About Me
This is NOT an official Ritchie Blackmore site,but that of a dedicated fan who loves Ritchie no matter what anybody thinks of him.
And that especially includes Ian Gillan.
Ritchie Blackmore was born in 1945, in Avon, England. After spending a few years as a session guitarist, Blackmore played in a number of bands before forming Deep Purple in 1968. The band was signed by E.M.I in the same year and had a hit with their first album, Shades of Deep Purple.The following year, the band released their classic album, Deep Purple then changed their line-up (Ian Gillan on vocals and Roger Glover on bass.) In September of the same year, they released their most adventurous album to date, Concerto For Group And Orchestra, featuring The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London.1970 saw the release of their blockbusting album, Deep Purple In Rock, which stayed in the U.K charts for over a year and featured Blackmore's dynamic guitar playing on such hits as Black Night, Strange Kind Of Woman and Child in Time.In 1971, the band went from strength to strength a U.S tour (with The Faces) and a new album (Fireball.) This was also the year that they wrote the now legendary song Smoke On The Water, featuring one the most-played riffs in guitar history. This was included in 1972's album, Machine Head. Made In Japan (live album) and Who Do We Think We Are followed in 1973. In 1974, Ian Gillan was replaced by David Coverdale and the band released two albums, Burn and Stormbringer.Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975, to form his new band, Rainbow, and throughout the remainder of the seventies, the band toured Europe, the U.S and Japan, recording albums like Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rainbow Rising, On Stage, Long Live Rock n' Roll and Down To Earth. The group also had their biggest hit single, I Surrender, in 1981.Rainbow continued to tour and record until 1984, when Blackmore was approached to re-form the most successful line-up of Deep Purple. The years between '84 and '93 saw Blackmore play guitar on a further four Purple albums and tour the world, selling out wherever they played.Blackmore quit the band to reform Rainbow in '95. After sell-out shows across the globe (including South America), Ritchie formed an all-new band, Blackmore's Night. Together with vocalist, Candice Night, the band has been recording and touring extensively ever since, with albums like Shadow Of The Moon and Fires at Midnight.This profile was edited with Thomas' myspace editor™ V2.5
