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Mick Underwood R.I.P.
A prominent member of the Purple family, Mick Underwood has died on July 28, 2024, at the age of 78. In the early 1960s he played drums in The Outlaws with Ritchie Blackmore, then went on to join Episode Six along Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. It was him who recommended Gillan to Blackmore in 1969 as a new singer for Deep Purple. Later in the seventies he joined Gillan the band, recording 5 albums with them. Mick was quite ill for some time, with his wife posting on Facebook in August 2023 that he is battling dementia and “unable to do many of the things he had previously enjoyed”.
[Update July 31] Ian Gillan posted this eulogy:
Sunday 28 July, 2024 marked the passing of a great drummer, Mick Underwood.
Mick and I were in two groups together, Episode Six and later Gillan, and it was he who recommended me as a singer to Deep Purple, a generous act for which I am eternally grateful.
Mick was highly admired by all of us, in particular, his contemporaries and peers in the world of drums.
R.I.P.
Huge Respect, ig
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Vale Mick Underwood. An integral part of the machine. From the glorious 1960’s & rock ‘n roll & everything that went with it.. Had the pleasure of witnessing his drumming in 1981 with the Gillan band. RIP
July 31st, 2024 at 00:40I had already posted this in another thread here because his passing was mentioned there by another member, but Mick deserves the recognition here:
Yes, Mick Underwood. I really liked his understated stage presence, sort of a hard rock Charlie Watts. He played extremely well and tight with John McCoy in GILLAN, a bit like Ian Paice sans the frills. Without Mick, this site wouldn’t be existing: It was his (selfless) recommendation as an Episode Six member to Ritchie to check out Ian Gillan …
I’m not going to post something from GILLAN to commemorate him, but rather from the wonderful (and once Roger Glover-produced) Strapps, the band he was in before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFYl14fMAo4
I loved that (even more obscure than Starcastle) group with Ross Stagg’s (an Aussie, would you believe?) arrogant vocals, sort of a hard rock-Roxy Music/David Bowie/glammy affair. Just listen to how the pastoral organ intro merges at 00:55 into a hard rock explosion with Mick’s lithe drumming!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoFyC-8Mc4k
RIP(ercussive bliss), Mick!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/licensed-image?q=tbn:ANd9GcRxXPrcjCY-NdbBBR41BmyvOaBLP0acc_7w43IzDe6YCqx2x-6xlKx1A5zd3da8QggnILuqAO4qCSN5qJY
July 31st, 2024 at 02:22An excellent drummer for me in the DP family, third in the hierarchy behind Paice and Powell. What a rhythm section John McCoy – Mick Underwood was !!!!.. the opener from the DT album “I’ll Rip Your Spine Out” immediately comes to mind because of such mastery in the eighties, we had strong hi-fi, powerful devices, powerful speakers, amplifiers, top gramophones in my rooms… my neighbors listened to that music with me… RIP
July 31st, 2024 at 07:47RIP♡
July 31st, 2024 at 10:27now you have stopped suffering but you will not be alone in the new world you have encountered
A sad loss, indeed. The 5 string of Gillan albums starting from “Mr Universe” contains some of the mist enjoyable and at times ambitious music ever created in the branches of all Purple Tree. The man will be still listened everyday on my playlists, becoming present and remembered fondly for as long as I do go on. Thank you, Mick!
July 31st, 2024 at 11:07Ha Ha…..oh boy! that’s one video i bet Ritchie would love to see end up in the lost and not found bin. Forgot R.I.P. MICK.
July 31st, 2024 at 12:06A very underrated player.
Technically solid – but never pushing himself to the fore.
Just laying down the powerful groove of those songs.
Not as flash as Ian, but better at the fast stuff.
Little Ian apparently auditioned for the job with Gillan before Ian offered it to Mick.
Don’t forget that Quatermass recorded Black Sheep – originally by Fat Mattress – later covered by Ritchie.
