Machine Head is the sixth Deep Purple studio album. It was recorded at the Grand Hotel
Montreux, Switzerland in December 1971 with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, and released in
March 1972.
The album is often cited as being very influential in the development of the heavy metal music
genre. It is Deep Purple's most successful recording, topping the charts in several countries
following its release. In 2001 Q magazine named it as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.
Machine Head is the subject of one of the Classic Albums series of documentaries about the
making of famous albums. Machine Head was released on the multichannel formats Super
Audio CD (2003) and DVD-Audio (2001).
The conditions in which the original recordings were made are quite outstanding. Hiring the
Rolling Stones Mobile One equipment and studios, the band recorded the entirety of the tracks
in a Montreaux hotel facilities, with no overdubs. The "Smoke on the Water" lyrics' citation
"Frank Zappa and the Mothers" indicates Zappa's show at a casino that was burned down a few
days earlier from the start of scheduled start of Machine Heads recording sessions.
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin
and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern
hard rock, although some band members have tried not to categorize themselves as any one
genre. The band also incorporated pop and progressive rock elements. They were once listed
by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band, and have sold over 100
million albums worldwide. Deep Purple was ranked #22 on VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock
program.
The band has gone through many line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus (1976-84). The
1968-76 line-ups are commonly labelled Mark I, II, III and IV Their second and most
commercially successful line-up featured Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon
Lord (keyboards), Roger Glover (bass guitar) and Ian Paice (drums). This line-up was active
1969-73 and was revived from 1984-89 and again in 1993 before the rift between Blackmore
and other members became unbridgeable. The current line-up including guitarist Steve Morse
has been much more stable, though Lord's retirement in 2002 has left Paice as the only original
member.
Montreux, Switzerland in December 1971 with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, and released in
March 1972.
The album is often cited as being very influential in the development of the heavy metal music
genre. It is Deep Purple's most successful recording, topping the charts in several countries
following its release. In 2001 Q magazine named it as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.
Machine Head is the subject of one of the Classic Albums series of documentaries about the
making of famous albums. Machine Head was released on the multichannel formats Super
Audio CD (2003) and DVD-Audio (2001).
The conditions in which the original recordings were made are quite outstanding. Hiring the
Rolling Stones Mobile One equipment and studios, the band recorded the entirety of the tracks
in a Montreaux hotel facilities, with no overdubs. The "Smoke on the Water" lyrics' citation
"Frank Zappa and the Mothers" indicates Zappa's show at a casino that was burned down a few
days earlier from the start of scheduled start of Machine Heads recording sessions.
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin
and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern
hard rock, although some band members have tried not to categorize themselves as any one
genre. The band also incorporated pop and progressive rock elements. They were once listed
by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band, and have sold over 100
million albums worldwide. Deep Purple was ranked #22 on VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock
program.
The band has gone through many line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus (1976-84). The
1968-76 line-ups are commonly labelled Mark I, II, III and IV Their second and most
commercially successful line-up featured Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon
Lord (keyboards), Roger Glover (bass guitar) and Ian Paice (drums). This line-up was active
1969-73 and was revived from 1984-89 and again in 1993 before the rift between Blackmore
and other members became unbridgeable. The current line-up including guitarist Steve Morse
has been much more stable, though Lord's retirement in 2002 has left Paice as the only original
member.
(1968–1970) Breakthrough
In October 1968, the group had success with a cover of Joe South's "Hush", which reached #4 on the US Billboard chart
and #2 on the Canadian RPM charts. The song was taken from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, and they were
booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour.
The band's second album, The Book of Taliesyn (including a cover of Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman"), was released in
the United States to coincide with this tour, reaching #38 on the billboard chart and #21 on the RPM charts, although it
would not be released in their home country until the following year. 1969 saw the release of their third album, Deep Purple,
which contained strings and woodwind on one track ("April"). Several influences were in evidence, notably Vanilla Fudge
and Lord's classical antecedents such as Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov.
After these three albums and extensive touring in the States, their American record company, Tetragrammaton, went out of
business, leaving the band with no money and an uncertain future. (Tetragrammaton's assets were assumed by Warner
Bros. Records, who would release Deep Purple's records in the U.S. throughout the 1970s.) Returning to England in early
1969, they recorded a single called "Emmaretta", named for a cast member of the musical Hair, whom Rod Evans was
trying to seduce, before Evans and Simper were fired.
