Act like a clown, without being laughed at
A vintage interview Ritchie Blackmore gave to Melbourne radio in November 1976.
Thanks to Ritchie Blackmore Official channel for posting this and to Gary for reminding us.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey3.jpg)
A vintage interview Ritchie Blackmore gave to Melbourne radio in November 1976.
Thanks to Ritchie Blackmore Official channel for posting this and to Gary for reminding us.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
So that is what is wrong with all the people from the northern hemisphere, their polarities are out. I finally see the bigger picture after all these decades. Don’t worry everyone up there, just drop down here for a while and get a little southern polarity and everything will be fine and dandy. Only then will you be able to understand me and vice versa. Meanwhile at Ritchie’s castle near Windsor castle. This radio station 3XY was what we could pick up out in the sticks in southern inland NSW. Thankfully there was a ‘god’ and that station is where I first heard Man On A Silver Mountain when it was premiered. The excitement was enormous, there WAS life after Ritchie had left Deep Purple. Rocktober was a month of rock music that they broadcast, from my distant memory. It was a lifeline of sorts regarding rock music in general back in the mid 1970’s. Ye Old Greensleeves, ‘Written by Henry VIII or probably one of his jesters who then had his head cut off’, ha ha ha. The real story would no doubt be something along those lines. In other words HenryIII did a Ritchie, he borrowed it. Go Ritchie. Cheers.
https://galaxymusicnotes.com/pages/about-greensleeves
July 12th, 2025 at 04:15With only four wives so far, Ritchie, while undoubtedly having made some headway, still has to work a little at being the reincarnation of Henry VIII – there’s two more to go: Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived”.
July 12th, 2025 at 06:48I appreciate Ritchie Blackmore very very much, but to compare to the late and great Henry the 8. is a bit far fetched 😄
July 12th, 2025 at 11:49No worries, Herr MacGregor, I always assumed you were the other way around, island life, convict culture and all that, good to know how it has geographical roots then.
As if the Brits would have ever built something electrical that works reliably – a risible assumption!
July 12th, 2025 at 12:57@3 – I don’t know Karin, Henry VIII was a powerful figure, in more ways than one. Blackers has left a trail of disgruntled and dishevelled people behind him in his quest for control of the castle and it’s minions. Wielding the axe, so to speak. Henry lifts a melody or so they say. Ritchie has a penchant for that as others do too. There are some similarities. Does Ritchie own a guillotine though, hmmmmmmmmmm. I bet in times past he would have liked to. Cheers.
July 12th, 2025 at 22:52@5
Ok yes, about the guillotine, I am not sure!
But Ritchie for sure isn’t the father to Elizabeth l!
July 12th, 2025 at 23:29@ 4- those ‘Australian’ monitor lizards have kept you sane Uwe, keeping you grounded and in touch with the southern pole. That is why you have never become confused as to what is going on down here. Cheers.
July 13th, 2025 at 00:08Flash thought, in the whole of the extended Purple Family the only two Australians that come to my mind are Bob Daisley and – in a roundabout way – Graham Bonnet (who I believe lived there at different stages of his life although he is now an LA resident and whose solo career pre-Rainbow was certainly most prominently developed in Down Under). Or am I missing someone?
July 13th, 2025 at 13:36Henry VIII is still around. I think he lives on the end of my street.
July 13th, 2025 at 18:15Graham Bonnet did live in Australia for a few years. He had a big hit here with ‘Warm Ride’ and that is where I knew of him back then. When he joined Rainbow that was my only knowledge of who he was at that time. We will take Bob Daisley as the only ‘Aussie’ that we know of in the Purple extended family. Unless someone can dig up someone else. We are so desperate that we will almost take anyone. Just look at how many Brits have made it ‘down under’. Cheers.
https://heavymag.com.au/over-the-rainbow-with-graham-bonnet/
July 13th, 2025 at 23:24@9
Are you sure it isn’t Ritchie then?! ☺️
July 14th, 2025 at 03:46Warm Ride, a Saturday Night Fever leftover by the Brothers Gibb, yesssss, let’s hear Graham in Bryan Ferry/Robert Palmer mode do suave Disco! (The implied guitar smashing so at odds with the cool RnB vibe of the song at 02:03 is a harbinger for what kind of band Graham would soon end up in! 😈)
https://youtu.be/cBDzuu6KLMk
Ironically, also the closest you will ever get to seeing GILLAN (Mick Underwood drums), Whitesnake (Micky Moody plays guitar sans hat) and Rainbow (Graham …) perform together. Playing a Bee Gees song of course. 😂
Graham’s vocal performance on this – not easy to sing, Bee Gees numbers rarely are – number is impeccable.
