While Deep Purple is a familiar name to most, Episode Six is not, which is a shame since they were instrumental to the formation of the second and best-known version of Deep Purple, supplying a singer and a bassist, as well as songwriting and performance talent.
In a nutshell, the band formed through the combination of two local school groups around 1963 or so. Although not turning professional until 1966, a clutch of demo recordings exist from 1964 and 1965 with original vocalist Andy Ross, who would be replaced by Ian Gillan before their first professional single. Throughout the band's history up to 1969 the lineup would stay intact aside from some instability in the role of drummer. Unfortunately, despite the talents each member brought to their respective role, the band was unable to release an album. The main problem was an identity crisis that hung over them most of their days. Between trying to keep up with a rapidly changing music scene, that would see them playing everything from bubblegum to proto-metal, and touring ferociously (they would log more BBC sessions that most), the opportunity never came up to record an album. Additionally, they also had no less than four names: Episode Six, the Episode, Neo Maya, and Sheila Carter (the last two submerging the band to backup role to one of the singers). By 1969, Ian Gillan was becoming a flight risk, chafing under aimless management. When then drummer Mick Underwood name dropped Gillan to mutual friend Ritchie Blackmore, the rest, as they say, was history. To make matters more complicated for Episode Six, Deep Purple "borrowed" bassist Roger Glover to perform on the "Hallelujah" single in a session capacity. He hit it off so well with Gillan's new band, that he quickly agreed to fill the role permanent, realizing his departure would effectively kill Episode Six. Episode Six managed to linger through the 1970's in an even more diminished capacity, functioning primarily under the auspices of Sheila Carter, while Gillan and Glover would permanently overshadow their old colleagues.
Since Episode Six never released an album (the proposed The Story So Far never went beyond the planning stages), the only way to experience them is through compilations. One song, "Love Hate Revenge", appeared on the Nuggets II box set, but it represents just one mood of a genre-spanning group. The old Complete Episode Six mostly hit all the bases, with every single and a healthy amount of unreleased bonus tracks, but had a distinctly low-budget quality to the sound and packaging. In 2005 it would be completely reworked and expanded as the two-disc Love, Hate, Revenge. It's a good place to start getting acquainted with the band.
Cornflakes and Crazyfoam is for the advanced listener. Actually released three years earlier than Love, Hate, Revenge, it has very little overlap with that collection. It's chock full of unreleased material, capturing the potency of the band's live performances, as well as presenting alternate versions of their "canon" releases, a whole lot of unexpected cover material (the band Love gets a lot of....uh....love), and bunches of stuff that never got beyond the demo stages, including a few early tracks from the Andy Ross era. Some additional highlights are the jaunty "Gentlemen of the Park", a completed song somehow never found its way to a proper release, as scorchers like "Monster in Paradise" and "I Am a Cloud", which capture the later hard rock era of the band, woefully unrepresented by the official releases. Finally, this band was so nutty on stage that they may have unwittingly created one of the earliest mashups in history when they applied "A Hard Day's Night" to the backing vocals of "Sunshine Superman". Additionally, they do a Rolling Stones medley that involves performing "Satisfaction" and "Paint It Black" at the same time. It must be heard to be believed!
While Deep Purple's original lineup was plenty heavy in its own way, it was undeniable that the introduction of Gillan and Glover upped the ante substantially in the heaviness department. While Episode Six wasn't the heaviest of bands, it added a dynamism and cleverness that Deep Purple desperately needed to move forward. While this came at the expense of Episode Six itself, avid Deep Purple fans deserve to be well acquainted with their work, right down to the weirder elements that make Cornflakes and Crazyfoam such an interesting document.
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