______ _______ /\ ___\ ____ ____ ____ /\__ __\ \ \ \__/ / __ \ / __ \ / __\ \/_ \ \_/ \ \ \ /\ \_\ \ /\ \_\ \ /\__ \ \ \ \ \ \ \____ \ \____/ \ \___,_\ \/\____/ \ \_\ \ \_____\ \/___/ \/__/__/ \/___/ \/_/ \/_____/ _______ The /\__ __\ ____ Issue GLENN \/_ \ \_/ / __ \ #50 HUGHES \ \ \ /\ \_\ \ January 28th Electronic \ \_\ \ \____/ 2003 Fanzine \/_/ \/___/ ______ _______ /\ ___\ ____ ____ ____ /\__ __\ \ \ \__/ / __ \ / __ \ / __\ \/_ \ \_/ \ \ \ /\ \_\ \ /\ \_\ \ /\__ \ \ \ \ \ \ \____ \ \____/ \ \___,_\ \/\____/ \ \_\ \ \_____\ \/___/ \/__/__/ \/___/ \/_/ \/_____/ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INTRODUCTION ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Hello Everyone! And a very Happy New Year to you all...we're happy to be still celebrating as this issue marks CTC's 8th Birthday and also the 50th issue - yeaahhhh!! It wouldn't have been possible without all your support and contributions over the years. To say THANKS...we're happy to be able to offer you a chance to win a FREE 3-night Deluxe Accommodation stay at The HARD ROCK Hotel which includes 2 FREE tickets and more, to see GLENN and his band perform live in Orlando, Florida at the end of March. Just enter the accompanying Competition to win...but not to worry, everyone can be a winner, as even if you don't win the Grand Prize, you can still come and stay at 50% off regular room pricing which includes 2 TICKETS to the show! So what are you waiting for...book your flights now and read on for all the details! So, we bet you thought 2002 was a busy year, but it seems 2003 is going to be just as busy for our man Glenn!! Already he has 2 live performances under his belt...one at a Peace Rally in Los Angeles and the other, a Shape 68 show at the annual NAMM convention in Anaheim, California and a third set for the end of March in Orlando! He's also busy recording his new solo album, "Songs In The Key Of Rock", which will be released in Japan during May and June in Europe! And of course, HTP-II is on schedule for an Autumn release, with recording due to start early summer! If we're very lucky, we might even see Hughes/Thrall-II make an appearance in some form during the year...so fingers crossed on that one! On an administrative note, we plan on issuing CTC on a more regular basis, as and when news comes in, vs. a digest format, so we really would welcome regular submissions you'd like to contribute. With subscribership now in the thousands, we'd love to see more of you take part on a regular basis and to help spread the word of GLENN HUGHES and his music. So read on and hope to see you in Orlando, but at the very least, inside issue number 51 :-) Cheers, David & Shirean dands@ghpg.net http://www.ghpg.net/ctc/ - CTC @ ghpg.net http://fanforum.ghpg.net/ - FAN FORUM @ ghpg.net http://www.ghpg.net/chat/ - CHAT @ ghpg.net ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SUBMISSIONS ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| CELEBRATIONS COMPETITION! ========================= Thanks to The HARD ROCK Hotel, Orlando and specifically the Manager, Lou Carrier (a fellow GH fan) and his organization, we are able to offer you the chance to see GLENN live in Orlando, Florida as part of the Hard Rock's monthly VELVET SESSIONS event. You'll see GLENN and his band as you never have before! GLENN will be doing some old classics with a new spin, as well as some things you've never heard him perform before! GRAND PRIZE: ------------ 3 NIGHTS FREE DELUXE ACCOMODATION 2 FREE Tickets (included with Room) to see GLENN LIVE 1 FREE LEATHER JACKET ------------------------------------------------- WHEN: March 26th, March 27th and March 28th, 2003 WHERE: The HARD ROCK Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA ------------------------------------------------- The GRAND PRIZE is for the Winner and a Guest. The Winner will have the choice of a Man or Woman's Hard Rock Hotel Leather Jacket (to be presented to the Winner during Hotel stay). Here's the COMPETITION QUESTION: -------------------------------- What Song and Album do these lyrics come from? THERE'S NOWHERE THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN I'VE EVEN BEEN TO SEE MY QUEEN Email your answer with a subject line of 'CTC CELEBRATIONS' to ctc@ghpg.net We will be performing a random drawing from all the winning entries on February 15th and the winner will be notified the following day. Even if you don't win or just want to make a booking regardless, we have managed to attain a block of 30 rooms dedicated for use by Glenn Hughes fans, which also include TICKETS to see GLENN live! You'll be getting a special 50% discount for each of your 3-night's stay plus your 2 FREE tickets to the show. All you have to do is tell Reservations you are part of the GLENN HUGHES FANS GROUP! You have until FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH to make your Reservations with this discounted pricing. This still gives you 2 weeks after the Competition is over to make your reservation...so if you don't win, get on the phone or email the Hotel straight away - remember there are only 30 rooms available...it's first come, first serve - so don't miss out on this great opportunity to see GLENN LIVE! If you're still not decided...for all who come, Lou also hopes to have arranged for us, either a private Breakfast or Lunch with GLENN on the day before or after the show! The competition is a CTC exclusive for a period of 1 week...if there are rooms still available at that time, it will then be posted on the GHPG.net Fan Forum and glennhughes.com WWWboard - so hurry, you've got a 7 day head start! So now all you have to do, is book your flights to Orlando! Read on for all the fine details and small print... ++ RESERVATION CONTACT DETAILS: ---------------------------- Call 1-800-BE-A-STAR or alternatively (and the only method for International travellers), e-mail reservation requests to hrh2003@loewshotels.com - include your Name, Arrival Date, Departure Date and Credit Card Details. Once the reservation request has been received by e-mail, you will receive a confirmation number from the Hotel that will confirm your reservation has been made - IMPORTANT - the e-mail reservation request DOES NOT GUARANTEE your room, you MUST receive a Confirmation Number to guarantee your reservation has been made with the Hotel. As stated above, this will be emailed to you once the Hotel receive and confirm your details. FREE TICKETS will be given to the Guests at Check-in and are limited to 2 per room only. If there are additional people in the room, then they will need to purchase additional tickets at the door of Velvet Sessions. Also, the tickets are not for numbered seating, this is a standing event and there are no reserved seating areas. RESERVATION NAME: ----------------- You will need to identify yourself as being part of the "GLENN HUGHES FANS" Group. GROUP RATE: ----------- $149 per room per night plus 11.5% applicable taxes - this rate includes 2 TICKETS to the March Velvet Sessions featuring GLENN HUGHES. GROUP DATES: ------------ The Group is able to get the Group Rate only for the nights of Wednesday, March 26th, Thursday, March 27 and Friday, March 28. Any fans looking for dates outside this Group Block will be given the appropriate seasonal rate. The cut-off date for the Group Block is Friday, February 28th. Any reservation requests after that date will be given rates as determined by the Hotel. ++ For general details on the hotel and surrounding area...you can visit the following web site: http://www.hardrock.com/locations/hotels/orlando/ So, there you have it....if your enter the Competition - Good Luck - and if you decide to come regardless, we'll see you there! -END- MESSAGE FROM GLENN ================== Happy Birthday! Hi everyone, I would personally like to thank each and every one of you for 8 years of loyal support of CTC. I want you to know that it means a lot to me. 2003 looks to be a great year for me - keep in touch and I hope to see you on the road of happy destiny. glenn -END- -----Original Message----- From: Lennart Hedenstrom [mailto:lennart@hedenstrom.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Wow issue #50! Hello all, It is amazing to see CTC still alive, kicking, and celebrating 50 issues! It all started years ago when the Internet first was coming into the public eye and the web was still in it's infancy. The short version of the story is that I happened to find Lewis Beard in a usenet newsgroup where we found out we had a mutual interest in Glenn Hughes' music. A while later he brought his old college buddy Damien DeSimone into the discussions. Later Lewis found a smoking review of Glenn Hughes' "Blues" CD in a newsgroup written by a certain guy by the name Bill Jones. The four of us went on for a while before launching "Coast To Coast - The Glenn Hughes Electronic Fanzine" to expand the discussion and bring in more people with the same fascination for Hughes' work. After a while we started the CTC web site, hosted by Lewis. Somewhere down the line we managed to get in touch with Glenn himself and eventually Damien and myself were part of getting the official Glenn Hughes web site off the ground (on Glenn's request). The rest as they say is history. CTC is now in the care of the lovely Harrisons, Shirean and David. We, the initiators might not be as active in the community of "Glenn Hughes crazy people" (a term coined by Glenn) but we are still out there checking out what's happening. So I salute CTC and all the subscribers over the years. I take my imaginary hat off to the Harrisons. Keep up the great work and best of luck in the future. Lennart Hedenstrom -END- -----Original Message----- From: Ko Mitani [mailto:mitani@ucla.edu] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: Number 50! Congratulations on the issue number 50 and the 8th birthday of "Coast To Coast"! After finding the CTC on the album jacket of "Feel" (I think), I immediately became a subscriber. The first issue I received was number 8. Since then, I have been very excited to share thoughts/information on Glenn Hughes music with other fans. It was also my pleasure to communicate personally with the founders Damien, Lewis, Lennart, Bill and the current CTC editors, David and Shirean. You guys have done such a great job to keep this going! It was definitely a highlight in my life as a rock fan to see Glenn in live for the first time at the Tommy Bolin Tribute Concert in Denver, 1997. It was that night where I met Damien, Lewis, David, Shirean, Jim Wilson and many other friends. And, talking directly with my hero for 23 years, Glenn Hughes, was dream-come-true for me. Without previous communication with these friends through CTC, my visit to Denver must have been much more boring. Since then, I have also become acquainted with many other GH fans and was able to trade tapes, CDs and videos. I have been lucky enough to see Glenn in live in several opportunities in US; Tommy Bolin Tributes, Marc Bonilla, NAMM show and most recently Shape 68. I was able to find the information on on these show thanks to CTC and GH.com. And, at each concert, I became acquainted with more GH fans; most of them are fantastic people. I wish Coast To Coast (what a perfect name for this fanzine!) to continue to grow and provide us with more GH-related news. Although I am moving back to Japan from LA this year, I cannot wait continuing to see Glenn at more shows and meeting more friends through CTC. Cheers, Ko -END- -----Original Message----- From: Fedor de Lange [mailto:cw@dds.nl] To: David and Shirean Subject: Re: CTC Birthday! Hi all, Fifty issues of Coast to Coast stretching in a time span of eight years. Eight years the internet made it big, eight years most of us got a computer and an internet connection. Seems hard to imagine these days how life was before the digital age. I remember 1994 very vividly. It was the year I met Glenn for the first time, after an open air show in Holland and later, in the fall, during the From Now On tour. The same period, I was looking for info on Glenn through one of he computers we had at the University here in Amsterdam. After having discovered some images and a discography on the Coast To Coast website, January 1995 saw the birth of a great online newsletter: Coast to Coast magazine. I still have the original mailbox in my mailreader that says CTC. Editors at the time: Lewis Beard, Damien DeSimone, Lennart Hedenstrom and Bill Jones. All with mail addresses that now have probably don't excist anymore, and have been replaced with other ones. The information was and is always brought with great accuracy and passion, which made it all worth while. The original gang got older and luckily gave sheltered their baby at this amazing couple from the US West Coast, David and Shirean Harrison. They took over the e-zine and still run it with the same passion their predecessors had. Great work guys. I've always read CTC with great interest, and considered it as a great source of information on Glenn, his music and his past, present and future. Fantastic contributions over the years even made me print issues out sometimes in order to take it on holidays. Sometimes, when big daddy was touring Europe, I brought him copies as well. So to everybody who once wrote something in Coast to Coast, and to many of its lurking readers: congratulations with number 50! Hope it will stay a reliable source of info and entertainment to many for many years to come. cheers, - Fedor de Lange ========================= webmaster glennhughes.com -END- -----Original Message----- From: David & Shirean [mailto:dands@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: New Solo Album SONGS IN THE KEY OF ROCK ======================== GLENN will release a new solo album called SONGS IN THE KEY OF ROCK. Glenn says, "I surrounded myself with 70's stuff: 70's clothes, 70's everything, and I found myself back in 1973. The sounds you will be hearing and the songs are trippy and hard and greased up rock." The album will come out in Japan on Pony Canyon currently scheduled for a May 21st release and then in Europe on Frontiers Records in June. The album features guests such as Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big) and Alex Ligertwood (Santana). -END- -----Original Message----- From: David & Shirean [mailto:dands@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Tom Galley (Phenomena) CHAT Session Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming TOM GALLEY to our Monthly CHAT session at the GHPG.net web site! Tom is the driving force behind the classic PHENOMENA. Glenn has appeared on a couple of the PHENOMENA releases over the years and is currently being pursued for the latest installment. Here are the news highlights from the CHAT session... A PHENOMENA box set is planned to be released early Summer ---------------------------------------------------------- It will include some film footage (previously unseen live footage of the recording of Phenomena II at R G Jones Studios which featured the late Ray Gillen, Glenn Hughes and Mel Galley + the video shot for "Did It All For Love") on DVD and will cost around £24.99. A new Phenomena CD is in the works ---------------------------------- The working title is "PSYCHOFANTASY" and all the pre-production on the 12 tracks is nearly complete. Tom is at present in contact with GLENN finalizing an agreement for him to sing at least 5 tracks on the CD. Tom's brother MEL GALLEY (Trapeze, Whitesnake) will be playing the guitar on 3 or 4 tracks. Other guitarists will include JOHN THOMAS (Budgie). Other vocalists will include KEITH MURRELL (Mama's Boys) who sang on the third PHENOMENA CD and TONY MARTIN (Black Sabbath) will contribute as well. DAVE HOLLAND (Trapeze, Judas Priest) will also play drums on a couple of tracks. He