The strange feeling of having been cast adrift permeates Issue 39, as we and other fans struggled to come to terms with the bombshell of Gillan's departure, and the fact that Deep Purple were now closer to a new version of Rainbow - with three out of the five musicians having been in that band.

Jon Lord had taken advantage of the situation to tour with Pete York on the Olympic Rock & Blues shows, with dates and reviews filling a full page. As Gillan himself was now based back in the UK and fairly user friendly to boot, the magazine did manage to get quite a lot of access to his latest activities, and this kind of balanced out the wondering what was happening in the Purple camp. We also got a good sit down interview with the man during a recording break. Virgin had also got around to reissuing all his Gillan albums on CD in one fell swoop, and we went into this in great detail, especially as they all had bonus tracks. Strange to think they are all now long deleted and fetching good prices on the second-hand market.

The other ex- Purple vocalist David Coverdale was gearing up for some proper touring to promote Slip Of the Tongue, an album for which we were struggling to find any great enthusiasm (as the band continued to keep Wella Hair Products in the black), or indeed any rave reviews from DPAS members. My biography of the band (which had kept me busy for several months) had also hit the shelves but had been mysteriously dropped from the publishers promotional list and was hard to find (it too now fetches a lot second-hand).

On the archive front, the first Blackmore Rock Profile had gone down well and we were now researching Volume 2. The was also the arrival at long last of Denmark 72 on VHS, an event many fans had been waiting an awful long time for - unless you lived in Japan where it had been out for ages. Now here we are awaiting the same set's DVD debut!

Joe Lynn Turner's elevation to the Purple ranks was all signed and sealed before Christmas. The last DPAS magazine was at the printers when RAW came up with the seemingly copper bottomed news that Terry Brock, late of Scottish band, Strangeways, had landed the Purple job. It seems he did get over there, but didn't last long - three days is an informed estimate. Meanwhile it looks as if the guy from Survivor actually got vocals laid down over a couple of demo's. This must have been around Sept/Oct 1989.

In March 1990 Lord and Turner were seen in Switzerland, with Turner happily signing albums and saying yes he was indeed in the group. Whatever Turners abilities, I witnessed him trying to handle Child In Time at a Rainbow show and it didn't work. The band will either have to seriously revamp the live show - ironically the very thing Glllan was trying to get them to do anyway - or risk really destroying themselves. I suppose if they go for a complete change of direction then they could pull it off, but it's really back to a Rainbow situation. As Kevin Dixon put it in a recent letter, "back to watching the guitarist and waiting for the solo's again".

lan Glllan did quite lot of media promotion for the Rock Aid Armenia single when it came out. I must admit to me the whole thing looked like a real non starter given the blinkered attitudes in the press (and let's face it the plodding nature of the record). As several of you have pointed out, there were no press ads for the record, and copies weren't exactly thick on the ground. There was an "all star" video to accompany the single, and this contained the PERFECT STRANGERS promo amongst other things, along with (naturally) the promo for the SMOKE remake.

VARIOUS ARTISTS : ROCK AID ARMENIA. Smoke On The Water/Paranoid. Life Aid Records ARMBIIA 001 7"/T001 12"

For our interests, lan Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore both appear on it. The flip was the standard version of Sabbath's old hit Paranoid. People told me a 5" CD was also issued. To be honest the recording is really dull and lifeless; only lan Gillan sounds as if he's working - but with such a mediocre backing his effort is all for naught. Blackmore might as well have stayed at hone too. A 12" Mega Rock remix followed - which had a blue sleeve where the original was white. Americans say there was a lot of Interest there surrounding the project and a big press do - but after all that the single was never released!! The album from the project cane out late last year, with the single and a clutch of previously released tracks on by various bands.

lan Glllan was holed up at the Amazon Studios in Liverpool before and after Christmas, getting his first solo album laid down. To fill you in on the project, after the Moonshiners tour ended in June 1989, lan began to make plans for his future career. Impressed by the abilities of Moonshiner guitarist Steve Morris, he suggested Steve might like to work out some material for an album. lan decided to book a studio, and opted for Amazon. The musicians were many and varied. Initially much of the work fell to Steve Morris, who not only helped write the stuff and play guitar, but also tackled the initial keyboard and bass work. Mark Buckle, the blonde keyboard bombshell you saw on the Moonshiners dates, tackled a lot of the keyboard work too. Once guide tracks were down, other musicians were added in. Simon Phillips, a well known session drummer (who did Coverdale's first solo album way back) came up and laid the drums down in about three days. Eventually, it was decided that Mark's keyboard work probably lacked the necessary finesse, so Tommy Eyre was brought in - he played with Gary Moore for a time. As a contrast in style, Pete Robinson also helped out, mainly on piano. Robinson is the guy from Quaternass, which are linked to the Purple family via Mick Underwood who used to drum for them (and by the fact that lan helped write two songs on their debut album).

Almost as many names were linked to the project but didn't actually partake. Bob Daisley is one. He had contacted lan with the idea of a one off band to tour Australia during the later half of 1989. lan had been keen on the idea but had to pull out when be realised it would clash with his own recording. Of greater interest perhaps is the fact that lan was in touch with both Jon Lord and Glenn Hughes. Jon was invited to come up if he could spare the time, while lan also suggested to Glenn Hughes that he might care to lay down a few backing vocals. Unfortunately this intriguing prospect fell foul of Glenn's own recording commitments. To complete the personnel, the production work was handled by Leif Masses, responsible for the recent Jeff Beck LP and (in the past) Led Zeppelin and Abba. Fourteen tracks were mixed roughly at Amazon, ending there on the 26th January.

