Jon Lord: It's All Music

knowledge and the structure of rock and blues. The two together gave you

Jon Lord. The only person ever to have an album in the rock charts and

the classical charts at the same time. Could not read music, could

not play, and we thought we were the bees knees, playing the piano. But

John had got this knack, he could that he was just a lad from

Leicester whose father sent him to piano lessons. This is the story of

Jon Lord. Founding member of Deep Purple. The man who put the rock

into the Hammond Organ and made it growl. The musician who mixed

classical with rock and became a classical composer in his own right.

The love of what Buddy Holly represented and what the Halle

Orchestra represented as defined -- amazing to think this was one of the

great rock 'n' roll venues of all time, and I believe, still is. It

was important for every rock 'n' roll musician to play this venue. It

was especially important to Jon Lord, and I know this because we

spoke shortly before he became ill, obviously he saw this as a place

where he saw his first shows, and where he played on numerous

occasions. He used to come over and we would play the piano together.

Although we could not play at all, we thought we were the bees knees.

The rest was history. I think I was always good at playing the piano. My

father was musical, and he saw something in me. My first piano

teacher did as well. This little lad has it. Leicestershire's public

record office gives us a clue as to why Jon became a musician. If you

look at these marks, for his all levels, they are not great. When you

get to music, he has got 75. Maths, 40, history, 39, music, really

stands out. He is in the orchestra, the choir, playing the organ,

playing the drums, there. The head of his old school wasn't very

helpful when Jon decided to leave Leicester. He wanted to go to

college in London to train to be an actor. But the reference he got was

a stinker. JD Lord was a boy whose academic progress and results were

most disappointing. They were a bit snotty. They suggest that he might

go somewhere that selects people on less academic grounds. That is what

is so wrong. I know a lot of people who became musicians, went to

colleges, further education, it was not because they were not

academically clever, it was because their life went into music. Jon came

third in piano. Third. One and two must have been good. This is the

school where he went. It has a different name. Lots of new

buildings. This is the only bit that remains that he would have

recognised, which is behind the facade. It does prove that you don't

need to be academically brilliant to have a brilliant career. I think Jon

was better than his results showed, he just spent all his time doing

music. And the De Montfort Hall was the place to see it. Jon saw his

father play saxophone here. He also came to see the Halle Orchestra and

on this stage that helped launch Jon's career. In London at the start

of the '60s, Jon earned his crust on the keyboards playing in pubs and as

a session player. By 1963 he was in The Artwoods led by Ronnie Wood's

brother, Art. Underrated and now very collectable, they split.

first met Jon when I was in my semiprofessional first band, we

opened for them in some gig when he was in the art would. I was 15 years

old or something, they had just had their hit. It was always very

gentle, he was very smooth, very kind. When we have had our

rehearsal, they came out and said we had got the job. Deep Purple formed

in '68. The first line up was finidng its way musically,

influenced by the American band Vanilla Fudge. It was in the States

they had their first big hit. Jon's comprehension of what music

should do and how it should work against the basic feel and drive,

the counterbalance worked really album with the original line-up,

with Richie Blackmore and Jon, and if you listen to what Jon did with

just the Leslie speaker and the organ at the beginning of their

cover of a Beatles song, nobody had didn't want to sound like everybody

else. Jon's orchestral and classical thing started coming to the fore,

but it was a period of searching for what we really have to be through

nature rather than what we thought Jon had the most amazing original

Hammond organ, and it was not until five years ago that I asked him how

he does it, and he said one of his big problems, which was a problem of

all organ players in the 60s, and the early 70s, was being heard,

because you had Leslie cabinets, and they were great if you're in a room

on your own, but when you have a band, Richie Blackmore playing at

full volume, you could not be heard. Initially, the sound was born out of

would have some as well, so he went directly into an amplifier, then the

Leslie, so he got this distorted sound, but it was the starting and

it wasn't distorting. It did not sound uncomfortable. It was such a

great sound. He had it and nobody else ever replicated it. I moved the

organ around the studio and made it scream and shout and foul. I was

turning on and off and kicking it. I hope I was playing well. I had

enormous fun pushing the bounds of the Hammond organ. We did discover

this wonderful combination of that Hammond that I've just described and

Richie Blackmore's sound, which I think is the heart of Deep Purple's

achievements in the early 1970s. Jon's love of classical music led

the second and ground-breaking Deep Purple line up into the Concerto for

Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall - a fusion of loud rock

and classical which was new to most ears. It really raised the band's

profile. For the thousands of people who packed the Royal Albert Hall, it

was a unique occasion, which brought together two worlds of music.

