Deep Purple

Keep in mind that Deep Purple was split up from 1977 - 1983. In January 2005 Sheena appeared in the television series Young Blades.. In 2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in five years, the highly prasied Bananas, and began toruing in support of the album immediately. The passengers paused in awe, then went on singing. The group continued forward until 2002, when founding member Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced he was leaving the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work). Rock keyboard veteran Don Airey (Rainbow/Whitesnake, etc.), who had helped Purple out when Lord was injured in 2001, joined the band. Sheena boarded the train at Burnley Station, and screamed. Most of this period was spent on the road via constant touring. A number of unrealistically happy passengers in an unrealistically underpatronised morning train were singing Morning Train.

The revitalized band enjoyed success throughout the rest of the 1990s, releasing the critically acclaimed Purpendicular in 1996, and Abandon in 1998. In April and May 2004, Sheena visited Australia and featured in a kooky TV commercial for Connex in Melbourne. The band auditioned guitarists, and Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs impressed them enough to get the gig. She lives there with her two adopted children. Joe Satriani was drafted in, so the live dates (in Japan) could be completed. Satriani was asked to join full time, but declined. Since 2000 Sheena has appeared in a Broadway-style show in Las Vegas. Blackmore walked out, never to return and leaving the band in a fix. Sheena continued acting in America, starring in Broadway revivals of Man Of La Mancha (1992) and Grease (1996).

During the support tour in mid-1994, tensions between Gillan and Blackmore came to a head yet again. She recently enjoyed some success with a song entitled "Fabulous" and has also become something of a gay icon. Blackmore relented and the classic lineup recorded The Battle Rages On in 1993. Four more albums would be released, but were only available in Europe and the Far East. With the tour done, Turner was forced to go as Jon Lord and Ian Paice realised they needed Gillan back in the fold. In 1991, What Comes Naturally became the last of Sheena’s albums to chart in the U.S. This line up recorded just one album,Slaves and Masters (1990), and toured in support of it. The song also appeared on her next album The Lover In Me, a moderate success which was released the following autumn.

His replacement was former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. By the spring of 1988 the latest installment of the Miami Vice Soundtrack was released, and featured the song “Follow My Rainbow”, which Sheena sang on her tragic last appearance, just moments before her character was fatally shot. In 1989, Ian Gillan quit the band again, as his relations with Blackmore soured. Sonny and Caitlin were married by the episode’s end, and the fourth-season’s sagging ratings were boosted so much that the producers signed Sheena to five more episodes. While in the UK a new version of "Hush" was released to mark 20 years of the band. In November of 1987 Sheena made her first dramatic acting appearance on the television programme Miami Vice playing a singer named Caitlin Davies, whom Sonny Crockett was assigned to protect until she made a court appearance. The line-up recorded and toured The House of Blue Light in 1987 though to lower sales, a live album Nobody's Perfect (1988) was culled from US shows on this tour. Around this same time she also recorded a Grammy-winning Spanish-language album, Todo me recuerda a ti and scored a country music hit with "We've Got Tonight", a duet with Kenny Rogers.

The weather was famously bad but 80,000 turned up anyway. Her move towards a more sexy image with "Strut" was met with mixed reactions from diehard fans, and she was also one of the first artists to have a music video banned based upon lyrics rather than imagery when some broadcasters refused to play her Prince-penned, sexually risque "Sugar Walls." Despite of (or perhaps because of) the controversy, the album A Private Heaven which featured "Strut" and "Sugar Walls" became her biggest seller. The UK homecoming proved mixed as they elected to play just a single festival show (with main support from The Scorpions). Later, she also found success with the songs “Strut” (1984) and her 1987 duet with Prince “U Got The Look”. It was a tremendous success. Her best known early musical work is probably the James Bond movie theme “For Your Eyes Only”, and “Morning Train” (which was originally titled "9 to 5" in its British release but was renamed for American issue to avoid confusion with the Dolly Parton song "Nine to Five"). The album Perfect Strangers was released in October 1984 and the tour followed, starting in New Zealand and winding its way across the world into Europe by the following summer. This culminated in a deal with EMI Records.

