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The Original Deep Purple Web Pages
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Rather thrown by the magnitude

Ritchie Blackmore has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the organization called National GUITAR Museum. Executive director of the museum (and former Guitar magazine editor-in-chief) HP Newquist says: Most people know Ritchie from being the driving creative force behind two of the defining hard rock bands of all time—Deep Purple and Rainbow. But before […]

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Beam us up, Scotty

The latest album from William Shatner has been announced, and it is promised to be “a heavy metal extravaganza powered a veritable army of metal stars – each one personally selected and hand-picked by Shatner”. Said stars include Ritchie Blackmore, Zakk Wylde, Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream), Wayne Kramer (MC5), and Henry Rollins (Black Flag, The […]

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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 Köln Concert

For Record Store Day in the UK, there will be an exclusive 3 color vinyl release of the Rainbow concert in Köln/Cologne 25 september 1976. Here is the promo blurb from the Record Store Day UK site: First time ever vinyl release for this incredible live concert from Rainbow’s debut world tour and documenting one […]

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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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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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He had his reasons

The following message from Ritchie Blackmore was posted today. November 23, 2025, on his Facebook page: Ritchie would like to explain his reason for having to postpone the recent shows. “Very quick history, for those who have nothing better to do: I have a long history of lumbar and neck herniated discs. Consequently, I would […]

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