Roger Glover
In Deep Purple 1969–1973 · 1984–
Bassist, songwriter and producer. Got the title Smoke on the Water in a dream, he says. Also played in Rainbow.
Highlights
- Got the title Smoke on the Water in a dream – according to himself.
- Bassist and producer in Rainbow (1979–1984).
- Produced Nazareth's Razamanaz (1973) and Judas Priest's Sin After Sin (1977).
- Made the concept album The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (1974).
- Has produced or co-produced a long list of Deep Purple albums.
The story
Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a bass guitarist and member of the hard rock band Deep Purple and formerly Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2016.
Glover was born near Brecon, Wales, and moved with his family to the South Kensington area of London at the age of nine. Around that time, his interests started to shift towards rock music, and by the time he was thirteen, he began playing guitar.
Read more
He later moved to the North London district of Pinner, and while at Harrow County School for Boys he formed his first band, Madisons, with a group of friends; in time this merged with a rival band to become Episode Six, a band which later featured Glover's future Deep Purple bandmate, vocalist Ian Gillan. The two left Episode Six in 1969 to join Deep Purple.
Glover spent four years (1969–1973) with Deep Purple, during which the band saw their most successful releases in the albums Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are and the live album Made in Japan. He is credited with developing the title for the band's iconic song "Smoke on the Water", thus inspiring the song's lyrics which were written by Ian Gillan. Glover says the title came to him when he awoke from a dream two days after the famous fire over Lake Geneva. While he liked the title, he was reluctant to have the band use it because he initially thought it sounded like a drug song. Glover also developed the guitar riff to "Maybe I'm a Leo", stating, "I wrote the riff to 'Maybe I'm a Leo' after hearing John Lennon's 'How Do You Sleep?'."
Glover contributed bass on Jon Lord's first solo album, Gemini Suite (1971), and was the featured soloist in the bass movement.
Glover departed Deep Purple, along with Gillan, after the band's second tour of Japan in June 1973.
Throughout the 1970s Glover produced albums and/or singles by such acts as Judas Priest, Nazareth, Elf, Status Quo, the Ian Gillan Band and David Coverdale.
In 1974 Glover released his first solo album, The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, which generated the single "Love Is All", featuring lead vocals by Ronnie James Dio. The single did little in the UK, but became an unexpected number one hit song in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Australia. The song came with an animated music video starring a guitar-playing frog. In 1978 Glover's second album followed: Elements.
From English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · read the full article
In Deep Purple
Other bands and projects
- Episode Six1963–1969
- Rainbow1978–1984
- Wizard’s Convention
- Gillan & Glover
Most played – Glover solo
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5