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![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
German publicity
Several German magazines chose Deep Purple to put on the covers of their recent issues.
Eclipsed magazine issue #261 (06/24) has 50 years of Burn as the cover story. The magazine can be ordered through the publisher, albeit delivery is available only to selected European countries.
Classic Rock Germany issue #131 has Deep Purple’s upcoming album =1 as the cover story, with interviews from both Ians and Simon. Bonus: a feature on Black Country Communion and their new album V. This magazine can be ordered through the publisher as well.
And last, but not least, Rocks magazine has exactly the same =1 promo picture of the band on the cover of issue 101 (04/2024), with a massive 12-page feature inside. It is based around the interviews with Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, and Simon McBride. And we’re being told that Google Translate promises some juicy tidbits. If any of our readers can furnish any further details, please do so.
Thanks to Marcelo Soares for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Deutschland Uber Alles
June 21st, 2024 at 17:08In Addition the German “Rocks” also features a little report about Gary Moore’s “Dirty Fingers” Album from 1983.
Which has a lot to do with the Purple famile, as it has Don Airey, Tommy Aldridge and Jimmy Bain on it. As band with Gary Moore and Charlie Huhn.
June 21st, 2024 at 19:10🤣 (Hush, to sing that part of the lyrics is VERBOTEN!)
Terrible, these Germanophiles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dER2yL23lZM
June 21st, 2024 at 20:23Any Questions? I wrote the feature… and just want to say: Doing interview with DP members ist not asking questions, It’s like discussing music with good old friend. My experience ove the years. Considering the fact, that they have probably talked to a million journalists – it’s just incredible.
June 21st, 2024 at 22:52It must get up Gillans nose to see BURN getting so much acclaim.
Roger : ” I told ya, it wasnt so bad.”
June 22nd, 2024 at 01:06I defended Gillan until a few years ago, two at most, but now he just can’t stand along concert anymore. He makes me suffer. Maybe only in the studio on the new album I will be able to appreciate him, given by technology.
June 22nd, 2024 at 11:36Roger : ”I told ya, it wasn’t so bad.”
Big Ian: “Songs about witches and breakup-cliches over blues riffs? You’re joking. They should have renamed themselves Heep Purple.” 🙃
June 22nd, 2024 at 12:25I have now bought all three and will revert with the contents, quite a bit of good/interesting stuff.
June 22nd, 2024 at 15:22I prefer WDWTWA any day before Burn..although I admit the song Burn got a good riff..If just G H hadent done any singing on that song I would give it 5 stars!
June 22nd, 2024 at 19:19But hey..thats just me…
@ 2- I did own the Dirty Fingers album back then. A few good rock songs on that & of course that rather moving final song Rest in Peace. A stunning solo or two on that. The beginning of Moore’s most interesting period to my ears, a few albums after that I also had & rate highly from Gary Moore & the contributing band members & also non band members, ala Jack Bruce. Cheers.
June 23rd, 2024 at 00:46Listen the current Deep Purple can make music and tour until they drop but please can they just do it in smaller venues ? Gillan voice is shot and yes he has settled with that mid range kind of singing and we all know that the studio technology can cover up the shortcomings,but I watched some recent footage live and the dude is basically mouthing not singing anymore. Yes a 78yo singer that has aboslutely no energy and nothing in his voice,besides being a stubborn mule that refuses to sit down back home.Wjat the hell man? Steve Morse has complained that it was never ending anf this guys should make the tours shorter and i cannot balme him.
June 23rd, 2024 at 00:58@9 said…
qt.”I prefer WDWTWA any day before Burn..although I admit the song Burn got a good riff..If just G H hadn’t done any singing on that song I would give it 5 stars !..
But hey..that’s just me”…
***ROTFLMAO !
I agree mostly, though the Burn album is the last of any real Jon Lord & RB togetherness that is lost from here-on-end, even with the re-union albums…So in many ways it’s the last of any tight musicianship between them to be heard, with maybe a few moments on the live releases to be found.