The band hunted down singer Ian Gillan from Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without
achieving their big break for commercial success. Six's drummer Mick Underwood - an old comrade of Blackmore's from his
Savages days - made the introductions, and bassist Roger Glover tagged along for the initial sessions. Purple persuaded
Glover to join full-time; an act that effectively killed Episode Six and gave Underwood a guilt complex that lasted nearly a
decade - until Gillan recruited him for his new post-Purple band in the late 1970s.
This created the quintessential Deep Purple "Mark II" lineup, whose first, inauspicious release was a Greenaway-Cook tune
titled "Hallelujah," which flopped.
The band gained some much-needed publicity with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic
composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Together with Five Bridges by The Nice, it was one of the first collaborations
between a rock band and an orchestra, although at the time, certain members of Purple (Blackmore and Gillan especially)
were less than happy at the group being tagged as "a group who played with orchestras" when actually what they had in
mind was to develop the band into a much tighter, hard-rocking style. Despite this, Lord wrote and the band recorded the
Gemini Suite, another orchestra/group collaboration in the same vein, in late 1970.
(1970–1976) Popularity and breakup
Shortly after the orchestral release, the band began a hectic touring and recording schedule that was to see little respite
for the next three years. Their first studio album of this period, released in mid-1970, was In Rock (a name deliberately
chosen to distance the rock album from the concerto) and contained the then-concert staples "Speed King," "Into The
Fire," and "Child in Time." The band also issued the UK Top Ten single "Black Night." The interplay between Blackmore's
guitar and Lord's distorted organ, coupled with Ian Gillan's howling vocals and the rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now
started to take on a unique identity and become instantly recognisable to rock fans throughout Europe.
A second album, the more mellow and creatively progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan but not of the rest of the band),
was issued in the summer of 1971. The title track "Fireball" was released as a single, as was "Strange Kind of Woman" - not
from the album but recorded during the same sessions (although it was included on the US version of the album instead of
the UK version's song "Demon's Eye.")
Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which
later became "Highway Star") was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus to a show in
Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist's question: "How do you go about writing songs?" Three months later, in December
1971, the band traveled to Switzerland to record Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at a casino in
Montreux, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention gig burned
down the casino. The album was actually recorded at the nearby empty Grand Hotel. This incident famously inspired the
song "Smoke on the Water." Gillan believes that he witnessed a man fire a flare gun into the ceiling during the concert,
prompting Mark Volman of the Mothers to comment: "Arthur Brown in person!"
Continuing from where both previous albums left off, Machine Head has since become one of the band's most famous
albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," "Lazy," and "Smoke on the
Water." Deep Purple continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on: when Machine Head was
recorded, the group had only been together three and a half years, yet it was their seventh LP. Meanwhile the band
undertook four US tours in 1972 and the August tour of Japan that led to a double-vinyl live release, Made in Japan.
Originally intended as a Japan-only record, its worldwide release saw the double LP become an instant hit. It remains one
of rock music's most popular and highest selling live-concert recordings (although at the time it was perhaps seen as less
important, as only Glover and Paice turned up to mix it).
The classic Purple Mk. II line-up continued to work and released the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), featuring the
hit single "Woman from Tokyo," but internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. The bad feelings
culminated in Ian Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, and Roger Glover being
pushed out with him. Auditions were held. Two primary candidates surfaced: a Scotsman Angus Cameron McKinlay and
David Coverdale. Angus, not having a high enough voice, was eliminated. They settled on the unknown singer from
Saltburn in Northeast England, David Coverdale, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze. After
first acquiring Glenn Hughes, they debated continuing as a four piece with Hughes as both bassist and vocalist [13]. This
new line-up continued into 1974 with the heavier blues-rock album Burn, another highly successful release and world tour.
Hughes and Coverdale added both vocal harmonies and a more funky element to the band's music, a sound that was even
more apparent on the late 1974 release Stormbringer. Besides the title track, the album had a number of songs that
received much radio play, such as "Lady Double Dealer," "The Gypsy," and "Soldier Of Fortune." Yet Blackmore voiced
unhappiness with the album and the direction Deep Purple had taken. As a result, he left the band in the spring of 1975 to
form his own band with Ronnie James Dio of Elf, called Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, later shortened after one album to
Rainbow.
