Roger Glover

Roger Glover in Hamburg 2017

Roger David Glover (born November 30, 1945 in Brecon / Wales ) is a British musician , composer and record producer . He gained fame as the bassist for Deep Purple (1969–1973 and from 1984) and Rainbow (1979–1984), as well as producing groups and musicians such as Nazareth , Spencer Davis Group , Rory Gallagher , Status Quo , David Coverdale , Judas Priest , Michael Schenker Group and Rainbow.

Life

Origin and musical beginning (until 1969)

Roger Glover took an early interest in music and went to pubs in the area around his hometown. At Harrow County School, he met his first colleagues, with whom he founded The Madisons in the early 1960s , which merged with The Lightnings around 1962 . In October 1963 the band renamed itself Episode Six . Left over from the early days of the Madison was Glover on bass , guitarist Tony Lander and drummer Harvey Shields . The formation was completed by the singer Andy Ross, Graham Carter on guitar and the singer and keyboard player Sheila Carter-Dimmock . In May 1965 Andy Ross was replaced by Ian Gillan .

In 1966, the band released four singles, which were not sales successes, but made the band famous. The first TV appointments with the BBC were coming up and they were looking for a visual surprise to stand out from the “normal” appearances of the other bands. It looked like that at the end of the show Roger Glover disappeared into a huge mountain of corn flakes that spilled over him from the ceiling of the studio. Episode Six became better known and got engagements beyond the borders of Great Britain. As early as the beginning of 1963 - still without Ian Gillan - the band had played for a month in Frankfurt am Main in the beat club "Acadia" and even in the Lebanese capital Beirut . Episode Six were temporarily represented in Lebanon with three singles at the same time in the hit parade . In 1967, Episode Six released a single called Neo Maya called I Won't Hurt You . Only a few copies of this record exist today.

By mid-1969, another five episode six singles were released. One of the best recordings of Episode Six is ​​the Glover composition I Can See Through You (1967). Even with the other publications, there was no success. So from 1968 Roger Glover and Ian Gillan looked around for other musicians.

Member of Deep Purple and first solo activities (1969–1978)

Gillan met Jon Lord from Deep Purple . Lord and his fellow musicians Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice were looking for replacements for Rod Evans and Nick Simper , with whose performance they were dissatisfied. Lord had heard of Gillan's singing and invited him to audition. This brought Glover with him. Although he initially asked for time to think it over, he also joined the band a day later. In the Deep Purple lineup that has now emerged, called Mk II, the band recorded four studio albums, all of which are considered milestones in the development of hard rock or heavy metal, " Deep Purple in Rock ", " Fireball ", " Machine Head "and" Who Do We Think We Are? ". In 1973 he left Deep Purple at the urging of Ritchie Blackmore. At the same time Ian Gillan left the band.

Deep Purple, Roger Glover 1970

Roger Glover 1971

Even as a member of Deep Purple, Roger Glover thought about solo projects. In 1974, Roger Glover was commissioned by the Deep Purple manager Tony Edwards to set a children's book entitled The Butterfly Ball And The Grashoppers Feast to music. The record, for which he had engaged many well-known musicians (including Ronnie James Dio , David Coverdale and also his successor on Deep Purple (Mark III), Glenn Hughes ), was released at the same time as a single Love Is All . It took first place in several European charts.

On October 16, 1975, The Butterfly Ball was performed live for the first and only time in the Royal Albert Hall , London. To replace Ronnie James Dio, who in the meantime at Rainbow had climbed, jumped Twiggy one (the model of the then-popular slimming wave) and Ian Gillan. Glover then produced the LP Child In Time with Gillan , on which he also played the bass.

Parallel to his solo activities, Glover began to work as a producer, including three albums for the band " Nazareth ", the Rory Gallagher album " Calling Card " and the Judas Priest album "Sin After Sin". Between all the jobs that Glover got as a producer, he still found time for himself somewhere. And he drove it off with painting and poetry. From one of these poems came Glover's second solo work: Elements . Just like the Butterfly project, Elements has nothing to do with hard rock musically (it describes the four elements in a classic way: earth, wind, fire and water) and was not popular with Deep Purple fans.

Bassist and producer for Rainbow and the reunification of Deep Purple (from 1984)

At the end of 1978 Ritchie Blackmore, who had also left Deep Purple in 1975, fired the members of his band Rainbow except for the singer Dio , and asked Roger Glover. He took on two tasks, namely that of the bassist and that of the producer. Together with the singers Graham Bonnet (until 1981) and later Joe Lynn Turner , Glover and Blackmore recorded four albums until 1984. The rest of the band's line-up often varied, including the later Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey playing for Rainbow. Rainbow broke up in 1984 because Blackmore and Glover wanted to help reunite the legendary Mk-II cast of Deep Purple. Even before the Deep Purple reunion really got rolling, he came up with his third solo release: The Mask . It contained chart-ready pop songs, but ultimately got lost in the hustle and bustle of the Deep Purple reunion.

In 1988 the album Accidentally On Purpose was released , as was The Mask, a pop-dominated album that he had written, recorded and produced together with his long-time companion and friend Ian Gillan while working at Deep Purple. It wasn't until 2002 that Roger Glover reappeared with a solo project, he released his album Snapshot under Roger Glover & The Guilty Party . In 2011 the album If Life Was Easy was released under the same band name with guest appearances by Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew from Nazareth .

