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The end of the road
Rock Candy magazine has a 4-page spread on Deep Purple Mark 4 in their February-March 2018 issue.
DEEP PURPLE’S MK IV LINE-UP CRASHED AND BURNED IN SPECTACULAR FASHION IN 1976 AND MANY FANS THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT TIME. BUT WHY DID THE BAND FALL APART SO PUBLICLY? WHAT PART DID IT PLAY IN THE DEATH OF GUITARIST TOMMY BOLIN? AND IS IT TIME THE BAND’S WORK DURING THIS PERIOD WAS RE-EVALUATED? ROCK CANDY INVESTIGATES THE DEMISE OF THIS VERSION OF PURPLE, BRINGS YOU AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THEIR ILL-FATED LAST TOUR OF THE UK AND TAKES ANOTHER LOOK AT THE BAND’S OFTEN MALIGNED ALBUM, ‘COME TASTE THE BAND’…
The full article is available online as a PDF file or you can purchase the issue in question.
Thanks to Benny Holmström for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Coverdale couldn’t sing on key or carry a tune.
March 14th, 2018 at 19:01Tommy Bolin and Glenn Hughes performed very bad because of their drugs addiction.
March 14th, 2018 at 19:06Absolutely love CTTB. Have grown and grown over the years.
March 14th, 2018 at 21:21A sad honest read. Thanx for the link. Gonna stick CTTB on a bit later tonite, for old times’ sake…
March 14th, 2018 at 21:43Why rehash this story over n over? Yawwwwwn
March 14th, 2018 at 22:24It finally dawn on the band…especially Lord and Paice…that this was…NOT..Deep Purple…… How did Mk II come to be MkIV……….. So sad……
March 14th, 2018 at 22:47Mark IV has ways been an avant-garde musically creative line up. Even today, CTTB sounds as fresh, powerful and new as ever. Although I profoundly hate saying I prefer this or that record, well, in this very case, CTTB is the most striking of all the studio records.
March 14th, 2018 at 23:16Here we go again…
March 14th, 2018 at 23:34Nice. I love MK4.
March 15th, 2018 at 07:06Hi…”Come taste the band” was a great album . The most recent reiusse (the 2 CD version) brings a new dimension to the sound of this work. HIghly recommended. IMHO , “Come taste the band” is better that some albums of the Morse era.
March 15th, 2018 at 12:57Any avid Purple fan already knows most of this story from other sources.A decent article,though.
March 15th, 2018 at 13:42I did not know the quote attributed to Bolin at the end.
A very auspicious time to print this article as today is March 15 the date of Mark IV’s last concert!
March 16th, 2018 at 03:19You can’t blame it on the drugs abuse entirely, it was a natural end to an era of late 60s early 70s hard rock/heavy metal. Even Ian Gillan and Roger Glover could not have saved the band from collapsing if they were to remain in.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:04“Come taste the band” is better than The Battle Rages in, Perfect strengers, Stormbringer, The hous of blue light, S&M and Who Do We Think We Are…
March 16th, 2018 at 13:14When I first read The End Of The Road,I thought the plug had been pulled on The Long Goodbye Tour sooner than expected.
March 16th, 2018 at 16:04As much as i couldn´t stand CTTB (becouse Blackmore didn´t played on it) as much I love it nowdays.Better than most off the post ´84 albums. True DP classic.
March 16th, 2018 at 19:50Come Taste The Band! What a magnificent Deep Purple album. All killer, no filler (ah well, even the filler I Need Love is excellent, lol). Especially the Kevin Shirley remixed and remastered version. All players are in top shape especially Tommy Bolin. At the time a very underrated album and blown away in the press by the Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow debut album. In hindsight Rainbow’s first album is a very lackluster affair, with only 3 good songs on it and a very murky, dull production that did not stand the test of time. Ok it introduced us to the late, great Ronnie James Dio. But changing Lord, Paice, Coverdale and the multi-talented Hughes for a mediocre band like ELF is just crazy…..
March 17th, 2018 at 13:49I’ve always liked Come Taste The Band…a nice blend of edgy rock with funky/soulful element. There is some good stuff there and good production. That the supporting tour went to hell in a hand basket isn’t surprising given the drugs.
The Zen of Then: They couldn’t be where they are today without that experience as a cobblestone in the path. It all leads to this moment.
March 17th, 2018 at 20:37Even though the performances on the 1976 tour swayed from good to awful, at least the show at Long Beach was one of DP’s best of the tour. It was also recorded live for a radio broadcast and eventually released on cd.
March 17th, 2018 at 23:49What happemed to the documentary?
March 19th, 2018 at 10:38There are concerts available since they were filmed for the in-house screen.
Live they weren’t up to much (poor Tommy just wasn’t the player to replace our Ritch) & I was at the Wembley gig but CTTB is a fantastic album, different yes, but nevertheless a great album in it’s own right.
March 19th, 2018 at 17:48Adrian@17 That is a very surprising view. The first Rainbow album was killer and Blackmore and Dio have referred to it as “the best one.”
“Only three good songs?” The only out of place tune is “If you don’t like Rock n Roll” and that was essentially an Elf tune. The production was dry and very similar to “Stormbringer.”
I saw this Deep Purple line- up in Providence Rhode Island 1976. (Nazareth opened. *Nazareth were great btw) Bolin was awful and Hughes (who is a monster talent) appeared fairly out of it. I was bummed and missed Blackmore. Ian Paice was playing incredible during this era. Jon Lord was typically great too. That first Rainbow album never left my turntable that whole summer and even to this day I feel is just a magical album.
March 21st, 2018 at 20:27It was a nice write up, but so much inaccurate info that has been passed down through the years. Nice they tried, though.
March 22nd, 2018 at 01:30@20-Henrik
March 23rd, 2018 at 16:47Is the documentary you mention Phoenix Rising (2011 ) ?? A few quotes/facts from this article come from it.
As well,I don’t believe in-house screens were commonplace in the 70s.Whatever view you had of the stage,that was it.The only widely available footage of MkIV is Deep Purple Rises Over Japan,which is also on Phoenix Rising.
Mark IV was a necessary although messy step in the evolution of DP. Paice, Lord and Coverdale did their best while the addictions of GH & TB eventually unraveled the band. CTTB was a terrific album, although I think Bolin’s solo albums were MUCH better! Concerts were crap, filled with ugly solos and screaming while destroying the legacy of MKII &MKIII. But after it was over we had Rainbow, Pal and early versions of Whitesnake and eventually the reunion of DP MKII. So it wasnt always pretty but necessary and it was the 70’s afterall! Comparing CTTB to Perfect Strangers or Stormbringer and any Morse era music is so subjective, you just can’t, its a totally different era. We like what we like and thats the way it is, rarely do our posts change anyones minds, but we try to respect our fellow Deep Purple fans opinions and move on! I hope to see them one more time on the Long Goodbye Tour….cheers
March 25th, 2018 at 12:28Since the DP article was available to read on the net I was not going to get the magazine until I noticed that there was an article on Heavy Metal Sunday during the 1983 US Festival. I was there so I had to buy it and it just arrived so I will be enjoying it this weekend.
@23-CP:
March 30th, 2018 at 19:55How about enlightening us on that inaccurate info that has been passed down. Maybe we will all learn something new, or maybe just me.
I have discovered a mistake in the pdf . Coverdale interviewed in 1975 New Zealand when asked about drugs groupies and hypodermic needles. States quite clearly as light as day ??!!!
May 19th, 2018 at 23:53Lots of info /dirt . Don’t have time to go through it now . But I will read the whole thing . Thanks .
September 21st, 2018 at 18:10