![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride7.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan2.jpg)
Neither in a tower
Candice Night was interviewed by The Rock ‘n’ Blues Experience about her latest solo album, her husband, their kids, her plans to sleep for three years straight, pennysaver piano ghosts, and life in general.
The tl;dr takeaway:
We’re four songs into the new [Blackmore’s Night] album. He’s alive, folks, he’s still there. I don’t have him locked in a cage, I promise you. He’s just enjoying, living his best life. He’s playing with the cat, he’s playing his guitar, he’s watching his TV. The weather is starting to change to springtime, he’s going out for his walks here. Last night he came to me and said, ‘I just wrote a new song. Do you think we should get the producer in?’ I said, yes, let’s get the producer. I’m waiting on you, let’s do it, let’s do it. So we will be heading into the studio again. We’re all gonna go through health issues, health problems. He’s the youngest 80 years old that you’ll ever see, I mean, honestly.
Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up and the quote.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I’m turning all schizoid with Candice, on record with BN and live I often find her “too much cherry pie”, but I’m becoming a fan of her interviews! I really listen all of them.
Some interesting stuff in here:
– A whoppin’ eleven studio albums of BN, that means she has been Ritchie’s musical foil considerably more often (and for a much longer time) than either Ian Gillan (seven studio albums), Ronnie or JoLT (three studio albums each) or DC (two studio albums).
– “Ritchie comes up with the (vocal) melody lines in BN.” I am beginning to wonder whether that isn’t really the core of the rift between Ritchie and Big Ian. Ritchie once said in an interview that he only began taking a more active interest in vocal melodies with Dio era Rainbow, leaving it before very much to the singers. And of course Ian doesn’t like to be told what to sing and his own approach to vocal melodies must be tasking for Ritchie who is a lot more conventional in that regard. Ritchie’s responsibility for the vocal melodies in BN also points a painful finger to him being the culprit regarding some of those terribly banal Schlager melodies poor Candice has to deliver. So the girl from Long Island is innocent.
– “Ritchie doesn’t have the patience to teach guitar to someone who doesn’t immediately get it and I just don’t with guitar.” That echoes what Roger once said about Ritchie not ever really teaching him anything, but rather walking away scoffing if Roger didn’t pick something immediately up Ritchie showed to him (and how in contrast Steve Morse would take his time to explain and rehearse things). Also explains why Ritchie tends to speak well of Glenn’s bass playing because by all accounts Glenn is a quick learner and was never dumbstruck by anything Ritchie played to him.
– Some of the things Candice says on relationships are really thoughtful – if she ever loses her voice (which will hopefully not happen), she’ll do plenty fine as a marriage and relationship counselor.
May 24th, 2025 at 17:12And she’s nocturnal like me (and her hubby). I liked that quote that during the day all you see is the Earth atmosphere and the sun in the sky, but at night you see the universe.
“It’s 2 pm, that’s Ritchie’s morning!” 🦉🦇🧛🏼♂️ My man! 😎
May 25th, 2025 at 13:50Please not another sappy album full of covers and X mas carols. I
May 26th, 2025 at 00:09God bless you Ritchie but make an album with only instrumentals
We will be listening
AI: so true! An album of unheard instrumental tracks by RB would be a dream come true!
Even if it wasn’t high end recordings. Just like I wish someone had recorded JL while he was playing as a bar pianist in Zermatt.
It’s often the little bits and pieces that were not meant to be released that I enjoy enormously.
May 26th, 2025 at 06:51You guys are aware that the “sappy” vocal melodies you bemoan are all written by the maestro himself to the extent that BN perform their own songs? And that thus you are of the opinion that Ritchie can’t write vocal melodies which is perhaps worthy of discussion, but I just wanted to make a note for posterity of it: “Al & Max say Ritchie can’t write vocal melodies.”
BTW, there is an interesting, Tim Burton soundtrackish instrumental on Candice’s solo album which she wrote and played (the piano part) herself without any involvement of her hubby.
https://youtu.be/92kjWto-2eo
It’s the one track Rory likes best. Is the kid turning goth? 😱
May 26th, 2025 at 12:52Ritchie need to lock her in a tower
May 28th, 2025 at 14:09Where and when did I say Ritchie can’t write a vocal melody?
I just agreed that a solo album of instrumental stuff from the man could be a dream come true.
