![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey2.jpg)
In jazz we trust
Back in 2006 Don Airey and Ian Paice performed at the ProLight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt, Germany. Turns out that a recording was up on Youtube all this time, without us being aware. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
Don Airey — keyboards
Ian Paice — drums
Thomas Blug — guitar
Alvin Mills — bass
Thijs van Leer — flute, vocals, & additional keyboards
Mario Argandoña — percussion
Fun fact: the opening tune is a none other than the Billy Cobham’s ubiquitous fusion standard Stratus, originally performed on the Cobham’s 1973 solo album Spectrum by Tommy Bolin. That recording quite possibly led Tommy to land the Purple gig.
Thanks to Thomas Blug for the video and to Nigel Young for bringing it to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Wring That Neck is a fantastic number.
November 15th, 2024 at 08:03I heard it live at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014 and then I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t even do 1 minute of this song live!
Yo,
Great post !
Adonai !
November 16th, 2024 at 00:03@2
November 16th, 2024 at 14:46Ok, Gregster what does ‘Adonai’ mean?😊
You write every time in the end, and I’ve googled it but was not any wiser… will you please enlighten me.
Karin, you are not a very good researcher, I must say. Typically female, can do 1.000 things at the same time with ease, but nothing ever thoroughly … 🤣
https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Adonai/adonai.html
We poked fun at Gregster for always ending his posts with “Peace!” so then he altered his outro to something similarly meaningful to non-agnostics. In his continuous reference to higher powers he is now almost a match to his beloved Glenn Hughes, who’d have thought?! 😈
When God dished out spiritualism, he forgot all about me.
November 16th, 2024 at 21:10Yo,
@3 asked…
qt.”Ok, Gregster what does ‘Adonai’ mean”?…
***There’s a book series known as “The Law of One” (that’s freely available for downloading if anyone’s interested from L/L Research), & the main character being interviewed always ended a Q /A session with that expression. I suggest it simply means “all the best”, though it likely has a different meaning for different people that read through the awesome contents.
For years I used to simply sign-off a post with “Peace” until someone stated that they used it first, & I was doing the RB thing & ripping-them-off, so I changed it lol !
Adonai !
November 16th, 2024 at 22:51This stuff is muso-jammy, but real good and with a sound and playing quality worthy of an official release – anybody listening?
When Don turns jazzy he really is on his home turf – much like Jon was when he played classical.
Thomas Blug is a fine guitarist.
Fla76, IIRC than both Morse/Airey and Mcbride/Airey have traded Wring That neck/Hard Road melody live in extended guitar/organ exchanges.
Always liked that instrumental, right from the Mk I version of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khj5M141L_w
November 17th, 2024 at 01:13@4
November 17th, 2024 at 12:02I did Google, and was a bit puzzled of the result I found, so that’s why I asked 😅
Is it good decorum to have a signature to end each feature?
@5
Thanks Gregster 😊
Adonai does also mean God in the Hebrew text, so I was just a little puzzled.
Peace is a very good signature, or you could go Hebrew again and use Shalom! 😄
November 17th, 2024 at 12:07One could also use.
世界平和 – Sekai heiwa – World peace in japanese.
November 17th, 2024 at 18:35@ 4- who are ‘We’. I thought it was you that mentioned that Uwe, no one else unless I missed something. Anyway why not just use DIO if you want God? It would fit into this site much better. Keep it in the family etc. All hail Dio, sounds much better don’t you think? Cheers.
November 17th, 2024 at 21:30From what I hear online of the live material of DP these days it is Don Airey keeping the band from just running through the motions. He is THE avant-garde man in so many ways & he always has had that in his approach to music, both classical & jazz big time. Cheers
November 17th, 2024 at 21:40Yo,
@8…
Yes, there’s lots of interpretations for the word for sure, & this also proves the inaccuracies of the internet, & / or its limitations. If you check-out the book-set, I’m sure you’ll find your own interpretation lol.
I simply use it to say all-the-best !
Adonai !
November 17th, 2024 at 23:29Don is quirky as a keyboarder, that’s not a bad characteristic for that type of instrument. Though Jon would sometimes play something humorous on his organ, he wasn’t really quirky, more earthy-organic. There was a stronger RnB vibe going on with Jon, he also had more of a funky touch which came out especially with Mk IV and PAL. Don’s approach to the instrument is cooler/jazzier, but no less pivotal for how Purple sounds today.
November 18th, 2024 at 15:05Don Airey has restored the old time ‘musical’ element into Purple that was there originally from Blackmore. Breaking into a few classic melodies, movie themes, cartoons even, nursery rhymes & other well known musical pieces from any era. That always raises a smile & usually receives a nice reaction from an appreciative audience. Most people love old time melodies of any sort & that ‘vintage’ red wine that Airey enjoys does invoke a sense of good time indeed. In fact I cannot think of anyone else in that role, DP were indeed very lucky to get hold of him after Jon Lord. He would have grabbed that opportunity to get into a permanent band as such, as he has always drifted around all over the place. The Rainbow connection was already there from Roger Glover & well done calling Airey up for that fill in gig or two back then. Don Airey is the last in the line of those British keyboard maestros, no more after him I am afraid. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/don-airey-keyboard-ozzy-osbourne-rainbow
November 18th, 2024 at 21:36@14
November 19th, 2024 at 07:23MacGregor, I distinctly remember when Jon Lord retired, I was so sad because in my mind no one in the world could take over successfully after him!
Was I wrong 😃
Don Airey is really an amazing musician and he has the finesse and charm that flowed from Jon Lord in abundance .
I don’t miss Jon musically in DP, I miss him visually! He threw great dramatic shapes at the Hammond, that throwing his head back in fully erect pose stuff and all. Don is more the mad professor/session muso type with his on stage demeanor.
I’d put it this way: Jon was exciting to watch, Don is entertaining.
But in terms of pure technique, Don is the more accomplished player, Jon never studied piano at university. Jon had more warmth and groove though, the Hammond-Keith Richards.
November 19th, 2024 at 16:15@ 15 – yes Mr Airey wasn’t only a excellent replacement musically speaking Karin, but his easy going attitude was what was also needed. Come to think of it, all the keyboard players in the major bands seem to be like that, unlike all the other moody & feisty characters that dominate everything. Probably all that piano playing that keeps them calm & reflective, not aggressive & loud like all the other musicians with their screaming amplifiers & all that posturing & gesturing. Excepting all innocent drummers of course. Cheers.
November 19th, 2024 at 19:59Don of course has his place in Purple, but try as I might I don’t remember ever seeing him like this …
https://media1.tenor.com/m/39z_8dT7-hQAAAAC/jon-lord-deep-purple.gif
Das Auge isst mit!
