Ritchie Blackmore

**Ritchie Blackmore** (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist. He is former member and founder of British hard rock band Deep Purple.

## Early life

Blackmore was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His family moved to Heston, Middlesex when he was two.

## Career

In the 1950s, Blackmore played with small bands. In 1968, Blackmore, with keyboardist Jon Lord, singer Rod Evans, bassist Nick Simper and drummer Ian Paice created the band Deep Purple. Deep Purple had a hit song in the United States with "Hush". Although they were doing well, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple decided to get a different singer. They replaced Evans with Ian Gillan from the band Episode 6. They also replaced the bass player (Nick Simper) with  another Episode 6 member, Roger Glover. The band's album _Deep Purple In Rock_ was released in 1970. In 1972, Deep Purple made the album _Machine Head_. It included one of their most popular songs, "Smoke on the Water. In 1972, they recorded the live album _Made in Japan_. Gillan and Glover left the group in 1973. They were replaced with singer David Coverdale and bassist Glenn Hughes. The new Deep Purple released two albums _Burn_ (1974) and _Stormbringer_ (1974). Blackmore left the band soon after these albums were released.

In 1984, Blackmore got back together with Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice and made the album _Perfect Strangers_. The album had many successes with the songs "Knocking at Your Back Door" and "Perfect Strangers". After recording the album _The Battle Rages On_, Blackmore left the band in 1993.

## The Rainbow

In 1975, Blackmore founded the band The Rainbow. The band included Ronnie James Dio as singer, Craig Gruber on bass, Micky Lee Soule on keyboards, and Gary Driscoll on drums. The band's first album, _Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow_, was released August 4, 1975. It was followed by _Long Live Rock 'n' Roll_ in 1978, with Cozy Powell in drums. On _Difficult to Cure_ (1981), The band included the vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, replacing Dio. After several changes in its members, Blackmore disbanded the band in 1997.

### Deep Purple

- Studio albums
1. _Shades of Deep Purple_ (1968)
1. _The Book of Taliesyn_ (1968)
1. _Deep Purple_ (1969)
1. _Deep Purple in Rock_ (1970)
1. _Fireball_ (1971)
1. _Machine Head_ (1972)
1. _Who Do We Think We Are_ (1973)
1. _Burn_ (1974)
1. _Stormbringer_ (1974)
1. _Perfect Strangers_ (1984)
1. _The House of Blue Light_ (1987)
1. _Slaves and Masters_ (1990)
1. _The Battle Rages On..._ (1993)

## References

- Legends of rock guitar: the essential reference of rock's greatest guitarists, by Pete Prown,Harvey P. Newquist,Jon F. Eiche
- The British Invasion: The Music, the Times, the Era, by Barry Miles

## Other websites

- The Official Ritchie Blackmore and Blackmore's Night website
- 1975 Interview with Ritchie Blackmore on _Modern Guitars_ Magazine
- Interview with Ritchie Blackmore
- Interview with Ritchie Blackmore about acoustic renaissance work
- First Ritchie Blackmore Fanclub on the net in English with many infos and a community

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **background**: non_vocal_instrumentalist
- **instrument**: Guitar
- **name**: Ritchie Blackmore
- **birth name**: Richard Hugh Blackmore
- **img**: Blackmore 2009 1.jpg
- **birth place**: Weston-super-Mare, England
- **genre**: Hard rock, heavy metal music, heavy metal
- **occupation**: Musician, songwriter
- **associated acts**: Deep Purple, Rainbow
- **years active**: 1968–present