Rock band, Deep Purple, appeared back in 1968. Fifty-one years later, it’s still thriving. Even though the lineup changed several times, the group’s popularity never waned. Initially, the band’s name was Roundabout. It was changed to Deep Purple shortly.
The idea to form a band belonged to Chris Curtis. The drummer left The Searchers in 1966 but didn’t feel like ending his career. After some time, Chris met a keyboardist, John Lord. The musicians started discussing a new music project.
Soon, Ritchie Blackmore joined the two aspiring artists. At that time, the legendary guitar player lived in Germany but moved to the UK to work on the project. At some point, the band was in danger of falling apart when Curtis started using drugs and failed to work with the other artists. John Lord took over his responsibilities. Soon, John and Ritchie changed the name from Roundabout to Deep Purple.
Besides Blackmore and Lord, the initial lineup included Ian Paice, Nick Simper, and Rod Evans. Together, these musicians recorded the first three studio albums. However, the real success came to the group with the release of the fourth LP, Deep Purple in Rock in 1970. The album made the artists the most popular rock musicians of the century. It made its way into numerous charts. Deep Purple started giving many concerts. While performing on stage, the artists found time to work on a new LP, Fireball. At that time, many organizers tried to book Deep Purple for private events, but the band was too busy with studio work and concerts.