With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest bandmember vacancies in rock music. In spite of
this, the rest of the band refused to stop, and to the surprise of many long-time fans, actually announced a replacement for
the "irreplaceable" Man in Black; American Tommy Bolin.
There are at least two versions about the recruitment of Bolin: Coverdale claims to have been the one who suggested
auditioning Bolin . "He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow, and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along
beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four Marshall
100-watt stacks and...the job was his." But in an interview originally published by Melody Maker in June 1975, Bolin himself
claimed that he came to the audition following a recommendation from Ritchie Blackmore . Bolin had been a member of
many now-forgotten mid-60s bands - Denny & The Triumphs, American Standard, and Zephyr, which released three
albums from '69-72. Before Purple, Bolin's best-known recordings were made as a session musician on Billy Cobham's
1973 jazz fusion album, Spectrum, and on The James Gang's Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). He had also jammed with
such luminaries as Dr. John, Albert King, The Good Rats and Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo
album, Teaser when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple.
The resulting album, Come Taste the Band, was released in October 1975. Despite mixed reviews, the collection revitalised
the band once again, bringing a new, extreme funk edge to their hard rock sound. Bolin's influence was crucial, and with
encouragement from Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the material. Later, Bolin's
personal problems with drugs began to manifest themselves, and after cancelled shows and below-par concert
performances, the band was in danger.
(1976–1984) Band split, side projects
The end came on tour in Britain in March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. David Coverdale reportedly walked off in
tears and handed in his resignation, to which he was allegedly told there was no band left to quit. The decision to disband
Purple had been made some time before the last show by Lord and Paice (the last remaining original members), who hadn't
told anyone else. The break-up was finally made public in July 1976.
Later, Bolin had just finished recording his second solo album, Private Eyes, when, on December 4, 1976, tragedy struck.
In Miami, during a tour supporting Jeff Beck, Bolin was found unconscious by his girlfriend. Unable to wake him, she
hurriedly called paramedics, but it was too late. The official cause of death: multiple-drug intoxication. He was 25 years old.
After the break-up most of the past and present members of Deep Purple went on to have considerable success in a
number of other bands, including Rainbow, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Gillan. There were, however, a number of
promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform, especially with the revival of the hard rock market in the late 70s/early
80s. By 1980, an unauthorised version of the band surfaced with Rod Evans as the only member who had ever been in
Deep Purple, eventually ending in successful legal action from the legitimate Deep Purple camp over unauthorised use of
the name. Evans was ordered to pay damages of $672,000 (U.S.) for using the band name without permission.
(1984–1994) Reunions and breakups
In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place with the "classic" early
70s line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice. The album Perfect Strangers was released in October 1984. A
solid release, it sold extremely well and included the singles and concert staples "Knockin' At Your Back Door" and "Perfect
Strangers." The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and winding its way across the world to the USA, then into
Europe by the following summer. Financially, the tour was also a tremendous success. The UK homecoming proved limited,
as they elected to play just a single festival show at Knebworth (with main support from the Scorpions). The weather was
bad, but 80,000 turned up anyway.
The line-up then released The House of Blue Light in 1987, which was followed by a world tour (interrupted after Blackmore
broke a finger on stage) and another live album Nobody's Perfect (1988) which was culled from several shows on this tour,
but still largely based around the by-now familiar Made in Japan set-list. In the UK a new version of "Hush" was released to
mark 20 years of the band. In 1989, Ian Gillan was fired as his relations with Blackmore had again soured and their musical
differences had widened too far. His replacement was former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. This line-up recorded just
one album, Slaves & Masters (1990) and toured in support. It is one of Blackmore's favourite Purple albums, though some
fans derided it as little more than a so-called "Deep Rainbow" album.
