:00:16. > :00:24.knowledge and the structure of rock and blues. The two together gave you
:00:24. > :00:31.Jon Lord. The only person ever to have an album in the rock charts and
:00:31. > :00:35.the classical charts at the same time. Could not read music, could
:00:35. > :00:45.not play, and we thought we were the bees knees, playing the piano. But
:00:45. > :00:49.
:00:49. > :00:53.John had got this knack, he could that he was just a lad from
:00:53. > :00:56.Leicester whose father sent him to piano lessons. This is the story of
:00:56. > :00:59.Jon Lord. Founding member of Deep Purple. The man who put the rock
:00:59. > :01:08.into the Hammond Organ and made it growl. The musician who mixed
:01:08. > :01:11.classical with rock and became a classical composer in his own right.
:01:11. > :01:21.The love of what Buddy Holly represented and what the Halle
:01:21. > :01:40.
:01:40. > :01:45.Orchestra represented as defined -- amazing to think this was one of the
:01:45. > :01:49.great rock 'n' roll venues of all time, and I believe, still is. It
:01:49. > :01:52.was important for every rock 'n' roll musician to play this venue. It
:01:52. > :01:57.was especially important to Jon Lord, and I know this because we
:01:57. > :02:01.spoke shortly before he became ill, obviously he saw this as a place
:02:01. > :02:11.where he saw his first shows, and where he played on numerous
:02:11. > :02:14.
:02:14. > :02:21.occasions. He used to come over and we would play the piano together.
:02:21. > :02:28.Although we could not play at all, we thought we were the bees knees.
:02:28. > :02:34.The rest was history. I think I was always good at playing the piano. My
:02:34. > :02:41.father was musical, and he saw something in me. My first piano
:02:41. > :02:46.teacher did as well. This little lad has it. Leicestershire's public
:02:46. > :02:56.record office gives us a clue as to why Jon became a musician. If you
:02:56. > :02:56.
:02:56. > :03:03.look at these marks, for his all levels, they are not great. When you
:03:03. > :03:08.get to music, he has got 75. Maths, 40, history, 39, music, really
:03:08. > :03:14.stands out. He is in the orchestra, the choir, playing the organ,
:03:14. > :03:17.playing the drums, there. The head of his old school wasn't very
:03:17. > :03:21.helpful when Jon decided to leave Leicester. He wanted to go to
:03:21. > :03:24.college in London to train to be an actor. But the reference he got was
:03:24. > :03:34.a stinker. JD Lord was a boy whose academic progress and results were
:03:34. > :03:35.
:03:35. > :03:43.most disappointing. They were a bit snotty. They suggest that he might
:03:44. > :03:47.go somewhere that selects people on less academic grounds. That is what
:03:47. > :03:51.is so wrong. I know a lot of people who became musicians, went to
:03:51. > :03:58.colleges, further education, it was not because they were not
:03:59. > :04:06.academically clever, it was because their life went into music. Jon came
:04:06. > :04:10.third in piano. Third. One and two must have been good. This is the
:04:10. > :04:13.school where he went. It has a different name. Lots of new
:04:13. > :04:22.buildings. This is the only bit that remains that he would have
:04:22. > :04:25.recognised, which is behind the facade. It does prove that you don't
:04:25. > :04:28.need to be academically brilliant to have a brilliant career. I think Jon
:04:29. > :04:34.was better than his results showed, he just spent all his time doing
:04:34. > :04:37.music. And the De Montfort Hall was the place to see it. Jon saw his
:04:37. > :04:47.father play saxophone here. He also came to see the Halle Orchestra and
:04:47. > :05:05.
:05:05. > :05:09.on this stage that helped launch Jon's career. In London at the start
:05:09. > :05:14.of the '60s, Jon earned his crust on the keyboards playing in pubs and as
:05:15. > :05:24.a session player. By 1963 he was in The Artwoods led by Ronnie Wood's
:05:24. > :05:32.brother, Art. Underrated and now very collectable, they split.
:05:32. > :05:35.first met Jon when I was in my semiprofessional first band, we
:05:35. > :05:45.opened for them in some gig when he was in the art would. I was 15 years
:05:45. > :05:50.
:05:50. > :05:55.old or something, they had just had their hit. It was always very
:05:55. > :06:03.gentle, he was very smooth, very kind. When we have had our
:06:03. > :06:06.rehearsal, they came out and said we had got the job. Deep Purple formed
:06:06. > :06:09.in '68. The first line up was finidng its way musically,
:06:09. > :06:19.influenced by the American band Vanilla Fudge. It was in the States
:06:19. > :06:25.they had their first big hit. Jon's comprehension of what music
:06:25. > :06:35.should do and how it should work against the basic feel and drive,
:06:35. > :06:47.
