Deep Purple band explains the reason for the departure of an Icon
The parting of IG and DP happened twice – in 1973, both he and Roger left, with what at the time seemed to be mutual agreement. They were worn out from touring, there were musical differences with them and Ritchie. Of course, they both came back when the group reformed in 1984.
Then, in 1990 or 91, Ritchie and Ian again had major differences, and Ian quit, to be replaced by Joe Lynn Turner for one album. The album wasn’t well received, and the record company and management forced RB to accept Ian back into the band. But that rankled RB, and he famously quit in 1993.
Ritchie and Ian just couldn’t work together. Both Type A, both wanted the band to follow THEIR musical lead. In addition, Ritchie couldn’t abide Ian’s sometimes lackadaisical approach to on-stage performance (e.g. being sloshed, forgetting lyrics, etc) so that was that.
It’s too bad, since every other band with a mercurial, talented singer and lead guitarist seems to always get along – Just ask Eddie Van Halen, or Slash, or Pete T.
It’s an interesting observation that bands with a singer/guitarist combo that HAS stood the test of time, seem to be those bands where the two were schoolboy chums and have known each other forever – e.g. Mick and Keith.
Bands where the pair don’t get together until the actual band started to exist seem to be more troublesome.
Other Views
The right answer is who were the two responsible. But there is likely a better answer than that.
There was a bigger issue at play, which is lack of a stronger-handed management – think Led Zeppelin’s Peter Grant.
That was great for artistic freedom, but not good enough for the money side and particularly not good for stress management.
Part of the tension in the band which led to Mk2 breaking up was due to their breathtaking touring schedule at the peak of their popularity.
Gillan and Blackmore were best friends in the first couple of years of Mk2. They still speak highly of each other’s talent. But then what happened was work. Lots of work.
Sure, they have strong personalities. But their touring calendar was relentless.
After In Rock, especially in the Fireball tour in 1971, they saw a too much of each other. In July, they did 23 gigs in 31 days. Five young men on the road, two bigger egoes than average, you figure.
Other Views
Their decisions, musical taste, tension between their bandmates etc.
- Deep Purple was actually formed by Chris Curtis of The Searchers. And he was even leader for Deep Purple for very short time.
- Jon Lord of Deep Purple was called in the band as an organist. Then Nick Simper and Carlo Little. Ritchie Blackmore joined by the suggestion of Nick. But Chris had been addicted to drugs and decided to left or simply vanish from the band. While Lord and Blackmore decided to keep on going. But Carlo got left behind and was replaced by bobby Woodman. And few month later they needed a vocalist cause Chris was not there. So, Rod Evans got recruited. And soon Ian Paice was replaced by Woody because Ritchie Blackmore was amazed by his performance.
This the first line up was complete and they recorded their first album.
- The second one was at their first era they were mainly a psychedelic rock band. But grew their taste for classical music. Jon Lord mainly started the idea. Cause he was a classically trained. And Ritchie also grew his taste for classical music( he too was classical trained). And soon after their three albums they decided to bring something new. Jon Lord gave freedom to Ritchie Blackmore. And he became an important person to the band. Both Lord and Blackmore fired Nick and Rod.
Its because Ritchie Blackmore had met Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. And Robert Plant was very good at screaming. Ritchie wanted him in the band. But Plant wasn’t interested. So, Ritchie had only intention in mind, changing Rod and recruiting someone who could keep screaming. They found Ian Gillan. And in past band of Ian Gillan’s Roger Glover used to be a bassist. Blackmore and Lord wasn’t interested on him. But Paice suggested to keep him. Thus Nick was replaced. They started as their new band.
So, in this era the members were replaced because of their musical taste.
- In the early 70s after their first hit, they changed their lineup because tension between their members. Mainly because of Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan. Blackmore being an ass here. Gillan left, and it starts the collapse. David Coverdale was replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover by Hughes. Their music had changed a lot. And at that time drugs started abuses started to grow. Soon after Blackmore left, it grew higher.
Because of the drugs, they couldn’t perform well. And at one moment, Lord and Paice decided to disband the band in sake of keeping their old reputations.
So, here drug abusing was actually the main reason. Good that Lord and Paice decided to disband the band instead of going on.
- Soon after that they started to start their new projects. Gillan was doing solo and finally got into Black Sabbath. Ritchie formed his new band, Lord and Paice decided to join Whitesnake.
Then all of sudden they reformed the band with their original members. They got along for quite some time. But tension between Ritchie and Gillan left. But at that time, it was Ritchie who needed to leave. Not Gillan. Cause other members couldn’t work with Ritchie. Ritchie left. But after that they needed a guitarist. They struggled for finding a new guitarist until Steve Morse.
Again the reason here is because of Blackmore and Gillan’s tension.
No wonder, Ritchie Blackmore is a great musician, guitarist and above all, a great recruiter. But he can’t work with others. The only one he could work with was his wife. Ritchie Blackmore was a very important person to the band. BUT, Deep Purple still recorded good albums without him. In Glover’s words “He was the prime mover behind Deep Purple’s music. But no one’s bigger than the band”
Other View
Ian Gillan left Deep Purple in 1973 due to a variety of reasons. There were tensions within the band, particularly between Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore, the guitarist. These tensions were reportedly related to musical direction and personal differences. Gillan was also feeling burnt out from the constant touring and recording schedule that the band maintained, which led to exhaustion and a desire to explore other musical avenues.
Additionally, Deep Purple had been experiencing commercial success with their Mark II lineup (which included Gillan), but by the early 1970s, the band members were feeling the strain of their heavy workload and the pressures of fame. Gillan decided to leave the band to pursue other projects and take a break from the intense pace of life in Deep Purple.
After leaving Deep Purple, Gillan pursued a solo career and also worked with other bands before eventually rejoining Deep Purple in 1984. His departure in 1973 marked the end of the Mark II lineup of Deep Purple, which had been one of the band’s most successful and influential periods.
Other View
Ian left Deep Purple in 1973, whilst Ritchie quit in 1974, and went on forming Rainbow. Ian released several albums, as the frontman of the Ian Gillan Band, as well as the frontman of a band called “Gillan” — these could also be regarded as solo albums.
In 1983 a reunion of Deep Purple was planned and Ian had spare time to kill, so he joined Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, under the name of Black Sabbath, and released the underrated, yet badly mixed, “Born Again”.
Geezer maintains that he insisted the band would not be called Black Sabbath, but Ian argues that the deal from the start was that he would become the singer of Black Sabbath solely for one album and tour, since it had already been arranged that he would be joining the reformed Deep Purple afterwards. Truly, after the completion of the tour (bar Bill Ward, who had left the band after the recording of the album), Ian returned to Deep Purple, who recorded and released “Perfect Strangers” in 1984.
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