The one-off show Deep Purple did in Zurich in December 2007 (see Darker Than Blue Issue 59) is now coming out on DVD. This was a private ten track show lasting about an hour, paid for by a Swiss banker. Release is expected early in 2010 and we'll let you know more. Great cover photo though!

Tracks - Pictures Of Home / Hush / Into The Fire / Strange Kind Of Woman / When A Blind Man Cries / Lazy / Perfect Strangers / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water / Black Night

This DVD began shipping in July 2010 from the producer's website in Switzerland (though I'm sure some people will be overcharging on auction sites!).

DPAS mailorder have been able to get some stock of the Deep Purple Zurich DVD, but it is quite pricey. If you want to place an order, go to the store. They will have stock towards the end of September.

SR/DB#6002452

Forty two years after the formation of Deep Purple, almost twenty five years to the day since hundreds of fans travelled from Belfast by coach and ship to see the band at Knebworth.... Deep Purple will finally be playing a show in Northern Ireland.

The band were due to play at Custom House Square, Belfast, on June 28th 2010, with the show starting at 6pm. Just to keep fans in Northern Ireland on their toes, the gig has now been moved to St Georges Market, beside the Waterfront Hall and around 300 yards from the original venue.

The promoter, CDC Leisure, went into administration last week and all events promoted by them are being assessed as a money making venture only. According to Keith Livingstone "Original rumour was that it was cancelled but a friend who is the manager of St Georges Market confirmed that it was moved this morning."

DB#6002461 (thanks to Keith Livingstone) Photo: Tim (Moth) Clark

The Deep Purple show scheduled for Areena Joensuu, Finland on 6th July has apparently been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Fans who have bought a ticket for that show can attend the show in Turku, Finland, 5th July, using that same ticket. According to the promoter, the Turku show has been selling well.

See our Deep Purple 2010 tour dates.

NY#600241

Deep Purple are still confirming shows for 2010, including the "huge European tour" mentioned earlier in the year by Steve Morse.

Their first dates in South Africa since 1995 (with the band due to join Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash for the 'Masters of Rock' concert tour) kick off on Friday, May 28th in Johannesburg, go on to Durban May 30th, and wrap up on June 1st in Cape Town (missing the World Cup by 10 days - they played in Germany during the last one). There is a long overdue visit to Northern Ireland in June (see below), and the Swedish Rockweekend Festival 8-9-10th Julyn near Kilafors. Over The Rainbow will also be playing at the festival.

More dates have been added to out 2010 gig list for Italy in late July. You can find more details on the Italian shows at www.deep-purple.it, where Francesco does his bit for the Italian tourist board by telling us that most of the dates are "close to the seaside and in beautiful locations. Arezzo is a wonderful city as well. So if you can make it, it would also make a nice holiday trip."

The band will play 13 shows in Germany during November 2010, with Marillion getting a one hour support slot.

NY#6002475. Thanks to Francesco, and others. Photo: Mikkel Andersen

If you enjoyed Martin Popoff's book Gettin' Tighter, then you may be interested in his follow up volume A Castle Full Of Rascals, which covers the band's reunion years in much the same sort of way and in a matching format (with Gillan and Glover on the front).

In stock now at dpas mailorder.

Thanks to Scott Wood for the update.

SR#6002421

Good news for vinyl fans; the two Deep Purple Live At Montreux titles (1996 and 2006) are due out as double vinyl editions at the end of October. These have been officially licensed from Eagle.

Sleeves are as the CD editions. We are awaiting packaging details and track split.

In stock now at dpas mailorder. Nice gatefold with plenty of live pictures inside.

SR#6002401

Ian Gillan was interviewed by Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet in advance of Deep Purple's Istanbul show on July 20th, and mentioned plans for a new studio album: "I think we are ready to make another album. We’ve been talking about it for some time already. I think we’ll start to work on it next February."

He also shed light on the band's recording methods: "We go into the studio with absolutely nothing, no music or lyrics whatsoever. We sit in the kitchen, having some cup of tea, talk about families and football… Then we go into the room and play; six hours a day. After three days, some ideas begin to shape and we start to turn them into songs. To prepare the main lines takes about three weeks, to deal with lyrics, recording process and mixing also take two weeks. Since there have been many technological developments recently and we use them by recording the music in analog and mix it in digital to achieve the best result."

There has been a lot of talk about a new studio album being cut during the early part of 2010, their first since Rapture Of The Deep in 2005.  We'll keep you informed.

