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SHOCKING: 2 - You Need To See This

Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan: ‘I’ve seen parties too wild to describe’

The frontman of the heavy rock monsters talks to Mark Beaumont about booze, the sexual wildness of the Sixties, living out Spinal Tap moments, and the band’s new album

The Independent UK

“I’ve played Smoke On The Water with some heavy metal drummers and not one of them has played it right. Ian lets the music do its work. He’s probably the most important member of the band”: Ian Gillan bigs up Deep Purple colleague Paice

Ian Gillan and Roger Glover talk about Deep Purple's past and present

MusicRadar

The Beethoven-inspired throwaway that become the most famous riff of all time: “We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album”

Now Deep Purple return to Montreux... with added smoke

MusicRadar

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“I get more volume and power when I play with a pick. I’d never be able to play Highway Star with my fingers”: Roger Glover’s isolated bassline on Deep Purple’s Highway Star is a masterclass in high-velocity picking

Highway Star presents the best route to the heart of Deep Purple’s riff-driven righteousness

Guitar World

“I woke up with those words, ‘Smoke on the Water’, on my lips. I mentioned it to Ian and he said, ‘Sounds like a drug song, we better not do that’”: Deep Purple just played Smoke on the Water on the lake that inspired it – with actual fire in the sky

The band return to Montreux, the site of the 1971 casino fire depicted in the lyrics of their iconic track

Guitar World

"Even now, I have no idea how we got Vincent Price or Twiggy": The night Roger Glover assembled three Deep Purple singers and a cast of stars for a performance based on an old children’s poem

When Roger Glover was asked to soundtrack a film based on a poem by a 19th century botanist, little did he know that soon it would become a one-off live extravaganza

Louder

Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan recalls menacing response from manager when he asked for money

‘I had never heard anything so horrible in my life,’ the singer said

The Independent UK

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“I’d always said to the Scorpions, ‘If any band from England asks me to join, no matter who it is, I’m doing it’”: Michael Schenker celebrates his tenure with UFO with a new reimagined greatest hits record – and it features Slash

Michael Schenker's new album, My Years with UFO, marks the 50th anniversary of the guitarist's tenure with the British classic rock band

Guitar World

“Bowie drove me down to the audition to meet Tommy… I saw this guy with green and purple hair”: Glenn Hughes recalls meeting Tommy Bolin at his tense Deep Purple audition

Glenn Hughes might not be on the best of terms with Deep Purple, but he fondly remembers his friendship with guitarist Tommy Bolin

Guitar World

"I will never speak to any of them again":Glenn Hughes slams Deep Purple for "hurtful" behaviour at Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony

"I was the only sober man there. I don't care about those guys" - Glenn Hughes

Louder

Axl Rose appears on an upcoming Michael Schenker album of classic UFO songs

The first song released from Michael Schenker's My Years With UFO album stars Slash and former Skid Row man Erik Grönwall

Metal Hammer

"The freedom and joy we had, and the confidence in each other, is remarkable": Ian Gillan looks back at Deep Purple's Machine Head era

With Deep Purple’s original plans for their sixth album having literally gone up in smoke, Machine Head was a triumph snatched from the jaws of disaster

Louder

“Nothing’s worse than hearing someone say, ‘Deep Purple? They’re just like Black Sabbath, knocking out riffs’”: the birth of Deep Purple Mk II and the transformation that changed rock

How Deep Purple went from one-hit-wonders to become one of the greatest rock bands in history

Louder

Singapore's Only Heavy Metal Bar Rocks 'Something Different'

Tucked away in the basement of an old mall lies gleaming Singapore's only heavy metal bar, where music fans brush shoulder-to-shoulder with international rockers who helped pioneer the genre.

International Business Times

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Metal Hammer

"I insist upon being great. You don’t always reach that pinnacle, but I insist upon it": The A-Z of Ronnie James Dio

In his decades fronting Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and more, the little man with the huge voice made a great many friends – and more than a few enemies

Louder

"It was like a spy movie; I was in a room, this light shining in my face": A true crime story of Roger Glover, a new Rickenbacker, and Smoke On The Water

Roger Glover bought a new bass guitar for the recording of Machine Head, but things did not go according to plan

Louder

"I'd never been able to see what other people liked about us. Suddenly I understood": Roger Glover's seven favourite Deep Purple songs

Roger Glover's seven favourite Purple patches, including the one that was "like rap before rap"

Louder

“I have to prove that I’m capable of doing it, and I wasn’t just being done a favour by Deep Purple”: the two forgotten David Coverdale solo albums that sowed the seeds for Whitesnake

David Coverdale’s late 70s solo albums, White Snake and Northwinds, are overlooked – but without them, Whitesnake wouldn’t exist

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Louder

"One demo was of a guy playing one finger piano on Black Night": When the call went out to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple, only one man got an audition

In 1973, Deep Purple replaced Ian Gillan with an unknown singer. They then went on to make one of rock’s most underrated albums, Burn

Louder

“Metallica would jam on their stuff in rehearsals, songs like Black Night and Highway Star”: Lars Ulrich on his lifelong love of Deep Purple and the genius of the Machine Head album

Lars Ulrich is a lifelong Deep Purple fan – and here’s why

Newcastle Herald

Alice Cooper and Blondie shows combined in music festival pandemonium

The blows in the Australian music industry keep coming.

Newcastle Herald

Your Weekender reads: Boo Seeker; Fringe Festival kicks off; Roger Glover from Deep Purple and more

Explore what's inside the Herald Weekender, March 16

MusicRadar

“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album": Ian Gillan on the unlikely success story of writing and recording Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water

"The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin”

Guitar World

“Roger Glover got me into Jaco. I heard the stuff he was doing with Weather Report while Priest were at the same studio in the ’70s”: Judas Priest’s Ian Hill names 8 bassists who shaped his sound

A mainstay of chug-and-slug for over five decades, the veteran bassist reveals the surprisingly wide range of influences that feed into the metal gods’ low-end –

Louder

"Bands like Yes would spend six months doing an album, but in that time we'd do two albums and three tours": How Nazareth recorded Miss Misery

Inspired by another band’s classic track, Nazareth nailed the vibe they were striving for and ended up with a fan favourite – although their manager wasn’t too impressed with the vocals

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