Deep Purple singer slags label, label recalls live album

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan has gotten an "awful" live album recalled, after slamming one of the group's old record labels. Live At The NEC 1993 is a reissue of Purple's 1993 concert at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England, which Gillan said was one of the worst shows in Deep Purple's career, because guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was at odds with the rest of his bandmates at the time. Gillan claimed the label reissued the album without the band's knowledge, and called the executives "opportunist fat cats," and he urged fans not to buy it.

The record company has since decided to withdraw the album, saying, "Sony BMG is not in the business of releasing albums without the knowledge of the artists. It is in our interests to work with artists, so they can promote their records and continue to work with us."

Gillan told us that Deep Purple would have split up if Blackmore hadn't left the group shortly after the Birmingham show: "Nobody was performing well --- everyone was tense, everyone was scared, uptight, miserable. I think it was tacitly agreed that that was gonna be the end of the band -- we just could not think of a way of making it better. And there was a great sadness descending upon us. And then all of a sudden, Ritchie exploded, and he, he left the band. And all of a sudden, the sunshine came out, and Joe Satriani helped us recover, and then Steve Morse has been with us ever since."

Deep Purple is on break now, and they head back on the road beginning March 7th in Parma, Italy.