I often dreamt of a collection of Ritchie’s solos – especially the long ones – from his shows with BN. Maybe AI – the artifical intelligence, not the fellow from HS – can help me get one now. And that is NOT to say I dislike Candice’s singing. But it’s getting a bit sweeter than sweet sometimes as some of you have stated before …
I always would have loved a JL intstrumental album too. One side the Hammond, one side the piano.
May 28th, 2025 at 14:51@7
“But it’s getting a bit sweeter than sweet sometimes as some of you have stated before …“
May 28th, 2025 at 15:56– it’s not to but in on this really interesting talk here, but I guess I mentioned the ‘sugar upon sugar upon sugar’ thing, with the threats on my health..
Oh maybe I’m in the group ‘some of you’, ok carry on 😁
I will be Candy’s knight in shining armor here! A lot of the blame for her sometimes syrupy performances on BN albums lies squarely and fairly with Ritchie’s and Pat Regan’s “ZDF Fernsehgarten” prevailing production tastes.
Candice has a very beautiful and pure folk voice if you just let her be:
https://youtu.be/NWFv1IkRkuo
And Sea Glass is actually less syrupy than BN’s work, Candice is not afraid to sound sparse and somber.
Ritchie is incredibly set in how he hears music, he’s basically spent his musical career spanning 65 years now with only a handful of producers: Joe Meek, Derek Lawrence, Martin Birch, Roger Glover and Pat Regan. I think we’d all be surprised if we heard BN with someone like T Bone Burnett at the production helm.
May 29th, 2025 at 17:44@9
“I will be Candy’s knight in shining armor here“
– awww so romantic!
But nevertheless, I am happy if we can agree to disagree!
May 29th, 2025 at 19:15Have I ever denied being romantic?! I’m an Air Supply fan!
https://youtu.be/JWdZEumNRmI
https://youtu.be/1bG_zk6FwU0
https://youtu.be/nY31ZH6hAFI
And like all good things, they come …
https://www.ardeaprints.com/p/172/western-grey-kangaroos-mating-1301396.jpg.webp
… from Australia.
May 29th, 2025 at 22:59Well Karin, I sort of quoted you to underline your point! Tststs …But we might not be the first to sense a little overthetopsweetness in those BN songs.
And Uwe ist perfectlly right too! Thanks for the link – this indeed as good a reason to become a full blown romantic as it gets.
May 30th, 2025 at 08:32@11
Ok, now I learned something new!
I’ve always thought the less taller vocalist in Air Supply, was a woman!
Whereas this guy:
https://youtu.be/UqCRB3ajw-U?si=09L1NXMzG_6g4kly
Noooo confusion here ☺️😉
May 31st, 2025 at 06:29@12
Tststs right back at ya 😄
I’ve been told lately, by people who actually dig the concept, that Blackmore’s Night is somehow poetic….
Well, by all means then ☺️
That does not take away the sugarcoating!
But this:
https://youtu.be/3IrGLvkqUDM?si=LxrH0hgtZo0erLyk
Nooooo sugarcoating anywhere!
And even this one, pretty romantic (see @11)
https://youtu.be/LotAru3vJIY?si=ydBj8T9hjwbRo4p1
But no sugarcoating anywhere, even though one’s heart feels like it has been ripped out, thrown at the ground and stomped on it until there is no heart left 🥺😞
But I submit myself to the common good and acknowledge that we do indeed have different tastes!
And we can be moved…
Someone who didn’t appreciate, well for arguments sake let’s say David Coverdale, now had that exact vocalist on her playlist 😄
Live and learn ☺️
May 31st, 2025 at 06:43DC paid me to pull you over, Karin – I knew it was only a matter of time until you would succumb, woman! 🧛🏼♂️
Glenn Hughes is next, you just wait. (adopting Marvel villain tone of voice) YOU WILL SUBMIT, IT IS IN YOUR NATURE !!!
https://media.tenor.com/bkMSvB3eBekAAAAM/fortnite-doctor-doom.gif
Haunted was a lovely ballad, always a vastly underrated song in the Purple oeuvre.
