car crash

The first recruit to the band was classically trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord , Curtis’ flatmate, who had most notably played with the Artwoods (led by Art Wood , brother of future Faces and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood , and including Keef Hartley ). Lord had most recently been performing in a backing band for the vocal group The Flower Pot Men , along with bassist Nick Simper and drummer Carlo Little (Simper had previously been in Johnny Kidd and the Pirates , and survived the 1966 car crash that killed Kidd). Lord alerted Simper and Little that he had been recruited for the Roundabout project, and they suggested guitarist Ritchie Blackmore , whom Lord had never met. Simper had known Blackmore since the early 1960s when his first band, the Renegades, debuted around the same time as one of Blackmore’s early bands, the Dominators.