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A day in history
City of Münster, Germany, publishes this historic photo.
Deep Purple in the window of city history
The Deep Purple concert on December 4, 1970 in the Halle Münsterland was completely sold out. Numerous disappointed fans without tickets then tried to storm the entrance to the hall. Only a massive police operation prevented them from entering. The photo shows the five band members, whose album “Deep Purple in Rock”, released in September, topped the charts in Germany for twelve weeks, with journalists before the concert. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore is holding his Fender Stratocaster in his hands.
The photograph can be viewed in large format in the window of the city museum on Salzstrasse from December 8.
Image: Deep Purple before their performance in Münster, 1970. Photo: Westfälische Nachrichten. Publication with this press release is free of charge.
Thanks to Deep Purple Tour Page for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
A good photo of the lads, so young and innocent! Cognac’s in hand for a few at least? Good to see Blackmore concentrating on the music at hand. He & Glover look like the only non drinkers. A happy looking bunch is a comment I have often noticed over the years from that era of not only DP, but other main rock bands in so called promo shots. I don’t mind at all, better than false cheesy grins or something pseudo. All hail MK II. Cheers.
February 2nd, 2025 at 06:42‘In Rock’ is a phenomenal record 😍
February 2nd, 2025 at 07:25‘=1’ is right up there 😊
I don’t blame the people who wanted to come in ☺️
In the Center is John Coletta.
February 2nd, 2025 at 11:19# 2 You must be kidding =1 is right up there with In Rock.. Tell me your joking!
February 2nd, 2025 at 12:41The City of Münster published this already in December 2023 …
February 2nd, 2025 at 13:20The photo is not on display anymore 😉
John Coletta in the middle of the pic
February 2nd, 2025 at 13:23Herr MacGregor, they are likely drinking Whiskey Cola, a popular musicians’ drink back then. According to Roger Glover also with Deep Purple – Jon’s prodigious Cognac phase came later I believe. 😉
In Rock was DP’s commercially most significant album in Germany. In the charts for almost two years (it was still Germany’s most-sold album in the year of 1971) after none of the Mk I albums had even nudged the Kraut charts (but the Concerto had reached a respectable #22). More notably, it skyrocketed to #1 almost immediately as it was only released in Germany on Sept 1, 1970, three months after the UK release. It went multiple gold (platinum records weren’t invented yet) – and back then a gold record in Germany still meant 250.000 in sales (the number is lower today), that is ten times as much as that other very notable European music market, uhum, Denmark (GILLAN was very popular there one hears), where 25.000 records sold sufficed. And still more than twice as much as in France or the UK where you only needed 100.000 in sales for a gold record. See, not only our tanks were the largest ones … 🤣
https://preview.redd.it/size-comparison-of-a-tiger-ii-and-a-m4-sherman-v0-2x8tkq2sea9a1.png?auto=webp&s=10aeb64c57847b41609fd598e3e8e5b3e32e9ffa
That Pop Art rendition of Mount Rushmore was a standard sight in German record store displays long after the album’s release date – you could still see it frequently in the mid 70s.
Deep Purple and riots in Germany … There were different causes for this. For one, people wanted “free concerts” at the time, for obvious reasons DP didn’t! And also: The long before booked tour had severely underestimated demand, Purple had more quickly reached a status for much larger halls in Germany than anyone could have reasonably expected. In December 1970, they were playing undersized venues and their tightly spaced touring itinerary did not allow them to add extra concerts to meet the surprising extra demand ad hoc.
And sometimes, Purple themselves also contributed to the riots, like only four days later in Lüdenscheid
https://www.come-on.de/luedenscheid/deep-purple-konzert-in-luedenscheid-90127350.html
where they played as a four-piece (without Blackers who had called in sick) and eventually also without Big Ian (who broke off singing mid-gig due to tonsillitis), with Jon, Roger and Little Ian laboring on as a three-piece instrumentally until bottles flew and a disappointed audience took the hall apart. People had been informed of Blackmore’s absence beforehand and could get a refund for their ticket or watch DP as a four-piece, but Big Ian’s added departure then apparently broke the German patience camel’s back … 😠
February 2nd, 2025 at 18:29@4
Hello Wiktor 😊
Ok I wrote this:
“ In Rock’ is a phenomenal record 😍
‘=1’ is right up there 😊”
And you wrote this:
“# 2 You must be kidding =1 is right up there with In Rock.. “
So if I’m not completely sleepy, I guess we’re agreeing 😉☺️
And then you think this:
February 2nd, 2025 at 22:10“ Tell me your joking!” 😄 well I really love a joke now and then! But I meant it! “In Rock” used to be my favourite record, now “In Rock” AND “=1” are my favourites 🥰
@7
“that is ten times as much as that other very notable European music market, uhum, Denmark (GILLAN was very popular there one hears)”
😄😁
Ain’t you cute?
It was VERY popular! It is very popular! And I guess it will continue to be very popular…
May I ask an innocent question? Why don’t you believe me?!
February 2nd, 2025 at 22:14@7
“but Big Ian’s added departure then apparently broke the German patience camel’s back …” <— one of the many examples that IG is the only vocalist in Purple!
February 2nd, 2025 at 22:42As I’ve always thought: the German population is bright and comprehend the more deeper crinkles in life ☺️😉
To # 4. I agree with you!!In Rock is GREAT while =1 is my least favorite DP record. Of course, #2 is allowed to have his opinion just like the rest of us. 🙂
February 3rd, 2025 at 07:46@11
I love In Rock! I really really do 😃
But – when I listen to =1 I do not only hear those tunes!
I hear all the other songs there have been in between!
Just as I hear Ian sing, I don’t just hear his voice at it is now, I hear from the day he started (Episode Six) and throughout Purple, BS, all his solo-projects, and then I hear him as he is now.
