The controversy surrounding tonight's concert by Deep Purple - now billed as "The New Deep Purple" - at the Long Beach Arena escalated Monday when an ad appeared in The Times stating that Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Glen Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice would not perform at the concert.
Those musicians are the one most strongly identified with the popular heavy-metal group. All are currently involved in other projects. The group playing tonight features only one former member of Deep Purple, singer Rod Evans, who was in the group from 1968-70. The names of the other musicians tonight have not been mentioned in any of the concert ads. As reported earlier in The Times, they are guitarist Tony Flynn, pianist Jeff Emery, drummer Dick Jurgens and bassist Tom De Rivera.
Blackmore, Coverdale, et al filed an action in Los Angeles Federal District Court in June 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 trade names and trademarks. The former band members placed the ad in Monday's Times through the firm Deep Purple (Overseas) Ltd. A representative of former members declined to comment due to the pending litigation, but did acknowledge, "It's an attempt to disclose to the public that the group they think of as Deep Purple is not the group that's playing under that name." Richard Cromelin
Those musicians are the one most strongly identified with the popular heavy-metal group. All are currently involved in other projects. The group playing tonight features only one former member of Deep Purple, singer Rod Evans, who was in the group from 1968-70. The names of the other musicians tonight have not been mentioned in any of the concert ads. As reported earlier in The Times, they are guitarist Tony Flynn, pianist Jeff Emery, drummer Dick Jurgens and bassist Tom De Rivera.
Blackmore, Coverdale, et al filed an action in Los Angeles Federal District Court in June 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 trade names and trademarks. The former band members placed the ad in Monday's Times through the firm Deep Purple (Overseas) Ltd. A representative of former members declined to comment due to the pending litigation, but did acknowledge, "It's an attempt to disclose to the public that the group they think of as Deep Purple is not the group that's playing under that name." Richard Cromelin