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Welcome
to our Looking Back section, where we will be following the progress
of the Deep Purple reunion as it happened month by month twenty
years ago. The Deep Purple Appreciation Society was following
events at the time, and with the help of news cuttings, interviews
and pictures, we hope to stir some memories. If you have any recollections
to add for the next issue of Darker Than Blue, do
get
in touch.
APRIL
1984: The five members of Deep Purple Mk 2's original line-up
all met together in Kentucky for talks. Blackmore personally called
Jon Lord in Scandinavia on April 13th (where he was on tour with
Whitesnake) to ask him over. Although the various members had
been in touch with one another over the years, this was the first
time they'd all been together since June 1973 in Japan. The
musicians then met up again the following week at the offices
of manager Bruce Payne's Thames Talent company in New York, where
they agreed to reform Deep Purple to both record and tour.
The
news was first broken in the UK media in the Friday April 27 edition
of the London newspaper The Evening Standard. It was then confirmed
during the Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 later that night, hosted
by DJ Tommy Vance. Vance trailed an important announcement about
one of the UKs best known rock groups, and then played records
by some of the pre-Deep Purple bands to see if people could guess
who he was talking about. He had spoken direct to Ian Gillan the
previous day and been given the scoop, thanks in part to his steadfast
support of rock on British national radio, and the Deep Purple
spin-off bands in particular.
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Cutting
: London Evening Standard / April 27. 1984 © DPAS
Archives. Photos:
top right / Jon Lord's last show with Whitesnake,
16th April 1984, bottom right / reunion meeting handshake
(from the 'Perfect Strangers' promo video).
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