Quatermass II featured Nick Simper and Don Airey.
July 31st, 2024 at 12:53Mick’s work with Paul Rodgers is noteworthy too, ere’s a song for ya from Peace (a trio where Rodgers also held sole guitar duties) which the closet Bad Co’ists lurking here should know from its much later release on Burning Sky:
https://youtu.be/uadVh5i0rCc
Stunning version, great drumming by Herr Underwood and Rodgers is no slouch on lead guitar either. Peace would open for Mott the Hoople where Paul would meet a disenchanted Mick Ralphs who was no longer happy there (Ian Hunter didn’t have the range to perform his songs and Mick didn’t either) – the rest is history and perhaps saved Mick Underwood from the fate of losing talented singers twice to Deep Purple! 😎
July 31st, 2024 at 13:04In terms of ferocity and grandeur that Quatermass version sung by John Gustafson creamed Rainbow’s tame and non-eventful cover into the ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWLa9z2-10c
We can’t, however, discuss Quatermass sensibly without discussing pterodactyls (pronounced: teh·ruh·dak·tls), formely viewed as flying dinosaurs/reptiles, but classified as early birds under modern science.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6vA8wWskCkUgffN9dbQhvh.jpg
New archeological findings reveal: You never heard pterodactyls urinate. Why so?
The p is silent. 😂
Ouch, I’ll crawl back under my stone age rock now.
July 31st, 2024 at 15:16The man at work with Strapps – the night they were opening for IGB at the Rainbow, including Mick’s short drum solo at 02:52 and an extended jam. Excellent sound quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Hz-wKuT5w
Since IGB’s performance was filmed that night, so was Strapps’, who were shit-hot. But it was the Punk Craze Era and the critics hated (i) them, (ii) Ross Stagg’s blow-dry undulated pretty boy looks & (iii) the very 70ies decadent sexist image of the band.
https://alchetron.com/cdn/strapps-2c7df7b1-fa81-4b51-b783-e2df8a3cc87-resize-750.jpeg
https://alchetron.com/cdn/strapps-19d7362e-c45a-437f-8693-13a9c04f833-resize-750.jpeg
Which is kinda ironic because Strapps had a New Wave touch ahead of time without knowing it, they sounded a bit Stranglers’ish in places. One favorable German review about them statedd “a strange, but somehow compelling mix of Deep Purple and Roxy Music”. That of course spawned my interest and I swiftly bought “Secret Damage”, their second album in 1977, it was a revelation for me at the time.
https://alchetron.com/cdn/strapps-f6f078da-f787-41aa-ae3b-69f12421b78-resize-750.jpeg
July 31st, 2024 at 17:26Remember seeing Mick drumming in Gillan at Poole Wessex Hall and the Southampton Gaumont in 1981. A great drummer and a cool dude. RIP.
July 31st, 2024 at 21:46@ 9 & 10 – I have never heard of that Aussie musician Ross Stagg, not from my memory. I read a little about him, he ended up back in Oz after that & with a band in the Sydney area. Then he went to music teaching at WSI TAFE NSW · Music Bachelor of Contemporary Music; Bachelor Education. Regarding the ‘P’ joke, yes that will pass the pub test. Black Sheep Of The Family has had a few interpretations. Quartermass is good, although I do have more affiliation with the Rainbow version being the first time I had ever heard it. The original with Chris Farlowe also has that classic era sound that Quartermass managed to capture. The Fat Mattress version is a more folkie bluesy version & sounds musically a little like early Tull in a way. Cheers.
August 1st, 2024 at 00:14Really nice words from Ian Gillan. He always seems to know the perfect thing to say. RIP Mic.
August 1st, 2024 at 01:08#11 Andrew
What would I pay to be older and have been able to see Gillan live in the 80s!….an ex-workmate of mine told me about the live show at the Rolling Stone in Milan and it was incredible!
