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Deep Purple

 Deep Purple  is a British rock group.  They were one of the first and most famous hard rock bands, and are considered pioneers of heavy metal.

Despite their association with the sub-genre, Deep Purple has never been purely a heavy metal band, though many later heavy metal bands cite their influence. The group has frequently changed styles and lineups over the years, but has always included virtuoso players in its ranks and placed a high priority on musicianship. Some incarnations of Deep Purple have brought aspects of jazz to a rock context due to their frequent use of their songs as vehicles for extended and sophisticated solos.

Contents
1 History
2 Members
3 Discography
4 Hit singles
5 External links

History

In May 1965, a band called Episode Six became popular on the British music scene and became particularly popular in the mid-sixties. It featured Ian Gillan on vocals, Graham Dimmock on guitar, Roger Glover on bass, Tony Lander on guitar, Sheila Dimmock on keyboards, and Harvey Shields on the drums.

Two years later, a band called The Flowerpot Men and their Garden was formed, formerly known as The Ivy League. It was concentrated on a trio of singers. The new name was clearly derived from the children's show The Flowerpot Men, with the obvious psychedelic-era puns on flower power and "pot" (cannabis). The band's most popular song was "Let's Go To San Francisco ." Some listeners assumed that the song was a parody of Scott McKenzie's "If You're Going to San Francisco ," but the band have denied this. It featured Tony Burrows , Neil Landon , Robin Shaw , and Pete Nelson on vocals, Ged Stone on guitar, Nick Simper on bass, Jon Lord on organ, and Carol Little on drums.

A year later, these bands formed the nucleus of the early and later lineups of Deep Purple, providing Nick Simper and Jon Lord as founding members and Ian Gillan and Roger Glover as later constants.

They were formed in 1968 as Roundabout, consisting of Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on hammond organ, Chris Curtis on vocals, Dave Curtis on bass and Bobby Woodman on drums. After only a month of rehearsals, Blackmore and Lord would be the only two remaining members, bringing in vocalist Rod Evans, bassist Nick Simper and drummer Ian Paice. In April, the band would change its name to Deep Purple.

After three albums and extensive touring in the States, it was the inclusion of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover that created the essential Deep Purple line-up Mark II, that has reunited twice. This version of the group released the highly influential and successful albums Deep Purple in Rock and Machine Head (the latter featuring their most famous song, "Smoke on the Water"), and the live album Made in Japan.

The Mark II line up continued up to the album Who Do We Think We Are? (1973) at which point both Gillan and Glover left. They were replaced by an unknown singer named David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes on bass and sometime vocals. This new line-up continued seamlesly into 1974 with the album Burn quickly followed by Stormbringer both did well and from the outside all looked good however Coverdale and Blackmore were at loggerheads quite early as the vocalist along with Hughes pushed the established Purple sound in a new direction with elements of funk and soul creeping in.

In 1975 Blackmore decided to quit leaving the band to fill one of the biggest vacancies in rock. The gap was filled by the prodigiously talented Tommy Bolin who had established himself as a vivid imaginative guitarist with acts such as Zephyr, James Gang and Billy Cobham. On the face of it Bolin was just what the doctor ordered however the album Come Taste the Band , for all its quality, proved unpopular with die-hard fans and didn't attract any new ones. Bolin himself turned out not to be ready for the job of filling Blackmore's shoes suffering hostility from some crowds while turning in peformances of highly variable quality. He had a drug habit - heroin, which made matters all the worse. After a particularly traumatic tour to promote "Come Taste..." the band split with a whimper in April 1976.

At this point Deep Purple was history as various band members retired to lick their wounds. Tommy Bolin would be dead by the end of the year.

Subsequently all the members of the Mk2 and Mk3 line ups would go on to have considerable success in a number of bands including Rainbow (band), Whitesnake and Ian Gillan while there were 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.

Then in April 1984 it happened, it was announced on BBC radio's The Friday Rock Show that the "classic" Mk 2 line-up was reforming and were recording new material. The band signed a deal with Polydor in Europe and Mercury in North America. The album "Perfect Strangers" was released in October 1984 and the tour followed starting in New Zealand and winding its way across the world into Europe by the following summer. The UK homecoming proved mixed as they elected to play just a single festival show (with main support from The Scorpions). The weather was famously bad but 80,000 turned up anyway.

