Episode #21 – The End & Mark 1-4 Wrap Up

Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

Show Updates:

  • Comments from social media.
  • Trinkelbonker (Michael Eriksson) interview with Dan McCafferty of Nazareth from 1989:
    • DRUGS (TOMMY BOLIN/JIMI HENDRIX)
    • – We may not have been angels but we always avoided the hard stuff. We toured with Deep Purple in the States in 1976 and I worried about Tommy Bolin. He was a beautiful man and a good guitarist but he did not want to listen to people that warned him about that shit. I tried to talk to him and he said “Jimi Hendrix did it and look how good he was”. I said, “But Tommy, Jimi is dead!”. I actually saw Hendrix early on and it was way better than the last time I had a chance to see him. Tommy Bolin was one of these guys that this business just eats up. It was a good tour for us, we did better than Purple really.
  • Sleepfan on YouTube points out that “Sunset Ride” was NOT a Tommy Bolin album!
  • Bolin writing credits on James Gang’s “Bang” album – accidentally credited him as having writing credits on four tracks when actually he wrote/co-wrote eight tracks.
  • Jim Massa on YouTube says, “Hey guys, I noticed you haven’t done a Machine Head episode yet!”
  • Chris Schild on Twitter mentions that he heard that Tommy Bolin’s picture of his head has been copies into an older shot of the band for the cover of Jame Gang’s “Bang” album.
  • A LOT of love for Stormbringer and for Tommy Bolin!

Thanks to Our Patrons:

  • Clay Wombacher – $5 tier
  • Steve Seaborg (Alltheworldsastage.net) – $5 tier
  • Peter Gardow – $3 tier
  • Ells Murders – $1 tier

The End of Mark 4 and Deep Purple:

  • The work that Bolin did on the album had it carried to the live shows could have put fans’ longing for Blackmore to rest.  However, their live set was instead disjointed and inconsistent.
  • “Come Taste The Band” is often forgotten or dismissed.
  • Hughes says during the live set they’d be on stage for an hour and 45 minutes and Coverdale would be off stage for about 45 minutes with the band jamming and Hughes singing.
  • Coverdale states that he thought the band members had all become spineless.  They could see the wheels coming off but they felt powerless to do anything about it.
  • In an interview with Tony Stewart in 1976: “I refuse to stand on stage with Glenn while he’d doin his bloody ‘Georgia On My Mind,’ and I’m standing there in the dark saying, ‘C’mon, get it out of your system.  Where’s the band? C‘Mon, Tommy, get it out, c’mon Jon do your classical bits’ – and I’d go off and have a cigarette. Where’s that at? That ain’t no …. Band. Then Ian turns round and says ‘Dave, stop bellowing so much.’ I got that gig on the strength of my talent.  Nobody did me a favour. Those cats wanted me to work. Like, I’ve got the good to do it, and up to now people have only heard one facet of my talent.”
  • After recording the album Hughes went to rehab for the first time but it wasn’t successful.
  • The band’s management was very worried about Hughes going on tour with his problem.  They decided his test gig to see if he was ready was the live performance of The Butterfly Ball.  If he could make it through that he’d be allowed to tour with the band.
  • He gave a good performance then says he got loaded immediately after the show.
  • They then went off to New Zealand on the “no drugs” tour and Hughes says for six weeks they were clean and everything was great.
  • They flew to Jakarta where they were received by tens of thousands of fan.  Two nights playing to crowds of 10-15,000 turned into 125,000 per night in a venue the size of Wembley Stadium. The band would have made ~ $1million for two nights.
  • The promoter for the gigs had as security the Indonesian military.  Capacity for the venues would have been well below the total number of tickets sold, less than half.  People were crammed in.
  • Two girls showed up at Hughes’ room sent by the promoters of the show.
  • Hughes in his book: “Thank God Blackmore wasn’t still with us or there would have been a riot.”
  • Very scary scene with military and dogs keeping the fans at bay.  Band was very nervous and decided to do shorter sets.
  • After the show Patsy Collins, one of the road crew, got in an altercation with one of the girls in Glenn’s room.  Glenn says he walked out of the room after Patsy stormed out and it was silent, no one was there.
  • The next morning people came in Glenn’s room at 7:30am.  They said Patsy had fallen down an elevator shaft, stumbled into the lobby and died.  Glenn, along with other road crew were taken into custody.
  • He was let out for the second show, handed his bass by a security guard with a gun and watched during the entire set.
  • The army let dogs loose on the crowd during the set and the band ended up playing a short set.
  • They went back to jail and were going to be held when all of a sudden a couple of girls came forward and told the authorities that they’d seen Patsy open the wrong door.  They were off the hook and free to go.
  • Hughes suspects that the girls send to the room were sent to get Patsy out of the room to cause problems for the band.
  • The theory the management had is that the band was being discredited as a way to get out of paying them for the shows.  The band was never paid.
  • When they went to leave the country the tires of their plane had been slashed.  They needed to pay extra money to get new tires but the airport people weren’t allowed to help so they had to use the co-pilot and some roadies to change the tires.
  • Years later, in the late 90s, they had an offer to play in Indonesia.  Jon Lord refused to go because of the painful memories.
  • In Japan Tommy Bolin “slept” on his arm and pinched a nerve and was barely able to play.
  • They recorded “Last Concert in Japan” and in they were all really drunk on mai tais and pina coladas.  Hughes says you can see him about to throw up on the video.
  • Hughes in his book talks about how ashamed he was of the performance.  They were all drunk and Tommy couldn’t even play.
  • They couldn’t return to UK because they couldn’t be in the country for more than 30 days a year for tax purposes.
  • They rehearsed for an american tour and took a DC9  from LA to North Carolina. It was the same DC9 that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd members.
  • At a point Tommy didn’t even want to get high with Hughes anymore.  Hughes was finding dealers and getting high alone because he was so paranoid.
  • Bonzo pulled a gun on Hughes after a show because he’d heard that he was involved with his wife.  Luckily they ironed things out and then went and got wasted.
  • The last time Bonzo saw him he snuck up on Glenn and said, “So you fancy your chance, do yer?” and punched Hughes in the mouth chipping a tooth.
  • The next night someone tried to give Hughes some coke and Bob Cooksey (who’d been hired to keep Hughes straight) punched him out.  The next day Hughes said he realized how good he could performa if he was in shape.
  • Hughes was using uppers to lose weight and dealing with full blown cocaine psychosis.  Tells story of calling a hotel manager to say there was a man in a yellow hat trying to break into his room.  His room was on the 24th floor.
  • Hughes said everyone expected him to die.  His parents expected that every phone call would be someone telling them he’d died.
  • They played their last US show with Tommy and Glenn tried to skip out on the flight back to the UK but he was essentially thrown onto the plane.
  • Hughes tells story of sleeping for 3-4 days straight, waking up in a cold sweat, eating whatever he could, and going back to sleep.
  • Hughes could stay awake for up to a week at a time.  From March 10 through March 15 1976 he didn’t sleep.
  • March 15 was the day that Deep Purple broke up.  Hughes says he couldn’t play well. Lord had to drag him on stage on the 15th.  Hughes says it was his lowest point in Purple. The band had abandoned him. He was staying by himself.  He says it was a miracle that he made it to those gigs at all.
  • Bolin was being berated by Blackmore fans.
  • The end came on tour in England on 15 March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. In the words of Jon Lord:
    • At one point during the show, Glenn said to the audience, “I’m sorry we’re not playing very well, but we’re very tired and jet-lagged.” And I remember spluttering to myself, “Speak for yourself.” I was working like a Trojan to try and make this work … Paicey was playing like a madman just to keep it all together … Coverdale was singing his socks off. So to hear this guy who was extremely high on various substances telling the audience, “I’m sorry, We aren’t playing well” kind of rankled me a bit. I came off stage and went straight to my dressing room, which I was sharing with Ian Paice, and I said, “Ian … that’s it, isn’t it? That’s absolutely the end of this band as far as I’m concerned. Why are we doing this to ourselves?” So he and I shook hands and said, “It’s over. Thank God.” About ten minutes later, Coverdale came in, big blustery guy that he is, and he said, “I’m leaving the band!” And we said, “David, there’s no band to leave.”
    • From Gettin’ Tighter – The Story Of Deep Purple Mark 3 & 4.
  • Hughes says he didn’t want to continue making the music that Purple was making.  He wanted to work on his solo album, Play Me Out. His relationship with Vicky Gibbs had broken up (Jon Lord’s wife, and twin sister of Ian Paice’s wife Jacky).  The album is mostly about her.
  • Coverdale was talking to Hughes at Ian Paice’s wedding about working on a solo album too.  Only Glenn didn’t know that he’d left Purple. Management hadn’t told him.
  • There was no talk of trying to press on.  It was over.
  • Glenn gets back with Trapeze.
  • Bolin introduced Tommy to Linda Blair.
  • Trapeze kicked him out because he was so messed up.
  • He ended up moving in with Karen, Tommy’s ex-girlfriend.  They later married
  • On December 4, 1976 Glenn got a call that Tommy had died.  He and Karen had received a post card from him the day before saying he’d see them at Christmas.

