Deep Purple Caricature

Deep Purple Caricature, illustrated here in London, 1972 in their Mark II line up (clockwise), with Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Roger Glover (bass), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums) and Ian Gillan (vocals).

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford, Hertfordshire, in 1968.
During a brief tour of Denmark and Sweden in April 1968, in which they were still billed as Roundabout, Blackmore suggested a new name: “Deep Purple”, named after his grandmother’s favorite song.

Their 1970 album, In Rock (a name supported by the album’s Mount Rushmore-inspired cover), which contained the then-concert staples “Speed King”, “Into The Fire” and “Child in Time”.

A second album, the creatively progressive Fireball, was issued in the summer of 1971, reaching number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. The title track “Fireball” was released as a single, as was “Strange Kind of Woman”.

In early December 1971, the band travelled to Switzerland to record Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at the Montreux Casino using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert, caused by a man firing a flare gun into the ceiling, burned down the Casino. This incident famously inspired the song “Smoke on the Water”. The album was later recorded in a corridor at the nearby empty Grand Hôtel de Territet, with the exception of the music track to “Smoke on the Water”. That was recorded at a vacant theatre called The Pavillon, before the band was asked to leave.
It included tracks that became live classics, such as “Highway Star”, “Space Truckin'”, “Lazy” and “Smoke on the Water”.

The classic Deep Purple Mark II line-up continued to work, and released the album Who Do We Think We Are in 1973. Spawning the hit single “Woman from Tokyo”, the album hit No. 4 in the UK charts and No. 15 in the US chart, while achieving gold record status faster than any Deep Purple album released up to that time.

In July 2011, Lord was found to be suffering from pancreatic cancer. After treatment in both England and in Israel, he died on 16 July 2012 at the London Clinic after suffering from a pulmonary embolism. He was 71.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

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