Ian Gillan Purple. By 1969, after having released nine singles, none of which charted in the UK, and finding their style of music too restrictive for him, he decided to leave Episode Six. By spring 1969, Deep Purple had had a top 5 US hit with "Hush", but the band, particularly Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice, decided their future lay in hard rock, rather than the psychedelic pop sound of the early band. In June 1969, Blackmore, Lord and Paice went to see Episode Six perform at a pub gig and subsequently offered Gillan the job as new lead singer,
Ian Gillan due to the smaller workload the band had compared to his own. However, the pair did jam together for three nights at Marquee Club – the first time the two men had shared a stage since 1973. Gillan continued, releasing "Glory Road" in 1980, which resulted in the band making the first of several appearances on "Top of the Pops". He considered the album to be his best work since "Machine Head" nearly a decade earlier. Following subsequent album "Future Shock", Torme was fired after missing an appearance on "Top of the Pops", and was replaced by Janick Gers. Gers