![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice.jpg)
Pulling out all the stops
German version of the Metal Hammer magazine has an interview with Ian Gillan and Simon McBride in their July 2024 issue, done on the occasion of the new album =1. Quote of the day:
Like its four predecessors, created under the sound direction and with the co-compositional skills of Bob Ezrin, the band around singer Ian Gillan pulls out all the stops and delivers — certainly also thanks to new
guitarist Simon McBride — in a class of its own on all levels.
Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Yo,
Sound like a very good & honest review, by someone with their ears open, & open mind to listen to other current music to compare with. Well done all past albums with Mr.Ezrin it would seem !
Let the good-times-roll !
Peace !
June 28th, 2024 at 01:43I still think Bob told him to play like Steve… 🙂
June 28th, 2024 at 08:26#2
June 28th, 2024 at 11:53Simon, show me a guitarist with personality and attitude who accepts being told by anyone what to play… Really, you think Simon would? I say ‘no’. Our Simon is too clever for that – he’s slowly working on his on stamp to form in Deep Purple. He’s a clever listener – takes bits and pieces from both Steve and Ritchie and mixes it in with us own likings on how to play. And I like it a lot. I’m confident he surely will not sound “like Steve” on new record. Dots of resemblance are only dots, and tasteful ones are they as for what I hear, may I add. He will prove his own claw on the soundstage, I am sure.
Bob was not seen to like all elements of Steve style. I thinks he gave Simon more freedom…
June 28th, 2024 at 13:34Even wanted.. Simon can’t sound like Steve. This things makes no Sense.
June 28th, 2024 at 15:55They swap to this guy insted of slowing a bit.
Steve take the band After Ritchie and everybody was like “no Ritchie no purple”.. he Is a Guitar god so he made it possible. He fit in a band for almost 30 years, now this goofy guy came from nowhere sit on his chair and people are like “he play like Steve and like Ritchie”..”he Is good”..come on..for shure he play Better than me..buy he can’t replace 2 guitar gods..
What does It mean to hire a guy to play 2-3 years insted of keeping Steve and slow down?! Instead of respecting the guy that took they’re band and give It future. They now this thing’s going to end someday.
In my opinion they step on a shit this time.
Maybe i dont have a open mind.. but I mind what I listen
#4
June 28th, 2024 at 17:36I agree Ezrin restricted Morse ,even when he was in Kansas, when Ezrin arrived you can immediately perceive the restrictions on his playing.
#5
Quello, you do forget one important thing. Gillan, Glover, Paice and Airey might not be here in few years, they are 75-80. As Freddie once sang, “time waits for nobody”. Also, to widen your perspective – find yourself an interview of Rick Beato with Steve. He might have been for 28 years with the band but even after he left – he expressed still and on not feeling totally comfortable in that role. Plus he was ignored in his stance to require a slow down. All this, and the circumstances with Janine, might have made him want to go his way. I love him as a human, most lovable and humble person and a genius musician. I adore many of his solo things and many he has come up with in DP. Still my purple sense of hearing had some “beef” with some of his preferred elements of playing style. They do belong on Morse records, but not necessarily blend with DP sound. Hence – I prefer Simon to get the fold to carry on and I like what he does. With no disrespect to all Steve’s achievements.
Was it all played in the bad manner by the members of DP? Who are we to tell? One could say the same was done by Chris Squire and Steve Howe in Yes circa 2010 when they didn’t wait for Jon Anderson to recover for anniversary tour. Before long Mr Squire was not with us anymore… They all sense the clock ticking and maybe it informs their decisions. Who are we to condemn that?
June 28th, 2024 at 19:42@ #3, Thorsun:
It really depends if you want to have a producer because that guy will interfere with your playing to a certain degree. If you don’t want one you can do whatever you like. It doesn’t necessarily mean that people want to hear it.
June 28th, 2024 at 19:42Simon says in one of his many Purple-related interviews in the German mags that if you want to pin him down to two influences then these are Gary Moore and Steve Lukather – as you would expect from someone who learned guitar as a child in the 80ies. If you want to make it three, then add Joe Satriani, he says. Neither Ritchie nor Tommy nor Steve were guitarists he patterned himself after, but he did grow up in a household where his dad listened to the Brit Trinity of Heavy Rock frequently, i.e. Zep, Purple & Sabbath, so that left a mark too. And playing with Sweet Savage as a very young adult gave him a heavy metal influence though he followed that immediately by playing for six years for ex-Commitments Andrew Strong, which gave him a Rhythm & Blues foundation.
