From Mexico to India

The early days of Mk. 7 - 1994-95

In the spring of 1995, Deep Purple Mk. 7 was making its first musical steps in cities as far removed from rock'n'roll as Pretoria, New Delhi and Seoul. This feature looks at the way it all started for the longest running Deep Purple line-up of them all.

The combined forces of Gillan-Glover-Lord-Morse-Paice have enjoyed great success in the studio, on the road, and to some extent critically. Highlights over the past seven years are too numerous to mention, but events that spring to mind would be the line-up's classic debut album Purpendicular from 1996, Steve's attempts at trying to win over the nonbelievers (mostly with instant success), not to mention a true landmark in the band's history: Re-creating Jon Lord's Concerto For Group And Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999, and then taking it out on the road ending up with the version to top them all in Tokyo 2001.

The purpose of this feature is to delve back into the lineup's history. Back to the very early days of Mk 7 where an unusually structured world tour (of sorts) kicked off in Mexico in November 1994 and wrapped up in India in April 1995, a tour which helped the band write and record the Purpendicular album.

Daniel Bengtsson, April 2002