Freedom Fighter

Joe Lynn Turner made quite a stir last week when he presented images of himself as bald as a newborn baby. The bravery that it took for him to finally go public with the truth, that he was diagnosed with alopecia at age three and that he started to wear a wig at 14, is there for all to see. The support has been overwhelmingly positive and it warms my heart to see this. Joe simontaneously released the news that he will have a new solo album out called “Belly Of The Beast” on October 28. There is a video for the title track on YouTube that is racking up good traffic and Joe is not only true to himself (as always) but more relevant than 99,99% of the competition out there if you look at the lyrics. This man is a fighter. He always was. And I love him for it.

(My shot of my publication Deep Purple Forever! issue 13, published in 1995 – great cover shot by my friend Ola Bergman, taken near the Globe Arena in Stockholm back in the day)

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Classic Rock Rocks!

Got the new issue of Classic Rock (305) in the mail and it is a good read. Nice Black Sabbath feature about the making of “Vol.4” by Mick Wall, good piece on Gary Moore´s G-Force by Harry Shapiro and excellent coverage about Steve Morse leaving Deep Purple among other things.

(My shot of said magazine – cover shot by the great Ross Halfin)

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Celebrating Ian Kennedy

Comic book artist Ian Kennedy is remembered in the latest issue of Swedish comic Agent X9 (issue 8 2022). Nice article about his life and a comic called Tybalt originally produced by the Swedish edition of The Phantom (1990-2002, 32 episodes in all). Ian was very prolific and among his best known work is the 1,600 covers (and many adventures) that he did for Commando, now the last standing war comic in the UK. He continued to deliver art for them until his passing in February this year. I presented a big interview with Ian in my publication SLICE (2005 issue) back in the day and I am very proud of that, especially since I could use original Commando-art of his on the cover. That interview can be found on this blog (August 22 2012). He was one of the all time greats and it is good to see him being honored.

(My shot of SLICE 2005 and Agent X9 8 2022)

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Festus 2022

Spent a few hours with family and friends today celebrating what we call Festus (an annual family gathering with games, good food etc). Always good fun. Looking forward to Festus 2023.

(My shots from said gathering – for more details on all this, check out the Festus tag)

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Flying High

This popped up in the mail this week, Guitar Player (August 2022) and the Limited Edition Deep Purple CD/DVD (10,000 copies) “Bombay Calling”. The latter is from 1995, the very early days of Deep Purple featuring Steve Morse. A priceless piece of history. This was before his first album with Purple, so they were technically still promoting “The Battle Rages On”, and the live album “Come Hell Or High Water”. But what we really get to see here is Steve coming to grips with playing with Deep Purple. As for Guitar Player, this meeting between Morse and John Petrucci took place earlier this year when he was still in Purple. Lovely interview.

(My shot of said magazine and CD/DVD)

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Carry On Box

This is cinematic history. I remember seeing a lot of Carry On films on television when I grew up and we all laughed our heads off at the decidedly very British jokes. They assaulted everything in this series and it was very much of its time (meaning the woke crowd will cry if they see it now). What you get here is all 30 Carry On films plus a lot of extras. I can see that Raquel Welch is in there somewhere (huge bonus points for that as well). Really looking forward to seeing this stuff again.

(My shot of said box)

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Forgotten Toys

David Paich from Toto has released a solo album called “Forgotten Toys”. Absolutely brilliant on every level. Guests include Joseph Williams, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, Don Felder, etc. The only letdown is the running time (30 minutes), but there is no filler stuff here. Fans of Toto, take note.

(My shot of said CD)

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Dreamers Never Die

There is an official documentary about Ronnie James Dio called “Dreamers Never Die” coming up. It will be screened in selected theaters from September 28, tickets will be available from August 24. Looking forward to the DVD release of this one.

(My shot of Dio exhibition at my place, documentary ad inserted)

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Yuletide Is Coming

The first Christmas comic book annuals is starting to pop up and will be for sale in early October. This is an old tradition in Sweden and Scandinavia. I like that.

(Seen here are examples from official platforms)

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Neighbor For Sale (Everything Must Go)

Picked up the 2011 comedy/drama “Neighbor For Sale” (also known as “Everything Must Go”) on DVD, and it is a quiet film well worth seeing. Will Ferrell is excellent as the business man that loses his job and his marriage all on the same day. The first time that I saw this film (on television) a few years ago, I spotted some familiar hills (or mountains) in some of the scenes and sure enough it was shot in or near Phoenix, Arizona. I recognized the scenery from photographs that was taken when Deep Purple played at the Sun Diablo Stadium in Tempe on February 29 1976. That is me being The Ultimate Purple nerd right there. Initially, most fans that saw those Purple shots thought they came from the Australian tour in late 1975, and a bootleg called “Taste It Downunder” from 1993 has fooled many. I remember showing Glenn Hughes an image from this show back in the day (30 plus years ago) and he told me it was probably from the Phoenix gig then. Of course he was right. If I had done that movie, I would have showcased a poster or a t-shirt from the Purple gig on that yardsale. But hey, that is just me.

(My shot of said DVD, scan of 1993 bootleg inserted)

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