Posted on by Nathan Beaudry

Episode #114 – Deep Purple – BBC Sessions (1968)

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Lead up to the Recording:

  • In 1980 Tony Edwards and EMI put together a Deep Purple archive called NEw Live & Rare.
  • Some of the recordings from the BBC sessions were licensed to be used but it would be 31 years until they saw a release.
  • After the band split up in 1976 the label was interested in releasing a lot of compilations and “best of” collections to try to continue to milk a profit out of Deep Purple.
  • As with what would become a lot of official releases there began to surface a number of bootlegs of Deep Purple on the BBC in 1968.
  • Typically BBC (and many other organizations) didn’t archive tapes and they were often reused.
  • A researcher named Ken Garner discovered that the engineers at the time also began recording a live recording at the same time the BBC was recording their copies.
  • Some of these discs were given out to local stations that had to return them after a year where they would be destroyed.
  • Fans sometimes would just record these off the radio by putting a microphone in front of the speaker as it aired.
  • In 2010 they discovered two Deep Purple sessions.  Along with some other surviving gaps they were able to put together this BBC Sessions compilation of their early BBC live performances.
  • Deep Purple recorded 37 songs during these sessions.  9 are lost or in such poor quality that they aren’t really listenable.
  • What we are about to look at started with recordings on June 18, 1968.  This was a full month before Shades of Deep Purple was released and about a month after they’d completed recording it.

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Album Tracks:

  1. Hush (BBC Top Gear – 18 June, 1968)
    1. Session 1
    2. Recorded June 18, 1968
    3. Aired June 30, 1968
    4. This session was discovered in 2010 and had been presumed lost until it turned up.
    5. Hush had already been chosen as a single which is why they opened with it.
    6. This session also contained “One More Rainy DAy” and “Help!”
  2. One More Rainy Day (BBC Top Gear – 18 June, 1968)
  3. Help! (BBC Top Gear – 18 June, 1968)
  4. And The Address (BBC Dave Symonds Show – 25 June, 1968)
    1. Session 2
    2. Recorded June 25, 1968.
    3. Aired July 1, 1968 (before the recordings from Session 1). Played one track per day from July 1st through July 4th.
    4. This was the only part of a second session that was not missing.
    5. The other tracks recorded during that session were Hush, One More Rainy Day, Kentucky Woman, and It’s All Over.
    6. No paperwork was found for this version of “And The Address.” There is some speculation that it was taped off-air.

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For Further Information:

  • Liner notes to Deep Purple – BBC Sessions CD by Simon Robinson.

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.

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