also mentioned that Dave Holland is at present recording tracks with members of JUDAS PRIEST (for a solo project, rather than a full-blown JUDAS PRIEST re-union) and that he also conducts a drum clinic in Northampton, England. -END- -----Original Message----- From: David & Shirean [mailto:dands@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: CATENA Treat! Italian singer CHRIS CATENA will release a rock album in March 2003 =================================================================== GLENN has recorded a duet with Chris called "Freak Out Tonight". According to Chris, it's "a funky hard rock song totally in the vein of Glenn's music". Other performers on the song are Bruce Kulick - Lead Guitar, Tony Franklin - Bass, Enrico Cosimi - Hammond Organ, Federico Bailo - Rhythm Guitar, Max Spurio - Rhythm Guitar, Stefano Baldasseroni - Drums, David Spurio - Clavinet, Moog. It even includes a cover of "Gettin' Tighter", the famous song Glenn wrote and sang in the Deep Purple masterpiece Come Taste The Band. The guitar will be played by Stevie Salas - who recorded with Glenn on the album "The Way It Is" and whose last CD contains even a song sang by Glenn. The Bass is played by Doug Wimbish from Living Colour. Chris tells us, "I think the album release will slide to the end of February, first part of March. We have to because it's going to be a really complex project. The mixing process is beginning this week in California under the supervision of Tony Franklin. Actually the bill of guests has increased! We have a non definitive list starring: Glenn Hughes, Tony Franklin, Bernie Marsden, John Lawton, Tommy Aldridge, Stephen Ferrone, Cindy Blackman, Micky Moody, Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer, Chuck Wright, Stevie Salas, Myron Dove, Doug Wimbish, Vitalij Kuprij, Nobby, Kelly Simonz, Johnny Olhin, Pontus Norgren,the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, The Florence Chamber Orchestra, Marko Pavic, Enrico Cosimi, Aleks Ferrara, K - Ace, Max Spurio, Davide Spurio,Stefano Baldasseroni, Paolo Patrizi, Yuri Roveri,Mauro Munzi, Gianni Francesconi, Kathryin Smith, Deborah Farina and still some more surprises!" The song titles to be included on the album are: Move Away From The Towers Hey Man (Freedom Calls) Desire Gimme Your Love Don't Stop Runnin' It's A Long Way To Go Gettin' Tighter To A Friend What You Gonna' Do When Your Love Has Gone Follow Me Sweet Talker Summertime Take Me Away The Stronger You Are, The Harder You Fall Freak Out Tonight Lady Starlight Follow Me (Reprise) -END- -----Original Message----- From: David & Shirean [mailto:dands@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: HTP USA release update! The HUGHES TURNER PROJECT album (the debut album) will be out MARCH 11TH on SHRAPNEL RECORDS in the USA. Shrapnel will also release HTP - LIVE IN TOKYO in the Summer. -END- -----Original Message----- From: Shirean Harrison [mailto:shirean@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: SHAPE 68 NAMM Mini-Review A couple of weeks ago I flew down to Los Angeles to see Glenn and Shape 68 perform in the the Park Plaza Ball Room at the West Coast Anaheim Hotel in Anaheim, California. It was a Sabian Drums sponsored event as part of the annual NAMM music industry convention. Due to earlier delays at the venue, Glenn and the band ended up on stage following Tower Of Power's performance at about 9:30pm, about an hour later than first scheduled. They didn't waste anytime upon their arrival and dug straight into the Shape 68 set: ALL ABOUT THE GIRL STANDBY YOU GOTTA BELIEVE IN LOVE GRACE Glenn then led the band into his signature tune: COAST TO COAST followed by the "Deep Pimple" classics: YOU KEEP ON MOVING MISTREATED GETTIN' TIGHTER STORMBRINGER FUNK ON THE WATER (SOTW) So 10 songs in total...with the Shape 68 numbers shining through...sounding more polished and like the band had fine tuned them since their debut performance last October - it was a great evening. Shape 68 are GLENN (Vocals, Bass), Jeff Kollman (Guitar) and Robin DiMaggio (Drums) - in addition, Dave Schultz (ex Goo Goo Dolls) was on Keyboards. Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) joined Robin on drums (with risers for both) for the final Purple numbers, Gettin' Tighter, Stormbringer & Funk! Jeff was also joined onstage by guest rhythm guitarist, Fish-he, who plays with Christine Aguilera! It was certainly a mixed crowd...with not too many fellow fanatics in the audience. But still definitely worth the trip down. -END- -----Original Message----- From: David Harrison [mailto:david@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Los Angeles Peace Rally Performance On January 11th, 2003 Glenn made an appearance at the STOP THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ peace rally in downtown Los Angeles. He performed with Slash (ex-Gun'n'Roses), Jackson Browne and Robin DiMaggio. He sung Whiter Shade of Pale, Sunshine of Your Love and helped out Jackson Browne on his first song. Here's the press release that was issued by the organizers: ### FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SUPER STARS AND MEGA ROCKERS JOIN LOS ANGELES ANTIWAR MARCH Fed up with the administration's drums of war, on Saturday January 11th Angelenos will march to a different beat when thousands take to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to stop the war on Iraq. Accompanied by an all star band of rock musicians, antiwar activists will gather at Broadway and Olympic downtown for a brief rally at 11:30 A.M. then march up Broadway to the Federal Building at Temple and Los Angeles for music and speeches beginning at 2:30 P.M.. Actor MARTIN SHEEN, star of the television program West Wing, will be one of the speakers. Sheen, a longtime peace activist, has agreed to speak to reporters who march alongside him. The lineup of speakers also features union presidents Alejandro Stevens of Service Employees International Union Local 660 and MARIA ELENA DURAZO of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11. Other speakers will be RON KOVIC, a disabled Vietnam war veteran whose book about the war, "Born on the Fourth of July," was made into an academy award winning movie, and JEFF PATERSON, the first active duty marine to refuse to fight the 1991 Gulf war. ANGELA SANBRANO of CARECEN and BAN AL-WARDI, Iraqi-American immigration and human rights attorney will also speak. KPFK radio host and artist JERRY QUICKLEY will perform. Music will be provided by a full house of rock stars including JACKSON BROWNE BURNING STAR and an all star band made up of ROBIN DIMAGGIO, drummer with David Bowie, Boz Scaggs, and Steve Vai; SLASH, formerly of Guns and Roses; STEPHEN PERKINS with Jane's Addiction; DAVID PAICH, formerly of Toto; GLENN HUGHES, formerly of Deep Purple; and JOEY HEREDIA, formerly with Prince. Saturday's protest is sponsored by a broad coalition of organizations representing tens of thousands of Californians including ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism), the Coalition for World Peace (CSAP), Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), Not in Our Name (NION) and KFPK Radio 90.7 FM. ### -END- -----Original Message----- From: Regisboylejr@aol.com [mailto:Regisboylejr@aol.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: Meeting Glenn Hughes!!!!!!!!! I had a very good week right before Christmas. My favorite alltime band is Whitesnake & a friend of mine was recently named one of the two new guitar players in Whitesnake 2003. So far so good but it gets better. I attended a Christmas party a few days later when in walks in Glenn, his wife Gabrielle & JJ Marsh. I told my buddy hey look it's Glenn Hughes. I've been ranting and raving about Glenn being the greatest singer ever for over 20 years!!!! Of course he didn't believe me. But I walked over & talked to the trio for about 10 minutes. Everyone was very nice, down to earth & easily approachable. Those few minutes made my entire night. I can't wait to see Glenn with Shape 68 @ NAMM 2003, Jan. 17th. I had the chance to see them @ Platinum Live in Studio City, Ca. & this is a can't miss show!!!!!!!! Reggie Boyle Thousand Oaks Ca. -END- -----Original Message----- From: David Harrison [mailto:david@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Purple's PERKS & TIT The infamous DEEP PURPLE bootleg PERKS & TIT has been cleaned up and is likely to be released in February 2003. The music apparently sounds amazing, the old vinyl pressings were distorted, meaning that the band sounded out of tune at times. PURPLE RECORDS have announced the fifth Sonic Zoom title (and the first by MK-III), recorded live at the San Diego Sports Arena, April 9th 1974. Tracks on this single CD are: Burn Might Just Take Your Life Lay Down, Stay Down Mistreated Smoke On The Water Lord solo The CD has been restored from original tape sources, fully cleaned up and with the inclusion of the previously missing between song patter, the hard to find "Smoke" and a four minute keyboard solo. According to the label, the rest of the show has sadly been lost. "Mistreated" from this gig appeared on the EMI box set. -END- DEEP PURPLE Photo Book - Photography by DIDI ZELL ================================================= It's packed with exclusive, never-seen-before photographs. German lensman Didi Zill put together this collection that contains over 600 pictures of DEEP PURPLE from the MK-II days through MK-V. The text is all German, but it's a must-have treasure for any hardore Deep Purple fan. In the forward, from former Rainbow and current Deep Purple bassist, Roger Glover, reveals that there were few professionals who were able to "penetrate the wall of the group," but Zill was one of them. GLENN is heavily featured in some rare and up to now, unpublished pictures from the early MK III days through MK IV. From Zill's extensive archives, this is the Deep Purple photo book to end them all! Across more than 400 coffee-table sized pages (24 cm x 30 cm), "Deep Purple - Fotografien von Didi Zill" offers more than 600 of his best Deep Purple-related photographs. What EMI's recent Deep Purple box set is for Deep Purple's music, this book will be for Deep Purple visuals. Published by Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, the book is available to order via the publishers web site at: http://www.schwarzkopf-schwarzkopf.de/partnershops/deeppurple1/index.html -END- GLENN HUGHES Interview ====================== FIREWORKS Magazine #11 - February 2003 Courtesy: Sue Ashcroft For subscription details and other great interviews, be sure and pay a visit to: http://www.rathole.com/crumbs/fireworks/ During the past few months and after a break of a couple of Years, Glenn Hughes has been back to the UK on two separate occasions (HTP and then Legends of Rock tours). I caught up with Glenn to ask about all the different irons he has in the fire at the moment. SA-FW: You played Dudley recently which was obviously a very emotional show for you. How did it feel to be home again? GH: Well, yes, they're all emotional shows, but because it's HTP, I keep forgetting that I personally have a following here and how passionate they are about me and my singing and my playing. I don't look at myself that way - I look at myself as Glenn. I don't think about myself as the star guy or anything so it's humbling for me every time. I just use what God gave me. I always get this "How come you sing better now than you did 25 years ago?" Well, I don't drink, I don't smoke, don't do drugs. I take it seriously, but it's fun. You can see that I'm having a lot of fun. It's not about being a rock god. It's all about having the moment for me. I don't know what's going to happen next, I don't know what I'm going to sing, it's different every night. It's just spontaneous. SA-FW: You've recently released the HTP live album. Why did you use a Japanese band? GH: It's very simple- economics. When we do a Far East tour, because it's so expensive to carry your own production, we decided that economically it would be better to use Japanese guys that really loved Deep Purple. They do sound sort of similar. We record everything anyway, but while we were there, we recorded some stuff. Seriously, my dream would have been to use THIS band (the band that's doing the other HTP shows) all over the world, JJ is my guitar player as you know, and I've worked with Swedes off and on for 10 years and they're great. They're really reliable. But had it been economically possible, I would have chosen to use the Swedish guys for the whole tour. SA-FW: Thomas (Broman) is fabulous. I saw him in May with Humanimal. GH: I love him. I've worked with him for 10 years. SA-FW: I loved the HTP album. How far along are you with the second one and what can we expect from that? GH: I've written 2 songs. I've written a middle track and an end track, which is like another dramatic finish. It's more of the same on the second album basically. I'm not going to confuse anybody. On some of my albums I confuse people, not necessarily on purpose. HTP is a classic rock vehicle. SA-FW: When you get back to the US, you have a showcase gig planned with the band Shape 68. Tell me a little about that. GH: It came together early in June when I met up with the drummer of Shape 68 who plays with Snoop Dog and puff Daddy. He had been with Mariah Carey for 5 years and he said that he thought he had heard the best singer in the world - and then he heard me! I thought that was such a compliment after Mariah Carey! He fell in love with the rock side of my voice. He said if I could add more of my influence- what it is, it's not Glenn doing r & b funky stuff, it's Glenn doing 3 minute songs destined for American radio and hopefully they'll all be released world wide. These are the finest, focused songs I've ever written. Now, this is NOT rock. This isn't any shape or form rock music. It's not me selling out because it's business. Guess what Sue? I want you to hear my voice on the radio! SA-FW: I can relate to that! GH: I want you to hear my voice on radio, all across the world and I'm not going to get it in this genre. You're going to get it on College radio or on the smaller stations, but I want to do it now while I'm still young enough and viable enough to do it. SA-FW: You've gone into the pop spotlight before with KLF and Ape Quartet for example though. GH: That was wonderful. This showcase that I'm doing is attracting a lot of interest. When I wrote the songs, they were the easiest songs ever written, the singing is not crazy, it's just the tone of my voice, straight in there. The people that have heard it are freaking out, but it's now up to somebody to be a hero from a big label and see if they want to take it. I want to thank my drummer Robin Di Maggio (Joe Di Maggio's nephew) for that. He said "you're the greatest singer in the world, I've got all these connections, we're going to get this done, we're going to write these songs and we're going to do it now". I thought I was hyper! This guy was like, we went in the studio and before I could put the pen to paper, we had 5 songs done within a week. Now we've mastered it and we're going to do the showcase and we're actually in production to get this up and running. I needed a younger cat in my life to break me out of the rock thing. To get me- not actually push me gently, but kick me in there! I needed a kick in the arse to get in there because I've been a little frightened to enter that market. SA-FW: Since you are such a funk fan, I wondered if you had ever thought of going more in the funk direction? Maybe collaborating with George Clinton or Bootsy Collins perhaps? GH: That would be a very good thing for me to do, but that would be a very artistic thing for me to do, a very ARTISTE thing to do. This thing I'm doing with Shape 68 is