I published Deep Purple Forever! 23 in August 1999 and the bulk of this issue featured a massive 100 question interview with Dougie White (the images of Dougie/Ritchie on the front and Glenn Hughes on the back was taken by my friend Michael Johansson). I had sent the questions over to him and he took the time to answer them on two C-90 tapes. In fact, on one of these tapes you can hear the phone ring and it is Janick Gears on the line and Dougie says “I can not talk now I am doing an interview with the Swedish Deep Purple club”. Funny how you remember things like that. In any case, I have decided to showcase this issue (first time I ever do that on this blog but not the last) and here it is. The Dougie White interview covers everything you see from page 2 to page 20 (save for the odd press cutting from the old archive), but it all hangs together with the topics we discussed (all the way down to the very rock´n´roll quote regarding the use of whipped cream and oral sex – hey, I never said that I had a problem with the saucy stuff). In any case, this is what an issue of Deep Purple Forever! could look like in 1999.
(My shots of said issue, many thanks for everybody that was involved back in the day – for more information on this issue, see the post “Fanzine History (1999)”, also published on June 30 2021)
I published two issues of the fanzine in 1999. Deep Purple Forever! 22 came out in January and it sported a nice cover with images from the Purple gig at the Solnahallen venue (October 3 1998), all taken by Michael Johansson. As was the shot of Dougie White on the back of the magazine (Stockholm, Cirkus, October 2 1995). Interviews with Steve Morse and Joe Lynn Turner. Ronnie James Dio came by my hometown (Östersund, November 6) and I reprinted a couple of local press cuttings. Did not meet the man (that would come later). The new printer did a good job and I felt that I was in a good place. I had lost my job though and I was studying in 1999, maybe that explains why I only published two issues. The first 200 that bought this issue got a free image (printed by yours truly) that had been personally selected and signed by Dougie White. I have to assume that a few people framed their copy (I know I did).
This was a good issue. Deep Purple Forever! 23 was published in August 1999 and it was a very special one (I will showcase it in full on this blog in another post today). I used to chat with Dougie White on a fairly regular basis and I had this idea that it would be good fun to publish an interview with 100 questions. Luckily, Dougie was up for it and I sent over the questions and he recorded his answers and sent it back. So the bulk of this magazine (and you can see the headline “Secret World Of Dougie White” on the cover) dealt with just about everything under the sun and I think we did a good thing here for the Swedish fans. The cover shot of Dougie and Ritchie was taken in Stockholm in 1995 by Michael Johansson – so was the shot of Glenn Hughes on the back, taken in Los Angeles at a Black Sabbath rehearsal in 1986. I was in desperate need of a new computer at the time and I asked the members to help out. I called the effort “Operation Data” and many shipped in and helped. 2020 would turn out to be an incredibly busy year.
If you look closely you will see a magazine cover with Xena Warrior Princess at the back, and I have to tell you what that was all about (it was the reason for us printing that shot of Glenn Hughes after all). Here is the translation of the text: “Millennia fear! The time has come to pick up the Black Sabbath album from 1986 and to check out the lyrics to the title track, which is based on an old quatrain by Nostradamus that says that when the seven planets line up there shall be a rebirth (I had this on good authority from Tony Iommi himself!). This is going down in May 2020 whatever you may think of it or not. If the man was right, it will not be pretty. I personally believe though that God would not allow this world to end before we have had a chance to see all episodes of Xena Warrior Princess. But you never know…”. A tad eccentic maybe, but that has been there right through this journey, and it was about to get worse. Much worse.
There will be another Babymetal event on July 24 as they are set to livestream a special cut of the “10 Babymetal Budokan” and media (Metal Hammer, Rocksound etc) is all over it. This livestream will be cheaper to view than the first and merchandise will be available as usual. Pretty good activity on the part of Babymetal since it is highlighting the upcoming “10 Babymetal Budokan” live release that is due out in late September (early October if you live in the States). You can also pre-order the album and get your hands on loads of other merchandise through the Babymetal Stores in both the UK and the US. The album (CD/Vinyl) should not be hard to find when the time comes though. It is rather nice to see the support that Babymetal has in the West at this point. They did it their way and that is impressive. At the very least, you have to give them credit for adding the Kawaii Metal branch to the old Oak tree in the Metal forest. Nobody saw that one coming.
A final batch of images down by the river then (the second part actually had a lot of visitors yesterday, which is nice). The top image is from the western side of the bridge facing right (there is a hydropower plant a couple of km´s downstream). Once you pass the bridge you are in the main village and the first thing you see to the left is some tourist information (which comes in handy so I have added a couple of shots of this including details of a map). And finally there is a snapshot of the hydropower plant taken from some distance. Beautiful area, lots of small houses that people have along the shoreline. As for the hydropower plant, should Sweden ever get into a war a site like this will be a big fat target and I am aware of this. I guess the bridge would be a target too. I have spotted large drones that are coming over the river from my house a few times. I certainly hope they belong to us and that it is all innocent. It would be pretty outrageous if it was somebody else scouting the river but we live in interesting times. I guess that is the prepper in me talking.