Only Gregg Giuffria of ANGEL was purdier as a keyboarder than our beloved Jon! And as it is the SEASON, I will treat you and your raging endorphins with some real eye candy, Karin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb94sdt7xVw
Don’t thank me, we’re an equal opportunity website after all. And lest we forget, these five handsome hunks “all dressed up exactly like Freddie Mercury” (as Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe once scoffed after having toured with ANGEL) were responsible for resurrecting erstwhile Deep Purple producer Derek Lawrence from approaching retirement to produce their first two albums. Gregg Giuffria was a Mk I fan, would you believe?
He had his own band in the mid-80ies which had a handful of AOR hits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj0LJApW7Ok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJb2lJ4mCw
[Bed sheet shot of Gregg @01:06!]
While Gregg was throwing his blond mane, Don was relegated in those years to some stage prop tower balcony in the upper left hand corner with Ozzy, you see a glimps of him @ 02:24 (in case anbody wonders: the curly-haired blond guitarist is Brad Gillis of Night Ranger):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArrAUlCm3pU
As time wore on, Don was allowed on stage with Ozzy, though still on the very far left and in the back dimly lit, but you can see him here at 04:48 and 14:16 doing trademark intros:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9nZ8gla9Js
That was likely the best Ozzy line-up ever though it didn’t last long even by Ozzy standards: Carmine Appice on drums, Bob Daisley on bass, Don on keyboards and Jake E. Lee on guitar. [I will get stoned for this, but I preferred Jake to the by now mythological Randy Rhoads and I’ve actually seen Randy live. Let me just say this: Mr Accurate he wasn’t …]
November 20th, 2024 at 04:12@17
“ Excepting all innocent drummers of course.” But of course MacGregor 😄
Personally I really really enjoy to watch the drummer in Georgia Satellites, especially in this:
https://youtu.be/w1jc_Vn7T6g?si=KO_kRoxsv74g-EfJ
With the red spot pointing at him he reminds me so much of my favourite character in the Muppet Show:
https://youtu.be/Rn47g72_MaQ?si=zmub8Sd7j0dicv2A
Don Airey is really a lovely addition to the best band in the world 🤩
November 20th, 2024 at 07:46Pah …poor old Jon Lord … easily replaced by Don Airey according to Karin and Uwe. And if it wasn’t for the poses he threw … I am devastated! Give or take a few piano lessons and the fact that Don might be the better player technically he never, not for a minute, had the majestic grandezza of Jon. To these ears he is much more prog rock – and sure did push the band in that direction – than Jon ever was. Don has a lot of sounds on offer, sure, but as for me: I don’t need them. I wish he would stick to hammond and piano more. Those b-movie sounds (Vincent Price anyone?) he creates sometimes ruin the song for me. But after all he did contribute to a lot of Metal albums … He is an ace player no doubt and as far as I can tell a very very nice person (and besides that the only possible replacement for Jon Lord) but I cannot agree with Uwe not missing JL musically. I found his desparture as hard a hit to the band as Ritchie’s in fact. The band was another one after he had gone. A more progrock one, the growl, the excitement, the magic was gone, guitar wise and keyboard wise.
November 20th, 2024 at 07:59@18
“ I will treat you and your raging endorphins with some real eye candy, Karin:” <- 😆😂😂 ‘rating endorphins’, ohh man you are a very very funny man, do you do the same when you’re lawyering? I would LOVE to watch one day!
Sadly no the endearing band you are linking my endorphins to, is lacking almost everything 😄
“ Gregg Giuffria was a Mk I fan, would you believe?” – yeah, because I believe everything, EVERYTHING, you write in here 🤓
I have to admit something to you, completely in privacy:
I am not fond of Ozzy at all! I think he is trying so hard to be something he really isn’t! He is almost desperate in his attempts to come on as a dangerous, devil may care, glint in the eye, kind-of-heavy singer, but actually all he was and is, is this old guy who appeared bewildered and not at all sane! I guess his wife is the real heroine of that family.
Had you linked this one:
https://youtu.be/fvPtsSFEzLs?si=sqIlit5uTd7IEfDX
My endorphins would have raged on 🤩
Ok I wouldn’t have recognised Don A in that video, live in Dortmund, hadn’t you pointed him out!
Regarding your fear of getting stoned, isn’t it an advantage not to be accurate? I seem to remember some of you dear people in here almost harassing Steve Morse for being too accurate?
I have a question:
Where is Steve Morris these days?
When I Google his name the little person in Google gets all confused and thinks I mean Steve Morse….. (to ensure you: I do know it’s not a little person hiding that gets me almost all the info I need 😉)
And the very charming bassist in Gillan, John something, (sorry I’m terrible with names) is he still active as a musician?
Somehow this one does also get my inner colours raging!
https://youtu.be/8Tw36hzJC1c?si=cdhwQuZKOpdJ2IJ8
November 20th, 2024 at 08:14@ 18 – [I will get stoned for this, but I preferred Jake to the by now mythological Randy Rhoads and I’ve actually seen Randy live. Let me just say this: Mr Accurate he wasn’t …] I didn’t realise you smoked Uwe??????????? Seriously though & why should Randy Rhoads be Mr Accurate? Every musician has their better or worse nights & those couple of live Ozzy clips online & Rhoads is great on those. Cheers.
November 20th, 2024 at 08:31Yo,
@18 stated…
qt.”I will get stoned for this, but I preferred Jake to the by now mythological Randy Rhoads and I’ve actually seen Randy live. Let me just say this: Mr Accurate he wasn’t”…
Randy Rhoads is regarded in a similar vein to Tommy Bolin, though his demise was much more tragic, especially since he was “straight” & clean-cut according to Ozzy. Every city they ever played whilst on tour, Randy would search-out a music shop & take a lesson from whoever was available. He had a great attitude to life & music, & for such a young upcoming musician a tragic ending. Another loss due to an aeroplane incident.
How much longer he would have stayed-on with Ozzy is speculative, but Ozzy states Randy was over the R&R life, so it’s possible, even likely he would have given-it-all away from what Ozzy says in his autobiography, even if he didn’t pass-on.
As for his playing, all I’ve ever heard are the studio cuts, & I certainly would have liked to be able to come up with the killer riff / tune “Crazy Train”…Another great player lost too soon by all accounts.
Adonai !
November 20th, 2024 at 10:28@20
No sweetie, not easily replaced, not at all, I was just so relived with the magnificent Don A, because I was really heartbroken when Jon L stopped.
I didn’t know about his serious illness 🥺
I’m happy for Deep Purple they godt Don A!
Would I still have like Jon L was in the band? Undoubtedly!
But when life happened as it did, Don A is a very good replacement!
As Uwe said Jon L was magnificent to watch, but I honestly feel he was THE one to launch Child in Time! Oh boy I’m in tears every time I hear that tune, not only because of Ian G’s phenomenal performance but also because Jon L added something very valuable 😍
And Ritchie B certainly was not half-bad either! (Means he was great Uwe!)
Would I have loved for RB to stay in Deep Purple?
In a heartbeat ☺️ but the chemistry between people is NOT easy to rule over, and unfortunately the bad blood between Ian G and RB was unavoidable.
Would I have loved MK ll to have been playing today?
