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Patience that no ticket buyer would ever see
1883 Magazine has a promo piece on a book called Once A King, Now A Prince by one Ira Blacker. It is a memoir of a talent agent, who at some point in time was representing Deep Purple, among others.
The public image of rock and roll was built from photographs: singers under spotlights, guitarists leaning into amplifiers, limousines, hotel rooms, screaming fans, and the appearance that success came from talent colliding with destiny. Talent was essential, but destiny usually had an office, a telephone, a contract, and several people arguing over who controlled the next move.
That is the world I describe in Once A King, Now A Prince. It is a rock and roll book written from the agency side of the desk, where careers were negotiated, tours were assembled, egos were managed, and decisions made in a few minutes could follow an artist for years.
Other realities were less comic. Deep Purple could deliver performances that helped define an era, while dealing with Ritchie Blackmore required patience that no ticket buyer would ever see. Rory Gallagher was one of the most genuine people I represented, a world-class guitarist with an appetite for performing that required an agent capable of keeping him on the road. Nazareth were not yet kings when I began working with them, but I treated them as though they mattered because careers are often shaped by whether someone with power behaves as if an artist has a future before that future becomes obvious.
Read more in 1883 Magazine and check the book on its own website.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
That looks like a book written from a very interesting and insightful perspective.
August 25th, 2026 at 13:57I started browsing this guy’s blog a bit to find more info about Purple, to put the historical period into context
Blacker was a founder of ATI American Talent International, one of the largest music agencies in the United States.
I found two places where he talks about DPs and says he had them on tour for 3 years, including the 74 Cal Jam since ATI was among the organizers of the event (if not the only organizer, but I don’t think so).
but all this made me think of a certain person….
and in fact Bruce Payne worked for him and then stole Deep Purple from him by leaving the agency!
Blacker’s words are not very flattering:
“I think the biggest hurt was the loss of Deep Purple after their contract expired, following their three-year run. I received two kicks in the ass on that one: 1- The loss of Deep Purple, a major headliner, and 2- I lost them to a trusted agent, who never had the talent to sign an artist on his own, but just to steal mine.”
https://onceakingnowaprince.com/rock-and-roll-book/
Below is an article entirely dedicated to Cal Jam, which gives a good idea of the money machine that DP were.
https://onceakingnowaprince.com/true-life-story/
finally in another article about Kraftwerk a very brief comparison on the fact that they were not chased in the corridors by groupies, while they offered sex in Blackmore and Purple’s dressing room.
August 25th, 2026 at 23:31All those AI pictures are really annoying. Looks unprofessional, which is sad, because it does indeed seem to be an interesting book.
August 26th, 2026 at 09:24It’s out for delivery to me. I’ll post an update once I’ve had a read.
August 26th, 2026 at 10:59Yup, compared to Kraftwerk
https://youtu.be/zOfh7YdugzQ
even DP (always decried as ”unsexy” by my own flesh and blood 😝) carried some sexual allure for the fairer gender, at least in the US of A.
But then DP are still waiting for that invite to play at the Museum of Modern Art, so I guess nature evenhandedly bestows fitting rewards on everyone.
https://youtu.be/kVzNNNmHTKA
I like Kraftwerk – minimalism as art. (Tangerine Dream as well, but their more cinematic music was never as puristic as Kraftwerk’s.)
Their paths could have almost crossed with DP as early as in 1970 in Aachen at the ‘1. Open Air Pop-Festival’
https://digit.wdr.de/entries/60129
but DP played apparently on the first and Kraftwerk on the second day …
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/concerts/images/c/c7/Image-1507226156.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171005175556
August 26th, 2026 at 13:49AI pictures and AI created text….
August 26th, 2026 at 16:52The 2nd AI pic is also Glenn Hughes or DC during Come Taste The Band practising to play guitar as shown around 87 he appearantly could play very well!
August 27th, 2026 at 14:15It’s a very slight tome, 250 odd pages with a huge font amounting to a pitiful 160 words per page. The Deep Purple references are covered in a total of 5 pages. California Jam 3 pages, Bruce Payne leaving ATI to manage Purple 2 pages. All in all over advertised and a waste of money.
