Ritchie Blackmore ADIEU DEEP PURPLE And it is only at the end of the article the truth comes out fabulously! Ah, delicious suspense until the moment, Ritchie Blackmore, looks at his sauerkraut, mumbles final words that will wobble all true lovers of hard rock. But shhh, first things first: Cologne and Hamburg, Germany charming seaside resorts, and Deep Purple have to entertain children, two splendid concerts of a group regenerates. But those who saw him in Paris did not know they were living a historical moment, and their heart will be so heavy.... Deep Purple, eh? Millions of records sold, millions of fans around the world ... But anyone who truly loves rock and roll (the real thing) wrinkled his nose at the mere mention of the name. Ersatz brittannique and show-off, heavy Turkish delight for students in need of decibels, to be classified somewhere between Grand Funk and Yes ... Oh sure, we're all stuffed with "In Rock" in his time. After all, this album was it not the standard definition of a certain English hard-rock? Even the first Led Zeppelin, released shortly before, retained deep roots in blues, while "In Rock" was the birth of a new bastard, loudmouthed and conceited. Very exciting, but it already bearing the deformities that were grotesquely amplified among groups that followed, and that Uriah Heep was probably the most bloated mutation ... Purple their selves would repeat the recipe for years and the album covers became more hideous, with less and less conviction and more and more cumbersome... The revulsion had come to me in 72, during a concert at the Rainbow in London. This would be an understatement to say that I went to see Deep Purple in Germany with a bias. All there's to say after the first concert in Cologne, I liked what saw and heard. You do not expect that, hey? Me either. Suddenly, I could pack up the snide comments already and get ready to see Deep Purple from a new perspective ... Except the next day I went to Hamburg to discover that it was of limited importance anyway. But I look... ON THE ROAD The story begins in what is a sadly typical background of a big group on tour: the lobby of a large impersonal hotel, namely the Intercontinental in Cologne, but who cares, they all look alike. But yet it's for Deep Purple. Only a representative of their English editor, your servant, and a few people of the Dutch Purple fanclub... [check this article, Ed.] And then, there's in a corner a little girl who seems to wait too [That was Muriel, Rainbow's "Starstruck" is based on this girl, Ed.]. It's been over two weeks that the group is doing a European tour which will end on April 7 in Paris and began so busy in Yugoslavia. Today they're on the way from Frankfurt, where they spent one day of rest. At the stroke of four o'clock the revolving door brings the other actors in this drama. First; the entourage of the group, or more precisely the most important - another hotel in the city hosting the forty roadies and technicians who travel separately on a bus, while three (3) semi-trailers convey the material ... Among the few individuals who have just burst into the hotel a very typical character of the surrounding of a group on the road is involved: the tour manager. I dealt with his fellow at The Who and Zeppelin, for example, and it is always the same: busy, full of himself, often aggressive, a little masterpiece of rock, whom has the responsibility for the musicians and take care for all equipment ... and unwelcome. This one is called Ozzy Hoppe, he is German, and indeed he would be rather less unpleasant than most of his colleagues. While we talk, he prepares envelopes on behalf of each musician with their pocket money for day: DM 450 (900 F) each, they can see ahead. Finally, in succession, other cars bring the members of the group, Jon Lord first of all, the most English gentlemen as ever with his white suit, with Glenn Hughes, hair everywhere, laughing. It was an immediate rush of the Dutch Purple fanclub and the little girl suddenly get totally over-excited. The latter turns out to be French "You know, they know well ..." You bet he knew well: "It's been over a year that she travel throughout Europe and even went to the office of Purple Records in London, where her mother called one day because she was twenty years. I'm not sure she was older than only eighteen, and she seems to live in a strange fantasy. Funny? But her idol Ritchie went like a lightning before disappearing into the elevator. The types of the fanclub are forced to attack the late comers, Dave Coverdale, and Ian Paice, more hideous than ever with her new hair short. DAVE COVERDALE The hotel bar is named happily promising "Interview Bar" then I invite them to take Dave to two glasses ... The successor of Ian Gillan as lead singer is a strong boy from the north of England, a little heavy perhaps (literally and figuratively), but without any pretension. Certainly not the stuff that made the rock stars, but definitely a good guy, this time, he looks rather tired. "I'm getting tired of this tour ... It might be nice to get in hotels like this but they are so luxurious, it is still not home." Like the rest of the group, Dave now spends most of his time in Los Angeles. Not for pleasure but because of British taxes, like so many other musicians. Yet he insists with some indignation, he still considers England as his home, and it clearly is his biggest problem. "This is a fantastic