YEAH 😍
I don’t think it’s a big secret how I feel about RB’s guitar playing, (I’m not saying the three other replacements wasn’t/isn’t wonderful because they were/are) but he was completely poetic, he had the finesse and the love for the music ingrained in his fingertips, and together with the other 4 guys it was MAGIC!
But as my mum used to say: no need to cry over spilled coffee, and I did have to go on and find the new constellations breathtaking, I didn’t have to force myself to find them to be wonderful, because they are, but a big part of me would have enjoyed status quo (not the band Uwe!) immensely 😍
November 20th, 2024 at 13:08I prefer Jake E Lee’s cleaner Super-Strat sound – Randy is too murky and overdriven for me. I saw him open with Ozzy for warly WS, compared to then seasoned pros like Moody and Marsden, his guitar sound was all over the place and his timing ‘over-enthusiastic’, I wasn’t impressed at all except for his Mick Ronson type good looks.
But perhaps I just heard more Blackmore in Jake E Lee than in Randy and found his playing therefore more familiar and immediately accessible. If you go through Ozzy sites, the battle still rages on as regards who was the better guitarist. I found that Jake had more control over his guitar playing, but maybe wild inspiration was part of Randy’s charm.
November 20th, 2024 at 14:20Call me old-fashioned, Herr MacGregor, but with a guitar hero I do appreciate accuracy and playing in time. It’s that anally retentive Kraut in me, sorry.
Those Randy Rhoads vids with Ozzy on YouTube? Don’t make me laugh, if you think that those are how the Randy Rhoads/Rudy Sarzo/Tommy Aldridge line-up sounded with Ozzy singing then you probably think that Kim Kardashian’s butt is real too. I SAW AND HEARD that line-up while you were still chucking Bumerangs waiting for them to return. 😂 With Slade following them ahead of WS, that was the dif between a shit-tight outfit seasoned by many years of playing (= Slade) and excited young men (= Ozzy’s crew). I know that is a contrarian thing to say, but Ozzy with Randy wasn’t the most pro outfit and sounded frayed around the edges. But of course he now has this saintly status.
***************************************
Max, your post has shattered me, I have sinned, vergib mir. I missed Jon like hell when he left, but I had felt it coming for years. And Don was very angular in his playing-style initially (he still is more angular than sleazy ole Jon!), but I thought: Give the new kid some time to adapt, eventually he’ll come round (prior to DP, Don had never played in a band that emphasized improvisation as much as them) – and he did! I don’t mind at all that he is less a Hammond die hard, he’s Don not Jon!
November 20th, 2024 at 19:11I hear you in regards to Jake E Lee, a fine guitar player indeed. I did buy & listen to Bark At The Moon a lot back then & also some live recordings. However the songwriting is also what comes into play. The drop off in quality composition was palpable, disappointing & predictable. Randy Rhoads was playing rock ‘n roll, we all know that is a bit of the wild side. He wasn’t that serious about it from what we hear. He was much more serious about classical music & guitar teaching etc. All aboard the crazy train, yes unfortunately for Randy it was just that & how tragic. That is what I like about his playing, he isn’t too polished like so many were & we know what did occur along those lines with so many technically gifted guitarists. Technique over feel, ruins it in so many ways. You were ‘lucky’ in getting to see that lineup. Was it the debut band (Kerslake & Daisley) or a tad later with the changed lineup, it sounds like the changed lineup era. Cheers.
November 20th, 2024 at 20:20I’ve seen Daisley with Widowmaker, Rainbow and Gary Moore and Lee Kerslake with Uriah Heep, but I never saw them with Ozzy, I don’t think the original line-up ever toured Germany. Sarzo and Aldridge of course looked the part, but they did not have Daisley’s and Kerslake’s inherent musicality. And Rudy, while gorgeous to look at when throwing shapes and licking his bass, had none of the cool authority of Daisley on the instrument. To be fair, he was under strict orders of Ozzy to not really deviate in his playing from the original bass lines of Daisley and Geezer Butler.
Black Sabbath and Ozzy never had the popularity in Germany until much much later. The fact that I saw Ozzy on a three-act-bill opening for Slade and Whitesnake in 1980/81 should tell you something. In fact, as a teenager I don’t remember a single person who was a marked Sabbath fan in Germany (they were reasonably popular alright, but nobody’s favorite band). They never played in the really large halls, but the mid-sized ones in the 70s and 80s (also with Dio and Gillan) and their popularity was more in the league of UFO and Nazareth (B-league of heavy rock bands) than in the one of DP and Led Zep. Uriah Heep was in Germany way more popular than Sabbath ever was. I understand that this is different in the UK and the US, but Sabbath with Ozzy wasn’t really regarded as a serious musical option in Germany. Not like DP or LZ.
And Ozzy’s solo band was perceived as a novelty outfit, no one worshipped at Randy Rhoads’ altar yet either. On the night I saw him, he was simply the sloppiest guitarist of the five guitarists I saw (the other four were Dave Hill, Noddy Holder, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody – to be fair: Randy was five to ten years younger than all of them and did not share their considerable experience). Randy had a guitar with polka dots, big deal.
And if you’re seeing Jim Lea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFU5vawwUJk
and Neil Murray the same night, bare-chested Latin Lover Rudy
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/47/20/f0472087ef4ec3db1b03ba2d8c91c0d8.jpg
doesn’t leave too much of an impression either.
I know, I know, none of this is politically opportune to write today, everything Randy touched was of course gold and Ozzy is a note-perfect, charismatic singer and never a buffoon, Tommy Aldridge doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him (unlike Lee Kerslake) and never sounds technical, but always groovy, and Rudy Sarzo is this Playgirl magazine centerfold.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/80a26702224c00338fb4da34a50a74b0/27b517914fa1e967-d0/s540x810/ff236b7bf0fa43826f24555e7dacb6727093a69c.jpg
That night, however, they were simply the least impressive of all three bands and only had a so-so reaction from the crowd while Slade went down well with people who had otherwise come to see DC, Little Ian and Jon Lord. You can’t beat experience.
So it goes. “Mr Hornung (dun-dun-dun), what went on in your head?”
https://www.otago.ac.nz/english-linguistics/english/lowry/content/11_mysticism/d_people/d_img/DL_crowley.png
November 20th, 2024 at 23:05See, I thought ‘Bark At The Moon’ a well-rounded album and better produced than the first two, horses for courses!
And of course it featured this wonderful nugget, which ELO-fan girl Karin will swoon over because it will pull all the right levers with her …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYomVbcJKhI
With my reputation already ruined as not worshiping at the Randy Rhoads altar, may I add something even more uncool? I like Ozzy best when he does ballads because he can sing the cheesiest melodies without sounding cheesy.
For some home practice, Karin 😘:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeH89aLY5i0
When Ozzy is in his John Lennon mode, I like that too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCCiwPEdEpg
November 20th, 2024 at 23:24@29
Uwe, I’ll have to reveal this to you:
I’m an ordinary person, with very little wit and no personality to speak of!