Mark 3 & 4 Bonus Tracks:

  • Review of unreleased Mk 3 & Mk 4 materia.
  1. Coronarias Redig
  2. Highball Shooter (Instrumental)
  3. Same in L.A.
  4. Bolin/Paice Jam

Mark 1-4 Wrap Up

Listener Questions:

  • Chrisl @inkpen111 on Twitter asks:
    • What is the Purple song you could happily never hear again?
    • What if Paul Rodgers had actually joined the band?
    • What if there had been another Purple LP after CTTB?
  • @StratCars on Twitter asks:
    • What was the best song DP (all lineups) used as a concert opener?
    • Why the Hammond Organ was such a vital part of DP.
  • Tim @trzasa on Twitter asks:
    • What if Glenn Hughes had been in Mark 2?
  • @murray_bulger on Twitter asks:
    • What if Hughes and Bolin didn’t do drugs?
    • What if Hughes played more rock than funk?
    • What if Mark 2,3,4 didn’t break up and one line up kept going to last 70s into 80s?
    • What if Ian Paice played more double kick?
    • What if Peter Grand (legendary Led Zeppelin manager) was manager of Deep Purple?
    • What if Ian Paice could sing?  And sang a song like Bill Ward Sang “It’s All Right.”
    • What if Blackmore liked funk going into the late 70s? Would Purple have turned to a disco-rock band?
  • @Dannymd71 on Twitter asks:
    • I’ve heard that Roger Glover really happened to be brought into the band by chance because he tagged along with Ian Gillan for his audition/jam.  What do you think would’ve happened if he weren’t in the band (at least initially)? Would Nick Simper have stayed longer?

In The News . . .

This Week in Purple History . . .

September 16 through September 22

  • September 22, 1951 – David Coverdale is born
  • September 22, 1977 – Ian Gillan Band record “Live at the Budokan”
  • September 19, 2002 – Jon Lord’s last show with Deep Purple

For Further Information:

Listener Mail/Comments

  • Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Leave a Reply