How does deep purple. Deep Peepl's Dirty Mystery

In June, upon returning from America, Deep Purple began recording a new single, Hallelujah. By this time, Ritchie Blackmore (thanks to drummer Mick Underwood, an acquaintance from his participation in The Outlaws) had discovered (practically unknown in Britain, but interested in specialists) the Episode Six, performing pop rock in the spirit of The Beach Boys, but having an unusually strong vocalist. Ritchie Blackmore brought Jon Lord to their concert, and he also marveled at the power and expressiveness of Ian Gillan's voice. The latter agreed to join Deep Purple, but - to showcase his own compositions - brought Episode bassist with him to the studio. Six by Roger Glover, with whom he has already formed a solid authoring duo.

Ian Gillan recalled that when he met Deep Purple, he was struck first of all by the intelligence of Jon Lord, from whom he expected much worse. Roger Glover (who always dressed and behaved very simply), on the contrary, was frightened by the gloominess of the members of Deep Purple, who “… They wore black and looked very mysterious.” Roger Glover took part in the recording of Hallelujah, to his amazement, he immediately received an invitation to join the lineup, and the next day, after much hesitation, he accepted.

It is noteworthy that while the single was being recorded, Rod Evans and Nick Simper did not know that their fate was decided. The other three rehearsed in secret during the day with the new vocalist and bassist at London's Hanwell Community Center, and played live shows with Rod Evans "and Nick Simper" in the evenings. “For Deep Purple, this was the normal modus operandi,” Roger Glover later recalled. - It was accepted here: if a problem arises, the main thing is to keep silent about it, relying on management. It was assumed that if you are a professional, then you must part with elementary human decency in advance. I was very ashamed of what they did to Nick Simper and Rod Evans. "

The old Deep Purple line-up played their last gig in Cardiff on July 4, 1969. Rod Evans and Nick Simper were given a three-month salary and were allowed to take along amplifiers and equipment. Nick Simper sued another £ 10,000 in court, but lost the right to further deductions. Rod Evans was content with little and as a result, over the next eight years, earned £ 15,000 annually from the sale of old records, and later in 1972 founded the Captain Beyond team. A conflict arose between the managers of Episode Six and Deep Purple, settled out of court through compensation in the amount of 3 thousand pounds.

While remaining virtually unknown in Britain, Deep Purple gradually lost its commercial potential in America as well. All of a sudden, Jon Lord offered the band's management a new, highly attractive idea.

Jon Lord: "The idea of ​​creating a piece that could be performed by a rock group with a symphony orchestra came to me back in The Artwoods. Dave Brubeck's album" Brubeck Plays Bernstein Plays Brubeck " Ritchie Blackmore was both in favor. Soon after Ian Paice and Roger Glover came in, Tony Edwards suddenly asked me, "Remember when you told me about your idea? I hope it was serious? Well, I rented Albert. -Hall and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - on September 24th. ”I was horrified, then wildly delighted.

Deep Purple publishers enlisted the Oscar-winning composer Malcolm Arnold to supervise the progress of the work, and then stand at the conductor's stand. Malcolm Arnold's unconditional support for the project, which many considered questionable, ultimately ensured success. The management of the group found sponsors in the person of The Daily Express and British Lion Films, which filmed the event on film. Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were nervous: after three months after joining the group, they were taken to the most prestigious concert venue in the country.

“John was very patient with us,” recalled Roger Glover. - None of us understood musical notation, so our papers were full of remarks like: "you wait for that stupid melody, then you look at Malcolm Arnold" and you count to four. "

The album "Concerto For Group and Orchestra" (performed by Deep Purple and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on September 24, 1969, was released (in the USA) three months later. He provided the band with some press hype (which was required) and hit the UK charts. But gloom reigned among the musicians. The sudden fame that befell the "a-writer" Jon Lord infuriated Ritchie Blackmore. Ian Gillan agreed with the latter in this sense.

“The promoters tortured us with questions like: Where is the orchestra? - he recalled. “One of them said: I don’t guarantee you a symphonic one, but I can invite a brass band”. Moreover, Jon Lord himself realized that the appearance of Ian Gillan "and Roger Glover" opened up opportunities for the band in a completely different area. By this time, the central figure in the ensemble was Ritchie Blackmore, who developed a peculiar method of playing with "random noise" (by manipulating the amplifier) ​​and encouraging colleagues to follow the path of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. It became clear that Roger Glover's luscious, full-bodied sound was becoming the anchor of the new sound, and that Ian Gillan's dramatic, extravagant vocals "perfectly matched the radical new development that Ritchie Blackmore had proposed."

