Deep Purple Concerts and Interviews

Let's start with the present and work backwards: Deep Purple's 2004 calendar is blocked out for a five-month, sold-out tour of Europe, North America, Russia and Great Britain; today's version of the band is only a slight variation on the line-up from their 1984 reconstitution; a string of huge successes and massive popularity led members to the brink of emotional and physical fatigue and a bust-up in '74; most of the guys in this band were born in the late '40s. Viewed from this angle, Deep Purple jumps from anomaly to institution, and a remarkably durable and pertinent one at that. The present line-up of Gillan, Glover, Paice, Morse [a youngster born in '54] and Airey [in for Jon Lord in 2001] builds and refines the band's reputation on the early session work of Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Rod Evans and Nick Simper. This is a band for whom "... The music comes first," and from "Shades of Deep Purple" in '68 and "Machine Head" in '72 to "Slaves and Masters" in '90 and "Bananas" in 2003, the music and the men have matured....more