The Art of Deep Purple in Cologne
Ritchie Blackmore, Tommy Bolin, Steve Morse
This coming Friday sees me off on my travels for an exciting 7 days. The first few are dedicated to representing my partner Miki’s art at a Deep Purple exhibition in Cologne, Germany this weekend. She has 9 paintings on show, featuring many DP members, past and present, and artists from all over the world will be exhibiting. Miki will be busy working in Spain at the time so I’ll be seeing to her interests at the launch weekend.
Miki’s website:
The venue awaits the exhibits
In addition to the many paintings and sculptures, there will also be a collection of Roger Glover’s basses on display, plus signed items from Joe Satriani and Don Airey. Roger also has a number of his own artworks on display.
Opening night sees a Deep Purple tribute band – ‘Demon’s Eye’ performing too, so I’m looking forward to that, and also catching up with drummer Mark Cross (Scorpions, Firewind) on the opening night.
Roger Glover signs stuff for the exhibition
The Exhibition runs from April 14 to May 12 – if you’re in the area, be sure to check it out!
THE ART AND HISTORY OF DEEP PURPLE
Kev Moore
Granbretan Invasion!
Graham Oliver and Me playing some Saxon classics
Not long ago, Witch Cross were approached by our Metal buddy Bart Gabriel over at Skol records to see if we’d be interested in contributing a song to a new tribute album to the glories of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Needless to say the answer was a resounding “Hell yeah!”
The choice of song was a no-brainer for us. In our live show, one of our encores is the SAXON classic “Strong Arm of the Law”. Luckily I was over from Spain at the right time and we got the track recorded, but there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to have my long time friend Graham Oliver, Saxon axe-wielder extraordinaire on the track!
I drove up to Graham’s place in Yorkshire while I was in the UK and we headed up to Beat Street Studios in Leeds to record his parts. He’s the genuine article, the real deal, and his playing brought the song alive.
Graham working his Metal Magic
We’re really proud of our contribution to this fantastic project and can’t wait to hear what the other bands have done. Besides Witch Cross featuring Graham Oliver, it contains NWOBHM covers from Cauldron, Crystal Viper, Enforcer, Gatekeeper, Helvetets Port, Hitten, Ironflame, Martyr, Savage Master, Substratum, Twisted Tower and Dire. The album will be out later this year – stay tuned! Big thanks to my mate Jase Brooks at Beat Street for fitting in with our tight recording deadline!
L-R Kev Moore, Graham Oliver, Jase Brooks, Oliver Sekunda
Kev Moore
Taking The Long Road
I have been notably remiss in posting on here of late. No, scratch that – I’ve been bloody useless. In my defence, it’s been a time of turmoil, change and soul-searching, but it’s no excuse, not really. I am a creator, and I need to share that creativity with the wider world, whether the reaction be good, bad, or indifferent. I suppose it’s driven by that old philosophical adage: “If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?“
Anyway, I may revisit some of the things I’ve been up to in the intervening couple of years, but for now, I want to share this with you.
In recent months, I’ve been doing some co-writing with an old friend, Steve Bonham. (Our connection goes back so far we’re into counting half-decades!) We last wrote a song together when we were about fifteen, so, as Steve likes to joke, we’re not what you’d call a prolific writing partnership.
Nevertheless, when he approached me to become a part of The Long Road, we began exchanging ideas.
We recorded over thirty songs at Woodworm Studios in Oxfordshire with Stuart Wood for a huge Anglo-Americana project, about half a dozen of which are co-writes between me and Steve. Woodworm is a studio steeped in history. Once owned by Dave Pegg, it has heard the talents of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull among others, and the ghosts of their songs move through the walls.
One of the songs we wrote was ‘The Girl with the Rattlesnake Heart’ and it’s a song that had some interesting beginnings. I wrote the music back in 2010, in the shadow of the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue in Austin, Texas. I’d been watching a squirrel playing in the trees and had the fanciful notion that it was a blues aficionado, influenced by SRV. I named him Nutz McGee.
Me and SRV…..
It was a frivolous lyric, and needless to say, it didn’t make it onto my ‘Blue Odyssey’ album of the same year. But I always kept coming back to the music, knowing I could use it some day.
When Steve approached me to see if I had any ideas this one came to mind. “I’ve got a song about a blues squirrel,” I said, straight-faced. When he’d stopped laughing, he gave it a listen. He came up with a fabulously evocative lyric that dovetailed perfectly with the mood of the music, and ‘The Girl with the Rattlesnake Heart’ was born.
I remember the recording session for the song. I was like some kind of long-haired Basil Fawlty, running up and down the studio stairs like a lunatic, recording drums, then bass, then guitar, then backing vocals! I like the juxtaposition of the two guitar solos, mine, then John Humphreys slide solo, a nice contrast. The minimalist low bass note on the piano from Chris Lydon harks back to my Blue Odyssey album. When I’d visited Sun Studios in Memphis, I’d learned that Johnny Cash used to do this to add gravitas to a track. I think it sounds great on this.
