Mick Underwood

Since 2006, Underwood along with bassist Johnny Heywood and former Heavy Metal Kids guitarist Cosmo, formed the blues-based trio Raw Glory, which released an album, City Life, in 2007. In 2012, he formed Mick Underwood's Glory Road with Rob Cooksley as singer, Jeff Summers on guitar, Gary Summers on bass and backing vocals and Roy Shipston on keyboard, which consists of songs from the Gillan era.

Former Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice had also auditioned for Gillan but according to guitarist Bernie Torme "...he had some difficulty after playing "Secret of the Dance" due to his only having one lung, and being a bit out of practice. He played it brilliantly but he had to lie down on the floor for five minutes afterwards. He did not want to join because of our fast tracks, he said he no longer wanted to play stuff like that. I think the fact that he had been offered to join Whitesnake with his old friend Jon Lord made a big difference. Meeting Gillan again at the studio had obviously put Underwood's name on the list of potentials for the job, and as Torme revealed "...we finally found the magnificently solid and under appreciated Mick Underwood. The day after he accepted the job, Underwood and the band began to record the Mr. Universe album, released in October 1979.

His next band was Strapps. Their eponymous debut album was recorded in 1976 at Ian Gillan's Kingsway Recorders studio in London, produced by former Episode Six colleague Roger Glover. They then toured as support act on Deep Purple's tour of the UK, and went on to release three further albums.

In summer 1971 Underwood began discussions with Paul Rodgers who was looking to form a new band after the initial break up of Free, and along with bass player Stuart McDonald they formed the band Peace. Signed to Island Records, Peace began to write and record material for a debut album and also embarked on a UK tour supporting Mott the Hoople but in January 1972 Free reformed, and Underwood formed another new band, called Sammy.

Underwood joined ex-The Authentics frontman Henry Turtle in psychedelic rock outfit The Doves from 1967 to 1968 alongside former The Herd guitarist Terry Clark plus Brian Curtis, Ian McGlynn and Harvey Hinsley (formerly of The Outlaws and later a member of Hot Chocolate. Underwood departed in July 1968 after EMI declined to release intended single She's Not There, with Decca having done the same with the band's planned debut single, Smokeytime, Springtime, the previous Autumn.

With The Herd, Underwood began playing at all the major venues on the circuit, such as the Marquee Club and Eel Pie Island. Despite their busy schedule and the release of three singles, Underwood grew increasingly frustrated at the band's lack of success, and in 1966 he resigned from the band and the music business. However, a year later he accepted an invitation from singer James Royal as a session drummer for a two-week residency at Hatchets in London's West End. At the end of the residency Underwood decided to stay with the band, the James Royal Set to tour with Johnny Cash.

A reviewer of Underwood's work at this time described his drumming style as "...coupling Charlie Watts type steadiness with little Jim McCarty style flourishes." Blackmore eventually moved to another of Meeks' bands, joining Heinz Burt's backing band The Wild Boys, but he and Underwood still collaborated in recording sessions with Meek's engineer Derek Lawrence. One of the Derek Lawrence sessions produced Blackmore's first official release, the now highly sought after single "Get Away" / "Little Brown Jug", released in July 1965. They also recorded "Earthshaker" and "Satan's Holiday, " which were released on the Titan label, credited to The Lancasters. "Satan's Holiday" was a fast, rock adaptation of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", a tune that stayed in Blackmore's stage repertory right into the 1990s. Shortly afterwards, Underwood also left The Outlaws to take up an offer to join The Herd.

Between January 1963 and June 1965, The Outlaws released six singles, as well as playing on hundreds of Meek's recording sessions with various artists. They also headlined at the Star-Club in Hamburg with both Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. In 1964, they appeared in the movie Live It Up!, performing their single "Law & Order", mislabelled "Law and Disorder" on the end screen credits.

Despite numerous BBC sessions and two singles, commercial success never came for the band and there was a feeling that they were failing to move with the times as the music scene rapidly changed at the close of the 1960s. Along with Gillan, Underwood was drawn to the heavier sound of the emergent new bands, in particular Deep Purple (Ritchie Blackmore's new band) and Led Zeppelin. When Blackmore contacted Underwood for a recommendation for a singer, he immediately gave them Gillan's name. Along with Jon Lord, Blackmore attended an Episode Six gig to listen to Gillan, and shortly afterwards recruited both him and Roger Glover into Deep Purple. Following this shake-up, bassist/singer John Gustafson and keyboard player Pete Robinson were called in to shore up the band, but shortly afterwards the two newcomers left, along with Underwood, to form their own band Quatermass.

Michael John Underwood (born 5 September 1945) is an English drummer. He first played drums at the age of 14 and was a professional musician by the time he left school.