country, which is only now getting screwed by bad governments. Now I can spend not more than 63 days per year in my own country. I do not want to leave. And then my accountant showed what I had earned with Deep Purple, I said, "Oh, fuck!" They take 98%! Before Deep Purple I was earning almost nothing, and everything I had the government left me. That was a few pounds a week, and now they want me to take 98%? I would not mind paying something reasonable, like 50% but not 98% crap! Ofcourse I earn a lot of money now, but how long is it going to last? Three or four years, maybe not, who knows I might work again in a store with some good memories? I want to have something left." As you can see, Dave is a good down-to-earth boy... The last time he was in Paris with the group, he was surprised that the French journalists seek political content. "I replied: Well, it's just fun." But unlike Ritchie Blackmore, who later admitted me hating the Parisian public ("It seems to be dealing with barbarians, they shout but you never know if it's because they love music or not."). Dave is looking forward to sing again in Paris... But we were talking about music, though? Dave joined Purple despite he had never been a professional musician, but he already wrote a lot for the group, especially for a new album which should be recorded in Munich in April, Immediately after the tour. "But as we worked almost constant for so long, it was preferable to have a holiday before recording. This will be the first that I had since I joined Deep Purple. Yet I know that after two weeks I start to get bored, damn, then I take a song, I bring together musicians and I will record a single..." SOLO PROJECTS For Dave, like all other members of the band, there are solo projects. "I'm absolutely in no hurry to make a solo album, but I want to keep it simple. Simple rock'n'roll. A hard dance. I like going to clubs, and it would be nice to see people dance on my record. I want to do something in the style of Little Feat. It is probably the best damn rock and roll band in the world. And their guitarist, Lowell George, is also quite a singer." Coverdale stated that he would record his single with the bassist and guitarist of Snafu, a group of friends of him. They are also from Northern England. And with Ian Paice and Jon Lord of Purple, plus a horn section. Jon Lord, however, continues to align projects grandest orchestral, pretending to be his ultimate goal to end all concertos, symphonies, sonatas and other pieces left by the greatest classical composers of the past. A noble task... Glenn Hughes, another newcomer of Deep Purple, is also engaged in a solo project which should give him no concern for the future, or at least enough to take his vacation. In the United States, at the end of the year he became very good friends with David Bowie. The latter also lives with him now, and even gossip started circulating about Angie Bowie and Glenn... More rumors, these strictly musical, associated the name of Glenn on various projects. I must say that this one (which is pro for much longer than Dave) is not only a bassist, he is also a singer with soulful timbre and a prolific composer. He also has written many titles, in principle, for the next Purple album and recording a solo album is already planned. It has Willie Weeks on drums. Jim McGrew (of Ike & Tina Turner's band) on guitar and Claudia Lennear, while the producer will of course Bowie. The future looks very promising for the young Glenn .... It's all very nice, you say, but .... what about Blackmore? Patience. For now, it might be time to remember that Deep Purple are ... again, go see what the band brings on the scene in Cologne. ELF (SUPER) This Easter Saturday here is a pretext for a sort of mini-festival in a large concrete building, and Deep Purple is headlining a series of groups that marched all the afternoon before a crowd freaks of German sprawled on the cement dust in the middle of empty beer cans ... The atmosphere is not too cool, including backstage where the German organizers are making a snapping frenzy. I found by happy cons Stan Webb and his cohorts, the bottle in his hand. He found a new name for the group Broken Glass.... (bof). But still they are Chicken Shack... But when he got there things are happening on stage, and what I hear makes me want to go there and look damn closer, a group of six members led to a cracking pace with a small singer with a mass of unkempt black hair is now boogie with an energy that expands my ears with joy ... Such a rhythm, it must be Americans, an Englishman has never been able to do that. And this pianist, he is dynamite, he juggles a ragtime, flirts with blues, dives head down in a rock'n'roll... Finally, there's that voice, the other five (bass, drums, percussion, piano, guitar) propel forward like an express train. The voice of this little guy is devastating so that Paul Rodgers sound like a choir boy and surveyed the scene as if the plates were hot! They finished on shock treatment of poor old "Good Day Sunshine" of the Beatles which leaves me breathless. Upon inquiry, they are Americans. They are called Elf and all from a town near Syracuse in upstate New York. They made two albums: the first for Columbia, the second for Purple Records, produced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover [actually it were Paice & Glover who produced this, Ed.], and they provide the first part of this