something that I needed to do before I felt I couldn't. Pop is a young boys and girls game. It's quite hard to make the rock to pop move. Someone like Paul Rodgers couldn't do it because he has a very definable 80's rock voice, but I have never had a real big hit song as a rock artist, I've only really had the KLF. It's all been Coverdale or whatever, but no ones' really heard Glenn Hughes singing on the radio, so there's a moment here coming up! SA-FW: You're coming back to the UK in November to do the Legends of Rock show with Uli Roth and Jack Bruce. What will the difference be in the band line up and the whole set up of that show? GH: That is Uli's brainchild. I love this guy. He's a really good friend of mine. I worked with him 2 years ago and last year he opened up for me. He's a genius guitarist. You mentioned Jack Bruce and I grew up listening to him play. What it's going to be for me, they're going to play Cream songs, Uli wants me to sing a couple of brand new songs, maybe an opera song. Maybe a little something different and I'll get to do 2 or 3 Purple classics in the show. It's going to be a mixture of stuff, of classic rock moments. What moments they'll be, we haven't rehearsed yet, but we'll see. SA-FW: I heard a few people say, before and after the HTP show, that they hoped you would do some Trapeze material. Do you think you may do some of that on the Legends tour? GH: Well, HTP is really a vehicle for the HTP, Purple Rainbow stuff. I would say that the Trapeze songs would be only for a Glenn Hughes audience. The Legends show will probably evolve into something each night, because I like to be spontaneous, but I am going to do Whiter Shade of Pale. It's an arrangement I've done with another artist that is formatted for voice and guitar instead of a keyboard. It's very passionate. It's going to be another part in the show where it's going to be a special moment, rather than just a song. SA-FW: Who will the band be? Will you all have the same backing band? GH: No, Uli, Jack and Clive Bunker will play as a trio and I will play with Uli, Barry Sparks on bass and a keyboard player. JJ will be with me, but that's the only member of my actual band who will be playing. SA-FW: In the past months I've interviewed both Neil Murray and Roger Glover, both of whom have been rumoured to be playing with David Coverdale. Last night on stage you mentioned him. Would YOU ever consider working with him again? GH: Ha, ha! Well, he says "Oh DON'T talk about it" (Glenn in DC voice!), and yet he's all over his own message board talking about it! Can I be honest with you Sue? He's one of my oldest friends. When I think of David, I don't think of this (goes back into the false, posh voice!) guy who's all la-di-da. I think of that bloke from Redcar who talks like this (Glenn in northern accent again!). I don't see David in that light. To me he's just that bloke from Redcar who I bought a pair of trousers off in a boutique once and then invited him to join Deep Purple! All I'm saying Sue is, I might sing with David again, but it MIGHT be on one of MY records! Wouldn't that be funny? SA-FW: That would be cool! GH: He's a good friend of mine. We fondly care for one another in a good way. All that pampering and the ego thing was never true. David and I really respect each other as singers, very much so. The answer to your question is- I believe it will happen, but I don't know when. SA-FW: You're on the new Jeff Scott Soto album. How did that come about? GH: He asked me to do a duet with him, a Sly and the Family Stone cover, and I went over and it was one of the easiest sessions ever. I went over in the morning, we went in, did it and that was it. I love him and I wish him all the very best. He's a super guy. SA-FW: What's the state of play with the second Hughes Thrall album? GH: (Laughs) Hmm. Well, 9 songs have been recorded, 9 vocals are completed, 3 or 4 guitar tracks are done. This album (if it gets released) will be the most diverse album you've ever heard. It'll be hard rock, street funk, street punk, street rock, it'll be jazz, deep jazz, New York jazz, late night r & b, 12 movies! It won't be a rock record. The rock fan will go BLAAAH! And when it's heavy, it's heavier than Limp Bizkit could ever be! It's diverse. It's a movie soundtrack. Every song is like a soundtrack of your life. It's deep. SA-FW: Have you heard Peter's (De Wint) album? (The Affair album, Peter is Glenn's sound guy) GH: I've got it in my bag but I haven't heard it yet. SA-FW: It's very good- he sounds like you! GH: Is that right? Well, I'm his mentor you see (laughs)! SA-FW: I know! The thing is, I've met Peter a couple of times and all he talks about is you! We met him in Bradford at the Gods and in Madrid on the Harem Scarem tour and he talked about you all the time. Never mentioned the fact that he was in a band, we just got the CD in the post and he was on it! I'm sure you'll like the album. GH: I'm sure I will. Peter's a good guy! SA-FW: You made a joke at the Dudley show about spending thousands of pounds flying backwards and forwards for the football when Wolves are playing. Is that true? GH: I do! SA-FW: Do you really? GH: Yeah! When it's playoff time or there are 2 or 3 games in a row, then I'll come over and spend some time with my folks and go to the games! Well, lets hope they do well this season and we might even get a solo tour to coincide with the play-offs! Nice to meet a man who still follows his home team. Glenn also has a new solo album 'Songs in the Key of Rock' due out on Frontiers in May, so we wish him lots of luck with that. -END- LEGENDS OF ROCK UK TOUR REVIEWS - NOVEMBER 2002 =============================================== -----Original Message----- From: wolfysmith To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: LOR In Wolverhampton WOW. What a show. 3 hours of non-stop top quality ROCK. Although I can’t remember every song played here’s my review of the night. First on at 7.30 was Frank Marino. 45 minutes of absolute guitar virtuoso brilliance. For me he was the best guitar player of the night by a mile. He seemed to have quite a few fans in the packed crowed just there to see him. Not having heard anything by him since the early 80’s I will definitely be searching out some of his material this weekend. There was then a break of about ten minutes. Be warned anyone thinking of have a few pints before the gig. This was the only break of the night to get to the toilet as 2 hours of music followed! UJR then came on and performed solo stuff with JJ, drums, bass, and two keyboard players backing him. While it was good it didn’t really fit in with the "Classic Rock" side of the show. To his credit he did say this to the crowd but added that he wanted people to hear something a bit different. As the last notes of his set ended he welcomed Glenn on stage for his set. As usual he looked coolness personified. I heard someone say what great stage presence Glenn has. Spot On. First up, a crunching performance of Stormbringer during which Glenn broke a string. Next, Mistreated on a four string bass while his other was being fixed. I thought this was better than when he sang it at JB’s Dudley with HTP. UJR joined JJ on this one. Gypsy was next, again with UJR assisting. With no pause for breath Gettin' Tighter was launched into. This was great as it merged into Dance to the Rock n Roll then back into Gettin' Tighter. Finally came You Keep on Moving. It goes without saying that Glenn was his usual brilliant self. His voice and bass playing were as good as ever and his energy level incredible. Not too many mentions for The Wolves this time round!! Jack Bruce came straight on with UJR and performed some classic Cream. He can still sing pretty good and his fretless bass playing was impressive. Glenn came on to sing his last number with him (I Feel Free). This I where I might miss something out. I think next on was Frank Marino with UJR doing All Along The Watchtower. Then Jack came back on and sang The Beatles classic Eleanor Rigby. Then for me THE song and performance of the night. Glenn sang A Whiter Shade of Pale. This was the best I have ever heard Glenn sing live, cd or bootleg. Truly great. So much power, emotion, heart and soul. You could sense the awe in the crowd during the song. Even the backstage crew appeared behind all the speakers to see him sing it. He MUST record it like that for a solo album. One live performance like that on BBC1 would result in a No.1 - if only :) Finally the night drew to a close with JJ belting out the riff to Burn with UJR joining him after a few technical hitches. And it was all over at 10.45pm. An unbelievably good night and fantastic value for money. Glenn was definitely the star of the show with Frank a brilliant second. After Schenker's last few performances I was glad he didn't make it. There was one other bonus for me. They had Glenn’s Chrisrmas cd for sale for £10 so it saved the hassle of getting it over the net and because I got there just after the doors opened I got mine signed by Glenn himself. What a result! Well that’s it for my review - it’s as short as I could make it! -END- -----Original Message----- From: Pete Allen To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: LOR In Wolverhampton Legends Of Rock - The Wulfrun, Wolverhampton - Thursday, November 14th, 2002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's no doubt that Frank Marino is a great guitar player, but for me personally he's still in the 70s. Extended guitar solos are really not the thing of the day these days, so even for a guitar 'anorak' like myself, it didn't really cut it for me. A bit of a yawn really, and this continued into the Uli Jon Roth set where he gave his astral guitar a bit of a work out on some of his concertos and even a snippet from ..... er ...... Westside Story, I think, or some other classic musical. There's absolutely no doubt the next guy up was the star of the night....our Glenn. When he was on stage there was a vibrance, energy, life .... call it what you will, but without him it was pretty static. I have to say that Glenn absolutely walks over any previous versions of Mistreated that you've ever heard .... he knocks DC into a cocked hat !! The highlight though, undoubtedly, A Whiter Shade Of Pale. A faithful cover on the Marc Bonilla album but live... WWWOOOWWW !!! Suddenly it's a power ballad / rock song, absolutely 100% stunning ..... colossal. And as Glenn said to us beforehand, Burn had to close the show because nothing could follow it. Jack Bruce was OK, pretty average really and he took a bit of stick a couple of times. I had hoped he would play his version of White Room and wasn't disappointed, it was very good. I was waiting for Uli to do Eric's wah-wah solo in the middle and he really pulled it off supremely well. Overall, with Uli and Frank it was a bit 'trippy' and I think Glenn may have been better on a bill of a slightly different nature, although I suspect if Schenker had played, it would have put more of a hard rock edge on the proceedings. But it was still worth going to and I'm really looking forward to Manchester on Monday. I think Glenn picked totally the right songs for the occasion and was head and shoulders above the rest with, for me, Uli in second spot. He really played some superb guitar in support of both Glenn and Jack although I have to give JJ a mention and say that if he hadn't played then Glenn's set may not have shone as brightly - they gel so well together. -END- -----Original Message----- From: Pete Allen To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: LOR In Manchester Legends Of Rock - Manchester, Apollo - Monday, November 18th, 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Just following up from my previous review - for this gig in Manchester, I felt the same overall, too much guitar histrionics in the first hour of the show. As impressive as Frank Marino is I reckon 3 songs in around 45 minutes smacks a little of over indulgence, whilst Uli Jon Roth appeared to being having technical difficulties and to me in Row B, his guitar had a real ear piercing quality to it ... the tone seemed too harsh. GLENN's set was the same except he ended his solo spot with Burn making 6 songs in this set, not 5, and closed the show with A Whiter Shade of Pale. To our surprise and amazement he dedicated Burn to "my namesake in the audience. Karen, Pete and little Glenn who is 13 years old". Well, that's me and Karen and our youngest son also named Glenn, but I hasten to add, not actually named after our hero! As we've all come to expect, GLENN was superb, brilliant, stole the show.... in fact just fill in any adjectives that you wish here. As with Wolverhampton, the stage was alive when he was there and seemed quite empty otherwise. Mistreated, again totally jaw dropping ... in fact I'm sure I heard mine hit the floor! Gettin' Tighter was done "Longbeach style" as GLENN put it, with the 'Dance to the Rock n Roll' bit in the middle and funk to the fore, whilst after the dedicated intro, Burn just blew me off my feet (and little Glenn too!). Having seen GLENN many, many times over the past 10 years or so, through the Fan Club sojourn, he never ceases to amaze us. I can only say, I've only ever seen one below par gig, when his monitors had packed up almost completely, but other than that, he's always spot on. I just hope he can continue to fund tours or be part of bigger things some how because I really need the andrenalin shot of seeing him live every year! We managed to spend about half an hour with him and GABI in his dressing room after he had finished his signing session and we had a good chat, talking mainly about football! Again we felt very lucky and privileged. The rest of the show was mixed for me personally, although I must add that Frank did an absolutely storming version of Hendrix's Voodoo Child, whilst Jack and Uli did another excellent version of White Room. Jack's homage to The Beatles with Eleanor Rigby (with JJ on backing vocals!) was really good, and again the Bruce/Hughes collaboration on I Feel Free was excellent. Overall, I was left with the same feeling that without GLENN, the show wouldn't have been worth the entrance money. At the end I over heard someone talking about 'ego' with reference to GLENN. I have to say he was talking complete crap, as I think anyone with that amount of talent, knowing that the bulk of the audience is there to see them, has a right to feel extremely confident and show it on stage. We know GLENN's a unique talent and he knows it .... so let him show it, is what I say! -END- -----Original Message----- From: Keith Thompson [mailto:K.Thompson@chester.ac.uk] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: GLENN's SOULFUL BLAST November 21st, Victoria Hall, Stoke-On-Trent, UK ------------------------------------------------ We all came out to Stoke in the hard driving rain. Hmmmm, there's a lyric in there somewhere. Look, this is totally uncharitable and maybe the weather was to blame, but my wife and I decided that a coffee in the bar was more appealing than the transcendental deliverance of Uli John Roth. The man has obvious spirit and his technical expertise is undoubted, but anyway we opted to watch it on the bar's TV monitor. Yet before we go any further, all credit to the guy for putting this thing together. He is an intelligent visionary. I just didn't go for what he was trying to say to me musically. There was warm applause. My loss I guess. Shortly afterwards Uli announced the arrival of Glenn Hughes and almost immediately burst into Stormbringer. Yes, I was 16 again. I was once again the spotty long haired youth clutching his tour programme in Liverpool 1976. You see I am die-hard Purple fan. You know in many ways nothing has changed. Even then I thought this guy has emotion in his voice and a passion for what he does. Chemicals cannot take away those basic human qualities. These are genuine thoughts as I heard the first chord barrage of Stormbringer 26 years later. The difference now is that Glenn Hughes is on a spiritual high. He knows what it means to the fans to hear these great songs live. He plays that part incredibly well but there are other strings to his flexible bow. The Voice of Rock? Er yes I think so. And the Voice of Funk and the Voice of Soul. The Voice transcends boundaries and floats effortlessly back to a logical resting point somewhere in your deep sub conscious. Glenn who, if I am quoting him correctly, once said " I now have a higher power. I call him God. I used to call him Glenn but this pissed God off," takes his craft seriously yet he is now able to crack jokes about himself. "I was at the gig in Wolverhampton last week and this woman came up to me and said 'do those teeth come out?' Only in Wolverhampton!" And so to 'Mistreated.' As he explained on the HTP tour, he is not claiming that Mistreated was his song simply that he and Ritchie B had jammed it first before David went off and wrote the lyrics later. Nobody was complaining. Having myself witnessed live the Whitesnake and Rainbow versions and, good as they were, Glenn took this classic to new vocal limits. JJ Marsh, resplendent in Tommy Bolin style cap, handled the Blackmore licks with aplomb. Glenn re-affirmed his close friendship with Tommy Bolin in introducing Gettin' Tighter, my favourite song off CTTB and one that brought me a large lump in the throat as I leapt from my seat to show my appreciation for a talent cruelly stolen from us all. So much for unbiased reporting! This time The Gypsy was discarded in favour of 'You Keep On Moving.' Both would have been preferable, but we understand the time restraints. 