Hope it makes sense, (it does in my weird mind).
There has been an incredible development in Purple as a band, and I am so happy with =1.
But may I ask you Wiktor and you Leslie – why is it, or what is it about =1 that make you like it less than In Rock?
“ have his opinion” – ahem, I am not a he, I am a she 😂
February 3rd, 2025 at 14:24“May I ask an innocent question? Why don’t you believe me?!”
But I do! Haven’t I now REPEATEDLY written that the ex-Dune Purple singer’s band GILLÅN was – by all credible accounts – very popular in your Kingdom? To a degree that at one point even renaming the whole peninsula + assorted isles as ‘Gillånmark’ was seriously considered, didn’t you initiate a referendum at the time?
I never publicly doubt anything you say, Karin! I live in constant fear of detection how I prefer the more refined Machine Head and Who Do We Think We Are to the still somewhat formative In Rock. You see, I prefer the more poppy Mk II to the “garage rehearsal” one though that had its undeniable charms too, In Rock is actually a bit of a Stoner Rock album to me. But I don’t really hear a lot of songs on In Rock which when transposed to acoustic guitar around a camp fire on a, say, Jylland beach would make a whole lot of sense (the ballad part of Child In Time excepted). That to me is a litmus test for quality songwriting. In Rock is not exactly a harmony-drenched record, but a riff-o-rama.
But by all means: In Rock is a cultural artifact and was seismic in its lasting influence. I’m happy for all of you who view it as the tabernacle of Purple artistry.
February 3rd, 2025 at 15:16@13
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You are indeed on of the funniest people I have ever met! (Well haven’t met, but you know!)
(Unfortunately I was about to take a sip of my adorable coffee, when I read this, and now I have coffee everywhere 😁)
I have to say that no, I don’t think you believe me one bit! But that’s ok..
And I also have to say this: (and this shouldn’t come as a complete surprise for you) I do love all Purple’s records! I adore In Rock because it was the first I ever heard, and I couldn’t believe it! It was so amazing Uwe, I really can’t explain why.
The first love is always the most important I guess.
But I do also appreciate Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are (always felt there should have been a ‘really’ placed somewhere!) and of course also Fireball 😍
The next records, where Mr Gillan wasn’t singing, well I have heard them of course, but they didn’t make any impact what so ever.
“But I don’t really hear a lot of songs on In Rock which when transposed to acoustic guitar around a camp fire on a, say, Jylland beach would make a whole lot of sense” – well not a single tune from the magical hands of Purple are meant for a bonfire! Purple’s songs are not supposed to be treated like that 😜 except maybe ‘Anyone’s daughter’, but with the re-written lyrics I once produced (you really never ever throw a brick (a BRICK 😱) on a young girls window!), but the rest of the songs are monuments, not a sing-a-long with sand between ones toes 😑
February 3rd, 2025 at 17:14Hi Karin # 12. Deep Purple have been my favorite band since 1973. I hate to say anything bad about a DP album but I find =1 Boring. There’s not one song I really like on it. As for In Rock, every song is exciting and memorable!!! I’m glad you like =1 and I am glad DP are getting awards for it but I simply don’t like it.
February 3rd, 2025 at 19:04I bought my first four DP albums in the summer of 1975 while on home vacation in Germany within a three week or so period: Shades Of, Book of Taliesyn (because they were both already budget-priced) and In Rock and Stormbringer (because my local small town record store had them available a day or two before we went back to Africa).
I could only really listen to them once we were back in Kinshasa and frankly I don’t remember which one I heard first, perhaps In Rock because the cover was so striking and because I knew it from my elder brother who had owned the album already in 1970. But the eclectic choice of albums by different line-ups shows that
(i) back then I really didn’t know what I was doing 😁,
(ii) there was no “definite” line-up for me when I first came into contact with DP.
Made in Japan, Burn, Machine Head, Fireball and WDWTWA I only heard weeks/months later when I loaned them from other people for taping (Machine Head and Burn both had an immediate impact on me and are to this day my two favorite DP albums), the third Mk III album, the Concerto and CTTB I didn’t even hear before we had returned to Germany in early 1976.
I took me a while to realize that Hush, Child in Time, Holy Man and Soldier of Fortune feature four (!) different lead singers (so what, the very popular Three Dog Night at my US school in Kinshasa had three lead singers in one line-up!), but I sucked it all up equally not excluding anything, there was no lesser DP line-up to me. In essence, that is my approach to DP to this day, whenever someone new joins, I inquisitively give him the benefit of doubt (and obsessively-compulsively buy all his back catalog! 🤣)
Yes, Mk II is the most important line-up of Purple, but it wasn’t superior to other line-ups in all respects. Mk I holds the crown of the most versatile and experimental line-up though their execution was somewhat old-fashioned, Mk III’s incorporation of Black Music and the dual lead-vox approach I found refreshing, Mk IV sounded like an American rock band with some English musicians, CTTB is a breezy album, Mk V proved that DP can even dabble with AOR and have a decent result, the Morse era made DP mildly progish (which it had last been around circa Fireball), etc.
My belief in DP is of through and through catholic nature (in the original sense of the word meaning “all-embracing”). 😇 🙏 😇 Needless to say, it figures, liebe Karin, that you coming from that Evangelical-Lutheran hellhole of a heretic nation would take a more sectarian stance clouded by Ian Gillan- and Mk II, VI, VII, VIII & IX-favoritism! 🤣
February 3rd, 2025 at 19:57“The next records, where Mr Gillan wasn’t singing, well I have heard them of course, but they didn’t make any impact what so ever.”
I believe that, Karin. You heard them at least once. Or even twice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozTOICUkcU
Impeccable performance. Soaring.