whole European tour. Elf ... is not a name at the height of such a group, that makes them premium and could be confused with Emerson, Lake & Palmer .... But whatever the name, I'll be back a little further on the musicians. LIVE IN COLOGNE The venue is getting dark. We can catch sight of silhouettes entering the stage while people start shouting. Dave C greet the audience. What seem strange is that only Glenn and he, the "new comers", talk to the crowd. The 3 Deep Purple founding members did not say a word. After some flowing notes of introduction by Blackmore, the first chords of Burn explode in the powerful 12.000 watts sound system. The spotlights flash above the stage in red, blue, yellow and green. And their rays of light start dancing wondrously, following the intensity of the music. The usual smoke system is on too (oh no, not again...) and the impressive silhouette of Dave emerges from large curls of smoke. He screams until he almost drowns out Ian Paice's thunderous drumming. "Stormbringer", "Gypsy" and "Lady Double Dealer" followed and I quickly realised that the line-up of Deep Purple I had in front of me was totally different than the one who bored me last time I saw the band (it was the old line-up). Of course the sound is still there but all the bombast of the past almost disappeared and is replaced by a new form of unpretentious and simply exciting energy. After the show, Coverdale told me: "Yeah, we now leave the virtuoso thing to Yes". The absence of Ian Gillan's wide-range and often pompous style is for sure one of the reasons. Moreover, he was replaced by 2 equally powerful singers. Their styles are very different but they are both US inspired and complement each other very well. This gives the band more energy vocally speaking. Thus Dave and Glenn can interact to give almost every track more dramatic intensity without breaking the continuity. This was particularly well done during the breathtaking version of "Mistreated". Glenn Hughes' bass playing is also very important: he is funkier and more dynamic than Roger Glover (same remark concerning the way he behaves on stage!). He gives emphasis to Ian Paice's drumming instead of letting him sink into heaviness. Even the old "Smoke on the water" finds a never experienced kind of vitality. The welcome absence of pompous style in favour of a more direct approach has another consequence: Jon Lord's importance is more and more reduced. He is only given a chance to be an Emerson wannabee at the beginning of "You Fool No One" in a very short solo. Most of the time, he only contents himself with a sober accompaniment or even twiddles his thumbs. He only did a few spectacular interactions with Hughes' bass later on during the show. Moreover, "You Fool No One" is the perfect time for everyone in the band to let off steam, even for Ian Paice who offers us a little drum solo. Individual initiatives don't break the tracks' unity. This is a real change compared to the past. Visually speaking, the band looks a little better even if yet, none of the members can be considered as the rock star of your dreams. Glenn is the most captivating by the way he behaves on stage and by the way he moves his hair. Dave is a bit fat and is not really flashy. Even if the hole in his trousers' crotch (big laughs backstage after the show) does not make him look sexy, he has much more charisma on stage than the dull Ian Gillan. But, just like in the past, the man who is in control of the band, musically and on stage, is this silhouette, all dressed in black, on the right of the stage: Ritchie Blackmore. THE MAN IN BLACK From the first notes of Burn, his guitar proves to be the prevailing element in the band. And it was the same until the last notes of the encore, a medley of "Highway star" and Don Nix's "Going Down". He played the riff until complete disintegration. In addition to his outstanding technical virtuosity, I think he showed a feeling that he desperately lacked in the other band. At that time, he was already saying that he was not satisfied and he was talking about creating a trio with Ian Paice and a bass player. But if Deep Purple's music was alive that night, it was mainly thanks to him. Each note was a great moment, coming out of who knows where. His imagination when he plays is phenomenal. He never took the easy way consisting in playing notes after notes. He prefers to go and get the next one where you don't expect him to: at the other end of the neck, in his amp, even in a full bottle of wine. He used one as a slide on "Space Truckin'" before pouring the content on the first rows. This last song and "You Fool No One" were Ritchie Blackmore's most elaborate interventions. He played suites of phrases and sounds which came out sometimes in a very puzzling way and sometimes one after another in a meticulous construction until he reaches the climax of violence. Just for fun, he even played some "musical quotes" ranging from Bach to a Jimi Hendrix riff. Both have been a considerable influence for him... Especially the first! He said with a smile: "Bach is my hero," and the biography pages, many times traveled, lying around in his hotel room testified that he was not joking. Bach and classical music of the fifteenth century are two interests which he likes much. But more generally, his musical curiosity seems almost unlimited, because he always tries to introduce new musical structures in what he does. "It's amazing