Deep Purple's Jon Lord passes away at the age of 71

Jon Lord, who founded Deep Purple and co-wrote their most famous song, Smoke On The Water, has died aged 71.

The Leicester-born keyboard player, who had pancreatic cancer, died in London.

A statement on his website said he had passed "from Darkness to Light".

The statement said he was "surrounded by his loving family" when he died.

Last year, Jon Lord told fans he was "fighting cancer and will therefore be taking a break from performing while getting the treatment and cure".

In a message on his website in August last year, he said : "I shall of course be continuing to write music - in my world it just has to be part of the therapy - and I fully expect to be back in good shape next year."

Jon Lord started playing the piano in his family home and took classical music lessons before turning to jazz and rock 'n' roll.

He moved to London at 19 to go to drama school, but was soon playing piano in pubs and bars and in 1964 joined cult blues band the Artwoods.

When they split up, he went on tour with manufactured psychedelic pop combo The Flowerpot Men, before joining Deep Purple in 1968.

The heavy rockers sold more than 100 million albums - many featuring Lord's classically inspired keyboards.

But their most famous song was the simple Smoke On The Water with its trademark riff.

The band split in 1976 and Lord joined bandmate Ian Paice in Paice Ashton Lord before playing with Whitesnake and a reformed Deep Purple.

The world of rock has been paying its respects to Jon Lord.