February 3rd, 2025 at 20:50@16
“frankly I don’t remember which one I heard first” – amazing! I remember it as if it was yesterday ❤️ I can remember the sun shining, the smell of food being prepared in the house, which clothes I was wearing, how I felt so overwhelmed and alarmed at the same time! Heard that voice, didn’t recognise it from anything, wondered who these young men were, and when the record was done I needed to hear it all again! …. and then once more! Remember my dog sleeping on my bed, the window was open and the curtains was moving slowly in the wind, remembered vaguely I had some homework to do, I was late for badminton practice but it all didn’t felt so important right there! I was intoxicated and still very calm and clear minded 🥰
It was amazing!
Sometimes I thought of how spectacular it would be to experience it all again, but unless I loose my memory that will not happen 🙃
Talked to my friend about it later the same day, she didn’t like it at all (our friendship wasn’t quite the same after that 😅)
“perhaps In Rock because the cover was so striking” – indeed it was, still is!
“because I knew it from my elder brother who had owned the album already in 1970” – oh he didn’t share the album with you? Well it’s better to own the album yourself!
“back then I really didn’t know what I was doing 😁,” – ok I could be real nasty here, but when you go low, I go high (or something like that 😉)
“I took me a while to realize that Hush, Child in Time, Holy Man and Soldier of Fortune feature four (!) different lead singers” – for real? You couldn’t tell them apart??????
Thanks for the insight 😊🤗
February 3rd, 2025 at 23:50Hi Leslie @15- I like the advance singles and A Bit On The Side. One quarter of the album.I still watch YT clips when they pop up.=1 ran out of gas pretty quickly for me.I don’t think it got any more than 5 or 6 full listens.It was so well reviewed,here at THS and elsewhere.that I thought, ” I must be missing something” I’ve stopped listening to it.Tiresome,tedious and,ultimately-as you said-boring
February 4th, 2025 at 01:24@15
Oh ok 😊
I’ve heard a lot of people comparing =1 to actually the first albums. But as you know, taste in everything is quite personal 😊
You’re completely right, EVERY single track on In Rock is fantastic, great, indeed memorable and so very much exciting 💜
I also think it was amazing how they were so in tune with the Zeitgeist at that moment, early ‘70s, and I do think they still are exactly that, mainly because of the very interesting, intelligent and intriguing lyrics.
I am also pretty much amazed at their quality as musicians and vocal.
Maybe you prefer Blackmore as the guitarist? I loved his way of playing but I certainly also enjoyed Morse and now McBride, he is completely in sync with the rest of Purple.
February 4th, 2025 at 07:46Every single song on In Rock is great? Uhum, I didn’t‘t hear much of a hummability factor for most songs and the majority of them didn‘t pass the live test either, come Machine Head, Mk II only played Child in Time and rarely Speed King off it.
I believe In Rock‘s importance is determined by a newly forged and found sound and a new line-up that was presented to the public, not by the songwriting per se. The most “songwritten” track on it is CiT, most of which was “loaned” from It’s A Beautiful Day. 😂
And yes, Karin, as a 14-year-old relatively new to rock music I did not yet hear the differences between the various DP singers. But hey, I know enough people who to this day don’t get it that the vocals on Burn (the album) are shared approximately 60:40 between DC and Glenn.
I do remember when I consciously heard a DP track for the first time, that was in the summer of 1974 from a juke box in a restaurant: Smoke On The Water. I found it immediately extremely catchy and it was – together with Alice Cooper’s School’s Out – my first exposure to hard rock.
February 4th, 2025 at 11:48@21
Ok Uwe, I forced myself to listen to a live version of ‘Mistreated’ (we had actually covered DC enough!) but I have to say his vocal is weak and strained 😑
Oh man I do understand Ian Gillan’s feelings regarding NOT liking to listen to these misleading representatives 🙉 (DC and GH)
The audience is highly mistreated too 🫣
And sorry to say this but Glenn H has a voice belonging to, well not to a grown man! (You really couldn’t distinguish between the two?.????)
We went from at least some power in the voice from DC to no power and a complete fistula voice with the other boy (yeah and I mean boy!)
Had I never heard the magnificent voice belonging to Ian G, maybe I could have somehow accepted their tries to sing, but let me show you this singer who doesn’t try to sing out of his range:
https://youtu.be/gfOKDB0ChQk?si=06oav7msoWt3ZqNc
Oh man you can get quite a way with some honesty and charisma! Which he had plenty of, the great and late DB! (In his earlier years he was different stronger in the vocal department ☺️)
February 4th, 2025 at 15:04In Rock is strong album to me. Look at the difference in evolving from MKI and look at what else was around at that time. Black Sabbath’s debut and also Uriah Heep’s were hit & miss in many ways. Purple’s had the foot on the jugular all the time, from start to finish. The songwriting is good and strong to my ears, I like it all, it is that ‘magic’ thing again. Something about it still stands the test of time. Many people I know rate In Rock as DP’s best album, I do know what they mean by that. Cheers.
February 4th, 2025 at 23:08To Karin # 20. I love those first 3 albums. In fact, the third album “Deep Purple” and “Fireball” are my favorite albums. As for Guitar Players, Blackmore is certainly my favorite I think Morse is excellent and I really like McBride’s playing with the Don Airey band.
February 5th, 2025 at 12:59To Mike # 19. I pretty much agree with you. I gave it every chance. After quite a few plays and not liking it, I put it up for a few weeks then listened to it a few more times and still didn’t like it. It is now on the shelf for, most likely, good.
February 5th, 2025 at 13:03In Rock is a great album and musical statement, but the songs kind of take second place, if you know what I mean. They are not the most important thing on In Rock, the sound is.
***************************************************************************
Karin, tsk, tsk, tsk, how will you ever reconcile the fact that David Bowie thought Glenn Hughes a great one-of-a-kind singer, so much he wanted him on Young Americans?
“Glenn H has a voice belonging to, well not to a grown man!”
