Deep Purple - Graz 1975 - LP

The headline in Austrian newspaper Neue Zeit said it all: ‘Deep Purple in Graz: Ein lauter Abschied [a loud farewell].’ On April 3, 1975 the Mk III line-up of Purple – guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, frontman David Coverdale, bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, keyboard player Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice – played a concert at the Liebenauer ice rink, located on the outskirts of mountaincradled Graz, Austria’s second largest city after Vienna. Enthused by Purple’s arrival in town, the local press dubbed the concert ‘das Rockereignis des Jahres [the rock event of the year]’. And it was – in more ways than one. After Graz, Purple would play just two more shows – in Saarbrücken, Germany and Paris, France – before a disenchanted and disgruntled Blackmore left to form his new band, Rainbow. The remaining Purple members would regroup quickly with American guitarist Tommy Bolin in tow, in place of Blackmore. But that’s another story...