Deep Purple was formed back in 1968 in London, England and in that same year the group released their debut album. One of the most important members of the band during that era was the legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. His contributions to the first albums were fantastic but he was the one who changed everything with amazing guitar riffs and solos on “Deep Purple In Rock” (1970), which made the group really get heavier, becoming a Hard Rock group with Progressive Rock influences.
Blackmore was in the band until 1975 when he decided to leave and formed Rainbow. Deep Purple disbanded two years later but the classic line-up reunited 8 years later in 1984, releasing a few more records together. But there is one album from that era that Ritchie calls a disaster.
The Deep Purple album Ritchie Blackmore said was a disaster
In 1984, when Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord got together again, they released the praised album “Perfect Strangers”. Three years later, in 1987, anotehr studio album “The House of Blue Light” was released. After those two, the band decided to release a live album called “Nobody’s Perfect” and that’s the one Blackmore said was a disaster.
“I was very happy with Rainbow and we were doing quite well. Then Ian Gillan came around and said, let’s get together. He kind of talked me into it, and people were talking about lots of money. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.'”
“But I do think Perfect Strangers was a good LP. I was comfortable with the band and went, I think we’ll do another one [Nobody’s Perfect]. Which was a mistake, because I think I played like shit on it. I don’t think anyone else really got into it. To me it was a bit of a disaster,” Blackmored told Guitar in 2010.
The album was recorded during their tour in 1987 in Europe and the United States. Although the album was recorded during the band’s tour to promote “The House of Blue Light”, it only has three tracks from that record.
It was a successful album in countries like Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden. But failed in the United States, peaking at 105 on the United States Billboard 200.
Ian Gillan is also not a fan of that live album
The Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan, who not always had a good relationship with Ritchie Blackmore, also didn’t like that album. In his opinion, “Nobody’s Perfect” is the most shameful album that Deep Purple ever released, at least until 1994 when he said this.
“Truly, after that one (Made in Japan), a few more live albums were released. They are not worth the raw material that they are printed on. I think ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ is the most shameful album that we ever released. I can’t justify his existence! Over the years we made some wonderful albums, but we also made some to be ashamed of.” That’s what Ian Gillan told the Israeli newspaper Mhariv.
Blackmore was a member of Deep Purple until 1993 when he left the band for good. He never played with them again.
