Playboy After Dark –  Featuring the Original Deep Purple

Hugh Hefner’s swinging, late 1960’s TV show, Playboy After Dark had a wide variety of musicians, comedians and interesting people appear as  guests. This clip recorded in late 1968,  is one of the earliest television performances and one of the last to show the original Deep Purple performing their breakthrough song Hush.

This line-up is known as Deep Purple Mark I.  By the time this segment aired November 14, 1969, original vocalist Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper, both founding members of the band, had been out of the band since July 1969 and were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.  The new incarnation of Deep Purple would go on to have worldwide commercial success and set a standard for other hard rock and heavy metal bands to follow.

To me this video epitomizes the 1960’s look – the band – their hair and outfits, the audio equipment in the background, the furniture, the crowd, jewelery, the dancing and especially the clothes of the dancers and last but not least – the women’s hairstyles. The pretty girls seem to have all copied their hairdos from Valley of the Dolls.

Enjoy the time trip.