Simon is from a different generation (even Steve Morse will be turning 70 this year!) and has different influences to all his DP-predecessors, isn’t it rather a moot point to now determine whether he’s the new BlackMor(s)e? Even Blackmore couldn’t really be the Blackmore of the 70ies today anymore, he’s unfortunately proven that.
Also in one of those lengthy German interviews, Gillan observed that one big difference between Steve and Simon is that Steve in essence approached any song as an instrumental and that he (Gillan) wasn’t even sure whether Steve listened to his vocal melodies. He hastens to add that Steve wasn’t DP’s guitarist for almost 30 years for nothing and that he often created magic with his approach of weaving intricate musical arrangements, but that Simon has a more singer-focused way of songwriting (Uwe: perhaps from all these years with Andrew Strong?) and that his riffing and rhythm guitar is more propulsive.
I’m just quoting, don’t shoot the messenger!
Oh, and unrelated: Little Ian calls Come Taste The Band a very important album for the development of Purple – even though the Bolin era was so short – because it showed them how much they could deviate from the tried and trusted formula with DC and Glenn bringing in Blues & Funk while Tommy contributed Soul influences. Plus that Tommy was great at recording in the studio, but incredibly fickle and easy to be distracted live which made him unreliable on stage.
June 28th, 2024 at 19:48#5 and one more thing Quelle
You cite people who said in 1994 “No Ritchie – no Purple”. And now YOU go “No Steve – no Purple”. Where’s the consequence in that? What’s the logic?
Either you accept that it’s the collective sound that makes the name and trademark or… You have the war of lineups. IG himself refuses to acknowledge MkIII to V and on and eat cetera… You don’t like the sound now – you have 3 decades of recordings to cherish.
June 28th, 2024 at 19:57#5 :
June 28th, 2024 at 21:29Simon is not a phenomenon like Steve, that’s for sure….but it’s equally true that in the last few records Steve had lost freshness, while Simon has reinvigorated the sound and made the songs more immediate and digestible, this is a great point in his favor even if he is a “Mr. nobody”
@ Uwe #9:
I read the same interview and was quite a bit surprised about the things big Ian had to say. Wasn’t he saying for years, if not decades, that Purple is an instrumental band first?
I get all the PR bla they have to go through with the new album ahead, because “new is new” and so there have to be exciting new things to praise. But to assume Steve wasn’t listening… don’t know. Doesn’t sound fair, does it?
My point is: there’s no need to belittle the past to be excited for future…
@Fla76 #11:
June 29th, 2024 at 00:30Yeah, I get your point. The last records seemed a bit more tame on the guitar side. I always wondered if it had something to do with Ezrin producing…?
While within the same period Steve contributed to stellar Flying Colors records…
Guess we’ll never know.
LOL !
There are countless amazing musicians out there, that can do amazing musical expressions that identify themselves, & plenty of these people are guitarists.
The hardest part in playing in a band, is getting-along with everyone, & typically with all the love & effort poured-in, 18-months, maybe 2-years is about the amount of time before everything turnes-to-shyte, & people move-on, or a band dissolves…
DP have been there & done that, & all this they’ve gone through before, so give them some credit & a dash of wisdom in selecting Simon, & deciding to continue on as a band.
Steve made an important decision, & will be honoured for his decisions & contributions for ever. Quite a difficult set-of-circumstances to have to deal with, but he did make the right choice obviously…And so did the band…Both are happy & still playing music.
Let’s look forward to the next few albums at least. The band may have another 10-years left in it, who knows ?…But Simon is the right-guy, have no doubt here. He’s one of countless capable guitarists, but what he has seems to be the chemistry needed to get along with everyone, & not be a “useless bitch” like some other members were before him.
We have everything to look forward to. Relax, & enjoy the music !
Peace !
June 29th, 2024 at 01:41What’s a phenomenon? Some people would say a 12-year old kid that plays like this is:
https://youtu.be/vwlWgYsyp1k?si=UTqVNkzL6onrN06X
I doubt Ritchie and Tommy played like this at age 12, Joe S and Steve might, but likely not any better.
