That went well
Ritchie Blackmore reminisces about being in Hamburg, doing nothing, when he got a telegram from Chris Curtis…
Thanks to steve4422 for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover3.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice.jpg)
Ritchie Blackmore reminisces about being in Hamburg, doing nothing, when he got a telegram from Chris Curtis…
Thanks to steve4422 for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
“Doing nothing” & living off immoral earnings from Babs!
June 24th, 2025 at 03:29“And then I met Jon, he didn’t appear from the rubble, he just came in through the door”, he he he. Ole Blackers, classic. Cheers.
June 24th, 2025 at 05:06I could listen to Ritchie Blackmore for ever!
https://youtu.be/nDyO7jTIKDc?si=wqNc3wxYpyBggJFg
He was and well still is magnificent!
June 24th, 2025 at 06:30Maybe not the right place, but Mick Ralphs is dead 😞
June 24th, 2025 at 08:48Apparently he has been quite ill since 2016.
Had no idea..
Ritchie seems to have taken Chris non reality world view very well..no temper from Ritchies side..
June 24th, 2025 at 15:29Maybe temper comes with fame..when your poor you cant afford to have a temper against the hand thats feeding you.
Chris Curtis … what a trip.
June 24th, 2025 at 23:55Re late Mick, that was his iconic guitar intro, not Bowie’s (who wrote the song otherwise):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IqiRY60ZDE
Mick was also – just like Ritchie – very good at recycling his own riffs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5MvCYKjHvU
Oops, and there it is again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p9mzYB–uI
June 25th, 2025 at 15:59Back then in Hamburg, Ritchie was pretty much doing what he still does today: cosplaying!
http://www.deep-purple.net/gallery/blackmore/3-Musketeers.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e5/2e/ce/e52ecea0786b1e1c5cae67aaa0192108.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRjVH9mtH-eiqU00hA4n1dI1J6pzGNs_LtcNw&s
June 25th, 2025 at 17:20Even in those really early Ritchie photos, he has THAT ‘look’ in his eye. Regarding guitarists ‘recycling’ riffs, name me one that hasn’t ever fallen victim to that scenario. It does also happen with any instrument though, the limitations of the craft. Maybe AI will help us out there, to boldly go where no one has ever been. Cheers.
June 25th, 2025 at 21:55“THAT ‘look’ in his eye …”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BEqF0JVoJ4
June 25th, 2025 at 23:44Note to self: Never let a drummer be the founder of a band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGG51EdjKbM
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
QUOTE
Roundabout
In 1967, a year after their first meeting, Curtis contacted Edwards. “From out of the blue, Chris rang me from Liverpool. He said, ‘I’d like you to be my manager. I’ll teach you everything. Brian Epstein’s dead; you can be the next Brian Epstein’. That hooked me,” recalled Edwards.
Curtis came back to London at the beginning of 1968 and moved into a low-rent flat rented by Jon Lord, whom he had recently met at one of Vicki Wickham’s parties. Curtis was planning his return to performing but he had yet to assemble his new band. In that first conversation with Lord he said, “I’ve got this concept.”
Lord was eager to listen; his previous band had changed their name from The Artwoods to St Valentine’s Day Massacre in a desperate effort to cash in on the gangsters craze that followed the film Bonnie and Clyde. Their cover of Bing Crosby’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”, released at the end of 1967, had been a failure and he had agreed to make a one-month tour with The Flower Pot Men, a band promoting the hit “Let’s Go to San Francisco”.
Curtis’s concept was a band with a core of three members: Curtis, Lord and Robbie Hewlett. The other musicians would be engaged whenever the core felt like it. “They would jump on and off the roundabout. But I left that party in a new band, Roundabout.” said Lord.
Curtis would arrange for Daimler limousines to taxi him about and was charging the cost to Tony Edwards. Edwards realised that he had made a mistake agreeing to manage Curtis but he liked what he saw of Jon Lord. And Lord was also having problems with Curtis, who had started to use LSD. Lord returned from a few days away with The Flower Pot Men to find the entire flat covered in aluminium foil. Everything; even the furniture and the light bulbs.
Curtis moved out soon after this but he did tell Lord that he had a guitarist in mind for Roundabout. Curtis arranged for Ritchie Blackmore and his girlfriend to fly over from Hamburg, Germany and meet Tony Edwards. The meeting was a success for Blackmore, Edwards and Lord but they had no room for the erratic Curtis. They changed their name to Deep Purple and their first single was Joe South’s “Hush”, which Curtis had been playing in Lord’s flat for months.
UNQUOTE
I fear Chris was what you would call “a troubled soul” all through his life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVfu_eeJ-9k
June 26th, 2025 at 16:19@ 11 – Thanks for the Chris Curtis video Uwe. A shame indeed that he fell away, drugs again eh. At least he was there ahead of the pack in many ways, even the Beatles were not that active in the early 60’s. He managed to be there at that special time and he lasted longer than a few others, Joe Meek for starters. Although it looks like he suffered from poor health in later years. That Australian Bandstand show, I used to watch that way back as a very young and dare I say innocent lad. Probably my first exposure to rock ‘n roll I would say. Thanks again. Cheers.
June 26th, 2025 at 23:01the members of Deep Purple could write as many paradoxical and grotesque anecdotes as the new and old testament (of rock!)
June 27th, 2025 at 23:01crazy stuff