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No laughing in the heaven
It’s that time of the year again — time for Deep Purple to get snubbed by a certain Hall of Fame. The band’s name has appeared on the nomination ballot once again, and Classic Rock reached out to Ian Gillan for a comment. His response came in most unambiguous terms:
I have no respect for them. They’re the kind of people that having seen A Hard Day’s Night decided that The Monkees would be America’s equivalent to the Beatles. They’ve no idea what goes on in the big, wide world outside of their self-arbitrating surroundings.
To me, those people are bloody arrogant and rude. I’ve heard that somebody on their committee dismissed us as one-hit wonders. I couldn’t figure out whether that hit was Hush, Kentucky Woman, Black Night, Strange Kind Of Woman, Child In Time, Perfect Strangers, Knocking At Your Back Door or perhaps even Smoke On The Water.
I’m very grateful for the other bands and artists that stood up for us with a view to our induction – that’s nice of them. But I wish that the Hall Of Fame had had the discretion to ask us first. It’s now become a debate in which we are too late to have the final word.
I’m sure that my mum would have been pleased and it all sounds very grand, but just take a look at who’s in it. I once wrote a song called No Laughing In Heaven which was about not wanting to go to heaven due to the company I’d be keeping, and with a few exceptions, the Hall Of Fame is pretty much the same thing.
Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Can”t you stop babbling about the rock n roll hall?- Who cares!?
October 16th, 2015 at 19:54I’m refusing to vote. As I’ve already said if the band don’t care anymore then why should DP fans give a toss.
October 16th, 2015 at 20:14I couldn’t have said it better myself. I won’t vote because their hall of fame is irelevant, at least in my eyes. Every DP fan knows their importance in the rock genre. Way to go Gillan. You never seem to disappoint
October 16th, 2015 at 20:27The Hall is a Sham.
October 16th, 2015 at 20:32Not voting, it doesn’t matter anyway.
October 16th, 2015 at 21:56The popular vote just counts as one vote in the actual vote by the committee of this little myopic For-profit Company.
Stay out Deep Purple!
Isn’t this what Ritchie has been saying all along?
October 16th, 2015 at 22:02Deep Purple was, and is, a “underground” band. Let’s keep it that way 😉 They’re just to good to be in the hall of shame!
October 16th, 2015 at 22:04Bravo!
I hope they never go in. Given the makeup of the membership at this time, I consider it a greater rock-n-roll badge of honor to NOT be in the HOF. The people who run it are filthy, greedy corporate drones, and the entire thing reeks of Establishment.
One of the core driving forces in rock-n-roll is being anti-Establishment, so if you willingly go in, or (god forbid) lobby to get in, you have essentially sold your soul to one of the things you should be most adamantly against.
Please, Jann Wenner, keep Deep Purple out of your shameful Hall. Keep trying to tell people that Janet Jackson is rock-n-roll. I’ll take my cue from Big Ian and fire up No Laughing in Heaven.
Keep Deep Purple out of the RRHOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 16th, 2015 at 22:27How did Green Day & Nirvana get into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame before Deep Purple?????
October 16th, 2015 at 22:49#LetDeepPurplein
October 16th, 2015 at 22:49I agree. It is a giant pile of steaming shite, but better to get your vote in and look like we care. IMHO…
October 16th, 2015 at 23:06Let it go down in history.
October 17th, 2015 at 00:56E by gum & the billy goats mum & she did eat bananas…
October 17th, 2015 at 01:31I agree with Ian Gillan 10,000% on his stance. The RRHOF is irrelevant to Deep Purple. The RRHOF is a sham institution with no credibility whatsoever. Even if Purple are voted in this time around, it will have been far too late to have any meaning. Purple should snub it back.
October 17th, 2015 at 01:40I still voted for them and I urge everyone to do the same.
It’s a travesty, I know, but I’d rather this wrong be fixed, better late than never.
Good quote by Gillan, please do tell about this “one hit wonder” band…and he didn’t even mention the massive hits created by the Coverdale/Hughes era.
