Originally published in Melody Maker, 26 September 1970

When Deep Purple smashed up their equipment on a TV show recently, there were howls of protest throughout the land. A flood of complaints hit MM’s Mailbag, and there were rumbles of discontent from Caithness to Beccles.

How do Deep Purple react to this outburst and why do they indulge in tactics, once the prerogative of the Who?

In the main they are unrepentant, although they point out they only do it on rare occasions, and are likely to calm down soon anyway.

Chief among the targets for abuse is Purple guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, a mild-mannered, dark-haired chap who occasionally sets fire to his amplifier.

What did he think of all this controversy?

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” he smiled slightly, sipping tea. “The TV show from the South Bank just didn’t go off as well as we expected. It was a tele-recording, and they cut out some of our numbers and just showed the climax, which was annoying. Apparently the sound was bad and everything was cut to pieces. We just did our usual stage act and it didn’t come off. But so what? If we want to do it—we will. We’ll be changing our stage act completely soon. A lot of people have seen it now—especially reporters.

“I think the smashing-up bit is valid. It’s how you feel at the time. I like to jump around. People will have a go at you whatever you do. I remember Jimmy Page saying once that an American writer thought Led Zeppelin ‘were a terrible band because Jimmy Page wears snake skin boots.’

“Lots of people prefer a guitarist to use a tiny amplifier, wear worn-out jeans, and be ever so humble. Well, I like flashy musicians. It’s taken us two years of hard work to get any recognition. We had a long struggle. Now people write in and say—‘Ooerr, look at him smashing up his guitar.’ Well, I’ve been playing for 13 years, and if I feel like smashing it up sometimes, I will.

“I don’t go on stage and say to myself: ‘Right, tonight it happens.’ It’s often when I’m feeling fed-up and I can’t get anything in tune. There is so much to worry about when you get on stage and have to play. Maybe the amplifiers won’t work, or some fool turns all the lights on—or off, and there is the audience reaction to think about.”

Underneath the showmanship, he is a highly rated player among the musicians, but it is often the age-old way of any kind of music business, jazz or rock, that sheer musicianship does not always score the bread, or win the audience.

Ritchie talked about his early influences: “I used to idolize Les Paul and Wes Montgomery. But it’s more of a challenge for me to play rock than jazz, and control a 200-watt amplifier. Sure rock is harder to play than jazz. You see, rock is so limited. In jazz, you can play anything. I don’t think there is a single guitarist who has MASTERED rock guitar playing.

“You could say Segovia has mastered classical music, but nobody has yet mastered rock ‘n’ roll. I like Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck as guitarists, but they are not brilliant. They just play gutsy, screaming music.

“Deep Purple’s main thing is excitement. Sometimes we get too much out of hand on stage, and people say, ‘How disgusting.’ But four years ago, I used to play very technically and other musicians would say: ‘Oh, brilliant.’ But I wasn’t getting anywhere. I’m not being big-headed but if I wanted to be a straight guitarist—I could. Those days are over. Albert Lee is brilliant—but he’s not exciting. Big Jim Sullivan, to my mind, is the best in the country and earns thousands, but he is unknown to the public as he is a session player.

“A few years ago it got to the point where I didn’t want to play anymore, not just play the guitar in a corner. I wanted to ACT and play the guitar. When I was a kid, my whole thing was to be the fastest guitar anywhere.

“I’m 25 now, and I got my first guitar when I was about two years old. At first I wanted to be a jazz player, and my big influence then was Django Reinhardt. It’s funny, I hear the latest thing among guitarists now is speed. But I don’t want to know about that now.”

The Deep Purple story is a strange one. They had a hit in the States, although not as big as first reports suggested, before they were known in Britain.

“I remember our debut here at the Kempton Park Festival. We went on and our amps blew up, then a train went by. There was a complete lack of interest all ’round. We started off in a REALLY great way! Nobody knew who we were, so we said, ‘Right, that’s finished us with England.’ We were going to chuck it in and go back to America. After all, we were superstars there—we had a record ["Hush"] in the Top 100!

“But I don’t think the music business has ever been better than it is now. Really. Bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience made it possible for musicians to be rated, not just on their looks alone.

“And Britain has the best groups in the world.

“There are a lot of things that can build you up or bring you down in this business,” said Ritchie. “You read in the papers one day—’Great Group.’ Next day, it’s ‘Silly Group.’”

Watch: “Mandrake Root” performed live, 1970 [at youtube.com]

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