There’s something about old tape reels boxes which sparks the archivist in me (it’s in the blood – my great Grandfather’s collections became the first Hull Museum). The batch on this shelf have been looked after for forty years by a former DJ and engineer who worked for a college radio station out in California. Long John Baldry… Chuck Berry… and Deep Purple?
As well as doing a radio show he also worked with one of the big local area sound companies Tychobrae (one of whose engineers later opened a studio where Mk 4 auditioned and rehearsed) and together with them recorded a few shows for airing locally, with the permission of the bands.
At the end of July 1971 a three band tour arrived in town and the DJ, Eliot, recorded them. His deal was that if the band’s cleared it, he could then air the tape on his show. The Faces wouldn’t play ball and asked for the tapes back (leaving Eliot $20 out of pocket for the cost!). Matthew’s Southern Comfort gave permission and so did Deep Purple.
The reels are of course the long lost Long Beach July 30. 1971 performance. Southern Comfort opened the show, with Deep Purple on second. Legend has it that they worked their socks off and gave The Faces something to think about. Even though the tour was in support of the newly issued Fireball album, the band only did one new track, the single Strange Kind Of Woman (just out on Warners and included on the new album). Speed King and Child In Time came either side and they ended with a lengthy Mandrake Root.
After some of the show was aired American bootleggers produced the Hard Road bootleg, and other titles since have used tracks (one even appeared officially albeit cleaned up off vinyl on the CD New Live & Rare) but we always wondered how the show came to be taped and hoped that someone might have kept the broadcast reels. And what’s more, there is also a stereo mix.
Eliot has dug back through his written archive. “My last radio show at KPPC FM was a 1-hr. show at midnight in early 1973. I’ve been going through my garage and found and old calendar book. This is what the show consisted of: It opened with Dr. John; Deep Purple live; Sunny Terry and Brownie McGee; Jimmy Hendrix doing Dolly Dagger. ..”
Sounds worth staying in for to me! Negotiations are going on to place the various bands he has (we wish him luck with Randles Island!) but we’re hoping a deal can be done to secure the Deep Purple reels for release (and for this reason we have not given out Eliot’s full name as we don’t want to pre-empt this).
While we’re looking at archives, there has been some progress on soundboard tapes of Mk 4 captured by an engineer including US and UK gigs. And that Mk 1 show from 1969 has also fickered into life again as well. We will try and bring you updates on those. Needless to say whether any of these will appear on CD soon is another matter, but we live in hope.
Tags: 1971, child in time, deep purple, fireball, Long Beach, mandrake root, speed king, strange kind of woman
darker than blue 
September 30, 2019 at 6:34 pm |
Simon….anyone, after listening to and comparing the Long Beach 71 radio broadcast CD with my old “Purple for a day” tape, I have noticed that there is exactly 65 seconds of Jon Lords solo in Mandrake root missing on the new Long Beach CD……. yes it’s true!…..the bit cut out happens at exactly 4m 37s in on the cd track.
Obviously love the sound quality of the radio release but I just loved hearing the FULL Jon Lord solo, it’s awesome.
January 17, 2020 at 4:33 pm |
See my previous replies about the lack of care on this series.
January 17, 2020 at 4:34 pm |
See my previous replies on the lack of care over this series…
May 9, 2016 at 8:41 am |
Hello, do you know why the guitar of Ritchie on this concert is on the left channel? I thought he is always standing on the right side of the stage. Thanks, Tom
May 26, 2016 at 7:34 am |
Please, no more moaning to me about these Edel albums! Nobody at the label gives a toss as long as you buy them.
March 26, 2015 at 3:36 am |
” The fact that some student videotaped Hendrix at Woodstock … ” – excuse me??!? Not possible. I think you’ve got your lines a bit crossed there. Do you have any idea what a videotape camera was in 1969?? LOL. Woodstock was filmed from stage cameras via filmstock, and that is the footage that is available for that concert.
May 28, 2012 at 5:47 pm |
The original VINYL bootleg “Purple For A Day” included 3 tracks “Speed King”, “Wring That Neck” and “Mandrake Root”.
About “Wring That Neck”. Is that track from another concert and NOT from Long Beach?
May 31, 2012 at 12:25 pm |
As far as I’m aware it’s the same show, but we’ll only know the full details if and when the tape is secured.
June 1, 2012 at 2:46 am
In my opinion Wring That Neck is from August 1970 in America, not Long Beach 1971 – compare it to versions directly before and after that. The track was dropped early in 1971 when the headlining sets were cut back from two hours. Also, WTN on that LP has a totally different sound to the other two tracks. The Faces’ set in Long Beach was bootlegged and is around 75-80 minutes long. If you add WTN to Purple’s 4-song set, DP would have played for longer than that which doesn’t make sense.