MR #6002682 with thanks to Orhun Yakın and Sakis Nikas. (photo: Daniele Purrone)

Italian guitar legend Maurizio Solieri (VASCO ROSSI, STEVE ROGERS BAND) will be the opening act for the DEEP PURPLE concerts scheduled for Italy in this December. Solieri, 56, will be promoting his new studio album, due in Spring 2010. The guitar player is currently on hiatus from VASCO ROSSI's "Europe Indoor live in concert" tour, due to restart in February. Maurizio Solieri will be joined on stage by fellow bassist Claudio "Gallo" Golinelli (VASCO ROSSI, STEVE ROGERS BAND), singer Michele Luppi (VISION DIVINE, KILLING TOUCH), keyboard player Mimmo Camporeale (STEVE ROGERS BAND), and drummer Alberto Molinari (ZUCCHERO).

DB#600244 (with thanks to Francesco at deep-purple.it )

photo: Martin Ashberry

Deep Purple have been announced for the annual "Live at the Marquee" music festival in Cork, Rep.Ireland, on 30 June 2010. Tickets will be going on sale from Ticketmaster outlets on 12 November.

Keith Livingstone responds: "So the boys are coming to Cork next year. Thanks lads, thats only 325 miles away. For the love of God, what has Northern Ireland done? We have 3 frigging nights of the X Factor to put up with followed by Cum (sic) Dancing!!! Still Reb Beech and Winger are playing in Belfast as part of a UK Tour next March."

NY#6002431 (with thanks also to Francesco at deep-purple.it ) photo: Xavier Rulló Guàrdia

Rockpages.gr interviewed Ian Gillan backstage before Deep Purple's concert in Athens this summer. Some highlights:

Rockpages.gr: Let’s say that you were not the singer of Deep Purple and you were just a fan of rock music. A friend of yours says: “Hey, Ian…which Deep Purple album I should not listen to? Which one is not good enough”? What would you say to him?

Ian Gillan: "Without any doubt, I would not suggest “Who Do We Think We Are” or “The House Of Blue Light”. There are some good songs on those albums but the whole vibe is not right… neither one captures the spirit of the band. I guess “The House Of Blue Light” is the least favorite of mine."

Rockpages.gr: Now that you mention “Who Do We Think We Are”, would you like to tell us the one good thing and the one bad thing that comes in your mind regarding that recording experience?

Ian Gillan: "Well, the one bad thing is that the bloody banjo player never showed up! He was treating everyone with disrespect… and I mean everybody in the band, not just me. We were literally sitting and waiting for weeks for the bastard to come in the studio and join us. The band and the crew were just sitting and waiting. It was a very insulting behaviour. The best thing, actually, about the whole session was some stuff that we did when the banjo player… when Ritchie wasn’t there. Basically, fooling around in the studio… Jon Lord singing lead vocals on “Smelly Botty”… a cabaret impersonation…"

You cand read the whole interview on: /www.rockpages.gr

MR #600272 (photo: James Whitworth )

Deep Purple were called upon at the last minute to replace Oasis (after their latest split), headlining the Rock-am-See open air festival at the Bodenseestadion, Germany on August 29th. It apparently went very well, which lead to Purple also standing in for the Milano Urban Festival in Italy on August 30th, which was the last date Oasis would have been playing on the tour. In Milan Deep Purple headlined over The Kooks and Kasabian.

The sudden cancellation of the Oasis gig in Milan lead to the Deep Purple Italia (www.deep-purple.it) online forum being "invaded" by Oasis fans trying to sell tickets for the show. However, some of them attended the event and commented back the day after.

Francesco from Deep Purple Italia reports that Oasis fans were generally surprised by Deep Purple's performance, reportedly saying that they "kicked ass", "should have had the Oasis headline spot from the beginning", and that "they were worth every cent of the ticket price." It has also been reported that members of support bands KASABIAN and THE KOOKS were enjoying the show backstage.

NY #600270 (photo: Martin Ashberry), with thanks to Francesco

A new Deep Purple French tour is taking shape (again!), with six dates planned for early December 2009; half of them in cities where Deep Purple have played recently (Nantes, Marseille, Toulouse) - and the other ones in "new" cities (Amiens, Chambery, Montbeliard). The tour support is Swiss group Gotthard, in place of French act Café Bertrand, who supported Deep Purple for forty French shows stretching back three years.

Before the December tour, Deep Purple are also lined up to headline the famous "Fête de l'Humanité" on September 12th. This very popular three day event, organised by a daily French newspaper L'Humanité, takes place every year on the second week-end of September in La Courneuve, near Paris.

See the full schedule on our Deep Purple tour dates list.

Mathieu Pinard / DB #60026551 (photo: Martin Ashberry)

Nice to see that in these credit strapped times the ticket booking industry is as greedy as ever - well greedier actually! One DPAS member just called to say he has been charged an extra £8.75 PER TICKET in 'admin' costs, including a new charge (you'll love this) for doing the booking online himself. Nice. Note: Crash Records in Leeds charged 50p when I last booked a gig ticket through them, and this included first class postage.