July 14th, 2025 at 14:03A short outdoor Australian interview with Graham prior to him joining Rainbow. Relaxing in the sun and enjoying a ‘tinnie’ beer. Look away now Karin, Graham is topless for all the ladies out there. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3o7ptp91E0&t=17s
July 14th, 2025 at 23:31@12 Wow, thanx for sharing the video, Uwe. I’ve known (and liked) that Bee Gees song for quite a while and remember reading something about a Graham Bonnet version. I must have forgotten about it, never did a research (or asked dad), maybe because I found it unlikely that this would be the same Graham Bonnet I was thinking of. But now there’s audiovisual proof.
July 15th, 2025 at 08:14Very similar, the two versions. Those synthie-strings might be identical with the ones used on the Bee Gees take
Tillythemax, you must be the only person on Earth in your age group that gives a rat’s ass about Graham Bonnet. Your dad must have done something right!
And that Aussie interview snippet, Herr MacGregor, priceless, Graham the eternal lad.
July 15th, 2025 at 12:52@3 “I appreciate Ritchie Blackmore very very much, but to compare to the late and great Henry the 8. is a bit far fetched”
Quite right. I mean Henry VIII was a despotic tyrant who got rid of people at the drop of a hat and alienated many close to him….oh hang on….
July 15th, 2025 at 14:48(thoroughly worried) But dad did tell you about this here Tillythemax?
https://youtu.be/7x2oumh9vSo
I’ll call the Jugendamt if not!
Graham even played Musikladen with it:
https://youtu.be/2zbmjkuv-Tg
And Ilja Richter’s DISCO:
https://youtu.be/y1y28-BbiYM
Dad will no doubt tell you what those were. He watched Smokie on them. 😂
You were too young/still liquid for this:
https://youtu.be/DXqRALm265M
July 15th, 2025 at 15:54I wasn’t expecting this (I really like the Bee Gees and rate them as songwriters and musicians), but I must say that Graham’s version (produced by Pip Williams, the man behind Status Quo’s later, more poppy sound starting with Rockin’ Around The World) creams both Bee Gees-little brother Andy Gibb’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO2GgcR3hVY&list=RDaO2GgcR3hVY&start_radio=1
and Barry Gibb’s/the Bee Gee’s original into the ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXOTnm8qmR8&list=RDGXOTnm8qmR8&start_radio=1,
Graham effecting a lot more vocal changes, yet still sounding natural. I generally like Barry’s piercing falsetto, but on that song he is too squeaky even for me. Bonnet is much more masculine. That is in any case a trademark of Bonnet’s vocals, no matter how high he sung (and he did sing high, considerably higher than either Dio or Turner), he always sounded testosterone-charged doing it. (Someone like Steve Perry of Journey – a great singer in his own right, likely the best AOR singer ever – could also sing effortlessly helium-high, but at the top he began to sound much like a female soprano.)
The way Graham sings the chorus here a 01:20 is really in Rob Halford territory who never sounded like a woman no matter how high he went either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voY8tkW1b38&list=RDvoY8tkW1b38&start_radio=1
July 15th, 2025 at 17:01It is amusing to watch Graham Bonnet being interviewed in Australia at that time. so young and almost innocent in his ways. Who would think that not long after that chat, that he would be in a hard rock band and getting hassled about growing his hair longer. Being locked in his room, ha ha ha, that is Spinal Tap right there. And from Ritchie, who was receding and losing his hair big time. Comical to say the least. As I have said before we were shocked too, so don’t worry all you long haired ‘feral’ rockers out there, you were not alone in your dismay at the ‘accountant’ look, or should I say ‘lawyer’ look. Perish that thought. People could have thought that Blackmore had lost his marbles. All good fun though and watching Graham in that scene makes us wonder, was he thinking of old England, waiting for a group of ladies to row past in their narrow boat or canal boat. A luxurious pastime for all and sundry. A warm ride even for some, depending on the situation. At least Rainbow dragged Graham away from that disco scene. From disco to hard rock, salvation in itself. Cheers.