:06:47. > :06:53.the counterbalance worked really album with the original line-up,
:06:53. > :06:59.with Richie Blackmore and Jon, and if you listen to what Jon did with
:06:59. > :07:09.just the Leslie speaker and the organ at the beginning of their
:07:09. > :07:15.
:07:15. > :07:23.cover of a Beatles song, nobody had didn't want to sound like everybody
:07:23. > :07:28.else. Jon's orchestral and classical thing started coming to the fore,
:07:28. > :07:38.but it was a period of searching for what we really have to be through
:07:38. > :07:46.
:07:46. > :07:52.nature rather than what we thought Jon had the most amazing original
:07:52. > :07:57.Hammond organ, and it was not until five years ago that I asked him how
:07:57. > :08:02.he does it, and he said one of his big problems, which was a problem of
:08:02. > :08:05.all organ players in the 60s, and the early 70s, was being heard,
:08:05. > :08:10.because you had Leslie cabinets, and they were great if you're in a room
:08:10. > :08:16.on your own, but when you have a band, Richie Blackmore playing at
:08:16. > :08:26.full volume, you could not be heard. Initially, the sound was born out of
:08:26. > :08:32.
:08:32. > :08:38.would have some as well, so he went directly into an amplifier, then the
:08:38. > :08:42.Leslie, so he got this distorted sound, but it was the starting and
:08:42. > :08:51.it wasn't distorting. It did not sound uncomfortable. It was such a
:08:51. > :08:54.great sound. He had it and nobody else ever replicated it. I moved the
:08:54. > :08:58.organ around the studio and made it scream and shout and foul. I was
:08:58. > :09:03.turning on and off and kicking it. I hope I was playing well. I had
:09:03. > :09:11.enormous fun pushing the bounds of the Hammond organ. We did discover
:09:11. > :09:15.this wonderful combination of that Hammond that I've just described and
:09:15. > :09:19.Richie Blackmore's sound, which I think is the heart of Deep Purple's
:09:19. > :09:22.achievements in the early 1970s. Jon's love of classical music led
:09:22. > :09:26.the second and ground-breaking Deep Purple line up into the Concerto for
:09:26. > :09:29.Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall - a fusion of loud rock
:09:29. > :09:38.and classical which was new to most ears. It really raised the band's
:09:38. > :09:41.profile. For the thousands of people who packed the Royal Albert Hall, it
:09:41. > :09:46.was a unique occasion, which brought together two worlds of music.
:09:46. > :09:53.Symphony and pop. One of Britain's's most this thing was
:09:53. > :09:56.composers, Malcolm Arnold, conducted the combined musical voices of the
:09:56. > :10:06.Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Deep Purple. It was written by Jon
:10:06. > :10:14.
:10:14. > :10:23.Lord, who founded the Deep Purple playing, you start and what you have
:10:23. > :10:30.done leads on something else. orchestra were at first unconvinced
:10:30. > :10:36.by the long-haired pop stars. has his score, there is the
:10:36. > :10:45.conductor, Richie has his bits, I came in with a piece of paper like
:10:45. > :10:51.this. Born out of a scrapbook. -- ripped out of. With grandeur, I get
:10:51. > :11:00.my music standard I place it there. I can see the first violinist
:11:00. > :11:03.looking, going, he cannot read music, this will not work. Jon Lord
:11:03. > :11:07.believes musicianship is getting so good that this kind of thing can
:11:07. > :11:10.happen more often. There was a belief we would not be able to play,
:11:10. > :11:20.and it would be a catastrophe and what the hell were we doing fronting
:11:20. > :11:27.real musicians? Serious musicians against little pop people. What does
:11:27. > :11:34.it feel like playing with us wears? Wrong word. It is great. The first
:11:34. > :11:41.rehearsal the other day, I sat down here looking over there, and all
:11:41. > :11:48.around. Very exciting. It has been for me as well. The concert itself
:11:48. > :11:54.was as exciting as the rehearsals. The first movement, hang around for
:11:54. > :12:01.seven minutes. Listen for three big bangs, coming with first rock 'n'
:12:01. > :12:11.roll temple, watch Malcolm, stop. -- rock 'n' roll drumming. Jon said,
:12:11. > :12:21.
:12:21. > :12:26.performance you said it would rerelease helpful if you finished
:12:26. > :12:32.off the lyrics? He wasn't quite sure what his approach should be to it.
:12:32. > :12:42.We thought we would make a little story about doing this thing. It
:12:42. > :13:10.
:13:10. > :13:16.sort of arrived 35 minutes before, singing my song?
:13:16. > :13:25.# What shall I do if they all go wrong?
:13:25. > :13:31.# What shall I do? Unfortunately, it became such big
:13:31. > :13:34.news that people thought that was the new direction for the band.
:13:34. > :13:44.idea that it was a one-off experiment and a labour of love got
:13:44. > :14:00.
