1970

January 1970

The band were in the studio on three separate occasions (including New Year’s Day) cutting two of the upcoming album’s killer tracks (Speed King and Hard Lovin’ Man),  playing several UK one-nighters and zipping over to Holland for TV and a well paid show in Germany.

January 6. 1970 • Worthing Pavilion • headliners

Deep Purple’s first UK concert of 1970 took place in this unlikely looking venue, built at the town end of the pier in 1926 (and still going strong – Rapunzel for the 2013 half-term holiday). The mixed bill – Hawkwind, Andromeda, Train, Spencer Davis and headiners Deep Purple – was put together in aid of the Worthing Workshop, a local arts lab and music club (co-founded by Leo Sayer and other students at the West Sussex College of Art. They staged the UK’s first ‘bubble-in’ and opened a ‘head shop’ in the town). Which probably explains the appearance of Hawkwind on the bill. We don’t know how Deep Purple came to play the show, but manager John Coletta lived not to far away and may have been the contact. Interesting to see the reviewer pointing out the lack of skinheads at the event!  David Browne found the article in his local newspaper archives, and also took the shot of the venue for us.
A few days before they had laid down Hard Lovin’ Man in the studio for their new album…

Check out details of an upcoming book about the In Rock era in the site.

UPDATE – Dave Browne adds that Andromeda were led by John du Cann in 1968/9 before he joined Atomic Rooster (and Purple Records band Hard Stuff)

March 30. 1970 • Peace Pop World, Berlin Sportpalast

Nice / Deep Purple / Spencer Davis / Hardin York / Wonderland

Deep Purple did a number of the growing European rock festivals, and they were a good way to reach new fans. The Nice came on late, and in the early hours there was a jam with some of Deep Purple joining them on stage, while Keith Emerson joined Deep Purple on two tracks, Walking Down The Line and Lucille (a cassette recording of both sets exists). Deep Purple’s set comprised: Speed King / Child In Time / Into The Fire / Wring That Neck / Paint It Black incl. Drum Solo / Mandrake Root / Walking All Down The Line (with Keith Emerson) / Lucille (with Keith Emerson) .  Thanks to easy on the eye books for the poster image from their book Wait For The Ricochet.

April 11. 1970 • Chatham Central Hall

Chatham Central Hall on the High Street opened in 1908 as a Wesleyan chapel, and then a Methodist church. They sold it in 1966 after which it became a popular entertainment venue, with lots of pop and rock bands playing here, and is still used as such.  At some time the original stage area and some of the seating was removed to allow the construction of a larger stage area. The picture below is how it looks today.

Deep Purple played the hall on a Saturday in April, with Genesis as a support act. It was a one-off show in between sessions for the In Rock album, and as far as we know the only time the band appeared there. As was often the case at halls back then, ticket prices varied from 20/’ (£1.00) down to 10/- (50p).  Trapeze played the hall a few years later.

May 25th 1970 • Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, London

This was a week long festival of progressive music, promoted by Pete Bowyer who handled bookings for Deep Purple at the time. The venue only seated 900, and was not normally given over to rock and pop. Each band did two sets, with Deep Purple delivering their regular In Rock performance of the time.  Fittingly they closed the event, bringing it to “a frightening climax with a performance so incredibly visual and sonic that it is difficult and almost pointless to put it into words,” according to one of the music paper reviews.

August 9. 1970 • Plumpton Racecourse, NJF Festival

The tenth event of the annual National Jazz, Pop, Ballads and Blues Festival organised by the Marquee club. In 1968 Deep Purple had gone on at some early hour to largely indifferent reviews. This time they closed out the final evening (of a four day event) and Ritchie blew the place apart – literally – using petrol and setting fire to his Marshalls and,  according to Chris Charlesworth, smashing a guitar and chucking the pieces into the crowd. More or less a test run for The California Jam four years later. What a fantastic bill of 70s bands too (I saw five of them in the 70s). Under pressure from locals, and wanting somewhere more central, the festival later moved and remains best known as the Reading Festival (which of course became Gillan’s second home).

September 26. 1970 • Liverpool St. George’s Hall – support Quatermass / cancelled – rescheduled

This flyer has been in the DTB archives for some time but it was interesting to see a nice fully signed one which turned up lately.  The fan who got it signed then rather spoilt it by writing down the names of the band besides the signatures, and even the set list (see below).  But when was it signed?  News reports from the time confirm that the concert as advertised on the flyer was cancelled. The reason was that their transport failed on the way up and by the time they did get there it was far too late to go on. The band rescheduled the concert for seven weeks later, November 18th. I suspect that the flyer was signed at that second show, hence the set-list being added (see below).
Quatermass were of course fellow Harvest label prog rockers, with Mick Underwood on drums. We don’t know if they did their set or not.
As for the hall, it’s one of the most astonishing buildings, dating from the 1850s and listed Grade 1.  A more unlikely place for rock music is hard to imagine but as with so much of the city’s architecture, it was less revered in the C20 than it ought to have been. These days the events tend to be more regulated.

Stephen Clare, in a local band later, saw the flyer and was reminded of the ticket agency, sited in a popular music shop in Liverpool (a massive five floor store in the city centre, billed as the largest music house in Europe.) “Our drummer got drunk one day, and somehow persuaded them to buy his drum kit. We managed to get them to sell it back to him a few days later when we realised what he’d done!”
Many cities had these long established music shops which handled tickets. Rushworth & Dreaper had several shops in the North West and their origins went back to the 1820s a organ builders. They finally closed in 2002. Thanks to Tonny Steenhagen and DTB archives.

November 15. 1970 • Gothenburg Concerthouse.

Deep Purple did the same seven tracks as at the Stockholm concert on the 12th. The only two differences were that firstly  Jon Lord didn´t do an organ solo in Child In Time, so it was left to Ritchie to do the honours. Then during Ian Paice´s drumsolo in Paint It Black, Pete York came on to the stage equipped with only an snare drum, and started jamming with Paice.
Hardin & York were the support act for these Scandinavian shows. Their tour van broke down on the way to Gothenburg. Pete was able to borrow Ian’s kit, but they weren’t keen on lending the Hammond. So instead Eddie Hardin used Gothenburg Concerthouse´s own grand piano and they were restricted to playing only the piano-based songs from their repertoire for about 40-45 minutes.
Thanks to Lars Olsson for the recollections and help. He says Deep Purple played a fantastic concert.

November 18. 1970 • Liverpool St. George’s Hall / rescheduled date for cancelled show (see above)

Yodel / Speed King / Into The Fire / Child In Time / Wring That Neck / Paint It Black / Mandrake Root – Black Night

November 23. 1970 • Wolverhampton Civic Hall / cancelled
November 24. 1970 • Bradford St. Georges Hall / cancelled

Jon Lord hurt his back humping his gear around during The Artwoods days, and every so often it would return to cause him trouble. He’d been suffering for a while during the short UK tour this month but after the band had played a show in Croydon on the 22nd it was clear Jon couldn’t carry on. This battered ticket is for the cancelled show at the St. George’s Hall. Jon went to see a specialist (it turned out to be a slipped disc).  They also put an advert in the paper to explain the cancellations.  For more on the Bradford venue and Deep Purple’s connections there see the St. George’s Hall page at deep-purple.net.

UPDATE – Tonny Steenhagen wonder if the Bradford show went ahead without DP as the ticket doesn’t have a stub, which usually means it has been used. Maybe someone who went can get in touch?