With the tour done, Turner was forced out, as Lord, Paice and Glover (and the record company) wanted Gillan back in the
fold for the 25th anniversary. Blackmore grudgingly relented, after requesting and eventually receiving 250,000 dollars in
his bank account and the classic line-up recorded The Battle Rages On, but tensions between Gillan and Blackmore came
to a head yet again during an otherwise stunningly successful European tour. Blackmore walked out in November 1993,
never to return. Joe Satriani was drafted in to complete the Japanese dates in December and stayed on for a European
Summer tour in 1994. He was asked to join permanently, but his record contract commitments prevented this. The band
unanimously chose Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse to become Blackmore's permanent successor.
(1994–present) Revival with Steve Morse
Roger Glover and Steve Morse jamming during the intro to "Highway Star"Steve Morse's arrival revitalised the band
creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles. With a
revamped set list to tour, Deep Purple enjoyed success throughout the rest of the 1990s, releasing the harder-sounding
Abandon in 1998, and touring with renewed enthusiasm. In 1999, Jon Lord, with the help of a fan who was also a
musicologist and composer, painstakingly recreated the Concerto for Group and Orchestra; the original score having been
lost. It was once again performed at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1999, this time with the London Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. The concert also featured songs from each member's solo careers, as well as a short
Deep Purple set, and the occasion was commemorated on the 2000 album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. In early 2001, two
similar concerts were performed in Tokyo and released as part of the box set The Soundboard Series.
Much of the next few years was spent on the road touring. The group continued forward until 2002, when founding member
Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced his amicable
retirement from the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work). Rock keyboard veteran Don Airey
(Rainbow/Ozzy Osbourne), who had helped Deep Purple out when Lord's knee was injured in 2001, joined the band. In
2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in five years, working with new producer Michael Bradford, the highly
praised (but controversially titled) Bananas, and began touring in support of the album immediately. In July 2005, the band
played at the Live 8 concert in Park Place (Barrie, Ontario) and, in October of the same year, released their next album
Rapture of the Deep. It was followed by the Rapture of the Deep tour.
In February 2007, Ian Gillan asked fans not to buy a live album being released by Sony BMG. This was a recording of their
1993 appearance at the NEC in Birmingham. Recordings of this show have previously been released without resistance
from Gillan or any other members of the band, but he said: "It was one of the lowest points of my life - all of our lives,
actually."
In October 1968, the group had success with a cover of Joe South's "Hush", which reached #4 on the US Billboard chart
and #2 on the Canadian RPM charts. The song was taken from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, and they were
booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour.
The band's second album, The Book of Taliesyn (including a cover of Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman"), was released in
the United States to coincide with this tour, reaching #38 on the billboard chart and #21 on the RPM charts, although it
would not be released in their home country until the following year. 1969 saw the release of their third album, Deep Purple,
which contained strings and woodwind on one track ("April"). Several influences were in evidence, notably Vanilla Fudge
and Lord's classical antecedents such as Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov.
After these three albums and extensive touring in the States, their American record company, Tetragrammaton, went out of
business, leaving the band with no money and an uncertain future. (Tetragrammaton's assets were assumed by Warner
Bros. Records, who would release Deep Purple's records in the U.S. throughout the 1970s.) Returning to England in early
1969, they recorded a single called "Emmaretta", named for a cast member of the musical Hair, whom Rod Evans was
trying to seduce, before Evans and Simper were fired.
The band hunted down singer Ian Gillan from Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without
achieving their big break for commercial success. Six's drummer Mick Underwood - an old comrade of Blackmore's from his
Savages days - made the introductions, and bassist Roger Glover tagged along for the initial sessions. Purple persuaded
Glover to join full-time; an act that effectively killed Episode Six and gave Underwood a guilt complex that lasted nearly a
decade - until Gillan recruited him for his new post-Purple band in the late 1970s.
This created the quintessential Deep Purple "Mark II" lineup, whose first, inauspicious release was a Greenaway-Cook tune
titled "Hallelujah," which flopped.
The band gained some much-needed publicity with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic
composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Together with Five Bridges by The Nice, it was one of the first collaborations
between a rock band and an orchestra, although at the time, certain members of Purple (Blackmore and Gillan especially)
were less than happy at the group being tagged as "a group who played with orchestras" when actually what they had in
mind was to develop the band into a much tighter, hard-rocking style. Despite this, Lord wrote and the band recorded the
Gemini Suite, another orchestra/group collaboration in the same vein, in late 1970.