The group worked out a new style in the course of continuous concert activity: the Tetragrammaton company (which financed films and experienced one failure after another) by this time was on the verge of bankruptcy (its debts by February 1970 amounted to more than two million dollars). With no financial support from overseas, Deep Purple had to rely solely on live earnings.

The full potential of the new line-up was realized in late 1969, when Deep Purple began recording a new album. As soon as the band got together in the studio, Ritchie Blackmore categorically declared: the new album will include only the most exciting and dramatic. The requirement, with which everyone agreed, became the leitmotif of the work. Work on Deep Purple's "In Rock" album lasted from September 1969 to April 1970. The release of the album was delayed for several months until the bankrupt Tetragrammaton was bought by Warner Brothers, which automatically inherited the Deep Purple contract.

Meanwhile, Warner Brothers. released "Live in Concert" in the US - a recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra - and called the band to America to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. After several more concerts in California, Arizona and Texas on August 9, Deep Purple found themselves embroiled in yet another conflict, this time at the Plumpton National Jazz Festival. Ritchie Blackmore, not wanting to give up his time on the program to the late Yes, set up a mini-arson of the stage and caused a fire, because of which the group was fined and received practically nothing for their performance. The band spent the rest of August and the beginning of September touring Scandinavia.

"In Rock" was released in September 1970, was a huge success on both sides of the ocean, was immediately declared "classic" and in the first album "thirty" in Britain lasted for over a year. True, the management did not find any hint of a single in the presented material, and the group was sent to the studio to urgently invent something. Created almost spontaneously, Black Night secured the band's first big chart success, climbing to # 2 in the UK, and became its hallmark for many years to come.

In December 1970, a rock opera was released, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber after Tim Rice's libretto "Jesus Christ Superstar", which has become a world classic. Ian Gillan played the title role in this piece. In 1973, the movie "Jesus Christ Superstar" muvie was released, which featured Ted Neeley's arrangements and vocals as "Jesus" from the original. Ian Gillan was working full time at Deep Purple at the time, and never became a movie Christ.

In early 1971, the band began work on the next album, while not stopping concerts, which is why the recording stretched out for six months and was completed in June. During the tour, Roger Glover's health deteriorated. Later it turned out that his stomach problems had a psychological background: it was the first symptom of the strongest touring stress, which soon struck all the band members.

"Fireball" was released in July in the UK (topping the charts here) and in October in the US. The band undertook an American tour, and the British leg of the tour ended with a grand show at London's Albert Hall, where the musicians' invited parents were accommodated in the royal box. By this time, Ritchie Blackmore, having given free rein to his own eccentricity, had become a "state within a state" in Deep Purple. “If Ritchie Blackmore wants to play a 150-bar solo, he’ll play it and no one can stop him,” Ian Gillan told Melody Maker in September 1971.

The US tour, which began in October 1971, was canceled due to Ian Gillan's illness (he contracted hepatitis). Two months later, the vocalist reunited with the rest of the band in Montreux, Switzerland to work on a new album, Machine Head. Deep Purple agreed with The Rolling Stones on the use of their mobile studio Mobile, which was supposed to be located near the concert hall "Casino." On the day of the group's arrival, during the performance of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (where the members of Deep Purple went), a fire broke out caused by a rocket sent to the ceiling by an audience member, the building burned down and the band rented an empty Grand Hotel, where they completed work on the album, and one of the band's most famous songs, Smoke On The Water, was freshly created.

Claude Nobs, director of the Montreux festival, mentioned in the song Smoke On The Water ("Funky Claude was running in and out ..." suggested Roger Glover, to whom these 4 words seemed to have appeared in a dream. (The album Machine Head was released in March 1972, rose to # 1 in Britain and sold 3 million copies in the United States, where the single Smoke On The Water was included in the top five "Billboard".

In July 1972, Deep Purple flew to Rome to record their next studio album (later released under the title Who Do We Think We Are?). All members of the group were mentally and psychologically exhausted, the work took place in a nervous atmosphere - also because of the aggravated contradictions between Ritchie Blackmore "and Ian Gillan".

