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Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968.[4] Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock,[5] although the members of the band have always refused to label themselves as heavy metal[6]. The band has also incorporated pop and progressive rock elements [5]. It was once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band,[5][7][8] and it has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.[9][10][11][12] Deep Purple was ranked #22 on VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock program.[13]
The band has gone through many line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus. The 1968-76 line-ups are commonly labelled Mark I, II, III and IV. [14][15] Their second and most commercially successful line-up featured: Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards), Roger Glover (bass guitar) and Ian Paice (drums).[8] This line-up was revived from 1984-89 and again in 1993 before the rift between Blackmore and other members became unbridgeable. The current line-up including guitarist Steve Morse has been much more stable, though Lord's retirement in 2002 has left Paice as the only original member.[16]
(19641968) Pre-Deep Purple years
In 1967, former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis contacted London businessman Tony Edwards in the hope that he would manage a new group he was putting together, to be called Roundabout: so-called because the members would get on and off the band, like a musical roundabout. Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to finance the venture with two business partners: John Coletta and Ron Hire (Hire-Edwards-Coletta - HEC Enterprises).
The first recruit was the classically-trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord, who had most notably played with The Artwoods (led by Art Wood, brother of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, and featuring Keef Hartley). He was followed by session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore who was persuaded to return from Hamburg to audition for the new group. Curtis soon dropped out, but HEC Enterprises, as well as Lord and Blackmore, were keen to carry on.
For the bass guitar, Lord suggested his old friend Nick Simper, with whom he had played in a band called The Flower Pot Men and their Garden (formerly known as The Ivy League) back in 1967. Simper's claims to fame (apart from Purple) were that he had been in Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and had been in the car crash that killed Kidd. He was also in Screaming Lord Sutch's The Savages, where he played with Blackmore.
The line-up was completed by singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice from The Maze. After a brief tour of Denmark in the spring of 1968, Blackmore suggested a new name: Deep Purple, which was his grandmother's favourite song.
(19681970) Breakthrough
In October 1968, the group had success with a cover of Joe South's "Hush", which reached #4 on the US Billboard chart. The song was taken from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, and they were booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour.
The band's second album, The Book of Taliesyn (including a cover of Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman"), was released in the United States to coincide with this tour, reaching #38 on the billboard chart, although it would not be released in their home country until the following year. 1969 saw the release of their third album, Deep Purple, which contained strings and woodwind on one track ("April"). Several influences were in evidence, notably Vanilla Fudge and Lord's classical antecedents such as Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov.
After these three albums and extensive touring in the States, their American record company, Tetragrammaton, went out of business, leaving the band with no money and an uncertain future. (Tetragrammaton's assets were assumed by Warner Bros. Records, who would release Deep Purple's records in the U.S. throughout the 1970's.) Returning to England in early 1969, they recorded a single called "Emmaretta", named for a cast member of the musical Hair, whom Rod Evans was trying to seduce, before Evans and Simper were fired.
The band hunted down singer Ian Gillan from Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without achieving their big break for commercial success. Six's drummer Mick Underwood - an old comrade of Blackmore's from his Savages days - made the introductions, and bassist Roger Glover tagged along for the initial sessions. Purple persuaded Glover to join full-time; an act that effectively killed Episode Six and gave Underwood a guilt complex that lasted nearly a decade - until Gillan recruited him for his new post-Purple band in the late 1970s.
This created the quintessential Deep Purple "Mark II" lineup, whose first, inauspicious release was a Greenaway-Cook tune titled "Hallelujah," which flopped.
The band gained some much-needed publicity with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Together with Five Bridges by The Nice, it was one of the first collaborations between a rock band and an orchestra, although at the time, certain members of Purple (Blackmore and Gillan especially) were less than happy at the group being tagged as "a group who played with orchestras" when actually what they had in mind was to develop the band into a much tighter, hard-rocking style. Despite this, Lord wrote and the band recorded the Gemini Suite, another orchestra/group collaboration in the same vein, in late 1970.
(19701976) Popularity and breakup
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 Deep Purple in Rock (a name deliberately chosen to distance the rock album from the concerto) and contained the then-concert staples "Speed King," "Into The Fire," and "Child in Time." The band also issued the UK Top Ten single "Black Night." The interplay between Blackmore's guitar and Lord's distorted organ, coupled with Ian Gillan's howling vocals and the rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now started to take on a unique identity and become instantly recognisable to rock fans throughout Europe.
