Deep Purple Information Continued
In October 1968, Deep Purple had tremendous success in the
US with a cover of Joe South's "Hush", taken from their debut album
Shades of Deep Purple, and they were duly booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour. In 1969, two more albums followed -
The Book of Taliesyn and Deep Purple, the latter of
which contained a symphony orchestra on some tracks.
Shortly after the orchestral release, Deep Purple began a
hectic touring and recording schedule that was to see little respite
for the next three years. Their first studio album, released in
mid-1970, was Deep Purple In Rock and contained concert
staples "Speed King" and "Child in Time". The band also issued the UK
Top Ten single "Black Night". A second album, the slightly more
mellow and progressive, Fireball, was issued in 1971. Deep
Purple also scored another chart hit with "Strange Kind Of
Woman". Together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple were laying the groundwork
for what is now called heavy metal music, although at the time, the
phrase was still to be coined. Due to tensions within the band,
Deep Purple broke up in the 1970s. Subsequently, most of the
past members of Deep Purple would go on to have considerable
success in a number of other bands, including Rainbow, Whitesnake and Gillan, while there were a number of
promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform, which were effective
in the mid-80s. The band continued to tour and record through the
late-80s and 90s.
In 2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in
five years, the highly praised Bananas, and began touring in
support of the album immediately. In October of 2005, the band's 37th
year, Deep Purple released Rapture of the Deep, which,
although recorded in just a few weeks, proved to be the most
progressive and adventurous album for many years, and it is being
followed by yet another extensive world tour.