:14:01. > :14:10.and they would say, have you got the of the unit, almost in an orchestral
:14:10. > :14:14.manner. When he was called upon to solo and stand out, he did. But when
:14:14. > :14:20.he was called upon to play a supporting role, he was brilliant as
:14:20. > :14:24.well. I often say that the key to a good supporting role sometimes is,
:14:24. > :14:32.you may not be listening to it, but if you took it away, you would
:14:32. > :14:36.notice it was not there. What followed for success as a rock band,
:14:36. > :14:42.Smoke On The Water became their signature track. But it was a bit of
:14:42. > :14:48.an album filler, and only peaked at 21 on the singles chart. Warner
:14:48. > :14:54.Brothers edited it, and that is what did it, nothing to do with us.
:14:54. > :15:04.was just an album track. It is a great riff. I know now why it is
:15:04. > :15:09.popular. We did not think it is that good. It is belted out in his home
:15:09. > :15:17.city at every Leicester Tigers home game. It is a Leicester anthem. As
:15:17. > :15:22.soon as the music comes on, the guys switch on, ready for the game.
:15:22. > :15:27.born in Nottingham, I am a Nottingham Forest supporter. Jon was
:15:27. > :15:33.a leisurely Leicester supporter. He did not really care if they lost,
:15:33. > :15:39.but he was happy if they won. really proud of his Leicester roots,
:15:39. > :15:43.and he was always happy to speak to the local paper. That is unusual.
:15:43. > :15:53.You try and do that sometimes with rock stars today, the PR shutters
:15:53. > :16:00.come down. It was Black Night that gave them their biggest UK single
:16:00. > :16:07.success, but they were so much more than a singles band. My mother was
:16:07. > :16:12.friends with his mother. They'd used to communicate together. They'd used
:16:12. > :16:18.to pass on how he was getting along, how he had gone into a
:16:18. > :16:24.group, and that is how I knew how he had got on. Purple were seen as the
:16:24. > :16:27.pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal. They have sold in excess of
:16:27. > :16:33.100 million albums, and where once renowned as the loudest live band in
:16:33. > :16:43.the world. They still are one of the hardest touring. I have never heard
:16:43. > :16:43.
:16:44. > :16:48.them, it is not really my scene. Between 1976 and 1984, they had
:16:48. > :16:58.split. He had worked on solo projects and was part of Whitesnake
:16:58. > :16:59.
:16:59. > :17:02.for Deep Purple reformed. In 1999, an anniversary performance of the
:17:02. > :17:09.concerto at the Albert Hall sparked his desire for something other than
:17:09. > :17:17.rock. He decided he would do it full-time. They changed my life. In
:17:17. > :17:23.1969, it gave me the knowledge that I could write for orchestra.
:17:23. > :17:27.1999, it gave me the realisation that there was something else I
:17:27. > :17:36.wanted to do with my life, rather than just the a member of the
:17:36. > :17:42.purple. He fell out of love with being on the road. He could not make
:17:42. > :17:46.the hotel time and the travel time work for him to create this other
:17:47. > :17:52.music that he wanted, which was not Deep Purple. He made a decision with
:17:52. > :17:57.his heart, not with his head. His head should have stayed with Deep
:17:57. > :18:04.Purple. But his heart said he needed to have the time to write this
:18:04. > :18:10.different music. The sound of children's voices, especially in a
:18:10. > :18:16.place like this, is chilling, thrilling. I am as happy as a
:18:17. > :18:22.composer can get. It was interesting to see how he changed from being the
:18:22. > :18:32.rock 'n' roll I come up on the road for half the year, to being a
:18:32. > :19:01.
:19:01. > :19:11.in 2000 troop proved to be an emotional sendoff. The lights went
:19:11. > :19:22.
:19:22. > :19:30.down on his successor Don Airey, and throat. It was a marvellous moment.
:19:30. > :19:36.It was of my choosing, I was leaving the band of my own volition. And yet
:19:36. > :19:40.I did not want to at that moment. Each time, when it got to another
:19:40. > :19:46.number, I thought, I am not going to play that again. At the end of the
:19:46. > :19:56.evening, we said thank you, and I realised that the rest of them had
:19:56. > :19:57.
:19:57. > :20:07.stepped back and left me on my own. Bless them. I almost did not make it
:20:07. > :20:16.
:20:16. > :20:26.offstage without making an author Gather up your family. I will see
:20:26. > :20:26.
:20:26. > :21:09.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 42 seconds
:21:09. > :21:14.it to you? Wonderful. He took part in a play in 1994 -- 1957. I never
:21:14. > :21:23.saw him dress up in women's clothing! You are going to tell me
:21:23. > :21:31.he did! 1957, Christmas, very festive and topical. He would have
:21:31. > :21:39.been 16 or 17. See if you can find him. He was the Duchess of York!