A second album, the more mellow and creatively progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan but not of the rest of the band), was issued in the summer of 1971. The title track "Fireball" was released as a single, as was "Strange Kind of Woman" - not from the album but recorded during the same sessions (although it was included on the US version of the album in lieu of the UK version's song "Demon's Eye.")
Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which later became "Highway Star") was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus to a show in Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist's question: "How do you go about writing songs?" Three months later, in December 1971, the band traveled to Switzerland to record Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at a casino in Montreux, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention gig burned down the casino. The album was actually recorded at the nearby empty Grand Hotel. This incident famously inspired the song "Smoke on the Water." Gillan believes that he witnessed a man fire a flare gun into the ceiling during the concert, prompting Mark Volman of the Mothers to comment: "Arthur Brown in person!"
Continuing from where both previous albums left off, Machine Head has since become one of the band's most famous albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," "Lazy," and "Smoke on the Water." Deep Purple continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on: when Machine Head was recorded, the group had only been together three and a half years, yet it was their seventh LP. Meanwhile the band undertook four US tours in 1972 and the August tour of Japan that led to a double-vinyl live release, Made in Japan. Originally intended as a Japan-only record, its world-wide release saw the double LP become an instant hit. It remains one of rock music's most popular and highest selling live-concert recordings (although at the time it was perhaps seen as less important, as only Glover and Paice turned up to mix it).
The classic Purple Mk. II line-up continued to work and released the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), featuring the hit single "Woman from Tokyo," but internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. The bad feelings culminated in Ian Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, and Roger Glover being pushed out with him. Their replacements were an unknown singer from Saltburn in Northeast England, David Coverdale, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze. According to the liner notes for the 30th anniversary edition of Burn, after first acquiring Glenn Hughes, they debated continuing as a four piece with Hughes as both bassist and vocalist. This new line-up continued into 1974 with the heavier blues-rock album Burn, another highly successful release and world tour. Hughes and Coverdale added both vocal harmonies and a more funky element to the band's music, a sound that was even more apparent on the late 1974 release Stormbringer. Besides the title track, the album had a number of songs that received much radio play, such as "Lady Double Dealer," "The Gypsy," and "Soldier Of Fortune." Yet Blackmore voiced unhappiness with the album and the direction Deep Purple had taken. As a result, he left the band in the spring of 1975 to form his own band with Ronnie James Dio of Elf, called Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, later shortened after one album to Rainbow.
With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest bandmember vacancies in rock music. In spite of this, the rest of the band refused to stop, and to the surprise of many long-time fans, actually announced a replacement for the "irreplaceable" Man in Black; American Tommy Bolin.
There are at least two versions about the recruitment of Bolin: according to the liner notes in the Deep Purple 4-CD boxed set it was Coverdale who had suggested auditioning Bolin. "He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow, and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four Marshall 100-watt stacks and...the job was his." But in an interview originally published by Melody Maker in June 1975 and available at the Deep Purple Appreciation Society's (DPAS) website, Bolin himself claimed that he came to the audition following a recommendation from Ritchie Blackmore [1]. Bolin had been a member of many now-forgotten mid-60s bands - Denny & The Triumphs, American Standard, and Zephyr, which released three albums from '69-72. Before Purple, Bolin's best-known recordings were made as a session musician on Billy Cobham's 1973 jazz fusion album, Spectrum, and on The James Gang's Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). He had also jammed with such luminaries as Dr. John, Albert King, The Good Rats and Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo album, Teaser when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple.
The resulting album, Come Taste the Band, was released in October 1975. Despite mixed reviews, the collection revitalised the band once again, bringing a new, extreme funk edge to their hard rock sound. Bolin's influence was crucial, and with encouragement from Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the material. Later, Bolin's personal problems with drugs began to manifest themselves, and after cancelled shows and below-par concert performances, the band was in danger.
(19761984) Band split, side projects
In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place with the "classic" early 70s line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice. The album Perfect Strangers was released in October 1984. A solid release, it sold extremely well and included the singles and concert staples "Knockin' At Your Back Door" and "Perfect Strangers." The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and wending its way across the world to the USA, then into Europe by the following summer. Financially, the tour was also 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 bad, but 80,000 turned up anyway.
