“Celebrating Jon Lord”, a tribute concert to honor the late Deep Purple keyboardist’s life and music was held at London's Royal Albert Hall on April 4, and video from the event has surfaced.
Hosted by the BBC’s Bob Harris, the show featured rock legends including Deep Purple members Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Don Airey and Steve Morse, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Glenn Hughes, Rick Wakeman, Micky Moody, Joe Brown and Alfie Boe.
"The Sunflower Jam headquarters are almost recovered from Celebrating Jon Lord! Almost… but not quite!,” said organizers after the event. “After eighteen months, 15,000+ emails, hundreds of hours on the phone and what felt like a million meetings, we were finally able to celebrate Jon Lord in the only way we know how – rock n’roll.”
“The evening was an enormous success and we are currently in the process of finalising the amount of money raised but in the meantime we would like to take this opportunity to thank you – Jammers – for making it the night that it was,” the continued. “We simply couldn’t do what we do if you didn’t go out and spend your hard-earned cash on tickets for our events. Since Friday we have been inundated with email from Jammers, artists, guests, friends, family and press all blown away for the event. We are so pleased that you enjoyed it."
Lord passed away July 16, 2012 at the age of 71 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
With Purple, Lord co-wrote many of the group’s legendary songs, including “Smoke On The Water”, and played with many bands and musicians throughout his career.
Lord is best known for his orchestral work, “Concerto for Group & Orchestra”, first performed at Royal Albert Hall with Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969 and conducted by Malcolm Arnold, a feat repeated in 1999 when it was again performed at the Royal Albert Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra and Deep Purple.
Jon’s solo work was universally acclaimed when he eventually retired from Deep Purple in 2002.
See also:
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