solo or in The Dead Daisies or BCC. I admire his talent, the voice and his bass playing BUT I don’t really like him as a front man… the voice is intact but quite often it’s just too much. I also think his song writing skills are… weak. To me, he needs a strong frontman and a great guitarist to bounce off…. like he did back in the mid seventies.
I kinda wish he would record some studio stuff with Coverdale (it won’t happen I guess) but an EP of new material would be cool and I think DC will mostly be doing studio bits from now on if he does anything new.
May 14th, 2023 at 16:27Uwe @ 50 – defending the indefensible? Here is how I read it all those decades ago when it occurred. Glenn Hughes let the team down big time. Not capable indeed. Cheers. P.S. I hope this link works, all I ever do is copy & paste & they usually do work ok.
https://loudwire.com/black-sabbath-seventh-star-anniversary/#:~:text=Black%20Sabbath%2C%20%22No%20Stranger%20to%20Love%22&text=By%20the%20third%20gig%2C%20Hughes,t%20help%20his%20voice%20any.
May 14th, 2023 at 23:01going to the vineland nj show in august with yngwie malstrem opening can’t wait.
May 15th, 2023 at 13:16Mein lieber Herr MacGregor, you, Sir, are to historical truth about Glenn what Ned Kelly was to Australian banks: a permanent threat!
: – )
Sure, Glenn was a walking talking cocaine liability in the 80ies, but it wasn’t vocal inability per se. His lifestyle choices failed him on that ill-fated mock-Sabbath tour. He was in awful shape and not in any way suited to front Sabbath songs. He didn’t do too well on the soon aborted Hughes Thrall tour a couple of years earlier either. That was a shambles too.
May 15th, 2023 at 16:03When seeing this show a week ago I wondered to myself what it is that makes the performance sounds so fresh, with no feelings of cabaret. This recording gives a clear answer. They’re playing with similar abandon as in the 70s. 24:00 into the clip for example. Glenn’s bass playing and vocals in that segment. Goosebumps.
May 15th, 2023 at 18:58Glenn also said he never intended on joining Black Sabbath, he was told he was singing on a Tony Iommi solo album, which went fine in recording. Only after Iommi and the record company squabbled it was released as Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi. Glenn could handle the studio, but now the tour, with his drug problem, and the pretour fight, things turned upside down very quickly.
May 15th, 2023 at 21:49That is why Iommi was warned about Hughes back then, totally unreliable. Iommi has done a few strange things in his time with trying to keep the ‘Sabbath’ flame burning. That was incredibly disappointing at the time & no doubt he regrets it. Thankfully he moved back to Blighty after that disaster from my memory & onwards quickly with Tony Martin on vocals. Too much partying etc in LA during the mid 80’s, the same for Chris Squire & his issues at that time, not too mention a few others. I was splitting hairs when I mentioned that in reply to sidroman & as I said at that initial post, he was talking about vocalists in general no doubt. I thought I would elaborate on the ‘capable’ word, as it does also have another meaning. I think Tony Iommi should stay clear of Glenn Hughes musically. As I have mentioned here before that Fused album was a poor effort by all concerned. Not to mention those songs never released officially from the mid 90’s. Poor songwriting indeed & let’s face it Iommi had run out of riffs for ‘newer’ material by the early 90’s era. You can only mix up & recycle riffs for so long before they come back at you, it happens to them all. He has done well though for a riff meister up until then. Incredibly well. Cheers.
May 15th, 2023 at 22:50i’m not spending $55.00 dollors for Resonate even though it’s his best album.
May 16th, 2023 at 13:22Uwe Hornung: “original G-Force demos”… can we listen to these somewhhere?
May 16th, 2023 at 15:08Hartmut, it was on some dodgy, low quality Italian boot CD with Glenn Hughes rarities, but I cannot find it online.
It was the demo to this song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypZgTr3ZDv0
Now the youtube version is the final one sung by Willie Dee (or Daffern as he was still called when with Captain Beyond), but you can tell that he is replicating a typical Hughes vocal, at times he matches Glenn uncannily and I believe to hear Glenn in the backing vocals too (together with Gary Moore).
There’s also some outtakes with Glenn from the Run For Cover sessions available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkYtrsSHCbA&list=RDYkYtrsSHCbA&start_radio=1&rv=YkYtrsSHCbA&t=165
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_8ofDj3zU8
May 17th, 2023 at 03:18Forgot I did actually but hey…
I once understood that Glenn got dry after 1990 or 1992, not sure….anymore.
But that he had a relapse around 96/97.
I dont recall him being negative on Gillan, but I cannot recall everything anymore and know I ll be seeing unfamiliair stuff without end…..
Hopefully…
I do recall him saying about the Morse line up “It isnt DEEP PURPLE.”
I have the impression he and David have a huge respect for Blackmore.
And yes, I know he says a lot of seemingly conflicting things.
In 2018, forgot what it was about, sorry, he talked to the audience, laughing,in Zoetermeer, saying “You know I m crazy.”
May 19th, 2023 at 21:41Having now watched this show in its entirety it is clear that Glenn overdoes the falsetto screams in a big way. I wish someone would say to him, try to leave them out for one night and see how it goes down. Let the music speak for itself. Less is sometimes more. His singing voice is still so good that he doesn’t need to resort to screaming to get his point across. He would still be the VOR, so to speak. Hopefully the next tour will feature “Glenn – the artist”. Imagine a setlist covering Trapeze and his solo catalogue, with just his voice in focus and no screaming. Songs like Seafull, Coast to Coast etc. I think it would go down well.
May 21st, 2023 at 06:40When the third vocal improv segment in Mistreated starts, it’s one too many. Again, less is more.
May 21st, 2023 at 06:44Telling Hughes to hold back on his vocal gymnastics would be like telling Yngwie to play slower. It’s their thing, it’s why they stick out from the rest. Love it or leave it.
May 21st, 2023 at 11:47True. If Glenn would have been a woman, he’d have been Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. To sing something like Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen or Ozzy Osbourne (all three remarkable vocal stylists if not technically great singers) in a solemn syllabic monotone is beyond him and he doesn’t even do it well when he tries, it sounds unconvincing and awkward with him. I wince every time he apes Coverdale on Sail Away for instance.
In a way, Glenn was a trendsetter as he already had a very melismatic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisma
vocal style in the rock field long before it became de rigueur in pop.
“Prevalence in western popular music
“The use of melisma is a common feature of artists such as Deniece Williams, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Céline Dion, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, among others. The use of melismatic vocals in pop music slowly grew in the 1980s. In the following two decades, melismatic vocals became the standard used to judge a singer’s skill. This is partially why singers who are proficient in this singing style consistently make the lists of best singers of all time. Deniece Williams topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in May 1984, with “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” with her melismatic vocals. Although other artists used melisma before, Houston’s rendition of Dolly Parton’s ballad “I Will Always Love You” pushed the technique into the mainstream in the 1990s. The trend in R&B singers is considered to have been popularized by Mariah Carey’s song “Vision of Love”, which was released and topped the U.S. charts in 1990, and went on to be certified gold.”
And before everyone starts bashing Mariah Carey now, I haven’t played music with a single female singer in her 20ies to 40ies who has not admitted to having been influenced by her, irrespective of the genre.”
May 21st, 2023 at 18:31Glenn sticks out from the rest because he’s managed to keep his voice so strong. Due to the inconsistency of his touring and being absent from the scene for so many years, his reputation was mostly built from his recorded output, where there were no gymnastics per se. Just singing. There is a middle ground. He could reduce it somewhat and still come out swinging.
May 22nd, 2023 at 05:00