Paice, Ashton, Lord

The Deep Purple spin-off project Paice Ashton Lord was formed by ex-Deep Purplers Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (organ) with Tony Ashton (the Remo Four, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke). When they got together in mid-1976, Deep Purple had just broken up; for the sole Paice Ashton & Lord album, the sound was filled out by guitarist Bernie Marsden and bassist Paul Martinez. That LP, 1977's Malice in Wonderland, was not nearly as heavy as Deep Purple had been, though it still owed much to mainstream British hard rock. However, there was a fair amount of jazz influence in the arrangements (which sometimes included brass) and some soul ingredients to the songwriting. Eight songs from their unreleased second album appeared on the CD reissue of Malice in Wonderland on Purple Records in 2001.