Of all the multitudinous highways and byways down which the enterprising Deep Purple collector can travel, none, perhaps, is so surprising as The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, Purple bassist Roger Glover's first "solo" album, and – almost incidentally – one of the most delightful children's records ever made. Yes, a children's record. In 1973, Glover was approached about creating a musical adaptation of artist Alan Aldridge and poet William Plomer's book of the same name – a commission that surprised him, but which he nevertheless accepted…
Former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover's first true solo album is an ambitious concept built around the properties and powers of the four elements – earth, wind, water, and fire – with the four principle tracks dedicated to each one in turn. Recorded with the Munich Philharmonic, plus an impressive arsenal of keyboards, percussion, and wind, the sound of the album is vast, yet never so prepossessing as to leave the listener feeling at all alienated by another ham-fisted attempt to meld rock with the classics…
Anyone that hadn't paid close attention to the post-Purple careers of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover may have been shocked by the sound of their 1988 reunion, Accidentally on Purpose. In fact, many Purple fans might be shocked as well, since Accidentally on Purpose is hardly reminiscent of any of the group's records, relying almost entirely on synthesizers, pop melodies, introspection and breezy rhythms…
The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera appearing in 1974 and 1975 respectively, based on the children's book of the same title (The album cover design is from Alan Aldridge's design for the book).
It was originally conceived as a solo vehicle for Jon Lord and to be produced by Roger Glover who had recently left Deep Purple, but Lord proved too busy with Deep Purple and Glover took up the reins on his own. Using his connections, Glover recruited a large cast of noted rock musicians to perform on it, with a different vocalist for each track including David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes…
After satisfying all of their classical music kinks with keyboard player Jon Lord's overblown Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Deep Purple's soon to be classic Mark II version made its proper debut and established the sonic blueprint that would immortalize this lineup of the band on 1970's awesome In Rock…
The date is March 14, 1984, and it's one of the more interesting twists and turns of the convoluted "Deep Purple Family Tree" saga, a majestic rock soap opera that has been unfolding since the early sixties and is still going strong to the present day. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow are playing live for the second night in a row at Tokyo's prestigious, 14500-capacity Budokan hall, scene of some of rock's most memorable live engagements (and recordings) over the decades, starting with the Beatles' first (and only) Japanese dates in 1966…
Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band, founded in 1968, that had several hits in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, and established an international audience with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog. Perhaps their best-known hit single was a cover of the ballad "Love Hurts", in 1975. The band continues to record and tour…
This 4 'purple' CD+DVD deluxe edition will be accompanied with fully illustrated 64 page hardback booklet, housed in a luxury box. Contents include a 2012 remaster of the original album, featuring non-album b-side, "When A Blind Man Cries"; a 1997 remix by bassist Roger Glover, remixed from the original multi-tracks; the Quad QS as stereo mix, in its undecoded form and including alternate guitar solos on 'Maybe I'm A Leo' and 'Lazy'; and a 2012 mix of In Concert '72…
In many ways, the California Jam was the equivalent of the Woodstock festival to a burgeoning generation of hard rock and heavy metal fans. Woodstock had changed the face of music in 1969; the California Jam took place five years later down the line. During that time, flower-power had wilted and peace-and-love hippy ideals had been replaced by a culture of wildeyed excess…