Editing Jon Lord (section)

==Whitesnake, 1978–1984==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2014}}
Lord's job in Whitesnake was largely limited to adding colour (or, in his own words, a 'halo') to round out a blues-rock sound that already accommodated two lead guitarists, [[Bernie Marsden]] and [[Micky Moody]]. He added a [[Yamaha Corporation|Yamaha]] [[Electric grand piano|CP-70 electric piano]] to his set-up and finally a huge bank of synthesizers onstage courtesy of Moog ([[Minimoog]], Opus, [[Polymoog]]) so he could play the 12-bar blues the band often required and recreate string section and other effects. Such varied work is evident on tracks like "[[Here I Go Again]]", "Wine, Women and Song", "She's a Woman" and "Till the Day I Die". A number of singles entered the UK chart, taking the now 30-something Lord onto ''[[Top of the Pops]]'' with regularity between 1980 and 1983. He later expressed frustration that he was a poorly paid hired-hand, but fans saw little of this discord and Whitesnake's commercial success kept him at the forefront of readers' polls as heavy rock's foremost keyboard maestro. His dissatisfaction (and Coverdale's eagerness to revamp the band's line-up and lower the average age to help crack the US market) smoothed the way for the reformation of Deep Purple Mk II in 1984.

Jon Lord's last [[Whitesnake]] concert took place in the [[Television in Sweden|Swedish TV]] programme ''Måndagsbörsen'' on 16 April 1984.

During his tenure in Whitesnake, Lord had the opportunity to record two distinctly different solo albums. 1982s ''Before I Forget'' featured a largely conventional eight-song line-up, no orchestra and with the bulk of the songs being either mainstream rock tracks ("Hollywood Rock And Roll", "Chance on a Feeling"), or – specifically on side two – a series of English classical piano ballads sung by the mother and daughter duo [[Vicki Brown (singer)|Vicki Brown]] and [[Sam Brown (singer)|Sam Brown]] (wife and daughter of entertainer [[Joe Brown (singer)|Joe Brown]]) and vocalist [[Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera|Elmer Gantry]] as well as piano and synthesiser instrumentals such as "Burntwood", named after Lord's stately Oxfordshire home at the time. The album also boasted the cream of British rock talent, including the session drummer (and [[National Youth Jazz Orchestra]] alumnus) [[Simon Phillips (drummer)|Simon Phillips]], [[Cozy Powell]], [[Neil Murray (British musician)|Neil Murray]], [[Simon Kirke]], [[Boz Burrell]] and [[Mick Ralphs]].

Additionally, Lord was commissioned by producer Patrick Gamble for [[ITV Central|Central Television]] to write the soundtrack for their 1984 TV series, ''[[Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady]]'', based on the book by [[Edith Holden]], with an orchestra conducted by Alfred Ralston and with a distinctly gentle, pastoral series of themes composed by Lord. Lord became firmly established as a member of UK rock's "[[Oxfordshire]] mansion aristocracy" – with a home, Burntwood Hall, set in {{convert|23.5|acre|ha}} at [[Goring-on-Thames]], complete with its own cricket pitch and a hand-painted Challen baby [[grand piano]], previously owned by [[Shirley Bassey]]. He was asked to guest on albums by friends [[George Harrison]] (''[[Gone Troppo]]'' from 1982) and Pink Floyd's [[David Gilmour]] (1984's ''[[About Face (album)|About Face]]''), Cozy Powell (''Octopuss'' in 1983) and to play on an adaptation of [[Kenneth Grahame]]'s 1908 classic, ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]''.  He composed and produced the score for ''[[White Fire (film)|White Fire]]'' (1984), which consisted largely of two songs performed by Limelight. In 1985 he made a brief appearance as a member of The Singing Rebel's band (which also featured [[Eric Clapton]], [[George Harrison]] and [[Ringo Starr]]) in the [[Dick Clement]] and [[Ian La Frenais]]-scripted film ''[[Water (1985 film)|Water]]'' (1985) ([[Handmade Films]]).

In the 1980s he was also a member of an all-star band called [[Olympic Rock & Blues Circus]] fronted by [[Pete York]] and featuring a rotating line-up of [[Miller Anderson (musician)|Miller Anderson]], [[Tony Ashton]], [[Brian Auger]], [[Zoot Money]], [[Colin Hodgkinson]], [[Chris Farlowe]] and many others. Olympic Rock & Blues Circus toured primarily in Germany between 1981 and 1989.  Some musicians, including Lord, took part in York's TV musical extravaganza ''Superdrumming'' between 1987 and 1989.