Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore is buried in lute music and Jon Lord no longer pounds the keys, but Deep Purple aren't just surviving - they claim they've got a whole new lease on life. Paul Bradshaw gets low-down from original bassist Roger Glover and controversial guitarist Steve Morse...

When Ritchie Blackmore hung up his Strat to go and produce renaissance music, there were more than a few who doubted that Deep Purple would survive his departure. Survive and thrive they did, but when Jon Lord amicably split away from the band following their second post-Blackmore album, Abandon, you'd have been forgiven for thinking that that, surely, might be that. Yet here and now in 2003 that band aren't only still around, they're feeling pretty pleased with themselves, enjoying life more than ever and busily launching their third album with guitarist Steve Morse, the peculiarly-named Bananas.

First, we catch up with Roger Glover. Glover, it transpires, is a hugely engaging raconteur and would be happy to talk 'Purple for days on end - yet in the course of our discussion, he reveals a deep insecurity about his musicianship. It's very rare that you have to reassure an artist that they are good at playing their instrument... very good, in fact, in the case of Deep Purple's four-string maestro.

'I don't think I've ever been that confident in my ability,' Roger Glover insists. 'I never really rated my playing at all. When I first joined the band I was always in awe of Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore, so I had a steep learning curve for the first few years.'

Whoa. Any player who has tried to learn Glover's basslines knows that there's an abundance of high level musical ability evident in his approach - in tracks like Lazy, for example. 'Ahem,' coughs Glover modestly. 'Well... I think Deep Purple has always been an instrumentally vicious band.'

Yes, but Glover must surely realize that he and Ian Paice rank up there with John Bonham and John Paul Jones as one of the best rhythm sections in rock history? Again, the bass player prefers to deflect the praise. 'Paicey is an incredible player,' he says, simply. 'Nobody plays the drums like him. He can play rock and make it swing, regardless of the riff. If we're playing a solid rock pattern, he's still swinging it underneath. That's why a lot of hard rock drummers just don't get it... just thudding along with the riff. But Paicey? He doesn't change his style for anything or anybody.'

Glover and Gillan both joined Purple in 1969, having worked together in Episode Six for four years. This meant the pair had developed a certain pattern of working - but that was to change, and Glover had to think fast to keep pace with the veritable sonic maelstrom kicked up by the new outfit.

'Ian Gillan and I found it something of a culture shock,' Glover recalls. 'We had to adapt pretty quickly to what was happening around us. Before, we'd always played in bands where you learned your part by rote, or else it was written down for you to learn.

'But Jon and Ritchie always jammed, and with their level of ability, you had to be able to go with them or be left behind. The first time they started jamming I thought they were playing something I didn't know, then I realized that they didn't know it... they were just making it up as they went along.

'The key was to start watching the others really carefully. One of the best things I learned was to keep an eye on Jon Lord's left hand so I could figure out what key we were playing in! Eventually I felt confident enough to be able to influence the direction, but it was tough in the early days.'

Deep Purple's constant stretching of the musical boundaries was in no small part due to the intense musical rivalry that existed between Blackmore and Lord. 'There was always that kind of battle between keyboard and guitar. It was friendly enough, but nonetheless, they always wanted to try and blow each other off the stage,' agrees Glover. 'Wring That Neck had always been a vehicle for that kind of fast soloing, and it got pretty intense at times. You see, I was always pretty intimidated by their levels of proficiency; Lord, Blackmore and Paice were all absolute masters of their instruments, while I was just a songwriter who happened to play bass.

'When I joined the band I really had to up my talent to stay with them. Then there was the number of musical influences involved: jazz, blues, classical, pop, folk... even big band music, they all played a part. So you could say that we are a pretty deep group - if you'll excuse the pun. Which is why we are not a heavy metal band!'

Though he's been part of a band - well, on and off, with a departure during the David Coverdale/Glenn Hughes era - that's been at the top of the tree for over 30 years, Glover is totally attitude-free and displays as much 'star' arrogance as Postman Pat. He's also capable of stopping you dead in your tracks with the occasional myth-annihilating explanation. When asked about the way in which he manages to combine solid rhythm with melodic counterpoint, he announces: 'Well, to me, it's just skiffle.'