My interests are few, my music taste is one-sided, I’m attracted to the simple things in life, and I don’t know very many musicians or bands.
I do know I dislike Ozzy very much, also your beloved EP, but I adore Deep Purple and their current vocalist!
I’m attracted to good old rock’n’roll, and voices mean everything to me!
This one is truly a masterpiece:
https://youtu.be/uIaXva9akfs?si=hcfdqxcataPiMKlu
And I love almost everything these guys have made!
I also like this, written by Ringo Star if I’m not mistaken:
https://youtu.be/r0uSLM8ndYM?si=ByLapXpgVzxFGa4o
That pretty much sums up my life!
So I’m grateful you all in here present me with new bands I’ve never heard of, or genres I don’t know very well 🤗😘 thanks so much 🙌🏼
Oh forgot these guys:
https://youtu.be/Ndnidos5HRU?si=uW-LckbpDGfhy7JO
Still practising the drumstick-twirling ☺️
Have a lovely day everybody 👋🏼👋🏼
November 21st, 2024 at 08:09“Ok I wouldn’t have recognised Don A in that video, live in Dortmund, hadn’t you pointed him out!”
Well, Don was once a young man too, Karin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ENohs_QRM
And he knew how to dress for the occasion (@00:15):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azw4Kh8Rqpw
November 21st, 2024 at 09:55I have to back up Uwe’s memory here…Sabbath and Ozzy hadn’t a following like DP, LZ or even Heep and Quo – both of which were big over here – in Germania. Ozzy was more of a fun act…you could scare parents and teachers with…bat’s heads et al …but noone got over excited with the songs …like people did with, say, CIT, Stairway, Free Bird…
November 21st, 2024 at 09:56I mean Ozzy opened for DC who wasn’t a superstar in 1980, just filling medium halls. I remember David on a radio show (SWF3?) the morning before a Whitesnake show…telling the joc he asked Ozzy not to bite the heads of bats because he’d wear white boots on stage and didn’t want to have blood on them…:-)
“Somehow this one does also get my inner colours raging!
https://youtu.be/8Tw36hzJC1c?si=cdhwQuZKOpdJ2IJ8 ”
Ignoring for a minute that Les Humphries admitted to have swiped this from here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sTDd55Kc9U
you are aware, liebe Karin, that the lead singer is John Lawton, better known from Uriah Heep?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c4wHbaQ9a0
And that he was once slated to be the replacement for your beloved Ian Gillan, being invited by DP for a “session” to London (in fact an audition) which he skipped because he preferred earning money with Les Humphries Singers who had a gig in Germany that same date?
In an alternative universe, he could have been David Coverdale and Ritchie would have found a kindred spirit re hair replacement (they also both had Hamburg wives at the time) …
https://ew.com/thmb/K3FMOXvOaa0zxypg2CIaUbigj0g=/1500×0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-146365521-8382983824234ced95da1f97ebc208de.jpg
https://eurovoix.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/John-Lawton.jpg
Roger did invite him later on for another event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DJdmBS9CbQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJS6U2x_IQI
Lawton was a great singer, likely the best one Uriah Heep ever had:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN9mjccJ8z4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76e9HrSLmNA
He would have done well with Purple, great pipes with a touch of Dio, but “blacker”.
November 21st, 2024 at 12:35The link @33 didn’t work, here once again John Lawton in 1974 in ‘”I’m Ritchie’s brother”-mode
https://ew.com/thmb/J4goHXZDc6uniCMrHjkwsMgOYds=/1500×0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/GettyImages-146365521-8382983824234ced95da1f97ebc208de.jpg
and several decades later with a slightly augmented hairline …
https://eurovoix.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/John-Lawton.jpg
November 21st, 2024 at 17:00Three’s the charm, darn!
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/da/46/59/da4659bbd0c95ec967a207ea8b277ee3.jpg
Finally.
November 21st, 2024 at 20:58@31
November 21st, 2024 at 21:03Awwww I was so found of Katrina and the waves and their “walking on sunshine” 🤩
This tune not so much, but she was full of sunshine and laughter 🥰
I had no idea Don A was involved with them!
Thanks so much for that link 😃
@33
Sorry, what connection had Lea Humphries with Beach Boys?
Love “Barbara Ann”, love their voices, it’s like eating custard! Just for the ears 😄
No! Had no idea at all that John Lawton was involved with Uriah Heep. Have to admit I have never heard them before! Sadly I don’t have unlimited time in my day so I have to select carefully the music I listen to, and surprisingly Deep Purple seem to take up most of my music-listening-time 😃 (together with some Georgia Satellites, and other lesser important bands 😉)
I did not know either that he almost stole the position that so rightfully was Ian G’s! Good for DP that John L chose otherwise, or they would never have become that gigantic success they are 🤩
I do have to correct you there, he would never have been the same for DP as Ian G was and is! And that’s that! ☺️
November 21st, 2024 at 21:29@34
Sorry, the link still doesn’t work 😊
Yeah he is hardly recognisable.
November 21st, 2024 at 21:31Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Mama Loo rips off the melody, the studdering rhyme and the harmonies off Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann, Les Humphries (the band leader and musical director as well as songwriter of the Les Humphries Singers) even said so himself, he was talented at stealing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRodNrrkQc0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKrCmj22XUo
And John Lawton wouldn’t have joined DP in 1969 when Big Ian did, but in 1972/73 when Ian had already handed in his notice. DP were looking for a replacement.
November 22nd, 2024 at 01:17@39
Yes, I can easily hear the comparison 😃
Do you think that Ritchie thought he easier could control John Lawton, compared to how difficult it was for him to rule over Ian G?
Ritchie mentions in an interview that the both of them are Alfa-men, (the same interview where he (jokingly, or at least I hope so, otherwise he is a very sick man 🥺) reveals his plans on attacking Ian G with som Swedish friends in a dark street…) so they have had troubles getting along.
Apropos Jon Lord also mentioned, in another interview, that the main reason Ian G left (after so kindly first have fulfilled all his obligations with the band 👍🏼) was the terrible pressure the band was in because of the never ending touring. As far as I remember Jon said that had the management been giving them some time off, everything would have been so different.
Well, could’ve, would’ve, should’ve !
November 22nd, 2024 at 13:00We really don’t know what would have happened had they got some time off to actually live a little ☺️
Karin, I know that interview and it always amused me how it could be taken seriously. I think it’s just Ritchie’s sense of humour. It must be boring to be asked questions like “how do you get along with Ian?2 again and again so he came up with that story of having Gillan beaten up by some guys (“he’s bigger than me!” :-D) probably swedisch (I think it was a Swedish journalist, wasn’t it?). I could not believe when some media in Germany took that out of contest and headlined somethingto the effect of “Blackmore is about to get Gillan smashed up”. And – apart from Ritchie’s humour … does anybody think if he reallly planned on getting someone beaten up he would announce it in the press …?