The line-up then released The House of Blue Light in 1987, which was followed by a world tour (interrupted after Blackmore broke a finger on stage) and another live album Nobody's Perfect (1988) which was culled from several shows on this tour, but still largely based around the by-now familiar Made in Japan set-list. In the UK a new version of "Hush" was released to mark 20 years of the band. In 1989, Ian Gillan was fired as his relations with Blackmore had again soured and their musical differences had widened too far. His replacement was former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. This line-up recorded just one album, Slaves & Masters (1990) and toured in support. It is one of Blackmore's favourite Purple albums, though some fans derided it as little more than a so-called "Deep Rainbow" album.
With the tour done, Turner was forced out, as Lord, Paice and Glover (and the record company) wanted Gillan back in the fold for the 25th anniversary. Blackmore grudgingly relented and the classic line-up recorded The Battle Rages On, but tensions between Gillan and Blackmore came to a head yet again during an otherwise stunningly successful European tour. Blackmore walked out in November 1993, never to return. Joe Satriani was drafted in to complete the Japanese dates in December and stayed on for a European Summer tour in 1994. He was asked to join permanently, but his record contract commitments prevented this. The band unanimously chose Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse to become Blackmore's permanent successor.
(1994present) Revival with Steve Morse
Steve Morse's arrival revitalised the band creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles. With a revamped set list to tour, Deep Purple enjoyed success throughout the rest of the 1990s, releasing the harder-sounding Abandon in 1998, and touring with renewed enthusiasm. In 1999, Jon Lord, with the help of a fan who was also a musicologist and composer, painstakingly recreated the Concerto for Group and Orchestra; the original score having been lost. It was once again performed at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1999, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. The concert also featured songs from each member's solo careers, as well as a short Deep Purple set, and the occasion was commemorated on the 2000 album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. In early 2001, two similar concerts were performed in Tokyo and released as part of the box set The Soundboard Series.
Much of the next few years was spent on the road touring. The group continued forward until 2002, when founding member Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced his amicable retirement from the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work). Rock keyboard veteran Don Airey (Rainbow/Ozzy Osbourne), who had helped Deep Purple out when Lord's knee was injured in 2001, joined the band. In 2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in five years, working with new producer Michael Bradford, the highly praised (but controversially titled) Bananas, and began touring in support of the album immediately. In July 2005, the band played at the Live 8 concert in Park Place (Barrie, Ontario) and, in October of the same year, released their next album Rapture of the Deep. It was followed by the Rapture of the Deep tour.
In February 2007, Ian Gillan asked fans not to buy a live album being released by Sony BMG. This was a recording of their 1993 appearance at the NEC in Birmingham. Recordings of this show have previously been released without resistance from Gillan or any other members of the band, but he said: "It was one of the lowest points of my life - all of our lives, actually."[18]
Deep Purple are considered to be one of the hardest touring bands in the world.[19] [20] [21] From 1968 until today they continue to tour around the world on all 6 continents. In 2007 they received special award for selling more than 150 000 tickets in France with 40 dates in the country in 2007 alone.[22] In 2007, Purple's Rapture of the Deep Tour was voted #6 concert tour of the year (in all music genres) by Planet Rock listeners.[23]. Rolling Stones's A Bigger Bang Tour was voted #5 and beat Purple's tour with only 1%. Deep Purple is due to release new live compilation DVD box, Around the World Live, in May 2008. In February of 2008, the band made their appearance in Russia [24]at the personal request of Dmitry Medvedev who at the time was considered a shoo-in for the seat of the Presidency of Russia.
Current members
Former members
The various line-ups in the history of Deep Purple are referred to by fans and the band themselves by "Mark" numbers (abbreviated as Mk I, Mk II, etc.) The "gap" in the numbering, Mk VI, refers to the series of concerts performed with Joe Satriani on guitar, when Ritchie Blackmore quit the band halfway through the tour in 1994. This is the only lineup for which no official recordings have yet been released.
Shades of Deep Purple, September 1968 (UK) Mk I
Shades of Deep Purple is the debut album by English hard rock band Deep
Purple, released in 1968 on Parlophone in the UK and Tetragrammaton in
the United States. The album reached #24 on Billboard's Pop Album charts
in the U.S.