Is Simon an early stylist and innovator like Ritchie? Nope, those days are gone and 50 years of rock since Ritchie left everyone gaping has seen guitar playing develop technically, but perhaps become less idiosyncratic as individual players go. Is Simon as technically impeccable as Steve was in his heyday before his arm started acting up? No, but then who was/is?
I think the kid from Belfast is objectively pretty darn good. It’s hard to imagine in this day and age someone of his generation who plays considerably better and would be a better fit for Purple. I would also assume that someone like Don Airey who has played with Gary Moore, Bernie Marsden, Ritchie, Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, Michael Schenker, John Sykes, Brian May, Uli Jon Roth, Glenn Tipton and last but not least Steve Morse should have a pretty good idea what makes a good guitarist.
BTW, I liked what Simon said in one of the German interviews about age and how it affects other Purple members: “I’m 45 and can no longer do some of the shredding stuff I used to do either. Who cares? I play like I play today.”
June 29th, 2024 at 04:55Steve was a borinh guitar player.This record will proove this…
June 29th, 2024 at 05:49Wrong energy here, welcome Simon to the DP family,we DP fans can be blessed in 20 days, the new DP album will be released
June 29th, 2024 at 07:32I remember… in 2003, the “Bananas” tour, four of us big DP fans drove 700 kilometers by car to see DP because maybe it was the last album, the last tour? maybe the last time we see them and listen to our favorite band? because Gillan and company were in serious old RnR years then,….21 years ago!
The complaints that people have about Simon McBride are so weird to me, because the first time I heard Simon, he was playing Deep Purple material on the CD version of the Contractual Obligation album by Don and Ian, and I was like “Who is this guy?” And it wasn’t about flash or technique or about him pushing the right buttons for me, or even about his stage performance, because I couldn’t see him. Hearing him just felt right. To me, most of the time, even very good non-Purple players still sound like a one-dimensional, flattened interpretation of the original, like they get one aspect of the part right but at the expense of everything else. Simon, on that recording, sounded like the whole package.
Then came the rumor, which may or may not have been true at the time, but the rumor was definitely there, that Simon was to be Steve’s understudy in case Steve was unable to perform. I could imagine him in that spot and the idea was delightful. As, it turned out, the reality was for me. If I ever go see Deep Purple live again, Simon will be the main attraction for me.
June 29th, 2024 at 07:41@15 You are entitled to your opinion but Steve was/is not a “borinh” guitar player!! I’m looking forward to the new release very much, I will miss SM but look forward to SMc with the band. Morse had a life changing tragedy and had no choice but to leave otherwise I think he would still be in Purple. I’m looking forward to August to see them and hope Gillan is sounding better!
June 29th, 2024 at 15:34I know how most of you guys here don’t give a rat’s ass about the rhythm guitar work of a DP guitarist 😁, but I’ll say it: He’s the best rhythm player Purple have had since Tommy Bolin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgbHPB3Gx0E
And that is something because Bolin was just great on rhythm. And Simon’s rhythm playing attracted me to him even before even his lead style (which took me some getting used to since I don’t generally worship at the altar of Gary Moore though I have tried). DP lost some of their rolling groove when Jon – that Keith Richards of Hammond rhythm playing -, called it a day because Don has a jazzier, more angular approach. Maybe now with Simon in the band some of that “roll” returns, that would be a nice thing.
Steve was an incredibly precise and creative rhythm player too, but he didn’t really entice you to move your butt. Simon does. And while Ritchie could set highlights with his terse and sparse rhythm style, “rhythm guitar” was really defined by him as “the thing I sometimes have to do between taking breathtaking solos and throwing awesome rock star shapes” 😆 (I’m putting words into his mouth, he never actually said that).
For all you Ritchie acolytes: In one of the German interviews (there are by now so many in various German music magazines that I get confused, never read as many DP interviews in as short a time span as in the last two weeks or so), Simon stated that without a doubt Ritchie was the most influential player for what DP stands for. And he added how the interplay beteween guitar and Hammond defines the band plus that it worked best between Ritchie and Jon and also Steve and Jon, but perhaps not quite as well between Steve and Don – he tries to get some of that sparkle back now.
June 29th, 2024 at 20:07Ritchie was 50 doing the STRANGERS IN US ALL album/tour.
He seemed on fire.
So Simon is getting prematurely old?
