Deep Purple Haze Days

As we watched Paul McCartney the other evening, a memory was triggered for Robin, which I felt worthy of repeating.
It occurred as McCartney was playing 'I Saw Her Standing There', which he performed with his usual brilliance.
Robin said, "That's what I played with Deep Purple, at the audition."
I couldn't let that go and immediately went into 'blog' mode.

Robin was called down to Pinewood Studios for an audition for the place of lead guitarist, in a post Deep Purple band, put together by Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
The position had become vacant after the untimely death of Tommy Bolin, a fantastic guitarist who had played on one of our favourite recordings, 'Spectrum' by Billy Cobham.
So it was a pretty nerve wracking experience for Robin.

They started with, 'I Saw Her Standing There', and then went on to play, 'Palace of the King', by BB King.

The other band members then went off to deliberate, and returned promptly, to say Robin had got the gig.
Exciting times.

They went on to do a demo of 'Palace of the King', and you can hear it today.
The band members at this point were:
Ian Paice - Drums
Jon Lord - Keyboard
Maggie Bell - Vocals
Paul Martinez - Bass
Robin Hill - Electric Guitar

This track was actually recorded at George Harrison's house...
Unfortunately he wasn't in at the time, but they did meet on another occasion, however, that's another story...

For now you can hear 'Palace of the King' from the player in the side bar.

From Billy Cobham to John McLaughlin

Sunday morning = musical quiz here in Hillhouse and today it was a particularly upbeat affair.
We were given the task of recognising the time signature for two pieces. The first, Billy Cobham, 'Spectrum' from the album also named Spectrum. It's fast and furious and no matter how hard I tried to get in and count, I just couldn't do it. For those interested, I was informed by an amused Robin that it is in 7/8 time.
Fuelled by his success, he put another track on.
John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, 'Miles Beyond', from the album 'Birds of Fire'.
Robin was obviously intent on winning this morning. It starts in 4/4 time but moves swiftly on to 9/4. No, I didn't get that one either.
Incidentally, John McLaughlin appears to be a dog lover as two of his album covers sport Labrador/Retriever dogs, and I was pleased to see we aren't the only ones who allow our dogs on the furniture.
He, and any other dog lovers, may be interested in an article by Roger Highfield, 'Dogs' behaviour - it's all in the wag.' Apparently dogs wag their tails to the right when they are pleased to see you, and to the left when they secretly want to run away!
We have been studying our two canine friends in the interest of science. The results are mixed. Milly, dependable, loyal and aged 7, has a definite right sided wag. Miss Bimps obviously hasn't read the article and has an equal sway in either direction. She, however, is the 'dotty' one, and it isn't as much her tail that wags but the whole body making it difficult to assess.
In the light of my musical failings this morning I sent Robin, (he'd already done a few hours guitar practice), sons and dogs off to the park so that I could play Aretha Franklin, 'I Say a Little Prayer', very loudly, and sing along. No-one sings it like Aretha, and certainly not me...