Deep Purple

Deep Purple are one of Britain's foremost hard rock bands, having sold over 100 million copies of their 18 studio albums. The membership of Purple has included some of the most respected members of heavy rock's hall of fame, though Ian Paice is the only original member still with the band.

The original band was named Roundabout and the founder members were Chris Curtis (whose idea the band was), Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, Rod Evans, Ian Paice and Nick Simper. They changed their name to Deep Purple before they had their first hit in America, "Hush", from their debut album, Shades of Deep Purple. The two follow-up albums were Book of Taliesyn and the self-titled Deep Purple.

Three albums into their career their American record company folded. Deep Purple returned to Britain and fired Evans and Simper, recruiting Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to replace them. This line-up is still regarded as the classic Purple line-up. After a brief detour to record Concerto for Group and Orchestra the band returned to its hard rocking roots. The result was Deep Purple in Rock, the first of several classic releases from the band, containing the tracks "Speed King" and "Child in Time". Not included on the album but recorded at the same time, was the hit single "Black Night". It was followed by Fireball and finally, Machine Head, one of their most famous albums which contained the key tracks "Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star", "Space Trucking" and "Lazy".

By this time inner tensions were beginning to fracture the harmony and by 1973's Who Do We Think We Are, Gillan and Glover were gone, replaced by David Coverdale and Glen Hughes. They released two albums Burn and Stormbringer, but Blackmore wasn't happy and in 1975 he left to form Rainbow.

Tommy Bolin was Blackmore's replacement and together they recorded Come Taste the Band, which marked a stylistic change to a funkier rock groove. But Bolin had substance abuse problems which caused problems within the band, leading to poor live performances and cancelled shows and, in 1976, David Coverdale could take no more and left, preceding the official break up of the band by months. Bolin was dead before the year was out; he had overdosed on drugs.

The various members of the fractured band went on to find success with other bands including Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Gillan. Attempts were made to resuscitate Deep Purple, but nothing significant arose for eight years. In 1984 the classic line-up (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice) announced they would be reforming and quickly released Perfect Strangers. Unfortunately, after 1986's The House of Blue Light, a tour, and an album of the tour Nobody's Perfect (1988), relationships soured once more and in 1989 Gillan was sacked again. Joe Lynn Turner joined Purple for just one album, 1990's Slaves and Masters, but fan stalwarts, Lord, Paice and Glover, all wanted to see Gillan back in the fold. He agreed to return and they all recorded The Battle Rages On, but the primary tension between Blackmore and Gillan was such that Blackmore eventually walked out. Joe Satriani was drafted in to replace him for the planned tour, but when he couldn't stay on as a result of contractual obligations, Steve Morse joined the band.

Morse's arrival marked a more settled period for the band through the 90s. They released Purpendicular and Abandon and revisited their album Concerto for Group and Orchestra. In 2002, Lord announced his retirement. He was replaced by Don Airey and the band released Bananas. Their most recent release was 2005's Rapture of the Deep.In 2006, a speciale 2cd-edition is available (one cd is live recording from Hard-rock cafe in london). A new release is awaited for 2010!