True music fans mourn over a band’s break-up like they would over a personal loss. There’s always hope though that differences can be reconciled and that the music making can continue.
It was on this day, July 19th, in 1976 that Deep Purple announced the group would break up. At the time, the band had been together for eight years.
Just eight years after that, the classic 1970s line-up of Gillan, Lord, Blackmore, Glover, and Paice reunited as a band. The new act signed a worldwide record deal with PolyGram, releasing albums in other countries as well as the United States. Now, the band is still active and performing. The cast of characters is a little different though with Kansas’ guitarist Steve Morse as Blackmore’s replacement.