Ritchie Blackmore

Reverend

Stargazer makes up for an awful lot of difficult behaviour.

Phil_aka_Pip

earwighoney said:

Doesn't Richie Blackmore now dress like a medieval wizard now and play the lute and sing songs about the plague or something?  

That's why kids should keep away from drugs. 

blx. listen to Road To Mandalay and hear what he does electric guitar-wise to it. Then listen to some of the acoustic stuff and see if you can reproduce it. The dressing up stuff you can take or leave, it's no different to big hair & spandex in the 80s or ripped T shirts and safety pins in the nose in the late 70s. Or whatever styles have been associated with musical genres since.

Skipped

I don't really know anything about him other than Deep Purple In Rock and Fireball and those alone are jaw dropping.

scrumhalf

Skipped said:

I don't really know anything about him other than Deep Purple In Rock and Fireball and those alone are jaw dropping.

Get hold of Machine Head, it's a step up in class. Worth it for Picture of Home.

ICBM

scrumhalf said:

Skipped said:

I don't really know anything about him other than Deep Purple In Rock and Fireball and those alone are jaw dropping.

Get hold of Machine Head, it's a step up in class. Worth it for Picture of Home.

All three are equally great in my opinion. Who Do We Think We Are is not bad either, although not quite as strong as the other three.

You also need Black Night and Strange Kind Of Woman, so it's worth getting one of the various compilations, or Made In Japan. Or just all of them . (Since the live versions are quite a lot different from the studio ones.)

Placidcasual79

He didn't seem to be aware that it was not possible to distinguish his life from spinal tap. He's rocks David Brent. 

I mean at one point in the documentary he talks about a singer he recruited for Rainbow (Can't remember the name sorry) - liked his voice - got on ok - but didn't like the fact that he had a short back and sides. As a result, Blackmore confessed he felt like knocking said singer up side the head with his guitar. Fair enough in my book - a poor haircut should be punishable with physical violence. Unfortunately whilst Blackmore was regaling the simpering interviewer with this, faux banter, he was wearing an open necked tunic, coupled with the haircut worn by Ian McShane in Lovejoy and a moustache that once belonged to a prepubescent Lionel Ritchie. Amusingly the iron was lost on him. 

I understand that 'artists' life skills can suffer in pursuit of their creative goals - more power to them, this is all well and good and how it should be. But lets be clear, his was not great art, at best and for a limited period he was to some peoples taste an admired and technically superior guitar player. All well and good - fair play to him - but don't take your self so seriously. Its only rock n roll!!! 

ICBM

Placidcasual79 said:

I mean at one point in the documentary he talks about a singer he recruited for Rainbow (Can't remember the name sorry) - liked his voice - got on ok - but didn't like the fact that he had a short back and sides.

Graham Bonnet.

That was one of the things I always liked about Bonnet - he never felt the need to conform to the "dress code" of rock/metal. It is an irony both that something supposedly rebellious does appear to have quite a strict dress code, and that Blackmore was at that point somewhat lacking in the hair department as well...

Philly_Q

He didn't last long, Graham Bonnet - I saw them at the first Monsters of Rock in 1980 which I think was his last show, only about a year after Down to Earth was released.  

But he did OK out of it, going on to MSG, Alcatrazz, Impellitteri etc.  And he always kept the short hair - which has gone in and out of fashion with rock/metal bands a few times over the years, although it was very unusual in 1979.

EricTheWeary

Bonnett looked ancient in the documentary, although he hadn't gone down the syrup route favoured by Blackmore and Joe Lynn Turner ( who seemed to be wearing a badger on his head). IIRC Graham had epilepsy and ended up struggling to perform and had to give up.

richardhomer

Anyone find it amusing that a man criticised for his hair-style was called 'Bonnet'?

Just me then....

FelineGuitars

Bonnet is going to play with Michael Schenker again at Sweden Rock this year along with Gary Barden and Robin McAuley

Amazing singer when he's on form.

Both Blackmore and Schenker (amongst others) reminded me that sometimes it's worth enjoying your musical heroes just for their music and not get too in depth about their personal matters if you still want to like them.

Reverend

Beefheart, Zappa, Miles Davis, James Brown and more.

Paul_C

Since You've Been Gone is my favourite Rainbow song so *fart noise* to Blackmore

xSkarloey

Completely agree with @felineguitars.

I know it's only natural to want to know about our artistic heroes, but sometimes it's better to separate the life from the art, or at least try to park to one side what unsavoury stuff we might have learned about someone.

Sir Richard De Blackmoor is clearly very arsey, but I think there have been worse people who were artists. On the evidence of some of the tales, he's probably got some sort of personality disorder/ social anxiety.

Neil

FelineGuitars said:

Both Blackmore and Schenker (amongst others) reminded me that sometimes it's worth enjoying your musical heroes just for their music and not get too in depth about their personal matters if you still want to like them.

Wise words.

scrumhalf

For all of the negative aspects to his personality he did say he couldn't understand the appeal of Bruce Springsteeen, which is a huge plus-point in his favour.

ICBM

Paul_C said:

Since You've Been Gone is my favourite Rainbow song

Interestingly, this song (written by Russ Ballard of Argent) was a minor hit for South African girl group Clout a year earlier.

I do prefer the Rainbow version though .

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Paul_C said:

Since You've Been Gone is my favourite Rainbow song

Interestingly, this song (written by Russ Ballard of Argent) was a minor hit for South African girl group Clout a year earlier.

I do prefer the Rainbow version though .

I was listening to the Impellitteri version yesterday, prompted by this thread.  The arrangement is totally bombastic, with loads of ludicrously OTT guitar from Chris Impellitteri, but Bonnet basically does exactly the same vocal as he did on the Rainbow version. >:D<

viz

Philly_Q said:

He didn't last long, Graham Bonnet - I saw them at the first Monsters of Rock in 1980

This is my Percy Edwards!! Just went to ebay to get that record, I think it was the first I ever had, to see that they've just released the DVD.

EricTheWeary

ICBM;1040750" said:

Paul_C said:

Since You've Been Gone is my favourite Rainbow song










Interestingly, this song (written by Russ Ballard of Argent) was a minor hit for South African girl group Clout a year earlier.

I do prefer the Rainbow version though .

Substitute, woah oh, whenever you want me... why weren't Clout bigger? Substitute was the catchiest song in the world. B-)