The playing standard overall is high, none of the session feel of the Glllan/Glover LP. I think a fair summing up would be that the music draws on many of lan's (and Steve's) roots, but brought up to date. It's early days to be expecting major moves forward, rather the album seems to be a more than adequate starting point for lan's future career. Release is due on July 16th via EastWest Records. It will be titled NAKED THUNDER. lan's tour of the USSR finally cane to pass, intended to warm the band up as well as extending the boundaries of rock. Most groups play a couple of the major cities and leave it a that - lan is doing 42 dates right round the country! They kicked off in Moscow on May 11th.

The only recent live sighting of David Coverdale came on November 15th 1989 at the Hammersmith Odeon when he came on stage to join headliners AEROSMITH for the encore. They romped through 'I'm Down' and a bluesy tune, with bits of Beatles tunes like 'Yesterday' and 'Help' thrown in. David did BBC Radio One's 'Friday Rock Show' on Nov 17th, on air for just four minutes, "I wonder who their singer is this week" came the jibe when asked about Purple. For once I don't feel like retorting. After his promotional visit, Coverdale returned to the States on Nov 24th where the band were set to make videos and then begin live rehearsals. They will be on tour in America fron February until July, then hit Europe in August. Interesting that while the new album 'Slip Of The Tongue' is still coining it in America, European chart action was markedly down on the last set.

"Another step on the road to Americanisation and a further move toward radio friendly AOR from the very British-based blues roots Coverdale once championed. The precise, technically efficient but cold guitar of Steve Vai coupled with solid but uninaginative work from Aldridge and Sarzo fail to produce anything worthwhile on which to lay the fruits of the new Coverdale / Vandenberg partnership. The songs range from the by now standard Zeppelin rip-off - 'Judgement Day' - to the well trodden Purple ballad - put 'Sailing Ships' alongside 'Soldier Of Fortune' to see what I mean. 'Fool For Your Loving' follows their trend of stripping down past classics and replacing contained emotion with harsh aggression. Overall a disappointingly bland slice of US rock." Roy Davies

And that's one of the kinder reviews!

It was back in Issue 26 (November 82 fact finders) that we reported on The Olympic Rock &. Blues Circus tour of Germany. The idea of a second Rock & Blues tour was mooted and the players decided to give it a go. In all eight scheduled shows were lined up in Austria, followed by eighteen in Germany. The musicians were as follows; Pete York/drums, Jon Lord/Hammond & Korg, Tony Ashton/elec piano, synth, vox, Colin Hodgkinson/bass, vox, Miller Anderson/guitar, vox, Zoot Money/vox, synth. Chris Farlowe did vocals for the first batch of dates. Jon Lord had asked to be kept out of the publicity, so posters read simply "special guest", but word wasn't slow in reaching people who the mysterious guest was! In the end some promoters just plastered his name across posters for the show.

"The place was boiling, Pete York, Colin Hodgkinson and Jon Lord formed the nucleus of the band with the others coming and going, which was good as we hadn't expected Jon throughout. There he was with his white Hammond (off the Superdrumming shows) thoroughly enjoying himself. They went through all sorts of tracks; Gimme Some Loving, Weird (with Tony Ashton rolling himself into the stage curtain) and San Fransisco Bay Blues with Colin's amazing bass solo, which is the highlight of any show he does. It was a late start and finish but the crowd made them return for several encores, the last of which was Lucille." Christoph Reichiann

Jon must have enjoyed the Circus dates, because during a break from the Deep Purple album sessions in March he was back in Europe for another gig with the band. This time they'd secured the services of ex- Family singer Roger Chapman. I only know of one show, in Zermatt, Switzerland. The band went out under the name of DADDY & THE STEAMERS.

The Copenhagen 1972 video is in the shops at last - almost three years after it came out in Japan! In the end I managed to get the job of doing the video put out to a firm in Sheffield run in part by a guy I've known for many years. It was cheaper than having it done in London and meant I could stick my oar in as usual. Needless to say we made sure not a second was edited out! On the original the screen went blank straight after Lucille. Our theory is the camera men thought one encore was it and switched the machines off! The only slight technical problem was the horizontal bars visible at times. I'm told these are sound on vision bars, caused by the sheer volume of noise interfering with the picture signal during recording. You do sometimes see it on live rock broadcasts. Nothing could be done to remove those but they don't spoil it too much.

The Ultimate. Geffen M5G 24248 : USA : Oct 89
2 CD/MC 3 LP Boxed set + booklet

The cover is disappointing - I don't like the HM logo style at all. The booklet is very attractive. I found the box very flimsy compared to those normally used.

Several of you query the Moxy tracks - hardly a crucial move on such an album I agree, while adding just one unreleased demo ('Brother Brother') - and then including the finished version of the same song is a bit much. None of this detracts from the abundance of good material, let's hope someone sees some sense and whips up the unreleased material on a double - I've a nasty feeling it's going to be a long wait.