Deep Purple: A Matter of Fact

This is a great book on Deep Purple by one of the leading experts, Jerry Bloom. This book offers up a history of the band and breaks it up nicely with quick humorous stories and other Deep Purple tales throughout. A must read for any true Deep Purple fan.

Good read !

I thought I knew all the Purple stories. . . .not so. Get this book!

Fun trivia for the Purple fan. NOT a biography. Excellent research, and well written. After 40 years of listening to Purple, there was a lot I did not know.

Great chapters on the beginnings of a legend...Plenty of old band news clippings showing other classic rock bands early gigs. I would recommend this book to rock fans and especially Deep Purple fans...

Well written with lots of interesting stories about the band and music.

Great for any Deep Purple fan. Lots of trivia even die hard fans may not know.

Any true fan of deep purple would enjoy reading this. Stories are pleasantly presented in a manner one would not expect. Great stuff!

The whole book is full of things you never known about the early days of the great DP. Well worth the buy, buy it you will be amazed.

Great read. New stuff but more for the true fans I think!

Fast service, great item, Till next time!

This book describes itself as a collage of the history of Deep Purple and that's a very good description of it. If you're looking for an in depth history of the band, then this probably isn't the book for you. In fact I don't think that book actually exists. It seems strange that a band of the stature of Deep Purple don't have a book to compare with, for example, Led Zepplins "Hammer of the Gods" or "When Giants Walked The Earth" , this book does not pretend that it is. If however you're looking for a quick run through the ups and downs of the band, a flavour of the characters and an idea of the legacy then you couldn't do much better.The book is in roughly chronological order. Starting from the early days before Purple and moving through the various line ups to the current day. Unlike say, the authors own Blackmore biography, or the Gillan autobiography, this is up to date. The book is arranged in very short chapters, most running to 3 or 4 pages, and the chapters tend to be thematic. For example there are chapters on the links with the Rolling Stones, the true story of the loudest band in the world tag or the band's feelings on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It does give the book a slight feel of one of those "Ten things you don't know about Deep Purple" lists you would find on the internet, and it does break up the flow a bit, so to my mind this is one of those books you dip into. That way it becomes more like a chat about the band.The style of the writing is very chatty. It would be so easy for this to be a dull, dry recitation of facts, instead this feels like someone having a gossip down the pub about their favourite band. And it is obvious that the author has a deep connection to them. It feels like a labour of love. He's picked his favourite facts and his favourite stories, and presented them with a smile.As a long time follower of not only Purple, but all the off shoots, I would have been prepared to bet this would tell me nothing new. I'd have been wrong. There's enough of the history in the book that I doubt the casual fan would get lost, while still having enough little stories that the longer term fans may not have heard. It appears to be well researched, and a lot of the photos are new to me. The press cuttings from the time are a nice touch, although not all are entirely legible.That's not to say that the book doesn't have issues. At times it can get a bit repetitive, Ian Gillan being replaced is mentioned more than once for example, and some of the chapters do feel as if they were shoved in to bulk the book out. My biggest gripe however is the horrible shiny paper it's printed on. It can make it a bit difficult to read in the wrong light.All in I would recommend it as a fun, informative book. Now if only someone would write the definitive book.

I read the book in six days.Lots of 2-4 page “fun fact” anecdotes.Stuff I already knew,stuff I didn’t know,and stuff that fell into the " filler” category.A nice addition to my Deep Purple library,but by no means essential.For completists,really.