Skiffle?

'Yeah, skiffle, which then became rock 'n' roll. That's where I started, and it was quite common in skiffle for the bass to leap an octave and then walk the bassline down in whatever key you were playing in. I suppose that's in my blood, really. But it's a very musical approach, and it suits the band and the way we work.'

Glover believes that this intrinsic musicality is a cornerstone of the Deep Purple sound, and that this spirit - as he describes it - still exists today in the new line-up. 'It's still there and I must say it feels wonderful. Of course, individuals can be missed, individuals who have played their part in Deep Purple's history - more than a part, in Ritchie and Jon's case, because they started the band in the first place.

'For some it will never be the same without them, and I wouldn't argue with that. You can replace the instrument, but you can't replace the people. It's certainly pretty difficult to replace the voice... we tried replacing the vocalist, and that didn't work.'

Glover is unrepentant concerning Deep Purple's Coverdale/Hughes era. 'What you have to bear in mind is that period came off the back of enormous popularity,' he points out. 'In 1973 we were the biggest band in the world. We were selling more records than Zeppelin, Presley, The Beatles... anyone. And then of course that was the year we broke up! So Coverdale and Hughes coming in, how could they not do something good...?

'I do think the whole thing went downhill markedly from there. Burn was good enough to sustain it for a while. Stormbringer was a slip from there and Come Taste The Band was a huge slip. Three years later, everything stopped.'

This of course was the point at which both Glover and Gillan departed from the Purple line-up. There were always dark rumors of feuds and bust-ups between band members. How much of that was actually true?

'People always focus on the negative and the bad things and so it can seem that's all that there was,' considers Glover. 'There were times when there was a lot of angst in the band, but mostly it was fun. Sure, during the late '80s there was a lot of unpleasantness, but there was still some good times. Even when I got kicked out of the band, it wasn't all bad!'

Roger Glover was removed from Purple by association more than any fault of his own making. 'Ian Gillan decided that he was going to leave because he felt we weren't progressing. Plus Ritchie at the time was perhaps guilty of, er, some selfish behaviour, which Ian decided to emulate, and the two of them fell out. Thus, because I came into the band at the same time as Ian, Ritchie saw it as a good opportunity to clear the decks, and out I went.'

Fortunately, Roger Glover now feels that the atmosphere in the band is 'fantastic'. He's delighted with Bananas, and rightly so: it combines classic trademark Purple riffs such as the Highway Star-redolent title track alongside opulent, creamy blues like the seven-minute Walk On. The album is rich in variety and surprises, and Glover believes that this freshness is attributable to one man, guitarist Steve Morse.

'When Steve came into the band there was a sea-change in the whole feeling,' he insists. 'Up until that point I think we were all doing a job rather than really having fun.

'Steve is single-handedly responsible for bringing us all out of ourselves as musicians. He's been great for me, encouraging me and challenging me to play things that I didn't think I was capable of playing. For the first time in years I feel like a bass player again.'

Steve Morse is a shyer interviewee than Roger Glover. Every question is considered and thought through first, almost as if there's an internal conflict needing to be resolved before the answer can be given. Yet as the discussion warms up and common ground is established, he revealed himself to be a friendly man with an encyclopedic musical knowledge and a sardonic edge to his sense of humor.

Maybe some of Morse's initial reserve is attributable to years of constant fielding of questions about what it's been like coming in to Purple and 'filling the Blackmore shoes'. That question just doesn't need to be asked anymore - but at times Morse is still bemused by the fact he is actually in Deep Purple.

'It's been nine years already,' he says reflectively, 'but it feels more like 18' - this is delivered with the suggestion of a wink. 'Seriously, though, we've been through a lot of things together and we've all become friends. I still feel at times, particularly live, that I should pinch myself to check that it's all really happening...'