On August 9, studio work was interrupted and Deep Purple went to Japan. Recordings of concerts held here are included in "Made In Japan": released in December 1972, in retrospect it is considered one of the best live albums of all time, along with "Live At Leeds" (The Who) and "Get Yer Ya-ya's Out" (The Rolling Stones).

“The idea of ​​a live album is to achieve the most natural sounding of all instruments as possible, while energized by the audience, which is able to pull out of the band what it could never create in the studio,” said Ritchie Blackmore. "In 1972, Deep Purple toured America five times, and the sixth tour was interrupted due to the illness of Ritchie Blackmore." ...

During the autumn American tour, tired and frustrated with the state of affairs in the group, Ian Gillan decided to leave, which he announced by letter to the London management. Tony Edwards and John Coletta persuaded the vocalist to postpone, and he (now in Germany, at the same studio The Rolling Stones Mobile), together with the group, completed work on the album. By this time, he no longer spoke to Ritchie Blackmore and traveled separately from the rest of the participants, avoiding air travel.

Album "Who Do We Think We Are" (so named because Italians, outraged by the noise level on the farm where the album was recorded, asked the repeated question: "Who do they think they are?") Disappointed musicians and critics, although it contained strong pieces - the "stadium" anthem Woman From Tokyo and the satirical-journalistic Mary Long Mary Long, who made fun of Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford, two then guardians of morality.

In December, when "Made In Japan" entered the charts, the managers met with Jon Lord and Roger Glover and asked them to do their best to keep the band together. They persuaded Ian Paice "and Ritchie Blackmore" to stay, who had already conceived their own project, but Ritchie Blackmore set a condition for management: the indispensable dismissal of Roger Glover. , and he (in June 1973) admitted: Ritchie Blackmore demanded his departure. An angry Roger Glover immediately filed a letter of resignation.

After Deep Purple's last concert in Osaka, Japan on June 29, 1973, Ritchie Blackmore, passing Roger Glover on the stairs, only threw over his shoulder: “It's not personal: business is business.” Roger Glover took this trouble hard in for the next three months he did not leave the house, partly due to aggravated stomach problems.

Ian Gillan left Deep Purple at the same time as Roger Glover and retired from music for a while, taking up the motorcycle business. He returned to the stage three years later with the Ian Gillan Band. Roger Glover, after recovering, concentrated on producing.

ROUNDABOUT played 11 concerts in just 17 days. During the first tour, it was decided to rename the band DEEP PURPLE (there was also controversy over the name FIRE). We agreed to change the "name" of the ensemble during rehearsals at the Divise Hall. On a blank sheet of paper, everyone wrote down their own version. For example, in addition to FIRE, the names ORPHEUS and CONCRETE GODS were proposed. And so Ritchie boldly brought out: DEEP PURPLE ("Dark Purple"). This was the name of the song recorded by Bing Crosby, but better known in the versions of singer Billy Ward and April Stevens and Nino Tempo duet, performed in 1957 and 1963, respectively. This sugary love ballad, which mentions a dark purple sunset, was very much loved by Blackmore's grandmother. Later, the American meaning of the word "purple" - "purple" was also used in the design of the album covers.

Since ancient times, the name of the group was pronounced differently, the word "purple" was constantly discussed, for example, on which syllable to put the stress in the name of Picasso, or what the Danish audiophile company JAMO is called - "Yamo" or "Jamo". The British (and, of course, the members of the group themselves) say "paple", the Americans - "paple". The "purple" generally accepted since the times of the USSR, as we see, stands apart, although the Italians also stubbornly call the group DIP PARPL.

By the way, with the word "purple" the band got a bit of a mess. Six months later, in the United States, it turned out that this term was used to refer to a kind of a new drug, which was first tested in 1967 at the Monterrey Festival (in the famous song "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, it is just this "drug fog" that is sung).
The group's first album, Shades Of Deep Purple, was recorded in record time in just 18 hours in one of London's Rue studios. The band's management spent £ 1,500 on the recording of the album.


