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Bogus Deep Purple in Sounds - 1980

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Rider on the Storm
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« on: November 15, 2008, 11:32:22 pm »

Interview taken from "Sounds", September 20th 1980


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Deep Purple revivalists in 'complete con trick' scandal!
THE FIRST reports were brought back by tourists from Mexico; somewhere between the cheap tequila and sombrero keyrings the news that Deep Purple had re formed and had headlined a 40,000-seater bullring, swearing on their plaster crucifixes that this was the real item, Ritchie and all.

Then, in July; a full-page ad in Performance (a trade magazine at the lower end of the scale). A pic of five men, four of them looking like any four guys you could pick up at the Starwood any Friday night, the fifth - Rod Evans - looking like a slightly bewildered stockbroker. This, the ad announced, was Deep Purple.

It was taken out by a talent agency experienced in the field of revivals. A rehashed Jay And The Americans was on the roster, rubbing shoulders with a resurrected MC5, a zombie Herman's Hermits, a reheated Canned Heat a band that had been playing Colerado and other outback circuits billed as the original Steppenwolf. Geoff Emery and Tony Flynn, two of the guys in the Deep Purple pic (Dick Jurgens and Tom De Rivera were the others) were getting their feet wet in this 'comeback' (with no original members, clever trick) outfit. By all reports taking it in turns to be Michael Monarch. Their offstage hours, according to 'Steppenwolf's singer, were spent in a garage practicing Deep Purple songs. All that virtuous hard work paid off when the same agency decided that Purple's time had come to be reborn (to be Wild).

Could be it was an attempt to upgrade somewhat sleazy proceedings by getting a token credibility member in the band; maybe it was a genuine try at putting together a decent band. Whatever, Flynn and Emery, along with some considerable financial backing and enough biz Big Guys to put together a Godfather III behind them, dug up Rod Evans - from 1968 till 1970 the singer in the earliest Purple lineup along with Blackmore, Lord, Paice and Nick Simper - from the American hospital where he'd been earning an honest living for most of the last six years since leaving the music industry. Together they did some test dates in small halls in Texas, billed as Deep Purple, then hightailed across the border to headline a packed Mexican stadium.

Evidently some of the more prestigious American organisations are as impressionable as the Mexican HM fans, or possibly just unscrupulous. Handled here by the renowned William Morris Agency and booked to play the Long Beach Arena - a 12,000 seater stadium that even more than the Forum hosts most of Los Angeles' heavy metal concerts - by one of the top rock promoters, Avalon Attractions. A week before the show, tickets were selling well for the supposed Purple reunion.

THEN, ON the day of the concert, a large ad appeared in the Los Angeles Times, no pics in this half-page announcement, just a list of names: Blackmore, Coverdale, Gillan, Glover, Hughes, Lord and Paice would not be performing with the New Deep Purple, as they were suddenly dubbed. Who the hell would be - other than Evans - was anyone's guess.

Deep Purple (Overseas) Ltd, who took out the ad, also filed an action in the L.A. Federal Court on behalf of Ritchie and co., seeking an injunction to stop the band from using the name, plus damages. The show went on, but so do the lawsuits. Already the lawyers are stockpiling ammunition. Only last week, lawyers for Purple (the ones in the white hats presumably) had contacted local rock critics dutiful or stoned enough to sit through the New Purple (black hats) show to testify that the performance was dire enough to ruin Purple One's name, reputation and, more to the point, back catalogue sales.

The Long Beach gig was pretty much sold out. The kids I spoke to were either curious to see what was going on, confused, or stupid, expecting anything from Blackmore to a complete reincarnation of all the Purpleites over the years, including the dead ones, or just for a HM night out. After a couple of numbers - barely recognisable renditions of 'Highway Star' from 'Machine Head', the opener, and 'Might Just Take Your Life' from 'Burn', a trickle were leaving and asking for their money back. Others seemed content to bang their heads when possible (difficult when the band were playing several different songs at the same time, to my ears, not to mention various tempos all at once) and cheer at the memory of classics that most weren't old enough to remember.