'Burn' described by Glenn as "The Big One" rocked and I was simply left shaking my head in disbelief at his ability to combine that controlled octave leaping while his bass rumbled almost effortlessly in the groove. There were none of the PA problems reported in many of the gig reviews from last year. Uli John Roth was obviously determined to do this all properly and the consequence was that all of Glenn's incredible vocal range could be absorbed into the system without a glitch. A word about Jack Bruce. Forget the dress sense. (He resembled a gangster boss in the Sopranos contrasting sharply with Roth's audition for a part in the Lord of the Rings). The gig was called Legends of Rock and they don't come much bigger than 33% of Cream. Jack's bass playing was superb but I had always thought his voice was underrated. And so it proved with a tight and enjoyable journey through 1968 ably assisted by Uli John Roth and Jethro Tull's tireless Clive Bunker on drums. All we needed now was Paul McCartney and we would have the three best singer/bass players on Earth on the same bill. Make no mistake though Glenn Hughes was a man at the top of his game. The body language on stage suggested to me that fellow stars Bruce, Roth and the excellent Frank Marino -with his Hendrix interpretations - seemed to agree. This was no talent competition but it was obvious to anyone with half a musical brain that Glenn always has that extra 10% value. Je ne sais quoi as the French say. I did get the impression as he took centre stage for the grand finale, an awesome rendition of I Feel Free and Whiter Shade of Pale with the whole ensemble that there is a whole lot more to come. The die-hard Glenn fans have been saying it for years. The marketing methods are debateable, what isn't up for discussion is that Glenn Hughes has had his day. I have seen The Voice and it's about to be re-launched to an unsuspecting world. The guy deserves it. Post script: ------------ Afterwards Glenn did some signing and we had a brief chat and a piccie taken and I passed over some sugar free Robinsons orange juice. He is an unassuming and humble individual who recognises that people idolise him but is able to return their compliments with some of his own. This disarms some fans because many rock stars just take the plaudits and walk away. I also overheard one conversation with one fan over the perennial issue of Jon Lord's Purple reunion thing. Glenn commented there was " some very strange behaviour going on behind the scenes." Hey Glenn maybe you won't need them. See you in the Spring with Shape 68? Keith Thompson -END- -----Original Message----- From: John Grogan To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: LOR In Edinburgh Wow - what a gig! Uli's onstage first doing a speech about the origins of the concert, and then it's straight into Frank Marino. Yes, it's undisputed guitar-wank. Yes, he thinks he's Jimi Hendrix. But it's done so unpretentiously that it's hard to dislike Frank. I've got a great seat (row 2 centre), but the entertainment value for most of Frank's spot is watching the guy in front of me who is obviously Frank's number one fan. He jumps about like a mad thing, doing the most ludicrous air guitar you've ever seen, punching the air, and staring at Frank's fingers. He knows Frank's every move in advance. Next Uli opens with Sky Overture and continues with Summer and Winter from Four Seasons. Good as he was, I got the feeling he was just warming up. There were a few bum notes here and there, but generally he was pretty good. I take Mike McRock's point in his review of the Wolverhampton show - a few harder hitting numbers would have been good. There were a few calls for Starlight (myself included) towards the end of Uli's set, but he says they can't do it tonight because they don't have a singer. "But you've got the greatest singer in the world on stage with you tonight" I thought. To me this was an opportunity missed. Starlight's a superb, wonderfully emotional song and it would have fitted Glenn like a glove - oh well. A short interval and then Glenn and band hit the stage. Well, he was undoubtedly the star of the show. He got the crowd going like no one else on the bill, and was absolutely magnificent. I would echo other's opinions here and say without reservation he is the greatest singer I have ever seen live. His version of Mistreated is awesome - best ever. Wish he'd got a longer spot and could have done some solo stuff, but the Purple songs hit the spot and the crowd go bananas for Burn. Glenn's obviously really loving it up there and I've never seen or heard him play the bass so manicly! For me, the sound deteriorated towards the end of Glenn's set and Burn suffers a bit due to this. Next it's the "Spirit of Cream" with Bruce/Roth/Bunker, and I didn't envy them having to follow Glenn's storming set. I'm not a particular fan of Cream, but they were very good. Uli tailored his sound to emulate Clapton's and he did a great job - he also had the coolest headgear you've ever seen! Jack Bruce has some amusing banter with the audience and seems to be really enjoying himself. Frank Marino returns to play Voodoo Child and then Uli joins him for All Along The Watchtower to close the main set. Apart from when Glenn was on stage, this was the best moment of the show for me. Fantastic version - great performance from both Uli and Frank. Uli, JJ Marsh and Jack Bruce return for Eleanor Rigby. Strange choice of song, undoubtedly a classic but didn't really fit in with the rest of the set. Then Jack introduces "his favourite rock 'n' roll singer" and Glenn comes back on to help with I Feel Free. Lastly it's Glenn singing Whiter Shade Of Pale and he nails it with an outstanding vocal performance. Steals the show yet again. I hung about for the signing afterwards and managed to get my stuff signed by Uli, JJ and Glenn. Had a quick chat (and a photo) with Glenn and he said he noticed me enjoying myself at the front! I asked him whether he would be bringing HTP to Scotland next time and he says that his management are currently trying to book a solo UK tour for April, hopefully playing both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Really nice guy, calls everyone "brother"! -END- -----Original Message----- From: andyb To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: LOR Cambridge Review Great gig on Monday night in Cambridge. Glenn stole the show and went down really well with the crowd, after Marino and Roth I was crying out for some VOCALS and so the timing of Glenn`s set was spot on. He looked and sounded great, this was no pure nostaligia trip and Glenn and J.J. really tore the place apart, also blowing out the sound and keyboards during "Mistreated". Nice to see local lad Don Airey onstage also and the long queues to get stuff signed was a sure sign of how much everyone enjoyed the gig. Hope to Glenn back over here next year, the Voice of Rock..........you better believe it !!!!!!! -END- -----Original Message----- From: P STANFORD [mailto:Peter.stanford1@btopenworld.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: LOR Manchester and 50th! After the gig it was time for the signing session near the entrance of the Apollo. The artists sat behind a closed table and everybody lined up waiting to get their stuff signed, each legend more or less had their queue of people. Frank Marino was sitting on the extreme right and Glenn next to him. Obviously Shel (me wife) and i were in line with Glenn with about two people in front of us (nearly there!!!!), then I just happened to look to the right and saw FM just sittin' there with nobody to sign for!!!!!!!!! Well I felt a little sorry for him and said to Shel "still got our ticket stubs?", she gave me one and i got Frank to sign it...had a chat then a photo. So after that there was one person between us and Glenn, and man was he giving Glenn a time of it about the Purple days. Asking who he still gets on with or not etc. while Glenn signed his fifteen or so CD covers,but Glenn was gentleman. Then it was our turn!!!!! So we talked about Shape 68 and the new solo stuff. Asked him if Shel could take a photo of us, and he said sure, so we posed, Shel clicked...nothing, no flash...then again..and again, then finally..phew..it worked!!!! So if you've seen the photo we were in that position for half a minute, it seemed like an age, so many thanks Glenn. Congratulations David & Shirean on CTC's 50th, what a fantastic job you do. Here's to another 50+ :) Cheers, Pete & Shel Stanford.xx -END- THE FUZE INTERVIEW - GLENN HUGHES: Play Me Out ============================================== by Todd Seely The Fuze - An Online Rock Journal http://www.the-fuze.com/ When Glenn Hughes stepped into the limelight with his band Trapeze in 1970, he set in motion a career that would swing back and forth between exhilarating highs and crushing lows. In 1973 Glenn joined Deep Purple, helping to pilot the band on a three-year ride that produced some of Purple’s most powerful material. When the band disintegrated in 1976, Hughes released ‘Play Me Out’, the first of numerous solo albums that would leave fans scratching their heads - either in amazement at his diversity or in confusion over his schizophrenic musical output, depending on who you asked. While Glenn’s peers went on to enjoy varying degrees of success in later ventures, Glenn somehow seemed to get lost in the mix. As he’ll readily admit today, drugs played a significant role in the path he was to take. In 1982 he released ‘Hughes/Thrall’ with guitarist Pat Thrall, an album which still garners acclaim for its forward-thinking approach to pop and heavy rock. As the Eighties went on, Glenn participated in a number of hit-and-miss collaborations with Gary Moore, Phenomena and Black Sabbath. He hit an all-time low, both personally and professionally, as the Nineties came into view. For Glenn Hughes and his legions of fans, an amazing thing happened in late 1991. With a renewed spirit, Glenn found the strength to kick a decades-long cocaine habit. He became a recovering alcoholic. UK pop sensation The KLF enlisted Glenn’s services as ‘The Voice Of Rock’ on what would be a worldwide smash hit, "America : What Time Is Love". And he kick-started his career again, beginning with the recording of an all-star album simply titled ‘Blues’. It’s been a decade since his return, and Glenn Hughes is still making music that challenges both critics and fans alike. He will seemingly leave no musical stone unturned. And as if making up for lost time, Hughes’ recent output has been staggering. Most recently, he has just returned from a tour in support of the Hughes/Turner Project, his partnership with ex-Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner. Todd Seely was able to catch up with Glenn Hughes, who was eager to talk about the past, the future and Shape 68 - the latest stop on his long and winding road. TS-THEFUZE: Good morning, Glenn! Thanks for taking the time to talk. First item on the agenda is your new group - Shape 68. I was at the debut show in LA, and I think it presents a new musical approach for you. Where did the name come from, and how does the music differ from what you’ve been doing so far? GH: The name comes from something that I dreamt, really. It came in a dream. Shape 68 was formed primarily because Robin Dimaggio, the drummer, and I were doing a Jeff Porcaro tribute in Germany last May. He’s from the younger generation of musicians. He’s so motivated. He really thought that I should move into more of an area that is more radio-based and commercial. Basically, to turn the corner into a more accessible market to sell more records. I honestly have been wanting to do this for quite a number of years. We are shopping it at the moment, and label interest is really strong. TS-THEFUZE: Is Shape 68 meant to be a recording band or simply a vehicle to work up new material? GH: You know, I just want to make it clear - I’m not doing this to sell out. I just believe my voice really should be heard by more people. That’s what the thing’s about. To get more people to listen, you have to cross the border into more of a pop field. The word ‘pop’ is a very loose term, because pop is what’s current and what’s on the charts. And I do think it’s possible to do that. Not many people can cross over from rock to pop. Ozzy’s done it, because of his enormous success with his TV show. TS-THEFUZE: David Coverdale was quoted some years ago as saying that he didn’t mind being considered a member of a pop group, because pop is simply short for popular. GH: It’s true. TS-THEFUZE: Jeff Kollman seems an unusual choice - he’s not really known for pop music. GH: Jeff Kollman, our guitar player, is a true find for me. Paul Rodgers wanted me to do some shows with him, and I said "Well, I’ll find a guitar player." It never worked out, so I took Jeff with me into this project. I’ll tell you something. Most people could say that you wouldn’t expect me to write those types of songs. If you’re a real fan, or if you know anything about me - I write many, many styles. And so does Jeff Kollman. You’d be surprised at what he can write. He really is a genuine, fabulous guy/musician/producer/guitar player. With Jeff, Robin and I, you have three different sources and we fit sort of like The Police did, in a way. You have that energetic drummer, you have a great guitar player and a singer/bass player. It’s the same sort of deal. TS-THEFUZE: It was a very exciting performance you guys put on at Platinum Live! GH: Thank you! It was only the first one! The reason we did the three songs on the end ("Coast to Coast", "You Keep On Moving" and a sample-heavy "Smoke on the Water") was we didn’t have enough songs. I said "Guys, we don’t have enough material here for a set." So we added the old songs at the end. We’re working on new songs as I speak to you. TS-THEFUZE: Many of your friends and fans came out to see your debut gig with