A couple of weeks ago, the band came out to Andalucia, and we filmed a trilogy of videos for the project. Here is the first of them. ‘The Girl with the Rattlesnake Heart’
We still call it The Squirrel Song. 🙂
Witch Cross at CHAOS DESCENDS!
A lot of travelling, and a nightmare to get to my hotel in Berlin after flying in from Madrid on the Friday evening…but hooked up with guitarist Mike Koch the next morning, and we drove down to meet up with the rest of the band in Crispendorf, in the heart of the Thuringen countryside. The setting for the inaugural CHAOS DESCENDS festival was an old East German holiday camp, weird, spooky, and complete with a miniature train, it was absolutely perfect!
Well attended and with an eclectic line-up that ranged from doom, death and black metal through Sabbath/Prog inspired U.S. metallers Danava, and the innovative and hypnotic Swans, there was even room for good old-fashioned early 80’s Danish Metal!
The crowd were amazing to us, singing along to the songs from ‘Fit for Fight’, and we are starting to notice that they are becoming familiar with the newer stuff from ‘Axe to Grind’ too, which is particularly satisfying.
I’ll be doing a follow-up piece on the festival with more pics soon.
Our next shows see us in Denmark and Sweden in September, and we now start to coalesce ideas for the third album.
Kev Moore
Busy week ahead
Got a show coming up with my local band, THE COPS, playing with an old Castillo as a backdrop, down the coast from where I live, in San Juan de los Terreros, on Thursday night. Let’s hope we can deliver some “Spanish Castle Magic”!
Then, on Friday, it’s time to drive to Madrid to catch a plane to Berlin and meet up with my Metal collegaues in WITCH CROSS! Really excited to be playing the CHAOS DESCENDS Festival this year! No rest when I return though, as I’ll be back with THE COPS again playing in the city of Lorca in Spain on Tuesday – the day after I fly back to Madrid.
Kev Moore
Witch Cross return to rock Germany!
Totally stoked about our upcoming appearance at the CHAOS DESCENDS Festival, which takes place at Ferienland CRISPENDORF between 16-18 July.
We’ll be hitting the stage at 19.50 on Saturday 18th, just before SWANS, who I’m looking forward to checking out.
WITCH CROSS will be making a few more live appearances this year, so keep an eye out on these pages for more news!
Kev Moore
Witch Cross in print!
Great to see WITCH CROSS’ appearance at the BROFEST UK Festival get a mention and a photo in the current edition of the respected Metal Mag IRON FIST!
Order your copy now!
Kev Moore
I’m back!
Yes, dear readers it’s been a long time, but I’m going to try and find time to rekindle my blog posts. Owing to the fact that it’s been forever since I’ve been on here, the next few posts will probably be retrospective in nature… so let’s get right down to it with WITCH CROSS’ first ever appearance in the UK at the Mighty BROFEST in March of this year.
We had an absolute ball, and you can too…the entire set is here in this article for you to watch!
Support these wonderful regional festivals and KEEP METAL ALIVE!
FOLLOW WITCHCROSS:
twitter: @witchcrossdk
website: http://www.witchcross.dk
Straight Shooters at The Grand Pavilion, Matlock Bath
Matlock, and its surrounding area, including Darley Dale and Matlock bath, in the heart of Derbyshire’s Peak District is somewhere dear to my heart and inextricably linked with both my Mum’s and Dad’s side of the family, all of them hailing from there. The Grand Pavilion, a Georgian building that stands imperiously by the river side deep in the gorge where Matlock Bath sits, has long been a focal point for entertainment. In the post-war years, my Dad well remembers attending concerts and watching Dance bands there. In the 1980’s, I performed there myself with my band Tubeless Hearts.
Matlock Bath Pavilion
So it really piqued my interest when my Dad mentioned that it had been at considerable risk of demolition in recent years, and was now in the hands of a trust committed to saving this historic building. I’d been canvassing around to fill out dates for my visit from Spain in June, when, with our new project Straight Shooters, we’ll be making a special appearance at the Quad in Derby, and also in Burton -on-Trent, but more about those shows in another post.
After connecting with Andie Brazewell at The Pavilion, we now have a date in place for Straight Shooters – Friday June 6th – we’re hoping everyone will come along and support the event – priced at just £5 a ticket, and help fund the restoration of this beautiful venue.
You’ll be in for a night of classic British 70’s rock, courtesy of the music of Free and Bad Company!
THE GRAND PAVILION MATLOCK BATH
Kev Moore
Bio
(Born: 20th May,1958, Chesterfield, England) is a Bass Player and Lead Vocalist. Formerly with Tubeless Hearts, he played with English Pop band Christie from 1990 to 2003, and featured in Graham Oliver’s Saxon on two European tours, before other commitments resulted in John Ward taking over vocal duties for the resulting Oliver/Dawson Saxon CD releases. Nevertheless, he appeared on Graham Oliver’s solo album End of an Era returning the favour after Oliver had appeared on Tubeless Hearts Three CD. READ MORE….
Tubeless Hearts 1994
Christie 1990
with Graham Oliver
BC Sweet 2008
CD’s AVAILABLE NOW!
Download my 2009 solo album FOR FREE!!!
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CHRISTIE
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