When Morse is told of the high regard Glover holds for him, the guitarist is no less enthusiastic in return. 'A lot of people don't realize how significant Roger Glover is in Deep Purple,' he emphasizes. 'To me he's the man who holds the whole thing together. I see him as the all-round artist. He loves the music and the band. He finds ideas, keeps track of them and builds on them. He's a great songwriter, too.'

For some Ritchie Blackmore fans there's always going to be an element of either skepticism or resentment that Steve Morse has come into the band. Yet Morse is actually the die-hard Purple follower's biggest ally, as he was a fan long before joining - so much so that he regularly campaigns within the band for original versions to be played, and pushes for songs he loves to be included in the set. His stealth diplomacy has worked.

'One of my biggest successes was with Woman From Tokyo. You know that really cool, spacey instrumental bit in the middle? I've always loved that kind of mixolydian feel, but they never played it live, so I spent ages trying to convince them to do it again,' he laughs. 'It was a campaign of insistence. I would say stuff like, "I notice we're playing Woman From Tokyo third, but we could probably play it first if we played that great middle part!". Every day I would mention it... and I think the band now agree that it's a good thing to play.'

This last comment seems to reflect Morse's entire approach to guitar playing, which seems to be based on whatever is a 'good thing to play'. In the old days a knowledgeable ear could sometimes detect certain predictable directions in Blackmore's solo structures, but Morse will switch genres, styles, modes and influences at will - and he does it all with flair of a man who is the master of the whole guitar idiom.

'I guess if I do have a trademark, it's that I do swap styles,' he allows. 'Some critics think that's a bad thing - and to some it's a violently bad thing! To me, though, I always loved the variety of styles and textures used by bands like The Beatles. Led Zeppelin used to do it too, with say, Gallows Pole after Whole Lotta Love.'

To a guitar player's ear, listening to the range of styles on Bananas is a bit like munching through a box of assorted chocolates and spotting your favourite flavours. There are Blackmore-isms, touches of Steve Vai and maybe even hints of Alex Lifeson at the beginning of Hold On, where delicate harmonics decorate the build to the song. Morse appreciates this last comparison, but disagrees with the reference point.

'My inspiration for the harmonics thing is actually from a jazz guitarist called Lenny Breau. He was the king of harmonic playing, particularly when you play a mix of straight notes and harmonics. If you get it right, it sounds like you're playing a barrage of harmonics. For example, if you play a harmonic on the first string, a natural note on the third string, a harmonic on the fourth string and a natural on the second. In that kind of sequence, it can end up sounding almost harp-like. What I've done since then is add double stops with harmonics and try to make it a bit more bizarre.

'I got into Breau when I was in the jazz department of the University of Miami, even though I was studying classical guitar as my main subject. But, on the whole I guess it's fair to say that I come at the way I play from a lot of different angles.'

Morse believes that the time he has spent over the years as a session guitarist has helped him become something of a musical chameleon - he even depped on a session on a Liza Minelli track called When It Comes Down To It.

'Session playing means that you adapt to what the producer or the artist is looking for. It adds a lot of fun. But you start getting a grounding in different styles right from the first covers band you play in. I would always try and sound like the original guitarist rather than myself, so I learned a lot of techniques very quickly. The beauty of it is that now I'm quite happy to work on classical sessions one week and bluegrass the next, then writing things for commercials after that.'

Morse may have his detractors but, oddly enough, their number does not include Ritchie Blackmore himself. 'Ritchie has been incredibly generous about me,' Morse says sincerely. 'He wrote a bunch of great stuff and he was a great soloist, but he has never said anything unpleasant about me.

'I know there are stories about Ritchie, but as far as I'm concerned he's been a gentleman. Think about it; he was in at the beginning, and most of the material we still play is attributable to him. He could have done what some would do and start issuing legal writs forbidding the use of the material or the name, or even try to stop the band going on. But he hasn't, he's stayed in the background, doing his own thing - which incidentally I think is very good. I think he deserves respect for that.'

Perhaps unsurprisingly there has been one element of negativity, and it comes from Sweden - from a man who has worshipped at the altar of Blackmore for an entire career, and who must have been more than gutted that he wasn't offered the gig...