Uwe, I always thought it’s a pity that John Lawton never really made it big time. He was such a good singer. Little Chalk Blue – if a bit Kitsch – stands out for me on Butterfly Ball. When I first heard it I could not believe it was NOT on the original album. It was released years after that along with another all time fave, David Coverdale singing Money to Burn… as I am sure you know … but if anyone else is interested 😉 … And Lawton made sure I still got some of Heep’s songs from Innocent Victim and Firefly ringing in my poor old head time and again. It was the only incarnation of UH I ever had a soft spot for.
November 22nd, 2024 at 16:00Control of a situation was always key to Ritchie’s pursuits, it may have to do with the fact that he was a session musician/hired hand for so long in the 60s where people were always telling him what to do.
There is a not so nice side to Ritchie always seeking out “new talent” – he simply liked people who did as he wished, in awe of and financially dependent on him as they would be after he had “picked them off the street”. By the early 70s, Ritchie easily had a status where he could have asked famous musicians in the same league as him to form a super group with him. He never did – because someone like Jack Bruce or Ginger Baker would have probably told him where to stick it had he acted with them like he did in DP. Ritchie doesn’t like to be questioned. And I wonder whether Paul Rodgers’ refusal to join DP in 1973 as a replacement for Gillan was not also driven by his realization that he – an alpha male in no uncertain terms with Free – would sooner or later clash with Ritchie, DP’s alpha male. Probably a wise decision.
I view Ian Gillan differently. He has natural leadership qualities, but I’m not sure whether he buys into the whole alpha male thing at all. But he is certainly someone who will eventually pick a fight with someone who considers himself to be an alpha male (and acts like one). But unlike Ritchie, Ian lets other people have their freedom – just as he wants his. Take a look at these four bands:
https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_band/gus8.jpg
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ad22afaaa49a1b1a2a05926/1697723167937-760TJ4V2K7WFADWW4AUL/IMG_0758.jpeg
https://bravewords.com/medias-static/images/news/2017/58714769-if-ronnie-james-dio-were-alive-would-ritchie-blackmore-want-to-reunite-with-original-rainbow-singer-i-hate-to-say-it-but-no-image.jpg
https://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%20goupes/W/Whitesnake/pics/de21_3.jpg
And then tell me which one features a band leader expecting his co-musicians to subscribe to a certain image!
As long as you let him have his freedom in little things, Ian Gillan also works much better in a collective than Ritchie does (Ritchie needs to lead and call the shots). Case in point: How he found his place in the Ian Gillan Band. He is on record for saying that he had almost no input re the complex music they created, but rather than boycotting it, he made himself slot in beautifully on three subsequent albums (with IMHO tremendous results) before realizing it wasn’t really for him. Fair enough.
That doesn’t mean that all character traits of Big Ian are always sunny: Unlike Ritchie, he has a very long memory for real and imagined grievances while Ritchie gets over things quickly.
*******************************
John Lawton was supposedly a saint as a band member when with Heep, but after three albums with them (and a fourth one left unreleased in the can) he butted heads with the alpha male there: Ken Hensley. Ken OTOH was always full of praise for John Lawton’s vocals and regarded him as Heep’s best singer (just not as good a fit as his predecessor David Byron whose singing voice was similar to Ken Hensley’s, just with a much greater range).
What became a bone of contention was that
(i) John wasn’t a flamboyant front man like David Byron had been (and he indeed wasn’t, I saw Heep on the Firefly Tour in 1977, John was more the introverted type, he just wanted to sing well),
(ii) eventually wanted to sing in a deeper register and not keep on emulating David Byron’s passaggio/falsetto vocals, plus
(iii) had the strange habit (deemed unfortunate in many rock bands) of enjoying the company of his wife (they never separated), always taking her along on tours which Ken Hensley felt changed the boys locker room dynamic backstage for the worse. Other wives then begin to ask funny & potentially dangerous questions too like: “Why aren’t YOU taking me with you on tour?” 😂
Ritchie and John Lawton? My hunch is that it would have worked between them, they were both Germanophiles, married to German women and had lived in Hamburg around the same time. John Lawton stayed in Germany all his adult life. The two might have sounded something like this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfSVGBdAJE0&t=24s
Ritchie was certainly aware of the existence and the quality of Lucifer’s Friend (they had quite a reputation among fellow musicians), the Hamburg band which members from Les Humphries Singers (= John) and the James Last Orchestra (= the others) kept as a side project while earning money in their respective day jobs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD_mytxCdeg
Over time their music became more proggie/fusion, but Lawton never failed to dazzle with his voice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhjLZkTjWBY
John died unexpectedly in 2021, 74 years old, in bed while touring Bulgaria (where he was very popular, the country had basically adopted him). He went the way you want to go, going to bed at night with still his wife Iris (they were together 50+ years) at his side and never waking up (at least not here) – an unsuspected aneurysm. She and their children scattered his ashes according to his wishes at the seaside in Bulgaria a year later …
https://www.world-today-news.com/john-lawtons-wife-and-children-scattered-his-dust-on-stone-beach/
… fittingly on a “July Morning”, a song he made his own with Uriah Heep:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS5jS3SLkCc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kFqUFL-MUA
‘Ole John’ has a good panoramic view of the sea there, what’s not to like?
https://www.etebg.net/UserFiles/pictures/1EC27ECD-2C9E-CF0E-5030-0CB3F55F6C42.jpg?cache&q=90&w=1024
https://www.etebg.net/UserFiles/pictures/5B6A9307-8CE3-807D-94BC-1C36B4E5580C.jpg?cache&q=90&w=1024
https://www.etebg.net/en/blog/i207/July-Morning-2022:-Unveiling-of-John-Lawtons-Monument-in-Kamen-Bryag.html#:~:text=The%20monument%20is%20located%20on,taking%20photos%20and%20laying%20flowers.
November 22nd, 2024 at 20:31@ 42 – What a wonderful legacy for John Lawton to be sitting on that bench looking out to sea for an eternity in Bulgaria. Such a tragedy his sudden passing was & so quickly after losing two Uriah Heep members the year before. Such a nice man & a fine vocalist indeed. As Max says @ 41 regarding the song Little Chalk Blue, how was that left off the original album (time restraints no doubt) & that is unimaginable as it is one of the finest songs on the Butterfly Ball. When I played the cd re- issue for the first time, that song immediately jumped out at me & I thought, why have I not heard this superb song before. There we go. Rest easy John & thank you for your wonderful singing. Also thanks to Uwe for those rather moving images in regards to John’s family scattering his ashes in Bulgaria. Cheers.
November 23rd, 2024 at 04:16Mein lieber Scholli, aka Uwe! Master in Lawtonology you are! Interesting facts, thank you.
November 23rd, 2024 at 07:22Bitte schön, Max, I‘ve always taken an interest in John‘s career, he was very much a working musician, unpretentious and doing various things like singing commercials and being a member of a lightweight pop outfit like The Les Humphries Singers, yet at the same time singing with one of the best early German hard rock outfits, namely Lucifer‘s Friend, plus the Purple connections and his Uriah Heep stint. He had the bluesy voice, Blackmore was looking for after Ian Gillan.
