Late 1972 to early 1973

Baby Face   

After Gillan had made his decision to leave Deep Purple during late 1972, Blackmore decided to do the same thing. He had loose plans to form a band with Phil Lynott, Paul Rodgers and Ian Paice, which has later become known as Baby Face. Rodgers dumped the project even before it had begun. Some people claim that recordings exist (with Lynott handling vocals), but others claim that it's just rumours. At any rate, it never materialized into anything concrete.