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Blackmore’s Night interview with CNN
As part of the press surrounding the release of their new album, Nature’s Light, Blackmore’s Night did a short interview segment for CNN. Among other things, we learn about their fascination with Renaissance fairs and couture, and how they approach writing songs for the group. He even has kind words for Ian Gillan.
Thanks to Rick Damigella for the information
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
He look to be in good shape and in a good mood. He’s my all time favorite Guitar Player so I will get the new CD.
March 17th, 2021 at 12:23I’ve seen this interview recently on youtube. They are a gentle & loving family that enjoy doing their own thing together.
How could anybody possibly take issue with that?.
I was listening to their previous album, ‘All Our Yesterdays’, today while I was cleaning my windows at home. It made me feel uplifted & happy!. It’s the same way with ‘Nature’s Light’, I feel good when I listen to those songs & melodies. Thanks BN!.
Huzzah & tally ho! Smiles to ya all 🤗
March 17th, 2021 at 13:04Here they are on CNN in 2000. It’s quite interesting:
https://youtu.be/Nr-w7a_zRDE
RB is an absolute wizard with his guitar!.
March 17th, 2021 at 13:43🧙🏻♂️ 🎸🎼🎵🎶
Wow I can’t believe my ears Mr Blackmore is praising Mr Gillan ideas and contributions. What’s the catch Mr Blackmore??!!
March 17th, 2021 at 14:53Sorry if I sound cynical but I just don’t trust a band member who walks out on a band in the middle of a world tour and keeping the touring money from the record company. That’s sounds very untrustworthy regardless of what conditions led to this behaviour. I love Blackmore amazing musical talent but respect is earned and not bought and sold.
Peace
> Sorry if I sound cynical but I just don’t trust a band member who walks out on a band in the middle of a world tour and keeping the touring money from the record company. That’s sounds very untrustworthy regardless of what conditions led to this behaviour.
That was about 30 years ago. All the guys involved have long since gotten over it and moved on. Hopefully one day you can, too.
March 17th, 2021 at 15:30@4 Adel, easy for you to say!
March 17th, 2021 at 15:36Walk a mile in another man’s shoes…
🤔☮️
And Ian’s knack for singing over a finished instrumental, unperturbed by what the others had perhaps in mind as the vocal melody, was pivotal for Purple’s style. That is why his vocal melodies are so idiosyncratic.
March 17th, 2021 at 23:32Jake @5 and Blackwood @6
March 18th, 2021 at 00:28Fair comments and I can’t deny that it’s a bit out of order considering that I am on the outside. I guess I am not the only one who gets winds up by Ritchie’s comments in interviews about DP. I really can’t tell if he means what he says or he just sarcastic all the time. After all he started this idea of a one off show with DP few year ago just to wind up Ian Gillan and he just wanted to stir up S*** and rock the DP stable touring boat and I better stop now before Ritchie hire someone to spike my drink and I wake up naked on a ferry to Iceland.
Peace
WOW!1 Its nice to hear Blackmore praising Gillan, and he seems very sincere! It has been almost 30 years and its time to be civil (from both). Good interview, they both seem happy with their music and we should be glad for them?! cheers
March 18th, 2021 at 01:22“Wow I can’t believe my ears Mr Blackmore is praising Mr Gillan ideas and contributions. What’s the catch Mr Blackmore??!!
Sorry if I sound cynical but I just don’t trust a band member who walks out on a band in the middle of a world tour and keeping the touring money from the record company. That’s sounds very untrustworthy regardless of what conditions led to this behaviour. I love Blackmore amazing musical talent but respect is earned and not bought and sold.
Peace”
quand on ne sait pas ou connais pas la situation réelle de 1993 on évite ce genre de commentaires….
March 18th, 2021 at 07:17….. at the end…..I’m only fan of Deep Purple……Blackmore Night…..to be honest…..
March 18th, 2021 at 14:27I fall asleep so boring !
Both Blackmore and Gillan have a gift for snappy comments they often come to regret later on. Who hasn’t been there himself, I certainly have.