I still have to get this book but I spotted the release of it back in April and I will try to hunt a copy down eventually. What you get is enthusiasts discussing the classic UK war comics over 152 pages and that sounds good to me. Author James Reasoner is one of the celebrities that has contributed to this book. Looks good.
There is a flood of Tex Willer stuff being published in Norway and I get some of it on import. This particular title, Maxi Tex, is not available in my neck of the woods as yet though. I love old school comics and this is right up my alley. Strangely, there is a Maxi Tex on import from Finland, but that is like trying to understand Japanese. Oh well.
Well this is very nice. As I am about to turn 60 (next week), I just got an offer from the local ICA food market store here in Stugun (Jämtland County) to pick up a birthday cake free of charge. They obviously keep track of little things like this which is a classy way to show appreciation for their customers. Needless to say, I picked up the cake right away and I am enjoying it as we speak. Many thanks.
(My shots of the ICA store and the cake in question)
1998 was a shaky year too but I was hanging in there doing the best I could to keep the magazine alive. Deep Purple Forever! 19 was published in March and the bulk of this issue dealt with the 1975-1976 period of Rainbow. Nice cover shots, the one on the front was taken in Liverpool 1976 and the one on the back in Stockholm on the same tour. Whitesnake had visited Stockholm, smallest show since 1981 in these parts.
Last issue in the wilderness as I located a new printer when Deep Purple Forever! 20 was out (in August). One of only three covers (out of the 32 I ended up doing) that was not in full colour, although the drawing by Staffan Eriksson certainly looked good in purple. Japanese ad of a reissue campaign they had going over there (CDs in paper jackets, kind of cool). Deep Purple had released “Abandon” and done a lot of pubicity in Scandinavia (although not in Sweden). This record was not received well in Sweden and they would eventually perform at a pretty small venue in Stockholm (in spite of having Hammerfall as openers). Things would get better but 1998 was a low point for Purple in Sweden. Cozy Powell has passed away in a car accident. I presented an interview with Stuart Smith in this issue as he was about to release his first solo album “Heaven & Earth”. This project turned into a band eventually. Stuart was not well known but he had been around the Purple family for years (he had nearly formed a band with Ian Paice after PAL for one thing). I ended up doing a couple of interviews with Stuart.
This issue was not supposed to even exist. Deep Purple Forever! 21 was published in October and it was very easy for me to put it together. The idea came up when a student (Henrik Engvall) at a college in Stockholm (N3B Danderyds Gymnasium) sent me a paper he had written as a school project on the career of Deep Purple. I took one look at it and asked if we could print it and make a magazine out of it, just adding classic ads and a nice cover etc. He agreed and EMI in Sweden ordered 50 copies for promotional purposes (they had both “Abandon” and a compilation album titled “30: Very Best Of” to push at the time). So this was done basically to support the band. Of course the cover is super cool, very good images (the front has Purple shots taken in Germany 1998 and in Hungary 1987). New logo as well, the third (I had previously used the “Stormbringer” and “The Battle Rages On” logos for 10 issues each). This one would last for another 10 issues as well, keeping the tradition alive. 1998 had been a rough year but it would eventually start to look up again in 1999.
When I went out to take some snapshots around Stugun (Jämtland County) the other day I was actually surprised to find a spot for outdoor gymnastics and a boules court down by the waterfront. I had not seen this before. Hard to imagine a more beautiful spot for this sort of thing too. This certainly rates pretty high on the old cool-o-meter.
This is the fourth interview I post with singer Dougie White on this blog (you will find the other ones archived in March 2020 and July 2013), and the first after the end of his time as a member of Rainbow. This is basically a short chat that we had over the phone on September 10 1997 and it was published in Deep Purple Forever! 18 in November that year. We would later go into things in great detail in a later issue but that is for another day. Enjoy.
First some general background. Dougie White left Rainbow on June 13 1997 as things had turned sour after the last gig in Denmark at the Esbjerg Rock Festival on May 31. That became the last gig that Rainbow would do for a long long time as Ritchie Blackmore went on to focus on his Blackmore´s Night project. In fact, at the time of the split of Rainbow they were being managed by Candice Night´s mother… So, on to the interview.
How are things progressing on your end Dougie. Are you writing songs?
– “I have 10 songs ready on a demo and I intend to write another four or five songs next week with (guitarist) Alex Dickson”.
So what are we talking about here? Is it classic hard rock or what is the general direction of your material?
– “It is nothing like Rainbow, that is not the road I want to take. None of the songs are longer than three and a half minutes”.
Then there will be a lot of songs on this album if this trend continues.
-“Well, I really do not like CDs that are longer than one hour. They usually have some weaker tracks on them. I would rather present 10-12 strong tracks”.
Who is going to play on the album?