Related: Ken Hensley once said: “We had lost David (Byron) whose voice was the best fit for Heep to alcohol and John (Lawton), who was this great singer with emotion, to his German wife who was a handful. Imagine how I felt when then David Coverdale turned up at our audition with a whiskey bottle and his German wife in tow! My heart sank … And while David sang great, I just thought ‘Here we go again!’”
DC did in the end not join UH though everyone except Ken Hensley would have liked to have had him. Instead and again against Hensley’s explicit wishes they hired John Sloman, an ill-fated move that saw Hensley leave the band and that particular line-up ignominiously break up shortly after.
November 23rd, 2024 at 11:39@41
November 23rd, 2024 at 20:03I do agree with you Max, it has to be a joke from Ritchie, but a tiny bit dangerous to make jokes like that, when he is not a person known for cracking jokes ☺️
Don’t you find him a tiny bit bittersweet?
I mean, if I had a controversy over, well anything, with another woman, I would tread carefully whenever I would mention her!
And should I ever mention her, I would certainly not speculate in attacking her in any way, literally or otherwise! 😊
Ken Hensley had had a gut full of UH well before John Sloman turned up Uwe. He wanted out mid 70’s due to various factors, one being that he was the principle songwriter & his ‘solo’ aspect to music was being potentially thwarted. John Lawton was a good fit in that it gave UH a different commercial road to explore, not that I liked most of it, but what would I know. I do like the odd song though, Sympathy is a good one & the ‘pop’ song Free Me is a beauty & was very popular all the way out here in no man’s land. Hensley was ‘influenced’ to stay by manager Gerry Bron who knew that if Hensley went, so does the UH cash flow. One way of looking at it leaving out the substance abuse & all that rubbish & David Byron & Hensley loathing each other. Sounds a bit like DP in many ways. Coverdale & I could never see that working out in UH. He was also looking for his own career by that time we would think. At least all those guys in UH got together a few times later on during their careers & that showed that they all respected each other & let by bygones be bygones. That doesn’t sound like a few members in DP. Not to worry as it is all irrelevant these days as the sun slowly sets.
November 23rd, 2024 at 20:06Three Ken Hensley interviews with Malcolm Dome & looking at Hensley’s solo albums from the early 1970’s & into the early 80’s. Which songs to leave for UH & band conflicts etc. The second interview is about his second album ‘Eager to Please’ & the third his first post UH album. Cheers.
First solo album interview ‘Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n361ynI2KjM
Hensley’s second solo album interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDlqFjl8yWM
First solo album after leaving Uriah Heep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZioCnK0Dwt8
November 23rd, 2024 at 20:46@42
Thanks so much for your insight on the whole Blackmore/Gillan situation! 😊
I do have a notion regarding the Alfa/Alpha male thing:
A true alpha male never ever need or have to mention he is an alpha male!
The men possessing the rest of the Greek alphabet may have an urge to point out their imaginary alpha-personality, but a true alpha male never wants to mention it! He doesn’t have to!
And the men joking about being anything but the alpha type, really are the true alpha type ☺️
– Or maybe I’m completely wrong here! (How do I know being a thoroughbred sigma (sigh 🫠)?)
“ That doesn’t mean that all character traits of Big Ian are always sunny: Unlike Ritchie, he has a very long memory for real and imagined grievances while Ritchie gets over things quickly.” – really? 😳 Do you honestly think Ian G is a bitter person who can’t forgive?
Sadly I don’t know him personally, and with the word sadly I mean Ian G is one of the 5 people I would enjoy drinking a cup of coffee with, and have a decent chat about life in general, I find him very interesting!, and the things I’ve read about him, including his amazing autobiography, he doesn’t strike me as a bitter and unforgiving man!
Actually the opposite.
He stretched out his hand in reconciliation towards Ritchie, not one time but many times, but was turned down.
And before you laugh your head off and start implying indecent reasons for my defence of him, I just have to repeat: I don’t know Ian G, besides what I’ve read and also how I can see other people are reacting to him!
He seems to be a man’s man, but he is certainly also popular with the women, and I really don’t think Ritchie is the easiest person to get along with, as you also mention 😊
Regarding (iii): I’m impressed with women taking on tour with their man, but it must be a bit tedious!
November 23rd, 2024 at 20:48Just a bit like Yoko Ono, and that made all kinds of tensions, didn’t it? 😉
Myself I have jammed on both Wring That Neck and Stratus both are much enjoyable. I was just again working on getting WTN up to speed with both hands. It certainly provides a decent workout wowsa
November 23rd, 2024 at 22:58“I do have a notion regarding the Alfa/Alpha male thing:
A true alpha male never ever need or have to mention he is an alpha male!
The men possessing the rest of the Greek alphabet may have an urge to point out their imaginary alpha-personality, but a true alpha male never wants to mention it! He doesn’t have to!
And the men joking about being anything but the alpha type, really are the true alpha type ☺️”
OMG, that sounds like Jordan Peterson, the new prophet of all maledom, spare me! Most alpha men don’t joke about themselves or anything else, they’re dead serious, self-deprecation isn’t really their thing. I generally don’t need more than a couple of seconds to pick one out, they wear it on their sleeve even when they try to cover it up.
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“… it has to be a joke from Ritchie, but a tiny bit dangerous to make jokes like that, when he is not a person known for cracking jokes …”
Ritchie cracks jokes all the time, Karin! He’s almost never really serious. He pulls pranks and practical jokes, spews sarcasm and invents wild stories, telling tall tales. Plus he eschews physical violence whenever he can.
***************************************************************************
“Do you honestly think Ian G is a bitter person who can’t forgive?”
He has a long memory. I know a lot of otherwise nice people who are not very good at forgiving at all, they say they just simply continue to feel the pain of the grievance, it doesn’t subside with them (or is cultivated and nurtured?).
In the Ritchie/Big Ian conflict it is inviting to put the blame all on Ritchie because he can be such a jackass sometimes. But there is another side to it. I believe Ian is simply sick & tired + done with Ritchie no matter what Ritchie does today. Ritchie, OTOH, has likely forgotten 50% of what he has done to Ian and the others.
These days, when Ian says something nice about Ritchie, it sounds like it has been through a thousand filters and rings hollow or damning with faint praise.
If Ian really wished to rekindle a relationship with Ritchie, I think Ritchie would be up to it. But not via management contacts. It would have to be something like Ian turning up on Ritchie’s doorstep in Long Island on a Saturday night, ringing the bell and as Ritchie opens saying: “The band has bent my arm and sent me to abduct you to the RRHoF ceremony, we’d all really like to see you there … Well, don’t just stand there … won’t you ask me in and offer me a drink?!” Something like that.
And of course, making up with Ritchie one day doesn’t rule out that he will be pulling something on you the next day – but that’s just Ritchie.