(1970–1976) Popularity and breakup
Shortly after the orchestral release, the band began a hectic touring and recording schedule that was to see little respite
for the next three years. Their first studio album of this period, released in mid-1970, was In Rock (a name deliberately
chosen to distance the rock album from the concerto) and contained the then-concert staples "Speed King," "Into The
Fire," and "Child in Time." The band also issued the UK Top Ten single "Black Night." The interplay between Blackmore's
guitar and Lord's distorted organ, coupled with Ian Gillan's howling vocals and the rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now
started to take on a unique identity and become instantly recognisable to rock fans throughout Europe.
A second album, the more mellow and creatively progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan but not of the rest of the band),
was issued in the summer of 1971. The title track "Fireball" was released as a single, as was "Strange Kind of Woman" - not
from the album but recorded during the same sessions (although it was included on the US version of the album instead of
the UK version's song "Demon's Eye.")
Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which
later became "Highway Star") was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus to a show in
Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist's question: "How do you go about writing songs?" Three months later, in December
1971, the band traveled to Switzerland to record Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at a casino in
Montreux, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention gig burned
down the casino. The album was actually recorded at the nearby empty Grand Hotel. This incident famously inspired the
song "Smoke on the Water." Gillan believes that he witnessed a man fire a flare gun into the ceiling during the concert,
prompting Mark Volman of the Mothers to comment: "Arthur Brown in person!"
Continuing from where both previous albums left off, Machine Head has since become one of the band's most famous
albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," "Lazy," and "Smoke on the
Water." Deep Purple continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on: when Machine Head was
recorded, the group had only been together three and a half years, yet it was their seventh LP. Meanwhile the band
undertook four US tours in 1972 and the August tour of Japan that led to a double-vinyl live release, Made in Japan.
Originally intended as a Japan-only record, its worldwide release saw the double LP become an instant hit. It remains one
of rock music's most popular and highest selling live-concert recordings (although at the time it was perhaps seen as less
important, as only Glover and Paice turned up to mix it).
The classic Purple Mk. II line-up continued to work and released the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), featuring the
hit single "Woman from Tokyo," but internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. The bad feelings
culminated in Ian Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, and Roger Glover being
pushed out with him. Auditions were held. Two primary candidates surfaced: a Scotsman Angus Cameron McKinlay and
David Coverdale. Angus, not having a high enough voice, was eliminated. They settled on the unknown singer from
Saltburn in Northeast England, David Coverdale, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze. After
first acquiring Glenn Hughes, they debated continuing as a four piece with Hughes as both bassist and vocalist [13]. This
new line-up continued into 1974 with the heavier blues-rock album Burn, another highly successful release and world tour.
Hughes and Coverdale added both vocal harmonies and a more funky element to the band's music, a sound that was even
more apparent on the late 1974 release Stormbringer. Besides the title track, the album had a number of songs that
received much radio play, such as "Lady Double Dealer," "The Gypsy," and "Soldier Of Fortune." Yet Blackmore voiced
unhappiness with the album and the direction Deep Purple had taken. As a result, he left the band in the spring of 1975 to
form his own band with Ronnie James Dio of Elf, called Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, later shortened after one album to
Rainbow.
With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest bandmember vacancies in rock music. In spite of
this, the rest of the band refused to stop, and to the surprise of many long-time fans, actually announced a replacement for
the "irreplaceable" Man in Black; American Tommy Bolin.
There are at least two versions about the recruitment of Bolin: Coverdale claims to have been the one who suggested
auditioning Bolin . "He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow, and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along
beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four Marshall
100-watt stacks and...the job was his." But in an interview originally published by Melody Maker in June 1975, Bolin himself
claimed that he came to the audition following a recommendation from Ritchie Blackmore . Bolin had been a member of
many now-forgotten mid-60s bands - Denny & The Triumphs, American Standard, and Zephyr, which released three
albums from '69-72. Before Purple, Bolin's best-known recordings were made as a session musician on Billy Cobham's
1973 jazz fusion album, Spectrum, and on The James Gang's Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). He had also jammed with
such luminaries as Dr. John, Albert King, The Good Rats and Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo
album, Teaser when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple.