After the band moved to another hotel - "Raffles Hotel", near Paddington station, but soon for better creative activity the managers rented a private house for the musicians on Second Avenue in London. The house had three bedrooms and one living room. Simper and Lord lived in one bedroom, Evans and Pace lived in the other, and the third was occupied by Blackmore with his girlfriend Babs, whom he brought with him from Germany.
There was also the first opportunity to "light up" in front of the general public, the idea was not to Blackmore's liking - the group was invited to appear on the popular David Frost TV show. Ritchie left the studio, stating that he didn't like being around all day. Instead, Mick Angus posed with a guitar to the soundtrack. DEEP PURPLE's first home concert in Britain was hosted by Ian Hansford and took place on 3 August at the pub of the Red Lion Hotel in his hometown of Warrington, located between Liverpool and Manchester.
“We were preceded by the band THE SWEET - at the time it was also called THE SWEETSHOP,” recalls Simper. - When we arrived at Warrington, everyone asked: what kind of guys are they? Never heard of DEEP PURPLE. As soon as we entered the stage, we immediately felt as if we were born on it. Dyed hair, a mountain of equipment and a lot of noise. We played so intensely that you could go deaf. The audience stood as if hypnotized. I think they then realized that they were faced with something previously unknown ... "
This was followed by performances in small clubs in Birmingham, Plymouth and Ramsgate. On August 10, DEEP PURPLE performed at the UK National Jazz Festival in Sunbury (now called Redinsky). Guests also included THE NICE, TYRRANOSAURUS REX and TEN YEARS AFTER. Due to the fact that Deep Purple was not well known to the English public, the guys were booed, mistaking it for an American pop group.
Concert fees ranged from £ 20 to £ 40. In mid-August, the “Peplovtsy” were supposed to appear in front of an audience of four thousand at a stadium in the city of Bern. It was a "team of different groups", where several groups had to warm up the main star - THE SMALL FACES, but already at the performance of the ensemble with the long name DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEEKY, MICK AND TICH, a crowd of fans broke through the fence and took to the stage, the police were forced was to pacify the disobedient with clubs. That was where the show ended.
Free time from concerts, the band decided to retire on the new album The Book Of Taliesyn.
Meanwhile, the Tetragrammaton company, inspired by the success of the single Hush and the rather high position of the album Shades Of Deep Purple (24th place in the list of LPs), decided to strengthen its place in the hit parade with a new album. In October, it was planned to release the Talisin Book, and to promote it, the group was invited to the United States.
Accompanied by Colette, Lawrence and Hansford, DEEP PURPLE arrived in Los Angeles by plane. The firm organized a chic reception. “When we arrived, a whole line of limousines was waiting for us. It was a warm evening, palm trees grew everywhere, - recalls Lord, - everything looked as if we were in Paradise. On the first night, they invited us to a party at the Playboy Club Penthouse where we met Bill Cosby and Hugh Hafner (editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine) and arranged to be on his show, Playboy After Dark. The next evening, Artie Mogul promised that he would bring us girls, and now the lovely girls drive up to the hotel in their cars, take us to a restaurant, and then return with us to the hotel for "gymnastic exercises." We could not believe that all this was happening in real life ... we were treated like world stars. "
However, the firm did not make any exception for DEEP PURPLE. Both the expensive "entertainment program" and the fact that the group was housed in a fashionable hotel "Simset Marquee" was the style of the Tetragrammaton.
“It seemed incredible,” says Lawrence, “there was a chef on duty around the clock in their office, and when you got there in the morning, breakfast was already waiting for you. You could order whatever your heart desires. The gardener came twice a day and changed flowers. Sometimes the company did just incomprehensible things - they had a contract with the singer Eliza Weimberg. So these figures released five of her singles in one day! "
Tetragrammaton employee Jeff Wald managed to get DEEP PURPLE to join the CREAM supergroup on their latest US tour. On October 16 and 17, 1968, DEEP PURPLE performed in front of the 16,000th Forum Hall in Los Angeles. The newcomers were very warmly received by CREAM fans.
“Ritchie would insert a long solo in the middle of And The Address, using excerpts from Chet Atkins's“ White Christmas, ”or even the UK anthem,” recalls Lawrence. - He was the first guitarist to do such things. The musicians from CREAM did not find it funny, but the audience liked it, and the performance of the song "Hush", which was a hit in America, generally delighted them. It was really great. Perhaps too cool ... "
Satisfied with the success, Ritchie went to the dressing room, sat down to rest: “When CREAM was already playing on the stage, the doors to our dressing room opened. At first I could not believe my own eyes - Jimi Hendrix, my idol, stood in the doorway! " They talked together for a long time, and then, praising the group for their excellent performance, he invited them to his villa in Hollywood. There Hendrix asked John if he would like to participate in a jam session. And now the band - John Lord - organ, Stephen Stills - bass, Buddy Miles - drums and Dave Mason - saxophone, began to play rock and blues standards. “Jim asked me if I could play with him the next day,” Lord recalls. "Of course I could, and in both cases it was a fantastic event."
But Hendrix also had CREAM as his guest. John Lord claims that the CREAM members were clearly unfriendly towards them at that party. The next day, October 18, everything cleared up. After the concert, in San Diego, where DEEP PURPLE again got a flurry of applause, the “Krimovtsy” delivered an ultimatum to their manager: “Either we or they”.
