Tag: Ian Gillan

  • Black Sabbath: 13 Review and The Post-It Note-gate Controversy

    Black Sabbath: 13 Review and The Post-It Note-gate Controversy

    With Black Sabbath’s album out tomorrow, it is time to dust off your black cloak, wizard’s hat and faded copy of Alistair Crowley‘s Big Book of Magic (Vol. 1: Card Tricks), throw them in the bin, and make some space for some new Sabbath vinyl in your collection. Sabbath have always courted controversy, from the…

  • How to get a front row seat at a gig…

    How to get a front row seat at a gig…

    Deep Purple played Wembley Arena and the Birmingham N.E.C. on their House of Blue Light Tour – and this was my first chance to see Ritchie Blackmore. After just the one UK show in ’85, Deep Purple‘s 1987 tour to support their second comeback album “The House of Blue Light“, attracted a huge clamour for…

  • Why Deep Purple have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…

    Why Deep Purple have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…

    To know why Deep Purple matter, you just have to listen to the blistering, gonzoid opening of Speed King. If you can, do it now. This was 1970 – when people still thought Roger Whittaker was edgy. Nearly 42 years later, it’s still as joyful an explosion of noise as you will ever hear. Released…

  • Deep Purple at Knebworth – Mud and Bottles in ’85

    Deep Purple at Knebworth – Mud and Bottles in ’85

    The comeback concert that Deep Purple played at Knebworth in 1985 went down in history as one of the muddiest rock concerts of all time. As Blackadder once remarked about a girl with the worst personality in Germany – that’s up against some pretty stiff competition. It rained all day. The mud was six inches deep.…