The Man in Black, Ritchie Blackmore, has turned 70 years old today, which I suppose puts him firmly in the grand-daddies of British classic rock fraternity along with the likes of The Stones, Clapton and The Who.

When I got into Deep Purple and Rainbow at the cusp of the 70s/80s, Ritchie was my top guitar hero, especially on Purple’s “In Rock” and “Machine Head” albums and the classic Rainbow albums “Rising” and “Long Live Rock’n’Roll”.

You rarely heard or saw Ritchie in the media and he always had a sense of mystique about him, with regular rock press reportage about pranks, band sackings, mood swings and feuds with Gillan and Coverdale. That said, I recall one fascinating interview on Radio One (either with Tommy Vance or Alexis Korner, not quite sure) where he praised Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull’s folk rock style and talked about why he originally chose a Fender Stratocaster over a Gibson (cos’ it was difficult to play at first).

I saw Ritchie live with Deep Purple on the MK II reunion tour in 1985. It was a packed Birmingham NEC and Ritchie pulled out all the stops that night, playing like a » Continue Reading.