DEEP PURPLE had to make their way to America on their own. On October 26 and 27, the band performed in San Francisco at an international rock festival, and in November began a tour of clubs in the western states - California, Washington, Oregon. We also stopped in Vancouver, Canada. In December, they moved deep into America, and concerts were held both in large cities (Chicago, Detroit) and in provincial ones. Kentucky, Michigan, New York - the states rushed past the bus window. Jeff Wald was the driver, and he was a very unimportant driver. Once, it was just a miracle that a head-on collision with a huge truck was avoided. Pace, sitting next to him, got his bearings in time, pulling the steering wheel towards himself, for Wald lost control, staring at the mountains. During a return visit to Canada, to the city of Edmonton, DEEP PURPLE met their longtime idols with VANILLA FUDGE, whose concert they had anticipated there. Performing in America became a big school for the band. Gradually they acquired their signature sound. It was the heyday of the hippie movement. “At every step one could hear conversations and songs about the need for love and peace, life in communes. Everything was so psychedelic, mysterious both in clothes and in music, ”Pace recalls. - When English bands like us brought fatal aggression and dynamics, simplicity and clarity to this market with them - it came as a surprise to American fans. And often they didn't know how to react to it. Over time, however, they began to like us more and more. "
The group worked just "for wear and tear", sometimes giving two concerts a day. For the last two weeks of the American tour, the musicians have lived in New York, playing first with CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL at the Fillmore East, then at the Electric Garden club.
This is what John Lord recalls of his performance at Fillmore East: “We were all told how important it was to prove ourselves well there. This place is something like a sanctuary, you almost have to take off your shoes before entering it. We entered the stage in a somewhat aggressive mood, trying our best not to baffle ourselves with the thought of how important this is to us. The ice broke when Ritchie came to the front of the stage and played a simple but quick walker that he usually uses during rehearsals.
By this time, the group's second single, featuring Neil Diamond's song "Kentuscu Woman", had risen to # 38 on the US charts. DEEP PURPLE recorded another Neil song "Glory Road" as well as Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay". However, the guys were not happy with the result. One day from the hotel (DEEP PURPLE lived on Fifth Avenue), they called Diamond in Texas. Lord told him about the problem with Glory Road, and Neal began humming it to John over the phone. John immediately took notes in his notebook. The next day the musicians started recording this song again and again something went wrong. As a result, neither she nor Dylan's composition never saw the light of day, and the master tape was lost.
For Christmas, the musicians' friends flew to New York, and on New Year's Eve the band members were invited to a party where some millionaire didn't like Rod Evans, and he called the singer "long-haired fagot." In response, Evans threw a glass in the face of the offender, and a scuffle began. The scandal was hushed up not without difficulty. On January 3, 1969, DEEP PURPLE returned to England. In their absence "Tetragrammaton" releases another "forty-five" - ​​"River Deep, Mountain High". Meanwhile The Book Of Taliesyn could not rise above the 58th place in the American "charts".
In parallel with the recording of the album, the group performed at concerts, but the highest earnings did not exceed 150 pounds per evening (Newcastle and Brighton). By this time, the British press began to react to the news of the success of DEEP PURPLE in the United States, and a number of interviews with the band's musicians appeared in Britain. When asked why DP signed a contract with an American record company, they answered like this:
John Lord: “We have much more creative and financial freedom than a British company could give us. Plus, a British firm, as a rule, won't waste time and effort until you have a big name. "
Ian Pace: “There we were given the opportunity to show ourselves properly. Americans really know how to play records. " And here is how the DEEP PURPLE musicians explained that they give most of their concerts overseas, and not in England:
Ian Pace: “The reason is that here we are not offered the amount of money that we want to receive. And in this case, “skating” a regular touring program is possible only for reasons of prestige. As for us directly, the audience for the dance is excluded. There are only a few things in our program that they can dance to, so we have explicitly warned the promoters that we are not a dance group. "
John Lord also did not hide his material interest: “When we leave America and give a concert in Britain, we can only earn 150 pounds. In the States, we get about £ 2,500 for exactly the same concert. "
Soon British newspapers were full of headlines "PURPLE are not going to starve to death for an idea" and "They are losing £ 2,350 a night working in Britain." In March 1969, Blackmore and Lord married their girlfriends, who by the way were sisters (in Armenian, Lorb and Pace became badjanagami ) and on April 1, the group returned to the United States. The concert fees here significantly exceeded the fees in their native England, the shows were held in more spacious halls, and the DEEP PURPLE themselves were already known to the American public.
The group was so enthusiastic about being welcomed to the United States that they seriously fussed with the idea of ​​moving here for a more or less long period, until it became clear that Ian Pace could be drafted into the army and sent to the war in Vietnam.