Sigh, you are aware that Glenn’s falsetto vocals were a tribute to his black heroes? Does that then mean that Marvin Gaye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjlSiASsUIs
Al Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NWqO85P6Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig7yLiOVpy0
George McCrae
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptWkfzE8BbA
Billy Paul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSdG0kd4vsk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27cAP9VQl2g
and Curtis Mayfield, to name but a few
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23xK-1Ib5_Q
all “have voices not belonging to a grown man” too? 🙄
Glenn’s style comes exactly from these artists, you tell me he doesn’t do it well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFc1sHTSlN8
Not sure whether Ian Gillan or DC could have sung this. And, by the same token, does Ian sound particularly male and grown up to you on this track? 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RjKJ9uA-H0
I really like it, but then I don’t mind men doing falsetto vocals either, irrespective whether they are called Ian Gillan or Glenn Hughes.
And for the record: Ian Gillan once said about Glenn that he rates him as “one of the technically best singers to ever come from the British isles”, his only gripe is that “Glenn is wasting his talent trying to be something he is not”.
February 5th, 2025 at 16:09@26
“ And, by the same token, does Ian sound particularly male and grown up to you on this track? 😂”
To be honest: no not at all! Was he entering the European Music contest?
Are you completely sure it is Ian Gillan singing?
Then he must have been quite young…
“I really like it, but then I don’t mind men doing falsetto vocals either, “
I have never said I didn’t like falsetto male voices, when it’s done perfectly! But there is quite a big difference between falsetto and fistula 😉
“Sigh, you are aware that Glenn’s falsetto vocals were a tribute to his black heroes? “ I love these gentlemen’s singing, but do I really have to like someone who is miming them, just because it’s those singers he tries to take after?
“Karin, tsk, tsk, tsk, how will you ever reconcile the fact that David Bowie thought Glenn Hughes a great one-of-a-kind singer, so much he wanted him on Young Americans?” 😄
Well unfortunately the great and sadly late David Bowie isn’t here so I could ask him if he really had this opinion once in his life! Or indeed if he was serious 😉
Btw: what do you think of DB’s voice? Isn’t it amazing?🥰
February 5th, 2025 at 19:35I heard him with Bing Crosby, singing ‘the little drummer boy’, and woah Mr Crosby had an amazing deep powerful voice, but David Bowie even though he was quite young at that time, he was completely wonderful too!
I would have loved to hear him and Ian together.🥰
I love Bowie’s work, Karin, Diamond Dogs and Station to Station being my favorite albums, but my favorite phase of his altogether is his Tin Machine one which you probably like as much as you dig Ian with IGB, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlxGeIeppVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJpi5EN8-1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4xeHYI4A2k
And I really preferred his NHS original teeth going everywhere to the “Hollywood gnashers” set they stuck into his poor mouth in America.
I was lucky enough to see Tin Machine live in Germany and you could witness how the music went straight over the Bowie audience’s heads, they didn’t know what to make of it and just stood there uncomfortably and dumbfounded. I loved it.
But for all his qualities, David could have never sung with DP. His voice was unique and in his younger days offered quite a bit of range too, but it didn’t have the IG, DC, GH or even JoLT sheer lung power to carry a Purple set. Don’t underestimate what a singer in a heavy rock band has to do as opposed to a pop singer, even if it is sophisticated and daring pop like David Bowie’s. Unlike DP, Bowie’s bands always “made room” for his voice to shine via their arrangements. That is something wholly different to IG having to sing over the melee of a Purple live performance like he did on Made in Japan or what DC and GH did at the California Jam. Playing and singing heavy rock is also a physical act, it’s not something anybody can do.
February 6th, 2025 at 19:44@28
“I love Bowie’s work, Karin”, oh yeah me too 😊
I know he has done so many incredible songs, but I would like to give a little attention to this wonderful song, well not only the song is wonderful, but the whole arrangement 😃
He was so charming and very very, ohhh what is that word I’m looking for, well I guess superior (don’t know if that is the right word 😊)
https://youtu.be/bsYp9q3QNaQ?si=0ayMOF76OBP5Udwp
I know Hollywood Vampires have done the same, with Johnny Depp in front, and that is nice, but oh, no one can do it like DB! (Yeah yeah, not even Ian Gillan 😉☺️, but the thought of Ian singing Heroes, my imagination doesn’t stretch that far 🤔) ( and now I’m pretty sure you produce a link to actually Ian singing Heroes 😃)
February 6th, 2025 at 21:01@28
“but my favorite phase of his altogether is his Tin Machine one which you probably like as much as you dig Ian with IGB, right?”
Ohh Uwe, it is fantastic 😍. Why haven’t I heard this before??
I guess it’s so nice because DB’s voice really suits thes genre 😃
“the music went straight over the Bowie audience’s heads, they didn’t know what to make of it and just stood there uncomfortably and dumbfounded. I loved it.” – 😄😂 I would have been quite amused too!
I am really confused why I haven’t heard this before, it is brilliant! 🤩
Yeah you’re right Uwe, hos voice was not fitted to pure rock’n’roll.
He was more an actor with his voice, he could make moods change in a heartbeat!
I never forget when he made this:
https://youtu.be/NZnryZ5rDbs?si=RfX6H_3Tw7RQ38Pp
Somehow it was way too commercial compared to what he normally excelled in 😃
Also this one:
https://youtu.be/HivQqTtiHVw?si=HsIHRcFUk_4Z8rnd
But I have to say, I loved them, because being a young girl they were a bit more eatable 😄
“but it didn’t have the IG, DC, GH or even JoLT sheer lung power to carry a Purple set” – I agree, or at least regarding IG 😉
“Playing and singing heavy rock is also a physical act, it’s not something anybody can do.” – exactly!