What an influential band they are…truly the giants of rock music. I am privileged to have seen live Deep Purple 3 times, Dio once and Whitesnake once…
October 17th, 2015 at 02:15I think Geddy Lee said the same thing about Rolling Stone Mag.
October 17th, 2015 at 02:46Really dont give a rat’s a*** if the band get into HoF. Just continue to make good music as they have since 1968 (when I saw them, and shared stage) and, by the way, when is the next album/CD coming ??? Haven’t that been promised for a while ? What’s holding preceding’s up ?
October 17th, 2015 at 04:16The introduction of “our” band should have been celebrated in 1984/1985.
Nowadays the nomination comes in like the yearly hurricane season.
Good luck to Chicago and Yes!
Have a nice Day!
October 17th, 2015 at 08:59I really, really hope Purple turns it down.
October 17th, 2015 at 11:47I won’t be voting either. The fan vote is a sham.
October 17th, 2015 at 12:33We should start an ‘anti-vote’ campaign.
October 17th, 2015 at 12:47deep purple is too good to be put in the hall of fame.
October 17th, 2015 at 14:08To be or not to that rock and roll hall of shame. It doesn’t matter to me DEEP PURPLE is simply the greatest band of all times.
October 17th, 2015 at 14:37Whoa – very true Big Ian. Still, I want you in because without you, so many bands would have not had YOUR influence.
Isn’t the Knack in?
October 17th, 2015 at 17:52Rockn roll Hall of Fame is not in the same league as Deep Purple but rather a significant amount of orders of magnitudes below. RRHOF showed their ignorance long enough. Purple should have been included immediately to give RRHOF some credibility -now its just too late
The appropriate means of choice would be, that Purple managements lawyers prohibis RRHOF choosing or further using Deep Purple for any nominees list.
October 17th, 2015 at 19:01Well said Big Ian
October 18th, 2015 at 02:55The third time .. God to help
“Of one-hit band” finally enters the house, the door opens tough rocker Mrs.Janet Jackson
)))
“No Laughing in Haven” is a great song, lyrics, melodies, Ian “The Elements “, also “If You Believe Me”, “Fighting Man”.
October 18th, 2015 at 06:51Great Time 79/80/81
Big Ian man voice-instrument
Well said, Ian. Mr. Peresman and his merry band of corporate phonies DO NOT DESERVE to have Deep Purple in their, and I use this term loosely, Hall of Fame. Should DP get inducted, I for one hope they refuse.
October 18th, 2015 at 16:10https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1378957575701936&set=a.1378951932369167.1073741832.100007631196781&type=3&theater
October 18th, 2015 at 18:27Deep Purple are beyond the RRHOF. They don’t belong in there. To me it’s not an honor at all to be inducted. For Purple If they were inducted they would get a small mention of how they created one of the greatest guitar riffs in history and that would be it. No other mention about them being one of the most influencial Rocks groups of the 70’s and beyond and they style of hard rock they created.
October 18th, 2015 at 18:43I will vote. I urge all here to do the same. Yes the R&RHOF is absolute BS. But, it is still a long thorn that needs to be nipped off. I’d rather put the pressure on these steaming piles of monkey shit to knuckle under and do what should have been done years ago rather than give them a pass. Make them put their asses to the grinding stone and figure out a way to right their wrong. Purple can do what they want when and if they are inducted. The Fans on the other hand need to push this joke of an institution into tucking their tail between their legs and begging forgiveness for the disgrace they have made of themselves by snubbing the most worthy band on the planet. We must join with other well knowns as Alice Cooper, Rush, Eddie Trunk in calling these assholes out and making it happen.
VOTE!!!!!
Ch-BeerZ
October 19th, 2015 at 01:19And who are these people that deem one band more worthy than another anyway?
Nice to be recognized but hardly necessary after all these years.
October 19th, 2015 at 09:32We just shouldn’t give a f**k. What is this, some kind of X factor competition? We all know that Purple Mk II/III/IV was one of the greatest rock bands of all time. The Pretenders have been in for a decade and Purple are still out. Sums it up; the committee have got their heads up their asses. Boycott!