Shape 68. With that first show behind you, what are your thoughts on the new material? GH: My fans - if you are a Glenn fan, you know there’s a side to me which would do something like this. I think the input I’m getting from those people is great. I think a lot of people are confused when I use the word ‘pop’. I think they thought it was more modern rock. And you can call it what you like. I am more focused on this project than I am on the rock side of things. I have a huge contingent of fans that only want me to be what they consider to be nostalgic - remembering from the Purple period. You have this thing where they want you to sound like you did in 1974. I have a history going back to 1970. It’s hard for me to tell them that I’ve grown so much, that the rock side of me has grown immensely, and that I want to write in a form that probably would fit modern rock radio. But you can’t do that. That’s why I have Shape 68. And we’re not shopping it as Glenn Hughes. We’re shopping it as Shape 68, to young A&R guys. We worked three labels yesterday, and the response has been truly amazing. Anyone who saw HTP [Hughes/Turner Project] knew I was having a good time. HTP was sounding so good. But I’m gonna shed my skin now, even when I do rock again. The reason it’s difficult to play new songs is I need two guitar players, I need a keyboard and also samples. It’s important - that’s why Shape 68 works well. I want to make it sound like the record. I don’t want to go onstage and dilute the performance. TS-THEFUZE: Going way back - you first tasted success as a member of Trapeze - with their hard-rocking, funk-and-soul-infused sound, were they ahead of their time? GH: Yeah. Look at the Trapeze records I did. Two bands formed Trapeze - the Montanas and Finders Keepers. We were both harmony bands. There was a lot of singing and a lot of harmonies going on. That’s what attracted the Moody Blues [note: Moody Blues bassist John Lodge signed Trapeze to the Moodys’ Threshold record label, and produced their first two albums.] On the next record, we broke into the three-piece thing. Led Zeppelin was very popular at the time, and we were sort of finding our own sound. Then I started really, really, really listening to Stevie Wonder, Al Green and Wilson Pickett. It was evolving into my soul-rock band. If I’d made another album with Trapeze after ‘You Are The Music’, who knows what it would have been like? I was really into music in the early Seventies, and we were really starting to evolve. TS-THEFUZE: Do you see any current artists going on to enjoy long-term careers, as you have? GH: Out of all the young singers on MTV today, I think Britney Spears has probably had her last big record. Christina Aguilera is probably dipping her foot into territory that she shouldn’t. Justin Timberlake is gonna have a huge career. The rap stuff, I don’t know much about. I won’t comment on that. On rock, I don’t understand what the young boy thinks - the seventeen-year-old adolescent male - as far as the Linkin Park thing, or whatever. It’s all a cultural thing, isn’t it? It really is a cultural, Ozzfest type thing. I don’t really listen to those types of new records. For me - I mean this - I do like what comes out of England . The one band that will last the test of time, that will become a U2 band, will be Coldplay. You’ve gotta check that out. Check out the last two records, ‘Parachutes’ and ‘A Sudden Rush of Blood to the Head’. Really brilliant! Robbie Williams is a genuine guy from the north of England who really worked his ass off. He found a niche to work with, found himself writing good songs, found himself in the right place at the right time and now he’s gonna be a full-fledged worldwide star. I can’t say if it’s gonna be a career thing like Elton John. I don’t know. There are so many things to hinder young people, which hindered me. Difficult to say, but Coldplay for sure is going all the way. TS-THEFUZE: You’ve stated a desire to move away from your rock roots, and yet the Hughes/Turner Project seems to dive straight into the deep end of the classic rock pool. GH: My God, yes. TS-THEFUZE: The sound echoes the influence of not only Deep Purple and Rainbow, but on a song like "Better Man", even seemingly gives a nod to David Bowie’s "Fame". How has your outlook changed towards "classic rock" music? GH: Here’s what it is. There’s a large contingent of Glenn Hughes fans that really love to rock. I get it all the time - they want me to rock. I decided in 2000 to start growing the hair, start looking rock - be rock and act rock. I tell you what - it’s almost like being an actor in a movie, being in that movie for a couple of movies and sequels. "I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it right, I’m gonna actually be the part of that guy". That’s what I’m doing right now. I never really turned my back on classic rock, I just went through a phase where I didn't need to do it. All my solo albums since 1992 have been different. I’ve got to do that to be the artiste. Now, artistes don’t really make a lot of money, because artistes do what they want. I’m sure if I’d gone the more melodic AOR route, or done something more heavy, it would have sold more. But I’ve got to just be Glenn, you know? It’s kind of hindered me, in a way. I just write what’s in my heart. I don’t write for the checkbook. TS-THEFUZE: Voices Of Classic Rock is a community of musicians, touring and performing the hits of each of its members, only about a third of whom - yourself included - are still active recording artists. What do you get out of being a member of the Voices Of Classic Rock? GH: If you really want to know the truth, I get camaraderie. I do the Voices of Classic Rock to keep my vocal chops in shape, to travel and meet new fans across the world. I hadn’t been to Malaysia or Korea . I don’t get to play in Canada. I don’t get to play too often in certain areas of South America, only Brazil, Argentina and those places. So we get to go down to Peru and Santiago to play, to meet new fans, and to broaden the horizons of Glenn, that’s what I get from it. But I’m gonna say that, with Voices of Classic Rock, you don’t get the full Glenn. It’s a very diluted Glenn. You get to see it, but it’s not the full thing. TS-THEFUZE: Is there a greater unity among the rock community than perhaps there used to be in the 70’s/80’s, and is that why your recent releases have seen contributions from people like Bobby Kimball, Pat Travers, Keith Emerson, John Sykes and Joe Lynn Turner? GH: Here’s what it’s going to be from now on: there’s gonna be two Glenns. Classic Rock Glenn for the classic rock fans, and my real dream is to continue to do that and really concentrate on America as a more accessible radio artist. Call it what you will - pop, or whatever. Shape 68 is my vehicle to cross boundaries - to do soundtracks, to do TV stuff - I really want more people to hear me on the radio in the country where I live. And therefore, when they do, I’ll be able to play this country with Shape 68. Cause I’ve really got to play America . It can happen under a new name. TS-THEFUZE: Will there be a sequel to Hughes/Turner Project (HTP)? GH: There will definitely be a sequel. I’m writing already for that. I wrote two songs for it. It will be started in late March. It’ll be the same line-up. TS-THEFUZE: Why did you rehearse and tour with two separate bands for the Japanese and European legs of the Hughes/Turner tour? GH: Simply for economic reasons. When you go to do these tours, if you know anything about touring, it’s extremely difficult to be on the road and make any money. You’ve got to do it in an economical way, with the right people. The Japanese connection was a no-brainer, because those guys are so Purple-oriented. It was economically feasible to do that. For the European leg, I wanted more of a say in who I would have in the group. JJ Marsh had to be in the band. I wanted Tomas Broman, who’s phenomenal, to play drums. Tomas Broman digs in so deep when he plays his kick, and he’s so ‘on the money’, I love him. And I wanted a keyboard player who obviously could play the Rainbow and Purple stuff well, and knew my repertoire. We found the right band - that band - in Europe . Those guys in HTP are unbelievable. I wish we could have recorded that stuff. My dream is to have that band play on HTP, on the next one. It might happen. It would be really good. I must say that HTP is the most successful Euro-tour I’ve done since my first one in 1994. So that will be a definite continuation. And it’s also moneymaking, so we have to do that. TS-THEFUZE: If Deep Purple had been able to continue after ‘Come Taste The Band’, where could you have seen it heading? GH: It would not have been Deep Purple anymore, because we were not a heavy rock group anymore. We were becoming a fusion band. Tommy and Ian Paice loved jazz, I was deep into R&B and soul then. I was going mad. I needed to make ‘Play Me Out’, otherwise I would have gone crazy. It couldn’t have happened. Let me just say this - with Tommy Bolin in the band, it would not have happened. We needed more of a Blackmore type guy, or Blackmore back. Tommy was gonna be the main writer with me and Coverdale, and he would have gone really out there. TS-THEFUZE: If EMI Records continues with the series of Deep Purple re-masters, will you take part in their release? GH: I would love to be part of those re-masters. I asked Roger Glover three years ago "Are you going to re-master ‘Burn’?" He said "I wasn’t on that record." I said "I know, because if you’re not going to do it, I need to do it." I’d like to be part of that. I wish I could get my hands on ‘Play Me Out’. TS-THEFUZE: I’d like to get your knee-jerk reaction to Jon Lord’s suggestion, in the latest issue of Classic Rock, of a one-off reunion of all Deep Purple alumni? GH: Love it. Without getting too deep into why I’d like it - I would love it just to bring more people into Glenn, and show them this guy is actually as good as he was back in the Seventies. When I say that to you, it’s because I don’t abuse myself. It’s not an ego thing. It’s really relevant to me to finish my career, if you will, in rock where I started. Word of mouth got me in Deep Purple, and word of mouth is now spreading that Glenn Hughes is as good, or better, as he used to be. TS-THEFUZE: Gary Moore and Glenn Hughes together in one band - dream or nightmare? GH: Gary and I buried the hatchet three years ago in Sweden , in a nightclub. He has gone on to say to a few of our friends that he’d love to see me again, and that he’d love to work on my record. That’s what he told me, too. I don’t know. Gary ’s going back to rock again. Gary was very difficult to work with, but I wasn’t the easiest chap either. To me, he’s a genius and true one of a kind. TS-THEFUZE: Would your work with Gary Moore have blossomed into something more, if not for the falling out over the Phenomena project? GH: Oh, yeah. You must understand, the mid-80’s is when I was getting really sick. If I was a well man - let’s just say this: if I’d never done a drug in my life, I think you’d be talking to a man right now that, financially, would be the king of the world. But I took a different road, due to my alcoholism. That’s the way I was born. I didn’t choose that. I’m a grateful alcoholic-in-recovery. I have become a stronger man because of my problems. TS-THEFUZE: Not to imply any sort of rift between you and Phil Lynott - but, were you irritated that, shortly after you were announced as Gary Moore’s new bassist and vocalist, Gary released a new single with Lynott on bass and vocals? GH: No, that wasn’t the case. Phil and I were friends. When Gary left Thin Lizzy, he hid out at my house. Phil called me one night and said (imitating Lynott) "If you’ve got that bastard over there, I’ll come over and break both your legs!" He wasn’t happy. Phil wasn’t well either, toward the end. Genius singer and writer. TS-THEFUZE: Were you happy with the material that you contributed to Gary’s ‘Run For Cover’ album? GH: Yeah, but there’s more. There’s a lot more. You know, Gary pretty much is a control freak. Like I am, in a way - I’m a workaholic now. I think he was into the publishing thing - he wanted all the songs to be his. He wanted this, he wanted that. He had a manager I detested, who was a jackass. TS-THEFUZE: Were you disappointed that you never got to perform any of the Moore or Phenomena material live? GH: No. Phenomena was a vehicle. Phenomena is a thing that has been a problem for me since it started, because they never paid me. We’re in negotiations to do a Phenomena, if they pay me from the first ones. Even though Phenomena wasn’t as good as people think it was, it was a Glenn Hughes performance which was ‘ok’. Everybody raves about it, but for me it was just another day at the office. Really, for me, it was nothing spectacular. TS-THEFUZE: As a listener, and as a fan, I would have to disagree with that. Your performance on there - from the first soaring vocal on "Kiss Of Fire", it just took off! GH: Thank you! You know what it was? I sang those songs in a couple of days, a couple of sessions - all of ‘em. I didn’t write most of it. Looking back on it, and you can ask [Phenomena writer/producer] Tom Galley or anybody, when I was singing these songs people in the control booth were crying. I guess I moved people. TS-THEFUZE: At least that’s what you were hoping! GH: Yeah, that’s what happened. They were coming out crying, and I said "Well hell, that’s fucking great." It was an exercise, for me, in singing. It was just "OK, I’ve got these pop songs to sing. I’ll sing ‘em." I’ll tell you why I’ve got a bad taste. Not just from money. I thought the mix was bloody awful. It was washed in echo. The demos I have are so much better. Kerrang said the same thing. Oh, God, it’s bloody awful! Just a terrible mix. TS-THEFUZE: In 1999 you participated in the Tommy Bolin Tribute in Tommy’s hometown of Sioux City , Iowa . Tell me a little about that? GH: I loved to do the Bolin thing. It was a chance for me to go back to the house. I’ve been to Tommy’s house twice - a week after he was ‘murdered, I say’, and then in 1999. I got a chance to go and visit with Johnnie Bolin and see the graves. It was important to me. And to participate in the show was something different. I wanted to go back and pay my respects to the house and the graves. TS-THEFUZE: Many fans have expressed a desire to hear you sing a duet with a female vocalist like Ann Wilson or Sam Brown. Is there anyone you would like to record a duet with? GH: Well, there’s a gal I really like - Siedah Garrett. She was at the show last week. She wrote "Man in the Mirror" with Michael Jackson, and she is an amazing singer. She’s doing a new record for EMI right now. I’m probably going to write and sing with her. You never know, I might sing a duet with her. It’s possible. TS-THEFUZE: In kind of a twist on this theme, you recently recorded a duet with Jeff Scott Soto for his upcoming album ‘Prism’. How long have you known Jeff? GH: I met Jeff in ’93, when I was living in Stockholm and he was working with the band Talisman. He’s sweet. He’s a great performer, singer - he lives and breathes it like I do. I like him a lot. TS-THEFUZE: You sang at his wedding? GH: I did. I like his wife. Rebecca is a good friend of mine as well. I love these two people very, very much. TS-THEFUZE: I think you did Journey’s "Open Arms". That’s what Jeff told me. GH: Yeah, it’s their favorite song. TS-THEFUZE: There was a rumor a few years ago that you were briefly considered as the vocalist for Journey. Would you have done it, if the band had approached you? GH: I think in sobriety, I probably would. Yeah. Only because it’s another way to hear Glenn Hughes in America . It really is all about America right now, for