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Serendipitous Blackmore
Yahoo Entertainment has an interview with the original Wishbone Ash guitarist Ted Turner, where he explains how Ritchie Blackmore gave the band its big break:
Ritchie Blackmore played a significant role in Wishbone Ash’s signing.
“He did! We were supporting Deep Purple at the Dunstable Civic in the real early days, waiting for him to finish his sound check so we could do ours. Ritchie was playing licks; and Andy, on the sidelines, started answering him.
“They had a brief conversation with their guitars, and it was enough to impress Ritchie to speak to his producer Derek Lawrence, who subsequently produced our next three albums. Serendipity.”
The rest of the interview is here, although there’s nothing else even remotely Purple-related.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Ritchie’s ears would have pricked up big time hearing Wishbone Ash. The live footage of certain concerts online of the Ash’ s early music is nice to see and also when they reformed in the late 80’s and into the 90’s, great stuff. Superb clean melodies and arrangements, something Blackmore excelled at with his Stratocaster. No surprises that Blackmore had a fancy for those sort of guitarists, right from his very early days with Hank Marvin and a few others to the axe grinders of the mighty 1970’s. Cheers.
October 19th, 2025 at 10:27Yup, Ritchie discovering the band and recommending them to Derek Lawrence (in part as a a guilt-fed consolation prize for DP having made off with Martin Birch) is a foundational part of Ash lore – and all WA members have never forgotten it and speak kindly of Ritchie.
Ted wasn‘t legal age yet (at that time still 21 in England) when he joined WA so Martin Tuner (no relation, just a last name coincidence) had to conduct negotiations with his mother who demanded to see the band in person (as it was: in her kitchen!) before bequeathing her son to a bunch of longhairs. 😂
Finally, Ted & Majella are living proof (no pun intended and it was a Laurie Wisefield song anyway)
https://youtu.be/rghykGNScBA
that not all lost in love music couples end up in Renaissance garb and the ZDF-Fernsehgarten …
https://youtu.be/k5Wuse-HexM
https://youtu.be/vpemgi6wDyg
https://youtu.be/q4B2nS5BWCU
October 19th, 2025 at 14:54