They certainly weren't helped by a dreadful sound system, like a thousand industrial vacuum cleaners plugged in at once, but neither were they by a sadly amateurish standard of playing, shown up all the more by some of the most splendidly over-the-top visuals I've seen since Kiss. From the sublime - a whole network of multicoloured lasers aimed in the air, at the crowd, pyrotechnics, smoke, lights, bangers, dry ice, flashbins, more pyrotechnics and a fascinating laser-dot light show on a screen at the side swirling and circling and flashing and bleeping away - should have given out free acid at the door - to the ridiculous: drummer in glitter suit comes round the side with a chain saw and proceeds to demolish Geoff Emery's keyboards as he keeps on playing, a couple of sparklers coming out the back before the thing starts to smoke, still making that godawful noise, and Emery shoves it aflame into the pit. Oh Ritchie, what have you wrought!

Talking of Ritchie, Tony Flynn makes a pretty good lookalike at a distance, but that's where the similarity ends. The solos are inflicted rather then performed, cranium-busters distinguished only by the laser accompaniment.

Rod Evans has a pretty good voice, a bit rusty considering the time off but at the deeper end of the scale. Still I get the feeling it would sound better on anything but the songs they attempted, all latter day Purple standards, most not even good enough as cheap Top of The Pops soundalike record versions. 'Space Truckin', 'Woman From Tokyo', 'Smoke On The Water', renditions so pale musically that you'd have thought they'd stopped breathing, but so bright visually that you came out with a suntan. Still they battled on, even did an encore of sorts, so it wasn't entirely a bomb.

But the production, the arena, the lights, the hype and the problems are just too big for this band. It's like sticking a midget in a Cadillac and expecting him to drive in a straight line. The band should have got a new name, given themselves a chance to grow on the club circuit, because they're not yet up to the standard that all this publicity brings, let alone the comparison with the Deep Purple we all remember.

BACKSTAGE THE manager and various associates were rushing around, looking busy or determined. Middle-aged men in suits and ties with attaché cases and little speeches off pat, as if they were ready to be dragged into court at any minute. Perhaps they're used to it; the manager smiling, shaking hands, assuring me this was no con trick on the kids, that tonight wasn't their best but "the sound of the 80s", as he calls it, will prevail.

They've approached well-known Michael Lloyd (of teenybop artists and record company connections fame) to produce the debut album so that it will be all things to all men - AM, FM, HM and 'experimental' stations - and that the line-up will be there on the album for all to see: The New Deep Purple starring etc, and - well he stops himself before be can say his true feelings about the nasty Ritchie B and lawsuits, telling me it's HEC (the original Purple management company based in England), not the musicians who are unfairly hassling his boys by taking out lawsuits. But, he reckons, they have right on their side, and they're going to win.

What follows sounds like the Official Pep Talk (Rod Evans all but repeats it word-for-word to me later) about Sabbath, the Doobies, Humble Pie etc going round with hardly an original member between them with no-one losing any sleep, and this is, he says, no different, except that if anyone does, Rod Evans has a right to the Deep Purple name. He tells me a story of Ritchie and Rod sitting together in Germany, taking about starting a group, and naming it after Ritchie's dying granny's favourite song . . .

He goes off to find Evans. The promoters are standing around, shellshocked. "I'm embarrassed" says one of the promoters. The other mumbled "Piece of ****".

ROD EVANS is as nice a guy as you could meet, honest, straightforward and frank. Somehow he struck me as having landed himself in something that turned out to be a lot more trouble than it's worth. Either that or they should give him an Oscar. From talking to him it sounds like a few unscrupulous musicians and a hell of a lot of big industry organisations getting together to play a very expensive game of chess, and we all know who the pawns are.

This line-up has been together since the end of January this year. It was the agency's idea to place the band in stadiums. Rod is a bit embarrassed about it.

What were you doing between old Deep Purple and this one?

"When I left Deep Purple originally, I came over here and joined a band called Captain Beyond. I was with them about four years and then I left - I wanted to get back into the so-called straight world somehow. You get tired of the road for whatever reason and so I went back to school and studied medicine, got my degree and worked in a hospital for five years. I was the director of respiratory therapy - a specialist field."

Why come back to the music biz?

"Old soldiers never die - someone says do it and you do it."

Who said 'do it'?

A friend of mine came up to me, the organ player and the guitarist Tony, and they had it in mind and wanted to go the whole route. As you know, it's not only the music that gets you there, there are certain other facets that will help push a band. So we had a certain amount of money behind us, record company interests and so on, so it seemed feasible. It came along at the right time because I was tired of what I was doing, you know, toeing someone else's line and working semi-nine to five. I was ready for a change. I had a little trepidation, but as soon as I got onstage it seemed okay."

