Recent months saw the loss of two more people who were an important part of the Deep Purple story.
On May 13th 2020 the original Purple producer Derek Lawrence passed away. Derek began his career being involved with Joe Meek, England’s first independent record producer, and worked with his band The Outlaws, who featured Chas Hodges, Mick Underwood and of course Ritchie Blackmore. Derek had a good eye for local London talent and spent a lot of time recording the people who he considered special, musicians such as Carlo Little, Jimmy Page, Albert Lee and many others.
As you can read on this website, Derek beat his way to Deeves Hall to offer us the deal which catapulted the band to the U.S. top twenty, and it’s fair to say that without him the world would probably not have known about Deep Purple. Derek was not your conventional record producer, apparently having little knowledge of the recording desk, but he was a great catalyst between engineer and band, and he unfailingly knew when a “take” was the right one. Sadly, for reasons unknown to me, Purple dispensed with Derek’s services but he went on to further success with many others. Derek did the initial demo recording for my band Fandango, for which I will always be grateful, and also suggested that I team up with Mick Underwood for Quatermass 2, which led us to making an album together. Derek always fun to be around, and he knew his game. A nice man in the true sense the word, he will be sadly missed.
On August 9th 2020 we lost Martin Birch, another Deep Purple stalwart of the early years. When the band started in 1968, Martin was the tape operator for the great engineer Barry Ainsworth. His job was to press the buttons which operated the giant tape machine which sat at the side of the recording desk.
Martin was a cheerful, likeable man who didn’t say much, but all the time was learning the trade by watching Barry work. He and Barry seemed particularly keen on working with Purple, so much so that when they re-located from Pye Studio’s to De Lane Lea, the band went too, feeling quite rightly that we were all a good team. Barry, Martin and producer Derek together helped produce the vibe which resulted in the three mark one albums. When Martin finally set out as engineer and producer in his own right he showed a great talent, becoming in demand by many of the leading rock bands of the day, helped of course by his sunny laidback personality. A great loss to the recording business, he will also be sadly missed.