Photo: Didi Zill. Glover, clogs and fire extinguisher in Copenhagen 1973

A band is like a private club - outsiders are not always welcome. The in-jokes, the humour, the politics, are a protection from those who want to share in what they perceive as something special, but in fact is just simple privacy. Deep Purple were not a band that tolerated intrusions gladly, having survived the sixties when outrageousness was common currency, dignity was low on the priority list, and publicity was the great god to whom the music business bowed down.

Photographers in particular were treated with suspicion because they were increasingly fond of asking us to do stupid things in order to get a different angle on things. Or make their job easier. Or please the magazine editor.

Either way, when I joined Deep Purple in 1969, we had a policy of making photographers' lives difficult. Any hapless lensman who happened to say, "I've got an idea - why don't you all climb that tree,"or even, "Come on, let's see you smile for the camera," would invariably be treated to a torrent of abuse, unprintable here, and the band would usually immediately exit the session, leaving behind a pleading and babbling loser.

There were very few who penetrated the wall around the group, but there was one in particular who had the knack of gaining our trust to the extent that we would virtually do anything he asked. In light of the climate of the time this was nothing short of amazing. His name was Dieter Zill.

We actually looked forward to sessions with Didi because they were always short. And fun. He worked so quickly and professionally that it didn't seem like a torture or waste of time. He took some of the best photographs of us at that time, chronicled some defining points in our story, traveled constantly and even accompanied us on our first trip to Japan.

He saw the reality of the band, never abused his position and therefore became more than a photographer, he became a friend.

Roger Glover 2002

 

 

 

Text and photo reproduced with permission from Didi Zill and Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf.