Explosions and violence at the most infamous Deep Purple show of all time: “They got me riled up”
Looking back into the history books of rock music, there are more than a handful of concerts that can be rightly considered train wrecks. From the tragedy at Altamont to the lunacy of Montreux, some shows are etched into the tomes of legacy for their infamy rather than their brilliance. Deep Purple‘s set at the California Jam concert in 1974 is one of the most notorious performances in rock history.
Held at the Ontario Motor Speedway, well over 200,000 fans attended the festival to watch the likes of Emerson, Lake & Palmer – and that was just the people who officially bought tickets. As you would expect, chaos came to define the day’s proceedings, culminating in one of the most outrageous displays of on-stage violence of all time.
The truth is, when Deep Purple were approached to perform the event, Blackmore was already very wary of being a part of the line-up. “I said, ‘No thanks, I’m not interested in any more festivals,’” recounted Blackmore later. For a band, festivals might seem like an opportunity to play a huge show, but with the possibility of a disengaged audience and the likely probability of a less-than-perfect sound check, things can easily go awry. “They’re a nightmare. They always will be. There’s always complete catastrophe backstage. Nothing ever goes right. You’re always on late, or early. The billing is all wrong. It’s just awful.”
Deep Purple headlined The California Jam concert when they were at the height of their fame. With sales of their 1974 LP, Burn, rocketing and their live set honed after months on the road, the band was buzzing with excitement. Unfortunately, the festival itself was running ahead of schedule, so despite the fact that Deep Purple wasn’t supposed to go onstage until sunset, organisers tried to convince them to go on early. The band had hoped for the lights to be on when they took to the stage, but this new time would dramatically change their show. “That got me riled up,” recalled Blackmore. “I’m seething at this point.”
Deep Purple refused and, as a result, were very nearly axed from the lineup. And when I say nearly, it was practically a foregone conclusion. The festival organiser was steps away from the microphone, where he was about to announce that Deep Purple would no longer be performing, when he was overtaken by the band’s tour manager, who asked the expectant crowd if they were ready to see the band, to which they screamed, unequivocally, yes.
But the atmosphere had already been soured. Deep Purple delivered an astonishing set, a real feat considering their frustration with the festival’s bureaucratic and demanding attitude. The cameramen on either side of the stage kept trying to communicate with the band members while they were playing, ordering them to stay within the frame. Eventually, it all got too much for guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who, wielding a guitar, lunged for one of the cameramen only to slam the butt of his Stratocaster into the lens of an enormous camera.
Still not satisfied, he decided to pull the guitar into its constituent parts, throwing its body into the air and stamping on it until it was nothing but a pile of wood and steel with nothing holding it together. After picking up a new guitar, his huge stack of amps exploded into flames, seemingly out of nowhere. However, Blackmore had been behind the stunt and had enlisted a roadie to pour petrol on his stack before creating the explosion.
“Ian Paice’s glasses got blown off, it made a cameraman temporarily deaf,” the guitarist remembered through the glee of enacting his revenge. “It looked great, but it was just overkill. I didn’t realise it was going to just explode. It was supposed to catch fire, but it just went boom!” The flames even caught Blackmore off guard and left him trying to extinguish his newly enflamed hair.
It’s incredible to watch and a real reminder of the sheer audacity of groups such as Deep Purple, for whom destruction was an essential aspect of their live act. Blackmore and the band escaped serious injury, but luckily for the guitarist, he also escaped any jail time after he absconded from the scene via helicopter. Now, that is rock and roll.