But I never believed Blackmore thought Gillan a bad singer or Gillan Blackmore a bad guitarist. I remember a Ritchie interview in Kerrang! around the time of THOBL where Ritchie said: “I’ve worked with good singers in Rainbow, but not one of them was an Ian Gillan, that always frustrated me. Unlike them, Ian is totally original and he has a voice and a personality big enough to fill a stadium. He makes us sound like Deep Purple. There is no one like him.”
Today, Blackers und Gillan are just tired of each other because each one would like the other to be different/more accomodating to his respective opposite’s wishes.
At one point, Blackmore obviously thought that Ian didn’t take care well enough of his voice and while Ian doesn’t live like a nun, some of his vocal deterioration was just biology: age taking its toll. Blackers didn’t show much empathy here and I sometimes wonder whether now that old age has let him lose some of his former agility and bite as a guitar player, he might be a bit more understanding what Gillan went through a few decades earlier as a singer.
More importantly still, Ritchie is musically conservative. He prefers vocal melodies to be simple, tuneful and catchy – plus sung with athletic vigor. Hardly surprising for someone who likes the voices of ABBA, Paul Rodgers, Neil Diamond and Blondie. Or who wanted Joe Lynn Turner in his bands twice – now Joe is a fine singer, but he has never written an unexpected vocal melody in his life. Same is true of David Coverdale whom Ritchie got to replace Gillan. David is vocally a traditionalist bordering on the reactionary. : – )
But that is simply not how Gillan works. He eschews vocal melody convention where he can. You heard a lot of that on Gillan (the band) records, also on Born Again and the jazzy IGB stuff. But even earlier: No other hard rock vocalist would have created that vocal melody to Painted Horse which Ritchie immediately hated so much the song never saw a release. Fireball (the album) is filled with oddball vocal melodies, it’s Ian’s favorite, Ritchie has always dismissed it.
With his vocal melodies, Ian doesn’t pander to the masses. Most MK II classics don’t even have a proper chorus, but just a few words shouted over one of Ritchie’s riffs. Ian is also not above singing in synchronicity with guitar riffs (generally an inexperienced garage band thing to do) if the mood strikes him, only to leave the riff altogether a few bars later. Back in the 70ies there was a joke: “If you want to hear DP with a proper catchy chorus, go listen to Uriah Heep!”
And to Ian Ritchie is too often underselling his considerable talent because the latter is so set in his ways and thick-headed, he stifles other people’s ideas. Ian is very much a collaborative musician, in every band he played in where he was the boss or at least the front man, everyone was always free to write und contribute (IGB, Gillan, DP Mk VIII). Now look through the credits of your Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night collections and let me know the main writers …
Ritchie and Ian might have been infatuated with one another when they still roomed together in 1969-71, but today they are estranged lovers, both of them thinking that the other guy is short-selling his talent.
March 19th, 2021 at 02:16Well, that kind of music isn’t really my cup of tea, but 2 songs are remarkable. The first one is “Darker shade of black”, released before in 2015 on the “All our Yesterdays”-album, the second is “Der letzte Musketier”, with a “Jon-Lordish” organ intro which leads into a very nice and well played instrumental piece of music. Both songs are available on youtube.
Take care… and have a nice Day!!!
March 19th, 2021 at 12:25There’s a new video out now on Youtube for the song ‘Second Element’:
https://youtu.be/hXk6KMLxKyM
The excitement starts at 2:44 & plays through to 3:46. 🎸 Enjoy!. 🤗
CN is starting to show her age a little now, but she still looks the part!.
March 19th, 2021 at 15:30@13 In YT I changed the playback speed on ‘Der Letzte Musketier’ to 1.25….a little faster and the guitar sounds great! IMO.
Not sure why ‘Darker Shade…’ was included after being on the previous album but it’s a favourite of mine and i guess they enjoy it to.
March 19th, 2021 at 16:55pour moi une seule chanson est superbe “second element”
March 19th, 2021 at 18:01It must be Ian Gillan day or month etc etc. Uwe @ 12 needs to keep things in perspective a little. I will start at the end & work my way back. We all know that saying ‘ familiarity breeds contempt’ in regards to the early getting on together history of Blackmore & Gillan. Plus that other nemesis that often brings humans down a peg or two, EGO. They sort of respect each other & that’s about it, on a good day!