The English group "Deep Purple" ("Bright Purple") was formed in 1968. Initial line-up: Ritchie Blackmore (b.1945, guitar), Jon Lord (b.1941, keyboards), Ian Pace (b.1948, drums), Nick Simper (b.1945, bass guitar) and Rod Evans (b.1947, vocals).
Two former musicians from the German-based Roundabout, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and educated organist Jon Lord, returned to their native London in 1968 to assemble a line-up destined to become one of three hard rock legends. The triumvirate "Led Zeppelin" - "Black Sabbat" - "Deep Purple" is still considered an unsurpassed phenomenon in the history of world rock music !!! At first, however, Deep Purple was focused on a very commercial pump-rock, and this is probably why their first three albums gained fame only in the United States. Meanwhile, the "turntable" discs "Led Zeppelin-2" (1969) and "Black Sabbat (1970)" were released, heralding the birth of a new style. A powerful wave of enthusiasm and interest in hard rock made Blackmore think about the future As a result of his thoughts, the original singer and bassist were replaced (replaced by Ian Gillan, vocals, born 1945, and Roger Glover, bass guitar, born 1945 - both from Episode 6) and the manner of performance was sharply changed towards the "heavier" sound.

"In the Rock" (1970) - the album that became the third "swallow" of powerful hard rock in world rock music - went on sale in October 1970 and repeated the success of the bands "LZ" and "BS" on the international market. The original sound concept, built on the fusion of heavy guitar riffs with "a la baroque" organ parts, lifted "Deep Purple" to the very top of popularity and entailed a host of followers and imitators. After "In Rock", there were no less powerful and attractive programs "Meteor" (1971) and "Machine Head" (1972), which, in turn, also shocked the world with the originality of the performers' thinking and the unpredictability of the development of musical themes. ...
A recession is outlined in the program "Who are we?" (1973): Here for the first time, commercial notes appear, and the arrangement of the songs is no longer so refined. This turned out to be enough for friends Gillan and Glover to leave the group, as, according to Gillan, the creative atmosphere in the group disappeared. Indeed, in 1974, "Deep Purple" devoted even less time to work in the studio, traveled a lot, played football. New musicians - singer David Coverdale (b. 1951) and singing bass-guitarist Glenn Hughes (b. 1952) - did not bring any innovative ideas with them, and with the release of the "Petrel" disc it became clear that the former heights of "Deep Purple" in the renewed lineup can no longer be reached.
Lead composer Blackmore complained that his opinion was no longer being listened to, and as a result, without unnecessary copyright claims (which, by right, in most cases belonged to him) left the team in early 1975. He organized a new project, Rainbow. By that time, Gillan had begun his solo career, and Roger Glover was mainly engaged in producing (in those years he hosted "Nazareth"). In fact, "Deep Purple" were left without leaders, and critics predicted that this "ship", left without a "captain", would soon collapse. And so it happened. American guitarist Tommy Bolin failed to become a worthy replacement for Blackmore; "Things" from the 1975 album ("Come Taste The Band"), written by him in collaboration with Coverdale, turned out to be nothing more than a parody of the "old" style of the band, and soon Yon Lord announced the breakup.
For the next eight years, the Deep Purple group did not exist. Successfully worked with "Rainbow" Ritchie Blackmore, played a little less powerfully with his group Ian Gillan, formed "Whitesnake" David Coverdale. The idea to revive "Deep Purple" of 1970 belongs to Blackmore and Gillan: they came to it independently, and in 1984 the album "Perfect Strangers" was released. More than three million copies were sold and it seemed that they would never part. However, the next album appeared only two and a half years later ("The House Of Blue Light", 1987), and although it turned out great, a year later Gillan again left "Deep Purple" and again returned to solo activities.
In the USSR, the Melodiya firm released two Deep Purple albums: a collection of the best songs of 1970-1972 and the program disc "House of the Blue Light" (1987).
Ian Gillan visited the USSR on tour in the spring of 1990.
Group producers: Roger Glover, Martin Birch.
Recording Studios: Abbey Road (London); "Musicland" (Munich) and others.
Sound Engineers: Martin Birch, Nick Blagona, Angelo Arcuri.
The albums came out under the flags of the companies "EMI", "Harvest", "Purple" and "Polydor".
Deep Purple's new singer in 1990 was Blackmore's "old" Rainbow colleague Joe Lynn Turner.

