''I’m very proud to be still playing with my British brothers,” says Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse. Though he’s regarded by some as the band’s new guitar player – taking over from original virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore and brief touring replacement Joe Satriani in 1994 – the American has actually been their longest-serving gunslinger by over a decade.
The hard rock pioneers’ 21st album, titled Whoosh!, is their seventh with Morse. And while their legacy is one built on sonic evolution, fusing all kinds of progressive, blues and metallic thunder into its own mutative wall of noise, certain shades of Deep Purple have always been a staple...
“Diversity has been a big part of the sound,” says Steve, referring back to the game-changing interplay between Blackmore and keyboard player Jon Lord, who passed away in 2012. “When you hear Highway Star – it wasn’t just blues. It had that structured element, there was a classical sequence that Jon would arpeggiate through in a descending sequence, against that chromatic riff. They were putting something beyond into a rock piece and turning it into something classical. There’s always been that blend, it’s been a part of Deep Purple for a long time.”
Following two studio albums with Jon Lord before the founding keyboard player left the group in 2002, the pairing of Morse with Don Airey now stretches almost two decades into their career. The speedy unison lines heard on new tracks like The Long Way Round and Remission Possible is in many ways very typical of Deep Purple, and yet at times more complex than any era within their five decades. And as Steve admits, some keyboard parts are a lot easier to replicate on the guitar than others.
“I’ve gotten used to spotting things that sound good but might actually be non-intuitive for me to play on guitar,” he says. “Which is why I try to race and come up with something before Don! That way I can remember it and play it easily.”
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LET THERE BE ROCK!
Millions of people all over the world have been craving the return of live music, and nobody more so than Andy Copping, the organizer-in-chief of the Download festival. The 2021 event is scheduled for June 4th-6th, with Biffy Clyro, KISS and System Of A Down as the headline acts.
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It is with great sadness that we say farewell to longtime Mac|Life writer Adam Banks, who tragically passed away in November last year. What he didn’t know about Apple wasn’t worth talking about. He was in charge of our monthly Random Access Memory and we know, from the many emails we get, that it was a favorite page in the magazine. Fellow Mac|Life scribe and good friend Craig Grannell pays tribute to the man who will be sorely missed
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STEVE HACKETT HAS HAD A WONDERFUL MUSICAL CAREER, FROM GENESIS TO THE ‘SUPERGROUP’ GTR TO HIS AMASSED SOLO WORK. HACKETT’S NEWEST RELEASE, UNDER A MEDITERRANEAN SKY, IS AN ACOUSTIC SOLO ALBUM, WHICH TAKES INSPIRATION FROM THE GUITARIST’S MEDITERRANEAN TRAVELS.
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TOP 8 Worst encore seasons
There have been plenty of tough acts to follow in the history of the 49ers franchise with a team that has five Super Bowl championships, seven Super Bowl visits, 16 trips to the NFC Championship game, and 27 playoff appearances. That kind of success has seen the 49ers enter many seasons over the years looking to take the next step to greatness or simply maintain it. That makes them fall and crash even worse when San Francisco failed to achieve those goals coming off triumphant seasons. The 2020 49ers know all about it, which lands them a place on this list of the worst encore seasons in franchise history.