Bonus tracks on the CD re-issue
Released July 1968 (US) September 1968 (UK)
Recorded May 11 - May 13, 1968 Pye Studios, London
Genre Hard rock, Progressive rock
Length = 43:29 (Original LP) 64:01 (2000 CD edition)
Label Parlophone (UK) Tetragrammaton (US)
Producer Derek Lawrence
The Book of Taliesyn, December 1968 (US), July 1969 (UK) Mk I
The album follows the psychedelic/progressive rock sound of Shades of
Deep Purple; however, there is a harder edge to several songs, beginning
to show the new sound Deep Purple would introduce in 1970 with Deep Purple
in Rock.
Bonus tracks on the CD re-issue
Released October, 1968 (US) July, 1969 (UK)
Recorded August 1968 at De Lane Lea, London
Genre Hard rock, progressive rock
Length 43:57 (Original LP) 65:19 (2000 CD edition)
Label Harvest Records (UK) Tetragrammaton (US)
Producer Derek Lawrence
Deep Purple, June 1969 (US), November 1969 (UK) Mk I
Tetragrammaton ran into difficulty over the use of the Museo del Prado-owned
Hieronymus Bosch painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights". The original
painting is in colour although it appears in monochrome here due to a
printing error for the original layout and the band opted to keep it that
way.
Bonus tracks on the CD re-issue
Released June, 1969 (US) November, 1969 (UK)
Recorded January to March 1969 at De Lane Lea, London
Genre Hard rock
Length 44:34 (Original LP) 59:26 (2000 CD edition)
Label Harvest Records (UK) Tetragrammaton (US)
Producer Derek Lawrence
Deep Purple in Rock, June 1970 (UK) Mk IIa
Deep Purple in Rock is an album by English rock band Deep Purple, released
in June 1970. It was their fourth studio album, and the first with the
classic Mk II lineup. Deep Purple in Rock was their breakthrough album
in Europe and would peak at #4 in the UK, remaining in the charts for
months.
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
25th anniversary bonus tracks
Released June, 1970
Recorded August 1969 - May 1970 IBC, De Lane Lea & Abbey Road Studios
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal
Length 41:46 (Original LP) 78:27 (1995 CD edition)
Label Harvest Records (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Deep Purple
Fireball, May 1971 (US), September 1971 (UK) Mk IIa
Fireball is a hard rock album by English rock band Deep Purple, released
in 1971. It was their fifth studio album, and the second with the classic
Mk II lineup. It was recorded at various times between September 1970
and June 1971. It would become the first of the band's three UK #1 albums.
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice except where indicated.
25th anniversary bonus tracks
Original US/Canadian/Japanese release
Released July, 1971 (US and Canada), September 1971 (UK and Europe)
Recorded September 1970 to June 1971, London
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal
Length 38:40 (Original LP) 78:46 (1996 CD edition)
Label Harvest Records (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Deep Purple
Machine Head, March 1972 (UK) Mk IIa
Machine Head is the sixth Deep Purple studio album. It was recorded at
the Grand Hotel Montreux, Switzerland in December 1971 with the Rolling
Stones Mobile Studio, and released in March 1972. The album is often cited
as being very influential in the development of the heavy metal music
genre. It is Deep Purple's most successful recording, topping the charts
in several countries following its release. In 2001 Q magazine named it
as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
25th anniversary reissue on CD
Disc one: The 1997 Remixes
Disc two: The Remasters
25th anniversary bonus tracks
Released March, 1972
Recorded December 6, 1971 December 21, 1971, Montreux, Switzerland
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal
Length 37:25 (original LP) 96:34 (1997 2CD edition)
Label EMI/Purple (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Deep Purple
Who Do We Think We Are, February 1973 (UK) Mk IIa
Who Do We Think We Are is the fourth studio album by the Mark II lineup
of English rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded in Rome (in July 1972)
and Frankfurt (October 1972) using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. It
was Deep Purple's seventh studio album, and the last one with the classic
Mark II lineup of the group until Perfect Strangers (1984).
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
Remastered Edition bonus tracks
Released January, 1973 (US) February, 1973 (UK)
Recorded July, 1972 (Rome) October, 1972 (Frankfurt)
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal
Length 34:27 (Original LP) 72:31 (2000 CD edition)
Label EMI/Purple (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Deep Purple
Burn, February 1974 (UK) Mk III
Burn is the eighth studio album by hard rock group Deep Purple. It was
recorded in Montreux, Switzerland in November 1973 with the Rolling Stones
Mobile Studio, and released in February 1974.