February 6th, 2025 at 21:29Elizabeth, you know the Charismatic Voice, (you adore her nose immensely ☺️), she made a video where we could look down a singers throat, (ARHH can’t find the video, wonder if she had taken it down.) Well, never mind, but it was really weird to see how that particular singer could use the vocal cords.
I guess an opera singer and a heavy rock singer are more equal how to use their voices than, as you said, a pop-singer.
Thanks so much for the links 🤗
Nope, even I cannot come up with Big Ian doing a Bowie song! Not sure whether there would have been much of a chemistry between them had they ever met, they were/are vastly different characters.
Bowie could charm people and inspire them (and let himself in turn be inspired by them which is why he would often seek certain people out), he also had a polite and refined air about him, but his career decisions and his discarding of fellow musicians could also be ruthless. People like Woody Woodmansey, Trevor Bolder, Mick Ronson, Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar and Reeves Gabrels can attest to that. He didn’t just play a vampire in The Hunger , he also had the reputation of being one in real life – sucking people dry and then leaving them behind.
February 6th, 2025 at 23:13@28
Thanks for posting the Tin Machine links (almost typed tin drum; guess my inner Oskar Matzerath feels neglected). I had all but forgotten about phase of Bowie’s career. Bowie was a chameleon, reinventing himself every 3-4 years. Most people wouldn’t be able pull that off successfully but it always worked out for him.
February 7th, 2025 at 02:51@28
February 7th, 2025 at 08:00Uwe, I’m ‘Heaven’s in here’, that bass, isn’t that the same type as Roger is playing in “She took my breath away”? (And also in that Ruah-thingy 😜) 😊
Karin and Dilligaf, you surprise me, I’m generally the lone man out in expressing my love for Tin Machine, most Bowie fans hate that phase of his and are at a total loss with it. Sort of like Big Ian with IGB.
Naw, that’s not the bass, Karin, but the guitar David plays in ‘You Belong in Rock’n’Roll’ is, the sibling guitar to Roger’s Steinberger Bass. The headless guitar played by Reeves Gabrels, the lead guitarist, is a Steinberger too (it was a popular brand in the early 90ies), albeit with a more conventional body, they had different models, not everyone liked the “boat paddle” look.
February 7th, 2025 at 14:04Bowie as previously said here somewhere was an actor and director, first and foremost. The musician part was a secondary thing it seems. He dressed & played the part of the times when it suited him. Over rated, yes indeed. His early career (1970’s) music is by far his best, but we say that about many from those times don’t we. He was a ‘Dracula’ figure in more ways than one. I am not a Bowie aficionado at all, I just don’t get all the hype about him. He milked it big time & succeeded, with the help of many around him at certain times. But that is rock ‘n roll isn’t it? Cheers.
February 7th, 2025 at 22:26I was never a fan of DB (the man was too much an enigma to relate to), but there is not a musical phase in his career I cannot somewhat appreciate. From whimsical folkie to glam hard rock to plastic soul and the dystopian Station to Station to the German Electronica Berlin phase with Eno, Fripp and Belew to dance floor pop to the urbanized and updated British Invasion RnB resurgence of Tin Machine to his more experimental and deconstructive final phase, there is always something to latch onto.
Hadn’t he left LA for Berlin to come clean of cocaine via escaping it’s over-abundance there, I always fanatasize whether via Glenn he would not have eventually hooked up with a Tommy Bolin and asked him to record an album and tour with him. I think Tommy’s androgynous flamboyance and naïve innocence would have sparked Bowie’s curiosity. I can imagine Tommy Bolin playing on Station to Station no sweat – not that Earl Slick did anything wrong on that great album.
February 8th, 2025 at 16:24I respect Bowie as an artist and I like his persona in many ways. I just don’t get a lot of his music, too boring for me. Anyway his acting is quite good, The Man Who Fell To Earth & a few other cameos. Here are a few stories of Bowie’s outback NSW pub filming video for the Let’s Dance song. Hilarious & surreal or what. Have to love Bowie’s anti racism take on it too. I cannot imagine what it would have been like all the way out there in the middle of nowhere & Bowie is in there singing along and filming etc. You would probably walk back outside and have to gather your thoughts wouldn’t you? Then proceed to head back in to see if it was real or not. What a scene. Cheers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-11/bowie-down-under-at-carinda-pub/7082410
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/300301253/backstory-how-a-kiwi-walked-into-a-david-bowie-video-in-outback-australia
February 9th, 2025 at 04:51This is a much more complete story on Bowie’s Downunder filming in 1983. Some good photos of David wearing typical Australian outback attire, love his shorts and hat. Very Aussie indeed. Am I hyping up the David Bowie Australiana? Yes I guess I am, but it is the outback Australian story about it all and the choice of ‘venue’ for the video shoot that is of interest to anyone who may be interested. Most Bowie fans probably already know about it all. Cheers.
http://www.bowiedownunder.com/letsdancevideos/letsdancevideos.htm
February 9th, 2025 at 05:07@36
I love DB way of singing! He had a remarkable voice 🥰
February 9th, 2025 at 08:37And thank you so much for the links to Tin Machine! Really can’t apprehend I’ve never heard that before 😊
@36
“I was never a fan of DB (the man was too much an enigma to relate to)
Ok for me he is not an enigma!
But I don’t need to know the person behind the songs to appreciate them 😉
It is just like Ian Gillan! I don’t think anyone is surprised when I say I truly love his voice!
But WHO he is behind the microphone, I don’t know!
