I noticed that Ritchie has released another new triple cd/dvd box set of 'classic' live recordings from a recent tour coming on the back of two new live Rainbow cds one last year and another earlier this year. The box set features two live cds and a third dvd featuring interviews from the 'man in black' himself and Candice Night along with a host of 'unknowns' no doubt talking about the man and his music. Somehow I get the feeling that Ritchie is trying to make up for a lot of 'lost time' when he was playing 'renaissance music' along with Candice Night between 1996-2016. E-Z
I've tried listening to that stuff on a few occasions and I just can't. Not saying that it's bad, but it's not my cup of tea. If it were anyone other than Ritchie playing, I'd probably never even have given any of it a listen. Someday, I'll go back and give some of the BN stuff a listen, but I don't have too high of hopes for it.
I recently bought the double cd+dvd box set mainly for Ritchie's interviews to be honest it is being sold for £25.00p in the HMV shop in London. E-Z
I agree with you 100% as I couldn't bring myself to listen to the first cd called Shadow Of The Moon until quite recently even though I originally bought it back in 1997/98!!. Yeah as you say it may be a good recording but it definitely isn't my cup of tea either. Personally speaking I think Ritchie wasted 20 years playing that type of music even though as a 'artist' he has said he got musical satisfaction from playing renaissance music and becoming like a modern day travelling minstrel with his wife Candice and mainly travelling and performing around Germany and the rest of Europe (excluding the UK for the most part though). E-Z
Despite how talented he is, maybe Ritchie decided to play renaissance music because he wasn't compatible with anyone in the rock field aside from himself considering how much of a pompous asshole he was to his bandmates? Respect for him, but he has always been a moody MFer!!
Yeah I pretty much agree with what you say plus Ritchie is a fairly complicated character anyway and always has been. I have read a lot about Ritchie down the years manly via interviews that he gave to the music press during the 1970s and 1980s and in one interview he gave he said and I am paraphrasing here that he couldn't play with a 2nd guitarist because "It would turn into a 'duel to the death' with the other guy because once I had a guitar in my hands it would become a knife that I would have to try and kill the other guitarist with!!." Some of those Rainbow interviews Ritchie did with Ronnie Dio when they were promoting Rainbow Rising are quite funny ha ha to read because Ritchie had a dark sense of humour back then. E-Z
The trick is to ignore that Blackmore is in the band and just take it for what it is. Candice Night has a wonderful voice. If you want some recommendations as to where to start, check out the Blackmore's Night thread: https://www.classicrockforums.com/threads/blackmores-night-official-thread.3454/
If I had been Ritchie I would have kept Rainbow as my main band from it's inception in 1975 until the present day. Ritchie has stated that he only went along with the 1984 re-formed Deep Purple because of the huge amount of money that was put on the table was to ridiculous to turn down and according to Ritchie he asked for an outrages amount of money thinking that it wouldn't be agreed to and to his surprised they agreed it(!!) anyway after the Perfect Strangers album Ritchie should have gone back to Rainbow in my opinion which I believe is what he has pretty much said is what should have happened and with regards to the Shadow Of The Moon album for me that would made a great one off 'curio' album before he went back to Rainbow again but instead of that in my personal opinion Ritchie wasted 20 years playing renaissance music and I am sorry to say that Ritchie on the off chance that you read this. E-Z