August 2nd, 2024 at 21:05Very sad to hear of Mick’s passing. A very underrated and powerful drummer. I was at the final Gillan gig in December 1982 and it’s a shame that Mick didn’t find another high profile job subsequently. Or maybe he didn’t want to. Around 30 years later I got to meet him briefly at a Glory Road gig (he was still playing great) and he came across as a very unassuming bloke who was just happy to be out playing the old stuff again with a great band. RIP Mick.
August 2nd, 2024 at 22:19An in depth interview with the man (a no-nonsense guy) about the whole of his career and why he “knows fuck-all about damn Deep Purple” 😁:
https://dmme.net/interview-with-mick-underwood-part-1
https://dmme.net/interview-with-mick-underwood-part-2
https://dmme.net/interview-with-mick-underwood-part-3
August 2nd, 2024 at 23:32Mick somehow always missed the bus:
– his Outlaws colleague beomes a guitar god and co-founds DP,
– his replacement guitarist in the Outlaws does well with Hot Chocolate and offers Mick the drum stool there, who declines and recommends a drummer who becomes the permanent Hot Chocolate drummer as they rule the charts for more than a decade,
– his Episode Six singer buddy Ian G. takes the lead vocalist spot in you-know-who at Mick’s recommendation,
– his Quatermass bass and keyboard mates end up with Roxy Music (John Gustafson) and in Hollywood as a film composer and musical director of Phil Collins’ solo era (Peter Robinson),
– he founds Peace with Paul Rodgers only for Rodgers to reform Free at the record company’s instigation without his nemesis Andy Fraser, then seeing it fall apart again, Rodger does the same music he did with Mick now as Bad Company with different guys,
– he puts his heart into Strapps who become big in Japan (and open for Mk IV on their final English tour), but nowhere else, thanks to being non-Punks in the Punk Era (they should have cut their hair and considered a name change just like The Stranglers did who started – would you believe – as a soft rock band in the pre-Punk Era!),
– and finally finds a home with GILLAN, only for it to go pear-shaped big time after a few years – with Big Ian facing vocal cord issues, getting drunk and jumping ship for Black Sabbath and a year later the Mk II reunion. His Gillan guitarist buddy Janick Gers moves on to first Bruce Dickinson and then Iron Maiden, Colin Towns becomes a successful jazz and soundtrack composer/conductor.
That’s a whole pile of misfortune/non-luck for Mick, but kudos to the man, he did not grow bitter about it.
August 3rd, 2024 at 00:06I don’t know Uwe, was he really looking for success, well obviously he was to an extent. His comments at the start of the interview, although of course in hindsight, paint a rather quiet, unassuming man, not worried about all the glitter & shine that gets through. Thanks for the link. That image of Mick & Ritchie is a classic photo. Blackmore has ‘that’ look on his face. Also the image on the second page with the lads & that topless chick in the car, happy days indeed. Cheers.
August 3rd, 2024 at 00:24Many drummers face immense challenges in their lives.
🤐
August 3rd, 2024 at 12:23How sad and disrespectful that Planet Rock news makes no mention of Mick’s passing.
August 4th, 2024 at 16:30Yes I noticed no mention of Mick’s passing in the tabloids. Especially the British one, Louder or whatever it is called. Also not mentioned on the BBC but that is expected as they only highlight the ‘superstars’ of this world. Still when we look at it like Mick did, that would probably suit him wouldn’t we think? Cheers.
August 4th, 2024 at 22:00Related to Carrie Underwood ?
August 9th, 2024 at 10:28@22: No. Mick Underwood is from the UK. Carrie Underwood is from the USA. In the UK, there are approx. 15-20000 people with the surname Underwood. In the USA, they are about 75000. (Stats according to ChatGPT. Facts about their relationship according to me.)
August 9th, 2024 at 12:02Who can forget President Frank Underwood, that role model of integrity?
https://i.gifer.com/6tht.gif
August 9th, 2024 at 13:48