– “I am not sure, but I am pretty hopeful that I will have both Greg Smith and John Michelli (both from Rainbow) on it. People that have heard the songs tells me that it reminds them of David Bowie, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin and Stone Temple Pilots. I have not heard the latter but I will check them out now. Most of the songs do not have guitar solos. All the ideas I had for the second Rainbow album has been put to the side and I do not know if I am going to use any of it now. I recently got a little present from Ritchie and so I called him up and said that the only thing he has to do to have me on another Rainbow album is to call me. But I doubt that it is going to happen. The last thing I heard is that either Joe Lynn Turner or Ronnie James Dio might be waiting in the wings”.
Can we have some of the song titles of the stuff that you have or is it to early to share that information?
– “No, that is fine. I think the lyrics have improved a great deal. And I am not too kind either, but that is not directed towards Ritchie at all. One song is called “Secret Jesus” and then there is one that is called “The Love We Made” that is about a charged sexual relationship that I had for 13 weeks with this woman. At that point we had nothing more to say, it is strange how things can change like that. I only write about love when I feel a bit depressed”.
That might be your way to handle it.
– “I never write songs about love when I am happy. So my love songs tends to be a bit on the dark side I guess. Another one is called “Sea Of Emotion”, then there is this song about a guy that tried to fool me called “No Lines No Thanks”. Another one is called “Crawl””.
There has been a lot of talk lately about stalkers after the death of Princess Diana. I guess some rock fans can behave badly too. Did you ever feel targeted in a bad way when you toured with Rainbow?
– “Not really, possibly with the exception of when we were in Argentina. One guy tore off a lock of hair and another guy stole my beer. But no, it has mostly been a good experience for me and people have been polite and really nice. Maybe it was different back when Deep Purple and Rainbow were huge but things will probably settle down a bit as the years pass. The hysteria part of it all. The hardest part actually was to answer the same questions over and over again”.
It is then that you have to be a professional.
– “Yes, because even if I have to answer the same question for the fiftieth time it is still only fair to the person that is making the interview that I put some passion into it, and put some details into the conversation”.
Perhaps we should not talk too much about Rainbow´s manager and what went down…
– “No, let us leave that out of it at the moment. Ritchie has my number if he wants to talk to me”.
…
Interview by Mike Eriksson (if quoted let me know about it) – Deep Purple Forever (1997) / Trinkelbonker (2021)
(My shot of framed Rainbow stuff from back in the day)
…
CLASSIC ROCK INTERVIEWS ON TRINKELBONKER: MARINA AMMOURI 2021 (February 12 2021), VISIONS OF ATLANTIS 2007 (November 10 2020), RITCHIE BLACKMORE & CANDICE NIGHT 2001 (October 27 2020), JOHN NORUM 1988 (October 18 2020), ACCEPT 1986 (July 17 2020), DEEP PURPLE 1996 (June 27 2020), EUROPE 1986 (June 16 2020), DEEP PURPLE PODCAST 2020 (April 6 2020), KIMBERLY GOSS/SINERGY 2002 (March 31 2020), RAINBOW 1997 (March 9 2020), RAINBOW 1996 (March 6 2020), MICHAEL BRADFORD 2003/MAKING OF DEEP PURPLE´S “BANANAS” (March 2 2020), URIAH HEEP 1988 (February 18 2020), ANNE-LIE RYDÉ 1984 (January 21 2020), CRYSTAL VIPER 2020 (January 16 2020), JOHN NORUM 1988 (January 12 2020), ARTOMUS FRIENDSHIP 2019 (November 10 2019), NAZARETH 1989 (August 26 2019), VELVET INSANE 2018 (September 11 2018), JON LORD 1981 (December 15 2015), DAVID COVERDALE 1981 (November 13 2015), GLENN HUGHES 1996 (May 12 2015), TOTO 1988 (March 31 2015), YNGWIE MALMSTEEN 1990 (March 1 2015), MARTINA EDOFF 2009 (December 4 2014), MICHAEL MOJO NILSSON 2014 (January 21 2014), THE HUGHES TURNER PROJECT 2001 (December 29 2013), JOE LYNN TURNER 1996-1998 (October 9 2013), GLENN HUGHES & JOHN NORUM 1988 (September 21 2013), JOE LYNN TURNER 1994-1995 (September 9 2013), JOE LYNN TURNER 1993 (September 7 2013), STEVE LUKATHER 1989 (September 4 2013), BLACK SABBATH 1983 (August 22 2013), RAINBOW 1995 (July 19 2013), MICK UNDERWOOD/GILLAN 1982 (June 11 2013), DEEP PURPLE 2002 (May 2 2013), DEEP PURPLE 1998 ( February 25 2013), BLACK SABBATH 1986 (February 12 2013), BLACK SABBATH 1987-1989 (December 31 2012), JOHNNIE BOLIN 2012 (December 24 2012), MARTIN POPOFF & RICH GALBRAITH 2009 (November 12 2012), DAVID COVERDALE 2000 (October 14 2012), JON LORD 1984 (September 7 2012), JOE LYNN TURNER 1992 (August 31 2012), JUDAS PRIEST 1986 (August 22 2012), RONNIE JAMES DIO 2001 (August 20 2012), NIGHTWISH 2002 (August 14 2012).
trinkelbonker 