When Big Ian says something like that listening to Mk III or IV is to him like someone watching another man having sex with his divorced wife, I kinda scratch my head and think: Grow up man, you guys were only playing music together and earning a buck with it, not in a love or hate relationship.
***************************************************************************
Herr MacGregor, Sloman being hired against Hensley’s wishes (he once said that he thought he himself had a better voice than Sloman, I tend to agree) was of course only the final straw that broke the magician’s back:
– By 1974/75, Heep had realized that they had failed to crack the all-important US market which was tragic given how their lavish stacked background vocals would influence so many US AOR bands a few years later. Sales in mainland Europe and the UK were dropping dangerously too (they resurged in Germany, Uriah Heep’s most important and strongest market, with the Lawton line-up – Innocent Victim sold more than a million copies in Germany).
– Hensley’s ego was fueled by his coke addiction and since he wrote most of the material (and manager and producer Gerry Bron favored him over the others) royalties fed his bank account the others did not share in. And he was not above flaunting that he was making more money than the others which they of course resented. Which in turn had him become disenchanted with the band because he thought them ungrateful sods – he provided the hits after all.
– Hensley basically never got over the for him definitive UH line-up from 1972-74 (Box-Byron-Hensley-Kerslake-Thain) falling apart due to drugs – with heroin-addict Thain becoming a touring liability and being let go in 1974 and alcoholic Byron being fired in 1976. The replacements, John Wetton and Trevor Bolder as bassists and John Lawton as the singer, were all fine musicians, but Hensley did not see the feel of the 1972-74 legendary line-up restored. By the end of the 70s he was simply tired with Heep and touring easy livin’ life as such.
November 24th, 2024 at 01:13Don’s background is certainly more Prog than Jon but I find it hard to believe that anyone in their right mind would consider the latter less technically proficient than the former.
I think Don gets a bit carried away and plays a few too many notes at times. Jon has certainly let rip plenty of times, been incredibly flashy when he wants to be and equally humorous with snippets of tunes thrown in for entertainment, much like Don. Steve Morse considers both to be truly world class, keyboardists and Joe Bonamassa believes Jon to be one of the most talented people he’s ever encountered. However, I think that the important differences between both is that Jon certainly was a better performer, more charismatic and also more melodic. When he wrote classical pieces he never overplayed within them, preferring to highlight melody over flashiness, but I think Don would probably get rather excited and throw in flurries of notes that would detract from the main piece itself. John was wonderful at playing for the song not just for himself.
Knowing someone that has played with both they would always lean towards Jon’s abilities as a musician over Don. That’s not to say that Don isn’t a stunning player in his own right, but whenever Jon guested with Purple at something like the Sunflower Jam the band went up several gears and shone brighter.
November 24th, 2024 at 10:56Me saying that Don is the technically more proficient keyboarder does not rule out that Jon is the more consummate musician of the two, RB. In any case, they are both so high up on the scale, that comparisons are irrelevant. If Don is technically better in something then it is probably piano rather than organ.
To me, Jon had more of an RnB groove while Don is more intellectually quirky. Jon’s pastoral leanings especially on his solo albums were sometimes bordering on kitsch (there I wrote it), but of course he could also write something like Boom Of The Tingling Strings which is heavy and not light orchestral music.
Jon will always be my favorite keyboard player (Wakeman is too floral and over-embellished for me and Keith Emerson was often too harsh), but I appreciate what Don does and I’m happy he’s here to carry the beacon. Jon would no longer be playing with DP on a regular basis even if he was still alive today, but rather be a permanent fixture in the classical concert halls of this world.
November 24th, 2024 at 14:32@51
You wrote: “ OMG, that sounds like Jordan Peterson, the new prophet of all maledom, spare me! Most alpha men don’t joke about themselves or anything else, they’re dead serious, self-deprecation isn’t really their thing. I generally don’t need more than a couple of seconds to pick one out, they wear it on their sleeve even when they try to cover it up.”
Ok, so we agree, again! ?
(And who is Jordan Peterson?) (ok I know who he is, but what has he to do with this?)
I do know one or two alpha-men and I promise you they have a wonderful sense of humour, they make fun of themselves and my very own sweetheart (who is the one of them) rest peacefully in knowing that he is enough!
I’m not so sure it’s pure Alpha guys you’re talking about there!
Again: men (or women for that sake) who feel they are ok and enough couldn’t care less if other people admire them or not!
But then again, what do I know 😉
Ritchie cracks jokes all the time?
Well good for him! It’s so healthy to laugh and being a nice humorous person!
But amazingly he doesn’t strike me as a joke-cracking kind of man! But what do I know? I don’t know him personally…
I do promise you this: if I ever get to drink a coffee with Ian G and we come to talk about Ritchie, I will tell you all about it 😉
“ When Big Ian says something like that listening to Mk III or IV is to him like someone watching another man having sex with his divorced wife, I kinda scratch my head and think: Grow up man, you guys were only playing music together and earning a buck with it, not in a love or hate relationship.”
Ok sweetie, Ian G is entitled to feel the way he does! I guess that ‘his’ band, aka Deep Purple, is so important for him.
And remember the splitting up between Ian G and the band wasn’t easy for him.
Had it been me, I would certainly have felt hurt beyond belief!
And I would also have troubles singing songs meant for other singers.
I do get him on this one!
😊
November 24th, 2024 at 15:40@46 Karin, it’s just as Uwe said I’m afraid I have to say… 😉 Ritchie’s cracking jokes all the time. I find interviews with the mean man in black mighty amusing mostly. One day he says he used to live in Hermany in the 16th centuty, the next he tells us Hendrix was a big influence for him – but that Jimi was not special as a guitar player but more in the way he walked…then again Blackmore explains he had stolen the riff to SOTW from Beethoven (when in fact it was a old jazz tune)… most of it is just him making fun of people that take rock’n’roll music – and maybe life in general – too seriously.
November 24th, 2024 at 16:16Nice to see so much love for Uriah Heep! Of the “big four” British hard rock groups of the early 1970s, they seem to be much less known and appreciated by the younger generations than the others: Zeppelin, Sabbath and Purple.
It would be cool if their fourth LP with Lawton finally saw an official release. Maybe now that they plan to cut back on touring, it will finally happen.
@48 MacGregor, thanks for sharing those interviews! Lots of interesting tidbits. Wish ol’ Mal had asked Ken why the single off “Eager To Please” was sung by Mark Clarke – “In The Morning”. An odd decision.
Re: the other members of Heep choosing John Sloman as vocalist. Didn’t Hensley once say he suspected his bandmates did so with the intention of provoking him into quitting the band? His choice of singer at the time was Peter Goalby – who Heep went on to hire once Ken was out.
November 24th, 2024 at 19:26@55
Yes Max, I know what you mean!
But think about this for a sec: or he might be a tiny bit untrustworthy or even worse: a severe case of multipersonal disorder 😃😄
No, I don’t know him, I love and adore his way of playing the guitar!
Personally I would be quite frustrated never knowing if he is telling the truth or not!