March 19th, 2021 at 23:12In regards to the songwriting ‘credits’ listed on albums, it goes both ways. Some artists (bands) list all members, Mk2 did that in the 70’s & also 70’s Sabbath. But it didn’t last long & why should it. If someone has nothing to do with an arrangement, melody or song writing idea, should they be credited? It is a long standing issue with many musicians & also songwriters who are not musicians. Feeling they have been betrayed in some way, it does happen unfortunately. However if we are going to look at album credits & judge on that alone, well who can really tell who has contributed or not? We are familiar with the David Stone song credit story of Gates of Babylon. Rainbow has been ‘targeted’ by Uwe for some reason, well we know the reason. Here we go, not including covers of course & sometimes credits may change as original albums are re released in later years. First album, Blackmore & Dio. Rising – Blackmore & Dio. LLR&R – Blackmore, Dio, with Cozy Powell included on Kill the King. Down to Earth – Blackmore & Glover, Powell included on one track. Difficult to Cure – Blackmore & Glover with Don Airey on 3 tracks, JLT on 2. Straight Between the Eyes – Blackmore, Glover & Turner 5 tracks, Blackmore & Turner one track, with Rosenthal one track & Rondinelli one track. Bent out of Shape – Blackmore & Turner 5 tracks, with Glover & Rosenthal one track, with Glover, Turner & Rosenthal one track, one Blackmore instrumental with another cover track arr by Blackmore. Stranger in us All – Blackmore & White, 4 tracks -with Night one track, with Pat Regan 2 tracks, with Paul Morris, White & Night one track. In regards to the Blackmore comment on Gillan in 1987, we all know that could change at any moment. Blackmore & his sayings over the years, taken with a pinch of salt. I will have a look at Saint Gillan’s album credits shortly. Cheers.
Mr Gillan is definitely NOT a progressive rock vocalist, I never liked the IGB, not the music so much, it is the vocal mismatch, horrible. Now getting back to Uwe’s comment on Gillan being much more easier regarding other or all band members writing & contributing etc. The progressive rock IGB from the 70’s, it seems Gillan needed these other excellent musicians to help out & they all did according to the album credits. However that changed in the 80’s with Gillan the band. Mostly he & Colin Towns writing there, excepting the Glory Road album as Towns was less involved on that & Bernie Torme was the collaborator with Big John McCoy helping out on a few, as he did also on the other albums. The following albums were back to Gillan & Towns on most tracks, with the occasional track involving McCoy, Torme & later Janick Gers on a few. Gillan’s solo albums are predominately him & Steve Morris for 90% of the writing. The point of all this is simple, most songwriters like the song they are the main contributor to, to go the way they envisage it, they want the song to sound a certain way. Blackmore is no different to most other collaborators on what idea he has in mind. No doubt Gillan would be similar on his band or solo material. Individual songwriters ala Pete Townshend, Ian Anderson, Paul Simon etc, have the songwriting almost finished, when presenting it to other band members, to embelish or add l little contribution if that occurs. Some other writers work with a collaborator, Blackmore with a lead vocalist usually, Iommi & Page also as they do not sing or write lyrics. Some are full band collaborations, but I find that rare in my knowledge of the history of popular music. It is usually one writer, a duo or a trio. In the case of Painted Horse & When a Blind Man Cries being ‘not good enough’ for those albums, I agree. They are good songs, just not suited to those respective albums. Sometimes someone has to see that & make a point of it. Why wasn’t Blackmore out voted 4 to one if that be the case. Unless there were a few other members who thought the same at the time. It is what it is. There are plenty of other great musicians that like things to go a certain way. Now leave poor ole Blackers alone, he is a saint, all be it with devil horns on, he he! Cheers. P.S. Please do NOT ask me to review the songwriting collaborators on the Blackmore’s Night albums, please, have some mercy, show some compassion, that is all I ask.