me. Neal Schon’s a good friend of mine. You know, I will probably work with Jonathan Cain and Neal. With Journey? I don’t think it will be. But I will work with these guys in the next two years, I know that. There’s a lot of people I’m gonna probably work with. I have a feeling. TS-THEFUZE: Through your music, fans have gotten to know a spiritual man who’s come out of a dark place. We’ve really gotten an inside look at the fight you put up to get your life back on track. Do you ever wonder if you’ve given away too much of yourself? GH: No. It’s my duty to give back. There’s a song from Shape 68 called "You’ve Gotta Believe In Love" and the line is "you can only keep what you give away". It means that I’ve got to give everything. To people. To you. I’ve got to give it all to you, because it’s a gift that’s been given to me. I owe everything I’ve got to a higher power. I could not do this without that help. So the connection I have to my higher power is very deep, and it’s big thing for me. Spiritual progression, and not perfection. TS-THEFUZE: What do you hope a listener takes with them from your music? GH: That they’re listening to someone that’s lived a life that’s run the gamut. That I’m living and breathing what I sing. I want to give you an idea of when Jeff Buckley, an artist that I really like, passed away. I listened to his material on the album ‘Grace’ and, was blown away by this man, who was in so much pain. Like Cobain - same thing. These guys who have seen so much pain that you know they’re living and breathing what they’re singing. I have a wealth of stuff that I have to sing about in my life that is beautiful. The beautiful things have been the last eleven years in sobriety, of course. So I’m singing a lot about that with Shape 68, as you can see. But there’s a lot of pain I’m still dredging up. On ‘Building the Machine’ it was different - I was more enjoying it. TS-THEFUZE: What have your parents thought of your career of the past ten years, since refocusing your energy on overcoming your demons and basically starting a new life? GH: My parents have been very proud of me, because I’m the only child and they’re very happy with their son. They’re proud of me. The UK press has had a field day with my recovery and my addiction. When I got sober, KLF went to number one and I was thrust back into the limelight. It was such headlines in the English press - ‘The King of Cocaine Is Cured’ and ‘Captain Cocaine’. It was just awful for them. And now for ten years or so, I’m a man that’s recovered from a seemingly hopeless disease. TS-THEFUZE: What are their favorite Glenn Hughes recordings? GH: They haven’t heard Shape 68 yet. I think their favorite all-timer is "Coast to Coast". My mother loves the Geoff Downes/Glenn Hughes ‘Work Tapes’. They love ‘Play Me Out’. That’s their number one record. ‘Play Me Out’ is their favorite CD. I’d have to say they like all my work. They don’t like the darker stuff, of course, like ‘Addiction’. My mother knows my voice, and my father - they all sing. They love the stuff with the elastic vocals, like on ‘Play Me Out’. TS-THEFUZE: Your latest solo album ‘Building the Machine’ came out last year. How long were you in the studio working on it? GH: All my albums are written in my home studio, primarily with me and JJ. Then we move to Entourage Studios in the Valley, in Studio City , where we record the album. It’s done over a ten-day period. Five working days, Monday through Friday, of cutting the instruments and then five working days to sing. Then we do five days at Westlake Audio to mix. It’s all pre-produced, written well and hopefully ready to go. I’ve always got the band rehearsed. My albums are pretty well structured. I’m pretty regulated on the production side of things. I’m the kind of guy who can tell you what day I’m going to make a record, at what time and what day it’s gonna finish. And you know something? I like that. When I got sober years ago, they told me in treatment "You will become regimented. You will become scheduled. You will like schedules. You will make your bed in the morning. You will become a man." I’ve learned how to become a man in the last eleven years. So finally I’m growing up. I’ve learned how to work with people, and have people go "I can’t wait to work with him again." I just met Steve Vai again on Saturday, and I’m gonna sing on his new record. TS-THEFUZE: From album to album - whether on your solo recordings or countless side projects - your diversity makes it hard for even the most die-hard fans to know what to expect from you. Are different types of your music more popular in certain areas of the world? GH: I’m known in Russia as "Mr. Music". I went to Bulgaria a few months ago. I was met off the plane. There was a red carpet and a band playing. I thought the president was on the plane - it was for me! I had 2,000 people at the airport. There were like 10,000 people at the show. I sang one song, and they went mad. In that part of the world - Greece , Bulgaria , Macedonia and the Czech Republic - they go bloody mad for me. I’ve got to explore that market more, and go to these markets more because that’s where people like Glenn. It’s difficult because I’ve found out that I have not been managed that well in Europe , in the last five years. And my agent has sucked. So that is changing now. I’m gonna change all that. On the front burner for me is Shape 68. The form of the band is strong for me. The music is very strong. The songs are extremely commercial. There might be the odd couple of people on my web site that go "He’s a jackass for doing this." I don’t care. I do this because I need to do it for my soul. People need to hear Glenn Hughes’ voice on a soundtrack or on a top-40 song. And they need to hear it now. TS-THEFUZE: How closely do you pay attention to what your fans are saying on your web site? GH: I go there all the time. Every other day. When we closed it [the bulletin board] down last year, it was becoming irritating not just to me, but to my die-hard fans. I’ve got leather skin, you know. If somebody has a jab at me, they’ve obviously got a problem with something in their life. Whatever. I’m ok with the artist I am. When people review my records, I read them all. If a read a bad review, it’s ok - as long as they spell my name right. I have been to hell and back. Nothing is going to irritate me to the point of going "I must change the way I am." I’m constantly evolving, moving and writing. People say "He’s doing too much work, he’s just doing too much." Bullshit. I’m not doing enough work! I should play and sing with everybody. (laughs) TS-THEFUZE: How much of what you do is for the fans, and how much is for yourself? GH: I would say 80% has been for the fans, in the last five years. ‘Building the Machine’ is more like 50% for me and, I hate to say, the lowest sales figures of my career. I was at the end of my contract with SPV, and they weren’t promoting me. It was very dismal. And it’s the best record I’ve done in a long time. TS-THEFUZE: A lot of artists can’t be bothered with meet-and-greets and fan interaction. Why do you seem to go out of your way to make yourself available to fans? GH: I want to say, if anybody reads this from the HTP tour, I didn’t do any meet and greets because I was concerned - there were a lot of shows, a lot of fans and I didn’t want to get sick. I just want to clear that up. Meet and greets are very important. I guess, in sobriety, I wanted to show people I was back and I am a decent fellow. I wanted people to get to know me a little bit, and to know that I’m a genuine person. TS-THEFUZE: You’ve released several special items via your own label, Pink Cloud Records. Are there more archival releases to come? GH: I have a couple more that are ready to go, one of which was going to be "Songs From The West Side", but that’s The Alchemist. That’s a whole other kettle of fish. Carl (The Alchemist) Kennedy knew I was putting it out. He just decided "Well, I’ll just do it myself." TS-THEFUZE: It would have been nice if he had credited you for it. GH: I’m glad he didn’t. He never paid me. I did this as a favor to him, and he never paid me. We’re gonna go to litigation on that. It’s terrible. It really sucks. TS-THEFUZE: You’ve been the focus of countless bootleg releases, both of concert and studio material. What’s your stance on the whole bootlegging phenomenon? GH: My wife is up in arms about it. For me, as long as they don’t bootleg Shape 68, I don’t care. You can come to my concerts and bootleg, cause they’re all "moments", for me. I don’t mind that. You can’t stop it, really. The only thing that really bugged me was the ‘Eighth Star’ one with Tony Iommi. That really pissed me off. TS-THEFUZE: When’s the last time you spoke to Pat Thrall? GH: Four days ago. TS-THEFUZE: You’ve been threatening to finish Hughes/Thrall 2 - will it happen? GH: We had a long talk. Pat and I had a little bit of a giggle about it because I said "I’m getting shit from telling people we’re gonna release this, and they keep saying ‘You said that last year.’" Pat has not finished it yet. I’ve done nine vocals. He has not mixed or finished the guitars due to the fact that he’s very busy. So we’ve decided we’re gonna release an EP of five or six cuts, via our own web site. Hopefully it will garner label interest. I would imagine that will be out next spring. TS-THEFUZE: In this year alone, you’ve had projects released with Hughes/Turner, the Ape Quartet, The Alchemist, Ryo Okumoto, a Pink Floyd tribute, Ellis, the Soto solo album and your own best-of compilation - What else is on the back burner? GH: I’m doing the next Glenn album December 14th. We’re doing the music before Christmas, and the vocals will be done in January. That album is going to be another chapter in the Glenn Hughes rock thing. TS-THEFUZE: Any chance you’ll do songs from your ‘Soulful Christmas’ album in any live performances at the end of the year? GH: Well, one of my dreams is to do ‘Play Me Out’ live with an orchestra, and to do ‘Soulful Christmas’ in the same vein. Somebody wanted to bring me to Italy to do ‘Soulful Christmas’. You know, I get a lot of calls or emails from people who want to fly me to ‘X’ country to do some of these. I gotta take a look at all these things. TS-THEFUZE: You’ve just completed a European tour with Hughes/Turner, and you’ll be returning there in late November for a series of dates with Cream’s Jack Bruce. Is touring more enjoyable for you now than it used to be? GH: It certainly is. The only problem I have with touring is the day-to-day. I’m very regimented on the road. I’m up at 6:30 , I’m doing my yoga and my meditation, which is very important for me. I get out in the street and do some brisk walking. As long as I’m doing what I do in LA, which is taking care of myself, and my conscious contact with God, all the rest is easy for me. Next month’s tour with [ex-Scorpions] Uli Jon Roth and Jack is a monumental thing for me. It’s monumental for me to play thirteen shows in my country of origin. My job on that tour is to deliver the goods again. TS-THEFUZE: I think they’ve done this particular grouping before, but this time you’ll be the wild card. GH: Yeah, man. It’s gonna be very good. I’m telling you - I’m gonna pull out all the stops! We are pursuing playing in America , but I’ve got to find an agent I can trust. TS-THEFUZE: I know you’re living clean these days. What’s your current drink of choice? GH: I would have to say my current drink of choice would have to be Robinson’s Orange Squash with no sugar, with Diet Sprite mixed. Robinson’s Orange Squash is English. You have to dilute it with water, but I dilute it with Diet Sprite. No caffeine. I’m trying to stay off caffeine. Of course, I don’t do sugar. You may ask what I do? I don’t really do much at all. I get high from my seven mile walks, daily, five days a week. That’s how I get my buzz. And eating fruit. (laughs) TS-THEFUZE: Cheers to you, Glenn. GH: You’re a good guy. Thanks, man. -END- GLENN HUGHES - HTP Interview - September 2002 BURRN Japan - Interview by Kaz Hirose ============================================= KH-BURRN: There must have been a lot of opinions when you were selecting songs for the show. GH: It was Hard. We picked up 30 songs or so but they were mostly Joe's lead vocal songs and we were stuck because we did not know what I should do. Then I suggested to do more from Rainbow because we had done a lot of songs like Burn, etc already at that time. I personally wished to do more from the HTP album. 'On The Edge' 'Against The Wall' 'Run Run Run' etc. However, the songs we eventually chose were all welcomed by the audience and we are happy. We were correct that we thought HTP is welcomed because the audience loves classic rock'n'roll. Anyway, the process was so hard. We could not miss, 'Spotlight Kid' 'Death Alley Driver' and I wanted to sing 'Mistreated'. KH-BURRN: The GH version of Mistreated was wonderful. We know that this song was also memorable for you too whilst David sang this on the Burn album. GH: Yea right. I think I told you this story but it is about before DP did the tour with me and David. DP had two fresh members me and David and Ritchie was always smiling to everybody. He was supposed to be very happy about the new line up. We all were having a lot of drinks together at a castle in Wales or something. When we moved to a castle in Switzerland for recording of Burn, still everybody was so happy. When we started to create the song Burn, it went so well. Start together, doing BANG-BANG-BANG and that's it. It was completed. Mistreated was the first song that Ritchie shared with me and had me to listen to before David joined. When I visited him at his house, he started to play that riff saying 'this is my new idea'. Kaz, you know I love Andy Fraser's bass play. I immediately followed Ritchie playing my bass like Andy's style and thought 'Wow it will be a brand new style/sound for DP !!' This was the story how I firstly touched the materials for the later Burn album. And David joined and completed words, wish if I was allowed to do so but David did the words writing so..... The recording for Stormbringer was also great. I am still proud of all of the songs in those days. If I say there's any mistakes during DP era - No, it was actually not a mistake but when I was invited by DP, I was told to take over Rodger Glover but I sad 'I need to sing...' Kaz, as you may know this story. The successor for Ian Gillan was David but not me and I was not a lead singer. However, I think sometimes it worked for a good way too. When a bass player sings, it gets more attention from the audience making them wonder who he is. 'Who's that bass player singing ??' I am glad that you liked my version of the song. But I have been always a secondary position for vocals and still Joe is singing and I am 'another guy', you know. However, I do love the position now I am enjoying being another man playing bass next to the lead singer. It took so long to accept the position though. KH-BURRN: Were there any song that you were not sure if you would like it playing. GH: I had not known Death Alley Driver or Spotlight Kid, etc when I toured with Joe on the HOLY MAN tour. I knew 'I Surrender', 'Street of Dreams' etc sung by Joe, as he is the best pop-rock singer ever. And now I love those songs, Death Alley, Spotlight kid, King of Dreams, etc Probably it is due to Akira's good play. KH-BURRN: But Highway Star... GH: I know what you mean. That's a Ian Gillan's song. We could have ended the show with Spotlight kid or something. Anyway, we have just started HTP tour and are learning what songs are good for us. (laugh) KH-BURRN: We are really wishing you to find the best songs for HTP. 