August 27th, 2026 at 18:25#8 David:
basically what I linked from Blacker’s blog pages
August 27th, 2026 at 20:15Thanks for the sacrifice, David!
August 27th, 2026 at 23:17Thanks Uwe. It’s insignificant to what Brexit cost!
August 28th, 2026 at 10:02Yeah, but for that Ian Gillan is mainly to blame! 🤗
August 29th, 2026 at 00:53“finally in another article about Kraftwerk a very brief comparison on the fact that they were not chased in the corridors by groupies, while they offered sex in Blackmore and Purple’s dressing room.” THIS is not what I ever said or in the book. What I did say, was that the androgenous Kraftwerk did not get any poosay. I further said that Blackmore’s standard pre hit the stage warm up was having oral sex in the dressing room toilet.
Please do not put words in my mouth, unless it’s a hit song, then you can manage me. 🙂
As to the guy who’s eyset is worse than mine, those images on the cover are NOT AI. To say the least, I had access to within 2 inches and took ORIGINAL PHOTOS, of which they are on the cover and in the middle of the book.
You know, I understand, you want to pump yourself up when you drop a comment, but sometimes it is kinder to ask a question then assume, and then be proven wrong.
As to Purple as a money machine, they were not so when I did their first tour. It was hard work that paid off until they became a money machine. At Cal Jam, their management, which was always a problem, like one on their team stole all of Purple’s cash hidden offshore. At Cal Jam, my “good friend”, Sepp Donahower, went behind my back to management, and they gave Sepp back, 25% of their fee, as he whined poverty. That was 100k in the toilet of the band’s money.
August 29th, 2026 at 21:53#13 Ira Blacker:
I made a grammatical mistake! It was obvious that Kraftwerk didn’t perform oral sex on RB, but rather the groupies!
Since you’re here, I saw a photo of Bob Cavallo on your site with the caption “Deep Purple’s manager at Ontario Jam”
August 30th, 2026 at 09:32This is the first time I’ve heard it associated with Purple, can you talk about it?
Please keep going, Ira, this is interesting, I’m really serious! Friggin’ eye witness news from way back, putting the d-eeply p-romiscuous back into DP, decadent debauchery galore, makes a fine and refreshing change from discussing the curvature of Ritchie’s fretboards me thinks or where Steve Morse places his pups. We don‘t want to look like nerds here.
We never had a good thread about Ritchie’s oral sex preferences before. But why in the toilet? That’s cramped and hardly germ-free. Michael Schenker would
do itlet it happen sitting down in a chair in the dressing room with his UFO band mates watching on and him graciously offering general life advice: “You’re doing it all wrong, Herr Mogg, for me, ze wöman hazz to dö all ze wörk!” German efficiency at work – or relaxing … depending on how you put it.To the sexual attraction defense of my Kraftwerk countrymen: I guess in the mid-seventies US, stadium rock groupies raised on Foghat’s more primal expectations
https://youtu.be/J_SZWEshWZc
would have indeed been somewhat befuddled by Kraftwerk’s androgynous neo-Roaring Twenties Euro-appearance, but man had that all changed a few years down the line with the New Romantic movement in the UK!
https://youtu.be/D_8Pma1vHmw
“Poosay” would have been plentiful for the durable Menschmaschinen then. Seitensprung durch Technik! ☝️🧐
Das muss der Neid ihm lassen, Ira the engine driva just cut through us like a freight train … 🤗
https://youtu.be/49YOQ-e4uHE
I wanna hear more, please!
August 30th, 2026 at 13:24I do recal me thinking to be pragmatic and seeing the worth of an EU and I said to Simon Robinson in some correspondence “Join us”! 🙂 .
He wasnt happy and not long after I voted NO in the referendum on the EU constitution.
A majority of us did but we were, its a pattern, ignored by those ” chosen by us”.
Reading Ira s words on oral sex, not censored, makes me think moderation here is flipflopping.
Didnt know that one regarding Ritchie,lucky bastard.
I do recall Shoshana being near …..
August 30th, 2026 at 13:33Did she know?
It’s a shame Ira Blacker didn’t come back to answer our questions.
September 4th, 2026 at 23:07