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, asking him if he also knew any good bassists. Since Glover was by this point a reasonably experienced songwriter, he was also recruited. They were both accepted into the band on 16 June 1969, replacing singer Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper respectively. The old line up of Deep Purple continued to do several concerts until the end of the The Book of Taliesyn Tour. Evans and Simper were both fired by managers Tony Edwards and John Colletta after the last show of that tour, which was at the Top Rank Club in Cardiff on 4 July.