Are you saying someone presented a Deep Purple comeback to you as a fait accompli ready for you to just say the word and join?

"Right - 'Are you interested'. Exactly - and the other guys who were in the original band with me, Jon, Ian and Ritchie, were all into their own projects."

Did you actually contact them and ask if they wanted to do a comeback?

"No, I didn't. I think someone in the band spoke to Jon and Ian and they said they really had no interest to reform Deep Purple in any way, so there was no problem."

So they gave you their blessing?

"I don't know if it was an actual blessing, but they at least knew about it and they weren't throwing all their money in together and making trips to America to nail our feet to the ground or anything. Hopefully it won't be detrimental to me in the lawsuit, but it does seem that at the end, as with any band, when these questions come up it's always accountants and managers that seem to dig their teeth into these things and want to keep it, whereas the years that went between the final break-up and now there was never any interest shown. Now all of a sudden there's an interest. It seems to be that angle rather that the ex-members. We got hold of Jon and Ian and they said we have no desire to get back into it, we're off on our own thing".

You said the others gave their semi-blessing but you didn't mention Ritchie Blackmore.

"We haven't really tried to get hold of Ritchie. Whether Ritchie gives his blessing or not is of no real consequence to me as my blessing to him forming Rainbow would be of no consequence to Ritchie. I mean, If he doesn't like it I'm sorry, but we're trying."

But how can you rationalise going out and trying under the Purple banner, especially when you were in the band for just two - some might say relatively unimportant - years?

"Sure, you've got to have certain rationalisations you can make to yourself because it's an established name to a certain degree and in a certain type of music, but we didn't see anything wrong because a lot of bands have been doing this. (The manager's speech follows.)

"So it's a shame to kind of knock it on the head for the fact that it isn't everybody together. Plus what seemed peculiar to Deep Purple is that there were several formations of the band and it never seemed to really affect the fans of the music as long as it was pl ayed up to a certain par. They just wanted to hear the music. . .

"I don't know, I feel at times at a certain disadvantage because I feel I should be making some kind of excuse or other, and the other part of me is saying to hell with it, I'm doing it, I'm going to make the best of it. We're not trying to shyster people in any way and we'll see what happens, how far the acceptance goes.

The songs you chose for the set were not from your period with Purple at all. Now do you justify that?

"Well, I think at first you try to justify it, but justification's not the right word. In the end it's obligatory, a lot of it. They expect it. You can sure enough play 'Hush' (the band's hit when he was a member), which we were going to do tonight except for technical difficulties. But you'll play 'Smoke On The Water' then someone else will ask for 'Burn' or 'Tokyo' so it's very hard. Even if we came out with a whole bunch of new material, which we're working on now, they'd still went to hear certain songs. The volatility of the kind of crowd that a rock group draws especially in the States - they can be very volatile at times."

From all you're saying, wouldn't it have been better all round to come up with a whole new name and image, then you wouldn't have to deal with expectations and comparisons? Surely it would be more satisfying to do your comeback with a new band and identity, playing the clubs and building a name without relying on past glory?

"No, it's very hard to do that. Would you like to be a cub reporter again? A lot of these things are very hard to explain because they're almost intangible. I can't say why I didn't, why I did - it's never that clean cut. You're in the flow and you follow the momentum and it builds up and you're in it.

"There'll always be people in the crowd looking for Ritchie or asking where's Jon. When I was in Captain Beyond at the same time from the agent's standpoint they would always say, there's two guys from Iron Butterfly, one guy from Johnny Winter and one guy from Deep Purple, and people would come up to me all the time and say why the hell aren't you playing Purple material, or they'd go up to the Iron Butterfly people and say why aren't you playing 'In A Gadda Da Vida'. I think that kind of thing goes with the territory regardless. It might be a little more so with our project now, but of course it's advantageous as well".

Did you reform Deep Purple to cash in?

"No, I think the reason was that I wanted a change and it was a good opportunity to come back into music instead of, as you were saying, start out as Willy And The Wombats or something playing nine hours a night in some club somewhere. Very few bands, I think, rise from club level to national level because there are all these other facets that have to be involved to support you, certain organisations, like record companies and agencies. But it's whether we can suffer the slings and arrows and so on.

