Ritchie Blackmore

Ritchie Blackmore is an British guitarist and songwriter, began his professional career as a session musician as a member of the instrumental band The Outlaws and as a backing musician of pop singers Glenda Collins, Heinz, Screaming Lord Sutch, Neil Christian, etc.. Blackmore was also one of the original members of Deep Purple, playing jam-style rock music which mixed simple guitar riffs and organ sounds During his solo career, he established neo-classical metal band called Rainbow which fused baroque music influences elements with hard rock…

The true power of music is impossible to define and yet we can all feel it when the sonic planets align. The magical impact of the finest rock'n'roll - that hazy but overwhelming blend of inspiration and perspiration - sustains us through dark times and fills our hearts with joy and strength. Music unites us, nourishes us and provides us with an emotional clarity that the rest of our turbulent lives singularly fails to offer. For those reasons and many more, we must proudly acknowledge and salute the true architects of the musical world that we call home. Above all else, Ritchie Blackmore is one of rock's greatest architects; a six-string seer that laid robust foundations upon which four decades of thunderous, perpetual evolution have taken place.

Ritchie Blackmore is beyond doubt one of the all-time great guitar players. From his pop roots with The Outlaws and his many session recordings in the sixties, through defining hard rock with Deep Purple and Rainbow in the seventies and eighties and on to the renaissance rock of Blackmore s Night, Ritchie has proved that he is a master of the guitar across a multitude of styles…

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is the first studio album by British rock band Rainbow, released in 1975. During studio sessions in Tampa Bay, Florida on 12 December 1974, Blackmore originally planned to record the solo single "Black Sheep of the Family"- a cover of a track by the band Quatermass from 1970 - and the newly composed "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves", which was to be the B-side. Other musicians involved included singer/lyricist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll of blues rock band Elf, and cellist Hugh McDowell of ELO. Satisfied with the two tracks, Blackmore decided to extend the sessions to a full album.

English guitar virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Ritchie Blackmore is a principal architect of the early hard rock and heavy metal sound. A scholar of blues, heavy metal, progressive rock, folk, and classical, he is a longtime member of Deep Purple, the founder of Rainbow and Blackmore's Night, and is responsible for one of the most enduring riffs of all time, Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water." With the latter group, he has recorded dozens of albums, including the classics Fireball (1971) and Machine Head (1972), and with the supergroup Rainbow (which also featured Ronnie James Dio for a time), he issued eight studio LPs and landed chart hits with "Since You've Been Gone" and "Stone Cold." In the late 1990s, he formed the Baroque, Celtic, and Renaissance music-inspired progressive folk group Blackmore's Night, and went on to release ten albums, with highlights arriving via 2001's Fires at Midnight and 2013's Dancer and the Moon. In 2016, Blackmore was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside his Deep Purple bandmates.

Perhaps the first example of "dragon rock" – a style perfected by bands like Iron Maiden and Dio in the early to mid-'80s – was Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, a rather pretentious 1975 collection from the guitarist's first post-Deep Purple project. Fittingly enough, a young Ronnie James Dio provides the goblin-like frontman presence required by the increasingly Baroque Blackmore. The young Dio is at his best when he fully gives in to his own and Blackmore's medieval fantasy leanings, in hard-rocking tracks like "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" and "Man on the Silver Mountain." The dark, trudging doom rock of "Self Portrait" most clearly showcases what they were capable of. The album's ponderous lyrics are occasionally punctuated by poetic phrases such as "crossbows in the firelight."

Ritchie Blackmore is an British guitarist and songwriter, began his professional career as a session musician as a member of the instrumental band The Outlaws and as a backing musician of pop singers Glenda Collins, Heinz, Screaming Lord Sutch, Neil Christian, etc.. Blackmore was also one of the original members of Deep Purple, playing jam-style rock music which mixed simple guitar riffs and organ sounds During his solo career, he established neo-classical metal band called Rainbow which fused baroque music influences elements with hard rock…

In June 2016, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore made his much-anticipated return to rock music as Ritchie Blackmor' s Rainbow played three concerts in Europe, two in Germany and one in England. Recordings from the two German shows at Loreley and Bietigheim make up this live album Memories In Rock. The setlist, combining classic tracks from both Deep Purple and Rainbow, was exactly what the fans had wished for…

Their debut album, Shadow Of the Moon was released 20 years ago, in May 1997. Since then, Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow) and his muse - and wife - Candice Night have entertained their loyal fans with a symbiosis of medieval melodies, mystical lyrics and modern musical arrangements. Their idea of fusing classical elements and Renaissance music with the 'here and now' is as impressive today as it was in 1997. Their many gold awards coupled with a worldwide fan base underline their status as the premiere act in their chosen genre. With this set, fans and novices alike can celebrate 20 years of Blackmore's Night. CD One contains 13 of the best tracks from their successful albums plus an exciting nine-minute live version of the fan favorite 'Home Again. CD Two boasts five never before released new versions, two further bonus tracks, five of their favorite instrumental tracks, as well as the current single by Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, 'Land Of Hope And Glory and a bonus video!

Legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore shifted his musical focus away from hard rock in the late '90s and started concentrating on his love of Renaissance-era music. He formed Blackmore's Night with his fiancée, vocalist/lyricist Candice Night, and recruited other musicians from around the world to combine elements of world music, Renaissance, new age, folk, and rock & roll. Blackmore didn't exactly retire his Fender Stratocaster, but he plays acoustic guitar almost exclusively in Blackmore's Night. His acoustic guitar melodies and Night's clear, ethereal voice blend with a host of instruments such as mandolins, keyboards, pennywhistles, violins, tambourines, military drums, and hurdy-gurdies. Blackmore once described the band's sound as "Mike Oldfield meets Enya."