It introduced new lead vocalist David Coverdale and new bassist/vocalist
Glenn Hughes from Trapeze. They replaced Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.
This was the first Deep Purple album with the Mark III lineup. With the
addition of Coverdale and Hughes, Purple's hard rock sound became more
boogie oriented, incorporating elements of soul and funk which would become
much more prominent on the follow up album, Stormbringer.
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Jon Lord and Ian Paice except where indicated.
30th anniversary bonus tracks
Glenn Hughes participated in songwriting, but wasn't given credit due to unexpired contractual obligations. However the 30th anniversary edition of the album included Hughes in the credits for all the tracks except "Sail Away" and "Mistreated".
Released February 15 1974
Recorded November, 1973 Montreux, Switzerland
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal
Length 41:37 (Original LP) 72:00 (2004 CD edition)
Label EMI/Purple TPS 3505 (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Deep Purple
Stormbringer, December 1974 (UK) Mk III
Stormbringer is the ninth studio album by Deep Purple, released in November
1974. On this album, the soul and funk elements that were only hinted
at on Burn are much more prominent. This shift in direction was not supported
by Ritchie Blackmore, who departed the band not long after Stormbringer
was released.
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice except where indicated.
The name "Stormbringer" comes from the fantasy works of Michael Moorcock. In Moorcock's novels, Stormbringer is an evil magical sword that drains the souls of all the people it kills. According to Moorcock, the members of Deep Purple were familiar with his work before they chose that name, but were under the misimpression that the name "Stormbringer" was from ancient mythology, when in fact it was invented by Moorcock.
Released November, 1974
Recorded August 1974
Genre Hard rock
Length 36:31
Label EMI/Purple (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Martin Birch & Deep Purple
Come Taste the Band, October 1975 (UK) Mk IV
Come Taste the Band is an album by the hard rock band Deep Purple recorded
between August 3rd and September 1st, 1975 at Musicland Studios in Munich,
Germany. The album was co-produced and engineered by the band and longtime
band associate Martin Birch. The album was released in October 1975. It
was the only studio album with Tommy Bolin, who replaced Ritchie Blackmore
on lead guitar. When guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, many
observers and critics assumed that Deep Purple would not continue. It
was David Coverdale who asked Jon Lord to keep the band together, and
Tommy Bolin was asked to take the guitar slot.
Musically, the album is far more commercial than previous Deep Purple
releases, tending toward a conventional hard rock focus with overtones
of soul and funk. The album shows the strong influence of Glenn Hughes
on the band at this point, who had formed a bond with the equally commercially-minded
Bolin. In general the album is considered one of Deep Purple's lesser
efforts, although it did sell reasonably well on release (#19 in the UK
charts, and #43 in the US). After tours for this album, Deep Purple broke
up for eight years. In 1976 Tommy Bolin died from a heroin overdose.
Released October, 1975
Recorded August 3rd, 1975 - September 1st, 1975
Genre Hard rock
Length 36:55
Label EMI/Purple (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Martin (The Wasp) Birch & Deep Purple
Perfect Strangers, October 1984 (Germany) Mk IIb
Perfect Strangers is the eleventh studio album by Deep Purple, released
in November 1984. It represents the first album recorded by the reformed,
and most successful and popular, 'Mark II' line-up.[1] It was the first
Deep Purple album in nine years, and the first with the Mk II lineup for
eleven years, the last being Who Do We Think We Are in 1973.
All songs by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover except where noted.
Bonus track on the CD and the 1999 CD re-issue
Bonus track on the 1999 CD re-issue
Released November, 1984
Recorded August, 1984
Genre Hard rock
Length 39:28 (Original LP) 44:13 (Original CD) 54:15 (1999 CD re-issue)
Label Polydor (UK) Mercury Records (US)
Producer Roger Glover & Deep Purple
The House of Blue Light, January 1987 (Germany) Mk IIb
The House of Blue Light is the twelfth studio album by Deep Purple, released
in 1987. It is the second recording by the re-formed Mark II lineup.
