Stealing Deep Purple

There’s been much speculation over whose idea the New Deep Purple tour was. I examine all the possible candidates in my book. One name that is prominent is that of keyboard player and graduate attorney Geoff Emery. (Also know as Jeff Emery, Geoffrey Emery, Geoffrey Emer and Geoffrey England)

Emery had been in a few of the late 1970s Steppenwolf line ups and according to some sources a reactivated version of Cactus. The excellent website Dpac.com attributes the New Deep Purple to him via ‘insider sources’

I think I now have a paper trail that confirms this.

In 1980 the Billboard artists register claims that the New Deep Purple are managed by ESI, whoever they may be.

BA – NTI means Booking Agent and the NTI means Network Talent International. The PM means Personnel Management.

ESI is a hard term to search for, especially when I didn’t know what the letters stood for. However the same talent directory also mentions a zip code and box number for the company.

A search of that box number turned up the fictious business statement published in the Daily Breeze that I’d already seen and mentioned in the book.

In the later chapters I talk about Geoff Emery publishing his fictious business statement under the name of Geoffrey Emer. I theorise that he did this to perhaps hide himself from scrutiny. It was very hard in 1980 to perform ‘fuzzy’ searches for names in archives since most of them were stored on paper or microfiche.

I was pre-occupied with the name being incorrectly published (four weeks in a row!) and the didn’t pay any mind to the Entertainment Systems International business name.

I said in Stealing Deep Purple that I thought Emery was the driving force behind the project. I think he was calling the shots. This paper trail reinforces that belief. There’s a lot of speculation in the book based on paper trails like this (most of which I will publish over time). I think I can now safely say that Geoff Emery was the band’s manager as well as keyboard player.