In the book Stealing Deep Purple I theorise that the industry outrage against the New Deep Purple and other bands that were considered ‘unofficial’ was little more than playing to the crowd.
I suggest that the industry was only angry when the public found out about such thing. I present to the reader that the people who worked as agents, promoters, marketing etc usually existed in a world of plausible deniability or wilful naivety. At the very least wider community was disinterested.
The shock of the industry finding out the New Deep Purple didn’t contain any classic Deep Purple members reads more like sarcasm if my reasoning is adopted. It unfortunately highlights the hypocrisy within the business.
I give examples of this hypocrisy, backed up with evidence including the sales side of the industry being very keen to trade on the existence of such bands.
Below are clippings from the adverts of ticket selling agents. By the time of the adverts, Rod Evans and The New Deep Purple had appeared in the press multiple times, including the nationwide trade industry press. It seems unlikely that not one of these ticket trading companies would be aware of what was going on or who it was they were actually representing.
LA TIMES August 17 1980
LA TIMES Aug 10 1980
LA TIMES 10 Aug 1980
Stealing Deep Purple 
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