DEEP Purple is the very definition of a “band otai” (veteran or pioneering band), with a career spanning five decades. Few, if any, aside from the Rolling Stones, can boast of such longevity and still sell out tours when most of their peers have either left their mortal coil or are in nursing homes.
Deep Purple has been a going concern since 1968 and just released a critically acclaimed album last month =1.
Here are a few choice nuggets about one of heavy rock’s bona fide heavyweights.
Unholy trinity
The music press and many fans tend to pin ground zero for hard rock or heavy metal around the works of three British bands Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.
To add credence to the claim, Deep Purple is the authors of one of rock’s most recognisable anthems Smoke On The Water. You know you have made it when guitar shops ban customers and budding guitar gods from playing the opening power riff of the iconic song in their stores!
Modelled like cars
Deep Purple have gone through numerous line-up changes. Each line-up is identified by “Mk”, similar to old British car models. The band has four significant line-ups, thus carrying the MkI-IV denominations.
The MkII line-up is best known due to the aforementioned anthem and is also the most commercially successful with albums such as In Rock (1970), Fireball (1971) and Machine Head (1972) making significant impact on album charts upon initial release.
Rock trees
Some rock fans will be aware of “rock trees” – charts showing the movement of musicians from one band to another. This was highlighted in a scene in Jack Black’s comedy School of Rock, which outlined various musicians “branching out”. Deep Purple was very much part of that trend as its multiple line-up changes has seen the likes of Ian Gillan, David Coverdale (latterly of Whitesnake) and Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Rainbow) take microphone duties.
Gillan famously joined Black Sabbath for the ill-fated Born Again album while axe slinger supremo Ritchie Blackmore went on to form Rainbow, which featured Ronnie James Dio and later, Turner on vocals. Dio would later front Sabbath while Turner took lead vocal duties in Deep Purple’s Slaves and Masters.
Over the years, members of Deep Purple, Rainbow and Whitesnake seemed almost interchangeable. It is so convoluted that there is a dedicated Wiki page for ex-members of Deep Purple!