The album's creation was an exceedingly long and difficult process, and
Ritchie Blackmore has said that much of it was re-recorded. Ian Gillan
has remarked on how strained relations within the band compromised the
album: "I look back at House Of Blue Light, there are some good songs
on that record, but theres something missing in the overall album. You
cant feel a spirit of the band, you can see or hear five professionals
doing their best, but its like a football team, its not functioning.
Its like eleven superstars that are playing on the same field but are
not connected by the heart or by the spirit".
Several tracks on the LP version are shorter than those of the original
CD released in 1987. The 1999 CD remaster used the original vinyl master
tapes, and so its running time is correspondingly shorter than the original
CD version as well.
Released January 12, 1987 Recorded 1986, The Playhouse, Stowe, Vermont
Genre Hard rock
Length 46:16 (Original LP) 50:38 (1987 CD edition)
Label Polydor (UK) Mercury Records (US)
Producer Roger Glover & Deep Purple
Slaves & Masters, October 1990 (Germany) Mk V
Slaves & Masters is the thirteenth studio album by Deep Purple, it was
released in 1990. This is the only album to feature singer Joe Lynn Turner,
who had replaced Ian Gillan the previous year.
Release on vinyl
Release on CD
In addition to the tracks on Slaves And Masters, there were two other Mk 5 songs released in 1990-91. One was "Slow Down Sister" (b-side of the "Love Conquers All" 12" and CD single), the other "Fire, Ice and Dynamite" (an S&M outtake adapted for the Fire, Ice and Dynamite action movie, in preference to a Harold Faltermeyer song which it was suggested they perform.) The track was released on the CD of the movie soundtrack. Jon Lord doesn't appear on it, the synthesizers being played by Roger Glover.
Released October 1990
Genre Hard rock
Length 46:51
Label BMG (UK) RCA (US)
Producer Roger Glover
The Battle Rages on..., July 1993 (Europe) Mk IIc
The Battle Rages On is the fourteenth studio album by Deep Purple, released
in 1993. It's the last album recorded with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore,
who quit during the tour in November 1993.
The band's classic Mk II line-up reunited for a second time (the first
being 1984's Perfect Strangers). Departed vocalist Joe Lynn Turner once
referred to this album as "The Cattle Grazes On", claiming that much stronger
material existed for the album until he was fired from the band and Ian
Gillan returned and reworked much of it.
All songs written by Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover except where indicated.
Released July 1993
Recorded Bearsville Studios Red Rooster Studios Greg Rike Studios
Genre Hard rock
Length 49:25
Label BMG (UK) Giant Records (US)
Producer Thom Panunzio & Roger Glover
Purpendicular, February 1996 (Europe) Mk VII
Purpendicular is the fifteenth studio album by English rock band, Deep
Purple. Recorded at Greg Rike Productions, Orlando, Florida, February
to October 1995, engineered by Darren Schneider and Keith Andrews. Like
the band's following album, Abandon, the album's title was a pun based
around the band's name and the word "Perpendicular".
It was released in 1996 and it's their first album with Steve Morse, guitarist
of Dixie Dregs. It has a more experimental feel than previous albums,
and displays the difference between Blackmore-era Deep Purple and Morse-era
Deep Purple. "The Aviator" has an arrangement unlike anything else the
band has previously attempted. Several of the songs, such as Vavoom: Ted
the Mechanic feature smaller keyboard parts, and mainly center around
the guitar parts. Another new addition to the guitar playing was the use
of pinch harmonics, very notably used on "Vavoom: Ted the Mechanic" and
"Somebody Stole My Guitar".
"Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" and "Vavoom: Ted the Mechanic" remained
regular features in Deep Purple's live setlist in recent tours.
All songs written by Ian Gillan, Steve Morse, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice.
Bonus track (Japanese and US editions)
Released February, 1996 (UK) April, 1996 (US)
Recorded 1995 to 1996
Genre Hard rock
Length 62:16 Label BMG (UK) CMC International / Prominent Records (US)
Producer Deep Purple
Abandon, May 1998 (Europe) Mk VII
Abandon is an album by Deep Purple, recorded at Greg Rike Studios, Orlando,
Florida, during 1997/98. Engineered by Darren Schneider. It was released
in 1998. Uniquely for a Deep Purple studio album, it features a reworking
of a previously recorded song -"Bloodsucker" from Deep Purple in Rock
(here re-titled "Bludsucker"). The album title is actually a pun from
Ian Gillan - "A Band On" - and the album was followed by the "A Band On
Tour". "Don't Make Me Happy" was mistakenly mastered in mono, and not
amended on the final release.