I still think that Ian’s most sugary song was Music In My Head with its mid 70s Phillysound/Tina Charles disco sonics. However, it is also a guilty pleasure of mine and I find it unbelievably hooky, dancy and good-mood-instilling.
https://youtu.be/9RjKJ9uA-H0
You could also call it ‘Yacht Soul’ I guess! 😂
May 31st, 2025 at 13:49Karin the Georgia Satellites live video is nice approaching this here in kinetic energy …
https://youtu.be/2YB7qyn5MVs
But only approaching! ☝️🧐
What did poor Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply do for you to deny him his manhood? Men’s perms were a popular thing in Australia as Herr MacGregor will no doubt confirm from own experience. 🤣
May 31st, 2025 at 21:26@14- just wondering Karin if any of those Coverdale songs you like are Deep Purple songs. This is just curiosity, not an attempt to load up any ammunition of any sort, or to give Uwe anything at all, heaven forbid. Cheers.
May 31st, 2025 at 22:53@ 16 -I had ‘au naturel’ curls Uwe, as a youngster and plenty of them too. And being a ‘ranga’ a lot of ladies back in the day really liked that, even hairdressers or I should say hair stylists. They all kept asking me whenever I ventured out, ‘where did you get that lovely red curly hair from’. It only worked out with a few ladies of course and once that red curly hair fad passed after a couple of years (circa 1982 ish), all those women then said they didn’t care about that anymore. There is no pleasing some ladies, there really isn’t. How do we keep up with all these fads, it was rather stressful at the time. Of course most of it has now fallen out as the years have taken their toll, (I simply refuse to wear a wig or shave my head) as I am still trying to keep some length to what is left. That old rocker look, or old has-been look, one of the two or both. Why I don’t know, old habits die hard I suppose. Karin, don’t go there, my sad ego is rather fragile when talking about these sort of things. Cheers.
June 1st, 2025 at 10:05@15
“DC paid me to pull you over, Karin – I knew it was only a matter of time until you would succumb, woman! 🧛🏼♂️”
– 😄
Ok then, what did he pay you! You ought to share! 😁
On the other hand, I’m pretty sure David is completely indifferent to this Danish Viking 😉
June 1st, 2025 at 11:14@16
Hmmm, to me it sounds like 10 years after!
A very very VERY nice band btw, but they are no Georgia Satellites 😆
“What did poor Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply do for you to deny him his manhood?”
– 😅😂
June 1st, 2025 at 11:18It wasn’t up to me to take anything away 😂
I had never seen them before you linked to them, just listened to them!
And in my unexperienced ears, he sounded like a female with an attitude 😆
@17
Well, MacGregor, I like very much their ‘Lovesongs’.
His voice is so gentle and sweet when he isn’t straining it too much.
‘Summer rain’, ‘Yours for the asking’ ohh and ‘Midnight Blue’ are amongst those I listen very much to at the moment.
They make me mellow and sweeter 😃
Uwe is busy at the hairdresser to get a perm I’m told 🤣
June 1st, 2025 at 11:22@18
“I had ‘au naturel’ curls Uwe, as a youngster and plenty of them too.”
Take that Uwe!
June 1st, 2025 at 11:23You were a redhead, Herr MacGregor?! The freckled, light-skinned, green-eyed sort generally destined for whiskey commercials and Highlander bodice rippers?
https://i1.wp.com/www.campus.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/scot5.jpg?fit=696%2C549&ssl=1
Couldn‘t you with that complexion chosen a continent with less UV plight and heightened skin cancer risk? Well, I‘m happy you stayed in the shadow(s) then. 😎
Drummer AND redhead, a Ginger Baker of sorts …
June 1st, 2025 at 13:24@15
“Glenn Hughes is next, you just wait. (adopting Marvel villain tone of voice) YOU WILL SUBMIT, IT IS IN YOUR NATURE !!!”
Naa-ahh!
The next you will propose is that I suddenly adore EP, and camp af Memphis Mantion in Randers!
But that will never happen either !
My next quest will be to convince each and everyone in here that Ronan Keating is a very good singer, even better than EP and Glenn Hughes!
June 1st, 2025 at 15:15@16
“Karin the Georgia Satellites live video is nice approaching this here in kinetic energy …”
Ok Uwe, the link is for 10 Years After!…..
“What did poor Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply do for you to deny him his manhood?”
🤣🤣
June 1st, 2025 at 17:28I did not deny him anything!
I had just not seen the band before so I didn’t know the very light voice actually belonged to a man 😄
@17
“just wondering Karin if any of those Coverdale songs you like are Deep Purple songs.”