Symphony and pop. One of Britain's's most this thing was

composers, Malcolm Arnold, conducted the combined musical voices of the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Deep Purple. It was written by Jon

Lord, who founded the Deep Purple playing, you start and what you have

done leads on something else. orchestra were at first unconvinced

by the long-haired pop stars. has his score, there is the

conductor, Richie has his bits, I came in with a piece of paper like

this. Born out of a scrapbook. -- ripped out of. With grandeur, I get

my music standard I place it there. I can see the first violinist

looking, going, he cannot read music, this will not work. Jon Lord

believes musicianship is getting so good that this kind of thing can

happen more often. There was a belief we would not be able to play,

and it would be a catastrophe and what the hell were we doing fronting

real musicians? Serious musicians against little pop people. What does

it feel like playing with us wears? Wrong word. It is great. The first

rehearsal the other day, I sat down here looking over there, and all

around. Very exciting. It has been for me as well. The concert itself

was as exciting as the rehearsals. The first movement, hang around for

seven minutes. Listen for three big bangs, coming with first rock 'n'

roll temple, watch Malcolm, stop. -- rock 'n' roll drumming. Jon said,

performance you said it would rerelease helpful if you finished

off the lyrics? He wasn't quite sure what his approach should be to it.

We thought we would make a little story about doing this thing. It

sort of arrived 35 minutes before, singing my song?

# What shall I do if they all go wrong?

# What shall I do? Unfortunately, it became such big

news that people thought that was the new direction for the band.

idea that it was a one-off experiment and a labour of love got

and they would say, have you got the of the unit, almost in an orchestral

manner. When he was called upon to solo and stand out, he did. But when

he was called upon to play a supporting role, he was brilliant as

well. I often say that the key to a good supporting role sometimes is,

you may not be listening to it, but if you took it away, you would

notice it was not there. What followed for success as a rock band,

Smoke On The Water became their signature track. But it was a bit of

an album filler, and only peaked at 21 on the singles chart. Warner

Brothers edited it, and that is what did it, nothing to do with us.

was just an album track. It is a great riff. I know now why it is

popular. We did not think it is that good. It is belted out in his home

city at every Leicester Tigers home game. It is a Leicester anthem. As

soon as the music comes on, the guys switch on, ready for the game.

born in Nottingham, I am a Nottingham Forest supporter. Jon was

a leisurely Leicester supporter. He did not really care if they lost,

but he was happy if they won. really proud of his Leicester roots,

and he was always happy to speak to the local paper. That is unusual.

You try and do that sometimes with rock stars today, the PR shutters

come down. It was Black Night that gave them their biggest UK single

success, but they were so much more than a singles band. My mother was

friends with his mother. They'd used to communicate together. They'd used

to pass on how he was getting along, how he had gone into a

group, and that is how I knew how he had got on. Purple were seen as the

pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal. They have sold in excess of

100 million albums, and where once renowned as the loudest live band in

the world. They still are one of the hardest touring. I have never heard

them, it is not really my scene. Between 1976 and 1984, they had

split. He had worked on solo projects and was part of Whitesnake

for Deep Purple reformed. In 1999, an anniversary performance of the

concerto at the Albert Hall sparked his desire for something other than

rock. He decided he would do it full-time. They changed my life. In

1969, it gave me the knowledge that I could write for orchestra.

