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:

Miki de Goodaboom

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

I don’t do reviews, but……….BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION 2 – Rock’s Salvation?

Most reviews about this band start with the deconstruction of the “Supergroup” tag, and how groups either succeed or fail to live up to it. I’ll try and avoid that.  What Black Country Communion are is four musicians operating at the top of their game, but more importantly, producing something that transcends the sum of their parts. I suppose, if ever there was to be a definitive criteria for being labelled a Supergroup, then that is it.

What also sets this band, and this second album, apart from virtually anything else in the marketplace is the sheer quality and craft in the songwriting. No album fillers here. An album that clocks in around the hour mark and has not outstayed its welcome.  Beautiful counterpoint between the ballads and the rockers, between Bonamassa’s and Hughes’ voices, which compliment each other perfectly.  I read that producer Kevin Shirley had sought to capture the classic ‘Bonham’ sound through Bonzo’s lad, and he’s achieved that in spades. The drums are simply majestic, striding through the album like a colossus, the son honouring the father with feel and skill, and, as if you could ever doubt it, power.

But perhaps the most pleasing thing is the gradual emergence of Derek Sherinian’s keyboards. Heralding the great days of 70’s rock, he brings so much to this album. Never overbearing, always underpinning, and then sweeping into a solo off the back of Bonamassa, or growling along down and dirty with Hughes’ bass lines. Ah…the man’s bass lines!! If Glenn suffers from anything , it’s in having such an amazing voice that his bass playing is often overlooked. But you’ll not hear a better exponent of the craft, and his work on this album is stunning, whether it be driving “Man in the Middle” relentlessly, or the glorious weaving lines beneath Joe’s guitar in “The battle for Hadrian’s wall.”

A producer’s role is often a thankless one, at best misunderstood, or perhaps the fall guy if the project goes belly-up. But Kevin Shirley deserves huge praise, not just for his work in the studio, but for his vision in seeing immediately just what huge potential these four guys had collectively. His love and deep understanding of the genre is evident in his remix of Deep Purple’s “Come taste the band.”

You may have noticed I’ve hardly mentioned the tracks by name. It is because this is a bona fide body of work. There is no weak point on this album. The joy is to be derived from listening to it as a whole, almost unheard of in our 3 minute MTV short-attention-span culture, but the grace with which ‘2’ moves between Man in the middle, Hadrian’s Wall and Save me,  for example elevates this album from a mere collection of songs. It is a masterful body of work from four men who inspire each other to new heights.  It’s on in the car right now, every day, and I’ll be travelling with my partner Miki, who created the painting at the top of this article, to see them live in the Czech Republic in July. Come on!

(Just click on the portrait to visit Miki’s site and read about her thoughts on BCC and to order a print)

Kev Moore

Lessons from the Master

Meeting the Master

Some days ago, I flew to the UK to attend a long-overdue concert on Monday night in York by one of my greatest musical inspirations. He goes by many names: The Voice of Rock, The Funkmeister, Big Daddy, even Glenn Hughes…..but for me, he is simply the Master.  Backed by a superb band, he owns the stage, stomping around with an energy that belies his years, delivering his bass lines and sublime vocals with an effortless grace.

He played two songs on Monday that drove right to the heart of the passion he ignited in me to become a bass-player/singer. “Sail Away” – one of my favourites from the classic “Burn” album by Deep Purple – perhaps one of the first bass riffs I ever learned, and “Keepin’ Time” – the blockbusting opener from Trapeze’s third album “You are the Music….we’re just the band.”

When these songs came out, I was an impressionable, awkward youth, stumbling through my early teens. I was already a drummer in a band, occasionally singing, but when I heard Glenn’s breathtaking vocals, and pounding funk-laden rock bass, I just knew what I was going to be.

Unbelievably, that was forty years ago. He strides onto the stage at the Grand Opera House in York, a legend undiminished, and as I remarked to him in the chill of the night outside the stage door as the band left to continue the tour, he is like a fine wine, getting better and better with age. Slaying his demons, he has become a testament to belief in the music, and boy, does the music do the talking for him. In an age where kids have role models that it seems effortless to surpass, Glenn Hughes is from a different era, where aspiring musicians could draw inspiration by capturing just a fraction of the talents of these guys that wandered across the rock landscape of the early 70’s. Punctuating his set with snatches of self-deprecating, wry humour, I sense a man totally at ease with his stage persona, a man who has come home.

It speaks volumes that his playing and singing has exactly the same effect on my now, as in the early 70’s. It fires me. It makes me want to go home and practice, and play, just make music.

The guy sat next to me had brought his young teenage daughter along. As the last notes faded into the shadows of the old auditorium and the audience headed out into the night, he turned to her and said: “You can revise for your A levels tomorrow. This is all the education you need.”

It’s certainly been enough for me. Glenn, I salute you – you’re still The Master.

Kev Moore