RELEASED 6.9.2010
1. And The Address 2. The Painter 3. Mandrake Root 4. Emmaretta 5. Chasing Shadows 6. Lalena 7. Wring That Neck 8. The Bird Has Flown 9. Why Didn't Rosemary 10. Kentucky Woman 11. Hush
What do Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Gillan, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner all have in common? Well yes of course they are, or have been in Deep Purple, one of Britain's most successful rock bands of all time, with over 150 million record sales to date. But they also share another common connection: All of them have recorded re-workings of Deep Purple songs with their solo and other band projects. Now add to that list Purple's original bass player Nick Simper. Deep Purple has become something of an institution over the past four decades, although the band has had its fair share of ups and downs; band break-ups; and musicians coming and going, which as a result now sees Ian Paice as the only original member. As an indication of its popularity the world is adorned with bands offering their own take on Deep Purple's music. Most focus on the seventies material, and with the exception of the odd song, such as ‘Hush', none have paid due respect to the material created by the original line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Rod Evans and Nick Simper between early 1968 through to the summer of ‘69. As far as audiences throughout most of the world were concerned, Deep Purple in its first eighteen months was one of Britain's best kept secrets, but in America it was entirely different. As an indication of the band's potential from the word go, ‘Hush', its first release, was a massive success, charting at number four on Billboard and within a matter of months Deep Purple had become a huge name in the States. So much so that many of those who did read about them in Britain, actually thought the band was American! Deep Purple had further success in the States with follow up singles ‘Kentucky Woman' and ‘Emmaretta', largely as a result of its enthusiastic record company Tetragrammaton. Sadly the label soon went into liquidation, and suddenly Deeprecords were no longer in the racks of American record shops. Because of the problems that beset the band so soon after its initial success so many people fail to give the credence due to Deep Purple before success took off in Europe and elsewhere.
The pressure the original line-up was under to produce records was astonishing, and in a mere nine month period from May ‘68 to January ‘69, they produced three albums amongst a gruelling tour schedule. Recording in such a short time span, with rushed productions didn't always allow the songs to shine. Live is where the music truly came to life but unfortunately virtually nothing appears to survive that documents this period in Purple's career. Now Nick Simper has brought those songs back to life with the help of Austrian band Nasty Habits, producing ‘The'. Although the guys in Nasty Habits were too young to experience Purple when Simper was in Deep Purple MKI Songbook the band, their love and devotion to the music shines through with their performances. In some cases the arrangements differ from the versions Purple fans will be familiar with, but in true Purple style, songs always changed on stage, and the same spirit is applied to the recordings here, with Simper's driving bass pinning it all down. The longevity of the original Deep Purple is evident with EMI's remastering of the first three albums, ‘Shades Of Deep', ‘The Book Of Taliesyn' and ‘Deep Purple' in 2000. But technology has moved on considerably in the forty plus years Purple since these albums were first recorded and it has given Simper and Nasty Habits the opportunity to produce really powerful and stunning re-workings of some of the best moments from the original Deep Purple canon; giving fans a greater insight into how these classic songs sounded on stage back in 1969. As renowned Purple aficionado Nigel Young comments, "it is the nearest that most of us will get to a 1969 Deep Purple gig".
The first edition is limited to 1,000 copies with bonus video footage including a Nick Simper interview.