Ritchie Blackmore Biography

Early life

Blackmore was born in Weston-super-Mare, England, but moved to Heston, Middlesex at the age of two. He was 11 when he got his first guitar. His father bought it for him on certain conditions: "He said if I was going to play this thing, he was either going to have someone teach it to me properly, or he was going to smash me across the head with it. So I actually took the lessons for a year – classical lessons - and it got me on to the right footing, using all the fingers and the right strokes of the plectrum and the nonsense that goes with it."
He was influenced in his youth by early rockers like Hank Marvin and Gene Vincent, and later, country pickers like Chet Atkins. His playing improved and in the early 1960s he started out as a session player for Joe Meek's music productions and performed in several bands. He was member of instrumental combo The Outlaws and backed Heinz (playing on his top ten hit "Just Like Eddie"), Screaming Lord Sutch, Glenda Collins and Boz among others. While working for Joe Meek, he got to know engineer Derek Lawrence, who would later produce Deep Purple's first three albums. With organist Jon Lord he co-founded hard rock group Deep Purple in 1968, and continued to be a member of Deep Purple from 1968-1975 and again from 1984-1993.


The first Deep Purple years, 1968-1975

Blackmore co-founded the hard rock group Deep Purple in 1968 with Rod Evans (vocals), Nick Simper (bass), Jon Lord (keyboards), and Ian Paice (drums). The band had a hit US single with its remake of the Joe South song "Hush". After three albums Evans and Simper were replaced by Ian Gillan (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass).
The second line-up's first studio album, In Rock, changed the band's style, turning it in a hard rock direction. Blackmore's guitar riffs, Jon Lord's distorted Hammond organ, and Ian Paice's jazz-influenced drums were enhanced by the vocals of Ian Gillan, who Blackmore has described as being "a screamer with depth and a blues feel."
The next release was titled Fireball and continued in the same hard rock style established on the previous release, with Blackmore's guitar remaining a prominent feature of the band's style.
Deep Purple's next album was titled Machine Head. The band originally intended to record the album at a casino in Montreux, but the night before recording was to begin the casino hosted a Frank Zappa concert (with members of Deep Purple in attendance) at which an audience member fired a flare gun which ignited a fire inside the building and the casino burned down. The entire tragedy is documented in the lyrics of what was to become Deep Purple's historic anthem "Smoke on the Water".
In 1973, shortly after the release of the album Who Do We Think We Are, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover left Deep Purple. Gillan was roommates with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during the early days of the band, and in a 2006 interview Gillan said Blackmore "turned into a weird guy and the day he walked out of the tour was the day the clouds disappeared and the day the sunshine came out and we haven't looked back since." He added that "there are certain personal issues that I have with Ritchie, which means that I will never speak to him again. Nothing I'm going to discuss publicly, but deeply personal stuff."
They were replaced by former Trapeze bassist Glenn Hughes and an unknown singer named David Coverdale. The album recorded by the new line-up was entitled Burn. Deep Purple continued to perform concerts worldwide, including an appearance at the 1974 'California Jam', a televised concert festival that also included many other prominent bands. At the moment Deep Purple were due to appear, Blackmore locked himself in his dressing room and refused to go onstage. Previous performers had finished early, and it was still not sundown, the time at which the band had originally been scheduled to start. Blackmore felt this would dull the effect of the band's light show. After ABC brought in a sheriff to arrest him, Blackmore agreed to perform. At the culmination of the performance he destroyed one of his guitars and threw several amplifiers off the edge of the stage. He also struck one of the ABC cameras with a guitar, and in recorded footage can be seen arranging for his road crew to set off a pyrotechnic device in one of his amplifiers, creating a brief but large fireball.
Deep Purple's next album, Stormbringer, was publicly denounced by Blackmore himself, who disliked the funky soul influences that Hughes and Coverdale injected into the band. Following its release, he departed Deep Purple to front a new group, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, which was originally thought to be a one-off collaboration by Blackmore and the Ronnie James Dio-fronted band Elf, but was later revealed to be a new band project.