The resulting album, Come Taste the Band, was released in October 1975. Despite mixed reviews, the collection revitalised
the band once again, bringing a new, extreme funk edge to their hard rock sound. Bolin's influence was crucial, and with
encouragement from Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the material. Later, Bolin's
personal problems with drugs began to manifest themselves, and after cancelled shows and below-par concert
performances, the band was in danger.
(1976–1984) Band split, side projects
The end came on tour in Britain in March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. David Coverdale reportedly walked off in
tears and handed in his resignation, to which he was allegedly told there was no band left to quit. The decision to disband
Purple had been made some time before the last show by Lord and Paice (the last remaining original members), who hadn't
told anyone else. The break-up was finally made public in July 1976.
Later, Bolin had just finished recording his second solo album, Private Eyes, when, on December 4, 1976, tragedy struck.
In Miami, during a tour supporting Jeff Beck, Bolin was found unconscious by his girlfriend. Unable to wake him, she
hurriedly called paramedics, but it was too late. The official cause of death: multiple-drug intoxication. He was 25 years old.
After the break-up most of the past and present members of Deep Purple went on to have considerable success in a
number of other bands, including Rainbow, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Gillan. There were, however, a number of
promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform, especially with the revival of the hard rock market in the late 70s/early
80s. By 1980, an unauthorised version of the band surfaced with Rod Evans as the only member who had ever been in
Deep Purple, eventually ending in successful legal action from the legitimate Deep Purple camp over unauthorised use of
the name. Evans was ordered to pay damages of $672,000 (U.S.) for using the band name without permission.
(1984–1994) Reunions and breakups
In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place with the "classic" early
70s line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice. The album Perfect Strangers was released in October 1984. A
solid release, it sold extremely well and included the singles and concert staples "Knockin' At Your Back Door" and "Perfect
Strangers." The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and winding its way across the world to the USA, then into
Europe by the following summer. Financially, the tour was also a tremendous success. The UK homecoming proved limited,
as they elected to play just a single festival show at Knebworth (with main support from the Scorpions). The weather was
bad, but 80,000 turned up anyway.
The line-up then released The House of Blue Light in 1987, which was followed by a world tour (interrupted after Blackmore
broke a finger on stage) and another live album Nobody's Perfect (1988) which was culled from several shows on this tour,
but still largely based around the by-now familiar Made in Japan set-list. In the UK a new version of "Hush" was released to
mark 20 years of the band. In 1989, Ian Gillan was fired as his relations with Blackmore had again soured and their musical
differences had widened too far. His replacement was former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. This line-up recorded just
one album, Slaves & Masters (1990) and toured in support. It is one of Blackmore's favourite Purple albums, though some
fans derided it as little more than a so-called "Deep Rainbow" album.
With the tour done, Turner was forced out, as Lord, Paice and Glover (and the record company) wanted Gillan back in the
fold for the 25th anniversary. Blackmore grudgingly relented, after requesting and eventually receiving 250,000 dollars in
his bank account and the classic line-up recorded The Battle Rages On, but tensions between Gillan and Blackmore came
to a head yet again during an otherwise stunningly successful European tour. Blackmore walked out in November 1993,
never to return. Joe Satriani was drafted in to complete the Japanese dates in December and stayed on for a European
Summer tour in 1994. He was asked to join permanently, but his record contract commitments prevented this. The band
unanimously chose Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse to become Blackmore's permanent successor.
(1994–present) Revival with Steve Morse
Roger Glover and Steve Morse jamming during the intro to "Highway Star"Steve Morse's arrival revitalised the band
creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles. With a
revamped set list to tour, Deep Purple enjoyed success throughout the rest of the 1990s, releasing the harder-sounding
Abandon in 1998, and touring with renewed enthusiasm. In 1999, Jon Lord, with the help of a fan who was also a
musicologist and composer, painstakingly recreated the Concerto for Group and Orchestra; the original score having been
lost. It was once again performed at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1999, this time with the London Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. The concert also featured songs from each member's solo careers, as well as a short
Deep Purple set, and the occasion was commemorated on the 2000 album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. In early 2001, two
similar concerts were performed in Tokyo and released as part of the box set The Soundboard Series.
