![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey2.jpg)
We’ll raise a glass, maybe two
Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night were inducted into the Long Island Music And Entertainment Hall Of Fame, with the ceremony that took place on May 13, 2025. It was a low-key affair with minimal glitz and glamour. Nevertheless, Ritchie decided not to show up, for one reason or another. Here is a video. A couple of congratulatory speeches, Candice performs a few tracks from her new solo album and a Blackmore’s Night staple Dandelion Wine, their daughter Autumn Esmeralda makes an appearance. Caveat: the whole thing is rather sugary sweet, so if that’s not exactly your cup of tea, you might want to abstain from watching it and complaining.
“Missing Blackmore” consolation prize — Blackmore’s Night performing Temple of the King (dedicated to Ronnie James Dio) in Phoenixville, PA, on April 24, 2025:
Thanks to Rob Teller Photography and wayne wellens for the videos, and to Blabbermouth for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
good on you Ritchie, a no show is a good show at that sort of pretence. Cheers.
May 18th, 2025 at 22:16Why complain, it’s a family affair, sort of like a school play. I have no issues with it. And these are obviously live performances, which in this day and age is commendable.
Autumn has all grown! Time for the debutante ball, young lady, you know how your parents adore an era where all marriages were prearranged and entered into only to strengthen (rock) nobility ties …
Whether I would personally want to be caught in medieval cosplay garb on Long Island of all places is another matter. I make it a habit to not dress as Cowboys & Injuns on German streets either. 🙄
Man, I wish Ritchie @o1:23 would have just kept playing …
https://youtu.be/qCoUmMDiEhs
that would have been a set highlight!
PS: Ritchie called off his appearance at the LIM&EHoF induction at the last minute when they told him he wouldn’t be allowed to smash his lute! 🫢
May 18th, 2025 at 23:52Not showing up for his induction – that’s vintage Ritchie for you. Don’t we all love him for things like this?
May 19th, 2025 at 07:52If Edith received an award like that and I chose to not go … I fear my freedom of self-expression would be severely impacted by marital stress, just sayin’. 🙄😁
Tasmanian cheers of “no show is a good show at that sort of pretense” seem to be fueled by youthful vigor for “raising hell” and “showing them where it’s at!”, but perhaps a bit short-sighted considering what kind of messages are transmitted if
– your partner goes to such an event, but you consider it beneath you,
– you live for decades in a more rural community that bestows an honor like that upon you, combines it with a really low-key and less than pretentious celebration at which you as the famous Brit rock star in semi-retirement cannot be arsed to appear (while Joan Jett had apparently no issues with being there when she was inducted, unworried about how this would look with her “cool rock chick with a Les Paul Junior” + LGBTQ street credibility).
I know, the Ritchie altar boys here will jump at the opportunity of depicting this as yet another show of the free spirit of a great maverick artist and auteur, uninhibited by the concerns of lesser mortals about how this all might go down with other people. I mean it would have been really terrible for his charismatic reputation had he joined his wife, picked up an acoustic guitar for a song or two, quipped something into a microphone like “I’m only here because my wife said it was important and I better go!”, and maybe have Autumn and Rory hear on their next school day from their classmates: “I heard your dad was really cool and funny at that event.” Let’s not taint the compelling mystique of a man who at 80 still chooses to act like a 14-year-old, he’s Ritchie after all! Youth is fleeting, but you can preserve immaturity forever …
To answer your question, Georgivs, no, I find it neither entertaining nor lovable, arrogant and callous more like. It would have hurt him fuck all to join her.
May 19th, 2025 at 10:07@ 2 – “Ritchie called off his appearance at the LIM&EHoF induction at the last minute when they told him he wouldn’t be allowed to smash his lute! 🫢” And Ritchie obeyed? Half a century later and time does mellow people doesn’t it. He would have never obeyed back in the day. Cheers.
May 19th, 2025 at 11:51Ritchie happy for candice to get very nice award for music for achievement.
May 19th, 2025 at 11:55