| Ritchie Blackmore | |
|---|---|
In Chicago, 2009 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard Hugh Blackmore |
| Born | 14 April 1945 Weston-super-Mare, England |
| Genres | Hard rock, folk rock, blues rock, heavy metal, neo-classical metal, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, New Age |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, bass, cello, keyboards, hurdy gurdy, mandolin, mandola, drums, percussion |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Labels | Tetragrammaton, Warner Bros., Polydor, BMG, Edel, SPV, Spinefarm |
| Associated acts | The Outlaws, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Blackmore's Night |
| Website | blackmoresnight.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Ritchie Blackmore Signature Stratocaster Gibson ES-335 |
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Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is a British guitarist and songwriter, who is known as one of the first guitarists to fuse classical music elements with blues rock.[1] He began his career as a studio session guitarist and was subsequently a member of Deep Purple, after which Blackmore established his solo career fronting his own band Rainbow, and later progressed to traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night.
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Blackmore was born at Allandale Nursing Home, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, South West England, but moved to Heston, Middlesex (now Greater London) at the age of two. Although the surname Blackmore is thought to be of English origin, his father was Welsh heritage and his mother was English heritage.[2] He was 11 when he got his first guitar. His father bought it for him on certain conditions, including learning how to play properly, so he actually took the classical guitar lessons for a year.[3]
Whilst at school he did well at sports including the javelin. Blackmore left school at age 15 and started work as an apprentice radio mechanic at nearby Heathrow Airport. He was given guitar lessons by Big Jim Sullivan.
In about 1960 or 1961 he played with minor local bands, including one called the Jaywalkers.[4] His playing improved and in 1963 he began to work as a session player for Joe Meek's music productions and performed in several bands. He was a member of the instrumental combo, The Outlaws, and backed Heinz (playing on his top ten hit "Just Like Eddie"), and Glenda Collins among others. From his youth his guitar play was partly inspired by violin.
Blackmore joined the rock group Deep Purple in 1968 after receiving the invitation from Jon Lord (organs). The band had a hit US single with its remake of the Joe South song "Hush". Purple's early sound leaned on psychedelia and progressive rock.[5] The first line-up recorded a mixture of original and cover materials. This "Mark One" line-up featuring singer Rod Evans lasted until mid-1969 and produced three studio albums.
The second line-up's first studio album, In Rock (1970), changed the band's style, turning it in a hard rock direction. This "Mark Two" line-up featuring singer Ian Gillan lasted until mid-1973, produced four studio albums and had their well-known hit single "Smoke on the Water".
The third line-up's new album was entitled Burn (1974), which featured blues singer, David Coverdale. This "Mark Three" line-up lasted until mid-1975 and produced two studio albums. Blackmore publicly disliked the funky soul influences that Coverdale and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes injected into the band.[6] Following its conclusion, he abandoned the band to front a new group, Rainbow.
Blackmore originally planned to make a solo album, but instead in 1975 formed his own band Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, later shortened to Rainbow. Featuring American vocalist Ronnie James Dio and his blues rock band Elf as session musicians, this first line-up never performed live. Rainbow's music was partly inspired by classical music since Blackmore started playing cello to help him construct interesting chord progressions in private time.[7][8][9]
The band's debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released in 1975. Blackmore had been impressed by Dio's relatively flexible vocalist-style. Shortly after the first album was recorded, former Elf members except Dio were at that point no longer members of Rainbow, and Blackmore recruited a new lineup to record the second album Rising (1976), and the following live album, On Stage (1977). Rising was originally billed as Blackmore's Rainbow in the US. After the next studio album's release and supporting tour, Ronnie James Dio left Rainbow due to "creative differences" with Blackmore, who disliked Dio's signature 'Dungeons & Dragons' lyric style.
Blackmore continued with Rainbow and the band released a new album entitled Down To Earth (1979), which featured R&B singer Graham Bonnet. The album marked the commercialization of the band's sound, and contained Rainbow's first chart successes, as the single "Since You Been Gone" (a cover of the Russ Ballard penned tune) became a smash hit.[10] Bonnet left the band after this support tour.