'This is the HTP live !!' GH: Will do. Thank you for your comment. I think the HTP concept was correct and is successful. Both Joe and I are narrowing the targets with good concentration. How I wish to be memorized by the people, how I wish to impress people, etc. I think I grew up in these 2-3 years. I noticed and accepted some important truth. I had wished to do more R&Bs, Funk and Jazzy things but it was too late for such a carreer and for me to change a direction to another at the age of mine! In general, people recognizes me as 'Glenn Hughes ex DP'. It took so long for me to accept that there are so many people who would not accept Glenn Hughes not doing rock. However, this is business and it is not the same as doing music as a hobby. Only one point I don't wish to be misunderstood is that I am enjoying doing classic rock a lot! HTP is real, Real is HTP. KH-BURRN: There are so many GH fans who are impressed/moved by your way of doing things recently, i.e. you are accepting your position, doing rock again after long years , etc GH: Joe and I, both are trying to improve each other. We became grown ups. Sometimes 2 lead singers may make a situation like a nightmare but we are different. The album featuring 2 singers - none since, Come Taste The Band album. It is so great! If I am asked how I wished to be 5 years later, I would answer 'In 1974, Glenn Hughes was the god of singing bass players. In 2006, he is still the god of singing bass player' you know, Ronnie Dio is still singing hard as like he was doing. His focus is not going away. In that sense, I do respect very much. KH-BURRN: You also influenced a lot in the terms of Bass player. GH: It's strange. I was a guitarist and the bass player was gone and I switched to playing bass instead of him. Singing wise, I did not have any intention in singing when I was with Trapeze at the beginning, but the other members let me sing and liked it. The lead singer was replaced with me. I was 18 at that time. I just wished to play bass, but was not ready for singing. I was not a lead singer at all. When we recorded MEDUSA, I started to be hooked on listening to the songs on American Radio like Otis Redding, Wilson Picket, Stevie Wonder, etc. The result is apparent on You Are The Music ...We're Just The Band album. It was such a drastic change from Medusa and the You Are ....album. It was almost like Led Zeppelin turned Americans. The next album after You Are... for me is Burn. Now I think it was so quick and I was also growing/developing in a very quick manner. I was in my late teens and was so fast for everything. Ritchie knew, therefore, that I was Soul, Funky & Blacky at that time. In order to do Burn with DP, I needed to adjust my direction a bit back to rock but the direction of mine was correct eventually, I think. I can not tell you in details, but I contributed a lot for the song Burn writing, too after that. KH-BURRN: Who influenced you for bass playing. GH: Of course, Andy Fraser, from FREE. We did an opening act for FREE one day. Paul was super and Andy was also super. However, also thought 'I can do the same' which was namely, the notes he did not play. That is the root for the bass of Glenn Hughes. I was influenced by his style not playing some notes. -END- -----Original Message----- From: NESTOR SAN FERNANDO RODENAS [mailto:nsfr@hotmail.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: glenn in Barcelona the best The other day, I see glenn in Barcelona I like too much , but I want to see glenn hughes alone, without Joe , I like Joe but I better Glenn, in the concert I enjoy too much , I'm waiting the next number of this magazine, long live Glenn -END- DINOSAUR ROCK GUITAR - Burning Japan Live Review ================================================ http://www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/ GLENN HUGHES - Burning Japan Live (1994) (European/Japanese release version) CREDITS ------- Glenn Hughes - all lead vocals (keyboards on "Still In Love With You") Thomas Larsson - guitars/background vocals Eric Bojfeldt - guitars/background vocals Mic Michaeli - keyboards/background vocals Jon Levén - bass guitar Ian Haugland - drums BACKGROUND ---------- Fellow Dinosaurs: If you are unfamiliar with Glenn Hughes' voice and music, that is a grievous oversight on your part. If you are a fan of powerful rock vocalists -- guys with tremendous, REAL pipes and huge ranges like Robert Plant, Ian Gillan, David Coverdale, Ronnie Dio, Rob Halford, Bruce Dickenson, Geoff Tate, you are missing the boat if you don't expose yourself to Glenn Hughes. He can sing them all under the table! You may remember Glenn from Deep Purple's post-Gillan era. Glenn was the bassist and the other guy singing with David Coverdale on MK III and IV Deep Purple classics like Burn, Stormbringer, and You Keep on Moving. Some old Dinos may even remember Glenn Hughes from his earliest days in a band called Trapeze, or his 80s collaboration with guitarist Pat Thrall that produced a Dino classic called Hughes-Thrall. There have been countless other sessions; a few tracks on Gary Moore's 1985 Run for Cover album. A Black Sabbath album called 7th Star. But if Deep Purple and these recordings are your only exposure to Glenn Hughes -- if you have not heard the man's work in the 90s and 00s, your are doing yourself a disservice. Because unlike any of the singers I listed above, Glenn Hughes' voice has gotten substantially stronger than it was 25 years ago. In his mid 40s, Hughes is a FAR better singer than he was in his early 20s. Would, that we could say the same for Robert Plant! I cannot explain why his voice is improved. He could always wail in a four + octave range, but he now has even more power and unbelievable control that you don't hear in either the studio or live Deep Purple recordings. Sure, after years of alcohol and cocaine abuse, Hughes cleaned up his life around 1990. That had to help. He also found religion, something he also credits. He calls his voice a "gift." Clearly it is, but I also call it a freak of nature. The other thing to know about Hughes is that he's a virtuoso singer in just about any form of music, from scorching heavy metal screaming, to Stevie Wonder-like funk, to Motown-like soul, to Michael Bolton (with pipes) like pop ballads. This man sings it all, and in my opinion, better than anyone else. Glenn's own music these days is a very unique marriage of styles that incorporates all of his influences. Sort of a heavy, funk-rock built on heavy bass-driven grooves. His latest CD, 2000's Return of Krystal Karma, is a great introduction to the man's talents, as is 1995 Feel, a veritable Hughes "vocal resume" containing a stylistic smorgasbord of material. While neither of those albums really qualify Dinosaur Rock, but they are both stunning examples of the man's work, and both are heavy enough to keep me happy. But I didn't bring you here for that. We're going to go back a bit further and listen to a power-packed, 75 minute slab of Dinosaur Rock songs, some which, you may even know. So it's 1994, and after floundering around for much of the 80s, Glenn Hughes has beaten his addictions, gotten his life back on track and is trying to revive his career. He has just released a true solo album called From Now On, a pretty nice album that's a combination of AOR and Eurometal. But because he hadn't toured in ages, and because From Now On is new and relatively unfamiliar to the fans, Glenn looked back to his glory days in Deep Purple and to the afore-mentioned Hughes-Thrall album to round out his setlist on Burning Japan Live. Obviously, the Japanese were extremely familiar with the Purple material -- Purple was always KING in Japan. But one listen will convince you that over there in the land of Dinosaurs, they also knew the Hughes-Thrall material intimately as well. The band that recorded From Now On, and toured supporting it included some ex-members of the Swedish pop-metal band Europe. The guitar duties were shared by Thomas Larsson and Eric Bojfeld, two guitarists who's playing, coincidentally, sound as Swedish as their names. The guitar work on From Now On and this CD, Burning Japan Live is more than competent, and less than brilliant. So why should you care about this album? Primarily because the vocal performance is absolutely staggering! I will attempt to describe it adequately in the track-by-track analysis, but know that this is Hughes pushing his voice to the max, getting every once of emotion out of it, and using vocal dynamics in a range no one else can touch. Secondly, because this is was the first time in roughly 20 years, that songs like Burn and other MK III and IV Purple songs were performed live in concert. If you haven't heard them since the original versions, you're in for a treat. Hughes has made these songs his own. He's keeping them alive and breathing amazing new life into them. Third, this is Glenn at his Hard Rock/Heavy Metal best. What has come later from Glenn, while great, is not really this genre. If you are not astonished by this album's vocals and vibe, you're not much of a Dinosaur. IMPORTANT NOTE: --------------- Stay away from the castrated US release of this album. It's missing four great songs. Get the import. It's worth the extra money. TRACK BY TRACK (vocal cues in parentheses) ------------------------------------------ BURN 6:44 The old Deep Purple classic chosen for the opener. The Japanese audience must have though it had died and gone to heaven. First thing you'll notice is two guitars bashing out the famous riff. Glenn comes in powerfully with the verse. While it's a little different-sounding from the original version, it's so strong, it shouldn't take you long to "not miss" Coverdale. Chorus comes in and you hear the part that Glenn use to sing in the old days (You know we had no time . . .) On the second time through he stabs the word "time" repeatedly in that high scream the way he did on the old live Purple recordings. Guitar solo's come in, and these guys do a decent job in a modern-Eurometal style. They don't try to cop Ritchie's solos note for note, but they play within the spirit of the song. The chorus comes in again and, Glenn blasts through it. Organ solo follows and Mic Michaeli does Jon Lord's part pretty much note-for-note. Check out the vocal note Hughes rips at the top of his lungs on the last note of the song. Checking the CD player--he holds it for 11 seconds! THE LIAR 4:24 This is one of the stronger tracks off of From Now On. A chugging, rhythmic, piece of modern melodic metal. I've been unable to determine if the melody over the rhythm is an instrument or Hughes doing an Immigrant Song-like part vocally, or both. The chorus is nice and changes the chug feel to a more chord-based melodic part. Nice, powerful bridge, almost like a "breakdown." Glenn comes in and wails (Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaar! You're the one, You're the one, You're the one, they call the Liiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaar!)/ Back to the intro part. MUSCLE AND BLOOD 5:32 This song came from the Hughes-Thrall album. Pure metal. Great riff! Plods a little more than the original version, in part, because this bassist doesn't play with Glenn's feel for the groove. As the second verse starts, (Lying in the gutter), Glenn starts playing with his voice and improvising a bit, and this continues through the chorus (Nothing can stop me, I'm a man made of muscle and blood) The guitarists do a good job and stick pretty close to Pat Thrall's original solo. Third verse, Glenn continues to just wail at will, alternating between top-of-the-range screams (standing in the shadows) to soulful melodies (I'm gonna make my plan). Again, he's just fucking around with his voice, playing with the melodies, singing whatever way he feels. The results are unreal. His voice never cracks, or waivers. He never misses the note he's going for. He's in total control. LAY MY BODY DOWN 5:08 Another good track off of From Now On. Kind of a "light metal" song. Metal verse, with a pop type chorus. He sticks pretty close to the studio version here. Pretty nice guitar solo by Larsson. On one of the closing choruses, Glenn's shows off his falsetto voice (till the early morning light) which is just another weapon in his vocal arsenal. FROM NOW ON... 6:00 They lighten the feel up here with the more AOR-sounding title track from the album. An uptempo, kind of song--almost a ballad. You get a more soulful than "metal" singer here, but another total, vocal workout. Right before the second verse starts, Glenn hits a really high note from out of nowhere. It's got tons of wind behind it, but it has a totally different vocal character than the frantic metal screams on the previous tracks. Harmony guitar solo, then the boys each trade off a quick one. The chorus repeats a few times, then the song drops back into its groove and gives Glenn another opportunity to just vocally improvise. Not just the high stuff, but the soft stuff, the low stuff. You begin to get a feel for how much he can do with his voice. INTO THE VOID 7:03 Another From Now On track. Here's the one that's reminiscent of the band Europe. It has that Final Countdown feel. Big keyboard track. Hughes sings a nice melodic verse using more of his low range. Verse part two builds the tension and the chorus releases it. The vocal keeps upping the tension too, and Glenn mixes in some metal type screams in. Listen to the power behind the outro refrain of (I can remember). STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU 2:10 No relation to the Thin Lizzy song -- this is just a little interlude with keys and voice. Glenn playing keys and just singing his ass off in a variety of styles, mostly soulful -- almost Stevie Wonder territory, then he starts pouring on the power that's pure Glenn, and finishes up with stuff that reminds me of Smokey Robinson. It's amazing. COAST TO COAST 6:08 This is pretty much Glenn's signature piece. He wrote it at age 18 in Trapeze. The original version appeared on You are the Music We are the Band. He re-recorded a better version of it on the Hughes-Thrall album. You'll find it on any live Hughes recording. This version is as nice as any I've heard. There's another vocal breakdown in the middle section for Glenn to stretch his pipes and simply floor you with what he can do with his voice. Glenn is clearly drawing on a stylistic depth that simply isn't present in most rock/metal singers--even the great ones. This scary-good stuff continues as the song trails out. The audience is completely mesmerized, you could hear a pin drop as the keys fade out and he finishes up with some acapella improv. THIS TIME AROUND 3:32 This song, and Owed To G that follows it, originally appeared on Deep Purple's Come Taste the Band album. Both tracks were written by Hughes/Lord/Bolin. A very different kind of music than what's typically associated with Purple. No guitar to speak of on this part, just keys, bass, and vocals. The original version is beautiful, and this one is even more powerful. OWED TO G 2:48 This song is the instrumental jam that followed This Time around. It was one of Tommy Bolin's better moments on Come Taste the Band and the guitarists here do a nice job with it. The "G" that this is "Owed to" is purportedly Gershwin. GETTIN' TIGHTER 3:59 Another great song from Come Taste the Band. It's funky, heavy, and very similar to the kind of music Glenn Hughes makes today. The funk breakdown in the middle of the song is the kind of stuff that drove Ritchie Blackmore nuts and sent him packing from Deep Purple. Despite that, this song moves and it grooves! YOU KEEP ON MOVING 7:11 For me, this is this best track on the album (and it's not even on the U.S. version). Again, another track from Come Taste the Band. Like Coast to Coast, this is one of Glenn's favorite songs, and appears on most of his live