Don Airey is due to play a free show with Italian guitarist Tolo Marton and his band on June 17th (three days after Italy's opening match at the World Cup, and three days before their second!), at Marghera Estate Village, Marghera-Venezia, Italy. They will be performing a selection of tracks by Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Bob Dylan, Rory Gallagher, Tolo Marton and Deep Purple. Two more shows have been added fro 18/19 June, at which Don will be playing with covers group Nuova Officina.

NY#7002201 (Thanks to Ivano Bosello)

There's a very interesting interview with Don Airey on the Rockpages website which the interviewers have just mentioned to me; he talks about his early days, working with Ritchie, and much more. You can read it here, along with a few others with guys from Deep Purple past and present.

Thanks to Sakis Nikas for the info.

SR#700218,
photo: Daniele Purrone

Neil Murray and Don Airey both feature on Michael Schenker's comeback album In the Midst of Beauty. It came out last year, but was caught up in the collapse of record distributors at the end of 2008 (like so many  titles, and including Purple Records) and so disappeared very quickly  (DPASMailorder weren't able to get stock).

It is being relaunched by  the new distributors in late June. This can be ordered at dpas mail order.

This renews a Deep Purple connection from 1980 when Roger Glover produced the first MSG album...

SR#700217

Don Airey was interviewed in November by Jeb Wright. Among his answers were his assessment of Jon Lord's influence on his playing: "I always loved Purple and I loved what he was doing. Even though Jon is a virtuoso, it is what he doesn’t play that I love. Jon is the second best Hammond player I have ever heard, with Jimmy Smith being the best. I loved what Jon did on the early Purple albums but he changed his style when they did In Rock. The guy that really inspired me was Keith Emerson. He just blew me away and he still does."   NY#700215 (photo: Peter Rossen)

Read the full interview at www.classicrockrevisited.com

Don Airey & Band, Metropolis, Munich, January 20th 2009

"Don Airey & band performed a set largely based on his new solo album " A Light in the Sky" , and it sounded much more powerful live than on CD. Furthermore, they played a selection of songs from Don's previous bands. The musicians were: Don Airey (keyboards), Carl Sentance (vocals), Clive Bunker - ex Jethro Tull (drums), Lawrence Cottle (bass), Rob Harris - from Jamiroquoi (guitar). The strong nucleus of fans were very happy and enjoyed a perfect concert!" Ralph Grille

See our Don AIrey / 2009 European tour noticeboard             DB#700214 (photo: Ralph Grille)

Don Airey has a number of European solo dates lined up for January 2009. These kick off at The Underworld, London on January 14th, and go through to De Pul, Uden, Holland on January 23rd. See our tour dates page for the full list.

Singer for the tour is Carl Sentance, who handled vocals on some of Don's current solo CD. Don also plays keyboards on Carl's new album Mind Doctor. Details to follow.

NY/SR#7002131(photo: Martin Ashberry)

Don Airey brought out a new solo album in February, A Light In The Sky . "In my youth I was very interested in astronomy," explained Airey. "These days I live in the Cambridge astronomer belt. I have a telescope and know my way around the sky. I must own nearly 60 books about the creation of the universe, birth of stars, planetary systems, etc, so in some ways I'm musing about what we're doing here on Earth. What I had in mind was making something that sounded like a cross between RAINBOW, THE MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA and JEAN-MICHEL JARRE."

MR#700211. Photo: Martin Ashberry, aka 'Dad'

There’s a full-page interview with Don Airey in the September issue  of BBC Sky at Night magazine, which goes on sale in the UK on 19 August. In the interview, Don talks about his passion for astronomy and how  it inspired his solo album Light in the Sky.

DB#700212, with thanks to Graham Southorn.
(photo: Alan Perry).

GARY MOORE : The Definitive Montreux Collection : Eagle Vision

Gary Moore has dipped in an out of the Blues for a fair wee while now, dating back to his “Still Got The Blues” album in 1990. It was a move that revitalised a career that had become moribund since his hard rock heyday with Thin Lizzy and his early solo career. He first took his Midnight Blues Band to the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990 to promote that album, and that’s the first segment to appear on the double DVD release. Now the more eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted the fact that this show has already been released on DVD, as recently as 2004. You may also find it annoying that they’ve just chopped 7 tracks from that DVD and dropped it into this one, something that renders the word ‘Definitive’ defunct. On the plus side they’ve had the sense to retain ‘Cold Cold Feeling’ with Albert Collins. It was a fabulous show, with Moore at the peak of his Blues guitar playing, and the Midnight Blues Band were simply superb, especially the playing of Deep Purple keyboard man, Don Airey. The two DVDs take in segments of five shows from 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001, lasting over 4 hours.  Fortunately only one version of 'Parisienne Walkways'!

Stuart A Hamilton #700210

Australian blues player Gwyn Ashton has a new cd Prohibition out now with Don Airey guesting (alongside Chris Glenn and Ted McKenna, from Alex Harvey Band) on Riverside Records. It can be ordered from dpas mail order.

Gwyn has been in touch to say Don plays on two tracks, piano on "Castaway" and organ on "Are You Lonely".

DB#7002091
Thanks to Marcus Meyer-Meiners for the information