That beautiful natural 73 Strat which he played for the whole set did not get destroyed, but it did get stolen some time later. I think it's one of the coolest Strats Ritchie ever used.
Yep. It was in use on the very early Rainbow shows in late '75, then got stolen. I have a '75 just like it. But the sound of his sunburst '71 on the "Made in Japan" recordings is the best, imo.
@@Innerspace100 oh man, that’s cool. It’s one of the guitars I would like to have if I could. In my humble opinion his California jam tone is the most refined he used in Purple.
Three years later, an even more dramatic event happened at a Rainbow show in Vienna. Blackmore attacked a bouncer, breaking either his nose or jaw. The bouncer deserved to get hurt, as he was hitting a young girl. Rainbow's road crew tried to remove Blackmore to safety in a flightcase after the show, but police dogs located him, and he was arrested. That incident made headlines.
He has a valid point about intrusive cameramen, especially given the size of their equipment at that time (Imagine a fleet of Bobcats roving around the stage while you're trying to play!). However, all signs point to that being a rationalization after the fact. Sounds like he was angry and/or depressed at the time, and the real problem was within himself. I had depression years ago, and it resulted in acting out like that. Point is, all that destruction was unnecessary: The guitars, the working relationships, the classic line-up, and especially the fanbase all could have been salvaged. I got help. If it sounds like you or someone you know, there's a better way forward than charging at cameramen, so to speak.
I was not aware of the context for his DP departure in the 90s, but it's interesting the way you juxtaposed that interaction with the camera operators. Thanks! Makes me grateful now for his relatively mellow but full-length shows I saw w/ Rainbow in '83 & DP in '85. 😀
I was at the NEC gig. When you look at the dvd Ritchie's solos were really good. Ritchie did behave like a twat on that night though. The first time I saw Purple was at Wembley in '87 where Ritchie refused to come on for the encore of 'Smoke On The Water,' forcing the band to perform it as a four-piece. I felt very sorry for those four that night and I was gutted because I'd travelled up from Cornwall to see my favourite band.
I remember it well, me and my mate were there initially we thought Blackmore threw the drink at Gillan before we realised it was one of the camera guys:-)
NB re Cal Jam , the explosive used was simple petrol ⛽️ as for the camera Blackmore was presented with a six figure bill for wrecking the state of the art Sony zoom lens. Which was paid.
@@TheGuitarShow My pleasure Sir!...Ritchie Blackmore embodies what ROCK guitar playing is all about: IN YOUR FACE DEFIANCE & REBELLION!...Over the years this ARROGANT ATTITUDE got dumbed down into a boring morass of "congenial nice guys with technically great chops" that are mostly predictable & cliched, all technique with no ARROGANT SOUL accompanying. Case in point, the 180 turnabout of Yngwie Malmsteen from his irreverent BIGMOUTH BADASS in the 1980s to "Mr Soft Spoken Nice Guy" just going-thru-the-motions on his "Monsters of Guitar" tours with all the other boring lick phonies of present day.🥱😴
As you can see, he didn't attack the cameraman per se, but he did damage the actual camera. The band's '83 biography said that the cameraman "absolutely freaked", but he looks really blase in the footage!
I hope his fame ain't just destroying Strats... Can you recommend a cut where, in your opinion, he's really shining? (...as I'm not too familiar with the bloke) Thanx in advance and Cheerios (but not the cereal)
You could do a lot worse than ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jp06Zx_-GRc.html from the California Jam show where he attacked the camera.
Try the Made in Japan live album from 1972. Not only does Blackmore shine on it, but the whole band does. It was the definitive high water mark for Deep Purple imo.
@@Innerspace100 Also contains Ritchie asking "Can I have everything louder than everything else?" which always makes sound engineers laugh (and cry just a little bit).
@@philwildcroft1764 Yes. And in Purple, everything was indeed louder than everything else. All the time. So... yeah! I think they were rather loud indeed. :)
Search for Deep Purple Live in Blizen 1969 (the longest video you can find). Mostly instrumentals but Blackmore is insane there. He’s doing stuff like sweeps and shredding that no one else was doing at the time. Not til the late 70s did anyone come close.
I think a lot of you are reading FAR too much into this. Yes, Ritchie was probably pissed at the promoter's attempt to get the band on before their CONTRACTUALLY agreed time. But he was also fully aware he was on more or less "live" TV broadcasting to millions, and this was by no means the first time he'd destroyed one or more fake Strats for the show. He was groomed by Screaming Lord Sutch on how to give an over the top show a decade earlier. The gas in the Marshalls may have been a bit much but you can see how the whole thing was set up ahead of time, by the fact that the exploding stack was moved forwards, away from the other two stacks, and how he went back behind them just before the explosion, more or less probably saying, "Ok, now, when I raise my arm and wave, light 'em up..." Theatre, pure and simple.
