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Derek Lawrence R.I.P.
Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash wrote on his band’s facebook today, May 14, 2020:
With great sadness, I have just received news from friend and journalist Dave Ling, that our old friend and the architect of our first 3 albums, including the wonderful Argus album, Derek Lawrence, has passed away. Derek left us yesterday at age 78.
As the original record producer for Deep Purple, Derek was the connector, the catalyst if you will, after my onstage jam with Ritchie Blackmore at the Dunstable Civic Auditoreum. Ritchie made the call to Derek and from there we got to speak with Don Shane at Universal City, which led to the launch of our recording career.
Here is the man himself, sharing anecdotage about the nascent Deep Purple and Jethro Tull:
Thanks to Nigel Young for the heads up and to UKRockHistory for the video.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
It’s a fact of life that we all will end on day but we are always in denial. RIP Derek we will join you sooner or later so keep the kittle on.
May 14th, 2020 at 21:41RIP to a legend and what an ace piece and how it explains the missing H in the management of Deep Purple and the details of the deals they signed 🙂
May 15th, 2020 at 09:16Sad sad news
May 15th, 2020 at 23:47Tarantino’s Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski going to the Playboy Mansion West, listening to Purple on the radio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAAr_hvf430
May 17th, 2020 at 11:12Kentucky Woman is also on the soundtrack: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7131622/soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJvqTokgvjI
May 17th, 2020 at 22:04There’s a few seconds of DP’s Kentucky Woman about one minute in.
So sad to hear the passing of Derek. I was lucky enough to meet Derek when I was recording in London. I had a bad experience with a producer, Derek could see potential and offered me a chance. Unfortunately the bad experience had knocked my confidence. Thank you Derek, a great man, a legend. R.I.P.
July 3rd, 2020 at 11:27Just found out that Derek had passed away. He worked on Legs Diamonds first album and so there are many fond memories from those days. We were happy to work with him as he produced the first 3 albums from our heroes Deep Purple. Thank you Derek for getting us started. RIP Derek you will be missed.
July 10th, 2020 at 17:41I worked with Derek in ‘92 on a dance single I co-wrote with a guitarist friend which was played in the discos in Germany. I also did backing vocals for him on some other tracks for a few other artists.
December 13th, 2022 at 18:07Here’s my song uploaded by a friend with my added comment about my time with him.
https://youtu.be/a9OYsEITE6k