"Sometimes it's very hard, but when you weigh it up, and we're in it for better or worse, we're gong to make the best of it. We're not in it to make a killing in a year or anything like that. W e'r e actually serious about perpetrating the Deep Purple name and keeping it standard."

TONY FLYNN we know about. Drummer Dick Jurgens and his chainsaw were well known to the others; Tom de Rivera won out in the auditions. Emery was at one time half an 'original' Steppenwolf, half an attorney according to Evans. Right now they're all committed to making an album which the plan to release in the New Year after the Christmas rush. Evans reckons they're ready to do so. In the years off, he says, he didn't really keep up with any new music, but was aware of the HM resurgence because it got a mention in Billboard magazine, making it legit, one of the things that dragged him away form the urine samples and back into the stadiums.

Is this a long-term thing?

"Yes it is long-term, though one never knows. You do your album and if people like it and want more and everything's copacetic in the band, you carry on. It's the same with most bands."

How would you like your Deep Purple thought of - its music for example?

"I think it's always going to be thought of in a certain way until hopefully we get a couple of albums out, then people will change their certain view of the band. But it's always a premier heavy metal kind of band, one of the first, and always in the forefront of that kind of music, and I think it will be very hard to change the public's opinion because you'd lose a lot of people in the bargain. We aren't the other people and we will write a bit differently and hopefully we can go off on a tangent, more towards the Genesis type of thing where it becomes musical - hopefully show a melodic side to Purple as well as brain-surgery rock."

If you don't come out of the lawsuit with a smile on your face, and have to give up the Purple name, will you carry on under the new a new one or go back to the hospital?

"Hopefully that won't happen. I feel we're in the right in a sense. But when it comes to the lawsuit, if the worst comes to the worst, we all feel confident enough that we can play under another name and make it as well."


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« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2008, 11:33:53 pm »

The NEW "Deep Purple" 1980 feat. Rod Evans 
   
"Deep Purple" 1980 Promo Pic from Sounds 



 
  "Deep Purple" 1980 (from left to right): Dick Juergens (dr.), Tony Flynn (g.), Tom De Rivera (bg.), Geoff Emery (kb.) and Rod Evans (voc.). 
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« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2008, 11:34:54 pm »

"Deep Purple" 1980 Promo Flyer



"Deep Purple" 1980 Promo Flyer (w/single photos of Geoff Emery, Rod Evans, Tony Flynn, Dick Juergens and Tom De Rivera).
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« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2008, 11:36:41 pm »



"Deep Purple" live 
  "Deep Purple" live in Mexico City, Estadio INDE (Ciudad de los Deportes) 28.06.80 
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« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2008, 11:37:21 pm »

"Deep Purple" live 



  "Deep Purple" live (from left to right) Geoff Emery, Tom De Rivera and Rod Evans in Quebec, Theatre Capitol 12.08.80 
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« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2008, 11:37:52 pm »



"Deep Purple" live (from left to right) Tom De Rivera, Rod Evans and Tony Flynn in Quebec, Theatre Capitol 12.08.80
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« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2008, 11:38:59 pm »

The History of "Deep Purple 1980" 
 

 back to the unofficial (european) Captain Beyond website

 
 
 
Known Gigs performed by Rod Evans "Deep Purple":
Credit must go to "Stargazer" Magazine (England) Ish 23, Gerardo Liedo and Conecte Rock Magazine (Mexico) Brian O. (USA) and the anonymous member of the audience in Quebec (Canada).

Amarillo, Civic Center 17.05.80 Debut performance.

El Paso 18.05.80

Laredo 06.80

San Bernadino, Swing Auditorium 21.06.80




Flyer for show in San Bernadino.


