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Splendid time guaranteed
Fancy yourself a Deep Purple show on a New Year’s Eve? You’d have to buy yourself a time machine first, because (to our knowledge) the only time the band did such a thing was on December 31, 1968, at the Electric Circus in New York City, a legendary nightclub that at one point had The Velvet Underground as their house band. It’s All In The Streets You Crossed Not So Long Ago, a blog dedicated to rock’n’roll landmarks of the city, has reproduction of an ad that appeared in Village Voice issue dated January 2, 1969 (which probably hit the streets a week before that):
Let’s spend the night together.
New Year’s Eve at The Electric Circus.23 St. Marks Place (Bet. 2nd and 3rd) East Village, from 9 P.M. till 6 A.M. DEEP PURPLE, Sirocco, The Mighty Tornados and You ($7.50). For information 777-7080. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Buy a time machine, why? I am making my own machine & it’s just about finished, just a few minor adjustments & it will be ready. Trouble is I cannot seem to get anyone else’s interest to take a ride in it with me, for some ‘strange’ reason. One thing I will do for sure, when I get to December 1968, I will try my hardest to stop Gillan & Glover joining Deep Purple & destroying the band! Cheers.
January 22nd, 2014 at 07:39I LOVE DEEP PURPLE THE BEST BAND
January 22nd, 2014 at 13:41Hard to fathom that out of 45 years of touring, this is the one and only New Years gig. New Years is a great time to see a good concert. I saw Alice Cooper for New Years around 1986 in Miami. Vinnie Vincent opened for him. Alice makes it a habit of playing somewhere for New Years. Most recently we saw Skynyrd in Nashville a couple of years ago. The great thing about those shows is the festive atmosphere with the crowd. Plus, the band usually times it right where the last song finishes at midnight and of course they wish everybody ‘Happy New Year!!!” Then soon after comes the encore into the new year. Would love to see Purple at a gig like that but then, on that particular day they could be anywhere on the planet and the odds of that being in the US are slim to none…..
!Ch-BeerZ?
January 22nd, 2014 at 14:29If Doc Brown could turn my Cabrio into a time machine, the New Year’s concert would not be my first choice. That would be the ’69 Concerto or the Made in Japan tour. I would be sure to bring a video recorder.
And be careful not to step on a bug.
January 22nd, 2014 at 17:18Great find! I like how the ad contains the title of a Stones song and a line from the Beatles’ Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. One of the other bands, Sirocco, may have named themselves after the gangster Jack Sirocco who participated in a shoot-out at the EC building in 1914. I checked the timeline for MK I and they also recorded some demos in New York during December 1968: Glory Road, Lay Lady Lay, and Oh No No No…..but only the third one appears on an album, the remastered edition of The Book of Taliesyn.
January 23rd, 2014 at 00:29I would like to have been a fly on the wall at many a DP jam fest!
January 23rd, 2014 at 01:00great pic!the only one who doesn’t wear black is Ritchie!!
January 23rd, 2014 at 15:34I would sell my sell my left leg to seeeee Blackmore un Lord kickin the fuck out of it in 68, but not my right it’s the only one I have left.
Mr Blackmore and Lord. Thank you for the memories.
Kenn
January 23rd, 2014 at 15:47my choice?
January 23rd, 2014 at 19:38some time in summer/autumn 1969: the early Mk II recording sessions & gigs – where the magic began;
dec. 1971, Montreux CH: the ‘Machine Head’ sessions;
autumn 1973: the ‘Burn’ sessions;
i’m not quite sure which one would be first choice, maybe in chronological order.
Mk I would not be my first choice, but would love to listen/see to one of their late gigs,
when the improvisations became a trademark of DP.
as a great fan of Tommy Bolin i would also love to see one of his better gigs with Mk IV.
cheers.