March 20th, 2021 at 04:14@15 rik_uk, that trick works on other RB tracks as well. Try speeding up the studio take of ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’ by about 15%, it sounds better!:
March 20th, 2021 at 06:29https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rUheyPrzATQ&feature=youtu.be
“Rainbow has been ‘targeted’ by Uwe for some reason, well we know the reason.”
Aber Herr MacGregor, which reason should that be?
My main contention with Rainbow was/is that the music was always a bit stiff and heavy-handed (if I want to hear that, I can always listen to Rammstein), it didn’t swing and roll, simple as that. It just rocked or was a ballad, very little in between. The only Rainbow album that actually had swing in it was Rainbow’s debut, because Elf as a band had swing.
And my second contention was the lack of keyboard and drumming highlights. Cozy Powell was like Chuck Norris on drums, spare me. All keyboarders relegated to background work, give or take the odd intro.
In a sentence: I never forgave Rainbow that they weren’t DP, that ingenious mix of heaviness and groove, gut and brain, classic elements and blues, all played with elegant swing.
And forgive me, I don’t hear a mismatch here at all, it was an interesting and original, highly nuanced combination:
https://youtu.be/oFQmiuHUEI4
https://youtu.be/_LlClLhLKvc
https://youtu.be/VgAL4zdMnJA
It’s marvellous music to me – it already felt that way when I was 16 and otherwise listening to Status Quo, Ramones and Kiss -, Mark Nauseef’s intricate, yet organic drumming and percussion work alone is sheer high art, he was in league with Stewart Copeland as regards rhythmic creativity.
And why Ritchie never saw Tony Carey’s lyrical and songwriting talent,
https://youtu.be/ZJFh3_jifoA
yet felt compelled to cover Russ Ballard hit factory songs a few years later, is beyond me.
March 21st, 2021 at 01:45I agree with some of what you say Uwe. Powell was a good drummer but Paice’s drumming had/has swing to it. As for the Keyboard player being relegated to the background in Rainbow, the same can be said of Jon Lord during the S&M Tour. Every show I have from that tour is boring and that is one reason why.
March 21st, 2021 at 11:24It is all about diversity. The last thing Blackmore was going to do in 1975, was to get musicians in so his new band may sound like DP. We know he changes all the time, many musicians seek this path, regularly. He wanted a hard hitting drummer, not a jazz swing style drummer. Although Cozy is more than a hard hitting drummer. He was previously in Jeff Becks group, who incidentally changes line ups often also.
March 23rd, 2021 at 07:31ELP later on & Keith Emerson & Greg Lake knew who could work out for them with Carl Palmer unavailable. He knows his chops & syncopated time. Like a true pro, it depends on what is required from him. Blackmore also wanted a keyboard player who complemented the music more, someone different to Jon Lord’s louder lead & dueling with the guitar style. Cheers
In a word: He wanted more Ritchie, less Purple. But Ritchie without DP is actually less Ritchie, not more.
What he failed to see – and he’s not alone, it’s an unfortunate trait of many strong characters within successful bands – that he already had the best possible musical environment for him with DP.
Rainbow weren’t diverse. They were stylistically a reduction of DP. Rainbow’s version of Mistreated turned a modern blues song with a laid back funk rhythm into an asexual plodding behemoth. They took all of the macho swagger and groove out of it.
Cozy’s drumming fitted actually best with Black Sabbath (the thud) and to some extent with ELP (the bombast). I didn’t much like him with Rainbow, he was plain horrible with Whitesnake (especially live, where he really demolished older material) and even on MSG II and the Budokan album his drumming wasn’t nearly as good as Ted McKenna’s on the legendary Assault Attack album.
And if I may say so as a bassist, Cozy didn’t play so much with bassists as he played over them, bludgeoning everything in his path. That is why he was never part of a really top notch rhythm section, he drummed for himself. He probably worked best with Neil Murray, but even their musical rapport was nowhere near what Paicey and Murray shared in Whitesnake.
March 24th, 2021 at 20:35Wow guys!
I don’t wish to minimise any of the points made here in this discussion, but with the world having gone crazy, anyone who wants to send their best wishes to those who they had beef with in the past: love and power to them.
March 31st, 2021 at 03:00