Deep Purple, California Jam, and the Money

[Ira.Blacker]

In the early '70s, I handled Deep Purple's American concert business through my agency, American Talent International. Most people remember the records and the performances. I also remember the business dealings, particularly one transaction at California Jam that I still can't explain.

California Jam took place on April 6, 1974, at Ontario Motor Speedway. Deep Purple were on the bill with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Black Sabbath, the Eagles, and others. ABC was televising it. Ritchie Blackmore wanted the band to go on around sunset, as agreed, and wasn't pleased when the organizers tried to move them up. Anyone who has seen the footage knows what happened next. Blackmore took his guitar to an ABC camera, there was an explosion onstage, and the band left by helicopter. It was quite a day.

But something else happened that caught my attention. I witnessed Deep Purple's management give the festival promoters a 25 percent refund, amounting to $100,000. In the concert business, guarantees were negotiated carefully. Handing back that kind of money wasn't something you saw every day. Maybe there was a contractual adjustment or a settlement I wasn't privy to. I never got a satisfactory explanation.

I'm not suggesting that the refund had anything to do with Blackmore's behavior onstage. I have no evidence of that. They happened at the same festival, but that's all I know. Still, I've wondered for more than fifty years why that money was returned.

Deep Purple's financial history had other complications, although these came much later and were documented in court. Their longtime managers, Tony Edwards and John Coletta, had established companies including HEC Enterprises and Deep Purple Overseas to handle royalties and other interests. There were disagreements about who owned what and how the money should be distributed. A settlement in 2005 called for certain rights to be transferred to a company called Purpletuity, but those transfers didn't take place as intended. The resulting disputes were still before a British court in 2016.

Then there was Dipak Rao, an accountant and company director involved with the royalty businesses. Over several years he diverted approximately £2.4 million into his own accounts, passing the transactions off as loans. In 2019 he received a prison sentence of six years and four months. That was a proven theft, not speculation.

Rao's crime and the California Jam refund were separate events decades apart. I'm not suggesting otherwise. One was settled in court; the other is something I saw firsthand and never understood. I'd still like to know exactly what that $100,000 was for.