An inspirational Deep Purple Story

[Axe Man]

This story can be found in
' The Power of Music ' section
of ' The Induct Ritchie Blackmore
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- 2011 ' website and Facebook.
In this section we put very personal accounts of fans who were aided
by the power of music when they found themselves on the downsides of
their lives. Here's a first story of a guy an Ian Gillan, Deep Purple
and Ritchie Blackmore fan, who for the act of listening to the music
was actually imprisoned for almost a month.
It all took place in Poland, back in 1973. Ryszard, the young
oppositionist to the Communist oppressors was enjoying his weekly dose
of rock'n'roll with Radio Luxemburg one evening. Some days before that
his mother got a package from the United States. Apart from food and
indispensable items the package contained dollars. Unaware of her
fellow citizens' relationship with the Communist the lady told about
the dollars to her 'friend'. The friend immediately informed the
Secret Service, but fortunately the opposition had their people in
Secret Service as well, and as soon as the lady got to know that they
would come and search for their apartment she burned the money in the
fireplace. It was all done out of fear. Out of despair that her large
family might be split.
Ryszard was enjoying 'Lazy' while the Secret Service was plundering
the apartment in search of the 'bloody' money as they were quoted
saying afterwards. They could not find a thing but they could not
appear at the Militia station empty handed. Thus, they took Ryszard
and accused him of listening to the forbidden 'god dammed satanic'
music. That was the only reason the young man was stripped to naked,
beaten up and imprisoned for over a month. While imprisoned (without
any court proceedings whatsoever) he painted 'Deep Purple' on the
walls of the prison cell and when he went out he started his own,
local, personal vendetta against communists. In 1980s when Communism
was approaching its inevitable end, Ryszard was offered a deal.
Communists offered him a passport, one-way ticket to the States on the
condition that he would never set the foot on Polish soil again. He
refused and admitted one day it was only thanks to Deep Purple he
stayed in Poland. In those dark days Deep Purple meant freedom for
this young (now almost 60 year old) man. The Communism fall in 1989
but the only thing that changed in Poland from that time was the name
of the system. Ryszard's son experienced a similar story to his dad's.
It all happened in 2000. The young man was wandering around his little
town with his friends. They sat on a bench and had their tape recorder
cranked up to 11 with 'Child in Time'. Some 'kind' person in whose
opinion the music was just 'unbearable noise' called the Police. The
police car came unexpectedly. The policemen took down the young
peoples' names and told Ryszard's son to turn down the music. He would
not listen. So the policeman took the tape out of the tape recorder
and broke it into pieces smashing it on the pavement. The young man
was really furious, and probably he said one word too many. He was
taken to the police station, treated with the police 'truncheonian'
hospitality and was left in a cell for a night. How was it possible
that a 15 year old was kept imprisoned for a night just for refusing
the authority to take away his right to enjoy the music? Deep Purple
music. He has been a fan to this day