how many guitarists who always use the same old lines, they never dare to touch these Arab or Turkish ranges, for example, which are nevertheless interesting ..." Hendrix? "He influenced me a lot... He was brilliant, he really changed anything. What I liked about him is he was both a guitarist and a showman. He was not so good at first. At the time I've heard him for the first time, I was rather connected to people like Les Paul and Django Reinhardt, then I turned to those sounds he made ... It has taken almost a year before I liked it. But what was surprising is that because of the antics that made a lot of people said it was a bad guitarist and it took about three years to recognize it was a good guitarist. Just because he played behind his back. And for the same reason people who knew nothing thought it was the best. The contribution of this element was spectacular because it was interesting when we idolized Eric Clapton, who was content to stay there without moving and play.... By the way, I do not like Eric He was good... Clapton with Cream, but even then I knew so many guitarists who were also at least as good. But I do not think it was Eric's fault, it's just that people have told repeatedly he was the best. And he said: "Yes? Me?" And of course, Ritchie's favorite is Jeff Beck. Of course because after seeing him play in Cologne, it appeared to me obvious. There is something in the way of trying to make "something else" from his guitar which is very similar to the approach of Jeff. Blackmore, thirty years now, is basically one of Britain's most unsung guitarhero's, which is all the more surprising that it comes from the same crucible as Beck, Clapton and Page, what few people know. He did miss that job with the Yardbirds, probably! "Jeff and I get along pretty well, because he understands me and I understand him. I did some sessions with Jeff, produced by Jimmy Page, a long time ago. In '64. .... I think it was before he joined the Yardbirds. I remember, about '63, there were only few guitarists in the game: Jimmy Page, Jim Sullivan and three or four others ... Pagey, I knew him from when he was in a small group and I in mine and we where very often at the same shows. Then I watched how he played and it was like there was a sort of competition between us... He was friendly, but we were watching each other. He was with Neil Christian & the Crusaders, I was with Screamin 'Lord Sutch... It was in 1961, Jimmy Page was seventeen years old and I was sixteen ... He was perhaps better at the time than Page is now... very, very clever. He is the opposite of Jeff. Jeff is just a guitarist, Jimmy is not a guitarist but a businessman, a showman, who knows what else..." During a few years Ritchie did only work session. He did the same for Kim Fowley! He was fast enough, but it was too limited. He took his guitar and went to Hamburg, about '64-'65. "There was only room for bands like the Hollies in England. Up till '66-'67, with Hendrix and Cream, there was no room for a guitarist. All they wanted was singers. If you do not sing, you could starve as well... So I came here and worked with German bands, we played in clubs." His situation was no better in Hamburg, however. He lived in the worst hotels sharing rooms with rats... But clearly this city, where he spent over a year of his life and where he still have many friends, takes much to the heart. Especially since it is precisely that we are in Hamburg this afternoon, even if it evokes memories for me. He simply approach the window of his room at the 17th floor of the Plaza Hotel to find a familiar picture for him... THERE IS A ROCK'N'ROLL GUITARIST It was the day in Cologne that Ritchie had agreed to do this interview, to my surprise. He has a reputation for not liking journalists and more generally he is always a little off... including Deep Purple. "Yes... I tend to stick to keep away from everybody except my close friends. For this reason, since about five years or so I have always had a separate dressingroom backstage. This way I can hear my guitar strings ... I always stayed away from the rest of the group. There is little that interest me. I've been close with Paice at a time... I know all too well. They are all good guys, which is okay but I'm just like that, I do not want too sociable with them... I preferred to limit my contacts with them on stage. I really do not tell them anything apart from that. I talked to Jon the other day but did not talk to Dave or to Glenn on this tour... Only before entering the stage, we say "Are you okay?" and that's enough. The music fills all what remains." On stage, through his music, and even offstage, one quickly discovers Ritchie has a personality that is very different from theirs. More sensitive and too little to be more refined ... "Yes ... More sophisticated, I do not know, I'm most sensitive, sometimes against their attitude. For example, their humor is definitely not mine. Humor that I like is the stupid one which is not supposed to be funny! The good jokes do not make me laugh. When someone begins a historical style, "You know it's ...", I love spontaneous humor in a situation ... I think the other line-up of the group tend to be quite rude sometimes - I, too, of course, to them it seems it got repeated a lot: always the same stories, same jokes... I only do it when I want. I hate it when it turns into circus-style... You know "C'mon everybody, clap your hands." I