In March, as the announcement came of Simon McBride joining the Deep Purple line-up (standing in for Steve Morse), the Belfast guitarist was already blowing his newly disposable income. “Can I handle global rock stardom?” he says, repeating the question put to him. “Oh yeah. Completely. I’ve already got the sports car ordered. When I got the message that I was joining Deep Purple, I went straight down to the Lamborghini garage. Like: ‘I’ll have one of those…’”
He’s joking. Of course. It’s not that McBride’s new paymasters don’t offer Lamborghini-sized wages, or that the guitarist isn’t raring for his first show with Purple, at Tel Aviv’s