Ivy Lodge Club where Blackmore and Lord went to check out Ian Gillan, June 4. 1969
A phone call, June 5th 1969.
“Rog, it’s Ian. What did you think of it last night?”
“Are you really going to pack it in?”
“Well the band aren’t going anywhere, we’ve nattered about doing something new, this could be a real chance.”
“Yeah, but who ever heard of Deep Purple?”
“No, listen, I just been up to meet them today. I’d no idea they’d had such a success in The States, hit singles, albums the lot, and they want to get into something more rock and roll, you know. Mind you, the hair-dos!”
“Well, I dunno. I popped up to see Glo. She’s pissed off but we’ll probably get Pete in for now.”
“You can all sing, you’ll be fine. I want to try doing more rock and roll stuff , like I used to do.”
“Tony was well fed-up when that guy got up to jam, taking the piss a bit wasn’t it? I thought he was just a mate of Mick’s?”
“Ritchie? Yeah, he was a bit flash, but you know he’s not so bad once you get to know him. And Jon’s great. I met their drummer today too.”
“We weren’t at our best there, that Ivy Club is a real dump, I don’t know why Gloria booked us in.”
“Don’t worry about it, look they need a bass player – I said you’d be up for it.”
“I don’t think so, I mean what would the others think? I can’t leave them in the lurch like that. Sheila will kill me and Gloria, she’ll just flip.”
“She’ll calm down. I’ll do the shows ’til you get sorted. Look, we’re in Derby tomorrow, I’ll have a chat when we’ve got a moment to ourselves. They’ve asked me to do a session with them on Saturday, just see how it goes. I said we could go round to Jon’s place first and play him some of our stuff, see if they want to take any of our songs, might earn you a few bob.”
“I could use it. I’ve just had to flog one of my amps today.”
“Well if you want to, do the session with me on Saturday.”
“I’ll have a think, let’s have a chat tomorrow.”
“OK, Sheila and Mick will come round in the van about three, see you.”
Roger-Glover’s-diary for June 7th and 8th 1969.
Phone conversation courtesy the NSA, transcribed by Simon Robinson. Images from Wait For The Ricochet. Available at all good bookstores. Except Waterstones who would only take one copy for the whole of the UK as they don’t think anyone’s interested in Deep Purple anymore!
Tags: 1969, deep purple, Episode Six, ian gillan, roger glover
darker than blue 
June 7, 2014 at 10:16 am |
News from Classic Rock website… maybe happening again?
Gillan tells Zeitung: “The whole band is here. We have a studio in the Algarve where we’re working on new songs.
“In the evening we take a sip of good red wine and enjoy the tranquility. I’m woken up at dawn by a rooster in the neighbourhood and I get up when it gets light. When it gets dark in the evening, I go to bed. It’s a no frills life; but it’s a good life down here.”
Here’s hoping!
June 6, 2014 at 7:41 pm |
Roger needs to write a book basing some of it on his Diary!
June 6, 2014 at 6:58 am |
Congratulations to Ian for his idea and sharing it with Roger; they surely didn’t know what was going to happen next and in the future. Thank you both. My nephews and nieces (from 9 to 17 years old) along with my husband and I are playing your music: Smoke on the water, Perfect strangers, Burn, Highway star, Mistreated and some of Rainbow. We love you Deep Purple.
June 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm |
Boycotts Waterstones. D*cks.
June 6, 2014 at 2:54 pm |
They are our last dedicated bookshop chain though! The individual managers have very little say apparently, had quite a discussion about it with our local people. So I’ve now got to tackle the head office.
June 5, 2014 at 12:04 pm |
yeah, that Ritchie was a bit flash lol
June 5, 2014 at 11:26 am |
That’s hilarious…. Nice of them to give you access to the phone tappings that have gone on since 1876!
June 5, 2014 at 9:54 am |
A great piece of History!
June 5, 2014 at 8:59 am |
Great. I could read FAR FAR more of this.