not help the sales of the single in the UK and made Parlophone postpone the release of the album. The band recorded some radio sessions for the John Peel's Top Gear radio show on BBC, but otherwise, England in general was not their priority. Those recordings recently resurfaced and are included in the compilation album BBC Sessions 1968–1970. Shades of Deep Purple was finally released in the United Kingdom with much simpler cover art in September 1968 and went almost unnoticed there. Jon Lord, in an interview with the magazine Beat Instrumental, reflected on the scarce receptivity of England to his group and on how lucky the band was to be signed to an American label that gave Deep Purple "far greater freedom both financially and artistically" than they "could ever have got with a British company", which "as a rule won't spend any time or effort with you until you're an established name". A monaural pressing of the album was released in the UK and Europe, which was simply a fold-down of the stereo mix. Shades of Deep Purple was reissued many times all over the world, often in a set with the two following albums recorded by the Mk. I line-up. Besides the original issues, the most significant version of the album is the Remastered CD edition released in 2000 by EMI, which contains as bonus tracks previously unreleased recordings from the first demos in April 1968 and from TV show appearances. All the songs were digitally remastered and restored by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios in London, cutting off the sound effects used as transitions in the original edition. Musical style Deep Purple's members were experienced musicians with different musical backgrounds: Lord had trained in classical music and had played in jazz and blues rock ensembles, Blackmore and Simper came from session work in pop rock, Paice and Evans from beat bands. However, no one was an accomplished songwriter. The only one with experience in musical composition was Lord, who wrote the arrangements and the bulk of the music for the first album, with some guitar riffs added by Blackmore. The album shows the potential of the band but does not focus on a distinct sound. Clearly identifiable on the album are the musical styles which were developing in the UK in that period and that influenced the young musicians in Deep Purple, a mix of