As for GH, I thought he did well in support of DC, & his bass-work was acceptable, but he will always be the broken-tooth in the DP gearbox, with all that whining BS that came with the package. Poor employment decision for sure.
Alas, as sublime as WDWTWA is, CTTB reveals a new band with a great future ahead, except that broken tooth in the gearbox sheared-off even more, & the whole thing collapsed in a sad state of affairs. Thanks GH. But all is forgiven, as long as you keep your mouth shut…
However, in years to come, it will be albums like Perpendicular, Abandon, even Bananas that will be stirring another rapture-of-the-deep with respect for the most formidable incarnation(s) of the band for new fans, simply because of the timelessness of the music. Not many bands could keep-up with DP musically once Steve joined, & the whole band lifted the game into another level not realized by most people just yet.
And Simon is likely continuing in the same manner with the band, so there’s much to look forward to 🙂 !!!
Peace !
June 23rd, 2024 at 03:07Gregster: “Glenn Hughes’ bass-work was acceptable.”
Ritchie B (based on a recent interview conducted with him by Michael Lorant in the above ‘eclipsed’ feature on Burn):
“Above all, Glenn is for me the best bassist Deep Purple ever had.” (page 34, left column)
“In my view, Glenn’s bass playing and singing (Uwe’s edit: on Burn) was fantastic, but he did not add to the songwriting.” (page 36, right column)
But really, what does Blackmore know with the limited exposure he has had to bass players? Guy can’t even improvise and plays mostly hurdy-gurdies. His assessment of Glenn’s playing is just as irrelevant as Joe Satriani’s,
https://youtu.be/F2eZ2aHzmyo
another guy who couldn’t tell a bass from a fish because they both have scales.
We are blessed 😇 to have the liebe Gregster’s unbiased and clear-visioned assessments to rely on instead, a man who has long recognized bass players as the failed lead guitarists they are.
June 23rd, 2024 at 13:58Yo,
Tennis anyone ???…
Herr Uwe stated…
qt.”But really, what does Blackmore know with the limited exposure he has had to bass players ? Guy can’t even improvise and plays mostly hurdy-gurdies”…
*** Very true Uwe, you’re starting to understand at last.
qt.”(a)We are blessed 😇 to have the liebe Gregster’s unbiased and clear-visioned assessments to rely on, (b)a man who has long recognized bass players as the failed lead guitarists they are”.
***(a) Thank-you !!!
(b). This is quite often the case with people at high-school, where “everyone” wants to play guitar, & someone is relegated the role of bass…
There are very few people that want to actually play the bass & love it in comparison to guitar, by about 20-to-1 from my life’s experience. But those that actually “do” love bass guitar find themselves in demand all the time, & get lots-of-work…
Now, lets retrospectively look at the the asshole RB, & his ideas of how a bass player should play…
1. He only employed people that used a pick.
2. He played bass himself on most of LLR&R because he couldn’t find anyone.
3. And when he did find a bassist that ticked-all-the-boxes & played really, really well, he sacked him at the end of one tour. ( Bob Daisly ).
It’s likely that he now gives GH some accolades because…
1. He’s still alive…
2. He opened the door for him to leave DP in 1975.
3. He secured DP’s death in 1976.
4. He appeals to RB’s kind-side, & feels genuinely sorry for him.
In finishing, I was only expanding on @9’s post, & agreeing mostly with him.
love / 15.
Peace !
June 24th, 2024 at 01:21True, Ritchie had a penchant for pick-playing bass players. I understand, lieber Gregster, that you consider them somehow inferior to finger players. Paul McCartney, Chris Squire and Stuart Hamm were therefore all crap. Thanks, I’m a pick player too (for the same reason as Roger btw, to get myself heard back in the day when bass rigs weren’t what they are today).