June 29th, 2024 at 21:14Good luck to them all, but even though i am looking forward to the new album , i think the tour is too long and big Ian won’t last it out. I hope i am wrong but I will give Manchester a miss. The long good bye tour was a great night and that memory will stay with me, for the first time my love for the band as lessened.
June 29th, 2024 at 21:38Electric six string guitarists are a dime a dozen in this world, just like so many other musicians. So many that never get any recognition in the main stream. Simon McBride happens to be in the right place at the right time. A very good guitarist & good luck to him & he more than anyone is very well aware of his situation, grabbing it with both hands etc. To imply it is anymore than that is pointless. A child prodigy musician, so what, how many more were & are still out there? There could be someone living around the corner who could ‘wipe the floor’ with any other guitarist, where does this end? Let it be. Cheers.
June 29th, 2024 at 23:10DP were at their best when they weren’t perfect. Simon is indeed great at rhythm, so much so that he overplays the rhythm part to HS, which was very effectice in the first place. Not to mention Anya, where the same precise execution is applied (and not to great effect). These are very minor complaints in the big picture. More concerning is the way he plays his solos note for note from one night to another, leaving very little room for improvisation, which used to tbe band’s biggest trademark. I don’t think it’s because he’s not able to, but for some reason this is the approach he has chosen. If Airey would have been a little more adventurous, maybe this would have rubbed off on Simon too. Hopefully it will change over time.
June 30th, 2024 at 06:39I will always love DP, they are my favourite band ever, so I welcome Simon to the band, I drove a long way to see them in Italy last year. However, I second QuelloCheHaRagione, Steve deserved more respect in his family situation. Steve made possible the band to keep being a credible Rock actor with fresh and original music, walking in very difficult shoes for years. Slowing down was more than an option. Age matters, I know, but human feelings do as well. In any case, Long Live Deep Purple. I do not have the impression that Mc Bride is at the same level of his predecessors, but I will be happy to say I’m wrong.
June 30th, 2024 at 06:49Yo,
Rock asked…
qt.”Ritchie was 50 doing the STRANGERS IN US ALL album/tour.
He seemed on fire….
So Simon is getting prematurely old ?…
***
No, not at all…As a guitarist now in my 50’s, I suggest that Simon is referring to giving each musical moment its “worth in time”…This means that as much as we all love shredding (*which is often musical venting & searching for the right note / phrase btw ), giving the full value of a targeted-note over a specific chord has much more merit, & carries more musical weight & correctness, plus sits better, than the other possible “x” amount of notes you could have played in there instead.
There are no rules, simply choices, & as you get older, melody becomes more important sometimes than a shred…(I still like to shred, & in my recordings, often the solo is the end result after 6 or so shreds through the passage, so that “better” phrases are timed & used).
Peace !
June 30th, 2024 at 08:04I can tolerate a little shredding, but I don’t miss it if a guitarist eschews it totally: David Gilmour, Mick Ronson, Francis Rossi, Mick Taylor, Billy Gibbons and Mark Knopfler can all entertain me plenty fine. I’m not really the type to admire athletic feats. Was Alvin Lee’s intro to Goin’ Home shredding? If so, then that was a case of shredding I like(d), but the guitar playing in, say, Dream Theater puts me to sleep. I was at a gig once, it was a real chore to listen to it all. Playing fast gets boring quickly to my ears.
BTW: I don’t think that Ritchie was still at his peak in the 90ies. Already come the reunion in 1984 he was to my ears no longer as naturally fluid as he had been on Made in Japan. He sometimes attempted to play even faster than in the 70ies, but it didn’t really work, too many stops and starts, maybe he began overthinking things, Don Airey has often mentioned that Ritchie’s overthinking of his solos sometimes stood in his way when compared to Randy Rhoads, Michael Schenker or Gary Moore.
In any case, being fast was never the reason why I adored Ritchie’s playing, even in the majestic Highway Star solo I prefer the melodic runs of the first and middle parts to the twiddly-twiddly neo-classical end (which is still entertaining, tasteful and of course well-executed). The way Ritchie bends notes and his vibrato + his slide playing are all way more important to me than his pick going back and forth at 200 mph. I guess I cannot listen as fast as some people like to play.
Steve’s occasional shredding was always the part of his guitar playing I cared the least for.
June 30th, 2024 at 14:46Terry has hit the nail on the head.
June 30th, 2024 at 15:57