Mexico City, Estadio INDE (Ciudad de los Deportes) 28.06.80
The show lasted for about one hour and it rained out. Black Oak Arkansas was playing before DP. Set List: Highway Star-Mandrake Root-Hush-Space Truckin´-Hey Joe-Smoke On The Water.
Gerardo Liedo, who attented the show, reports (with caps lock): "...THEY PLAYED AS THE LAST GROUP THAT DAY, THE OPENING GROUP WAS "DUGS DUGS" A LOCAL GROUP FROM THE LATE 60S. THEY WERE INTRODUCED BY CHARLIE HAUPTVOGEL A FRIEND FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (INSTITUTO ZUMARRAGA) AND FORMER MEMBER OF "THREE SOULS IN MY MIND" NOW ONLY "EL TRI" THE BEST ROCK GROUP IN MEXICO CITY. THE SECOND GROUP WAS BLACK OAK ARKANSAS, THEY PLAYED WILD AND I ENJOYED THAT PART OF THE SHOW. THEN IT STARTED TO RAIN AND AFTER A LONG DELAY THE SO-CALLED DEEP PURPLE WITH ROD EVANS TOOK THE STAGE, BY THAT TIME THE AUDIENCE WAS NOT AS ENTHUSIASTIC AS AT THE BEGINNING, THE PEOPLE STARTED TO COMPLAIN AND SHOUT HEAVILY ASKING FOR DEEP PURPLE, OR AT LEAST A MEMBER OF THE LINE UP FOR THE LAST RECORD. BEFORE THE CONCERT THE MEDIA WERE REFERING TO SMOKE ON THE WATER AND BURN, SO EVERYONE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE DP MARK II OR III, OR AT LEAST SOME OF THESE GUYS PLAYING... I REMEMBER ALSO THE PEOPLE SHOUTING "HEY COME OUT TO PLAY, THE DRUG EFFECT WILL FINISH"... THE AUDIENCE BECAME NUTS, IT DIDN'T HELP ROD EVANS AND HIS BAND TO MAKE THE THINGS HAPPEN. IT WAS A SAD CONCERT, A LOT OF PEOPLE WAS INJURED, THE CROWD RIOTED (AS USUAL BY THAT TIME). THE AMERICAN FOOTBALL GOALS AND THE DOORS IN THE STADIUM WERE DESTROYED... DRUGS (AS WELL AS ALCOHOL, OF COURSE) WERE PRESENT EVERYWHERE.
THE MAIN REASON WAS THE RAIN, THE DELAY AND THAT NOBODY FROM DEEP PURPLE (MARK II OR III) WAS ON STAGE. THE AUDIENCE WAS REALLY UPSET, AND THIS WAS TRANSMITTED TO THE MUSICIANS SO THEY DID A REAL BAD PERFORMANCE. ALSO IT WAS TOO SHORT: 40 MINUTES AND NO ENCORE..."

Phoenix, Celebrity Theater 29.06.80

Detroit 80
Reportedly another riot gig...

New York, The (Soap) Factory 19.07.80
The band had reportedly did not perform.

Seaside Heights, Baby-O 20.07.80

Somersett, Mass., Contessa Club 08.80
Brian O., who attented that show, reports: "...there was about 300 people in the Contessa Club watching the show. As far as the security, yes I think they were afraid of people trying to hurt the band or get up there and shout swear words at them. These guys looked pretty mean-like they would'nt back down. Loads of people were there just to drink and gawk at what was happening. I did think that the guitarist (Tony Flynn) sounded good on *HARD ROAD-WRING THAT NECK*. Other songs were lacking in power... not a good PA system at all! ummm... I really think they played *BURN*."

Quebec, Capitol Theatre 12.08.80
One anonymous member of the audience remembers: "Deep Purple" played Quebec August 12th 1980 and after the 1st song (Highway Star) people started to realize, what was going on, i.e. who was in DP and who not... The audience started to boe at them during the 2nd song (Might just take your life), which Rod Evans really introduced as "here´s one of OUR Burn album..." and throw things on to the stage. They finished the song and Rod4s microphone went down. As it could not be helped, they did a instrumental (Wring that neck) with long solos from Tony Flynn and Geoff Emery, to give the crew time to get the microphone working again. The audience was getting more and more impatient, and boed the band off really loudly. Rod comes back "One, two... one, two,... here´s Space Truckin´..." While the band started to play the song, more and more things being thrown on stage, and someone in the audience up on the balconys takes a chair and throws it on to the stage, just missing the drum kit. The audience boed. Rod left the stage and never reached the vocal cue to Space Truckin´, the band played it instrumental. The audience kept on boeing and somebody else throws another chair on to the stage, this time hitting the drum kit and the audience gave this a big applause... The band stopped to play and left the stage as well. After the audience calmed down a bit, Tony Flynn returned to the stage and grabbed Rod´s microphone and yelled to the audience: "...whoever wants to see the REAL Deep Purple is welcome to stay, the rest of you, f*** off!!!!" After more boes and more things being thrown on to the stage, Tony gives up and they never returned...