The line-up recorded and toured "The House of Blue Light" in 1987 though to lower sales, a live album "Nobody's Perfect" (1988) was culled from US shows on this tour. While in the UK a new version of Hush was released to mark 20 years of the band. 1989 saw the departure (again!) of Ian Gillan as relations with Blackmore soured. His replacement was American Joe Lynn Turner who had sung in Blackmore's Rainbow. This line up recorded just one album "Slaves and Masters" (1991) and toured it.

With the tour done Turner was forced to go as Jon Lord and Ian Paice realised they needed Gillan back in the fold. Blackmore relented and the band recorded "The Battle Rages On," which included material written by Turner. During the support tour, Blackmore walked out, never to return and leaving the band in a fix. Joe Satriani was drafted in, so the live dates (in Japan) could be completed. Satriani was asked to join full time, but declined. The band auditioned guitarists, and Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs impressed them enough to get the gig. The new line-up continued until 2002 when Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced he was to leave Deep Purple and pursue his solo career. Rock keyboard veteran Don Airey (Rainbow/Whitesnake, etc.), who had helped Purple out when Lord was injured in 2001, joined the band.

Members

Roundabout (circa 1968)

Deep Purple Mark I (April 1968 - June 1969): The original line-up.

Deep Purple Mark IIa (June 1969 - 30 June 1973)

Deep Purple Mark III (October 1973 - 5 April 1975)

Deep Purple Mark IV (1975 - July 1976 [last gig was March 15, 1976])

Deep Purple Mark IIb (reunion) (April 1984 - April 1989) Same lineup as Mk II above.

Deep Purple Mark V (Autumn 1989 - Autumn 1992)

Deep Purple Mark IIc (re-reunion) (Autumn 1992 - 17 November 1993) Same lineup as Mk II above.

Deep Purple Mark VI (December 2, 1993 - July 1994)


This is the only non-recording lineup.


Deep Purple Mark VII (November 1994 - February 2002)

Deep Purple Mark VIII (March 2002 - present)

Discography

Mk I

  • Shades of Deep Purple, September 1968; #24 US
  • The Book of Taliesyn , December 1968; #54 US
  • Deep Purple , November 1969; #162 US

Mk IIa

Mk III

  • Burn, February 1974; #3 UK, #9 US
  • Stormbringer, December 1974; #6 UK, #20 US
  • 24 Carat Purple (compilation), July 1975; #14 UK

Mk IV

  • Come Taste the Band , October 1975; #19 UK, #43 US
  • Deep Purple Live, November 1976; #12 UK, #148 US
  • The Mark II Purple Singles (compilation), April 1979; #24 UK
  • Deepest Purple (compilation), July 1980; #1 UK, #148 US
  • In Concert, December 1980; #30 UK
  • Deep Purple Live in London, September 1982; #23 UK

Mk IIb

  • Perfect Strangers, November 1984; #5 UK, #17 US
  • The House of Blue Light , January 1987; #10 UK, #34 US
  • Nobody's Perfect (live), July 1988; #38 UK, #105 US

Mk V

  • Slaves & Masters, 1990; #87 US

Mk IIc

  • The Battle Rages on..., July 1993; #21 UK, #192 US

Mk VII

  • Purpendicular, February 1996
  • Abandon, May 1998
  • 30: Very Best of Deep Purple, October 1998; #39 UK

Mk VIII

Hit singles

  • 1968 "Hush" #4 US
  • 1968 "Kentucky Woman" #38 US
  • 1970 "Black Night" #2 UK
  • 1971 "Strange Kind of Woman" #8 UK
  • 1971 "Fireball" #15 UK
  • 1972 "Never Before" #35 UK
  • 1973 "Smoke on the Water" #21 UK (1977 release), #3 US
  • 1977 "New Live and Rare EP" #31 UK

External links

  • The Highway Star http://www.thehighwaystar.com
  • Home page http://www.deep-purple.com/
  • Add Deep Purple to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/adpttra1/petition.html



Last updated: 02-07-2005 05:21:26
Last updated: 02-25-2005 01:04:06