Ticketmaster users (and all agencies boot you through to them anyway, so it's Hobson's choice): if you are having trouble with their Visa Verification process, use the 'make text smaller' option on your browser, to reveal an extra field to fill in before you can proceed. Took me three goes!

And another thing - normally one gets a discount for ordering online. Even the Duchess of Devonshire knocks a fiver OFF if you book Chatsworth tickets online! Here they charge you the same 'admin fee' even if you print off your own tickets! Simon.

Here is the top of the booking fees chart, in reverse order! GLASGOW at number 4 with just £5.55. At number 3, a surprise entry, £6.75, is LONDON. MANCHESTER climbs to number 3 with £8.75. But this tour's top of the ticket fees are BIRMINGHAM, with a whopping £8.95 per ticket! Well done Birmingham.
And thank you to Richard Taylor who put his credit card to the test to bring us these figures.

SR #6002631 (photo: Nick Robinson)

'Classic Rock' mag has fulfilled its promise of last issue to finally feature Deep Purple on the cover (the editorial claims that historically Deep Purple have featured in more 'Classic Rock' articles than Zep, GnR etc. but have just not been on the cover before).

On first perusal, it seems quite a nice feature, with new interviews with Gillan, Glover & Paice and comments from Ritchie from a 'classic' Blackmore article (hmm), plus recent ones from Coverdale and sidebars for Joe Lynn Turner and Steve Morse. A few controversial remarks from Ian Gillan, who says he's never listened to any Deep Purple Mk III albums ("What are they called? 'Burn' and..'Strongbow' is it?") Elsewhere he also confesses to have "still been drinking too much" at the time of the reunion and to not having happy memories of the 1980's.

TS #6002621

(with thanks to John Blackburn)

Deep Purple broke the record for international artists playing in Israel. Their original September 2008 show sold out so quickly a second was added. Then the third, and now it's four!

According to a local press release, the first show in Israel, originally scheduled for Sept. 7th, has been postponed to the 17th, so the schedule now is: Sept. 8th (Caesaria), 9th (Tel Aviv) and 17th and 18th (both Caesaria). The date was apparently moved so the band could reschedule a show in Russia for the 7th so that the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could attend (apparently being "too busy" to go to the other Russian date. I think if I lived in the Ukraine I'd take that as a hint to move out now).

SR #6002571 Thanks to Dmitry M. Epstein for the news. (photo: Alan Perry)

Eagle have issued a 4 DVD Deep Purple box set called 'Around The World'. The discs comprise:

1. Bombay Calling and Korea 1995 both of which have been out before (Bombay Calling on DVD twice, and VHS).

2. Total Abandon and Down Under, both of which have been out several times in one form or another.

3. Live At NEC 2002, with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover interview. This is new.

4. Documentary film about the Steve Morse era. Origin unknown.

Most fans would I think have preferred the NEC show as a stand alone product (to avoid marital strife if nothing else!), but you do get a 32 page booklet thrown in. The box set is shipping now from dpas mailorder. Click here to see a full pack-shot of the box.

SR #6002512 (Thanks to Nigel Young for the heads up)

The fourth DVD in the upcoming box set, listed below as "Documentary film about the Steve Morse era" is a 90 minute edit of a fly-on-the-wall 'Access All Areas', which has been in production for some years. People tell me the new documentary actually leans heavily on material which first appeared on the Gillancam feature on Ian Gillan's fabbo Highway Star effort last year.

Following the Total Abandon tour of Australia in 1999, it was decided to document life on the road with the band. Collated primarily over a 4 year period and starting in Japan 2000, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice and Drew Thompson collected vision from the tours. According to Drew: "it's an amazing insight into life on the road, and takes a look at elements of touring never really seen. It was never meant to showcase the performances from this period, but shows life on the road as it really happens; the fun, the humour, the politics and the camaraderie. The transition period of Jon Lord leaving the band and Don Airey reinvigorating proceedings has been captured at close hand, beautifully complimenting the live NEC performance. This is a must see for any fan of the band."

The full "Access All Area" documentary runs to beyond 3 hours, and has been edited down for the new DVD package. Drew expects that later in 2008 a full length version will be released. If it is, that may leave the NEC 2002 show as the only disc exclusive to 'Around The World'.

SR #6002531

Ian Gillan has told a reporter in Peru that he hopes the group will record a new album in 2009, but so far there doesn't seem to be anything more concrete than this.

SR #600252

Ian Gillan has written an article for The Times about Deep Purple's private show at The Kremlin on February 11th:

"The younger guys and more junior staff were all up on their feet, although they were looking nervously over at their bosses to see whether they could loosen their ties. It was as if they were asking, “How much fun are we allowed to have?” I’m sure I could have had everyone on their feet but I knew Tina Turner was on next and it wouldn’t have been cool to do that.