Anchorage (Alaska), International Banquet House 14 & 15.08.80 (2 shows each nite)

Long Beach, Arena 19.08.80 probably their last show


 
 
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« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2008, 11:39:49 pm »



This was the DP(O) counter-advert to the Long Beach Arena gig. Note: "Glen" with one "n"! Maybe they should have added: "Next week we´re turning professional..."

...and here's a snippet of the story from "DEEP PURPLE: The Illustrated Biography" by Chris Charlesworth":
"The legal process was too slow to prevent the concert taking place but the success of the fraud was partially scuttled by quick thinking on the part of John Coletta and Tony Edwards who placed an advertisment in the LA Times stating that Blackmore, Coverdale, Gillan, Glover, Hughes, Lord and Paice would *not* be appearing at the Long Beach concert. In due course the management team secured an injuntion which prevented further concerts by the bogus band and, at the same time, recieved a considerable award in punitive damages. 'It was a very expensive business', says Tony Edwards. 'And, of course, we'll never be paid the damages. Rod Evans just doesn't have the money. He no longer recieves the royalties from those first three albums though. Silly boy.'

...from "Musician's Business & Legal Guide" by Mark Halloran
The case of Deep Purple - An example of the issues involved when a group disbands but its product still sells involved the group "Deep Purple", which had not been performing as a band for many years. Its records, however, still sold. One of the original members of that band formed a new group. None of the other members of that new group had been members of the original "Deep Purple". This new group began to perform under the name "Deep Purple". The corporation, owned by the original members of "Deep Purple" and their management, still owned the rights to the name "Deep Purple". They sued the new "Deep Purple" to stop them from performing under the name and were awarded damages of $ 672,000; compensatory damages (actual damages suffered by the corporation) were $ 168,000 and $ 504,000 was for punitive damages. Since then, the authorized "Deep Purple" has reformed, and resumed performing and recording.

