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Pay you back your 750,000 pounds

British tabloid Daily Mail reports that Blackmore is suing HEC Enterprises and Deep Purple (Overseas) for £750,000 in royalties owed to him.

Now, bear in mind that the article starts with the claim that he helped to write a song called Black Knight and left the band 40 years ago, so all the usual caveats of the depth of research in tabloid journalism apply here.

According to the article, Gillan, Glover, Lord, and Paice have successfully sued both management companies in 2003 and reached a settlement, but Blackmore was not involved. He is now pursuing a similar claim on his own. The figures mentioned are:

  • £102,318 from HEC for “incorrect adjustments”, failure to “report some publishing income” and application of charges “in excess of agreed limits”;
  • £607,797 from DP(O) for overcharging, failure to report income, and using incorrect exchange rate (both companies are based in the UK, while he’s been living in the US since the early 70s);
  • £43,400 as costs for the audit

The article also states that a former director of both HEC and DP(O) admitted last November that £370,561 was due to Blackmore, but later revised this number to £480,638.

This concludes our laundry airing for today.

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.



24 Comments to “Pay you back your 750,000 pounds”:

  1. 1
    Stevie Gillespie says:

    As Gillan once said ” banjo players”………

  2. 2
    Robert Van Het Hoen says:

    the error might stem from the fact that in the early years HEC was the company and the roalty issue relates to that period

  3. 3
    David Barron says:

    It is the newspaper equiivalent of Fox News in the UK. Just a shame that the reporter did not look up Wikipedia or the website.

  4. 4
    Errol Arias says:

    RB is just a mercantilist of the music business.. Well, this is his job ! Is his way of living .. is lawyers talking now !!

  5. 5
    Ritchie Blackmore International Fan Club says:

    Meat for lawyers…

  6. 6
    Mark Bryant says:

    LoL

  7. 7
    Brian Tree Doc Cizakowsky says:

    I wouldn’t believe the Daily Fail if it said tomorrow is Monday

  8. 8
    LRT says:

    Your caption here sucks bad!

  9. 9
    LRT says:

    And the mention of Black Knight is nothing on the wrong year of the Guinness Book and the fact that Bloom is not Ritchie’s biographer. It’s been spelled “Knight” countless times, just as Candice Knight has. They should put everything through a fact check machine, and their caption is worse than yours, I’ll put it that way. 😀 Let’s get real, publicity stunt written all over this for his supposed comeback which I’m quite sure will feature Candice in one light or another(mark me word she will be there). Perhaps the kids as well.

  10. 10
    nupsi59 says:

    “When you are in the music business, the first thing you need
    is a good lawyer…” (Jon Lord, R.I.P.)

    For all the others: Have a nice Day!

  11. 11
    Andrey says:

    We talk about how the song goes in this article? I only know one song DP – “Black night” only.

  12. 12
    Pedrosovic says:

    I don’t blame RB. I would have done exactly the same thing. He should get the money he deserves and rightly so especially since the others in the band have got their settlement over 10 years ago. Nothing wrong with getting the money owed by the company. Don’t think anyone here would accept working and not get paid.. I wouldn’t that’s for sure

  13. 13
    kraatzy says:

    … yeah … thats Rock´N´Roll … 😉

    LOL

    Chears

    LLRnR

    Kraatzy

  14. 14
    Robert says:

    Very simple…If RB is owed money then he has every right to pursue his options

  15. 15
    LRT says:

    This is the whole thing, Ritchie is just suing for his share that the rest of DP already got in 2003. There is nothing more to read into it. Nobody’s biz but his own here. He is just suing them much later than the other’s in Purple did. Nothing more to it. The rest of the article is absolutely useless trash.

    “Blackmore has filed suit against HEC Enterprises and Deep Purple (Overseas), after an audit of both discovered unreported royalties totaling a little more than £700,000 ($1.09 million), with the bulk of that sum coming from Deep Purple (Overseas). Adding in legal costs, Blackmore is suing for £750,000 ($1.16 million).

    Back in 2003, the other members of Deep Purple’s 1969-73 lineup — Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice — settled with the two companies without Blackmore’s involvement. He says he’s entitled to an equal share — one-fifth of up to 85 percent of the income from 14 albums. This includes their landmark 1972 record, Machine Head, which included “Smoke on the Water” and “Highway Star.”

  16. 16
    Adel says:

    Early retirement if RB is successful. Unless Candice wants to use it for cosmetic surgeries in The Big Apple.

  17. 17
    Roy says:

    Perhaps the journalist was thinking of the man (knight) in black, or in A Knight in York, or in Black Night, or in Nights in (Black) Satin, who knows… Anyways, perhaps the (black) hands of Ritchie’s in-laws are behind all this. One need not be a lawyer from (New) York to ascertain that debts have an expiration date behind which it’s bye bye to all I owed you…

  18. 18
    David Sanderson says:

    I’ve never heard ‘Black Knight’. I know ‘Kill the King’ was about chess so maybe it’s in a similar vein?

  19. 19
    Scott W says:

    Why shouldn’t he? If anything he showed class and restraint (or an plain old disinterest) by not jumping on it when the rest of the band did years ago. In regards to the rude post above… talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

  20. 20
    Jim says:

    Hey, RB should be paid for what he’s’ accomplished. Im sure every musician at that level has had to sue management or a record company at some point

  21. 21
    Uwe says:

    “Blackmore’s financial situation is not known, but he has recently suggested he might be going back on tour. The four-times married guitarist plays in a folk band called Blackmore’s Night, formed with his girlfriend Candice Night.”

    LOL. They should have added little Ian’s one time quip: “And managed by her mother, so I’m sure it’s all very professional and such.”

    I saw him on Saturday at a gig. He sure looked hungry. Poor guy. The current Ms Blackmore did point out though that “the road to the altar was the longest, wasn’t it?”, adding helpfully “Or is it a breeze once you do it the 4th time?” Herr Blackmore responded rather tight-lipped: “I got used to it.”

    Oh, Autumn and Rory mounted the stage too, once dad had left in a huff (no encore in Niedernhausen) due to this hot aummer night’s tuning problems and a faulty input jack on his guitar. Some things never change with him.

  22. 22
    LRT says:

    Sell the mansion in Spain instead of renting it out, and pay the man!

  23. 23
    Les Hedger says:

    Ritchie earned that money. He has every right to it!

  24. 24
    Rock Voorne says:

    In the meantime some others are still enhancing Blackers royalties.

    New York 2015

    http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f145/deep-purple-2015-07-14-lewiston-ny-flac-aud-202813.html

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