Well, it’s actually what Whitesnake call ‘Lovesongs’, ‘Summer Rain’, ‘Midnight Blue’ and ‘Yours for the asking’!
June 1st, 2025 at 17:33(There are others too!)
David’s voice is mighty fine in those songs.
David is certainly no Ian Gillan, but he sings very well in his own right 🤩
@18
“There is no pleasing some ladies, there really isn’t. “
– Aww MacGregor 😊
Let me tell you a secret, what really works:
Be yourself! It’s as easy as that.
When you are yourself then you’ll meet that special someone who is looking for a guy like you!
If you pretend to be someone else, then you’ll wear a mask, amd it’s so tiresome ☺️
And it has really not a lot to do with the hair, but everything to do with the heart 😊
And now to something completely different: coffee 😍
June 2nd, 2025 at 05:32…be who you are I tell myself …and myself tells me we cant’t be anybody else …
One of those lyrics that make IG stand out.
When it comes to “lovesongs” …DC has stated he only knows two kind of songs … the I’m-a-poor-little-boy-please-come-and-save-me ones and the I-got-a-big-willie-and-I’m-coming-to-get-you ones. So it’s all love songs more or less. “Whisper a Prayer for the Dying” off the Coverdale/Page album is an exotic exception to the rule. But I know what you mean, Karin. Especially in his later years the softer songs sounded much better voice wise. And there ae some gems on every album of his.
June 2nd, 2025 at 11:46@28
Ok Max, looks like we both adore Ian Gillan!
Re DC, AHEM! The songs I really like at the moment are neither “poor little me, some and save me” or the other kind you mention ☺️
June 2nd, 2025 at 12:16Maybe you know “Midnight Blue”? ☺️
It’s a really beautiful lovesong, and if you’re not familiar with it, you really ought to listen to it!
Also “Yours for the asking” – a genuine lovesong with no double entendre, at least as far as I can tell!
And with these songs I’m really impressed with his voice.
Uwe, what is the past reference to my hair that ‘used to be red’? It still is along with a little grey etc. Yes indeed Ginger Baker and that other drummer with unkept red hair were an influence of sorts. I have the red hair, freckled pale skin and have been badly sunburnt way too much in my youth and early adult years. Skin cancer is a problem for many European ‘heritage’ humans that live in this sunburnt country. At least when I arrive at hells gates they will recognise me and let me through, thinking that I have already been there and being burnt to a cinder. Cheers.
https://www.change.org/p/modern-drummer-magazine-get-animal-on-the-cover-of-modern-drummer-magazine-honor-ronnie-verrell
June 2nd, 2025 at 12:18@28
“Whisper a Prayer for the Dying” off the Coverdale/Page album is an exotic exception to the rule.”
Ok, WhiteZeppelin (or LedSnake) very very interesting song!
How ‘Child in Time’ would sound when it’s used as a soundtrack for the next “Mission Impossible” number 43 (😉) or maybe a 007-movie with anyone else than Daniel Craig as ‘Bond, James Bond’ (Well excuse me people, but James Bond is tall, dark and handsome!) (maybe Adam Sandler 😄) (noooo not him…😂)
I really dig the song! Love DC’s voice here, and of course Jimmy Page’s formidable banjo-playing 🤩
BTW: always very grateful to learn new things in here 👍🏼
June 2nd, 2025 at 13:26This, my brethren, is purely my crowning achievement, Karin advocating DC songs here – The Taming Of The Shrew in Shakespearean terms, no less! Wimmin are fickle beasts. My work is done here …
The link to Ten Years After was on purpose, Karin, to impress upon you that there were bands even more energetic than the Georgia Sputniks or whatever they‘re called …
June 2nd, 2025 at 22:43@32
“My work is done here …”
– so what? You stop writing in here? 😄
They are called Georgia Satellites! As you very well know!
And I have some inside info:
Dan Baird lost his wife a couple of years ago (cancer 😞🥺) but he has found happiness again, and on his fb page he is inviting everybody (he really is!) to come join the happy couple and party a bit with them at their wedding day in august this year!
I am so happy for them 😍
Ten Years After is a formidable band btw!