It was announced on BBC radio's The Friday Rock Show that the "classic" early 70s lineup of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, and Paice was reforming and were recording new material. The band signed a deal with Polydor in Europe and Mercury in North America. Sheena first shot to fame on the United Kingdom television programme The Big Time which followed her attempts to gain a record contract. Then in April 1984, 8 years after the demise of Deep Purple, it happened. Sheena Easton (born Sheena Shirley Orr) is a pop singer born in Belshill, Scotland in April 1959. Subsequently, most of the past members of Deep Purple would go on to have considerable success in a number of bands including Rainbow (band), Whitesnake and Gillan, while there were a number of promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform especially with the revival of the hard rock market in the late 70s/early 80s. As a result, Deep Purple broke up.

After a particularly traumatic tour to promote Come Taste the Band, Tommy Bolin died of a heroin overdose. He had a drug habit - heroin, which made matters all the worse. Bolin himself turned out not to be ready for the job of filling Blackmore's shoes, suffering hostility from some crowds while turning in peformances of highly variable quality. However the subsequent album, 1976's Come Taste the Band, for all its quality, proved unpopular with die-hard fans and didn't attract any new ones.

On the face of it Bolin was just what the doctor ordered. The gap was filled by the prodigiously talented Tommy Bolin who had established himself as a vivid imaginative guitarist with acts such as Zephyr, James Gang and Billy Cobham. With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest vacancies in rock. Blackmore was not happy with the results, and after the release of the Made in Europe (taken from shows on the Stormbringer tour), the founding member left Deep Purple in 1975.

Hughes and Coverdale added a funky R&B/soul sound to the band's heavy metal elements, a sound that was even more apparent on the 1975 release Stormbringer. This new line-up continued seamlesly into 1974 with the album Burn, another highly successful Purple album. The classic lineup continued up through the album Who Do We Think We Are? (1973) at which point both Gillan and Glover left. They were replaced by an unknown singer named David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals. During this period, Deep Purple became one of the most popular hard rock acts in the world, releasing the highly influential and successful albums Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, and Machine Head (the latter featuring their most famous song, "Smoke on the Water"), and the live album Made in Japan.

Their heaviness was only rivaled by newcomers Black Sabbath. However, shortly after the release, the band shocked the music world by creating extremely heavy, hard rock music, and thus becoming a pioneer in the world of heavy metal. It is widely known as the first successful collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra. Initially, this lineup released a landmak album in Concerto for Group and Orchestra a three-part movement written by Lord and performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcom Arnold.

After three albums and extensive touring in the States, it was the inclusion of vocalist Ian Gillan (who replaced Evans) and bassist Roger Glover (who replaced Simper) that created the essential Deep Purple line-up. The group had tremendous success in the US with its cover of Joe South's "Hush," taken from their acclaimed debut album Shades of Deep Purple In 1969, two more successful albums followed (The Book of Taleisyn and Deep Purple, the latter of which contained a symphony orchstra on some tracks). The new band was named Deep Purple. The two joined forces with vocalist Rod Evans, bassist Nick Simper and drummer Ian Paice.

After only a month of rehearsals, Blackmore and Lord split from the group. In 1968, the group Roundabout formed, consisting of Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on hammond organ, Chris Curtis on vocals, Dave Curtis on bass and Bobby Woodman on drums. A year later, these bands formed the nucleus of the early and later lineups of Deep Purple, providing Nick Simper and Jon Lord as founding members and Ian Gillan and Roger Glover as later constants. It featured Tony Burrows, Neil Landon, Robin Shaw, and Pete Nelson on vocals, Ged Stone on guitar, Nick Simper on bass, Jon Lord on organ, and Carol Little on drums.

The band's most popular song was "Let's Go To San Francisco." Some listeners assumed that the song was a parody of Scott McKenzie's "If You're Going to San Francisco," but the band have denied this. The new name was clearly derived from the children's show The Flowerpot Men, with the obvious psychedelic-era puns on flower power and "pot" (cannabis). Two years later, a band called The Flowerpot Men and their Garden was formed, formerly known as The Ivy League. It was concentrated on a trio of singers. It featured Ian Gillan on vocals, Graham Dimmock on guitar, Roger Glover on bass, Tony Lander on guitar, Sheila Dimmock on keyboards, and Harvey Shields on the drums.

In May 1965, a band called Episode Six became popular on the British music scene and became particularly popular in the mid-sixties. Some incarnations of Deep Purple have brought aspects of jazz to a rock context due to their frequent use of their songs as vehicles for extended and sophisticated solos. The group has frequently changed styles and lineups over the years, but has always included virtuoso players in its ranks and placed a high priority on musicianship. Despite their association with the sub-genre, Deep Purple has never been purely a heavy metal band, though many later heavy metal bands cite their influence.