The first Rainbow years, 1975-1984

After Deep Purple, Blackmore formed the hard rock band Rainbow. The name of the band Rainbow was inspired by a Hollywood bar and grill called the Rainbow that catered to rock stars, groupies and rock enthusiasts. It was here that Blackmore spent his off time from Deep Purple and met vocalist Ronnie James Dio, whose band Elf had toured regularly as an opening act for Deep Purple.
The band's debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released in 1975. The band's musical style differed from Blackmore's previous band and much of Blackmore's inspiration came from his love of Classical music to pair up with Dio's lyrics about medieval themes.
Blackmore fired every original band member except Dio shortly after the first album was recorded, and recruited a new lineup to record the album Rainbow Rising.
For the next album, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, Blackmore kept drummer Cozy Powell and Dio but replaced the rest of the band. Blackmore had difficulty finding a bass player for this record so he handled bass duties himself on three songs: Gates of Babylon, Kill the King, and Sensitive To Light. After the albums release and supporting tour, Ronnie James Dio left Rainbow due to "creative differences" with Blackmore.
Blackmore continued with Rainbow and the band released a new album entitled Down To Earth. The album contained Blackmore's first chart successes since leaving Deep Purple, as the Graham Bonnet-fronted single "Since You Been Gone" became a huge hit[citation needed]. In 1980 Blackmore's Rainbow headlined the inaugural Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in England.
The title track from the band's next album, Difficult to Cure, was an arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a personal favourite of Blackmore.
Rainbow's next studio album was Straight Between the Eyes and included the hit single "Stone Cold". It would be followed by the album Bent Out of Shape, which featured the single "Street Of Dreams". The song's video was banned by MTV for its supposedly controversial hypnotic video clip. The resulting tour saw Rainbow return to the UK and also to Japan where the band performed with a full orchestra.
By the mid-1980s, Blackmore and his former Deep Purple bandmates had reconciled past differences and a reunion of the successful "Mark II" lineup took place. A final Rainbow album, Finyl Vinyl, was patched together from live tracks and "b" sides of singles.


The second Deep Purple years, 1984-1993

In April 1984, it was announced on BBC Radio's Friday Rock Show that the "Mark Two" line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, and Paice was reforming and recording new material. The band signed a deal with Polydor in Europe and Mercury in North America. The album Perfect Strangers was released in October 1984. A tour followed, starting in Perth, Australia and wound its way across the world and into Europe by the following summer. It was the highest-grossing group tour of the year. The UK homecoming proved mixed as they elected to play just one festival, 'The Return of the Knebworth Fayre', at Knebworth Park on June 22 1985. Despite poor weather conditions, an audience of 80,000 attended the show that also featured The Scorpions, Mama's Boys and Meat Loaf amongst others.
In 1987, the line-up recorded and toured in support of the album, The House of Blue Light. A live album, Nobody's Perfect was released in 1988. A new version of "Hush" was also released to mark the band's twenty year anniversary. In 1989, Ian Gillan was fired from the band because of a poor working relationship with Blackmore. His replacement was former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. The new lineup recorded one album titled Slaves & Masters (1990). Blackmore and his bandmates were disappointed with the efforts of the album and tours.[3]
Neither the album nor the tour were critically or commercially successful. Following its conclusion, Turner was fired from the band. Both Jon Lord and Ian Paice argued that Deep Purple needed Ian Gillan as the band's frontman. Blackmore relented and Gillan returned prior to recording The Battle Rages On in 1993. During the support tour in late 1993, tensions between Gillan and Blackmore reached a climax and Blackmore left the band permanently, his last show with the band was in Helsinki, Finland on 17 November 1993.
Gillan said: "Joe Satriani came in at the last minute. Blackmore walked out and the tour was taking off to Japan...it was all very dramatic. He said: 'Alright, that's the end of the band', and assumed because he left that we were going to fold up." Satriani was asked to join full time but had to decline as he was tied into a long recording contract. A permanent replacement for Blackmore was eventually found in another guitar legend, Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs, who joined the band in 1994. Gillan noted that after Blackmore "walked out, things picked up and recovered unbelievably, remarkably well and the band's in great shape now".


