deep purple at the california jam

i have always hated deep purple, who are a band without (as far as i can work out) any redeeming features. but this clip is just beautiful. i love blackmore's slightly bored (and even camp) approach to demolishing a series of perfectly good guitars, amps etc and even a tv camera. and then there's the malfunctioning pyrotechnics setting fire to the stage...the whole thing is faintly pathetic, but somehow the utter joylessness of it makes it sort of compelling. i don't think ritchie was into gustav metzger somehow, but you never know...

allegedly the band left hastily by helicopter after their set in order to escape the displeasure of the festival organisers, the tv company and presumably anyone who'd been hit by any fragments of blackmore's stratocaster(s). and as if the crowd hadn't suffered enough, emerson lake and palmer were on next...