In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Ian Gillan discussed Deep Purple’s tour with Yes and whether there was a connection between the two bands. He said there wasn’t much of a connection between them and mentioned a disagreement with Yes that caused a big fire.
“It was [in our contract] that Deep Purple would close the show, so they refused to leave the hotel room,” he explained. “Jack said, ‘Guys, would you mind going on a bit earlier? I don’t want to push you but it would help me and it would help the crowd.’ ‘Yeah sure, okay, no worries.’ Then, Ritchie [Blackmore] decided that if we weren’t going to close, nobody was.”
Gillan then detailed the incident: “He ordered some gasoline to be brought in. He threw it all over the equipment and then had the roadie light a broom, which had a petrol-soaked rag on the end of it to ignite the lot. Of course, it did ignite – because the fumes just exploded. Within a half-hour, there were blue lights flashing.”
Even after the drama at the Plumpton Jazz and Blues Festival in 1971, it appears there’s no bad blood between them.
“We did some festivals together – one in particular called the Plumpton Jazz and Blues Festival in ’71,” bassist Roger Glover said in an interview with Billboard. “Ian Gillan and I had only been in the band a couple of months at that point. There was an argument about who’d be closing the show, and they won the argument and were closing the show. Ritchie set fire to his amplifiers and made them explode on stage. So they were delayed a lot and weren’t very happy with that.”
“We’ve met them since. They’re a great band. We saw (Yes guitarist) Steve Howe a couple years ago. We got on, no hard feelings. I don’t know which state they’re in now, which combination of musicians they have, so I’ll be happily surprised,” he added.
Now, there are no hard feelings between the two bands. Deep Purple and Yes are reuniting for a summer series of US shows to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Deep Purple’s classic hit ‘Smoke On The Water.’