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Insecurities and more insecurities

Guitar Player has an article on Ritchie Blackmore based on an interview he gave to the paper version of the magazine circa 1996. That relentless, almost surgical pursuit of perfection was felt far beyond his own ranks; it reverberated through the generation of electric guitar players raised on his records. As Billy Corgan of the […]

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The rubble moved

In this collection of bite-sized memoirs, Ritchie Blackmore talks about the earliest days of Deep Purple: meeting Derek Lawrence, signing an unfavourable contract, covering Hush, and 16 telegrams from Chris Curtis.

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Purpendicular at 30

Purpendicular holds a special place in our hearts, as its release and events leading to it coincided with the formation of the online community that had founded this website and still runs it to this day. It is also one of the seminal albums in the history of the band — alongside with In Rock, […]

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Artwoods: Live at Klooks Kleek

From the letters to our better-late-then-never desk, we are glad to present you an actually pretty decent quality recording of the two early Artwoods performances from 1964, featuring Jon Lord. It apparently came out a few years ago: in 2016 on vinyl, and in 2023 on CD and digital. The latter are available via Amazon, […]

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The horse that wasn’t iron

Back in 2024, an outfit called Defenders of the Faith published an interview with Nick Simper on the occasion of the two Warhorse studio albums being reissued. That interview completely slipped under our radar, until now. Warhorse’s self titled debut was significantly heavier than anything you had done with Deep Purple. In the same breath, […]

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An interview in eight movements

Ovais Naqvi, the author of the new Jon Lord book Before We Forget – A Work in Eight Movements, was interviewed for the Booked On Rock podcast. The conversation is over an hour long, so pour yourself your favourite beverage, kick back, and enjoy.

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Die with your boots on

Ritchie Blackmore reminisces about the dress code with the Nero and The Gladiators, and the perils he had to endure as a hired hand. [updated]

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You have to slow down

In this latest microdose of his video memoirs, Ritchie Blackmore talks about discovering for himself Eric Clapton, and playing fast vs playing slow.

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A brilliant emulator

In these two episodes, the banjo player talks about banjo strings and the genius of Jon Lord.

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Fastest music you’ll ever hear

A new instalment of Ritchie Blackmore reminiscing abut his early days.

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