recordings. The version on this CD is the strongest. The song itself kicks ass. It's right up there with my all-time favorite Deep Purple songs. The original version had breathtaking vocal harmonies between Coverdale and Hughes. Glenn, obviously, sings it without those harmonies here, but he more than makes up for them with this passionate, and dynamic performance. The song starts slow, but powerfully. Part one of the verse creates tension over the song's signature bass line and keys. The second part of the verse (Every day, wheels are turning) adds the power guitar. Glenn's still getting warmed up a the tune hits the chorus (Dawn will soon be breaking, the day has just begun) . A keyboard solo follows the chorus. Another chorus follows, and Glenn really cuts loose and goes for it here--listen to him rip out the phrase: (like a circle round the sun) Holy shit! The verse comes back in soft again like the intro. Glenn has the audience sing the verse part one, and then pulls out all the stops for the finale--(Every day, the wheels are turning . . . and the criiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies still retuning). Listen to vocal vibrato he uses on the note(s) he hits on the word "cries"--it's just unbelievable. It gives me chills. LADY DOUBLE DEALER 3:24 From the Stormbringer album, as Glenn notes as he introduces it. This uptempo rocker is a song that's much more Coverdale and Blackmore than Hughes, but Glenn does a nice job with it, as do the guitarists. Glenn plows through it fairly straight, aside from a few shrieks. I GOT YOUR NUMBER 4:17 This one came from Hughes-Thrall originally. Clearly a favorite of the Japanese audience who do the call-and-response thing with Hughes. Kind of a 80s Pop metal type of song, with pop chorus. Glenn is still going for the shred early and often screaming out parts for emphasis. If you're waiting for his voice to give out, forget about it. STORMBRINGER 5:10 Title track of the Deep Purple album of the same name. Great song! This is pretty stompin' version. Again, Glenn taking over what had been more of a Coverdale song, and while he sings it fairly straight, he manages to make it his own with nice results. It closes the concert very nicely. SUMMARY ------- So there you have it. A vocal tour-de-force performance on a great set of songs that many Dinosaurs may be unfamiliar with. If you're a Dinosaur, and you aren't a Glenn Hughes fan after hearing this one, I suggest you check your pulse. You may be dead! -END- -----Original Message----- From: Maria Markova [mailto:funkydeuce@hotbox.ru] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC - Classic Rock Russia Dear fellow CTC readers and editors, Let me introduce myself: Funky Deuce a.k.a. Maria, a young analyst from Russia. As Russia is a country where everything is different, you might expect that there some interesting events might happen and some original opinions may exist. So you may expect translations from Russian magazines and reports of anything GH or DP family related that takes place in this faraway country to be submitted by me. I hope you appreciate my articles for the lack of those that make sense to people like us in the press. Here's my first submission to CTC newsletter. I hope it does not really violate any laws... :)) Classic Rock Russia: some things never change! As I am typing this, Anastacia sings in the background: 'Can't be trusted, good for nothing...' What an apt epigraph for this article! What this magazine publishes in the UK is well known. But how do you think the Russian version differs? It may seem that as Russia is such a rock'n'rolling country (and there are a lot of young rock'n'rollers), CR Russia is to be much better. Young aspiring critics with true analitic capabilities, inspired translators and other well-educated, excited staff... Like fun there are. Of course, CR Russia managed to survive without Sergey Kastalsky, self-proclaimed 'the one and only rock'n'roll guru' (more on him in subsequent articles), and his ego tripping articles, but... They managed to find a whole bunch of native kastalskys, let alone the original 'veterans of music media'. I don't know where these guys come from. They can't seem to know more than two Deep Purple songs, still they write a review of a book on DP with such a serious attitude! 'Rock'n'roll should be fun! Drop your huge giant persona that you have of yourself and have some fun! ' - JLT (on singers, but anyway...) Moreover, they are not even conversant with our own Russian rock scene (yeah, there is a bit of it here). There's a guy who wrote a review of a show of Russia's leading heavy metal band Aria and through it kept calling the song actually titled 'Deceit' 'Jackal'. The point is that that poor jackal is really mentioned several times in the lyrics, but it does not change the title. To my mind, at least... Actually, it was the same guy. They didn't employ a lot of Russian journalists, anyway. Thank God. They have a chief editor who alone is worth ten journalists. His name is Vlad Lesishin and I have yet to read such arrogant and highflown wanderings he tries to sell for editorials. I thought this was a rock'n'roll magazine, not a speech of a Soviet leader! Somehow one of us is undoubtedly wrong in this situation. I don't actually know how many of the reviews published under his name he actually wrote (as his review of BTM, according to what I read about Rich Wilson's one, seems to be very much like it), but rather than pleasing his ego, he'd better hire some professional translators. I am really frustrated with the way Russian text is presented. There are an enormous lot of grammar and stylistical mistakes, misprints, awful transcriptions (I'd better not say how they managed to interpret 'Thrall' in Russian!) and what's more, purely translational mistakes. I have read some things that are absolutely hilarious - like (I'll try to reproduce the result) 'Glenn Hughes and JLT who are now performing under the aegis of Hughes Turner Project...' Let me tell ya something: isn't it funny? HTP must be something like a charity fund of Howard Hughes and Ted Turner, then! :)) There's also a lot of omissions that I noticed after having read their interview with Glenn in the 24/7 section in CTC and having compared it with the Russian translation in issue 1/2002. Two big differences, as they say in Odessa (the Russian-speaking one :)). And what is the most scary thing about all this... A lot of people love it. And they're not the nu metal fans that support the magazine abroad. Most of our people (the older generation of classic rock fans, the most active, the most conservative and the most deprived of information as they were young when the iron curtian was still in its place) can't get decent Internet access. In addition to that, many do not speak foreign languages fluently. They grew up in an atmosphere where every piece of writing about rock'n'roll was cherished, and they do not have anything to compare CR with. So... CR Russia gets tons of complaints about the abundance of nu metal on their pages. They even print them. But they can't defer their readers' plea! They print and print their senseless 'answers' in the vein of: 'We are choosing the bands we're writing about very carefully... We base the choice on lots of objective parameters like album sales...' OK, Anastacia sings great, sells great - why not write about her, then? At least she's a real musician, unlike those negative pseudopunks! Give me The Clash, then. I can't stand that offkey singing, but they had the reason to protest against their government or whatever, even if they chose some strange ways for expressing their feelings! (Although I know a great person who is a fan of 'garage rock' and punk music and even plays it himself. It doesn't make him a bad guy. :) And I haven't yet met a fan of nu metal who could carry on a philosophic talk!) And what is the point behind nu metal... I don't know. The last sentence brings us to Ozzy Osbourne. You know, it seems to me that Oz's management bribed the editors of CR Russia, as well as Robert Plant's management did. There is no other way I can explain the fact that both Ozzy and Robert graced the covers twice in the relatively short period of time CR Russia exists! Everything Robert and Ozzy do is consistently praised. Suddenly every music fan has become a lifelong fan of them, if we believe the letters they print. But why? Why? Why?.. Sorry to offend any Plant's fans here, but he is not a singer (especially now) to be on par with Glenn or Rob Halford (thank God, they know who he is and rated Crucible justly!). And it is obvious that Ozzy's success was never based on his (good, but modest) vocal abilities. I also laugh out loud when I read numerous references to 'Ozzy's' lyrics. I think every calssic rock fan knows that all the early lyrics were written by Bob Daisley and credited to Oz (I believe there's a clear difference between Blizzard of Oz and Ozzmosis, and much in common between Diary of a Madman and Mother's Army!)! Still, they never even mention their confrontation. They have to maintain the image of a genious for Ozzy! I used to like his music a lot. I still do. But I don't think there's no one in rock'n'roll but him. And his latest album was nothing special for me. OK, they printed the story of the Burn album cover in issue 10. Very good. But I can't get why they're trying to sell old Joe's quote about him and Glenn being unable to talk to Blackmore as hot news in this small article! And I will say it again - for a lot of Russian classic rock fans, this magazine is a 'window to the world'. Isn't that sad? To make everyone even more sad... Here are two English reproductions of reviews of BTM and Slam, found in issue 12/2001 of Classic Rock Russia on the very same page, one above another. They claim to be both written by Vlad Lesishin, but I can hardly imagine how he could have written them both. They both contradict themselves. Listen, learn, read on... GLENN HUGHES - 'BUILDING THE MACHINE' *** All the solo albums of Glenn Hughes, ex-DP and Trapeze bassist and singer, never got a good review. All or almost all records (except for the brilliant collaboration with Pat Thrall, 1982) had been a disappointment for the fans. The main reason for the frustration was that Glenn, who has such a powerful voice, had to indulge in funky music for no obvious reasons and started flirting with all the styles there can be. It is sure a pity that his new disk Building The Machine could not break this circle. OK, this is nothing bad in being considered a funkster and mixing different styles while continuously experimenting. But are we really interested in having Glenn as another Gary Glitter or James Brown?! However, it is exactly what the first half of the album has to offer, save for hard rocking riffs of the opener Can't Stop the Flood. The second half is a bit more interesting. At least, because of the fact it is nice to hear a version of DP's High Ball Shooter off the Stormbringer LP. Kudos to classic hard rock. The spiral of imagination starts twirling again with the song titled I Will Follow You that features beautiful keyboards. Slow blues tracks Beyond the Numb and Big Sky close the album. The disk was recorded in LA with the help of producer Michael Scott (previously with Van Halen), and musicians JJ Marsh (guitar), Gary Ferguson (drums) and Vince Di Cola (keyboards). Appearing as special guests are Pat Travers, Bobby Kimball of Toto (backing vocals on Inside and Don't Let It Slip) and guitarist Brett Ellis. Oh yeah, I am anticipating Hughes Thrall II; it is said to be released next year, by the way. JOE LYNN TURNER - 'SLAM' *** A little more than a year has passed since the release of the previous CD, Holy Man. It wasn't warmly received and never evoked any excitement. After having listened to the new album titled Slam one can't help but think: Can it be that Joe Lynn Turner, ex-DP and Rainbow singer, hasn't drawn the corresponding conclusions? Can it be that he really lost himself, and even sings about in the third track, Deliver Me: 'I'm so lost, so uninspired; I raise my hands and start to pray'? Let me state it from the beginning: the album is average. It's both good and quite standard at the same time. I think you will agree that today, unfortunately, it is already not enough to play melodic rock with matured vocals. Of course, there's still the same spark in Turner's voice, supplemented with amazing guitar licks courtesy of Akira Kajiyama. There's also a great track in the vein of those of Rainbow, Eye for an Eye. And Dark Days makes one understand that Turner still can deliver what we want from him - energy. Even if Slam never becomes a huge hit, don't lose hope: Turner is in the Westlane Studios now where he is finishing the mixing of a new record - of a new project. Hold your breath:... Hughes / Turner. the album is to be released in Feb/Mar 2002. They are the Voices of Classic Rock yet... VLAD LESISHIN. So, this is how it goes... Let us all hope situation will change for the better for those of us who are not yet online. I don't know what music magazines are there abroad, but in Russia all of them are not that good, and there isn't a great choice of them that publish anything about classic rock. Or funk. Or soul. Or blues. Long live different styles! Long live Glenn! Long live experimenting! Good luck, Funky Deuce a.k.a. Maria. -END- -----Original Message----- From: Astra Graphics [mailto:astra@nas.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Canada Live? Hey Glenn! I’ve been a huge fan since 1986 and was wondering how come you never play in Canada? , I live in the greater Toronto area and am pretty confident you’d have no problem selling out a fair size venue. P.S. your voice sounds better with every album you release. Paul S. Anderson -END- -----Original Message----- From: AJ Quick [mailto:AJ@ajquick.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Ghostbusters! I need a copy of the songs you did for Ghostbusters! I listen to the clip of it in the Teaser trailer over and over!! I need something! an MP3, a Wav file, CD, lyrics or something!! There were some great songs, and it is sad to hear they didn't make it in the final film. Let me know, Thank You So Much!! -AJ Quick -END- -----Original Message----- From: IeUeco EiioiaeUiico [mailto:astryos@hotmail.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Amazed by Mr Hughes' work! Dear friends, I am a fan of Mr Glenn Hughes' work all the way from Trapeze and Purple to Black Sabbath and Norum days. This week I bought his "Addiction" CD and I found it the most astonishing thing of the '90s I heared lately! It's not only his impassioned voice, the excellent performance of all musicians and the great production: Mostly it's the songs: fresh, powerful, soulful, energetic songs that they do not intend to reproduce the '70s (although I am in love with the '70s) or to imitate anything from the '90s! These songs are so self-luminous that got me stuck with this CD and I could't do anything else but love it! Now I have become eager and want to find out what all of Mr Hughes' personal records are about - except Hughes-Thrall which I know and is a masterpiece! I would appreciate if you could forward my deepest respect to Mr Hughes and tell him a big "thank you" from a Greek young man, for the inspiration (I am a guitarist) and the vital vibrations he gives through his music. Thanks Michael Kontogiannis -END- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| CTC - FAN FORUM - CHAT ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| To participate in CTC sponsored GLENN HUGHES activities, simply point your web browser to any of the following web addresses. CHAT is held each 3rd week of the month. 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