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,
Pete York Ian Paice. The band on this series featured Miller Anderson, Colin Hodgkinson, Brian Auger, Jon Lord and Barbara Thompson. In 1989, Brian Auger was musical director for the thirteen-part film retrospective series "Villa Fantastica", made for German TV. A live recording of the series, "Super Jam" (1990), featured Brian Auger on piano, York on drums, Dick Morrissey on tenor saxophone, Roy Williams on trombone, Harvey Weston on bass guitar, plus the singers Zoot Money and Maria Muldaur. In 1990, the fourth series of "Superdrumming" was held in Freiburg, Germany with drummers Ian Paice, Jon Hiseman, Cozy Powell and York. York