Issue 44... Issue 44 was exciting as we leapt into colour for the first time (and last time until Issue 56 in fact!). While we were computerised, machines weren't capable of handling big colour images, so it was a question of leaving some space, handing the printer the slide and hoping for the best. It cost quite a bit but the main problem with using colour was the time factor; the colour printing took a lot longer. The shot was taken from the upper reaches of Edinburgh's Playhouse in March 1987. It was one of those spur of the moment things; DPAS man Peter Judd said he'd hire the car (he later got a bollocking off the hire firm as they saw him "testing the brakes" a little too sportingly for their liking!), and we shot up on the day - hanging on for grim death as the road began to switchback in the Scottish lowlands and the snow started to come down. There was some aggro in the band, Blackmore was in a bad mood over something, and it wasn't the best ever show, but the view was teriffic - though by the time we'd struggled down at the end of the show everyone had left in double quick time.

Why the celebratory cover? Gillan was back in Purple! We started to wonder when we began getting demo tapes from hopeful singers arriving at the PO Box. Needless to say there was much comment in the magazine and editorial, and worries that Gillan was in effect being asked to work over guide vocals and finished tracks in some cases, but after Slaves & Masters things could only look up as far as many Purple fans were concerned, though Bruce Payne apparently still blames me personally for bringing this situation about. Never mind, as Mike Galway once said, he reckons we should be knighted if that was really the case! Methinks Bruce rather overestimated the power of the written word. The reason for Gillan's return? 1993 was the band's 25th Anniversary, and the label wanted Mk 2 back for the event - though in the end they made precious little of it.

Beyond this news, 1992 had been a very dull year for fans in the UK. One Gillan gig (though to be fair his touring schedule did fill a whole page of the magazine!) and an Oxford charity appearence by Ian Paice would have been it, had Glenn Hughes not nicked a bass off Neil Murray and done a Brum tour which effectively marked his return to form. Plenty happening elsewhere though, with Singles As and Bs in production (hence the groovy sleeves decorating the edge of the magazine). It was twenty years since Made In Japan, so we had a look back at the band's seminal live album, as well as celebrated Smoke's anniversary. Suddenly everyone was starting to feel their age a lot. Still, 28 power packed pages and a Scandinavian singles discography to boot; Issue 44 remains one of my faves for some reason.

On Friday August 14th Joe Lynn Turner left the studios where Deep Purple were working for a weekend at home. As far as he was concerned everything was progressing. The band had started writing late last year, and had been recording at the Greg Rike studio in Orlando, Florida. There was talk of getting in Keith Olsen to produce and they even had Jim Peterik from Survivor in to help write. By August the backing tracks were mostly finished and they'd got around to the vocals and lyrics. Titles like PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS and BAD BUSINESS (a bluesy track co-written by Joe and Roger) were done and Turner was due to return on the following Monday. That weekend he got a call from Bruce Payne telling him not to bother.

Now whether Joe was the last to know or not I can't say. We started to get strange mail several months ago, along with prospective audition tapes. "Dear Sirs. I heard that Joe Lynn Turner is leaving Deep Purple and my friends persuaded me to send in a tape." We d heard the story too, back in July, via a contact in Germany. Initially I must admit we put it down to the sort of rumours that tend to circulate whenever a band has a lengthy time off the road. Ian Paice, over for a charity show in the UK hinted that something was afoot in America involving Roger and Ritchie, but wouldn't elaborate. By early August we were once more hearing stories about Turners departure, both from America and Germany, and sourced within the music industry. In late August Ian Gillan, busy preparing for a batch of European festivals with his band, answered the phone to find Roger Glover on the other end. Would he consider rejoining Deep Purple? Ian being Ian soon had the story winkled out of him by fans backstage, and when he returned home he found a fax from us waiting! What's more he took time out to answer it and put us in the picture: Yes, he had been offered the job, in effect to front Deep Purple's celebratory tour and album in 1993. He was considering what to do.

