Deep Purple

Deep Purple formed in Hertfordshire in 1968 and, during its colourful history, the band’s personnel has changed many times. Most regard the second, most commercially successful line-up – Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Ian Gillan on vocals, Roger Glover on bass guitar, Jon Lord on keyboards and Ian Paice on drums – as definitive. This quintet released classic albums such as Deep Purple In Rock, Fireball and Machine Head and set a template for countless hard rock bands with classics like Speed King, Strange Kind Of Woman, Highway Star, Space Truckin’, Black Night, Child In Time and, of course, with probably the most famous guitar riff ever, the song that launched a thousand Spinal Taps, Smoke On The Water.

Purple, currently including three members of the classic Mk. 2 line-up, are still touring – next year will be their 40th Anniversary –  still thrilling crowds and receiving standing ovations and, judging by the variety of countries they’ve played across Europe in recent months, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’ve drafted Michael Palin in on congas.

In 1967, businessmen/managers Tony Edwards, John Coletta and Ron Hire (HEC Enterprises) at the request of ex-Searchers drummer Chris Curtis, began putting together a new band, which included classically-trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord (previously with with The Artwoods, led by Ronnie Wood’s older brother Art), and Hamburg-seasoned, session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (ex-Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages, ex-The Outlaws), bassist Nick Simper (ex-Flower Pot Men, ex-Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, ex-Savages) and singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice (Curtis soon quit), both ex-M.I.5, ex-The Maze. Post group-bonding Danish gigs, the band was christened Deep Purple, suggested by Blackmore as it was his grandmother's favourite song.

The band’s debut album, Shades Of Deep Purple, featured the proto-heavy rock of Mandrake Root and a cover of Joe South’s Hush, which in October 1968 gave the band their first Top 5 single in the USA, but failed to chart in the UK. The band's second album, The Book of Taliesyn, which included covers – respectable re-workings of Neil Diamond’s Kentucky Woman and The Beatles’ We Can Work It Out and a glorious River Deep, Mountain High – outstanding tracks Anthem and The Shield and a stinging instrumental in Wring That Neck, was released in the US to coincide with a tour supporting Cream, though it wouldn’t have a UK release until the 1969. Later that year an eponymous third album appeared, which further showcased Purple’s then signature combination of progressive instrumentation, classical motives and primal, heavy R&B (think The Who, Vanilla Fudge, Blue Cheer), in particular on Bird Has Flown, The Painter and the extended suites of April. Typically, just after extensive US touring, their American label, Tetragrammaton, went bust, and, although Warners would buy the assets, Purple were temporarily up the creek in the US.

Back in England Purple released single Emmaretta – the name of an actress, whom Evans had his eye on, from the New York cast of Hair – just before Evans and Simper were fired! Ian Gillan (whose grandfather was opera singer Arthur Watkins) and Roger Glover, West London singer and Brecon-born bassist respectively, were recruited from Episode Six, on the recommendation of Six's drummer and Blackmore’s old school friend Mick Underwood. Their debut at the Speakeasy club in July saw Gillan attacking the congas during extended instrumental passages. Thus was born the legendary Mark II line-up, though it’s first release, single Hallelujah, stiffed!

In January, 1970 Harvest/EMI Records released the Concerto For Group And Orchestra album, a live recording of Purple playing a three-movement piece written by Lord as a solo project, along with songs Child In Time and Wring That Neck, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. It gave the band their first UK album chart position at #26, though it irked Blackmore and Gillan that their heavy ambitions for Purple might be undermined by this orchestral diversion. Hence the none-too-obvious title of the band’s fifth, breakthrough album, Deep Purple In Rock, which went Top 5 in the UK; #14 and Gold in the USA later that year, and included UK #2 single Black Night, as well as live favourites Speed King and epic Child In Time. Thus began a trio of landmark albums working with soon-to-be legendary heavy rock producer Martin Birch, which along with Sabbath’s Paranoid and Zep’s second and third albums (all within ten months of each other), created the template for heavy rock and metal ever since. Also of note then, Gillan sang lead on sessions for the Lloyd Webber/Rice-penned Jesus Chris Superstar album, which sold over 8 million copies, though Purple commitments prevented him from starring in the London stage production.