There’s exceptions to Ritchie’s rule though: Greg Smith of the last real Rainbow line-up (= Doogie White era):
https://ritchieblackmoresrainbow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/greg-smith.jpg?w=474
Actually a very good bass player who would go on to play with Uncle Ted (who in the past also had a preference for pick-playing bassists, a lot of guitarists in the 70ies had that).
In the 60ies and 70ies there was a preference of many producers + engineers for pick-played bass. Why? Because of the higher immediate attack signal that type of bass playing brings with it, that made it easier with the then available studio technology to place it audibly in a rock music mix. Recording advancements have laid that issue largely to rest.
Roger Glover played with his fingers when he joined DP btw. He only switched to a pick when he found that he had a hard time cutting through live in the general Purple melee. On early Mk II vids you can see him finger-playing. These days – actually since recording with Bob Ezrin – you can see Roger playing with his fingers (he says it’s even his preference) more often again, both live and in the studio. Live, I don’t think their sound benefits from it, Roger’s percussive pick attack with that hifi’sh Vigier bass is key for Purple’s stage wall of sound. Whenever Roger switches to his fingers live, audibility of the bass suffers and Roger’s ‘throb’ is no longer as insistent. I’m splitting hairs, it’s probably something you only really notice if you are a bassist yourself.
And then there are bassists that play with their fingers and sound like pick players (Geddy Lee) or vice versa (Bill Wyman).
Also from eclipsed, page 32, right column, is Ritchie’s comment showing hat his kind side doesn’t really extend to all DP bassists so Glenn obviously got lucky:
“To be perfectly honest, I only learned to appreciate Roger in Rainbow. In Mk II he was the bassist Gillan wanted, so we sacrificed Nick Simper, who in my view was more talented, to get Gillan.”
“Roger always tried to bring in ideas that I really didn’t care for. The one opinion I cared for was Jon’s, I would have never done anything against his will. I might have been the engine of DP, but Jon was always the heart. When I realized in 1975 that he was getting tired/complacent, I formed Rainbow, and when he sided with Gillan in 1993 I just left. I’m glad that we were able to sort all that out before his death, but saddened that he didn’t have enough time left for us to collaborate again.”
Plus from page 37, right column:
“My only mistake (Uwe’s edit: when forming Rainbow) was to not convince Jon to join me on this path. Every keyboarder I had with Rainbow – irrespective of how good he turned out to be – was only a placeholder for Jon.”
June 24th, 2024 at 14:03Yo,
Any tutor book will teach either bass or guitar using a pick, & using finger-style the two methods go hand-in-hand…
The people here that concern us, may not have had the opportunity to learn from a teacher or a book, but the opportunity was there to play in a band, & so you became relegated your roll & instrument by the “better” players, & what was needed. All that mattered was being in a band.
On the basis that you found success & made millions, you hid your inadequacies, because you were rich, & it didn’t matter any-more, since you made it with all your faults & lack-of-knowledge included. eg, you were known as “the Man in Black” lol.
The next generation of players had to lift their own bar to a very high degree to get noticed & employed, so you went from happy-go-lucky people in the 1960’s forming a band, to fully competent technicians available for work by 1980, especially in LA, as that’s where people were being signed by record-labels. And often it proved better to be a “session player” employed for a record than being in a qt. (IG) “Spinal Tap” band.
DP were lucky, & they’ve had that luck almost all their career to survive all the changes, with the best changes coming in 1993 & 1995. This is where the band turned proper professional, & less Spinal Tap.
And as for guitarists turned bassists & their success, for a mere 10-lbs, Noel Redding’s (RIP) career made a change for the better, & he’ll tell you a few things about letting the good times roll. Different time, different era.
love / 30
Peace !