"Not that it was a bad gig, in fact Ian looked and sounded better than I expected him to after a year on the road. Perhaps it was the preponderance of "guest"stickers on the jackets of people who looked like they'd rather be at home. This was the first time we'd seen Dean Howard and he had a duff PA ("we can't afford pyrotechnics!" quipped Ian when the gear blew), so it isn't really fair to judge. The set list was as the last UK tour except for the inclusion of Black Night." Lorraine Pickering. The show Lorraine saw was in Milton Keynes on Sunday July 5th, the news of which was timed awkwardly to miss our press date! Mind you the only ad we saw managed to list him as Gillian yet again.

Ian's South American tour was probably curtailed, and on June 19th/20th the band were up in Finland headlining the Friday night bill of the Drag & Rock festival (what?!) They also visited the Faroe Islands. Is there anywhere left he hasn't gigged?! Gillan were scheduled to play a gig in Germany and a festival in Romania in early September, and were then looking to do pre production work on the new album, through until early October. Four new songs emerged during these dates, 'Hard On You' and 'Take Me To Your Heart' were two of the titles. I don't know how much Ian's involvement with the Purple album interfered with the Gillan band plans, but he is determined not to dissolve the group and will be getting on with the album as the Purple schedule allows, returning to them full time once the Purple anniversary do is over.

Ian went holidaying down in Geece from mid May through to June but it turned into a bit of a busman's do; while there he recorded tracks with a local singer called Michalis Rakintzis. Michalis is a popular MOR Greek singer, and Ian has sung on three songs for the album which was due out there in October. They've even done a video shoot for one of the numbers. While there NAZARETH were in town and Ian came on stage to introduce them, and returned to do the encore - 'Tush' by ZZ Top and 'Smoke On The Water', which (hard as it may be to believe) they could not play!

VARIOUS ARTISTS - THE BOLLAND PROJECT / DARWIN THE EVOLUTION Dino 9070117 : Germany :1992 CD/MC. Ian Gillan does one track on this album and provides between numbers links. The album did yield a big single hit for Barclay James Harvest too. The project was dreamt up by the Bolland brothers They had it in mind to do a concept LP, and after deciding Columbus had been commercially exploited enough, turned to Darwin after seeing a BBC documentary. They did the music and recorded guide vocal tracks, which they sent out to various singers to try ad enlist their help. Ian was up for it. The brothers plan a video and live show, though I doubt the latter will ever come off. The Bollands did express some interest in writing for an Gillan's next album but I've heard no more about that.

Ian Paice was one of the all star guests mentioned in adverts and publicity for a charity show in Oxford. With tickets priced at £25, the "All Star Rock'n Roll in Aid Of Leukaemia Research" gig was probably out of most people's reach, but as usual DPAS reporters were on hand to bring us the news. Jerry Witherstone, spurred by the idea of seeing both Ian Paice and Jon Lord on a UK stage at least once this year (and with firm assurances that both would be appearing), handed over his dosh. Jon was unable to make it in the end, "The evening was organised by Joe Brown, whose wife died recently from Leukaemia. Fittingly their daughter Sam Brown opened the first half of the show. The second part of the evening saw a guest band with various star musicians coming on to do one or two numbers each. The band were Bernie Marsden, Tony Ashton, the bassist from Bad Company, a guy from Procul Harum and on drums Ian Paice. What can I say about Ian, he was superb. He sat behind a black Pearl kit which a drummer friend of mine tells me is a lightweight kit suitable for studio work etc. Ian appeared to be enjoying himself more at this gig than on any of the S&M shows I saw. At the end of the evening he let rip with a trip around his kit. Brilliant! Bernie Marsden sang 'Ain't No Love' and 'Fool For Your Loving' which got everyone up out of their seats for the first time that evening." Jerry also took some pictures, one of which is shown here. A roadie pointed out that ticket sales had been poor - 750 sold out of a 3000 capacity. Probably a combination of low key publicity and very high prices.

We had a call just after last issue asking if we knew where the score to CONCERTO FOR GROUP & ORCHESTRA had gone to. It turns out that a conductor in the UK is desperately trying to organise a repeat performance of the work. He's related via marriage to Colin Hart and has thus been able to get through to the band. Jon Lord was really keen to give it a go, and even Ritchie had given a tacit nod of approval. However Jon went away and realised he'd lost the score! They tried Malcolm Arnold, the RPO archives, everywhere, but no luck. All this was a couple of years ago, but the recent Concerto video reissue prompted him to try us. I couldn't help much. Many years ago I recall being shown a dusty storeroom at Newman Street, and on the shelf was what looked like the Concerto score (along with loads of other goodies). Sadly when John Coletta finally moved out, this room was cleared into a skip. I vaguely remember someone once telling me the score had been published, but at about £250. Whether that's true or not I don't know. If anyone has any bright ideas, let me know. The conductor was sensible enough to realise that JLT wasn't right for the part, but now that Ian is at least available, there is one less obstacle to overcome.

