The genesis of Deep Purple can be traced to a band called Roundabout, and the man leading the way was not named Ian Gillan or Ritchie Blackmore. (The former was, in fact, a few years away from joining.) As explained by Classic Bands, Roundabout was formed late in 1967 by ex-Searchers drummer Chris Curtis, and he was initially joined by keyboard player Jon Lord and bassist Nick Simper, with the idea being that Curtis and Lord would form the “center of the roundabout and other musicians could jump on and off the roundabout as they chose,” as the keyboardist explained. In other words, it was to be a band with no fixed lineup — an interesting concept, to be sure.
Talented young guitarist Blackmore was an acquaintance of Curtis who became the next musician to join Roundabout, and he and Lord hit it off almost instantly. They also found themselves increasingly out of step with Curtis’ vision for the group, as the Searchers alumnus had some strange ideas for how to make the act stand out from its contemporaries, as related in Dave Thompson’s book “Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story.” It wasn’t helping that Curtis allegedly couldn’t make up his mind when it came to which musicians would play on certain songs, or which instrument they would be playing; apparently, he also had plans to operate without a bassist upon discovering Simper was a pretty good guitar player in his own right.
Ultimately, Curtis bailed out on the Roundabout project, seemingly having lost interest after Lord and Simper briefly rejoined their previous band, the Flower Pot Men, for some shows in Germany.