"ROD EVANS: The Dark Side of the Music Industry" by Hartmut Kreckel
Has anyone of you out there ever wondered of what happened to Captain Beyond´s original lead-singer and founder member Rod Evans? Well, here follows a brief summary: After leaving Captain Beyond in late 73, just as he finished recording the "Sufficiently Breathless" album, Rod Evans changed his life and went to work in a hospital for a couple of years, until he was approached by some unscrupuluos management company, specialized in rip-off reformed bands with big names, who had just been taken to court by the owner of the name "Steppenwolf" (John Kay), for running a bogus band named "Steppenwolf", with no original member (reportedly original member Goldy McJohn was initially in that band, but left the rest soon). To make a long story short, that "Bogus Steppenwolf" had a guitarrist, named Tony Flynn and a keyboarder, named Geoff Emery, who were house musicians of that dodgy management company. However, as they got sued by John Kay, that rip-off management decided to go for another big name, to make a fast buck: Deep Purple. In order to find an excuse for using that name (Deep Purple) they tried to get Nick Simper involved, who wisely enough refused to get drawn into such a (ad)venture, and then they found Rod Evans. Looking for a change, and probably not as wise as his former mate Nick Simper, Rod Evans thought that this was his chance for a comeback and went for it. More than that, he got involved with some very bad people from that rip-off management, and was used as a tool by that company: making Rod Evans the only shareholder, and therefore sole risk-taker of that "Deep Purple 1980" venture, Rod Evans was the only person, who could be taken to court. It was not long before Rod Evans got sued, as he was the only person receiving booking fee royalties and all other band players and management were on the wages list. To set the record straight here, it was Tony Edwards and John Coletta who sued Rod Evans (reportedly Richard Blackmore and Bruce Payne were the driving forces...): They filed an action in Los Angeles Federal District Court in June 1980 seeking an injunction to prevent the band from using the name "Deep Purple" and asking damages under the provisions of the Lanham Act, a federal statute governing trademareks and trade names. Eventually the court decision was made that Rod Evans had to pay 672.000 US$ for damages caused by using the name "Deep Purple" without permission. The outcome seems that the sole rights to the name "Deep Purple" reside with the original managers. It seems that the agreement requires 4 original members (whoever these may be?) to use the name...
Jon Lord (in March 98 via e-mail): "AFAIK Rod had enough of the Music Business, and became a paramedic. Of course he was not that naive - he thought he´d try it to see what happened, but try to imagine what would *you* have said when it all went wrong? I only blame Rod for being silly. He should´ve known it was going to be difficult to get away with a fake DP. After all - he was doing it in public."
Ian Paice commented (after the DP show in Halle an der Saale 18.03.96): "We didn´t make that money, it went all to the lawyers involved... The only chance to stop that band was the sue Rod, as he was the only one receiving money, all others were on wages... Surely Rod did get involved with some very bad people!"
However, as much I agree that Rod Evans did something wrong by using the name "Deep Purple" without permission, there should have been another way to clear that matter. Needless to say Rod Evans doesn´t have that money and will probably in debt for ever. Therefore he also will never be able to perform again, as DP(O) would be able to grab any money that Rod Evans would make in the music industry. This leaves the DP(O)in a bad light, that´s for sure. Even greed is no justification for acting like this. There should have been another way, that´s for sure and AFAIK all those white collar gangsters, who used Rod Evans as a tool to feed their cash mashines are doing quite well these days.
Jon Lord onto this in April 98: "It was not just Rod who was sued - it was the organisation that was behind the fake Deep Purple who were most responsible and it was they who were hit with the greatest part of that "very large sum of money." In respect of that money - what price would *you* place on your reputation and on the right of the public not to be sold something under false pretences? And also you should be aware that these people were informed on several occasions that they were breaking the law, and yet they continued to do it. Sueing them was the last option there was to try to stop them. I did not enjoy having to appear in court against a guy I'd once worked with - but *he who steals my purse steals trash; he who steals my good name takes everything I have*."
Yes Jon, but it seems that at the end of the day, only Rod Evans had to pay the price and all the puppeteers are rehabilitated...
Brian O. reports in Feb. 99: "The Bogus Purple were managed by Steve G., a slick rip-off promoter, who ultimately got in a lot of trouble. He was mentioned in the John Kay (Steppenwolf) autobiography... Today I called Steve G., the unscruptioulous agent of old Bogus Steppenwolf and also Bogus Deep Purple, which he denied... the talk we had by phone was fairly tense... he didn´t seem to want to talk about the old days, said it was "a long time ago", and that John Kay is a nice guy, a good singer... but why is anyone interested in what happened so long ago. He did admit that they won the right to the name "Steppenwolf", yet said Goldy and Nick never gor a dime. I still don´t know if he means royalties... or got paid when they played the bars between 77-80. At any rate, he was a dichead to me... when I brought up Deep Purple 1980 w/Rod Evans he really got pissed off... did not want to talk about that. Steve G. made everything sound like it was water under the bridge, and old ****, was trying to make me feel like a fool for asking about it... he is rude. He did not want to make the connection between Tony Flynn in the Bogus Deep Purple and the Bogus Steppenwolf... finally he said that John Kay´s book is full of lies!!!"
It seems that nobody, who should know the facts behind the curtain on the Rod Evans and Deep Purple 1980 case, wants to talk about this really, so you make it out yourself, who are the guilty parties...
This website however, presents the story of Rod Evans and "Deep Purple" 1980 trying to shed some light into "what really happened...", while a lot of other websites simply try to ignore it. It seems that this band never got much press coverage, probably also due to the fact that DP(O) was doing pressure on the press, so you get the idea of how they looked on stage here for the very first time by looking at the on stage fotos.
Over the years I have heard various stories about Rod Evans, like working in a gasoline station or in a dog-breeding farm. Whatever may be true or not: it is a shame that a great vocalist like Rod Evans had to end that way. Remembering him singing "Starglow Energy" or "Lalena" (to name a few only), Rod Evans will always be a hero to a lot of people, no matter what else he did!
If anyone out there reading this article knows about Rod Evans, reportedly he is living in the San Fransisco area, please let me know and let him know that there are still some people out there, whom I know well, who still remember him and would like to hear from him. No matter what he is up to now, he will not be forgotten, that´s for sure.

(C) by Hartmut Kreckel 1998


For further info on this topic...

...follow this link for a comprehensive interview with Rod Evans from Sounds from 20.09.1980.
Rod Evans Sounds Interview 1980

...follow this link for a less comprehensive interview with Rod Evans from Conecte from 24.06.1980.
Rod Evans Conecte Interview 1980

...follow this link for a advertising flyer of "Steppenwolf" Live 12.1979 in Mexico, feat. Tony Flynn and Geoff Emery.
"Steppenwolf"

...follow this link for a comprehensive interview with Tony Flynn from Conecte Magazine 07.1980

http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/aprilskies/65/dp1980.html
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