Purple Pauses, Journey Hints It’s Not Over, and a Big Friday for Petty and KISS Fans
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 4, 2026
Your Wednesday rundown from Pretoria Fields Radio: Ian Gillan's health sidelines Deep Purple, Neal Schon keeps the Journey door open, a stacked November 6 release day, and a look back at November 4 in rock history.
Good morning, South Georgia. We start with some concern from across the pond. Deep Purple have postponed the rest of their 2026 tour dates until further notice after singer Ian Gillan was hospitalized following a medical emergency in Leipzig, Germany. The band first pulled shows in Leipzig and Hamburg, then Gillan, who is 81, said in a statement that on the advice of his medical team the remaining European and UK dates would be shelved because there are very serious risks involved in pressing on. No details on his condition have been released. Tickets will be honored for rescheduled dates. We're sending good thoughts his way.
Now for a brighter note. Journey's Neal Schon posted a statement on Facebook Monday suggesting the band's Final Frontier farewell tour may not be the final word. He wrote that 110 shows in 2026 had created something powerful in the band, and that the run feels more like a long goodbye than a final one. The post carried a simple graphic: 'It's not over.' The tour is still set to wrap November 28 at Chase Center in San Francisco, and Journey have made no official announcement about what comes next. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain had earlier said he planned to retire after the tour.
Friday, November 6 is shaping up to be one of the best new-release days of the year for our listeners. Kings of Leon drop their tenth album, 'O My Beloved,' the first they've produced entirely themselves, and the family's own home movies feature in the video for the lead single 'My Whole World.' Bryan Adams releases his seventeenth studio record, 'How's It Goin',' a twelve-song love letter to his native Canada on his own BAD Records label. Asia return with 'Indigo,' their first album since 2014, built around final compositions from the late John Wetton with guest turns from Steve Howe and Mike Portnoy. And Joe Satriani and Steve Vai finally deliver their first full-length collaboration, 'The Sea of Emotion.'
The reissue shelf is just as crowded. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers mark fifty years with 'Origins 1971-1978,' a box that spans Petty's earliest sessions through the band's first two albums, with seven previously unreleased tracks including the 1978 outtake 'Parade of Loons.' KISS celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 'Rock and Roll Over' with a new stereo mix from original producer Eddie Kramer and live recordings from their 1977 Tokyo stand. Queen's 1986 Budapest show, the band's first Western rock concert behind the Iron Curtain, arrives as 'Queen Budapest,' and Bob Dylan's 1976 Rolling Thunder Revue gets a massive 39-disc live treatment. For the Americana crowd, 'Bella Ciao: Live in Nashville' captures the late Raul Malo of The Mavericks at 3rd & Lindsley in June 2025.
On this date in rock history: Pink Floyd made their American live debut at San Francisco's Winterland on November 4, 1967, sharing the bill with Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin. David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World' reached U.S. record stores on this day in 1970. Shania Twain's 'Come On Over' arrived on November 4, 1997. And happy birthday to Texas blues legend Delbert McClinton, born this day in 1940.
Over in the radio business, Radio Ink reports that Jacobs Media founder Fred Jacobs will step down as the firm's president at year's end, handing the role to a familiar face. A fresh Radio Ink study finds AM/FM still holds 81 percent of in-car ad audio as commutes level off. And the Christmas-music race is already underway: Coast 103.1 in Coalville, Utah, became the first North American station to flip to all-holiday music back on September 28. We'll keep it classic a while longer. Thanks for listening to Pretoria Fields Radio.
— The Pretoria Fields Radio news desk
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