Saw Jon live many times; one of my favourite memories is seeing him in the Ulster Hall with Whitesnake when they were still a bluesy band with Micky Moody and Bermnie Marsden, and he did a quite magnificent party piece of a solo.
The first band i was in our drummers uncle was their manager, used to get tickets to all their London concerts.
I'll never forget the first time, a private box at The Roundhouse in ChalkFarm, I'd never seen or heard anything like it, but that was it, forget all the tamla soul stuff, it was rock from that moment on.
Jon Lords solos were stunning, I suppose thats what real musicians do though