June 1, 2012 at 7:50 am
This makes sense, you wouldn’t have allowed your support to play longer than you (unless you’re Chuck Berry). Anyhow, it’ll be interesting to see what the actual tape reel throws up. And could mean we now have to hunt for a missing 1970 reel as well. I must confess it’s a long time since I played my Hard Road yellow vinyl pressing…
May 18, 2012 at 4:42 pm |
This is fantastic news and if it all comes together, what a boost to the archives this will be. Whilst we are on the subject of soundboards, is there any progress on the Scottish Soundboard from 1974?
May 14, 2012 at 5:35 pm |
Great news on the Mk 4 front. Hopefully some of this stuff will see the light of day in my lifetime…
I know back in 74 at my first concert, I was standing on the sound mixing “island” that was in the middle of the humanity (love the old festival seating), and I could see under the main board a reel to reel running for at least the Kiss and James Gang sets. I’ve always wondered what happened to those tapes.
May 14, 2012 at 2:58 pm |
One of the best DP-concerts ever – especially Mandrake Root is magnificent. Best archive news for ages. Long Beach 71 rules!!!
May 12, 2012 at 2:23 pm |
Would LOVE to get a first generation copy of this show! Plus the MkI show from 1969 reappears? Wow!. Now, find the master tapes for Long Beach ’73 and I’ll be in heaven…
May 11, 2012 at 10:32 pm |
Fantastic, hopefully some more live shows from the MK1-MK 4 period.
May 11, 2012 at 3:29 pm |
Simon are there any pictures from this particular show/tour? Never seen any…
May 14, 2012 at 2:30 pm |
Not sure, I’m sure there will have been photographers covering the gig but I’ve not seen any so far.
May 11, 2012 at 2:53 am |
Sounds exciting!
May 10, 2012 at 4:40 pm |
That´s really great news. We don´t have any decent radio or soundboard tapes from 1971, so this is really a progress in the right direction. Let´s really hope that something will come out of this. I keep my “thumbs crossed” for this.
The real burning period of the band for me, was Mark 2 from January 1970 to July 1971, when they were “jamming”/”improvising” and “stretching out”. The “free-form” period of the band.
The Mark 1, 1969 tape will also be very interesting of course.
It´s a pity the 1973 tape from Radio Luxembourg wasn´t up to standard, we need something from Mark 2 of Spring 1973 (besides Hofstra University).
May 10, 2012 at 9:07 am |
This is fantastic news, and as I have mentioned before, to fans of virtually any band it is inconceivable that anyone could sit on archive recordings/photos without realising what the potential of them is – I don’t mean financially, but from the pleasure & insight it can give to people like me! The fact that some student videotaped Hendrix at Woodstock from the stage, showed HIM the footage a few days later, then put it in his attic for 40 years not thinking it had any historic importance just shows that even with an artist of that stature there must still be things hiding, so for the ever unfashionable DP there must be a whole goldmine of stuff!!
May 10, 2012 at 1:00 am |
Fantastic, wonderful news! Any hints as to which MkIV shows these might be?
May 9, 2012 at 11:04 pm |
Exciting news and hopefully it will see an official release soon , Could you expand on the Mk4 soundboard ? And tapes plural you say? – I won’t be able to sleep tonight!
May 14, 2012 at 2:35 pm |
I think we’ve covered this back in the DTB printed magazine some time ago. A US based engineer was on the sound crew and stuck some tapes in the mixer desk on that last Mk 4 tour. A friend we knew at Warners checked him out and got some short audio snippets which confirmed the material, but couldn’t agree any sensible sort of deal. The engineer died last year and negotiations are going on with his estate; looks like he left loads of bands. More when we can.
May 9, 2012 at 3:41 pm |
Great to hear the Longbeach 1971 show might show up at last. You can never get enough vintage Purple and I’d love to replace my old bootlegs of this with the real thing.
I heard some time ago that another MK I show existed. Not sure where I heard this but now this mention of a possible 1969 recording. What exactly might it include.
What a find both would be, I’ll watch this page.
May 9, 2012 at 12:50 pm |
Is this the complete concert? Also, how likely is it that the 1973 radio concert mentioned here will ever be released?
May 14, 2012 at 2:41 pm |
1973 was the last time the 1971 show, or part thereof, was aired. There is no 1973 tape. But as far as we know the 1971 tape is complete as it runs over an hour, which would be about right for a support slot.
May 23, 2012 at 7:14 pm |
I think Peder was talking about the 1973 radio show I was referring to in my post, Long Beach ’73, my personal favorite DP show ever. I’d love to see the master tapes surface someday. Not only is it a great show, it has a very nice version of Mary Long on it. I wish that someone could get one of the ’73 bootlegs (w/Mary Long) released, just so they could get one cleaned up in a studio and officially out. Before all interest fades, we should at least get a decent Fireball and Who Do We Think We Are! show released. There are numerous In Rock, Machine Head, Burn, Stormbringer and CTTB shows out there, so lets get some from the lesser represented albums too…
May 9, 2012 at 8:34 am |
Great news – and yes we can only hope. Still after all these years the early Purple are still so much THE Deep Purple to me. So powerfull that all the rest a so far far left behind.