He is entitled to lie faster than a horse can ran (a well known Danish way of saying “liar liar pants on fire”) 😅
November 24th, 2024 at 19:35Ian can feel all he wants about Ritchie, but his first ousting from DP as instigated by Ritchie was more than 50, his second ousting more than 35 years ago. And in 1993 – more than 30 years ago — – he won the battle against a really not wrestling all that hard anymore Ritchie for control of the band. Ritchie has now for more than 25 years been playing music that is not remotely in competition with DP anymore (leaving the ill-fated nostalgia fest excursions of the Reunionbow attempts aside which were never intended to be permanent).
So what is there to still feel aggrieved about? Both men laid the foundations for their wealth and fame to this day in a four year period between 1969 and 1973. They should both be happy and grateful that they ever met at all, it was better for both of them. None of them had the same success without the other.
I just came from a birthday dinner where I sat once again (my own choice) all evening beside Edith’s first husband, we always have a whale of a time with each other and generally introduce ourselves to other people as “we’re Edith’s husbands”. Maybe it’s because as a middle child you realize quickly that the world does not just turn around you, but I really have no time for people who nurture grievances over decades or even half-centuries. Get a grip.
November 25th, 2024 at 01:06It’s not like Ian’s depictions of the past are always the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He too remembers events and incidents very subjectively and glosses over things. He might have sung the part of Jesus Christ once, but don’t qualify him for sainthood just yet.
When it comes to tough commercial decisions – splitting up IGB, splitting up GILLAN, leaving Black Sabbath after scarcely a year for the more lucrative DP reunion, splitting his solo bands when DP invited him back and separating from Steve Morse when the latter became a touring hindrance, Big Ian’s choices don’t always pass the Mahatma Gandhi test. I believe he can give as good as he can take.
November 25th, 2024 at 01:22@58 & 59
It’s so amusing!
Whenever I say ‘white’, you say ‘black’!
If I say something in defence of Ian G, you’re dead against it 😄
I’ll try to change my attitude at a certain point in the future (not telling you when) and then I will be humming the happy tune when I read your new comments, which might very well be the opposite of what you’re presenting in here now 😄🤗
November 25th, 2024 at 07:56@ 56- yes Skippy they are good interviews & some good humour as well. Mark Clarke was talked about a fair bit & Malcolm asking later on if he would like to redo some of the tracks & Ken’s reply ‘I would like to do the whole album again’ says something. Hensley wasn’t happy with everything that went down with that album, which I have never heard & I will check it out online. Hensley admits it was all his fault though, he knows what happened, life in a successful rock band & all it’s hinderances eh? Pete Goalby was singing when I witnessed Heep in 1985 era. The ‘Equator” album tour if my memory serves me well. Cheers.
November 25th, 2024 at 09:28I much prefer Ian Gillan as an artist to Ritchie because the latter can be so terribly boneheaded. I also believe that Ritchie is extremely set in his ways and has been so for decades – other than that he has learned to master various acoustic instruments and is very adept at Renaissance music scales and floral trills (rather than bendings – and I really used to love his bendings!) by now, there has been no musical development to speak of with him for the last 30 years or more.
But I don’t subscribe to the “Ritchie was always the villain” theory either, that is a bit all too convenient:
Between 1968 and 1975 Ritchie was the major creative driving force of DP, pushing changes of line-up and musical output. He didn’t do it all alone, and left to his own devices – Rainbow – a lot of what he did was subpar given the man’s potential. But his influence was vast and there would be no DP as we know it without him (by the same token I have doubts whether Ritchie would have ever reached the same level of success in a band other than Mk II – he tried and failed with Rainbow).
There would have also been no Rainbow, GILLAN and Whitesnake without him. Not only by the guitar-organ-drums-bass-vocals format they all shared, but also by the construction of their music all three bands followed the DP blueprint, Rainbow emphasizing the dark classical element, early Whitesnake the blues & groove factor and GILLAN the frantic energy and the PROGish curiosity for off the wall experiments. Young Janick Gers in GILLAN was a Blackmore clone and even the riff to Whitesnake’s Still of the night 12 years after Ritchie and DC had last played together goes back to a Blackmore idea. Blackmore’s and Purple’s history is forever intertwined.
Ritchie could also be mean and callous to people as well as outright destructive towards the collective, even musically a reactionary thwarting other people’s valid ideas, but it must also be said in his favor that he never character-assassinated anyone in hindsight. While he sometimes – regularly a few decades after the musician in question had left – let slip a small comment why someone fell out of grace with Deep Purple or Rainbow, he’s generally been discreet and fair.
Based on what we reliably know, I don’t think there is a basis for an ‘Alleinschuldthese’ re Ritchie. He bears his share of responsibility, but so does Big Ian who always knew how to pull the necessary triggers of aggravation with his Stratocaster wielding nemesis.
And there is of course another thing: No one is advocating a return of Ritchie to Purple, I’m certainly not – by now even physical reasons speak against it. I also don’t believe that Ritchie wants Candice to be the new singer of a Deep Purple he rejoins. But what’s wrong with Blackers joining for an encore every few years (if DP is in his neck of the woods) or at least the possibility of that, him guesting on a choice track of an Ian Gillan solo album or him and Ian Gillan doing a joint interview for a remix release of say In Rock:
“YOU were always loudest!”
“No, YOU were the loudest!”
“I think we can both agree that Roger was really to blame because he was always much too loud!”
“That sounds about right.” 😁
We’re talking about a semblance of getting along with each other. Jointly, both men have – along with the pivotal work of three others – created great art. 55 years after the fact both can give the other guy credit and if not bury the hatchet, then at least put it behind glass against the wall and regard it as an artifact from prehistoric times.
November 25th, 2024 at 21:12Skippy, Uriah Heep is not part of the Holy British Heavy Rock Trinity consisting of Deep Sabpelin because their popularity was very much a German phenomenon (much like Barclay James Harvest was some years later). In other countries they were close to leaving the B league, but never quite made it, but in Deutschland, especially from 1971 to 1973 they reigned supreme. Their chorus-friendly and backing vocals-drenched music was more accessible than either Zep, Purple or Sabbath, they had single hits galore during that time and received lots of airplay: Gypsy, Lady In Black, July Morning, Look At Yourself, Easy Livin’, The Wizard, Stealing and, belatedly, even Return To Fantasy were all radio staples (later on tracks like Free Me and Come Back To Me followed). If DP soloed too much for you and usually forgot about the chorus, Zeppelin was too fairy-esoteric and Sabbath just too dark and bone-crunching heavy, then you were well-served with Uriah Heep.
Pete Goalby was indeed a fine singer and at one point penciled in as the successor to RJD in Rainbow (German music papers were already announcing it) though much like John Lawton not really a shit-kicking front man.
I have real issues with John Sloman: He was terrible in Heep and Gary Moore and with Lone Star just ok. I believe he would have liked to be Glenn Hughes, but had none of the ability and zest.
November 25th, 2024 at 22:33