"Fingers to the Bone" is widely suspected to have been written about former
Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
All songs by Ian Gillan, Steve Morse, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, except where noted.
Released June 2, 1998
Recorded 1997 to 1998
Genre Hard rock
Length 57:07 Label EMI (UK) CMC International (US) Aquarius (Canada)
Producer Deep Purple & Roger Glover
Bananas, August 2003 (Europe) Mk VIII
Bananas is the 17th studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, released
on 2003-10-07. It includes "Contact Lost", a short, slow instrumental
about the Columbia astronauts, written by guitarist Steve Morse when he
heard the sad news of the crash.
This is the first Deep Purple album to feature Don Airey on the keyboards,
replacing founding member Jon Lord. The album was recorded in Los Angeles
during January and February of 2003.
All songs written by Ian Gillan, Steve Morse, Roger Glover, Don Airey, and Ian Paice except where noted.
Released September 9, 2003
Recorded January-February 2003 Los Angeles
Genre Hard rock
Length 51:25 Label EMI (UK) Sanctuary Records (US)
Producer Michael Bradford
Rapture of the Deep, November 2005 (MkVI)
Rapture of the Deep is the 18th studio album by English hard rock band
Deep Purple, released in November 2005.
It is the fourth studio album from Deep Purple since Steve Morse joined
the band in 1994. It is also the second album to feature veteran keyboardist,
Don Airey. The album was produced by Mike Bradford, who also produced
the band's previous release, Bananas. Like Bananas, the album was met
with a generally positive response from critics and fans. Rapture of the
Deep is Deep Purple's first release on edel records all over the world
(with the exception of the USA where the record has been released by edel
long time partner label Eagle Records).
The album peaked on Billboard's USA "Top Independent Album" Chart at position
#43. It is band's first USA charted album since 1993 album The Battle
Rages On. It achieved considerable chart success in Europe, making the
top 20 in several countries. Vocalist Ian Gillan has stated that Rapture
of the Deep is their best-selling album since the 1984 reunion album Perfect
Strangers.
The track "Wrong Man" was written about Wayne Williams who has been incarcerated
for child murders in the United States. Ian Gillan frequently dedicates
the song to him during live performances.
All songs written by Ian Gillan, Steve Morse, Roger Glover, Don Airey, and Ian Paice, except where noted
Special Tour 2 CD Edition (Released June 2006)
CD 1 (The full studio album)
CD 2 (Bonus material: remixes, studio version of instrumental, live tracks)
Live tracks recorded October 10, 2005 at London's Hard Rock Cafe
Released November 1, 2005
Recorded MarchJune, 2005
Genre Hard rock
Length 55:48
Label Edel (UK) Eagle Records (US)
Producer Michael Bradford
Concerto for Group and Orchestra
Live in Concert 72/73
California Jam / Live in California 74
Rises Over Japan
Special Edition EP
Come Hell or High Water
Bombay Calling
Live at Montreux 1996
Total Abandon
Australia '99
In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra
New, Live & Rare
Perihelion
Live Encounters
Classic Albums:
Deep Purple - Machine Head
They All Came Down to Montreux
Around The World Live
1968 "Hush" #4 US
1968 "Kentucky Woman" #38 US
1969 "River Deep - Mountain High" # 53 US
1970 "Black Night" #2 UK, # 66 US
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), # 4 US
1973 "Woman From Tokyo" # 60 US
1974 "Might Just Take Your Life" # 91 US
1977 "New Live and Rare EP" #31 UK (including an unheard live version of Black Night)
1978 "New Live and Rare EP II" # 45 UK
1980 "Black Night" (reissue) # 43 UK
1980 "New Live and Rare EP III" # 48 UK (including Smoke on the Water)
1985 "Knocking at Your Back Door" # 61 US
1985 "Perfect Strangers" # 48 UK
1985 "Knocking at Your Back Door / Perfect Strangers" # 68 UK
1988 "Hush" (re-recording) # 62 UK
1990 "King Of Dreams" # 70 UK
1991 "Love Conquers All" # 57 UK
1995 "Black Night" (reissue) # 66 UK (remastered CD single)
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