I didn’t take a real interest in playing an instrument until I was about 14/15. However, to say that music wasn’t a big part of my life would be incorrect; my dad, Mick Bullard, at the time was gracing stages with bands such as The Alex Reed Sound and Skinny Cat most weekends. My brother and I often crept downstairs in the early hours of the morning having been awoken by the occasional after gig party in our living room. In addition, during the holidays and often at weekends I would spend time at my grandparents house dabbling with all manner of instruments that my grandfather had acquired over the years. In particular, he had an old beat up old bass drum with a makeshift cymbal stand screwed to the top, on which sat an old riveted ex-army marching cymbal. My gramp was in the Beds & Herts Regimental Band and had, throughout the 30’s and 40’s, travelled the world playing, recording and fighting for freedom in our time. I was inspired and spent many an evening stuck out in the hall of their house trying to keep time on the battered bass drum and an equally distressed snare drum.

After that there was no stopping me, I used to hang around Glenn Derges music shop in Church Lane where a school friend of mine, young David Cooper, used to work on Saturdays. When I was about 16/17 a secondhand Premier Jazz appeared, for sale, for £80. I told my parents about it and the response was, ‘if you want it badly enough you’ll pay for it yourself’. Initially, I was gutted, ‘it’ll be gone, someone else will buy it, I’ll never get another chance’. As it was, Glenn was great, he agreed to hold it for me, and with my part-time earnings I paid him what I could, when I could until the kit was mine. And am I glad that it is mine, because I’ve had a number of offers for it in recent years, not least from the fantastic guitarist and frontman of Mud, Sid Twynam, a great friend of the family from the early days when he played with dad and Bernie Marsden.

Well, then I needed to get myself ‘gig-ready’. It was not long before my dad was double booked so I was asked if I fancied playing with a band called ‘Badger’ at a working mens club in East Challow. Well, nervously I agreed to go and do the gig, the only problem being transport. I was old enough to drive, but poor eyesight put me in bit of a predicament. Luckily, my brother Tim had recently passed his test and agreed to roady me to East Challow, you couldn’t keep him out of the car in ‘them’ days. We got to the gig and tongue in cheek I got through it, and they paid me, which strengthened my hunger for more!

Soon after East Challow I was asked to play with the awesome group, Tamarind. They were a brilliant, what I would call, country rock band with superb female and male vocals that I just couldn’t turn down. They showed me the ropes as it were and we played many different venues and occasions; clubs, hotels, weddings, all manner of party’s. I enjoyed my time with John and Anne, and the rest of the team; they were really good to me.

While I had been playing with Tamarind, David Cooper (from Glenn’s) had been asked to play with a local trad jazz band called Just Dixie, and he asked if I might like to come along and have a play. I said yes, we went to the hexagon music room at Banbury school, and I fell in love with trad. Of course, in my teens I had travelled around Oxfordshire with dad to many different jazz gigs and enjoyed listening, but to take part was even better.

Trying to juggle between two bands was quite hard, and it was compounded when I was asked to join ‘Jester’, a metal band that played predominantely original tracks. The band was a four piece, but included the tantilising fret teasing strokes of Tim sole, and later to be reunited with me in Taste Of Purple, Fiddes-Payne; the coolest, sharpest bass player I know. We had some great times, maostly down at ‘Live-Mix’ Banbury United Club, supporting big names like Leatherwolf and Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts (the Dumpy gig was seriously rare!).

With things getting a little too hectic and my inability to let go of any one or two bands, Tamarind ‘let me go’, which made things a little easier but I missed the band immensely. Just Dixie continued to play regularly, but Jester unfortunately fell apart, it was a shame, we had some good times and I think we could have done more – we’ll never know now!

Then, and I don’t really recall how it happened, I went to Oxford Fire Station to watch a band called The Fizzikisses. Well, fronted by Dickie White, with John Minogue on bass, and Ben Phillipson on lead, it was fresh, pumping, and it was Indie. I loved it, and not long after when drummer Steve Joiner became involved in other business, Dickie asked me if I would like to join. I couldn’t wait to get started, and over the next few years we had success recording many of Dickies tracks with a spattering of covers. We toured and supported some soon to be famous names such as ‘The Jennifers’ (Supergrass) and ‘On A Friday’ (Radiohead). I also had the privilege of using the drums of the infamous ‘Daisy Chainsaw’, famous for their track called ‘Love Love Love, Love Al Your Money’, strange singer but great fun.

While I was enjoying the contrast in music between trad jazz and indie rock, something happened! My dad had been approached by the funniest local rcok & roll band there’s ever been, ‘Chuckletruck’, to help out with a few gigs, because their drummer had left, or moved on. Anyway, as dad was quite busy at the time he negotiated with Jeff, the singer/drummer/guitarist, and was able to get me a rehearsal with the guys at Jeff’s canalside house, with Stan (Jeffs big brother) and ther articulate Mr Vic Taylor. The Thursday rehearsal went well and that weekend I played The Conservative Club and General Foods Club. They were happy and over the next god knows how many years I joined them on so many stomach wrenching adventures, it was fantastic, I had such a laugh. We did everything; working mens clubs, Butlins, football clubs, Groningen in Amsterdam, even Cropredy Festival. When Taste Of Purple got off the ground and I could no longer continue with Jeff, they didn’t stop; their still busy, busier than ever, ententertaining people, making them laugh, up and down the country.

Where am I now? I’m playing with best team of individuals I’ve ever played with so far. And they need to be so because the material we are playing requires a great deal of concentration and skil, but most of all, passion. That is what I think Deep Purple have always been about, and that’s what we are always trying to emulate. It’s been a fairly long road trying to get it as close as we can to the real thing but I believe we create a sound as near to the original as anyone can; at gigs we certainly believe that the audience deserves to get as much from the music as we do.

Who knows what is around the corner; we’d love to take Purple music to a larger festival audience, it would be immense!

Courtesy Alan Davies The Mill Banbury © 2005