![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ian-Gillan-1970-Deep-Purple-Far-Out-Magazine--1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ W.W.Thaler – H.Weber, Hildesheim)<\/p>\n
Mon 1 September 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n
When assessing heavy metal\u2019s most important pioneers, the silver medal after a certain quartet of Brummie occultists has to be handed to Deep Purple<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019ll be contestation, sure. Led Zeppelin likely holds many metal fans\u2019 second place, and not forgetting The Who\u2019s raucous racket and The Beatles\u2019 \u2018Helter Skelter\u2019 blistering their suffering drummer\u2019s fingers that paved the way, but the weighty grooves conjured by London\u2019s Deep Purple point the way for the new wave of British heavy metal set to explode by the 1970s\u2019 close.<\/p>\n It was the \u2018Mk II\u2019 line-up that would stand as Deep Purple\u2019s classic era. Adding to founding members Jon Lord\u2019s heavy keys and Ritchie Blackmore\u2019s hefty guitar attack was new frontman Ian Gillan, imbuing their thick plume of swirling proto-metal fug with his gusto and commanding vocal prowess.<\/p>\n Cutting four records during this period, it would be 1972\u2019s Machine Head that would endure as their defining album entry-point, owing much eternal fascination to the strength of its second UK single.<\/p>\n Deep Purple\u2019s biggest hit was born from disaster. Having booked Switzerland\u2019s Montreux Casino to record the Machine Head sessions, plans were scuppered when an audience member at Frank Zappa<\/a>\u2019s headline show the previous night at the casino\u2019s theatre let off a flare gun towards the venue\u2019s rattan-covered ceiling, the space suddenly catching fire the moment Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston was about to break into \u2018King Kong\u2019s synthesizer solo.<\/p>\n Deep Purple eventually had to settle for the nearby H\u00f4tel des Alpes-Grand H\u00f4tel, as well as The Rolling Stones\u2019 much sought-after portable recording Turbo truck. Inspired by the smoke hovering over Lake Geneva, a rough jam in need of lyrics prompted the band to craft a slapdash account of their pyrodrama into the immortal \u2018Smoke on the Water\u2019, replete with lines that play out with an urgent reportage on the jam they\u2019d found themselves in: \u201cWe ended up at the Grand Hotel \/ It was empty cold and bare \/ But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside \/ Making our music there\u201d.<\/p>\n From calamity was plucked a heavy-metal mined gem. Edited down to a radio-friendly single edit, \u2018Smoke on the Water\u2019 would smash global charts and stands as a foundational record for the world\u2019s nascent metalheads, pushing Machine Head to the very top of the UK Albums chart and unleashing on music an insanely infectious riff that many people find themselves humming or whistling who otherwise know nothing of Deep Purple or even much of rock.<\/p>\n