June 25th, 2024 at 01:48There are things that work better with a pick and stuff that lends itself more to finger playing. That forward driving sound in rock? Easier done with a pick though many finger players have tricks to emulate the pick attack. Microrhythm details and a lively groove are generally better put across finger style. Judas Priest wouldn’t sound like it does if Ian Hill (a former finger player) didn’t play with a pick and Iron Maiden wouldn’t be the same if Steve Harris wielded a pick.
DP live doesn’t sound right if there is no pick player on bass. I saw them when Nick Fyffe, a finger player (and a relative of Little Ian), deputized for an ailing Roger at the Kunstrasen Open Air in Bonn – it was interesting to witness, but it was DP on three wheels, not four. Fyffe had done his homework and played well, but it was too bad that Roger couldn’t listen from the audience. He, the man who consistently undersells his contribution to the DP wall of sound, would have been chuffed to hear how important he actually is.
June 25th, 2024 at 09:44@15 Uwe, are the Blackmore comments in the Eclipsed article current or older?
June 25th, 2024 at 18:24They’re current – at least that is what the editor says on page 3 – except of course in the case of Jon Lord where the journalist quotes from an interview he conducted with Jon Lord at an early Whitesnake gig in Aschaffenburg in 1979 (I saw that gig too).
And Jon is quoted along the lines of: “Don’t listen now, David (DC was sitting beside Jon while the interview in 1979 took place), but I had great doubts about dissolving Mk II at the time. Ritchie pulled me over. It’s like when your wife wants a new dress, saying that her old ones look great on her and she doesn’t need a new one is not gonna cut it.” 😂 Also from Jon: “If we had hired Dio after Gillan, perhaps Ritchie might have stayed another two years, but who knows what would have happened then?”
I’m not surprised about Ritchie saying something positive about Glenn’s bass playing, people always mistake Ritchie’s dislike for funk or “shoeshine music” as a dislike of Glenn’s funky bass playing. But that is not the same thing to Ritchie, he checked him out with Trapeze several times, he knew what he was getting and wanted it, that Andy Fraser touch. That is why him having Glenn as a bassist in Reunion-Rainbow was no big deal, he only had issues with Glenn’s voice (not manly enough, though he is also quoted as having had the idea of dual lead vocalists “because I wanted that Lennon/McCartney thing”) and his songwriting (which is why he turned down You Keep On Moving in the Burn sessions, stating: “The album doesn’t need that song.” and getting support for that from Jon Lord: “You all heard what Ritchie said!”), never with his bass playing which he appreciated. Glenn and Little Ian mention that Ritchie simply detested the term “funky”, he would rather refer to Glenn “playing on the offbeat”. so they stopped using it and instead said “like Led Zeppelin” – Ritchie was apparently ok with that and Glenn and Paicey decided to let sleeping dogs lie and not press the issue further.
It is also stated in the eclipsed article that Mistreated originally featured David and Glenn alternating lead vocals, but Ritchie had Glenn‘s vocals wiped and worked on DC to sing it by himself.
And that Bob Ezrin and the original Alice Cooper Group were avid Mk lI fans, using the Purple albums as a sonic reference for their own productions.
Really interesting stuff, debunking some myths.
June 25th, 2024 at 21:46@ 11:
I disagree 100%. And hundreds of thousands of people do so as well. I just got my ticket for the upcoming show in Mannheim and noone had put a gun to my head to buy it. So as long as folks really enjoy the shows and the band is having fun themselves – why stop it?
I’d be really sad for most of us if we stopped doing things just because we can’t do them like in our twenties anymore …
And in fact I like Ian Gillan’s singing a lot. His voice has matured and he doesn’t overdo it, in fact Deep Purple shows are mostly instrumental affairs. He has still got a presence on stage, writes fab lyrics and sounds better than many a man ages younger than him.
June 26th, 2024 at 07:38I know it is against the necessary economics of a touring machine, but I’d love to see DP in a small hall or club. A secret gig under the name of “Jess Thunder & His Roundabouts” perhaps?
I’ll be in Mannheim too!
June 26th, 2024 at 13:45