Purple patch not over yet

BAND STILL HAVE DEEP LOVE FOR MUSIC

DEEP Purple are well over 50 years into their career and intend to keep going until the bitter end.

The influential band has just enjoyed another Top Five entry with their latest album, Whoosh!.

But advancing years and poor health, now combined with a pandemic, means they have been preparing for the end since 2016.

Frontman Ian Gillan explained: “It’s a big subject of discussion we had some time ago.

“Ian Paice and Roger Glover

weren’t in great shape. Don Airey

has had his health problems, me too, so we could see the end coming, for real. We had to prepare for it.

“Inevitably thinking about stopping doing something you’ve done your entire life is far from easy.”

However, Deep Purple’s sense of humour got the better of them. Ian added: “After a while everyone started to feel better, so we announced the Long Goodbye tour with the emphasis on long as we didn’t know how long it might be.”

The band were due to tour on the back of Whoosh! – a fitting LP for 2020 as it’s about the transient nature of humanity on Earth.

Ian continued: “The idea came from a collection of notes I’d made over the years.

“I had these images in my head – a man alive, the last one of a post-apocalyptic war.

“But the irony is that he’s totally alone, so Whoosh! A man without a woman – it’s the end of humanity.”

But there’s also a nod to the past with a new recording of And The Address, which originally appeared on Deep Purple’s 1968 debut LP.

Ian said: “It was the very first song Deep Purple recorded. Producer Bob Ezrin had the idea of doing it as the very last thing. Who knows?”