They set out as five talented young brits who got together at the peek of the psychedelic pop-rock movement. They focused on making a harder and heavier sound which put them in the company of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as the forefathers of hard rock and heavy metal.

Along the way the band wrote one of the most iconic rock riffs and songs in the history of rock and roll, this was of course “Smoke on the Water”, which was originally released on their 1972 album Machine Head. But with this success, came excess when some band members allowed drugs to threaten Deep Purples very existence.

Famous for their blood on the lineup changes, they were a band plagued by internal animosity and destructive rivalries but they always came back for more and by the time they headlined at the Cal Jam Festival in 1974 they had sold over 100 million albums.