Rock icons Deep Purple have released a video for the irresistibly groovy title track of this year's Splat! album, which was released in July.
Earlier this year, Purple frontman Ian Gillan told Classic Rock that 'Splat!' was a word he'd scribbled in a notebook years ago as a potential album title after thinking about the old joke in which a bug flies into a car’s windscreen and the last thing that goes through its mind is its arse.
“I thought of me hitting the car's windscreen, and through my skull flew King Arthur and the Roman Empire, and every other aspect of humanity that had existed," Gillan told us, in typically fanciful fashion. "All in the form of chess pieces. And then they pixelated, gravitated towards each other, and faffed off towards the next form of human energy, but without arms and legs and bodies.
“The whole point of it is we'd become disembodied and part of a collective. All of the experience of a quarter of a million years of humanity lumped together as a smouldering energy force. My vivid imagination, basically. I've no idea what the hell's going to happen."
Splat! (the song) is the fourth single to be released from Splat! (the album), following Guilt Trippin', Arrogant Boy and Diablo. Deep Purple are currently on tour in Europe and will arrive in the UK for a run of shows in November. The band will also play several South American and Mexican shows in the run-up to Christmas. Full dates below.
Deep Purple: Splat! tour dates
Oct 23: Antwerp Lotto Arena, Belgium
Oct 25: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Oct 26: Stockholm Avicii Arena, Sweden
Oct 28: Oslo Spektrum Arena, Norway
Oct 29: Gothenburg Scandinavium, Sweden
Oct 31: Leipzig QI Arena, Germany
Nov 01: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany
Nov 03: Dortmund Westfalenhalle, Germany
Nov 04: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany
Nov 06: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Nov 07: Nuremberg Arena, Germany
Nov 09: Amsterdam Ziggodome, Netherlands
Nov 10: Strasbourg Zenith, France
Nov 12: Bordeaux Arkéa Arena, France
Nov 13: Nantes Zenith, France
Nov 15: Lyon LDLC Arena, France
Nov 18: Newcastle Utilita Arena, UK
Nov 19: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Nov 21: Birmingham BP Pulse Arena, UK
Nov 22: Manchester AO Arena, UK
Nov 24: London Eventim Apollo, UK
Nov 25: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Dec 05: Sao Paulo Suhai Hall, Brazil
Dec 08: Santiago Movistar Arena, Chile
Dec 10: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, Argentina
Dec 13: Monterrey Arena, Mexico
Dec 16: Guadalajara Arena, Mexico
Dec 19: Mexico City Estadio Fray Nano, Mexico
