r/DeepPurple

I've been thinking about the extraordinary number of people who were apparently 'fired' from Deep Purple and particularly Rainbow, and wondering what that actually meant in contractual and business terms.

Roger Glover is an interesting example. In 1973, Blackmore made his departure from Deep Purple effectively conditional on Glover going. Management chose Blackmore, and Glover was out of a hugely successful band he'd helped build.

Fast forward a few years and there's an almost surreal reversal. Peter Goalby has recently described his brief period as Rainbow's singer before Graham Bonnet. Blackmore invited him to America, he was subsequently put on Rainbow's payroll, and he believed he'd joined the band. But Goalby says Blackmore gave him virtually no indication of what he wanted musically. After an unsuccessful late-night session, Roger Glover took Goalby aside the following morning and told him: 'You're fired' Blackmore apparently didn't even speak to him.

So, Glover goes from being the person Blackmore effectively has removed from one band to being the person delegated to fire somebody from Blackmore's next band.

It made me wonder what ‘fired’ actually meant. Who had the legal authority to do it? Were the musicians employees, contracted individually to management/a band company, partners, royalty participants, or some combination of these? If somebody was contracted for an album or tour and Blackmore simply decided he didn't want them anymore, what happened to that contract?

More broadly, I find the power dynamics interesting. Bands often seem to start as loose associations of friends or musicians, when discussing contracts and ownership probably feels ridiculous. Then success arrives, companies and management become involved, one member becomes more commercially powerful than another, and at some point 'we're in a band together' seems to turn into something much more hierarchical.

Does anyone know of interviews, books, legal cases or original documents that shed light on how the Deep Purple/Rainbow arrangements actually worked? I'm less interested in whether Blackmore was difficult than in where the power to hire and fire actually came from

Ian Gillan goes Ahhhhh Ahhhhh many times during the song, any idea what had happened in the studio? I know Ian and Ritchie did not share a good relationship before, now they have sorted their things, but did Ritchie step on Ian's leg during the recording of the song? or did Ian step on a lego while recording? he sounds in so much pain, so any insight what exactly happened to Ian when he was recording?

I always thought his voice developed nicely from where it was on Rapture of the Deep to Now What. He had lost some power and range that was going slowly but really settled into his newer voice. One of many comebacks his voice has had. He then seemed to decline during the infinite/whoosh era and then from =1 to present sounds better but not quite on the Now What?! level.

I really like where his voice is at currently. Funny, for a voice that has changed a lot over the years he always seems to make it work. I think the best comeback his voice has had was on Perpendicular/Abandon. This actually might be my favourite era when it comes to his voice, even over the less nasally Mark 2 Gillan.

Is it the 2014 remaster, the 2025 Steven Wilson remix, or the two deluxe editions (one with a black cover)? It's all rather confusing to navigate.

A few unpopular opinions of mine 💪🏼

1. Ok, I’ll start with a big one. David Coverdale for me has far more rocking voice than Ian Gillan. His voice at the MK3 time was tremendously good and Soldier of Fortune and Sail Away are an example. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Gillan, however, I do enjoy Coverdale much more.

2. Burn is my favourite DP record. Machine Head is on second place for me. Am I the only one? Songs are all fantastic, Ritchie is on his prime and again Coverdale voice is fantastic. Fresh new air, love even the record cover image. I have probably a childhood attachment to this album for some reason (it was the first DP record I listened to) however after listening them all, I am of the same opinion.

3. Ok I might be banned for this. Don Airey is better than Jon Lord. I am not referring to the actual songs they created, of course there is no comparison, but I am talking on the solos and on the Live performances. Jon was good, but Don for me is way more technically brilliant. He also does experiment a lot and he was able to replace Jon Lord without any regret, I believe.

I am ready for the comments now 😅

I have pretty much slept on Blackmore's Night for a couple decades, even though Ritchie Blackmore is my all time favorite guitarist. He is the guitarist that shaped my own playing style the most, alongside people like Michael Schenker, Andy Powell, Martin Barre, and Andrew Latimer.

I decided to check out their catalogue the other day, and I was shocked to hear it wasn't just Renaissance music. I mean, it definitely is mostly that, but having been a big Jethro Tull fan as well, much of this isn't terribly far off, especially when, on the third Blackmore's Night record, Ritchie starts playing electric again.

There's lots of songs on their albums that essentially sound like forgotten Rainbow songs, less so the Graham Bonnet and early Turner era, but moreso the Dio era, late Turner era, and the Doogie White album. If you like the baroque, harmonic minor playing on Rainbow's most arcane and dark tracks, you'll probably dig a lot of Blackmore's Night, I'll be honest.

It's not for everyone, but I'm actually really digging it.

Jefferson Starship was good, im a huge fan of classic Jefferson Airplane, hearing how well they did White Rabbit was amazing.

Kansas made me realize I need to listen to more Kansas... Obviously I knew Dust In the Wind and Carry on Wayward Son, and I have listened to Leftoverture before but I totally forgot how Proggy they were, Im a guitarist amd play some piano, my drummer and I spent alot of time trying to figure out what time signature they were playing in 😅

Then Deep Purple, one of my favorite bands of all time, I was more excited to get to hear Ian Paice than anything but holy shit everyone blew me away. Ian Gillan literally got better with every song, Highway Star for the intro he sounded a little iffy, but that never really bothers me when you are 70 years old singer that's spent your life doing this. As the concert went on he just got better amd better. One thing that BLEW ME AWAY is their current keyboardist. Im a HUGE Jon Lord fan and think he's obviously one of the greatest rock keyboard player but man.... My buddy and I are massive fans of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and after the first keyboard solo I looked at my buddy and said "Man, that might be the closest we get to seeing someone play like Keith Emerson"

Mind you, we live in Nova Scotia, small province on the east coast of Canada, we don't get many concerts here at all, and I dont even expect many people to know much of anything about us. We have our classic shanty style songs and folk songs. During a keyboard solo he briefly broke into "Farewell to Nova Scotia", and extremely beloved song here and I was SCREAMING. That's a whole nother level of appreciating where you are and giving them what they want. I was so happy I felt like I was on drugs (The 8 tall boys of beer I spent 125$ on helped) but my god it was great.

My favorite Deep Purple song is Child in Time, and I never expected that to be played, it was impossible when Ian could somehow sing it back in the 70's, the only song I expected and was sad to not hear was Strange Kind of Woman.

ONE THING that passed me off is they did the whole "this is our last song" thing and than played Smoke on the Water of course, but then they finished amd started clearly going into Hush and so many people just left. I was mad that people left but it was also kind of cool because it was sort of like "Okay there's what everyone wants to hear, now here's the encore for the real Deep Purple fans.

Overall one of the best concerts I've been to.

I'm finally listening to Slaves and Masters and I like Joe Lynn Turner's voice way better than David Coverdale's. What do you think would have been different about the band's history if he had been the singer in Mk3 instead? I really wish he could have been in the band longer than just one album.

And they all lived happily ever after, the end. 🥹💜