Further to the Trapeze dates reported last issue, I'm told the gig at Walsall was the last ever at the Junction 10 Club. It closed the following week. In the crowd for Trapeze's London show were Neil Murray and John Norum. Dave Holland had to go into hospital soon after for an operation, which kept him off the road for some months. Glenn returned to the States. An open air show on July 4th with Earth Wind and Fire never happened. I'm told Glenn may also have made tentative plans to record with them too but the atmosphere got a bit heavy and he pulled out. Another source says he did two tracks with them. Glenn has done three album sessions (two of which are out now), LA Blues Authority, Lynch Mob and John Norum, .

LYNCH MOB is ex Dokken guitarist George Lynch's outfit. Glenn was brought in to act as a vocal coach to their singer Robert Mason during the recording of their second album recently. (I'm not entirely sure what this entails. In the old days you would get a good singer in to lay down guide vocals which the recording artist would then try and match). None of Glenn's vocals were used on the album in the end according to one interview with Lynch, but other sources say Hughes is featured on backing vocals for three tracks. George did get Glenn to do a track called 'Tangled In The Web', but this remains in the can. Glenn really likes it and may try to record it himself some time.

VARIOUS ARTISTS: L.A. BLUES AUTHORITY. Road Runner RR 9186-1 : Germany: 1992 CD. It may be that Glenn's involvement with the LA BLUES AUTHORITY set came about via the Lynch connection, as it was taped while this was going on, and Lynch also plays on a song from the album, which is a various artists job. The various artists in question are a bunch of young guitarists, mostly from the LA rock scene. Glenn does vocals on a track called MESSIN' WITH THE KID, with his old sparring partner Pat Thrall on guitar. The Blues Authority set above seems to have inspired another similar album, but this time Glenn Hughes has done all the lead vocals and some of the bass work on it. Indeed the people behind it were trying to get him to call it a GLENN HUGHES album. The band consists of Gary Moore's drummer, plus Tony Franklin on bass (when Glenn isn't doing it). There's a whole slew of glam rock guitarists on it, the guys from Ratt, Motley Crue and Poison for starters. It will probably be released early next year on Shrapnel Records in America.

The JOHN NORUM album is unlikely to be issued in the UK. I've not really gone looking myself, but Helen Chappell has sent us a review: " The title track is great, a good uptempo song with a slight Hughes/Thrall flavour to it and some superb vocals from Glenn. 'In Your Eyes' must be the "nice little ballad" Glenn mentioned last time I saw him. I'm not all that impressed; it sounds cliched and there's not enough feeling in it. I'd expected something much more special. I am impressed with the next track though, a cover of Thin Lizzy's 'Opium Trail'. I've always liked Lizzy's music and this is a good version. Norum does the singing, not Glenn, despite what the Kerrang reviewer claimed. 'Good Man Shining' is also Thin Lizzy-ish, with a touch of soul added-by you know who. Next up we have 'Time Will Find The Answer', an average guitar/keyboard intro leads into a hard rocker. The vocals are excellent and this is the first track on the album where I felt the shivers down my spine as I listened to him sing. Love it. 'Counting On Your Love' is another straightforward rock track, but you can't really take it seriously with such naff lyrics -"Let me be your private toy, let me be your lover boy" - really! 'Still The Night' is a reworking of the Hughes/ Thrall song from the first Phenomena album, and it's a good version. Glenn sings well, though I wish he'd played bass on it too, and Norum does a good job though I still like the guitar work of Galley and Thomas on the original. 'Distant Voices' closes the album, more hard rock, again reminds me of Hughes/Thrall. I was a touch disappointed, mainly with the production, but Norum is an average guitarist at best and the album is very commercial sounding, which is not normally what I like to hear from Glenn, but I guess he can't sing like he did in Trapeze for ever."