“Hadn’t he left LA for Berlin to come clean of cocaine…” I really don’t care! I don’t know why he started his addiction to begin with, and is it REALLY any of our concerns?☺️😉
February 9th, 2025 at 11:22His voice was amazing, he made wonderful music. THAT is what I am concerned about 😃
Karin, Tin Machine came about because at the end of the 80s Bowie felt he was in a rut – he wanted to break away radically from the commercially successful, but – to him – artistically undernourishing Bowie pop of that decade:
Reeves Gabrels (since 2012 playing with The Cure), the Tin Machine lead guitarist, was the husband/significant other of a woman in Bowie’s touring entourage/crew and at one point incidentally mentioned that he played guitar too … and when Bowie finally heard him …
They then contacted Iggy Pop’s former rhythm section, the Sales brothers Hunt and Tony, who I swear had as brothers the most idiosyncratic telepathic groove together I’ve ever heard with any rhythm section – they did the weirdest things together in total sync, they would sometimes break down the rhythm into shambles only to pick it up again effortlessly with the next beat. Deconstructivism at its best.
But if you ask your regular Bowie fans about Tin Machine (who only did two studio albums and a live one), nine out of ten will roll their eyes … His core fans felt insulted by Tin Machine, as if DB had pushed a self-destruct button. With Tin Machine, Bowie would sometimes let drummer Hunt Sales sing a song live and just play rhythm guitar to it, standing in the background. It was too bewildering for his fans to take, silly buggers they were. I loved it, Hunt had a really good rock voice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hakgZ65dmfU
(That is also quite some free form drumming there before they pick up things again at 03:38 before testing the audience again at 06:16 – who dared to play like that in the early 90s?!)
Bowie OTOH is on record for saying that without the Tin Machine intermezzo his later and final work would have been unthinkable, he needed Tin Machine to get things out of his system, otherwise, he said, he would have retired and stopped playing music altogether at the close of the 80s.
Herr McGregor, +1 for the Let’s Dance vid (and it taking up arms for the Aborigines) and I also loved his performance here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3yJL4mCbjs
It’s the only movie that has ever attempted to explain the to Western eyes often seemingly mindless and/or incomprehensibly sadistic cruelty of the Japanese captors in their treatment of Western POWs (let’s not even talk about how they treated Chinese POWs) in WW II from a cultural aspect. And it is of course also a statement on the closet love of two gay men in opposing uniforms. Bowie basically played a role in the movie that in the 60s would have been played by Peter O’Toole, I think that he in fact patterned himself after O’Toole for the film, he was always a good chameleon.
February 9th, 2025 at 16:40“I really don’t care! I don’t know why he started his addiction to begin with, and is it REALLY any of our concerns?☺️”
Why did he start? For the same reason most people did, to be constantly creative and ‘THERE’ 24/7, which is how cocaine works for most people INITIALLY. The illusion of boundless energy and creativity is enticing for artists who always live in fear of “drying up”. Anyway, by 1976 he was beginning to die from it (he had stopped eating solid food) – and realizing it too, which is why he made the move to Berlin: “I moved from the cocaine capital of the world – LA – to the then smack (heroin) capital of the world – Berlin – to come clean off cocaine. In LA, it was impossible to avoid it, it was a way of life there. In the Berlin of the 70s, cocaine was not yet a popular drug. Smack was everywhere, but I’m not a smack person, so smack posed no threat to me.”
I don’t think that David Bowie’s rampaging coke addiction was a private matter, he was endangering his life with it. Cocaine is a dangerous drug because it creates the illusion with the user that it can be controlled, but its long term effects are more damaging to the body than, say, heroin (where dosage, quality and hygiene are the core issues – all of which affect someone very wealthy less than a street addict).
At the same time, let’s not kid ourselves, a lot of remarkable rock albums were recorded under the influence and would have not turned out the way they did if drugs hadn’t been around. Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and Station to Station (which Bowie said he doesn’t remember recording at all …) are cocaine records and so is the frenzied Blue For You by Status Quo according to Francis Rossi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKueUG3FfU
February 9th, 2025 at 22:46#12 Karin
I like what you write at #12,
I agree that this is the correct way to listen =1, as it is the correct way to listen to any new album by any band.
for me the songs still remain valid in the context of a fresh, well-written and well-played album.
if I have to use the adjective boring I certainly don’t use it for =1, I use it for the last 3-4 albums with Morse.
obviously In Rock is incomparable to everything that came after Made in Japan, precisely for the quality and musical fury of the first MKII and for the historical and cultural importance that In Rock had, has now, and will always have.
On a desert island I can live without Machine Head, but I can’t do without In Rock and Perfect Strangers
February 9th, 2025 at 23:39@43
Ok, on a desert island I would bring, besides serious amounts of coffee, all the records of Deep Purple!
I would have a very hard time picking just a few.
You find the last records with Steve M boring?
February 10th, 2025 at 10:27I don’t! I love them 😍
@42
“to be constantly creative and ‘THERE’ 24/7,”
Ok but now, thanks to the formidable AI, no artist need that anymore apparently 😖
Can’t believe I fell for “Fire in your eyes”, but I did 🤨
I didn’t even think twice about the chorus, still don’t to be honest. And I really believed it was the big man who was singing 😟
I will, however, laugh loudly should Ian Gillan later on say something like this: “it was my lyric, it was my voice, we just put it out there as an AI-example to mess with you all!”
And Uwe, will you now please put some decent songs on your YT profile 😉😄
February 10th, 2025 at 10:42Dear Uwe 😊
In @28 you say this:
“I love Bowie’s work, Karin, ”
But then in @36 you state this:
“I was never a fan of DB (the man was too much an enigma to relate to),”
So sweetie which one is it?
February 10th, 2025 at 15:51Does it depend of what time of day you’re asked? Or whether you had a decent cup of coffee? Or..?
(😅😂)
Personally I still adore David Bowie, his work, his voice, (and I have even been to the dentist today 😄)
@ 44- Karin that is breaking the ‘desert’ island rule for how many albums of the same artist that you can take. It is ONLY one album, whether that is ONE album from each different artist I am not sure. However just in case it would seem to be a better idea to do that. That way if anyone else was there they wouldn’t have to put up with all that Deep Purple music all the time. Otherwise they might start throwing coconuts or whatever else that may be available at you. You don’t want to upset the neighbours, he he he. Cheers.
