gained some much-needed publicity

In September 1969, the band gained some much-needed publicity in the UK with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra , a three-movement epic composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , conducted by Malcolm Arnold . Alongside Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues and Five Bridges by the Nice , it was one of the first collaborations between a rock band and an orchestra. This live album became their first release with any kind of chart success in the UK. Gillan and Blackmore were less than happy at the band being tagged as “a group who played with orchestras”, both feeling that the Concerto was a distraction that would get in the way of developing their desired hard-rocking style. Lord acknowledged that while the band members were not keen on the project going in, at the end of the performance “you could have put the five smiles together and spanned the Thames .”