When we had finished our show, Medvedev and Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, came into our dressing room where we had a chat and a couple of drinks. Medvedev had this stupid grin on his face because he was meeting his favourite band. We had a nice chat but we didn’t talk about politics. All of us in the band have such wildly different opinions on religion and politics that we never get into it. "

See the full article here.

TS #600250

Deep Purple were flown to Moscow to perform a special show on Fwebruary 11th at The Kremlin's Palace of Congresses, in front of Russian luminaries such as Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev - a man described by the Moscow Times as "chairman of state-controlled gas giant Gazprom and a virtual lock to become the country's next president." The party was to mark the 15th anniversary of the firm's creation.

The evening began with an address by Russian president Vladimir Putin, which was followed by performances from Tina Turner and Deep Purple among others. According to news reports "the fans wore furs, suits or war medals rather than jeans and T- shirts; they arrived in black chauffeured limousines not buses; and the front row of the audience included Russia's likely next president Dmitry Medvedev and a top former KGB spy." During Deep Purple's one hour set  "attempts by Ian Gillan to encourage audience participation led to the kind of slow, steady handclap which used to reverberate around the wood-panelled hall during Soviet Communist Party congresses." TS #6002471

CD tracks list in full : Pictures Of Home / Things I Never Said / Strange Kind Of Woman / Rapture Of The Deep / Wrong Man / Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye / When A Blind Man Cries / Lazy / Keyboard solo / Space Truckin' / Highway Star / Smoke On The Water.

dpas mailorder are stocking both editions.

DVD disc 1 includes the band's set from the 40th Montreux Festival in 2006 plus iInterviews with the band members. Disc 2 contains the whole of Deep Purple’s 60 min performance from the Hard Rock Café, London, to celebrate its re-opening and the launch of the band’s new album “Rapture Of The Deep” back in October 2005 (audio from this set was on the special tour edition of Rapture Of The Deep CD). 1) Fireball 2) I Got Your Number 3) Strange Kind Of Woman 4) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye 5) Rapture Of The Deep 6) Wrong Man 7) Lazy 8) Perfect Strangers 9) Highway Star 10) Smoke On The Water. Due mid-June 2007. It looks as if Perfect Strangers is absent from the DVD as well as the CD (collectors tell us it was absent on TV and FM in Europe when the show was broadcast last year).

It looks as if the Japanese edition of this new CD will include ALL the set on two discs, rather than the slightly shorter single CD in Europe which lacks the encore and Morse's showcase. Silly thing to do and annoying for collectors. Info is scarce but if we're right the extra CD tracks would be The Well Dressed Guitar, Hush, Too Much Fun, and Black Night. To confirm, the Montreux set IS complete on the DVD in Europe. dpas mailorder are stocking this import edition. If anyone who has ordered the single CD UK edition wishes to upgrade their order, please email Ann asap.

Eagle have confirmed a blu-ray DVD edition of Live At Montreux 2006, which will be released in February 2008 in Europe. Content is as the previously released DVD (reviewed in DTB 58), but the picture is high definition. It can be pre-ordered at dpas mailorder. (for more info on blu-ray, see our format guide).

SR#6002397

We've had requests for information on a new Deep Puple DVD called Live in China, taped on the March 31st 2004 at the Gymnasium Beijing. It is on the Masterplan label. This is the same company who pirated the Live in Bombay DVD in Europe, and we understand this latest is also a bootleg. Unfortunately these are quite widespread in German shops and have fooled a lot of people so be warned.

"The live In China dvd is horrible. Thanks for warning, sorry I didn't believe you!" Heikki Heino

Under pressure from the band, Edel have rethought the limited tour edition of Rapture Of The Deep. This will now be a DOUBLE CD set. CD 1 has the album as before. CD 2 now has EIGHT tracks: 1) Clearly Quite Absurd (new version) 2) Things I Never Said (Japanese bonus track) 3) The Well Dressed Guitar (unreleased) 4) Rapture Of The Deep (live) 5) Wrong Man (live) 6) Highway Star (live) 7) Smoke On The Water (live) 8) Perfect Strangers (live).

The live tracks were recorded in London Oct 10. 2005. Anyone who has pre-ordered from dpas mailorder will get this new version. Providing the price is reasonable, this now looks like a much better release.

The Rapture Tour Edition has been put back again (at least for UK release) until June 5th, the week after Monsters Of Rock. It is already available in Germany. Thanks to Essential for the info. Edel now say that the digipak is to be a limited edition only for the UK. It will only be available up to the release date (in other words pre-orders). After release date, shops will only be able to order the jewel case edition. So if you want to be sure of the digipak please pre-order.

SR#7001604 (Thanks to Joerg Planer, Amanda at Eagle and Matt at Essential)