The next album, Difficult to Cure (1981), introduced American vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. The instrumental title track from this album was an arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with additional music, a personal favourite of Blackmore's. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound with Blackmore once describing at the time liking for the pop rock band, Foreigner.[11] The music was consciously radio-targeted, in a more AOR style.[12] Hard rock-based fans thought the vocal parts ended up being a bit too melodic than Rainbow's previous releases. Rainbow's next studio album was Straight Between the Eyes (1982) and included the hit single "Stone Cold." It would be followed by the album Bent Out of Shape (1983), which featured the single "Street Of Dreams". In 1983 Blackmore was also nominated for a Grammy Award for his work on an instrumental ballard track, "Anybody There".[13] Rainbow disbanded in 1984. A then-final Rainbow album, Finyl Vinyl, was patched together from live tracks and the "B" sides of various singles.
In 1984, Blackmore joined a reunion of the former Deep Purple "Mark Two" line-up featuring singer Ian Gillan and recorded new material. This reunion line-up lasted until 1989 and produced two studio albums.
The next line-up recorded one album entitled Slaves & Masters (1990), which featured former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. The album's style differed from the traditional Purple sound. Subsequently, the former "Mark Two" line-up reunited for a second time in late 1992 and produced one studio album. Following its conclusion, Blackmore left the band for good on November 1993.
Blackmore reformed Rainbow with new members in 1994. This Rainbow line-up featuring Scottish singer Doogie White lasted until 1997 and produced one album entitled Stranger in Us All in 1995. It was originally intended to be a solo album, but due to the record company pressures, the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow.[14] Released in the post-grunge mid-1990s, the album achieved modest success, particularly in Europe, and a relatively successful world tour followed. Though Doogie White wasn't as distinctive as its previous singers, with a style comfortably sitting somewhere between the neo-classical metal and the radio friendly commerciality, Stranger In Us All had a sound dissimilar to any Rainbow of old.[15] This is regarded as his last hard rock album. Rainbow was put on hold once again, after playing its final concert in 1997.
Over the years Rainbow went through many personnel changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up: Blackmore was the sole constant band member.[10] While with Rainbow he changed his musical approach multiple times following each lead singer's departure and it is said that the result was the confusion and alienation of many of his supporters.[16]
In 1997, Blackmore and his girlfriend (future wife) Candice Night as the band's vocalist formed the traditional folk rock duo Blackmore's Night. Around the same time as production of Stranger in Us All (1995), they were already gearing up their debut album Shadow of the Moon (1997).[17] Though she didn't have experience as a professional singer, Blackmore noticed Night's potential singing ability and encouraged her to become his musical partner. Blackmore portrayed the sound as "Mike Oldfield plus Enya"[18] Blackmore played acoustic guitar almost exclusively,[19] and Nighte sang delicate like an angel. The electric guitar parts ended up being a bit too few, but that's virtually his another solo project following Rainbow. On song construction, Blackmore usually writes her vocal melodies.[9] He often hums in private time, but he never sing publicly.[20]
The band's musical style differs radically from Blackmore's previous band and much of Blackmore's inspiration came from his favorite Renaissance music which blends well with Night's lyrics about medieval themes or fantasy. It features a mixture of Renaissance-styled songs, contemporary songs, arrangements and instrumentals. Blackmore's Night was originally thought to be a one-off collaboration, but was later revealed to be a new band project. The band has steadily released a new studio album about every 2 or 3 years.
The second release, entitled Under a Violet Moon (1999) continued in the same folk-rock style, with Night's vocals remaining a prominent feature of the band's style.
In subsequent albums, particularly Fires at Midnight (2001), there was sometimes an increased incorporation of rock guitar into the music, whilst maintaining a folk rock direction. A live album, Past Times with Good Company was released in 2002. After the next studio album's release, a official compilation album Beyond the Sunset: The Romantic Collection was released in 2004, featuring music from the four studio albums. A Christmas-themed holiday album, Winter Carols was released in 2006. Through numerous personnel changes, the backing musicians have totalled about 25 persons.[21] Possibly to concentrate on album production,[22] they chose to avoid typically rock concert tour to perform, instead limiting their appearances in small theatre or 12th century castles.[23][24] Blackmore has a collection of approximately 2,000 CDs of Renaissance music.[25] Their music is generally categorised as belonging to New age music and sold well throughout in Germany and Russia.[9]
During the 1960s, Blackmore played a Gibson ES-335 but switched to a Fender Stratocaster after buying a secondhand Stratocaster with a Telecaster neck from Eric Clapton's roadie. Since then, until Blackmore's Night, he used Stratocasters almost exclusively. The middle pickup is screwed down and not used, with only the bass and treble pickup selectors operating. Blackmore has also occasionally used a Fender Telecaster Thinline during recording sessions.
