Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English hard rock band formed in London, England in 1968 (see 1968 in music). Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be one of the pioneer contributors to the Heavy metal and the hard rock genre, although they have never seen themselves as a heavy metal band. To date, the band has sold over 100 million albums
The band Episode Six released several singles in the UK during the mid-sixties. It featured Ian Gillan on vocals, Graham Dimmock on guitar, Roger Glover on bass, Tony Lander on guitar, Sheila Carter on keyboards, and Harvey Shields on the drums. Despite extensive touring, they never had their big break..
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 and contained concert staples Speed King, Into The Fire and Child in Time. The band also issued the UK Top Ten single Black Night. Blackmore's and Lord's guitar-keyboard interplay coupled with Ian Gillan's howling vocals and the solid rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now started to become instantly recognizable. A second album, the slightly more mellow and progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan's but not of Blackmore's), was issued in the summer of 1971, creating a number of favourites (Fireball, Demon's Eye, Fools and No One Came). The band also scored another chart hit with Strange Kind Of Woman. Together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Purple were laying the groundwork for what is now called heavy metal music, although at the time, the phrase was still wholly unknown.
In 1980, Rod Evans, along with a group of unknown musicians, toured under the banner of Deep Purple. As the only original member, and one little known to most fans, this band was instantly derided by press and fans as a fraud. The lineup performed concerts in Mexico and the USA before legal action was taken to deny them the use of the name. In retrospect, however tenuous the connection this band had to the name "Deep Purple", it at least kept the name alive and in the media, albeit briefly. More information on this "fake" Deep Purple is available here and here.
However, in April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion happened. It was announced on BBC radio's The Friday Rock Show that the "classic" early 70s line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, and Paice was reforming and 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, creating a number of favourites (Knockin' At Your Back Door, Under The Gun, Gypsy's Kiss and of course Perfect Strangers). The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and winding its way across the world into Europe by the following summer. It was 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 famously bad but 80,000 turned up anyway.