Deep Purple

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the band. For their third album, see Deep Purple (album). For other uses, see
Deep Purple (disambiguation).
Deep Purple

LR:Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Steve Morse and Don Airey performing live in 2013
Background information
Also known as Roundabout
Origin
Hertford, Hertfordshire, England
Genres
Hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock, progressive rock
Years active
19681976, 1984present
Labels
Tetragrammaton, Warner Bros., Polydor, BMG, EMI, Edel
The Maze, Episode Six, Rainbow, Blackmore's Night, Paice Ashton Lord,
Associated acts Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Gillan & Glover, Hughes Turner Project, Living
Loud, Rock Aid Armenia, WhoCares, Black Country Communion
Website
deeppurple.com

Members

Past members

Ian Paice
Ian Gillan
Roger Glover
Steve Morse
Don Airey

Jon Lord
Ritchie Blackmore
Rod Evans
Nick Simper
Glenn Hughes
David Coverdale
Tommy Bolin
Joe Lynn Turner

 Joe Satriani
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968.[1] They are considered to be
among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock,[2][3] although their musical approach
changed over the years.[4] Originally formed as a progressive rock band, the band shifted its sound
to hard rock in 1970, and in 2013 began exploring progressive metal.[5] Deep Purple, together with
Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock
and heavy metal in the early to mid-Seventies".[6] They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of
World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre,[7][8]
and have sold over 100 million albums worldwide,[9][10][11][12] including 8.5 million certified
units in the US.[13]
Deep Purple have seen several line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus (19761984). The 1968
1976 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), Jon Lord (organ), Roger Glover
(bass), Ian Paice (drums), and Ritchie Blackmore (guitar). This line-up was active from 1969 to
1973, and was revived from 1984 to 1989, and again from 1992 to 1993. The band achieved more
modest success in the intervening periods between 1968 and 1969 with the line-up including Rod
Evans (vocals) and Nick Simper (bass, backing vocals), between 1974 and 1976 (Tommy Bolin
replacing Blackmore in 1975) with the line-up including David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn
Hughes (bass, vocals), and between 1989 and 1992 with the line-up including Joe Lynn Turner
(vocals). The band's line-up (currently featuring Ian Gillan, and guitarist Steve Morse from 1994)
has been much more stable in recent years, although organist Jon Lord's retirement from the band in
2002 (being succeeded by Don Airey) left Ian Paice as the only original Deep Purple member still
in the band.
Deep Purple were ranked number 22 on VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock programme[16] and a
poll on British radio station Planet Rock ranked them 5th among the "most influential bands ever".
[17] At the 2011 Classic Rock Awards in London, they received the Innovator Award.[18] In
October 2012, Deep Purple were nominated for the first time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
but were not voted in the following March. In October 2013, the band was announced as a Hall of
Fame nominee for a second time, but again was not voted in.