Jon Lord, keyboardist and co-founder of British rock group Deep Purple, has died in a London hospital aged 71.
Lord, who had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, co-wrote many of Deep Purple’s legendary songs including Smoke On The Water, and went on to play with many other bands and musicians during his career, including rock bands Whitesnake and Paice, Ashton and Lord.
He pioneered the fusing of rock and orchestral music, with his Concerto for Group and Orchestra being first performed by Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1969.
Lord was born in Leicester, where he took up classical piano from an early age. By his late teens he was playing in jazz and rhythm and blues groups in pub gigs, before acquiring his first electric organ.
From 1968, Deep Purple were part of the British heavy metal and rock scene alongside bands including Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Deep Purple was once listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s loudest band. – (Reuters)