[1] He left Cambridge in 1957 and joined Sandy Brown's quintet on double bass for a six-month period at the popular 100 Club in Oxford Street, London.
In 1961 he worked alongside composer and musician Charles Mingus on the music score for the film All Night Long which was eventually released in February 1962.
Later in the decade he continued working with Brown and Coe, as well as with Brian Lemon (on bass), Humphrey Lyttelton, and Phil Seamen on drums.
Purbrook was a frequent sideman for Americans touring the UK, and worked over the course of his career with Chet Baker, Ruby Braff, Benny Carter, Doc Cheatham, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Art Farmer, Dexter Gordon, Barney Kessel, Howard McGhee, James Moody, Annie Ross, Zoot Sims, and Buddy Tate.
During the Nineties he continued to tour and appear on radio and television and, despite the fact that he began to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis in 1995, worked at the same unrelenting pace as before.