Deep Purple: Fireball

This is a song, like Barry Ryan's The Colour of My Love, that I heard in the background on Talking Pictures TV.

Fireball comes, not from down-at-heel Sixties Brighton and Public Eye, but from hippy Amsterdam and Van Der Valk.

It is the title track from Deep Purple's fifth album and got to 15 in the UK singles chart in 1971. This was an era, after the prime of the great Sixties groups and before glam rock choked the charts, when some quite heavy bands had hits.

There is a more local musical connection with Van Der Valk. Its theme tune, Eye Level, was composed by Simon Park, who was born in Market Harborough.

It spent four weeks at number one in the charts in 1973. It was credited to "The Simon Park Orchestra", but I suspect them of being a group of session musicians brought together in the studio.

A few years ago Park appeared on Bargain Hunt and they played a clip of the tune from Top of the Pops. As he gamely pointed out, none of the musicians he was supposedly conducting were looking at him.

Oh, and that sound at the start of Fireball? It's the air conditioning being turned on.