Much of the next few years was spent on the road touring. The group continued forward until 2002, when founding member
Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced his amicable
retirement from the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work). Rock keyboard veteran Don Airey
(Rainbow/Ozzy Osbourne), who had helped Deep Purple out when Lord's knee was injured in 2001, joined the band. In
2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in five years, working with new producer Michael Bradford, the highly
praised (but controversially titled) Bananas, and began touring in support of the album immediately. In July 2005, the band
played at the Live 8 concert in Park Place (Barrie, Ontario) and, in October of the same year, released their next album
Rapture of the Deep. It was followed by the Rapture of the Deep tour.
In February 2007, Ian Gillan asked fans not to buy a live album being released by Sony BMG. This was a recording of their
1993 appearance at the NEC in Birmingham. Recordings of this show have previously been released without resistance
from Gillan or any other members of the band, but he said: "It was one of the lowest points of my life - all of our lives,
actually."
(c) 2008 unclestinkstradingpost.com
(1967–1968) Pre-Deep Purple years
In 1967, former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis contacted London
businessman Tony Edwards in the hope that he would manage a
new group he was putting together, to be called Roundabout: so-
called because the members would get on and off the band, like a
musical roundabout. Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to
finance the venture with two business partners: John Coletta and
Ron Hire (Hire-Edwards-Coletta - HEC Enterprises).
The first recruit was the classically-trained Hammond organ player
Jon Lord, who had most notably played with The Artwoods (led by
Art Wood, brother of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood,
and featuring Keef Hartley). He was followed by session guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore, who was persuaded to return from Hamburg to
audition for the new group. Curtis soon dropped out, but HEC
Enterprises, as well as Lord and Blackmore, were keen to carry on.
For the bass guitar, Lord suggested his old friend Nick Simper, with
whom he had played in a band called The Flower Pot Men and their
Garden (formerly known as The Ivy League) back in 1967. Simper's
claims to fame (apart from Purple) were that he had been in Johnny
Kidd & The Pirates and had been in the car crash that killed Kidd.
He was also in Screaming Lord Sutch's The Savages, where he
played with Blackmore.
The line-up was completed by singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian
Paice from The Maze. After a brief tour of Denmark in the spring of
1968, Blackmore suggested a new name: Deep Purple, which was
his grandmother's favourite song.
In 1967, former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis contacted London
businessman Tony Edwards in the hope that he would manage a
new group he was putting together, to be called Roundabout: so-
called because the members would get on and off the band, like a
musical roundabout. Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to
finance the venture with two business partners: John Coletta and
Ron Hire (Hire-Edwards-Coletta - HEC Enterprises).
The first recruit was the classically-trained Hammond organ player
Jon Lord, who had most notably played with The Artwoods (led by
Art Wood, brother of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood,
and featuring Keef Hartley). He was followed by session guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore, who was persuaded to return from Hamburg to
audition for the new group. Curtis soon dropped out, but HEC
Enterprises, as well as Lord and Blackmore, were keen to carry on.
For the bass guitar, Lord suggested his old friend Nick Simper, with
whom he had played in a band called The Flower Pot Men and their
Garden (formerly known as The Ivy League) back in 1967. Simper's
claims to fame (apart from Purple) were that he had been in Johnny
Kidd & The Pirates and had been in the car crash that killed Kidd.
He was also in Screaming Lord Sutch's The Savages, where he
played with Blackmore.
The line-up was completed by singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian
Paice from The Maze. After a brief tour of Denmark in the spring of
1968, Blackmore suggested a new name: Deep Purple, which was
his grandmother's favourite song.
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan,
Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice
Current Members
Ian Gillan
Roger Glover
Ian Paice
Steve Morse
Don Airey
Former Members
Ritchie Blackmore
Jon Lord
Rod Evans
Nick Simper
David Coverdale
Glenn Hughes
Joe Lynn Turner
Joe Satriani
Tommy Bolin
Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice
Current Members
Ian Gillan
Roger Glover
Ian Paice
Steve Morse
Don Airey
Former Members
Ritchie Blackmore
Jon Lord
Rod Evans
Nick Simper
David Coverdale
Glenn Hughes
Joe Lynn Turner
Joe Satriani
Tommy Bolin
Deep Purple - Machine Head
