Deep Purple Reveal New Album Name

Deep Purple have finally confirmed the title of their 19th studio album – it’s called Now What?! and it’s set for release on April 29.

The band had spent recent weeks teasing fans over the title, referring to is simply as “?!” and refusing to reveal any further details.

The first single, a double-A release featuring tracks entitled Hell To Pay and All The Time In The World, will appear on March 29.

Meanwhile, former Purple member Glenn Hughes has recalled how the band kept watch on him for a year before inviting him to join.

He left Trapeze to become part of the Mark III lineup alongside David Coverdale in 1973, and faced some opposition from fans for introducing more American influences to their music.

Hughes tells Music Radar: “Everyone knows I’m not Roger Glover. I can sing and he doesn’t sing, and Roger is a completely different bass player to me. He basically follows the riffs, whereas I found those ‘holes’. It wasn’t funky in Deep Purple – it was more groove-orientated. The word ‘funk’ has been thrown around so much, but that’s a word that really belongs in American music.

“Deep Purple were not silly. They were courting me for a year. They came to see me in numerous places in America and England, and I had no idea they were doing that, I was so naive.

“They knew the kind of bass player I was, they knew Trapeze were a different band, but they wanted something different in Purple. They wanted a more bluesy, not funky, style, which I brought into it.”