Deep Purple photo

Deep Purple

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Deep Purple

Deep Purple is an English rock band formed in London and Hertford in 1968.

They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard-rock, although their musical approach has changed over the years.

Originally formed as a psychedelic rock and progressive rock band, they shifted to a heavier sound with their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock.

Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the “unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early- to mid-seventies”.

They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as “the globe’s loudest band” for a 1972 concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre and have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.

Deep Purple has had several line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus (1976–1984). The 1968–1976 line-ups are commonly labelled Mark I, II, III and IV.

Their second and most commercially successful line-up consisted of Ian Gillan (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass), who joined founder members Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums) and Ritchie Blackmore (guitar). This line-up was active from 1969 to 1973 and was revived from 1984 to 1989 and again from 1992 to 1993.

The band achieved more modest success in the intervening periods between 1968 and 1969 with the line-up including Rod Evans (lead vocals) and Nick Simper (bass, backing vocals), between 1974 and 1976 with the line-up including David Coverdale (lead vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass, vocals) (and Tommy Bolin replacing Blackmore in 1975), and between 1989 and 1992 with the line-up including Joe Lynn Turner (vocals).

The band’s line-up (currently including Ian Gillan, and guitarist Steve Morse from 1994) has been much more stable in recent years, although keyboardist Jon Lord’s retirement from the band in 2002 (being succeeded by Don Airey) left Ian Paice as the last original Deep Purple member still in the band.

Deep Purple was ranked number 22 on VH1’s Greatest Artists of Hard Rock programme, and a poll on radio station Planet Rock ranked them 5th among the “most influential bands ever”.

The band received the Legend Award at the 2008 World Music Awards. Deep Purple (specifically Blackmore, Lord, Paice, Gillan, Glover, Coverdale, Evans, and Hughes) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

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The Cult photo

The Cult

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The Cult

The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury’s previous band Southern Death Cult.

They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as “She Sells Sanctuary”, before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as “Love Removal Machine”. Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band’s two songwriters.

The Cult’s debut album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single “Spiritwalker” reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second album, Love (1985), was also successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as “She Sells Sanctuary” and “Rain”.

The band’s third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles “Love Removal Machine”, “Lil’ Devil” and “Wild Flower”. On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin.

After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based throughout the duration of its career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band’s subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band’s most popular songs “Fire Woman”.

By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions began to surface among the band members and creative differences. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995.

The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012) and Hidden City (2016).

The Cult guitar tabs

Creedence Clearwater Revival photo

Creedence Clearwater Revival

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Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival, also referred to as Creedence and CCR, was an American rock band that recorded and performed from 1959 to 1972 under various names before settling on the Creedence Clearwater Revival name in 1967.

The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty; bassist Stu Cook; and drummer Doug Clifford. These members had played together since 1959, first as the Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs.

CCR’s musical style encompassed roots rock, swamp rock, blues rock, Southern rock, country rock, rock and roll,[8] and blue-eyed soul. Belying their origins in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area, the band often played in a Southern rock style, with lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River and other elements of Southern United States iconography.

The band’s songs rarely dealt with romantic love, concentrating instead on political and socially conscious lyrics about topics such as the Vietnam War. The band performed at the 1969 Woodstock festival in Upstate New York, and was the first major act signed to appear there.

CCR disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. Tom Fogerty had officially left the previous year, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in subsequent lawsuits among the former bandmates.

Fogerty’s ongoing disagreements with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz created further protracted court battles, and John Fogerty refused to perform with the two other surviving members at Creedence’s 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Though the band has never officially reunited, John Fogerty continues to perform CCR songs as part of his solo act, while Cook and Clifford have performed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited since the 1990s.

CCR’s music is still a staple of U.S. classic rock radio airplay; 28 million CCR records have been sold in the U.S. alone. The compilation album Chronicle The 20 Greatest Hits, originally released in 1976, is still on the Billboard 200 album chart and reached the 500-weeks mark in December 2020. It has been awarded 10x platinum, indicating it has sold over 10 million copies. Rolling Stone ranked them 82nd on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Creedence Clearwater Revival guitar tabs

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