Editing Jon Lord (section)

===Move to London===
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2014}}
Lord moved to London in September 1960, intent on an acting career and enrolling at the [[Royal Central School of Speech and Drama]], in London's [[Swiss Cottage]]. Following a celebrated student rebellion he became a founder of [[Drama Centre London]], from where he graduated in 1964. Small acting parts followed, including in the British TV series, [[Emergency - Ward 10]], and Lord continued playing the piano and the organ in [[nightclub]]s and as a session musician to earn a living. He started his band career in London in 1960 with the jazz ensemble [[Bill Ashton (jazz musician)|The Bill Ashton Combo]]. Ashton became a key figure in jazz education in Britain, creating what later became the [[National Youth Jazz Orchestra]]. Between 1960 and 1963, Lord and Ashton both moved on to Red Bludd's Bluesicians (also known as The Don Wilson Quartet), the latter of which featured the singer [[Art Wood|Arthur "Art" Wood]], brother of guitarist [[Ronnie Wood]]. Wood had previously sung with [[Alexis Korner]]'s [[Blues Incorporated]] and was a well-known figure in the British blues movement. Somewhere around this time, Lord altered his birth name spelling from "John" to the more contemporary "Jon". In this period, Lord's session credits included playing the keyboards in the number one song "[[You Really Got Me]]" by [[The Kinks]]', released in 1964; however in a ''Guitar World'' interview, Kinks frontman [[Ray Davies]] stated it was actually [[Arthur Greenslade]] playing piano on that particular track.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Alan de Perna|journal=Guitar World|title=You Really Got Me|date=January 1997}}</ref>

Following the break-up of Redd Bludd's Bluesicians in late 1963, Wood, Lord, and the drummer Red Dunnage put together a new band, The Art Wood Combo. This also included Derek Griffiths (guitar) and Malcolm Pool (bass guitar). Dunnage left in December 1964 to be replaced by [[Keef Hartley]], who had previously replaced [[Ringo Starr]] in [[Rory Storm]] and the Hurricanes. This band, later known as "[[The Artwoods]]", focused on the organ as the bluesy, rhythmic core of their sound, in common with the contemporary bands [[The Spencer Davis Group]] ([[Steve Winwood]] on organ) and [[The Animals]] (with [[Alan Price]]). They made appearances on the BBC's ''[[Saturday Club (BBC radio)|Saturday Club]]'' radio show and on such TV programs as ''[[Ready Steady Go!]]''. It also performed abroad, and it appeared on the first ''Ready Steady Goes Live'', promoting its first single the [[Lead Belly]] song "Sweet Mary" — but significant commercial success eluded it. Its only charting single was "I Take What I Want", which reached number 28 on 8 May 1966.

This band regrouped in 1967 as the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". This was an attempt to cash in on the 1930s gangster craze set off by the American film ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]''. Hartley left the band in 1967 to join [[John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers]]. Lord next founded the blues-influenced [[Santa Barbara Machine Head]], featuring Art's brother, [[Ronnie Wood]], writing and recording three powerful keyboard-driven instrumental tracks, giving a preview of the future style of [[Deep Purple]]. Soon thereafter, Lord went on to cover for the keyboard player Billy Day in [[The Flower Pot Men]], where he met the bass guitarist [[Nick Simper]] along with drummer [[Carlo Little]] and guitarist [[Ged Peck]]. Lord and Simper then toured with this band in 1967 to promote its hit single "[[Let's Go to San Francisco]]", but the two men never recorded with this band.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}}