June 3rd, 2025 at 09:04@ 32- yes you achieved relative success Uwe in certain aspects and as I did congratulate you a few weeks ago, credit where credit is due. Although, it appears that there are no Deep Purple songs on Karins new desert island list of Coverdale heartbreakers. Something is still missing and doesn’t seem quite right, so in that essence old son, you still have plenty of work to do. Are you willing to hand the baton over to someone else. Is there another DP aficionado possessed enough to take on even the most difficult of challenges, with the prospect of still surviving that most arduous task. Good luck (that gets me off the hook). Cheers.
June 3rd, 2025 at 23:04@34
“Good luck (that gets me off the hook). Cheers.”
Think again! 😄😄
No one is of any hook, as far as I’m concerned!
June 4th, 2025 at 07:03Karin needs continually close supervision and guidance here,
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExcXpxejN4MWdvemMzaHB6NmQwaGNld3o4Y2NsNTlmMjN0dnB3Mjh2NiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/YYDjE4C7YgQKI/giphy.webp
we cannot just yet cut her any slack. 😂
Really similar to Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind, one of literature’s great heroines, continuously irresponsible, but dogged in approach and infectiously positive in outlook on life! 😎
https://media.tenor.com/T_mrv7EfGAkAAAAM/gone-with-the-wind-fiddle-dee-dee.gif
June 4th, 2025 at 16:05@36
Huh?
Here I was, minding my own little mind, drinking a cup of coffee, and then suddenly I’m ambushed!
What have I done now? 🥺😨
‘Gone with the wind’ is an amazing movie.
The love affair between Scarlett and Rhett is stunning!
They misunderstand each other, and at the end: ‘well frankly dear, I don’t give a damn’ – spoken by Rhett when it finally dawns on Scarlett how much she loves him, is written to make all the romantic souls among us, cry!
Remember when I read the books (sequel of 4), I was heartbroken, so as a 12 yo I shrewdly re-wrote the end! To a happy end that is 😍
Later on, after Margaret Mitchell had died, another author, Alexandra Ripley, wrote a new book, ‘Scarlett’, where everything ended perfectly between Rhett and Scarlett!
My heart was at ease, the sun was shining again, and even that novel by AR got filmed! Not as good as the original ‘Gone with the wind’ from 1939, but ok for all us romantic at heart!
But Uwe, why mentioning this intriguing novel?
I’m all confused!😵💫
And what has this to do with music Uwe…..?
June 5th, 2025 at 05:51I think ‘Gone With The Wind’ is a great American saga/novel (I read it as a teenager too, not even having seen the movie), Scarlett O’Hara a feminist icon and one of the first popular female heroines in literature and film that dared “not to be nice all the time” and Clark Gable (never much of an actor, but simply ‘Clark Gable’ in all his films, similar to Clint Eastwood who is not really an actor as well, but simply “Clint Eastwood” in all his films) found the role of his life in that film classic.
Now you’re stunned, Karin, right?! 🤣
Gone With The Wind is up there in my favorite film romances top ten together with Christie/Sutherland in Don’t Look Now, Streisand/Redford in The Way We Were and Berry/Thornton in Monster’s Ball. Not to forget Bergman/Bogart in Casablanca, Christie/Sharif in Doctor Zhivago and Swinton/Hibbert in Only Lovers Left Alive.
Wie du mich immer unterschätzt. 🙁 So ungerecht …
https://media.tenor.com/bZMubztJxGkAAAAM/charlie-brown-walking-charlie-brown.gif
June 5th, 2025 at 14:20@38
I never underestimate you!
Silly goose 😄
Another romantic gem: Ladyhawk, Michelle Pfeiffer/Rutger Hauer
June 6th, 2025 at 01:27Not a ‘big’ movie, but thrilling and with a happy ending!
Better ask my sweetheart to watch it with me!
Is “dumme Gans”🪿 a Danish insult too?! 😂
In Deutschland “dumme Gans” is something you would only describe a woman as (similar to “die blöde Kuh” 🐄🐮), a guy would be less animalistic simply a “Blödmann” (moron) and there is even in these gender-conscious times no “Blödfrau”. 😆 Yeah, I’ve been called “Blödmann” a couple of hundred times in my life, more often than not deservedly too! 🤣
June 7th, 2025 at 15:39@40
Yes, ‘Silly goose’ is indeed an insult towards the more feminine part of the population…..
June 8th, 2025 at 01:10Go figure Uwe 🤣🤣