:21:39. > :21:49.Heap and dress up in women's clothing! Let's get a close-up. I
:21:49. > :21:50.
:21:50. > :21:56.would have said that that was him. We are only talking in 11 years
:21:56. > :22:02.later, he forms one of the biggest rock bands in the world. I am sure
:22:02. > :22:06.it was not something they discussed over a pint, did you know I played
:22:06. > :22:11.the Duchess of York? It is fantastic. I cannot wait to tell the
:22:11. > :22:20.rest of the band. I wanted to know if you knew of his connection with
:22:20. > :22:24.the Duchess of York. No! I am going to show to a picture. We did find he
:22:24. > :22:34.had taken part in one particular play, and I would like to show you
:22:34. > :22:40.
:22:40. > :22:43.him here. The Duchess of York. Fantastic! In his earlier life, if
:22:43. > :22:49.he was not going to be a musician, he wanted to be an actor. Or an
:22:49. > :22:57.actress! He went to drama school in Leicester. He had to make ends meet
:22:57. > :23:05.by playing blues piano. That was when nature was taking him. Can I
:23:05. > :23:13.look at it again? That is glorious! In 2011, we played together for the
:23:13. > :23:23.first time. We wrote a piece together, and it was so easy to
:23:23. > :23:33.
:23:33. > :23:37.doctor. The stage at the De Montfort Hall beckon once more. I present Jon
:23:37. > :23:44.Lord, that you may confer upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of
:23:44. > :23:52.music. He played here with deep purple and Whitesnake, this time, a
:23:52. > :24:02.different performance was required. My grandfather lived in an apartment
:24:02. > :24:06.just up the road. This town was and still is deep inside my bones. It is
:24:06. > :24:16.a huge privilege and honour to come back here and accept this honorary
:24:16. > :24:17.
:24:17. > :24:25.degree. I am almost beyond words. was his last public appearance. He
:24:25. > :24:28.discovered he was ill with cancer. Work continued in the studio,
:24:28. > :24:33.putting the finishing touches to a reworking of the Concerto for Group
:24:33. > :24:40.and Orchestra. A week before he died, he gave his last interview, to
:24:40. > :24:44.Lee Marlow, who was also writing for Classic Rock Magazine. We spoke over
:24:44. > :24:52.the phone for an hour and a half, nearly two hours, he was in good
:24:52. > :24:57.form, fine fettle. I had interviewed him five, six, seven times for the
:24:57. > :25:02.Leicester Mercury. At the root of everything, he was a proud,
:25:02. > :25:09.working-class lad from Leicester. He had led a fantastic life, that few
:25:09. > :25:13.of us can dream about, but he came back, and one of the last things he
:25:13. > :25:18.said was he was just a lad from Leicester whose lad had sent him for
:25:18. > :25:23.piano lessons, and he was forever grateful. What a humble, lovely
:25:23. > :25:30.thing to say, typical of the man. Fiercely intelligent, charming,
:25:30. > :25:37.thoroughly decent. He wore it all lightly. He was a dream to
:25:38. > :25:47.interview. He was more than that, he was a decent bloke. If he wanted
:25:47. > :25:57.something, he would go for it. would say, this is what I want to
:25:57. > :25:57.
:25:57. > :26:04.do. He was incredibly stubborn. But with that, a great sense of charm,
:26:04. > :26:13.and gentleness. There was not a nasty bone in his body. You cannot
:26:13. > :26:23.say that about many people. That would be nice. The legacy he has
:26:23. > :26:26.
:26:26. > :26:31.left, what he was not able to leave if the sadness, for me. I suppose it
:26:31. > :26:38.came to me at his funeral, I had the privilege of speaking. I knew he
:26:38. > :26:43.still had so much music. My God, he had so much, that he was in the
:26:43. > :26:50.middle of, that he wanted to do, including us working together. I
:26:50. > :26:56.could not help but sit there and go, what have we missed? But then, you
:26:56. > :27:03.can temper that with, look what he has left. 40 years of it. It is
:27:03. > :27:11.unbelievable. Covering everything from hard-rock to pure classical
:27:11. > :27:21.music, in many genres. I can see people in 100 years checking him
:27:21. > :27:30.
:27:30. > :27:35.see the cello, a fitting classical memory of her. My only thing is, I
:27:35. > :27:39.would like to see next to read Ahab and organ, with the name Jon Lord
:27:39. > :27:47.written on it. It would be a fitting tribute. He loved his classical
:27:47. > :27:51.music. Just here, a nice organ, a beautiful sculpture, with Jon Lord
:27:51. > :28:01.behind, a plaque underneath. That would balance out extremely well.
:28:01. > :28:09.
:28:09. > :28:19.What a fitting tribute that would what would you like to do? The a
:28:19. > :28:21.