From 1970 to 1997, Blackmore almost exclusively played a Fender Stratocaster. He is also one of the first rock guitarists to have used a "scalloped" fretboard where the wood is filed and carved out into a shallow "U" shape between the frets. He often plays the riff without a pick, using two fingers to pluck the strings in fourths, but he's also using his thumb to pluck the bass notes of riff.
In his soloing, Blackmore combines blues scales and phrasing with dominant minor scales and ideas from European classical music. While playing he would often put the pick in his mouth, playing with his fingers. He occasionally uses the diatonic scale, with rapidly changing tonality as evidenced by his solo in "Child In Time".
In the 1970s, Blackmore used a number of different Stratocasters; his main guitar (until the Long Live Rock 'n' Roll album) was a sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard that was scalloped.[26] Blackmore added a strap lock to the headstock of this guitar as a conversation piece to annoy and confuse people.[27]
His amplifers were originally 200W Marshall Major stacks which were modified by Marshall with an additional output stage (generated approximately 278W) to make them sound more like Blackmore's favourite Vox AC-30 amp, cranked to full volume. Since 1994, he has used Engl valve amps. One of the reasons he cited was that the Marshall heads did not sound as good as the Engls at low volume.
Effects he used from 1970 to 1997, besides his usual tape echo, included a Hornby Skewes Treble Booster in the early days. Around the time of the Burn sessions, he experimented with an EMS Synthi Hi Fli guitar synthesizer. He sometimes used a wah-wah pedal and a variable control treble-booster for sustain, and Moog Taurus bass pedals were used in solo parts during concerts. He also had a modified Aiwa TP-1011 tape machine built to supply echo and delay effects; the tape deck was also used as a pre-amp.[26] Other effects that Blackmore used were a Unicord Univibe, a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and an Octave Divider.
In the mid-1980s he experimented with Roland guitar synthesizers. A Roland GR-700 was seen on stage as late as 1995-96, later replaced with the GR-50.
His strings used from 1970 to 1997 were Picato brand (.010, .011, .014, .026, .038, .048).
Blackmore has experimented with many different pickups in his Strats. In the early Rainbow era, they were still stock Fenders, later Dawk installed overwound, dipped, Fender pickups. He has also used Schecter F-500-Ts, Velvet Hammer "Red Rhodes", DiMarzio "HS-2", OBL "Black Label", Bill Lawrence L-450, XL-250 (bridge), L-250 (neck). He used Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Flat SSL-4 for several years and since the late 80s he has used Lace Sensor (Gold) "noiseless" pickups.
Blackmore lived in Hamburg for a while during late 1960s,[28] during his marriage with German woman Margit Volkmar (b. 3 Jan 1945),[29] until their divorce in 1969. They had a son, Jürgen (b. 1964), who was playing guitar in touring tribute band Over the Rainbow.
Blackmore was married to another German, dancer Bärbel Hardie, from September 1969[30] until their divorce in mid-1970s.[8] As a result, he is a fluent German speaker.[28] His third marriage, on 16 May 1981, to Amy Rothman,[31] ended in divorce in 1987.
He and Candice Night lived together from 1991. After being engaged for nearly fifteen years,[32] the couple married on October 2008.[33] Their daughter, Autumn was born on May 2010.[34][35]
He moved to the U.S.A. to form Rainbow in the mid-1970s, then resides in her birthplace's Long Island since 1993.[36] Blackmore plays soccer once a week,[22] and always watches German language television on the satellite dish when he stays at his home.[37]
Blackmore was ranked number 16 on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" in 2004,[38] and number 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011.[1]
Session recordings (1963–1968)
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Previously unreleased outtakes
Compilation uses
Guest appearances
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