The second Rainbow years, 1993-1997

Ritchie Blackmore reformed Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple a second time in 1993. This Rainbow line up with Doogie White lasted until 1997 and produced the disc Stranger in Us All.


The Blackmore's Night years, 1997-present

In 1997, Blackmore teamed up with Candice Night to create the Renaissance-style group Blackmore's Night. They have also performed the music for Magi Quest, a live simulation game located along the east coast. Their manager, Carole Stevens is Candice Night's mother. (wikipedia.org)


Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (Rainbow)

Ritchie Blackmore - Guitars
Ronnie James Dio - Vocals
Craig Gruber - Bass
Mickey Soule - Keyboards
Gary Driscoll - Drums


Cozy Powell - Drums 1975
Tony Carey - Keyboards - 1975
Jim Bain - Bass 1975
Mark Clarke - Bass 1975
Bob Daisley - Bass 1977
David Stone - Keyboards 1977
Roger Glover - Bass 1978
Don Airey - Keyboards 1978
Graham Bonnet - Vocals 1978
Joe Lynn Turner - Vocals 1980
Bob Rondinelli - Drums 1980
David Rosenthal - Keyboards 1981
Chuck Bürgi - Drums 1983
Paul Morris - Keyboards 1994
John O'Reilly - Drums 1994
Greg Smith - Bass 1994
Doogie White - Vocals 1994
John Michelli - Drums 1996


Blackmore's Night

Ritchie Blackmore - Guitars, Bass, Percussion, Strings
Candice Night - Vocals
John Ford - Bass, Vocals
Jeff Glixman - Keyboards
Kevin Dunne - Drums

Tom Brown - Strings 1997
Lady Green - Strings 1997
Pat Regan - Keyboards 1997
Mick Cervino - Bass 1999
Jens Johanssen - Keyboards 1999
Lady Vita - Guitars, Vocals 2001
Sir Robert - Bass, Vocals, Guitars 2001
Carmen Giglio - Keyboards 2001
Mike Sorrentino - Drums 2001
Chris Divine - Brass, Strings 2001
Lady Madeline - Vocals 2002
Lady Nancy - Vocals 2002
Squire Malcolm - Drums, Percussions 2002
Lord Marnen - Strings, Vocals 2002
Bard David - Keyboards 2003


Hard rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore began studying classical guitar at age eleven, then switched to rock in his teens. He became a session player and worked with Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages before co-founding Deep Purple in '68. Associates claimed that Blackmore was often arrogant and belligerent, and after Deep Purple had peaked, he left in '75 amid rumors of dissension. He founded his own band, made up mostly of members of the upstate New York band Elf, and it was billed alternately as Rainbow or Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. The frequently changing line up included vocalists Ronnie James Dio (who later replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath) and Graham Bonnet (briefly a member of Deep Purple after Ian Gillan left in '73), keyboardist Tony Carey (who later formed his own band, Planet P), and drummer Cozy Powell (formerly of The Jeff Beck Group, later of Whitesnake and Emerson, Lake And Powell, The Michael Schenker Group, and others).
Ritchie Blackmore '77
Ex Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover joined Blackmore in '78 and with vocalist Joe Lynn Turner and Blackmore he cowrote Rainbow's Top Forty hit Stone Cold in '82. Rainbow dissolved in '84 when Blackmore, Glover and the other three members of the "classic" Deep Purple line up got back together. Turner joined Deep Purple in 1990 but was replaced by Ian Gillan. Blackmore's Rainbow resurfaced with a whole different line up in '94 after Blackmore left the reformed Deep Purple. In '97 Blackmore disbanded Rainbow and formed Blackmore's Night with female vocalist Candice Night.