"I think it's pretty disgusting that a band has to stoop this low and take somebody else's name," says guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. "It's like a bunch of guys putting together a group and calling it Led Zeppelin." Blackmore and bassist Roger Glover, both former members of Deep Purple and currently with Rainbow, are highly steamed about a group of California musicians gigging under the name Deep Purple. True, the new band does contain one bona-fide Purple veteran original singer, Rod Evans, who recently was discovered working as a supervisor in a Los Angeles hospital, but that's about it. "People are paying good money to see something that isn't what it's purported to be", says Glover. "Even though Rod was in the band originally, it's not really the hand that people know." Guitarist Anthony Flynn, Blackmore's counterpart in the "new" Deep Purple, contends that his group "sounds exactly the same and looks exactly the same. In all respects, we are the same product."
Flynn also asserts that he acquired the name from the group's old manager, John Colletta, and its accountant, Bill Reed. But Reed, speaking for both Colletta and himself, disputes Flynn's claim. "We have NO interest in selling the name Deep Purple," Reed says. Deep Purple Overseas Ltd., which consists of members of the original band, recently sought an injunction from a California court to stop Flynn's group from performing as Deep Purple. The court declined to act, however, until the whole case could be heard.
Meanwhile, Blackmore, Glover and Ian Glllan, Purple's most celebrated vocalist, are hoping to mount a reunion tour and record an album sometime in the fall if the other former members of Purple, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice, can spare the time from their current band, Whitesnake. Till then, says Blackmore of the pretenders to Purple's heavy-metal throne, "I don't like this at all." Kurt Loder