VA - Pre Purple People: Rarities From The Late Beat Age (2001)

A unique 23 track collection devoted to the work of the various members of Deep Purple before they joined the band. There has long been interest in this area of their careers. Many of these tracks are now impossibly expensive to buy on vinyl. A few have been issued on disparate CD compilations but this is the first time anyone has attempted to try and bring together this early material. The label has unearthed a number of really rare tracks, which even hard core collectors were previously unaware of. Numerous tracks are also on CD for the first time, including collectable singles, and there are even some previously unissued tracks.
The tracks - dating between 1965 and 1970 - feature pre-Purple appearences by Ritchie Blackmore: his ultra rare 1965 solo single, both 'a' & 'b' sides; Ian Gillan & Roger Glover: four rare studio and live performances from their time in Episode Six, none of which have appeared on CD before; Jon Lord with Santa Barbara Machine Head: three great instrumentals from Jon's shortlived 1967 group, featuring Ron Wood on guitar and Twink on drums; Ian Paice & Rod Evans with The Maze: their last single, both 'a' and 'b' sides before they joined Deep Purple; David Coverdale with The Government: four previously unreleased demos, his only known pre-Deep Purple recordings. There are also a number of Derek Lawrence produced sessions in which Deep Purple mk1 acted as a backing band for artists such as Boz (who later turned up in King Crimson and Bad Company), Sundragon and Anan. The CD booklet carries extensive notes about the history of the records and the artists.

This anthology gathers 23 odds and ends that assorted one-time members of Deep Purple recorded before joining Deep Purple, sometimes as session musicians. As such it's more of a useful compendium of missing bits and pieces for Deep Purple fans than it is an even, high-quality listen, but musically it's not bad, with the occasional above-average cut. Ritchie Blackmore's represented by two Joe Meek-produced instrumentals on a rare 1965 single, as well as session work on a couple of Bob Dylan Basement Tapes covers that ended up on a 1968 single by Boz (aka Boz Burrell, who eventually joined King Crimson and Bad Company). Blackmore's also heard on an unremarkable lightly psychedelicized 1968 pop single by Anan, and Blackmore, Ian Paice, and Jon Lord play on four 1968 songs by Sun Dragon, again in a jaunty psych-pop style that's heavier on the pop than the psych. More interesting are four rarities by Episode Six, the 1960s British Invasion band that included Ian Gillan. That band's catalog is well-represented by a couple of other CDs, but this quartet of tunes is not on those. "Have You Ever Been There" is a previously unreleased folk-pop ballad by Roger Glover; "Love Hate Revenge" is heard in its American single version, with a different psychedelic instrumental break of weird oscillating sounds; and "I Am a Cloud" and "I Am the Boss," taken from a March 1969 radio broadcast, are different from the versions that show up on the Episode Six compilation The Radio One Club Sessions. Santa Barbara Machine Head was an early supergroup of sorts featuring Ron Wood, Jon Lord, and drummer Twink, although their three tracks (previously on the compilation Blues Anytime, Vol. 3) are routine heavy blues-rockers. The Maze, with Paice on drums, made subpar harmony pop on the 1967 single included here. Finally, the Government included future Deep Purple singer David Coverdale; the four songs here were on a self-pressed 1971 EP, consisting of unremarkable heavy horn-rock covers of hits by Chicago, the Boxtops, Cher, and the Rolling Stones.