HEAVY METAL PIONEERS - DEEP PURPLE

There are very few bands in the history of heavy music that can be put on a par with the rock legends that have painted the world in dark purple tones.

Their path was twisty, like Ritchie Blackmore's guitar picks and John Lord's organ parts.

Each of the participants deserves a separate story, but it was together that they became iconic figures in rock.

On the carousel

The history of this glorious band goes back to 1966, when the drummer of one of the Liverpool bands Chris Curtis decided to create his own band Roundabout ("Carousel"). Fate brought him together with John Lord, who was already known in narrow circles and was known as an excellent organist. By the way, it turned out that he had in mind a wonderful guy who just does wonders with a guitar. This musician turned out to be Ritchie Blackmore, who at the time played with the Three Musketeers in Hamburg. He was immediately called from Germany and offered a place in the team.

But suddenly the initiator of the project itself, Chris Curtis, disappears, thereby drawing a bold cross on his career and endangering the nascent group. According to rumors, drugs were involved in his disappearance.

John Lord got down to business. Thanks to him, Ian Pace appeared in the group, who amazed everyone with his ability to beat the drums, knocking out incredible fractions from them. The vocalist's place was then taken by Rod Evans - Pace's friend in the former group. Nick Simper became the bass player.

They are all deeply purple

At the suggestion of Blackmore, the group was named, and with this composition the team recorded three albums, the first of which was released in 1968. The song “Deep Purple” by Nino Tempo and April Stevens was a favorite composition of Ritchie Blackmore's grandmother, so the musicians did not philosophize for a long time and took it as a basis in the name of the group, without investing any special meaning. As it turned out, the same name was given to the drug brand LCD, which was being sold in the United States at the time. But vocalist Ian Gillan swears and claims that the band members never used drugs, but preferred whiskey and soda.

Swimming in the rock

Success had to wait for several years. The group was popular only in America, but at home it almost did not cause interest among music lovers. This caused a split in the team. Evans and Simper had to be “fired”, despite their professionalism and the path they traveled together.

Not every band could cope with such bad luck, but Mick Underwood, a famous drummer and longtime friend of Ritchie Blackmore, came to the rescue. It was he who recommended Ian Gillan to him, who "screamed wonderfully in a high-pitched voice." Ian brought in his friend, bass player Roger Glover.

In June 1970, the new line-up released the album Deep Purple in Rock, which was a wild success and finally brought the "dark purple" into the echelon of the most popular rockers of the century. The album's undisputed success was the composition "Child in Time". It is considered one of the best songs of the group to this day. This album held the top positions of the charts for a year. The whole next year the band spent on the road, but there was time for the recording of a new disc "Fireball".

Smoke from Deep Purple

A few months later, the musicians went to Switzerland to record the next album "Machine Head". At first, they wanted to do it at the Rolling Stones traveling studio, in a concert hall, where Frank Zappa's performances ended. During one of the concerts, a fire broke out, which inspired the musicians to new ideas. It is about this fire that the composition "Smoke on the Water" tells, which later became an international hit.

Roger Glover even dreamed of this fire and the spreading smoke over Lake Geneva. He woke up in horror and said the phrase "smoke over water." It was she who became the title and line from the chorus of the song. Despite the difficult conditions in which the album was created, the disc was clearly a success, becoming a hallmark for many years.

Made in Japan

On the wave of success, the team went on tour to Japan, subsequently releasing the equally successful collection of concert music "Made in Japan", which went platinum.

The Japanese audience made an amazing impression on the "dark purple". During the performance of the songs, the Japanese sat almost motionless and listened attentively to the musicians. But after the end of the song, they burst into applause. Such concerts were unusual for them, because they were used to in Europe and America, the audience is constantly shouting something, jumping up from their seats and rushing to the stage.

