Brian Johnson is the current singer - Bon Scott died in 1980

Lol, I didn't write the report, but yes, Eric is right. The bloke who is touring is their first singer. Maybe he should tour with the first singer for Judas Priest who seems to be touring again.

Anyone remember the "Deep Purple" with original singer Rod Evans in the early 80s?

pop quiz: anybody know the name of the band Brian Johnson was in before AC/DC?

no cheating! no web-surfing....no googling!

Geordie. They supported AC/DC on one of thier many tours. Bon even expressed his admiration for the bloke.

yep, i've got one of their albums too....i remember when i got it the first thing i listened to was "Treat Her Like A Lady"....yikes....nothing like ac/dc!

Rod was in Deep Purple in the late '60s, circa "Kentucky Woman," which still rocks the rectum.

I would love to see a tour of these old rockers who were booted/left bands just before they went big. Ripper Owens and Blaze could head-line together.

Eric, have you forgotten the 1980 "Deep Purple" with Rod Evans and four unknown session guys that played a few (reportedly bad) shows before the lawyers of Blackmore, Gillan and the rest put a stop to it?

They weren't playing "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman" but "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water".

BTW, Mk1 Purple is relatively little-known on our side of the Atlantic; "Hush" was never a hit over here.

Tim, didn't know anything about the '80 tour, which sounds to have been properly squashed. I can't imagine baritone evans singing tenor Gillan tunes anyway. It's too bad because I like that first version of Purple.

One problem with Deep Purple is that they had three completely different singers over the years who's styles were so different that they couldn't sing each other's material without it sounding quite wrong. Some of the live albums with David Coverdale attempting to sing "Highway Star" bear this out.

Glenn Hughes all sang lead on several songs while in Purple. In the UK there are lots of people who loved the Coverdale/Hughes combo. Burn is a simply stunning song.

I never said the Coverdale and Hughes were bad singing their own material, just that Coverdale badly mangled some of Gillan's songs (listen to the vocal part "Space Trucking" on "California Jam" for an example)

OTOH, I like Ronnie Dio's reinterpretations of some of Ozzy's songs on "Live Evil"; his sinister version NIB is great (he butchers "War Pigs" though)

I like the whole album "Burn," it's the last one of theirs I really liked, very bluesy

I agree about the Dio comments. I think Coverdale's voice is much better than his time in DP. Unlike many of his genre and ilk, he has actually looked after his voice (as has RJD). After all Coverdale managed to cover Plant's song's rather well on the tour he did with Page.

io amo il cantante Rod Evans...
Giovedì è il suo compleanno.
Potete aiutarmi a fargli gli auguri, magari cercando il suo indirizzo?
Grazie.
Ciao a tutti!