February 10th, 2025 at 21:35@ 44- the other conundrum I did not mention Karin is the cost of importing all these albums to a desert island & who actually owns the island ? Increased tariffs are apparently all the talk and with all those Deep Purple albums, that could prove costly for you. Not to mention if you had a visa or not. Oh dear, where is all this going to? Cheers
February 10th, 2025 at 23:27I appreciate Bowie’s music and voice, but more on an intellectual/artistic level, Bowie, the celebrity or the man, doesn’t fascinate me, too remote/aloof.
He doesn’t grip me emotionally like these guys do, I generally prefer bands to solo artists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QTp8lTzqUI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtABg813nJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIAS9mygJi8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvmvMFXWzc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awE9SFsmOFU
(Immaculate bass playing!)
Well, there are some solo artists I do dig besides Bowie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLnL1-7lvVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggcmeXlfBGM
(Now who was that piano player again?)
February 11th, 2025 at 00:56“And Uwe, will you now please put some decent songs on your YT profile 😉😄”
Karin, I never take a look at it, it only came into existence when I had to post the Nick Simper live gig in Vienna vids somewhere early last year. I’ve never consciously added other music except vids from a Glenn Hughes gig I believe.
Not much a social media guy, no Facebook, no Twitter/X, no instagram, I’m a digital hermit.
February 11th, 2025 at 01:04@47
Ohh I had no ideas there are ‘desert island’-rules!
If one are so unlucky to end up there, alone or not, I guess plenty of records with beautiful and encouraging music would be appreciated! 😂😂😂
If anyone actually would throw coconuts at me, I would use them in a rhythm-section..
And upsetting the neighbours?, well I would have coffee to help on everyone’s nerves 😄
February 11th, 2025 at 02:27Regarding this ‘desert’ island scenario, many decades ago a friend & I changed that setting to a tropical island (much nicer) plenty of shade, bananas, coconuts etc & a mermaid thrown in for good measure. A lady marooned on an island would have found one of those hunk (perfect looking) males washed up on the beach totally exhausted & then capture him, teach him all the good things to do and not do (we all know what males can be like at times). We also lifted the album count to ten albums, but only ONE album from each artist & no related albums. So if you had a Deep Purple album, obviously you couldn’t have any albums from any DP member related projects etc. Not too bad eh, hey we have to have some luxury in this ‘new’ life, even if initially marooned by ourselves. Also one of those old push bikes that you find half buried in the sand, so we could then make it into an electrical generating unit. We have to have some electricity to power our hi fi unit, whatever that may be. So there you have it. Marooned on a tropical island for all eternity with an offsider & ten albums of your own choice. What could be better? Cheers.
February 11th, 2025 at 05:09@49
February 11th, 2025 at 07:52Well if Marc Bolan hadn’t got all the attention I might have said Elton John, but now I’m not sure 😉
@52
😂 what could be better, you ask!
Well what about this:
Toothbrush and -paste
Shampoo and soap
Mugs (for the coffee)
A diary (so when I’m gone people could get an idea what had happened)
And then I really would insist on the ten records of my all-time favourite band!
And MacGregor if I was the only living person on that particular island, who would I harm with my one-side taste in music ☺️
Oh I forgot: a jar of Marmite, (looking forward to the Vegemite though)
February 11th, 2025 at 07:59@50
😂😂😂
Yeah, me too!
February 11th, 2025 at 08:07MacGregor, can we change your appealing tropical island scenario to not one lady finding the sole male survivor washed up on the beach to a whole tribe of (hetero-sex-starved) ladies? It’s a minor alteration, but one that guides your fantasy in a more wholesome direction. Why settle for one if you can have the whole island population?
In principle though, I do like the way you think. Commendable.
February 11th, 2025 at 14:21@ 54 -Karin you have just blown my sole attempt to take over the new world. I wasn’t anticipating anyone disagreeing with my rules, now I am bereft of ideas. Oh well, better get back to my drawing board then. At least I tried. @ 56 – yes indeed Uwe. What about going even further, there is that movie where the planet is full of women. I sometimes wonder if there was a time in the past where women did control everything, even way out in space and then something went wrong. Now look at the state of affairs with men in control, hmmmmmmmm. I suppose the fantasy of escaping to a better world is an old one and probably on many peoples mind a lot of the time, even more so in today’s world. The only trouble is when we get up into space today, guess who’s mugshot we will be surrounded by? Plastered onto the side of all those satellites. There is no escape it seems, ho hum, such is life. Cheers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_to_the_Planet_of_Prehistoric_Women
February 11th, 2025 at 23:07Karin on a desert island near Skagen, she can bring as many Purple and Gillan records as she wants!
also because on the desert island there is only her, if she meets someone else then the island is no longer deserted, and the rules change!
February 12th, 2025 at 11:59@57
Awww MacGregor 😄😄
Know what, I will promise you this:
If you and I ever end up at a desert island, I will only bring 1 (one!) album with my all-time favourite band, that is indeed Deep Purple, with Ian as the very very best vocalist 🥰
And I promise I will not annoy you in any way playing music too loud!
But I will make you coffee every day 😃
“there is that movie where the planet is full of women.” – I told René about this but his comment is: one woman is enough 😅😂 (he looked completely exhausted with the thought of more than one lady)
February 12th, 2025 at 17:17@58
😄 you do have a point there! My desert island, my rules!
If I should find another person there, hopefully that person would love Purple as much as I do 😃
But I am not happy about the desert island around Skagen!
February 12th, 2025 at 17:22I would have preferred somewhere in the Pacific Ocean! 😃
“(René) looked completely exhausted with the thought of more than one lady …”
I disagree, is there a more pleasant way to die of exhaustion?
