AN EDITOR REMEMBERS.........
Issue Seven, Aug./Sept.1976

Issue Seven. Once we'd tried the magazine format we realised it was a slippery slope size-wise, and this one shot up to 17 pages. The mag was also bigger as it was the summer holidays, so I just signed on and got to work (I'd had holiday jobs during school years but there wasn't much about in Manchester at the time. Though I do vividly recall an advert for a temporary lab assistant to help care for rats being used in experiments. 'Must be nimble fingered' ran the copy in the job centre!). The info subject this time was Blackmore's guitars (put together by Nick Robinson) and there was a lengthy interview with Ritchie reprinted from Guitar magazine too. Costs were rising but even so we'd managed to keep the first subscribers going for 6 issues before renewing. I'd come up with the idea of calling the magazine Stargazer (the track had really impressed me) and found one of those limited edition Letraset typefaces made of small stars, so bought myself a sheet (they were hugely costly, to make sure only people in the design industry got them!) and did the logo from that. The photocopying quality was poor, once my typed pages had been reduced from A4 to A5, then recopied, but it was readable - just! Howie Kehl's name crops up on the letters page, he's now in Australia and been helping Drew on the Purple projects over there. The Rainbow tour was imminent (we got excited just at the first sight of a colour pic of the band on stage!) and we suggested everyone wore their badge or t-shirt so we could say hello...

ISSUE SEVEN: DIGEST & INDEX
RAINBOW
DEEP PURPLE
IAN GILLAN BAND
Record Review : Child In Time

RAINBOW

1976 UK Tour Dates

 

August 31st Bristol Hippodrome
September 1st Leicester De Montfort Hall
September 3rd Liverpool Empire Theatre
September 4th Edinburgh Playhouse
September 5th Manchester Free Trade Hall
September 7th, 8th & 9th London Hammersmith Odeon
September 11th Birmingham Odeon
September 12th Southampton Odeon
September 13th Cardiff Capitol

The dates are preceded by one date in France at the Orange Festival on August 28th. More European dates follow in late September. UK support are Stretch (yawn). A rave review from the US Tour in 'Sounds' will probably double the speed at which tickets go. He destroyed his guitar in New York for the first time since forming Rainbow. Thin Lizzy were to support them on several dates (though they are selling more records there than Rainbow, who only got to no.48), but Lynott was taken ill.


DEEP PURPLE

Deep Purple Split

Hardly a surprise. Coverdale officially left right after the Liverpool gig. Paice and Lord are forming a new band together, a bit surprisingly as we expected Lord to go into his classical projects. They have Tony Ashton on vocals, who has worked on and off with Lord for the past four years. Both of them were at the Butterfly Ball show. They are advertising for a lead and bass player, the ads were in Sounds and Melody Maker 31.7.76, though no names were mentioned. Coverdale records his solo LP soon, and Hughes is back with Trapeze.


The IAN GILLAN BAND

Child In Time - Record Review

"The production has left the potential of the band completely hidden. It's overproduced to a point where the group's natural energy sounds contrived, it's usually the drive and freshness of a new band which attracts attention - vis. 'In Rock'. Gillan sings on typical rock themes, ie. bed, but the backing is incongruous. Everything has a soft Americanised touch, and is altogether too rich. It will appeal more to the 25-35 age group. It sounds old." Ann.


Personnel Changes

Ian Gillan's personnel is changing faster than Blackmore's! Keyboard player Mike Moran was replaced for the French Tour by Micky Lee Soule (ex. Elf), who was in turn replaced by Colin Towns after the tour before they left for America.


Bits & Pieces

Jon Lord

Jon Lord has a solo LP ready, called 'Sarabande'. It's Lord backed by a four piece rock-band and the 98 piece Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra. It has been in the pipeline since April 1975 and was recorded in Dusseldorf.

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