1999, it gave me the realisation that there was something else I

wanted to do with my life, rather than just the a member of the

purple. He fell out of love with being on the road. He could not make

the hotel time and the travel time work for him to create this other

music that he wanted, which was not Deep Purple. He made a decision with

his heart, not with his head. His head should have stayed with Deep

Purple. But his heart said he needed to have the time to write this

different music. The sound of children's voices, especially in a

place like this, is chilling, thrilling. I am as happy as a

composer can get. It was interesting to see how he changed from being the

rock 'n' roll I come up on the road for half the year, to being a

in 2000 troop proved to be an emotional sendoff. The lights went

down on his successor Don Airey, and throat. It was a marvellous moment.

It was of my choosing, I was leaving the band of my own volition. And yet

I did not want to at that moment. Each time, when it got to another

number, I thought, I am not going to play that again. At the end of the

evening, we said thank you, and I realised that the rest of them had

stepped back and left me on my own. Bless them. I almost did not make it

offstage without making an author Gather up your family. I will see

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 42 seconds

it to you? Wonderful. He took part in a play in 1994 -- 1957. I never

saw him dress up in women's clothing! You are going to tell me

he did! 1957, Christmas, very festive and topical. He would have

been 16 or 17. See if you can find him. He was the Duchess of York!

Heap and dress up in women's clothing! Let's get a close-up. I

would have said that that was him. We are only talking in 11 years

later, he forms one of the biggest rock bands in the world. I am sure

it was not something they discussed over a pint, did you know I played

the Duchess of York? It is fantastic. I cannot wait to tell the

rest of the band. I wanted to know if you knew of his connection with

the Duchess of York. No! I am going to show to a picture. We did find he

had taken part in one particular play, and I would like to show you

him here. The Duchess of York. Fantastic! In his earlier life, if

he was not going to be a musician, he wanted to be an actor. Or an

actress! He went to drama school in Leicester. He had to make ends meet

by playing blues piano. That was when nature was taking him. Can I

look at it again? That is glorious! In 2011, we played together for the

first time. We wrote a piece together, and it was so easy to

doctor. The stage at the De Montfort Hall beckon once more. I present Jon

Lord, that you may confer upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of

music. He played here with deep purple and Whitesnake, this time, a

different performance was required. My grandfather lived in an apartment

just up the road. This town was and still is deep inside my bones. It is

a huge privilege and honour to come back here and accept this honorary

degree. I am almost beyond words. was his last public appearance. He

discovered he was ill with cancer. Work continued in the studio,

putting the finishing touches to a reworking of the Concerto for Group

and Orchestra. A week before he died, he gave his last interview, to

Lee Marlow, who was also writing for Classic Rock Magazine. We spoke over

the phone for an hour and a half, nearly two hours, he was in good

form, fine fettle. I had interviewed him five, six, seven times for the

Leicester Mercury. At the root of everything, he was a proud,

working-class lad from Leicester. He had led a fantastic life, that few

of us can dream about, but he came back, and one of the last things he

said was he was just a lad from Leicester whose lad had sent him for

piano lessons, and he was forever grateful. What a humble, lovely

thing to say, typical of the man. Fiercely intelligent, charming,

thoroughly decent. He wore it all lightly. He was a dream to

interview. He was more than that, he was a decent bloke. If he wanted

something, he would go for it. would say, this is what I want to

do. He was incredibly stubborn. But with that, a great sense of charm,

and gentleness. There was not a nasty bone in his body. You cannot

say that about many people. That would be nice. The legacy he has

left, what he was not able to leave if the sadness, for me. I suppose it

came to me at his funeral, I had the privilege of speaking. I knew he

still had so much music. My God, he had so much, that he was in the

middle of, that he wanted to do, including us working together. I

could not help but sit there and go, what have we missed? But then, you

can temper that with, look what he has left. 40 years of it. It is

unbelievable. Covering everything from hard-rock to pure classical

music, in many genres. I can see people in 100 years checking him

see the cello, a fitting classical memory of her. My only thing is, I

would like to see next to read Ahab and organ, with the name Jon Lord

written on it. It would be a fitting tribute. He loved his classical

music. Just here, a nice organ, a beautiful sculpture, with Jon Lord

behind, a plaque underneath. That would balance out extremely well.

What a fitting tribute that would what would you like to do? The a