“I would have preferred somewhere in the Pacific Ocean! 😃”
But all that sun and warmth wouldn’t be good for you, Karin, you’re simply not used to it. Now go and take your daily walk in the rain.
https://www.cornwallsealgroup.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Conditions-Hammering-rain-new-impact-of-climate-change-DSCN3693-768×576.jpg
February 12th, 2025 at 21:25Thanks for your compassion and empathy Karin, much appreciated. Also the offer to make coffee all day and everyday, although as long as your coffee is grand that is, ouch. I was only joking. It would be much better than Baldrick’s coffee, as Blackadder himself was luckily not recipient of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtdYqVK_R4&t=56s
The only trouble with you possibly finding me or anyone else on that island creates a potential conundrum of sorts, which Deep Purple album? We had better hope there is an ‘agreement’ on that as all hell could break loose and then we end up defeating the purpose of being deserted on an island. This is where the ‘offsider’ comes in handy. If a mermaid for a male or an exhausted, disorientated washed up man for a female, we can manipulate them to obey. Too easy. What choice do they have even if they don’t like Deep Purple. We have to have some control over proceedings.. Regarding the planet of women, yes being on that could be a problem indeed. I know what René means, not personally of course, he he he, just that possible scenario. I have been there too (not that planet) relationship wise here on earth and I am still alive and relatively healthy. One lady seems to be enough here on earth and the thought of all those ladies on that planet, if they didn’t like a male or didn’t even know what one was, that could turn rather nasty indeed. Cheers.
February 13th, 2025 at 01:28@62
Ohhh 🤩 I do love the Blackadder universe 😃
I promise I will NEVER give dandruff as sugar, nor saliva as milk 😝😝😆
I have always felt so sorry for Baldrick, Blackadder wasn’t very nice to him, but I guess he got some sort of revenge here 😁😁
Yeah, what record? Well that is actually why I suggested them all! Each and everyone is a masterpiece 🥰
My sweetheart said something quite cute, regarding the post from Uwe:
Do you know the Fred Astaire movie, Top Hat, where the anti-hero says: “I am too much protection enough”, apparently René seems to think I am enough for him! (And he didn’t even think of all the mothers-in-law he would have to deal with, not to mention all the pantyhose draped all over the house😆)
Regarding manipulating people, well when they listen to Purple and indeed Ian singing, they will do what ever to get a chance to keep on listening ☺️ I’m pretty sure of that!
February 13th, 2025 at 07:36@61
“Now go and take your daily walk in the rain.“
Thank you, I will!
But if it’s ok with you, I prefer this version:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=RDswloMVFALXw&playnext=1&si=EgU4Wz4vmD5z0CkT
February 13th, 2025 at 07:57Bedazzling your wife’s mother belongs to the most rudimentary skill set of any man walking the Earth. If you don’t get a grip on that, there is something seriously wrong with you.
You always want to diligently prepare the ground for them to admonish their daughters sometime in the future with an accusing: “You should have stayed with him!” All the mothers of my former girlfriends and wives were (and remain to this day) great fans of mine. More so than their daughters! 😁 There are certain ways going about this like, inter alia, doing housework preferably in the presence of third party witnesses (“Let me just clean the table up quickly, honey, while you entertain our guests with your great stories.”) and ALWAYS agreeing with your mother-in-law on all things about your wife (“She was truly lucky as a child to have you as a mother.”).
February 13th, 2025 at 14:29Oh, I remember that song from another movie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w81RuBvGHkQ
February 13th, 2025 at 15:03@65
“Bedazzling your wife’s mother belongs to the most rudimentary skill set of any man walking the Earth. If you don’t get a grip on that, there is something seriously wrong with you.” – 😂😂😂
Did Edith read this before you send it?😆
Unfortunately René’s mother-in-law passed away many years ago, but he did actually charm her a lot! So much that she sided with him in any discussion we might had 😅 (that was annoying!) (really really annoying 😑)
February 13th, 2025 at 21:24So Uwe, if I may offer some advice?! Don’t annoy your wife 😄😄
But that is part of the plan, to have the mother-in-law side with you!
February 13th, 2025 at 22:51@66
Yeah, me too. For me, that song doesn’t conjure up images of Gene Kelly prancing down the street with an umbrella… I just see Malcolm McDowell repeatedly kicking some old guy in his yarbles.
February 14th, 2025 at 02:04You’re a terrible person, Dilligaf, I really resemble that.
But I always thought that Alex ultra-violently kicks in the stomach which isn’t nice either!
I must have seen Clockwork Orange at least 20-times … Only recently, I even rewatched Caligula again for old time’s sake (in its ultimate – very much approaching hardcore porn – cut, it is finally available for streaming after decades of being hidden from sight). Unlike Kubrick’s work, you can’t really call it a great film, more a fascinating train wreck of one. 😁
February 14th, 2025 at 15:16@68
Yeah, but….oh how do I explain this so your bright lawyer brain comprehend what I mean…🤔
Ohh yes, listen to this:
Normally mothers are some years older than their offspring, approximately 20 + years, and that means that sometime this sweet, dear old lady who now prefers you a lot more than her own daughter, suddenly isn’t here anymore (later on I will explain that part to you ☺️) and then you’re alone with your wife, and dear Uwe, wife’s tend to remember, well, things, and at that time when your guardian angel has passed on, YOU still have to live some sort of life with an angry and hurt woman!
Of course you can move on to the next lady, but isn’t it way better to mend things now, even if it means your mother-in-law goes on thinking: hey what happened to my dear, polite and charming son-in-law 😄
But then again, what do I know 😁
February 14th, 2025 at 22:59@70 Dunno… looks like multiple nut-shots to me.
Know what you mean about Caligula… horrible acting, production etc… but you gotta keep watching just to see what happens next.
February 15th, 2025 at 08:44