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Has it been seven decades already?
Another Purple book from the ever prolific Martin Popoff — Seven Decades of Deep Purple: An Unofficial History. It is due to be published on September 28, 2025 via Schiffer Publishing.
Dive into the saga of Deep Purple and unravel the untold stories behind the legendary band, from their groundbreaking albums to their tumultuous journey through rock history to the present.
Seven Decades of Deep Purple tells the electrifying story of one of the most iconic bands in rock history.
From the band’s explosive formation in 1968 to the classic Mk. II lineup—Gillan, Blackmore, Glover, Lord, and Paice—and through all the iterations to the present day, this book delves deep into the band that brought the world unforgettable hits like “Hush,” “Speed King,” “Child in Time,” “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star,” “Burn,” and “Perfect Strangers.”
Through nearly 50 interviews by the author with Purple alumni, plus dozens more with others who are part of this story, readers will journey through the group’s formation, lineup changes, album sessions, and live performances, with the narrative emerging as the story of creativity itself, a tale enhanced by the use of over 450 images.
Album by album, it’s Deep Purple’s music that gives this book its solid-rock foundation. Starting with 1968’s Shades of Deep Purple, the book discusses all their genre-defining albums, including In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, Burn, Purpendicular, Whoosh!, and 2024’s =1.
Seven Decades of Deep Purple captures the essence of a band whose influence transcended generations and shaped the sound of modern rock.
Whether you’re a lifelong fan or new to their music, this book is a must-read for anyone wanting to explore the legacy of one of rock’s most enduring and relentlessly vital and creative forces.
What: Seven Decades of Deep Purple : An Unofficial History
Author: Martin Popoff
When: Sep 28, 2025
Where: Schiffer Publishing
ISBN: 9780764369919
Format: hardcover, 7″ x 10″
Pages: 640, with 420 colour and b/w photos
MSRP: $60.00
Available from the all good bookstores as well as the publisher.
[Update Jun 23]: We hope to be able to offer you our review of the book some time in September, before the publication date.
Thanks to Gabi for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
The 1960s; The 1970s; The 1980s; The 1990s: The 2000s; The 2010s and The 2020s.
Yeah, could be could be 8 decades if they tour, performed or released a studio album in 2030.
June 23rd, 2025 at 00:57That’s crazy impressive from the greatest rock band of all time, with not a bad album in the lot!
June 23rd, 2025 at 12:18Even if I have to live on noodles for a month to be able to buy that new Purple book I think it will be worth it, count me in!
June 23rd, 2025 at 15:01I may have to purchase this to add to my growing collection of music books.
I also await the loooooooong overdue Barry Plummer
June 23rd, 2025 at 16:23book ‘UK tours. 1971-74 book.
Average that with the 50 years logo and we might get closer to the true age of the band!
June 23rd, 2025 at 17:35The cover design was obviously done by someone sight-impaired. I welcome that Martin offers these people (often referred to by IG as “blind men” who are at various times either (i) “shooting at the world”, (ii) “crying in no sadder tales”, or “standing very still (on a hill)” an opportunity to express themselves too. Commendable.
Or perhaps it was an AI idea. AI as in “awful ignorance”.
June 23rd, 2025 at 18:11The current core DP of the two Ians + Rog had so far played in seven consecutive decades, nothing inaccurate with that. When Big Ian turns 80 soon, he will be in his ninth decade.
It’s just how we count time periods, the last century from 1900 to 1999 was not the 19th Century, it was the 20th, can we at least all agree on that? 😂
June 23rd, 2025 at 22:41I’m still waiting for the Burn candles reissue – Simon Robinson promised them in prehistoric times. If he doesn’t hurry, CO2
June 24th, 2025 at 00:16emission rules will never allow us to light them.
@7 1901-2000, if you please. Any decade, century or millennium starts with ‘1 and ends with ‘0.
June 24th, 2025 at 13:28Georgivs is – inevitably – right! My bad.
June 25th, 2025 at 16:38Uwe, I now have the Paice, Ashton and Lord cd, wonderful it is. The 2019 re-issue with extra tracks and the wonderful booklet. The budget price surprised me, is there a warehouse full of these that they are trying to get rid of? From Germany, e.a.r MUSIC from EDEL . Thanks for keeping the faith. Cheers.
June 25th, 2025 at 22:18That album plus Little Ian’s playing and sound on it are a skinbangers wet dream!
And Paul Martinez was no slouch either, kind of the cool and collected version of Glenn Hughes which just goes to show how much Paicey had gotten used to playing with someone funky in Mk III and IV. He did not choose a Roger Glover type bass player as you might have expected if he had found that influence all horrible.
PAL lost their balls too early on, who knows what a long US tour opening for a kindred spirit act like Little Feat, The Doobie Brothers or Average White Band might have done for them. Staying in the UK and waiting for ex-DP fans expecting more of the same to show up in droves wasn’t the best idea perhaps.
June 26th, 2025 at 05:40@11
To quote a solo album’s title of Bernie Marsden who happens to play and sing on the PAL album: And about time too!
June 26th, 2025 at 06:14Malice in Wonderland stands out as one of the best works from any Purple related people IMHO. A timeless classic. And Ian Paice never sounded better.
Things might have turned out differently had they let Bernie with his tuneful voice sing even more on the debut (he’s double tracked with Tony pretty much all the time, but mixed into the background). Tony was of course a character but his voice – the euphemism is “gravelly” I believe – had apparent limits. And of course he didn’t come to grips with fronting the band.
