Ian Paice an audition for Paice, with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore leading the charge. Stated Blackmore in interviews years later, "I had looked for Ian Paice for about a year after seeing him perform in Hamburg. He's an incredible drummer. And he was the motor of the band" Paice has remained a member of Deep Purple through every formation of the band, including up to the present day. During this time, Paice was also involved in doing sessions for producer Derek Lawrence. After Deep Purple split, Paice went on to form a new group, Paice Ashton Lord in 1976. The band, also comprising
Jim Paice of parliament for South East Cambridgeshire, former Foreign Secretary Francis Pym, who was stepping down. Paice won the seat with a majority of 17,502. At Westminster Paice first served as Secretary of the Backbench Employment Committee from 1988–1989 and of the Backbench Horticulture and Markets Sub-Committee (1988–1989). He was also a member of the Employment Select Committee from 1987 until 1989. Paice was made a minor member of the government in December 1989 as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Baroness Trumpington. A year later he became the PPS