Deep Purple formed in Hertfordshire in 1968.Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered one of the pioneers of heavy metal and hard rock,although the members of the band have always refused to label themselves as the former. They are claimed to have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.

The band has gone through many line-up changes, as well as an eight-year hiatus and two reunions. Their second and most commercially successful line-up featured: Ian Gillan (singer), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboard), Roger Glover (bass guitar) and Ian Paice (drums). Paice is the only original member still with the band.

In October 1968, the group had success in the US (but not the UK) with a cover of Joe South's "Hush", which reached #4. The song was taken from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, and they were booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour.

The band hunted down singer Ian Gillan from Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without achieving their big break. Six's drummer Mick Underwood - an old comrade of Blackmore's from his Savages days made the introductions, and bassist Roger Glover tagged along for the initial sessions. Purple persuaded Glover to join full-time; an act that effectively killed Episode Six and gave Underwood a guilt complex that lasted nearly a decade.

The more mellow and creatively progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan but not of the rest of the band ), was issued in the summer of 1971. The title track "Fireball" was released as a single, as was "Strange Kind of Woman" not from the album but recorded during the same sessions.

Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which later became "Highway Star") was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus to a show in Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist's question: "How do you go about writing songs?" Three months later, in December 1971, the band found itself in Switzerland to record Machine Head.

Machine Head has since become one of the band's most famous albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star", "Space Truckin'", "Lazy", and "Smoke on the Water".

The classic Purple Mk 2 line-up continued to work and released the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), featuring the hit single "Woman from Tokyo", but internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. The bad feelings culminated in Ian Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, and Roger Glover being pushed out with him. Their replacements were an unknown singer from Saltburn in North East England, David Coverdale, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze.Blackmore voiced unhappiness with the album, and as a result left the band in the spring of 1975 to form his own band with Ronnie James Dio and called Rainbow.

With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest vacancies in rock music. In spite of this, the rest of the band refused to go down without a fight, and to the surprise of many long-time fans actually announced a replacement for the "irreplaceable" Man in Black; American Tommy Bolin.

The end came on tour in Britain in March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. David Coverdale reportedly walked off in tears and handed in his resignation, to which he was allegedly told there was no band left to quit. The decision to pull the plug on Purple had been made some time before the last show by Lord and Paice (the last remaining original members), who hadn't told anyone else. The break-up was finally made public in July 1976.

Later, Bolin had just finished recording his second solo album, Private Eyes, when, on December 4, 1976, tragedy struck. In Miami, during a tour supporting Jeff Beck, Bolin was found unconscious by his girlfriend. Unable to wake him, she hurriedly called paramedics, but it was too late. The official cause of death: multiple-drug intoxication. He was 25 years old.

In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place. It was announced on BBC radio's The Friday Rock Show that the "classic" early 70s line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, and Paice was reforming and recording new material.

The line-up then recorded The House of Blue Light in 1986, which was followed by a world tour in 1987. This was followed by another live album Nobody's Perfect (1988) which was culled from several shows on this tour, but still largely based around the by-now familiar "Made in Japan" set-list.

Roger Glover and Steve Morse jamming during the intro to Highway StarSteve Morse’s arrival revitalised the band creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles. With a revamped set list to tour, Deep Purple enjoyed success throughout the rest of the 1990s.

In 2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in five years, the highly praised Bananas, and began touring in support of the album immediately. In July 2005 the band played at the Live 8 concert and, in October of the same year, released their next album Rapture of the Deep. It was followed by the Rapture of the Deep tour.

Discography

Shades of Deep Purple, September 1968
The Book of Taliesyn, December 1968
Deep Purple, November 1969
Deep Purple in Rock, September 1970 
Fireball, July 1971
Machine Head, May 1972
Who Do We Think We Are, January 1973
Burn, February 1974 
Stormbringer, December 1974 
Come Taste the Band, October 1975 
Perfect Strangers, November 1984
The House of Blue Light, January 1987
Slaves & Masters, October 1990
The Battle Rages On, July 1993 
Purpendicular, February 1996
Abandon, May 1998 
Bananas, August 2003
Rapture of the Deep, October 2005