July 15th, 2025 at 22:38Tststs… old son… about time you check out my Bonnet-collection … Oh – and while we’re at it: is anyone interested in vinyl-singles by the man?
July 16th, 2025 at 08:59Bonnet always seemed bemused by everything, call it cool or a general air of happy-go-lucky laddish naivité, I know that it regularly flabbergasted Roger Glover, who once said about Graham that “God gave him this amazing voice, but kept a lot of other things from him”.
Like most of us here, I was initially perplexed about Graham’s neo-James Dean look too (he even regularly copied some of James Dean’s mannerisms, like the iconic “rifle across shoulders” image for which Graham would use mike stands and guitars)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/63/3d/b5/633db5732c921d7fe939675496fe4780.jpg
but all my doubts evaporated when I first saw him bound onto the stage on Rainbow’s DTE tour to sing the opening lines of Eyes Of The World, the guy had real balls and seemed totally uninhibited by Rainbow’s/Ritchie’s status and the expectations of the audience.
July 16th, 2025 at 13:11@17 Never did too much research on Grahams pre-Rainbow work, though I know It’s All Over Now Baby Blue. A little more I know about his life after Ritchie; I own some of the Alcatrazz records (the Tokyo ’84 show I listen to quite regularly) and I also enyoy the Blackthorne project which should have gotten more recognition.
July 16th, 2025 at 14:01It’s the first thing I turn to when someone joins the Purple Family as a new member: What did he do before? 🤣
July 16th, 2025 at 20:03@ 21- that would have been a full on experience, Eyes Of The World is a stellar track, the sparkling diamond on that DTE album. Bonnet definitely had confidence it seems even at that young age and good on him. The best attitude in many ways, especially in a situation like that, surrounded by older and more experienced individuals. Not to mention the crowd. Probably totally different to a young Coverdale at the California Jam no doubt. A different situation though in many aspects, but yes, go for it and get it on Graham. I bet he didn’t mention the flies or his deodorant, ha ha ha. Those nerves for old Cov’s, a daunting experience for him no doubt and he did ok with that in many aspects. Cheers.
July 16th, 2025 at 22:18Faintly related: I was aware that when Ritchie left Mk III in 1975, he groaned about “Ian (Paice) having been bitten by the funk bug too via Glenn”, but the legit-sounding Ritchie quote at 02:16 in this click-baity (and an alleged animosity between Ritchie and Ian severely overplaying) snippet
https://youtu.be/_SI5LTDRW8M
was news to me. Rainbow’s almost Teutonic lack of groove (except for the debut because Elf were a groovy little band) and lively rhythms was for me always their Achilles’ Heel (though the majority of people here strangely don’t seem to mind Rainbow’s deprivation/abandonment of rhythmic finesse and sophistication), but that quote makes what I considered up to now mere inability seem like an act of intent: Ritchie WANTED less rhythmic orientation in Rainbow? 🤯 After he had driven Roger out of the band only two years before for not being rhythmically lively enough in an Andy Fraser vein?
The mind boggles. There is a place for stiffness and rigidity, how should I not know that as a 64-year-old male, but music isn‘t that place. I don‘t need Deep Purple riffs set to an Accept‘ish or even Rammstein‘esqie monolithic backing, vielen Dank, it‘s a reduction of DP‘s stylistic palette to me and frankly lacking in musicality.
July 16th, 2025 at 22:34Ironically and much like Glenn, Graham in his heart of hearts wants to be a soul singer:
https://youtu.be/Vu0WTG5XOOs
July 17th, 2025 at 05:06Ritchie’s favorite tune … 😎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XTBBRnevns&list=RD3XTBBRnevns&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNrAFb3I2js&list=RDLNrAFb3I2js&start_radio=1
July 17th, 2025 at 21:23