During the performances, Ritchie Blackmore was a real showman. His games were always witty and full of surprises. Other musicians followed, demonstrating skill and great collective cohesion.

California show

But, as often happens, the relationship in the group heated up so much that Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore found it difficult to get along with each other. As a result, Ian and Roger left the team, and the "dark purple" again remained at a broken trough. Replacing a vocalist of this level turned out to be a big problem. However, as you know, a holy place is never empty, and David Coverdale, who previously worked as an ordinary salesman in a clothing store, became the new performer in the group. Glenn Hughes took the bass position. In 1974, the renewed group recorded a new album called "Burn".

To try out fresh compositions in public, the band decided to take part in the famous California Jam concert in the Los Angeles area. He gathered an audience of approximately 400 thousand people and is considered a unique event in the world of music. Before sunset, Blackmore refused to go on stage and the local sheriff even threatened to arrest him, but finally the sun went down and the action began. During the performance, Ritchie Blackmore tore a guitar, ruined the camera operator of the TV channel and made such an explosion in the finale that he barely survived.

Rebirth of Deep Purple

The following records were successful, but, unfortunately, did not demonstrate anything new. The group quietly exhausted itself. Years passed, and fans began to think that the once beloved had become history, but finally in 1984 the "dark purple" were reborn in their "golden" line-up.

Soon, a world tour was organized and in every city along the way, tickets for concerts were sold out in the blink of an eye. It was not only about the old merit, the virtuosity of the participants the groups did not lose at all.

The second album of the new era - "The House of Blue Light" - was released in 1987 and continued the chain of undoubted victories. But after another showdown with Blackmore, Ian Gillan broke away from the group again. This turn of events played into the hands of Richie, because he brought his longtime friend Joe Lynn Turner into the team. The album "Slaves & Masters" was recorded with a new vocalist in 1990.

Clash of the Titans

The band's 25th anniversary was not far off, and after a short break, vocalist Ian Gillan returned to his native land, and the anniversary album released in 1993 was symbolically titled "The Battle Rages On ..." ("The battle continues").

The battle of characters did not stop either. The buried ax of war was retrieved by Ritchie Blackmore. Despite the continued touring, Richie left the team, which by that time had ceased to interest him. Musicians invited Joe Satriani to finalize the concerts with him, and soon Blackmore was replaced by Steve Morse, a talented American guitarist. The band still held up the hard rock banner high, as proven by 1996's "Purpendicular" and "Abandon" released two years later.

Already in the new millennium, keyboardist John Lord announced to the band members that he would like to devote himself to solo projects and left the band. He was replaced by Don Airey, who previously worked with Richie and Roger in the Rainbow group. A year later, the renewed line-up released the first album “Bananas” in the five-year period. Surprisingly, the press and critics responded remarkably about it, only the name was very few people liked.

Unfortunately, after 10 years of successful solo work, John Lord died of cancer.

The old robbers

In the 2000s, the group, despite the considerable age of the participants, continued to tour. In the opinion of the musicians, the collective should exist for this, and not at all for the production of studio albums. The latest collection was the 19th album "Now What ?!", released for the 45th anniversary of the "dark purple".

After such an eloquent title of the album, the question should follow: "What's next?" And this will already show time - will we see the reunion at least once again, and will the musicians have time to amaze their fans with something else. In the meantime, they are one of the few to whose concerts grandfathers go with their grandchildren and enjoy music equally.

When asked, "Where are you going?" We do not stand still and are constantly working on ourselves, on a new sound. And until now we are so nervous before each concert that goosebumps run down our spines. "

FACTS

On tour in Australia in 1999, a teleconference was organized on one of the TV programs. The band members performed "Smoke on the Water" in sync with several hundred professional guitarists and amateurs.

Interestingly, Ian Pace was a member of all the lineups of the group, but never became its leader. The personal life of the musicians is also closely connected. Keyboardist John Lord and drummer Ian Pace married twin sisters Vicky and Jackie Gibbs.

Music lovers of the countries of the former Soviet Union, despite the "Iron Curtain", found ways to get acquainted with the work of the group. An amazing euphemism "deep violet" even appeared in the Russian language, that is, "completely indifferent and far from the topic of discussion."

Updated: April 9, 2019 by the author: Helena