[% META
     title = 'Ritchie Blackmore, Interviews'
%]

<H1>Blackmore interview in RifRaf</h1>

<pre>
From: Fedor de Lange <A71589FL%hasara11.bitnet@sara.nl>

Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 13:08:52 GMT

Message-ID: <01HZ42B47E8I95NIB6@SARA.NL>

</pre>


Hi....(I just can't say goodbye) ;-)

<p>


I just found a little Blackmore interview in RifRaf, a free magazine

available in the larger musicstores (at least in Amsterdam).

<p>


There's a long story about how the interviewer was first promised to meet

Ritchie before the gig in Brussels, then he was told he could speak Ritchie

after the gig, and finally he met Blackmore at the bar of the Renaissance

Hotel, if I remember correctly.

<p>


RB: A very good beer indeed, this "Leffe"! (Belgian beer - FdL) You want

    one too?

<p>
RR: (RifRaf) Yes please, thank you. By the way, congratulations with your

    birthday.

<p>
RB: Thanks. You're not gonna ask any questions about me being to old for

    Rock 'n Roll etc.? No?

<p>
RR: This year "Deep Purple in Rock" was re-released. Remastered and well.

    I was born in the year that the album was first released.

<p>
RB: In '69? Or was that '70? It's quite some time ago.

<p>
RR: What do you think of the new version?

<p>
RB: I have to confess I haven't heard the remastered version yet. I've got

    the record and that one sounds good. Friends of mine say that the new

    version sounds terrible. That makes me wonder: what's the point of

    re-releasing such an album? The original sounded good, why change

    something about it?

<p>
RR: Do you still have contact with the members of Deep Purple? In the

    booklet of the new "In Rock" are interviews with all of them, except

    one with you.

<p>
RB: We're still friends. We only differ in view about what direction to

    follow. Jon Lord is a very good keyboardplayer, Ian Paice drums fantas-

    tic, Roger Glover is....well...Roger is just Roger...it's just that...

    look; twentyfive years ago, Gillan was a fantastic singer. When I hear

    him now, I know I don't want to be in Deep Purple with him anymore.

<p>
RR: You've been replaced by Steve Morse...

<p>
RB: Steve is a briljant guitarplayer. A very good choice. The guy has his

    qualities; he sure can play guitar.

<p>
RR: Your guitarplaying influenced a lot of guitarists who came after you.

    How do you look at that fact?

<p>
RB: I don't see myself as such an important guitarist. Hendrix, he was a

    genius. Or Clapton in his early years. Those were people who did something

    new. The biggest guitarplayer was- and probably is Jeff Beck. To know what

    is already been done before you, and to come up with something new, that

    characterizes the great players. I already satisfied when I succeed in

    making music which is interesting...

<p>
RR: Of the fourthousand people who were here tonight, most of them passed

    the age of thirty. Do you care that todays generation doesn't seem to know

    you anymore?

<p>
RB: Not at all. What should I do with young people?? They're involved in a

    totally different kind of music. I'ld almost say; young people are just

    too young. I don't see what attracts them in all those "grunge"-groups.

    The whole grunge is so...wrong. It's non-music. So simple, again and

    again following the same scheme. Time after time. One group is perfectly

    replacable for the other. The danger I think is that you're obliged to

    like grunge. When you say, "well, grunge; don't like it at all",

    ohlala...than you don't understand it at all. Then you're out.

    While I think: "When something is not good, it's bad." Period.

    The only positive thing might be that all those recordcompanies

    don't know what's happening at all. They don't like grunge either;

    they can't control about it, and kids all over the world buy it like

    fools. So they have to like it, while they would rather get rid of it.

    'Cause it is of course inferiour music. I would rather make music which

    goes with the time a little longer. I'm not saying I'm therefore purposely

    trying to write difficult, complex songs. No: I want to write interesting

    songs. Try to make people again think like: " Hey, this is not what I

    expected!"

<p>
RR: Most people here tonight in Brussels expected that you at least did

    one encore...

<p>
RB: So we didn't!! (laughs) No, it's not that simple. Tonight I had the

    feeling the audience wasn't really with us.

    (I didn't saw you Trond! ;-) - FdL) There was too little response

    from the crowd. You can feel that on stage. And once in a while, I looked

    at the rest of the band, and when I noticed they had the same feeling,

    we decided not to do an encore. Why should we? WhenI don't feel good

    during a concert, I don't intend to make it lasts unnessecary longer

    by doing an encore. If the people really liked it, they had the change

    to show that during our performance.

<p>
RR: I was pleasantly surprised by the humor in your show.

<p>
RB: Do you think that's so strange? I do this because I like it. Then it's

    pretty normal we have a lough once in a while, isn't it? We carry

    a big lighthow with us this tour, but that doesn't keeps us from

    doing strange things on stage now and then. Our lightguys turn crazy

    everytime we do it, 'cause they don't know were to aim their spots at

    anymore, but that's their problem! (laughs) You know, one shouldn't

    take music so serious...(whispers something while drinking from his

    Leffe) That's what I have learned after all those years...A man doesn't

    live only for the music...I like to watch a god soccermatch for instance.

<p>
RR: Aaaah! The magic English soccer! With it's kicks and rushes!

<p>
RB: Mmmm...I'm not that positive about the recent English soccer. You

    talk about kick and rush, but is that soccer? That's what bothers me

    about the English soccer; they all kick again that ball, in the vague

    hope somewhere will be a forwardplayer. No...I'ld prefer the Dutch

    (oops...sorry..German ;-) - FdL) soccer. Disciplined, technical strong,

    and with a tactical perpective. The German competition is one of the

    most interesting of them all. There might come more and more foreigners

    in the English competition, but my impression is they're all players

    who've had their top. Take someone like Gullit; he's just earning his

    old days-money?   (Objection! - FdL)



<p>


Cheers,

<p>
Fedor

<p>