February, 1971 saw UK Top 10 single Strange Kind Of Woman precede sixth album and first UK #1, the more progressive Fireball, by seven months, while the title track reached #15 in the UK as a single in November. The band was now firing on all cylinders, showcasing on stage songs for the next album, which was to be their magnum opus. In December, Purple arrived in Switzerland (yes, Clarkson, one of your favourite albums was created there) to record their seventh album at the Casino de Montreux, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. However the infamous occasion of a Frank Zappa gig dramatically curtailed by a fire, which destroyed the venue and inspired the band’s most famous song, forced Purple, on the recommendation of local promoter Claude Nobs, to repair to the empty-for-winter Grand Hotel, where they recorded the legendary Machine Head, their second UK #1 album, which included classics like Highway Star, Space Truckin' and Smoke On The Water.

In 1972, at the peak of their powers, the band toured the US four times, as well as recording tracks for a new album in Italy and Germany, while a tour of Japan in August was recorded to produce one of the great live albums of the Seventies, Made in Japan, which remains one of the most critically and commercially successful works in the Purple canon. 

February 1973 saw the Mk. 2 line-up’s fourth UK Top 5 album, Who Do We Think We Are, which, despite some powerful tracks (Woman From Tokyo, Smooth Dancer) was a difficult album - “There was a lot of friction,” according to Glover - and received mixed notices. As the press suspected, cracks were growing and ego clashes between Blackmore and Gillan, brewing since ’71 and exacerbated by touring-induced exhaustion, finally destroyed this line-up when the latter quit at the end of their second Japanese tour and Roger Glover was cruelly sacked by the others.

The Mk. 3 line-up was created by recruiting David Coverdale, a fledgling blues singer from the North East coast of England, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze, whose combined voices added soulful harmonies. Ploughing a more bluesy, funky furrow 1974’s Burn and Stormbringer albums, featuring the radio-friendly title tracks, Sail Away, What’s Going On Here, Lady Double Dealer, Hold On and The Gypsy, upheld Purple’s hard-won reputation. However Blackmore, still harbouring solo ambitions and growing uneasy with Mk. 3’s funkier direction, left the band in the spring of 1975 to form Rainbow with members of Elf.

The remaining members recruited experienced American guitarist Tommy Bolin (ex-Zephyr, ex-Billy Cobham's Spectrum, ex-The James Gang) for Purple Mk. 4 and the revitalised band’s album, Come Taste The Band, released in October 1975, contained funky stompers such as You Keep On Moving and Lady Luck. Despite the potential of the Coverdale-Hughes-Bolin progressive funk dynamic, the latter’s drugs issues soon undermined Purple’s reputation. The remaining original members, Lord and Paice, decided to disband Purple at the end of the 1976 tour, which was March’s Liverpool Empire date, after which Coverdale resigned unaware of the fait accompli. Bolin died of multiple-drug intoxication in December, 1976, in Miami at the age of 25.

Since the break-up many Deep Purple alumni have enjoyed success, most notably with the bands Rainbow, Whitesnake and Gillan. In April 1984, the first legal reunion took place, featuring Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice. They released the Perfect Strangers album – UK Top 5 and US Top 10 with platinum sales – toured the world and played to 80,000 people at Knebworth. In 1989, after two more albums, Gillan was replaced by ex-Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, but after one album, Gillan returned and the Mk. 2 line-up continued until, in 1993, the Gillan-Blackmore axis snapped and the latter quit, never to return.

Virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani joined to fulfil touring commitments, but his recording contract precluded full-time membership, so former Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse became Blackmore's permanent successor. Since then this line-up has released six albums, including a re-performance of 1970’s Concerto For Group And Orchestra, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra, at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999, and toured the globe ceaselessly. The only change came in 2002, when founding member Lord retired amicably from Purple duties and the experienced Don Airey joined. The band are currently in Europe and will play Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Italy and a dozen dates in France before the year is out. The Purple flag still proudly flies all over the world.