hate it." In 1971 came an excellent album called "Bullfrog Green" (MCA MKPS 2021) that brought a jam of traditional blues and rock together, recorded in a studio and which included Ritchie and Ian Paice, albeit under pseudonyms ... "Oh, that... I did that with Albert Lee and Jim Sullivan. They are both fabulous guitarists... It is also the Jimmy Sullivan who taught me guitar... It is very difficult to play with guys as good as them. Me, I'm just a good rock'n'roll guitarist, but they are brilliant in classical, jazz, country & western, they can play anything. Oddly, rock is their only weakness, so that's all I had to play, but it was very difficult sometimes, because there were a few solos so beautiful... Albert especially, people do not know how good he is." Getting back to Deep Purple, still it was not really a rock'n'roll band, originally. At least as Ritchie formed it in early 1968, he returned to Hamburg, along with Jon Lord, Ian Paice, a singer and a bassist, when I saw them at the time in London playing "Help" on stage. Ritchie smiled at the memory. Purple would then have their first U.S. hits with "Hush," "Kentucky Woman" and "River Deep, Mountain High".... While Blackmore admits hating soul! And then came the classic albums.... "Yeah, we got rid of all that orchestral stuff later. What happened was that Jon did all the classical stuff, and I did all the rock. After we had done with this symphony orchestra thingy (the album "Live With The London Symphonic Orchestra"), I told Jon, "OK you did it, now it's my turn. So Ian (Gillan), Roger (Glover) and I were writing "In Rock" and I said if this disc is a success, we make rock'n'roll and you stop playing with those damn orchestras, because I was really tired. And that's what happened, then it became rock'n'roll, what I had always wanted to do anyway. But at first I was a little scared of overreaching during the first two years. I was content with myself and the rest more or less followed. And it is quite gotten to the point where these fucking bands made me want to scream, it was a real circus... Of course there were many problems between Jon and me, but not anymore because we each have our own truth, so to speak (smile)... He can play with symphony orchestras all he wants, I do not care, and he does not care what I do. While at first it annoyed me... Jon tended to work much more with his classical orchestra than with the group. But we shared the credits as five composers. He spent his nights composing for his orchestra and I write new songs for this band, he sometimes came to rehearsals without idea and he still wanted an equal share of royalties... It ended up being very mean, until I decided that each title would be credited to the person who had written it. Because since "In Rock" Jon has not contributed almost anything for the group, while he was writing all for an album with the orchestra. It was enough (laughs). Now we're good friends again..." After the brilliant "In Rock", however, Deep Purple did not hold much promise, in the opinion of many. "In Rock" was a good album because it represented the ideas that I accumulated with Ian (Paice) and Roger (Glover) for about a year and a half, and we took six months to save it. But the second (significant lapses: Ritchie obviously talking about the next album "Fireball") was made in just one week. We were touring like crazy and we were told that we must also make an LP. We had no ideas. We had to find everything in the studio, which is hopeless. Okay for one or two titles, at the most... "That's what happens with many bands that have success, in the beginning they are at best. After they are all the time on the road, the record company pushes to save it. They are afraid losing the luxury to which they are used, then they start to produce records like sausages... Deep Purple in fact three times a year, and that is too much. I think the public loses interest, we used a lot of crap like that. Of course, it pays a lot of money, but it is not fair for people or for musicians in the end. I, for example, I do not like two or three songs on "Stormbringer", I have got a test-pressing. I think that "Burn" was much better, it had more balls. I think "Machine Head" was good, and also "In Rock", the others seem well below the average... "This year, in fact, we made only two albums. We just cancel the recording of the third because... I do not want to play on it (Smile). So we'll just make a live LP from this tour." No new studio album by Deep Purple set then! Will there ever be another, with Ritchie Blackmore on it anyway? "Uh ... I think you can tell within a month." And he gave a little knowing smile. PREVIEW: BLACKMORE WITHOUT PURPLE In any case, which obviously takes more heart to it now, Ritchie's solo album that he has recorded in Munich. Solo? In fact we find the same formation throughout the disk and it is a group since there are four members of Elf, here we go again! These are the fabulous little singer I was talking about before, Ronnie James Dio, the rhythm section, Craig Gruber (bass), Gary Driscoll (drums), and of course the pianist, who also plays the mellotron and clavinet. The only other musicians are occasionally present Hugh McDowell, cellist of E.L.O and Soshana (an opera singer!). She is the American girl-friend of Ritchie. The album, as he made me listen to on tape, sounds much more like a homogeneous group than an individual adventure and