October 19th, 2015 at 09:48@30
October 19th, 2015 at 10:51It is useless Tracy,with the kind of people they have there.How can you beat ignorance man ?!
I’m sick and tired of this shit,Purple at this point should turn it down this so called institution.
Gillan nails it! with that being said i still voted!
Oh nooo, I want them next to Bee Gees, Madonna and ABBA!
October 19th, 2015 at 11:32/sarcasm
Aren’t DP already in the Classic Rock Hall of Fame? That is a bigger honor than the one here in the states.
October 19th, 2015 at 12:34I am an American and am also mortified by some of the Hall’s choices at the expense of Deep Purple. IMO they should have been inducted in their first year of eligibility ( class of 1994 ). Now the fans have the Fan Ballot in which the winner automatically inducted. I say the fans should vote them in in overwhelming numbers, and if Deep Purple turns them down for their valid reasons, so much the better ! So vote !
October 19th, 2015 at 15:04But then again there’s the idea for this being for the fans and future generations of fans. Regardless the omission of Deep Purple from any Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ludicrous.
October 19th, 2015 at 19:24Hello all,
Though I do not hold the RRHOF in high regard, I believe that Deep Purple has been unjustly ignored these past 2 decades and this wrong should be righted. So I just voted.
I see that the current standings so far are somewhat encouraging with Deep Purple in 5th spot, just a slight shade below Steve Miller (but more that 10 points ahead of Janet Jackson and others). Leading the pack is Chicago, and that is not a bad thing either (especially if one takes into account their first 8 albums from early to mid-70’s).
So far here are how the fan votes tally up as of about 10 minutes ago:
Chicago 23.50% (37407263 votes)
The Cars 16.19% (25764229 votes)
Yes 16.17% (25737304 votes)
Steve Miller 15.96% (25395459 votes)
***Deep Purple 15.94% (25368405 votes)***
Janet Jackson 5.91% (9401785 votes)
Cheap Trick 1.31% (2092007 votes)
The Spinners 1.26% (2003760 votes)
Chaka Khan 1.14% (1814360 votes) – See more at: http://rockhall.com/voting/2016-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-nominees-vote/#sthash.zQnJO67B.dpuf
Keep on voting for Deep Purple in order to up its total vote tally. It will be very interesting to see after that if Purple does in fact do get the nod from the Hall, or not. If after scoring a hearty tally of fan votes, RRHOF Board applies some questionable procedural tactic to exclude Purple. it will only confirm how illegitimate the whole process, and by extension, the Hall, really is.
Let’s see how this all goes!
October 19th, 2015 at 22:58I plan to vote for Deep Purple 16,472 times, because the number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in their music.
October 20th, 2015 at 04:18In the end, if they finally get inducted, what does it mean? There’s no institution in the world which does the greats from the late 60ies/early 70ies justice. What really counts is the reputation a band got over the years.
The music composed by the Mark II/III members (including Jon’s classical works and Ritchie’s Renaissance music) at least makes them stand toe to toe with Led Zeppelin for instance, although Zeppelin’s popularity in the US is without a question a number of times bigger than Purple’s. However I can’t see a big difference in musicianship that justifies the status of Zeppelin in comparison.
October 20th, 2015 at 12:55Best thing would be if the band will win the poll with our help… And then the band and Ritchie would refuse to show up! THAT will show 1) how many fans around the world Purple have; 2) their influence over the world; 3) that the band itself means MORE than this institution.
October 20th, 2015 at 19:39Yes !!! and there future fans to consider
October 20th, 2015 at 19:41And it’s not hard to vote for the band, you don’t have to do much! So do it
October 20th, 2015 at 19:41Ian said it all
October 22nd, 2015 at 00:59“I believe that I must tell the truth
October 23rd, 2015 at 14:13And say things as they really are
But if I told the truth and nothing but the truth
Could I ever be a star
Nobody knows who’s real and who’s fakin’
Everyone’s shouting out loud
It’s only the glitter and shine that gets through…”
Fuck RRHF.