Ritchie Blackmore has always been my favorite guitarist. When I first heard of Blackmore's Night, I went out and bought Shadow of The Moon. I have since bought all of their CD's. I finally got to see their DVD Castle and Dreams, and I have to say that this is one great band. Is it kind of hard to see Blackmore in tights...you betcha. BUT...he seems to be having a great time on stage. Candice Night has a great voice and looks like a much younger Stevie Nicks. Blackmore still brings out the white Strat on occasion and lets rip some great solo's, but his work on the acoustic and hurdy gurdy, and other instruments is great to watch. It looks like after so many years in the rock world, he looks to have found his favorite music to play.

For any other Blackmore fans out there...give Blackmore's Night a try...

He's my favorite player ever, but I can't get into this stuff. As I mentioned before one of my best friends Dan's friends and his brother ended up in Blackmore's Night in the early 2000's. It's the cheesy New Age sounds and the vocals that truly ruin it for me.
I say this painfully, knowing Blackmore is my fave player and 2 people I actually know well were in the band (and were both forced to wear Renaissance-era garb to Ritchie's house). They have made it a nice little career though so props to Ritchie and his witchy wife, but it just isn't for me.

Being a Blackmore fan like you Pete, I agree that it is hard to see the person who created Stargazer play in costume. I had to remove the Blackmore from those years and put him where he is now. The music is actually very good, at least to me. I'm not a big fan of female lead singers, but Candace has a great voice.

That's cool that your friend's friend and his brother played in BN. What were their names?

Eddie Trunk got Ritchie Blackmore to agree to do an interview on his radio show, but with the stipulation that they didn't talk about Deep Purple or Rainbow. Eddie ultimately passed, because what would the point be of a hard rock/metal DJ interviewing a rock legend and not delving into his two most popular musical ventures?

Blackmore is talented, but a little off from what I've read.

If you watch any of his performances, he does look a bit wacky on stage. His fingers fly on the frets, faster than anyone I have ever seen. I actually played soccer with Blackmore back in 1984, just before the DP reunion took place. He picked me to play goalie for him and we won 15-5. Sitting on the sidelines after the game, he was very quiet.

Probably wondering how you dominated the game and still gave up five goals!

Alan

I was scared he would smack me around when I let in the first goal...

I'll actually have to ask them first before I mention them-they are nice guys, but very eccentric and the one brother is odd! So they might hunt me down. But man, are they talented.
This much is true-Ritchie Blackmore has brought me so much joy in my life the man can do whatever the hell he wants!

Blackmore used to be a favorite, but the music he makes these days holds no interest for me.

I like BK quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I like classic DP. I would have to say I prefer BK to Rainbow; who i kinda like but 99% of their songs just never really grabbed me. I have 2 or 3 of their cd's, but i have just about everything from Blackmore eras DP & from BK.

Wow...Blackmore's Night over Rainbow...interesting.

You kinda like Rainbow, but 99% of their songs never grabbed you? Bizarre math!

It's the new math...

I kinda like them because they have Blackmore on guitar. Always felt the songwriting was weak other then Man On The Silver Mountain.

Stargazer???