Since 1984 Glover has been bassist again with Deep Purple . After his friend Ian Gillan was forced out of the band in 1989, Joe Lynn Turner , with whom Glover and Blackmore had previously worked on Rainbow , sang on a studio album for Deep Purple. However, as the album and the tour were a commercial failure, the Mk-II line-up reunited for a second time in 1992 with Ian Gillan as the singer. In 1993 Ritchie Blackmore finally left the band. After a brief stint with Joe Satriani , Steve Morse joined Deep Purple in 1994 as the new guitarist. In 2002 Jon Lord left the band and was replaced by the former Rainbow keyboardist Don Airey , and nothing has changed in the line-up since then. The band continues to tour regularly and release new studio albums, most recently "Woosh!" (2020).

He has a particularly good relationship with Germany, which he justifies as follows:

“In Germany we got our very first gold record. We had the most loyal fans here from the start. We have played here so often that it is difficult to remember individual experiences. Germany is just well organized and the fans are so enthusiastic, similar to Japan. I also produced some albums here. That wouldn't be the case if I hadn't always had good times in Germany. "

Roger Glover is married for the second time and has lived with his wife and two daughters in Fricktal in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland since 2009 . His third and eldest daughter from a previous relationship, Gillian Glover, is also a musician and can be heard as the singer on Glover's two last solo albums.

Discography

Band albums

Episode Six

• Put Yourself In My Place (1987)
• The Complete Episode Six - 1963-1965 (1991)
• The Radio 1 Club Sessions - Live 68/69 (1997)

Deep Purple

• Concerto For Group And Orchestra (1969)
• Deep Purple in Rock (1970)
• Fireball (1971)
• Machine Head (1972)
• Who Do We Think We Are (1973)
• Perfect Strangers (1984)
• The House of Blue Light (1987)
• Slaves & Masters (1990)
• The Battle Rages On (1993)
• Purpendicular (1996)
• Abandon (1998)
• Concerto For Group And Orchestra (1999)
• Bananas (2003)
• Rapture of the Deep (2005)
• Now What ?! (2013)
• Infinite (2017)
• Whoosh! (2020)

Rainbow

• Down To Earth (1979)
• Difficult To Cure (1980)
• Straight Between The Eyes (1983)
• Bent Out Of Shape (1983)

Solo albums

Roger Glover & Guests

• The Butterfly Ball (1974)

Roger Glover

• Elements (1978)
• Mask (1984)
• The Butterfly Ball & Wizards Convention (DoLP with Bonus Interview 7 ") (1989)

Gillan / Glover

• Accidentally On Purpose (1988)

Roger Glover & The Guilty Party

• Snapshot (2002)
• If Life Was Easy (2011)

Guest Posts

• Rupert Hine & David MacIver - Pick Up A Bone (1971)
• Jon Lord - Gemini Suite (1972)
• Dave Cousins ​​- Two Weeks Last Summer (1972)
• Nazareth - Loud'n'Proud (1973) "Free Wheeler"
• Andy Mackay - In Search For Eddie Riff (1974)
• Dan McCafferty - Dan McCafferty (1975)
• Ian Gillan Band - Child In Time (1976)
• Eddie Hardin - Wizard's Convention (1976) "Loose Ends"
• John Perry - Sunset Wading (1976)
• David Coverdale - White Snake (1976)
• Eddie Hardin - You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (1977)
• David Coverdale - North Winds (1978)
• Joe Breen - More Than Meets The Eye (1978)
• Wheels - Don't Be Strange (1979)
• Eddie Hardin - Circumstancial Evidence (1982)
• Ian Gillan - Naked Thunder (1990) "No More Cane On The Brazos"
• Pretty Maids - Jump The Gun (1990) "Dream On"
• Ian Gillan - Cherkazoo And Other Stories (1992) Recorded 1972–1974
• Gov't Mule - The Deep End (2001) “Maybe I'm A Leo”
• Gov't Mule - The Deepest End (2003) Live in Concert
• Ian Gillan - Gillan's Inn (2006)

Productions

• Rupert Hine & David MacIver - Pick Up A Bone (1971)
• Jon Lord - Gemini Suite (1972)
• Elf - Elf (1972), California Country Ball (1974), Trying To Burn The Sun (1975)
• Dave Cousins ​​- Two Weeks Last Summer (1972)
• Nazareth - Razamanaz (1973), Loud'n Proud (1973), Rampant (1974)
• Green Bullfrog - Green Bullfrog (1974)
• Hardin & York - With Charlie McCraken (1974)
• Andy Mackay - In Search Of Eddie Riff (1974)
• Spencer Davis Group - Living In The Back Street (1974)
• John G. Perry - Sunset Wedding (1976)
• Rory Gallagher - Calling Card (1976)
• Status Quo - Wild Side Of Life / All Through The Night (Single 1976)
• Ian Gillan - Child In Time (1976)
• Strapps - Strapps (1976), Secret Damage (1976)
• Eddie Hardin - You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (1977)
• David Coverdale - White Snake (1977), North Winds (1978)
• Judas Priest - Sin After Sin (1977)
• Young & Moody - Young & Moody (1977)
• Barbi Benton - Ain't That Just The Way (1978)
• Joe Breen - More Then Meets The Eye (1978)
• Grand Theft - Have You Seen This Band (1978)
• Wheels - Don't Be Strange (1979)
• Rainbow - Down to Earth (1979)
• MSG - The Michael Schenker Group (1980)
• Rainbow - Difficult to Cure (1981), Straight Between The Eyes (1982), Bent Out Of Shape (1983)
• Pretty Maids - Jump The Gun (1990)

literature

• Ingo Jansen: A Life In Purple - The Ultimate Deep Purple Bible.

Web links

Commons : Roger Glover  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Roger Glover in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of Roger Glover (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aargauer Zeitung , accessed on April 25, 2017
2. ↑ Roger Glover: Father with Daughter . In: Coolibri magazine . ( coolibri.de [accessed on February 7, 2018]).