Paice, Ashton & Lord

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Paice, Ashton and Lord was a rhythm and blues, funky-soul, rock band founded after the break-up of the British band Deep Purple in 1977. Ian Paice and Jon Lord, Deep Purple's drummer and keyboardist, joined friend Tony Ashton, a British keyboardist and singer, for this project; the band was completed with Bernie Marsden on guitar and Paul Martinez on bass.

[edit] The beginnings

Lord had joined Ashton previously to record the album The First Of The Big Bands in 1974. There was a BBC Live In Concert recording of this event that year. Ashton also collaborated on Lord's Gemini Suite project in 1971, in which he sang lead vocals on the first song. He took part in more Lord's solo works and also in some Deep Purple's bassist Roger Glover´s solo projects. Ashton was also invited to participate in the Wizard's Convention editions 1, 2 and 3. One album was recorded as PAL, and also a video in which you could see the band recording their first album in the studio recording sessions. A follow-up was planned but never released.

The name of the first album was Malice in Wonderland and was released in 1977. It was re-released on CD in 2001 by Purple Records, and now includes thirty minutes of demos from the unreleased second album. A live DVD was due for release in late 2006.

[edit] Break-up and aftermath

Despite some critical appreciation, the album was not a great success. After Ashton broke his leg falling off a stage, the group was wound up. Lord, Marsden and later Paice enlisted in David Coverdale's Whitesnake. Later on, Paice played in Gary Moore's band before he and Lord joined the re-formed Deep Purple in 1984, where Paice remains to this day. Ashton died of cancer on 28 May 2001.