Rod Evans 1980 "Deep Purple" Live

In 1980 original Deep Purple lead singer Rod Evans got together with a "fake" Deep Purple band and toured before he was shut down by the real band's mangement. He lost royalty rights to all the material he recorded with the band and today his whereabouts are unknown.

I've wondered if any video existed of this lineup and apparently some does. Here's Evans' attempt at "Smoke on The Water"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYuLwQMB7h4

 

The original Deep Purple albums have gained some respect and popularity in recent years and Rod would have done well with the royalty rights, but now...

...more for Blackmore, Lord and Paice.

 

It's really too bad about this whole turn of events. I've always loved MK I Deep Purple as well as Rod Evans' work with Captain Beyond. I don't know if it's because of shame, embarrassment or something else all together, but it's too bad that he hasn't been heard from since.

 

How did he lose his royalty rights? Did he sell them? Can't imagine how they would have been taken from him.

 

I don't think he lost royalty rights because of the 1980 reunion. I believe when Evans and Simper left the group and Tetragrammaton was absorbed by Warner Bros, Evans chose to receive a royalty check up front for a sum of money, while Nick Simper elected to collect royalties from album sales...something like that. I have Chris Charlesworth's bio kicking around some where and I think it's discussed in the book.

 

The MK I albums are my favorites of DP. Really classis stuff from the late 60s.

The first two Captain Beyond albums were also great. The third - not so much.

 

haha, it's surreal hearing those words coming from rod evans' voice.

would be like hearing ozzy sing neon knights or something!!

 

Actually, it's the other way around.

"Something" was by the Beatles.

 

I saw that tour in South Texas

 

...and ?

 

Not much has changed in 30 years....one original member then, one original member now. Sorry, couldn't resist!

 

Well you have to understand that South Texas did not get many shows, so we were excited to have anything, but me and my friends were into Captain Beyond so we knew it was Rod Evans, they were not bad from what I remember.

 

Deep Purple (Overseas) ltd went to court to prevent the scheduled concerts and press announcement were made. Part of the court rulings was as they found in Purple's favor, Rod Evans was prevented from performing AND lost all his royalties from EMI.

or a someone put it better (from the youtube vid.comments)

Even the forfeiting of future artist royalties(for the first 3 Deep Purple albums) didn't recoup the enormous legal expenses of HEC Enterprises(Deep Purple's 1968-76 management) in suing the fake Deep Purple or satisfy the damages awarded to HEC by the courts. If Rod Evans ever attempted to make music again, any and all profits would be confiscated(by the courts) to satisfy his debt to HEC. His retirement from music isn't voluntary. It's enforced.

 

Very sad.

 

Someone copied and pasted dbz's comment above in YouTube's comments about "an hour ago"! LOL!

 

I still don't get how Evans could have lost his future royalties from a legal action based on his attempt to perform as some Purple line-up. They seem like two distinctive, separate issues. There has to be more to the story.

 

Well that's just a damn shame. I play the MK 1 Purple way more than MK 2. I much prefer Rods voice to Ian's.

 

The rest of that footage is sitting around somewhere...."Smoke On The Water" is an easy song to play. I can't imagine them doing "Burn" or something that actually requires some real finesse.

Also amusing they tuned the guitars down a whole step...still not sure that would've been enough for Rod to remotely approach the high notes in "Highway Star."

 

Maybe it went something like this:

- Evans was sued for participating in a fake Deep Purple
- the court awarded $600K in damages and legal fees
- since Evans didn't have the $600K, his royalties were garnished

 

Wasn't it said that Rod Evans left the music business and went into the medical field? Or am I making that up?

I don't know diddly about legalities, but regardless of Evans' profession, isn't it possible that his wages are even now being garnished?

 

Medical field might be a little optimistic. He was a hospital porter. Some interesting snippets here

http://www.cream-revival-band.com/Bogus_Deep_Purple_1980.html#3

 

If I remember John Kay's book correctly, some former members of Steppenwolf also lost their royalties when the same promoter enlisted them in a bogus Steppenwolf and Kay sued.

 

That was original member keyboardist Goldy McJohn who helped reform Steppenwolf in 1977 with past members Nick St. Nicholas and Kent Henry. They played in several incarnations of the band before defaulting (along with St. Nicholas) on his payments to use the Steppenwolf name.
Here is a pic of the 1978 "Bogus Wolf" Band.

 

Rod Evan was a great ballad singer; but let's be honest, he wasn't going to change the sound of rock music, like Ian Gillan did.

 

Anyone see any setlists from this 1980 DP? I'm curious as to if it was heavy on songs from Mk1, or did they do many of the Mk2 hits? I guess Smoke on the Water would be a given, no matter what