'Yngwie Malmsteen? I guess you can judge his reaction by all the nice things he's said about me... sorry, that should have been none of the nice things he's said!' grins Morse. 'He's the only guy in the business I've been acquainted with who's ever had it in for me.'

When it comes to playing Blackmore solos, though, how much Morse is sprinkled in there?

'Er... quite a bit,' he considers. 'Some, like the Highway Star solo, are so embedded in my mind that I can't really do anything but play what he played. Other times, like on Child In Time, there are the fast triplets at the end that I have to stick to in order to cue the band back in.

'Actually, a pretty funny thing happened on my first-ever live Deep Purple gig. We were doing Speed King. I was soloing away and started working in the end of the solo to bring the band back in, and all of a sudden Ian Gillan comes over to me and says "That was really good, Steve, now whaddya say we go over and jam with Jon [Lord] for a while?" I was completely confused - until I realized that I'd totally skipped the keyboard solo! Man, was I embarrassed! All this in front of fifteen thousand people and over a live mic... fortunately, the rest of the guys thought it was really funny. It was a real Homer Simpson "Doh!" moment!'

On the whole though, Steve Morse says he has never been happier. He still has all his side projects and has recently finished sessions with Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake and Jimmy Barnes. When he looks at where he is now, playing with Deep Purple, his answer is succinct. 'It's surreal! I absolutely love it. Those guys are so good to play with it makes it all so... well, so easy. I don't think I've ever been happier.'

Steve Morse Gearfile

'The guitar I use and have done for a log time is the Music Man Steve Morse signature model - it was developed for me by the guys at Music Man without so much as a contract,' details Steve Morse. 'Fender originally approached me to produce a signature series, but it just didn't work out.

'The big sticking point was the pickups. I gave them a list of the specifications that I wanted, but they stopped short on that point. I'd already developed two special pickups with DiMarzio, which were everything I wanted - in fact I'd put them on one of my Fenders and they'd sounded great. They have a very specific sound to them with great midrange and high end, but you still get the good clean high end when you turn them down. They're both humbuckers, but designed to be used in series all the time. I've been using them for nearly 30 years and for a reason: I like them! So anyway, Fender came up with a couple of prototypes but they just didn't sound right to me, so I said, let's forget about it.

'Music Man, on the other hand, didn't mind about the pickups, and they produced a series of prototypes without ever complaining about the number of changes I made. They've made about 50 of them so far; I own number 1 and that's my main guitar for recording and gigging. I've also got another with a tremolo, similar to a Floyd Rose. The body is lightweight poplar, which a very clear, clean sound, and I use Ernie Ball strings in .010", .013", .016", .026", .032" and .042" gauges.

'For amplification I've been using the Peavey 5150 head. It really gives you loads of midrange and masses of gain. Lately, though, I've started using a Marshall 2000 head; I may switch to it full-time, because I like it so much. I play these through Marshall model 1960 slope-front 4x12"s - which I use live tipped over on their sides because it gives me better sound dispersion.'

Roger Glover Gearfile

'I've used my Vigier XS for along time now - in fact, it's the longest time I've ever used one instrument,' marvels Roger Glover. 'It has great tone, and it stays in tune fantastically. It's also very clean at the bottom end - unlike my old Precision, which always seemed a bit shadowy at the bottom end. That always used to bother me, and that's why I finally got rid of it. It's funny, because I still see my old Precision doing the rounds - it's painted a horrible, gory purple colour. Part of me would quite like it back, but of course it now sells for silly amounts of money. I'd like it, but not for that much!'

The point at which Glover switched basses can be traced back to Paris on the Perfect Strangers tour. 'Patrice from Vigier came down to see me,' Glover remembers. 'He stood on the bass so that the neck was bending and the strings were all over the place, then picked it up and said, "Look, it's still in tune." As you can imagine, I was pretty impressed. I've continued to be impressed with it, too, so not only was it a great sales pitch... it's continued to deliver.'

