ROGER GLOVER Says It's Difficult For DEEP PURPLE To Get Audience Younger Than 40 In U.S.

Jim Sullivan of BostonHerald.com recently conducted an interview with DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

BostonHerald.com: DEEP PURPLE has done concerts with orchestras several times. What's this one about?

Glover: Yes, we've dabbled with orchestras before, and we were one of the first bands to do it. It was actually something Jon wrote, ("Concerto for Group and Orchestra" in 1969) and nothing to do with rock music. It was really a symphonic piece. We've also done our music with a bit of backing, which is a cruel way of saying what we're going to do this tour. But it's a bit more than that.

BostonHerald.com: Is it at all like METALLICA's "Symphony & Metallica" live CD?

Glover: Every time you mention rock bands and orchestras everyone says, "Oh, like METALLICA," which sticks in my throat a little bit. Nothing against METALLICA, but bands have been doing it way before METALLICA.

BostonHerald.com: How do you explain it then?

Glover: It's a DEEP PURPLE gig. There's no concession to the fact there's an orchestra there, and it's not really even an orchestra. It's some strings, some horns and it's as much jazz as it is orchestral-classical stuff. It's a rock concert with added heft. We don't quite know how it's going to sound.

BostonHerald.com: What does being called a classic rock band mean?

Glover: We're stuck in the States with that classic rock tag, so it's very difficult to get an audience of younger than about 40. It's a label. I think it hurts us, because we're not getting through to the younger audiences we get through to in the rest of the world. We've been big in France the last seven years and play big venues, which are always packed with teenagers and they have a ball. You go to America and play a shed somewhere and people are sitting down eating their popcorn, don't want to get up and barely want to clap.

BostonHerald.com: Do you have new material in the works?

Glover: We do actually. We had a writing session in March. We did manage to get together and agree to do an album. People were saying the business has changed, people don't buy albums anymore. I'm not of that belief. We're an album band. We were born and should die that way. An album is almost like a school report of a particular era, a great tradition.

Read the entire interview from BostonHerald.com.