Few bands can say they’ve been joined onstage for an impromptu jam by a former member of The Beatles, but that’s what happened to Deep Purple when George Harrison made a surprise appearance during an encore at a gig in Sydney, Australia in December 1984.
Like every other band of their generation, Deep Purple were heavily influenced by The Beatles. Their Rod Evans-fronted 1968 debut album, Shades Of Deep Purple, featured a slowed-down, organ-heavy version of The Fab Four’s 1965 hit Help!. But The Beatles’ stopped playing live well before Deep Purple formed, and the latter’s career took off just as the former’s ended, meaning the two bands’ paths never crossed. As Harrison admitted in a 1987 interview, he was only vaguely aware of Purple during their early 70s heyday.
