Second part of Ritchie and Candice’s interview promoting their latest album Nature’s Light. Continue Reading »

Rolling Stone magazine has series called Unknown Legends where they interview “[…] veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public.” David Rosenthal was the latest guest on this feature column.

Tell me how you wound up joining Rainbow.
A friend of a friend told me that Ritchie Blackmore was looking for a new keyboard player, so I sent him a cassette. It was my cover band playing a bunch of different rock tunes on one side. And on the other side was my senior classical piano recital where I played all this crazy stuff. I knew he was into classical as well.

He heard that and invited me to audition out on Long Island. It was a cattle call. I went there and they narrowed it down to me and one other guy, and then I got the gig.

Do you recall what you played at the audition?
I don’t remember the exact songs, but it was a lot of jamming. A lot of what Ritchie was looking for was, “Can I connect with him musically? How quick does he learn?” And so there was a lot of jamming. I might have played “Man on the Silver Mountain” and a couple of the other classics. But I honestly don’t remember the specific songs.

It must have been intimidating to be onstage with someone like Ritchie.
Well, to me, it’s not intimidating. I just did what I did. My philosophy has always been to go in there after doings tons and tons of homework where you prepare and prepare. I then go in and do my best. If my best isn’t what they’re looking for, then that’s OK. At least I know I did my best. In this case, it turned out to click.

One moment of the audition I remember very specifically is that Roger Glover was running the auditions. He came over to me and said, “Let’s say that we’re onstage now in front of 20,000 people and Ritchie just broke a string and nothing is happening on the stage. You need to fill space. Go.”

I just played. I just starting playing something on the [Hammond] B3 and then I played some riffs on the Minimoog and jumped over to the clavinet. They were Ritchie’s keyboards that they had there. I had brought my stuff with me. I only had a Fender Rhodes, a Farfisa organ, and a synth. I was a student. I didn’t have any money. So they said, “Play our keyboards. Play this setup.”

I had learned about a lot of these keyboards in theory, but I’d never actually played them. But in any event, I just played a little bit here, and a little bit there. I just played. I didn’t think anything of it.

About a year later, Roger Glover told me that out of all the people they asked that of, I was the only guy that just started playing. He said everyone else had an excuse like, “Oh, don’t worry; I’ll be prepared,” or “I’ll work something up.” Everybody had a story, but I was the only guy that just started playing.

You’re filling the shoes of Don Airey, who’s a pretty incredible player.
Don is a great player. But I had the benefit when I was preparing for the audition of four keyboardists in Rainbow before me. I knew whatever those four players had in common stylistically was what Ritchie liked. I sort of tailored my playing accordingly, knowing what he was looking for, but it was a very natural fit. He and I clicked musically right away. And I was only 20 years old.

Continue reading in Rolling Stone. There’s a lot more interesting tidbits — did you know, for example, that before he got the Rainbow gig David was a student at Berklee College, where he formed a band with another fellow student, a then unknown guitar player by the name of Steve Vai?

Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.

Watch this if you enjoy knowing how the sausage is made.

A genuine bona fide opera singer is reacting to Stargazer, dissecting the greatness of Ronnie James Dio, and in the process discovering for herself that little phenomena called Ritchie Blackmore. Continue Reading »

Here’s Whitesnake performing on a German TV Show called Plattenküche at Cologne’s WDR Studios, filmed on February 19, 1979, and broadcasted on March 13 same year. Continue Reading »

Ian Paice, along with Steve Howe and Bootsy Collins, were guest musicians on the latest single from hip hop artist DMX. We understand that this particular genre may not be among the favourites amongst our audience, but try to approach it with an open mind — the groove is there. Continue Reading »

Ritchie and Candice talk about their latest album Nature’s Light. This is the first part of the three-part series that their record company is promising us. Continue Reading »

Bruce Dickinson was a guest on BBC’s Rock Show with Johnnie Walker on Saturday, April 3, during their regular Rock God segment. His pick is Ian Gillan:

So there I was as a young spotty teenager and there was this noise coming through somebody’s door, and I opened it, and I… ‘What on earth is that?’ It was ‘Speed King’ by Deep Purple off Deep Purple In Rock, and that was what got me started. Having said all that, I met Ian Gillan. Not only did I meet him, I actually went on tour with him when I was in a band called Samson.

I’m in a studio. We’ve done an album in Ian Gillan’s studio. We’ve all been at the pub and had a few pints, in walks my god Ian Gillan and goes, ‘Hey, what a great vocalist. Who’s the singer?’ At that moment, I felt the sudden urge to vomit. I ran out of the room, puked up for about 45 minutes in the toilet when in comes my idol, kicks the door and goes, ‘C’mon, mate, out you come. Let’s get you wiped down with a towel.’ He put me in a taxi and sent me home. I’ve never forgotten that, and he’s never let me forget it, either.

The show is available for listening on BBC website for 30 days, starting April 3, 2021. Dickinson’s segment starts at around the 35 minute mark into the hour long show.

Update: Here is the relevant bit:

Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up and the quotes, to Raised On Radio for the youtube clip and to Blackwood Richmore for pointing it out.

This review by Peter Creascenti of Deep Purple Mark 4 gigs at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City in January 1976 has originally appeared in Sounds on February 14, 1976.

DEEP PURPLE is a band beset by severe internal problems, problems that are now affecting their live performances and may ultimately destroy the group forever. When Purple’s five musicians should be thoroughly obsessed with convincing their audience that the band’s experimentation with the Deep Purple formula, sparked by the addition of Tommy Bolin, is both vital and valid, they’re instead allowing themselves to be consumed by frustration and divided by personal ambitions.

You’ll detect no bitterness among them when you come taste the band, but there just isn’t enough room in the champagne glass for these five fish to swim around anymore. Maybe there never really was.

Continue reading in Geir Myklebust’s blog.

Guitar.com has published a profile of Ritchie Blackmore as a part in their ‘essential guides‘ series. There’s probably not much new in there for our regulars, but it’s a reasonably nice writeup for the uninitiated, with a few quotes from the man himself.

A figure who wielded his Fender Strats like Excalibur? The forefather of neo-classical shred? A believer in the mystical, wearing tights and playing old madrigals? It can only be great Ritchie Blackmore.

Every player has likely heard of Ritchie Blackmore. But it is plausible that he’s actually overlooked somewhat in the guitar pantheon, given the yards of coverage and acclaim given to, say, Jimmy Page? Yes, it is.

These two behemoths of classic British rock are broadly the same age, and have both influenced myriad players. If anything, Blackmore has trodden a more diverse path – crunching hard rock in Deep Purple, wizardly metal to pop-AOR in Rainbow and unique acoustic reveries in Blackmore’s Night. The latter will never have the cachet of Led Zeppelin III though, so – to perhaps too many – Ritchie Blackmore is someone who used to be famous. But for sheer skill, ambition and – let’s cut to the core – simply bamboozling guitar mastery, Blackmore is very much Page’s peer.

Continue reading in Guitar.com.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the info.

The firecracking antics at the California Jam were to the great amusement of a great many people, and to not-so-great amusement of the local authorities. Here is a reproduction of a letter sent by the City of Ontario Fire Chief to the ABC Entertainment in the aftermath of the event Continue Reading »