Glover is a bit vague as to the rest of his set-up and actually has to tap into the internet to find out what he uses. 'Apparently I use this,' he reads. '"Four SWR 750s with two SWR Stellar Overdrives driving four Megalith speakers with 8x10" speakers per cabinet". Oh, and Picato and Ernie Ball strings.'

This could change in the future, for despite being assured by producers that people would kill to get 'the Roger Glover sound', Glover has always been refining his set-up for the perfect sound. Does he think he's got it right at last? 'No, I don't,' he answers emphatically. So watch this space...

Classic Purple
Then And Now

Highway Star
Glover: 'This was written specifically as an opener. Famously, we wrote it on a tour bus on the way to Portsmouth. We had some journalists with us who were coming down to cover the gig, and one of them asked us how we write songs. Ritchie said "Like this!" and started chugging out this riff on the guitar. Ian started singing any crap lyrics he could think of, and before long we just forgot about the journalists and the song came out. As the bootlegs will prove, we played it at the gig that night. The name was just a tribute to the fact that the song was written on the highway.'

Hush
Morse: 'Hush was one of my "campaign tracks" to get the band to play. It was the song that was my introduction to Purple when I was a kid. So I persuaded them to play it again, and we've gone for much more of the original feel. It's pretty cool to get to do it with Purple, because when I started playing in my first covers band, we played this.'

Child In Time
Glover: 'This was written very early on in my time with the band - in fact it was started in one of my very first rehearsals, as was, Speed King. Jon Lord started playing some parts of a song the guys had heard in the States by a band called It's A Beautiful Day, the chords for which became the intro' - after a change in feel and gear - 'to Child In Time. Ian started singing over the top and the lyrics are, I think, among the best he's ever written. The song was then just jammed together into the finished article.'

Space Trucking
Morse: 'I would never have thought to suggest this one, because it sounds so tough to sing. It really hurts my throat - but then I guess not many people have got throats like Ian Gillan! It's a cinch for me on guitar because the riff just sits there, and I feel pretty cool playing it.'

Woman From Tokyo
Glover: 'This was written in a villa in the summer of '72 in Italy, just outside Rome. It was a very pleasant time, but there was too much drink, too much food and a swimming pool... so not much work got done! In three weeks we wrote just two songs, and one of those was Woman From Tokyo. There was a woman in mind, but it had to be vague because none of us had actually been there! Ritchie wrote the riff, and, unusually, Ian sang the hook-line over it, which I don't think was exactly what Ritchie had in mind...'

Black Night
Morse: 'Black Night was actually never as big in the States as it was in Europe. I really love playing it, though, because it has a really good solid rock feel to it with a heavy edge. Also, they leave a nice open section in it for me to solo over.'

Lazy
Glover: 'This is one of our "instrumentally vicious" songs. We were looking for some really bluesy soloing and Lazy was the result. We had an opening lick, and we built it from there. The title was inspired by a jazz singer called Oscar Brown Jr, who'd done this song called Sleepy - which was actually quite a harsh song and quite the opposite to what it described. Lazy is the same, it's far from a lazy song to play!'

Speed King
Morse: 'We do Speed King a lot. I love a song like this because of the energy it has. It's a great riff, and again it has a great open section to play over and improvise. It also has a real swing to it, which Ian Paice really develops. It has great dynamics in it and it's a lot of fun to do.'

Knocking At Your Back Door
Glover: 'Some people think this is a very rude song, but I suppose that it depends on the way you look at the lyrics. We had this great backing track but we hadn't got the foggiest idea of what we were going to sing over it. One day we were playing the song in the studio control room and I started singing "Knocking at you back door..." Ian said 'Hey, you know what that means, don't you?!' He wanted to write some funny-sounding lyrics, and just it took off from there. It's not just about anal sex, though... it's about fun and sex in general.'

Strange Kind Of Woman
Morse: 'This has the same feel as Black Night - in fact, in the live set we use them interchangeably. I can't remember us ever playing the two on the same night, but I have suggested that maybe we should run them together as a medley. I've been the subject of much fun-poking and ridicule for suggesting it, but who knows?'