Product Details

• Actors: Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Deep Purple, Ian Paice, Jon Lord
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Eagle Rock Ent
• DVD Release Date: June 2, 2009
• Run Time: 287 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0025X4P4M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,696 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Deep Purple are one of the most successful and revered British rock bands of all time. This new two-disc set covers the initial phase of the band's existence through four different line-ups from 1968 to 1976. This era produced the classic Deep Purple albums such as "In Rock", "Fireball", "Burn" and "Machine Head" that created their legend and still provide the backbone of their live sets today despite the ongoing commercial success of the band post their 1984 reunion. Combining full performances and a small number of archive interviews featuring much rare and previously unreleased live, studio and TV footage this superb set is the definitive collection of the early years of Deep Purple.

TRACKLISTING:
DISC ONE - 2hrs 24mins
HISTORY - 20 minute history of Deep Purple from 1968 to 1976.
HITS - full performances
Mark One Line-Up (Mar 1968 to Jul 1969): Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Rod Evans (vocals), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums), Nick Simper (bass)
1) Help
2) Hush
3) Wring That Neck
Mark Two Line-Up (Jul 1969 to Jun 1973): Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Gillan (vocals), Roger Glover (bass), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums)
4) Hallelujah
5) Mandrake Root
6) Speed King
7) Black Night
8) Child In Time
9) Lazy
10) Strange Kind Of Woman
11) Fireball Writing Session
12) Fireball
13) Demon's Eye
14) No No No
15) Into The Fire
16) Never Before
17) Highway Star
18) Smoke On The Water
Mark Three Line-Up (Jun 1973 to May 1975): Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), David Coverdale (vocals), Glenn Hughes (bass & vocals), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums)
19) Burn
20) Mistreated
Mark Four Line-Up (Jun 1975 to Mar 1976): Tommy Bolin (guitar), David Coverdale (vocals), Glenn Hughes (bass & vocals), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums)
21) Love Child
22) You Keep On Moving

DISC TWO - 2hrs 23mins
HIGHLIGHTS - bonus performances and interviews
Mark One Line-Up
1) And The Address (Playboy TV)
Mark Two Line-Up
2) Wring That Neck (Bilzen Jazz Festival 1969)
3) Mandrake Root ("Pop Deux" Paris Concert 1970)
4) Wring That Neck ("Pop Deux" Paris Concert 1970)
5) Black Night (Promo Clip)
6) No No No (Take 1) (Rockpalast Rehearsal Session)
7) No No No (Take 2) (Rockpalast Rehearsal Session)
Mark Three Line-Up
8) "Jt Nuit" - French TV 1974
9) Burn (Leeds Polytechnic Project 1974)
10) Interview (Leeds Polytechnic Project 1974)
11) Space Truckin'/Interview (Leeds Polytechnic Project 1974)
Mark Four Line-Up
12) New Zealand TV Documentary (Nov 1975)
13) Smoke On The Water (New Zealand TV)
14) Tony Edwards (Deep Purple's manager) French TV Interview 1976

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Collection, March 15, 2009

By 

Metaljim "Jim C." (Kansas USA) - See all my reviews

This should be the definitive Deep Purple video collection. Here's the tracklist:

Disc 1

Help (5:21 - Danish TV)
Hush (3:30 - Playboy After Dark)
Wring That Neck (3:20 - Canadian TV)
Hallelujah (3:42 - Beat Club)
Mandrake Root (12:08 - Southbank)
Speed King (4:13 - WDR Vicky Leandros)
Black Night (3:10 - Top Of The Pops)
Child In Time (9:36 - Doing Their Thing)
Lazy (11:06 - Copenhagen 1972)
Strange Kind Of Woman (3:55 - Top Of The Pops
Fireball writing session (silent) (3:58 - ABC TV Australia)
Fireball (3:26 - Disco ZDF)
Demon's Eye (10:09 - RBB Germany)
No No No (7:15 - Beat Club)
Into The Fire (3:57 - RBB Germany)
Never Before (3:29 - promo)
Highway Star (6:04 - Beat Club)
Smoke On The Water (4:47 - Hofstra)
Burn (6:35 - London 74 / Polytechnic Project)
Mistreated (10:24 - California Jam)
Love Child (4:20 - Tokyo 75)
You Keep On Moving (5:42 - Tokyo 75)


Disc 2

And The Address (2:55 - Playboy After Dark)
Wring That Neck (24:19 - Bilzen Jazz Festival 1969)
Wring That Neck (11:19 - Pop Deux' Paris 1970)
Mandrake Root (15:01 - Pop Deux' Paris 1970)
Black Night . (3:15 - Promo clip)
No No No (rehearsals) (15:00 - Beat Club)
Jt Nuit' French TV 1974 (3:08 - INA France)
Burn (6:35 - Leeds Polytechnic Project 1974)
Interview (Leeds Polytechnic Project 1974)
Space Truckin' (10:00 - Leeds Polytechnic Project 1974)
New Zealand TV Doc Nov 1975 (23:06 - New Zealand TV 1975)
Smoke On The Water (3:00 - New Zealand TV 1975)
Tony Edwards (DP manager) interview (2:11 - French TV 1976)

While some hardcore collectors will already own some of this, it's doubtful that even the most avid collector will already own all this stuff. This is the DVD collection that many of us have been waiting on for an eternity. Gathering everything out there would be an impossible task, but the folks behind this release have certainly done an admirable job in getting all that they're presenting here. If you're a Purple fan, this is the ESSENTIAL DVD release.