ephemeral... "Elf was in the U.S. with us, and I noticed how good singer Ronnie was. It's incredible. He really knows how to improvise: we can give him a note, and from there he does what he wants. It's astounding, the sound engineer Martin Birch does not believe his ears. I ended up not understanding why.... I knew Ronnie was playing the trumpet... And then one day I wanted to record the song "Black Sheep of the Family", written by a guy named Steve Hammond. Deep Purple did not want it, because they will do only their own compositions, because of royalties. It makes me detest them, because I want to do anything as long as it's good. So I went to Ronnie and ask him to make a single. And then after recording, we thought it was so good we made another song, then another, and finally it is an LP we did." And what L.P.! What I heard on the stereo cassette in Hamburg... I was flabbergasted. The relationship with Deep Purple is very remote, there only remains occasionally the guitar tone of Ritchie. But in this new context, it really gives his full potential, as if he was finally free. His slide, for example, has the ample opportunity to finally be highlighted. It's rock'n'roll, but he has an overall color very original even down to it's aggressiveness. A subtle but incredibly effective solid boogie to the American musical structures and very unusual rock. This is what Ritchie's taste for music of medieval and Renaissance shows. Agreements to integrate the beat of rock and roll, and carry a far cry from the classic use of the efforts of Jon Lord (!) That pass completely unnoticed in the ears of the unwary listener. No pump, no emphasis need... only unusual flavor on tracks like "Man on the Silver Mountain" (a song which refers to the interest of Ritchie for magic), "Self Portrait", "Snake Charmer" and especially the remarkable "16th Century Greensleeves", which appear as though rockers equally dense and powerful than the more usual "If You Do not Like Rock'n'Roll". There are two tracks relatively slow, however: the long "Catch The Rainbow", which I found it dragged a bit but it actually require a few listens to be appreciated, as it's the more complex track, and "Temple Of The King" by that I found of a striking beauty. Finally, while the seven titles listed are already signed by Ritchie, the album includes two others that are not by him. A superb "Black Sheep Of The Family," and cited a frenzied instrumental resumption of the old "Still I'm Sad" by the Yardbirds, Beck's nod from the first to the last note and it is the testimony of the great class Blackmore. This album will be titled "Rainbow" and will be released probably next June. And it promises to be one of the great rock'n'roll albums of the year. In fact it appears to me in many ways exactly like the kind of record we would have expected from Jeff Beck, instead of the disappointing "Blow By Blow". After hearing this, however, we really wonder why would Blackmore should stay with Deep Purple, the difference is so obvious. "Yes, after that, it was difficult for me to listen to what Deep Purple wanted to record... That's why the new album has been officially announced and that Deep Purple would go on vacation (laughter)... And a definitive answer should come soon." But Ritchie and the four members of Elf, in any case have specific projects, Blackmore insists much of the fact that this is not a fad. "We want to go on the road. Of course this is not something like Deep Purple, because Purple has a name. We will play in smaller venues. And it depends on how the album will go... But we will do rehearsals for two or three months when we return from this tour. And anyway we've already planned a second............ But even if the group is successful, I do not want to fall into the same thing as Deep Purple. We do an album the first year and thereafter..." HAMBURG, IAN AND BIG JIM As predicted by Ritchie, the Hamburg public answers to their reputation as one of the worst that is both amorphous and aggressive. "Just think, once they even refused to play Bach in their cathedral if he does not pay!" Both are so good that Purple did not return, then the public expressing their displeasure by throwing beer cans at the stage... Still there was a gag, when Ian Paice had regained the rhythm of "You Fool No One" without giving Jon the leisure to begin his beloved solo, much to the fury of the latter ... The next day while Deep Purple went skiing in Austria, Ritchie remained in his beloved Hamburg along with his road manager and personal old friend, Ian Broad, and "Big Jim" Callaghan, the head of security. I meant more the role sweats, thankless but very important, these two types. First, because these are the most cooperative I have ever encountered in a group environment. And also because it is through the very good security that Big Jim's Purple concerts are among the coolest of all. He sincerely respect the kids who come to see the band, and it could give good lessons to our bouncers Paris... I'm dining with them three the next day, they evoked memories of their tour (there would be enough for a book), that explicitly Ritchie finally release the song. Yes, Deep Purple split up, and the concert in Paris will have been the last of the group's history. There will be a live album for fans. And for others the new group a great guitarist. © Herve Muller, Rock et Folk 1975 [Translated from French language] Thanks to Radislav for the scan