June 26th, 2025 at 09:28Paul Martinez played the bass here too though you do not see him in the vid – that is another bassist playing with fingers, but the bass track is audibly played with a pick, Paul was a pick player.
https://youtu.be/smg2S8CssQU
Interesting story behind that song – (all) drummers are terrible people!
https://youtu.be/mjn7ELNVJB0
June 26th, 2025 at 10:53Paul Martinez was the epitome of a cool lanky bass player with a low-slung instrument long before there was Duff McKagan of GnR:
https://youtu.be/vifqbz2nAik
https://youtu.be/uN42DpYGVDo
(Paul playing finger style which is rare with him.)
Their styles are by the way not entirely dissimilar.
Paul was another stomach cancer victim.
June 26th, 2025 at 12:42Interesting booklet notes in this PAL cd I have just purchased. It seems the DP lads did another advertising thing, this time for a guitarist and bass player. “British band requires British bass player and lead guitarist for formation of a new rock band with established musicians. No BEGINNERS and only FIRST CLASS players acceptable. American style bass player preferred, must have good vocal ability. Also lead guitarist with vocal ability preferred but not essential. Musicians chosen would be expected to participate in writing band material.” Sheesh, who do these Deep Purple musicians think they are, the nerve of them. Anyway, it worked, that is the main thing. As it did with young Coverdale a little earlier. It makes us wonder if any of us could have stood a chance doesn’t it? Well, British fans at least. Cheers.
June 26th, 2025 at 22:09@ 15 – indeed ALL drummers are terrible people and not to be messed with, if that interview video is anything to go by. A very good bass guitarist was Paul Martinez, had the pleasure of enjoying his playing when he was with Percy in 1983 in Sydney. He was also involved in certain co songwriting situations in Plant’s band at that time. A fine musician. RIP. Cheers.
June 26th, 2025 at 23:39We have to look at that PAL advert for a bass guitarist and smile. They (Lord and Paice) had a British bass player who was a good singer and also had an American feel etc. What did they do, they dumped him. Lock, stock and barrel. All over the shop, that is the only way to look at that scenario and laugh at it. Wonder what Hughes would have thought if he read that advert. Ouch. Cheers.
June 27th, 2025 at 07:34I read some online statements a while back from someone professing to be Paul Martinez and his comments on PAL were all scathing, along the lines of anybody ever with DP being dross with the notable exception of Blackmore. It read to me like the quick demise of PAL with Jon and Paicey cutting all financial support from one day to another generated some ill feelings with him not dissimilar to what the GILLAN members felt. He certainly can‘t complain about how prominently his bass is mixed on Malice In Wonderland though. Tellingly, he did not participate in the PAL reunion for Tony Ashton‘s birthday bash, Neil Murray handled bass duties there.
Anyway, along with John Gustafson and Neil Murray he is among the cream of the bass playing crop in the extended Purple Family.
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It‘s interesting to note how not a single post-Purple project of its various members went through the roof: Not PAL, not the DC solo albums/early Whitesnake, not IGB nor GILLAN, not the Bolin and Hughes solo albums, not Glover‘s solo albums, let‘s not even talk about Warhorse and Captain Beyond. Only Ritchie met a modicum of success, but nothing remotely of DP scale. And of course DC with his magnum opus 1987 actually even eclipsed DP for a few years (if only in America), but that was 11 years after the Purple split and DC‘s Purple pedigree (always downplayed in the US) played no real role for it.
Away from the mothership, they all struggled, irrespective of trying something radically different from Purple (PAL, IGB, Hughes‘ Play Me Out, DC solo albums, Glover and Lord solo albums, Captain Beyond) or staying in a hard/heavy rock mold (Rainbow, Whitesnake, GILLAN, Warhorse, to some extent Hughes Thrall). There are few other examples where the members of a band as spectacularly successful as Purple failed as much in replicating commercial recognition when going out solo. There must be a magic ingredient to the tried and trusted Purple recipe after all! 🤗
June 27th, 2025 at 14:22Yes, I always thought it quite ironic too that Martinez’ style was so close to Glenn‘s (Glenn is a grittier/sweatier).
The weird thing is that the music on PAL‘s debut, the DC solo albums, Hughes‘ Play Me Out and even Tommy‘s Private Eyes were all equally removed from DP, [b]yet not incompatible with each other [/b]. It’s like they all fled from the Purple sound into one joint general direction, more American and RnBish, less heavy rock drama, less monolithic guitar/organ dominance, more complex arrangements —> Little Feat. Cut away the cocaine and sure Glenn could have played bass and sung on Malice in Wonderland just as Tommy – especially with his Dr. John experience – could have contributed guitar.
Ritchie of course went the extreme other way and released at the same time something as [i]heads-bowed-down, air-guitar-cocked-and-loaded, ready-to-charge heavy metal[/b] as Rainbow‘s Rising! 🤣
June 27th, 2025 at 15:55“There must be a magic ingredient to the tried and trusted Purple recipe after all!” 🤗 Blackmore’s hat and the Ouija board plus a penchant for spell casting. All those ingredients thrown into the cauldron, a few chants and some frog legs etc. It seemed to work well for a little while. Seriously though, at least all those ‘solo’ endeavours were outside the box, so to speak. Better to do something different than keep playing it safe. Personally, I veer away from solo artists after a little while. It all goes pear shape for me, Ozzy after a couple of albums, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Whitesnake and others etc etc. They all have to move on of course, it is what it is. The only trouble with playing it safe within the ‘mothership’ is that it becomes a tad predictable and boring at times. Mind you that also occurs with solo projects too. Resting on laurels etc. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Anyway, it is all water under the bridge as we speak. There has been some good music at times. We have to cut them some slack, with that noose around their necks. Cheers.
June 28th, 2025 at 00:32