After viewing this several times, some minor issues have emerged. The track list is wrong for the Bilzen '69 clip. This 28+ minute clip is listed as Wring That Neck, but in fact is a compilation of Wring That Neck, the drum solo from Paint It Black and the closing section of Mandrake Root. A minor quibble, but they could have checked their facts a little closer. Other clips have been edited, at least from the ones I had on bootleg DVD and VHS tapes for years. Again, minor issues since the music seems to be intact for the most part. None of these should stop you from buying this however. Despite a couple of sequencing issues, this set provides an excellent overview of the band's musical development from 1968-1976.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good video anthology overall but lacking a bit, June 12, 2009

By 

James Zinn (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deep Purple: History, Hits & Highlights '68-'76 (DVD)

Overall, a great introduction or video anthology of DP Mk1-Mk4 ending all too soon in 1976. It is like a good companion video disk of one of the boxed CD sets such as "Shades", or "Listen, Learn, Read On". Kudos for not repeating multiple performances of the obvious "hits" over and over.

I agree with another reviewer that they unnecessarily butchered the segments from the Mk1 performance in "Playboy After Dark" show of "Hush" and the instrumental. I already own the PAD set and thought it was cool enough but why edit it as they did here? They should have just included all of it in one contiguous segment. Ya wonder if Rod got kicked out of the band just for wearing those silly yellow pants, though.

The other Mk1 footage is a B&W lip synch of "Help" and a B&W low-fi/video studio run through of "Wring That Neck" which is an instrumental without Rod.

I found the Mk2 footage from disk 2 of "Wring That Neck" from the Bilzen Jazz Festival to be quite an interesting extended jam. Some may not appreciate this but anyone with a jazz or improvisational interest should like it. It was within the first few months of Mk2's existence.

Other highlights include the Mk2 footage of the Demon's Eye/No No No/Into The Fire/Never Before to be among the tightest video footage of live DP I've ever seen. Great non-hit performances showing with no surprise to DP fans, just how great a drummer Ian Paice is.

I don't get why the particular Mk2 performance of "Smoke On The Water" was the one they included on Disc 1. It starts out with Ritchie playing out of key, and then he looks bored and uninterested all the way through. Surely there was a better one in the vault.

Speaking of Ritchie, I noticed him smile at least 3 times during the whole disc set. Also, the interview with him in one of the documentary segments does shed some light about his personality and helps you cut him some slack, despite what we've all heard about him.

I admit, I'm not much of a fan of Mk3, so not much of my own personal interest in those performances.

I am a big Tommy Bolin fan, but there isn't much here to create sparks about his contributions to DP. The footage of the Japan performance is the same as the bootleg most DP fans already have of the Japan concerts, with him spinning around and not playing much or adding any value. What I did enjoy was the sparse interview footage of him to at least know what his normal speaking voice was like.

Overall, an enjoyable and expansive overview of the first decade of DP, but it would have been better to include some Mk2 reunion footage from the 1980s like "Back Door" or "Bad Attitude" but that's just my armchair opinion.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect, June 5, 2009

By 

Micro Ray Corp. (NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deep Purple: History, Hits & Highlights '68-'76 (DVD)

I just bought this and watched it 10 times and have found it being both an amazing set of rare tracks that makes this package one to buy BUT has some flaws that must be mentioned.
First Flaw which is a bad one - Disc 1 the song Hush. The beginning which Blackmore shows Hefner how to play guitar is cut out and actually begins when Hefner is almost finished talking to Jon Lord and then the song begins.
For some unknown reason- the Blackmore segment with Hefner appears on Disc 2 after the song And The Address, but get this- it's also edited.
It has Blackmore showing Hef how to play but when Jon Lord is talking to Hef about a house being haunted, it fades out and then Wring That Neck plays. Very bad decision on doing this.
Fault 2- Disc 1- Hush has roughly a 5 second fade out about 20 seconds into the song which is a mistake. There shouldn't be any fade outs.
Fault 3- in my opinion at the end of Disc2 - the interview with DP's manager should have been left off and something else put in its place.
There is much more rare footage out there that could have been put in. Besides these faults-overall this 2 disc set is worth buying.
The cleaned up Leeds Polytech section,the Mk1 videos Help and Wring That Neck,the New Zealand interview - a portion with Tommy Bolin is noteworthy.