They were one of the first and most famous hard rock bands, and are considered pioneers of heavy metal. Thus the title Deep Purple was ready for an ironic revival in 1968, by a British rock group. The song remained a traditional pop favorite, recast in 1957 as a doo wop classic by The Dominoes with vocals by Eugene Mumford and was recorded in 1976 by Donny and Marie Osmond, with Marie intoning the balmy lyrics during the break. The song is a sentimental air, not a jazz tune; it was a favorite with Babe Ruth, played at his big birthday parties by Peter de Rose for a decade.

Now it became a huge hit, reaching #1 on the charts. and the Larry Clinton Orchestra recorded it, with a vocal by Bea Wain. "Deep Purple" became so popular in sheet music sales that somewhat purple lyrics were provided for it in 1939 by Mitchell Parish:. The following year, Paul Whiteman had it scored for his suave "big band" orchestra that was "making a lady out of jazz" in Whiteman's phrase.

"Deep Purple" was published in 1933 as a piano composition. "Deep Purple" was the biggest hit written by pianist Peter De Rose (1900—1953), who broadcast, 1923 to 1939, with May Singhi as "The Sweethearts of the Air" on the NBC radio network. 1977 "New Live and Rare EP" #31 UK. 1973 "Smoke on the Water" #21 UK (1977 release), #3 US.

1972 "Never Before" #35 UK. 1971 "Fireball" #15 UK. 1971 "Strange Kind of Woman" #8 UK. 1970 "Black Night" #2 UK.

1968 "Kentucky Woman" #38 US. 1968 "Hush" #4 US. Bananas, August 2003. 30: Very Best of Deep Purple, October 1998; #39 UK.

Abandon, May 1998. Purpendicular, February 1996. The Battle Rages on..., July 1993; #21 UK, #192 US. Slaves & Masters, 1990; #87 US.

Nobody's Perfect (live), July 1988; #38 UK, #105 US. The House of Blue Light, January 1987; #10 UK, #34 US. Perfect Strangers, November 1984; #5 UK, #17 US. Deep Purple Live in London, (recorded in 1974) September 1982; #23 UK.

Deep Purple In Concert, (recorded throughout 1970-1972) December 1980; #30 UK. When We Rock, We Rock, and When We Roll, We Roll (compilation), 1980. Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple (compilation), July 1980; #1 UK, #148 US. The Mark II Purple Singles (compilation), April 1979; #24 UK.

Made in Europe, November 1976; #12 UK, #148 US. Come Taste the Band, October 1975; #19 UK, #43 US. 24 Carat Purple (compilation), July 1975; #14 UK. Stormbringer, December 1974; #6 UK, #20 US.

Burn, February 1974; #3 UK, #9 US. Who Do We Think We Are, February 1973; #4 UK, #15 US. Made in Japan, December 1972; #16 UK, #6 US. Machine Head, March 1972; #1 UK, #7 US.

Fireball, September 1971; #1 UK, #32 US. Deep Purple in Rock, June 1970; #4 UK, #143 US. Concerto for Group and Orchestra, December 1969; #26 UK, #149 US. Deep Purple, November 1969; #162 US.

The Book of Taliesyn, December 1968; #54 US. Shades of Deep Purple, September 1968; #24 US. Joe Lynn Turner - vocals (1990 - 1991). Glenn Hughes - bass + vocals (1974 - 1976).

Tommy Bolin - guitar (1975 -1976). David Coverdale - vocals (1974 - 1976). Jon Lord - keyboards (1968 - 2002). Ian Paice - drums (1968 - present).

Ritchie Blackmore - guitar (1968 - 1975, 1984 - 1994). Nick Simper - bass (1968-1969). Rod Evans - vocals (1968-1969). Ian Paice - drums (1968 - present).

Don Airey - keyboards (2002 - present). Roger Glover - bass (1969 - 1973, 1984 - present). Steve Morse - guitar (1994 - present). Ian Gillan - vocals (1969 - 1973, 1984 - 1989, 1992 - present).

Peter de Rose (http://nfo.net/cal/td2.html). Peter de Rose (http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_bio.asp?exhibitId=257).