Rod Evans

Rod Evans (* 19th January 1947 in Slough ) is an English rock - singer and founding member of Deep Purple .

Life

At the age of 13, Rod Evans was already singing in the first band, a school band called The Horizons . Via the stations Jumping Jimmy Band and MI5 , he came to The Maze in 1967 , where he met Ian Paice , who had previously also been drumming at MI5. The friendship with Paice was to have positive effects for Rod Evans in 1968. When Ian Paice switched to the band Roundabout and they didn't have a singer, Ian brought his friend Rod over. Shortly thereafter, the band was renamed Deep Purple .

The story of Rod Evans at Deep Purple reads the same as that of bassist Nick Simper . After the first three LPs, Shades Of Deep Purple , The Book Of Taliesyn and Deep Purple and considerable successes in the USA, the two were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover . Evans and Simper no longer fit into Deep Purple's concept when guitarist Ritchie Blackmore began to favor uncompromising hard rock .

In 1972 Rod Evans reappeared with the band Captain Beyond and an LP of the same name. After another, not necessarily positively received album - Sufficiently Breathless - Rod Evans retired from the business for a few years in 1973.

In 1980 Rod Evans went on tour in the USA with unknown musicians as Deep Purple . After a few appearances in which the audience felt cheated, the attorneys of Deep Purple John Coletta and Tony Edwards obtained a court order that prohibited Evans from trading under the name Deep Purple. He then named the band New Deep Purple . Now Coletta and Edwards placed an ad in the Los Angeles Times : "Tomorrow's Deep Purple performance at Long Beach Arena won't be: Blackmore , Coverdale , Gillan , Glover , Hughes , Lord and Paice ."

Discography

Deep Purple

• Shades of Deep Purple (1968)
• The Book of Taliesyn (1968)
• Deep Purple (1969)

solo

Hard To Be Without You / You Can't Love A Child Like A Woman (1971)

Captain Beyond

• Captain Beyond (1972)
• Sufficiently Breathless (1973)

literature

• Ingo Jansen, "A Life In Purple" - The ultimate DEEP PURPLE - Bible (also source of this biography)

Web links

• About the Deep Purple "reunification" from 1980 (with band photo) (English)
• Another side of this, with some illustrations and photographs (English)