Back in 1969, the lineup of Deep Purple had seen a drastic change: Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice split up with singer Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper and hired the former Episode Six musicians Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to complete the lineup.

One of the first shows to feature the new lineup was the live performance of Jon Lord’s „Concerto For Group and Orchestra“, an ambitious work to unite the different worlds of a rock band and a full orchestra which lay the foundation for Jon Lords career as composer / writer and solo artist. About a year later, the follow-up of the „Concerto“ faced the light of day during a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall, again featuring his Deep Purple bandmates and conductor Malcolm Arnold.

While the „Concerto“ had its focus on band and orchestra as a whole, „Gemini Suite“ did focus on the different instruments, dedicating a track to guitar, piano, drums, vocals bass guitar and organ respectively. Also contrary to the „Concerto“, which took more than 40 years to be recorded in a studio, Jon Lord went to the studio in 1971 to record „Gemini Suite“ as a studio project. At that time, the rock career of Deep Purple was in full flight and Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore showed no interest in participating in the recording and were replaced by guitar player Albert Lee , multi talented Tony Ashton and singer Yvonne Elliman.

The 2019 vinyl release is based on the 2016 remaster by Rob Cass, using the original stereo mixes of the album. Luckily, the remaster doesn’t follow the popular trend of brick-walling every track and preserves the dynamics and overall feel of the original recording.

There’s still no explaination why the original artwork has been dropped and was replaced by completely new design, but the 2016 foreword by Roger Glover is also included on the inner sleeve.

Auch wenn Andre “nur” bis 2001 Frontman der Band ANGRA war und “nur” die ersten 3 von inzwischen 10 Angra-Alben eingesungen hat, war und ist er für viele immer noch DER Angra-Sänger. Bereits mit dem Debutalbum “Angels Cry” legten Angra die Messlatte so hoch, daß die späteren Alben - obwohl durchweg gut bis exzellent - den Erstling nicht erreichen konnten.

Ich habe Angra zum ersten Mal am 26. Mai 1995 zusammen mit Psychotic Waltz im Schwimmbadclub in Heidelberg gesehen. Ein unvergessliches Konzert, in dessen Verlauf Andre auch bewies, daß die Kate Bush-Coverversion “Wuthering Heights” nicht mit Hilfe von Studio-Tricks den Weg auf’s Album fand, sondern auch live von ihm gemeistert werden konnte.

Andre Matos ist am 08. Juni 2019 im Alter von 47 Jahren verstorben.

R.I.P.

Auch wenn Lordi 2006 den Wettbewerb gewonnen haben, glänzt der Eurovision Song Contest nicht unbedingt mit besonders rockigen Beiträgen. Ab und an ist dann aber doch ein metallischer Ton zu hören …

So hatten nicht nur die isländischen Teilnehmer von Hatari über weite Strecken alle Regler auf 10, auch Madonna erinnerte als Pausenact an Rob Halford vor rund 10 Jahren: verpackt in eine Mischung aus Leder und Metall, gesanglich vor allem in den Höhen nicht sonderlich treffsicher und man hatte permanent Angst, daß der nächste Schritt auf der Treppe kein gutes Ende nimmt. Last but not least hatten dann Griechenland für die Punktevergabe Gus G. ins Studio geschickt, um die Wertung(en) der griechischen Jury zu verkünden.

Die persönliche Favoriten-Liste sieht allerdings etwas anders als das offizielle Ergebnis aus:

1. Nevena Božovic - “Kruna” (Serbien, Platz 17)
2. Leonora - “Love Is Forever” (Dänemark, Platz 12)
3. KEiiNO - “Spirit In The Sky” (Norwegen, Platz 5)
4. Hatari - “Hatrið mun sigra” (Island, Platz 10)
5. Kate Miller-Heidke - “Zero Gravity” (Australien, Platz 9)
6. Sergey Lazarev - “Scream” (Russland, Platz 3)
7. Serhat - “Say Na Na Na” (San Marino, Platz 20)
8. Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl - “Sebi” (Slowenien, Platz 13)
9. Tamara Todevska - “Proud” (Nordmazedonien, Platz 8)
10. Kobi Marimi - “Home” (Israel, Platz 23)

When Deep Purple disbanded in 1976, Jon Lord and Ian Paice decided to start a new band, not trying to recreate what they already had with Deep Purple but to explore new musical directions.

As frontman they recruited singer and keyboard player Tony Ashton. Jon Lord had already collaborated with Tony Ashton composing the soundtrack for “The Last Rebel” (published 1971 as “Musical score composed by Tony Ashon & Jon Lord, performed by Ashton, Gardner & Dyke”) and on “First Of The Big Bands” (published 1974 as “Tony Ashton & Jon Lord”), an album which could be seen as some sort of blueprint for “Malice in Wonderland”.

The lineup was completed with Paul Martinez on bass and Bernie Marsden on guitar, a brass section fronted by Howie Casey and two female background singers, Sheila McKinley and Jeanette McKinley.

The recordings took place in Munich in autumn 1976 in basement studio of the Arabella hotel (inspiration for the song “Arabella”) and the album was released in early 1977, surprising many Deep Purple fans with a mix of Rock, Blues, Funk and Jazz.

To promote the album, a tour covering major European cities had been planned, but as tickets didn’t sell as expected, most dates were dropped from the oncoming tour, leaving just five British dates to be performed.

As time went by, Tony Ashton felt more and more uncomfortable with his role as frontman of PAL and it also turned out the fans needed more time to adjust to the sound of Paice Ashton Lord as expected. By the end of 1977, the band started the recordings for a second album, but as the momentum was gone the album was never finished and the band called it quits in 1978.

“Malice In Wonderland” will be reissued on May 17 2019 by earMUSIC, using the 2001 remaster by Nick Watson for the tracks of the original album. The release will also include eight bonus tracks from the never finished second album, remastered in 2019 by Eike Freese. The booket contains previously unpublished photographs by Alan Messer and detailed liner notes by Simon Robinson.

Sadly the reissue misses the opportunity to include the “Sight & Sound In Concert” live recording, which would have been a perfect addition to this otherwise fine release of an impressive album.

De Sfeerfabriek, Doorn, Niederlande :-)