In these early excursions, Blackmore favoured a red Gibson ES-335 – it was in vogue with Eric Clapton, Ten Years After’s Alvin Lee and others Blackmore admired, such as US bluesman Shuggie Otis. A different generation will know Hush from 1997, and the version by Poundshop mystics Kula Shaker, which actually did much better in the charts (a No. The fleeting US fame that hit provided saw Blackmore give guitar lessons himself: to Playboy impresario Hugh Hefner. Treat the three Deep Purple ‘Mark I’ LPs (featuring singer Rod Evans) with caution: although not charmless, they were more frothily psychedelic pop or blues than later Purple and Page’s own bombastic New Yard Yardbirds/ Led Zeppelin, and were best known for US and European hit Hush (a cover of a Billy Joe Royal song). The name? “It was a song my grandmother used to play on the piano.” Back then, Blackmore was just the guitar player: keyboardist Jon Lord was DP’s main writer. Did we mention it was the 1960s?īut Blackmore eventually started to find his own feet in the band Roundabout (from 1967) which quickly morphed into Deep Purple. Curios of Blackmore’s early career include The Outlaws’ promo single for Raleigh Bikes, Bike Beat, (“Grab a girl at random, make like a tandem”) that came with its own ‘dance’ on the sleeve.

Blackmore worked as a lesser session player on Joe ‘ Telstar’ Meek productions, famously being in Meek’s house band The Outlaws (with Chas Hodges of Chas & Dave, trivia fans), backing German singer Heinz on hit single Just Like Eddie and, like Page, also working with rock prankster Screaming Lord Sutch. He’d taken up the guitar because he “wanted to be like Tommy Steele” (the music hall rock ’n’ roller) and even had lessons from session great ‘Big’ Jim Sullivan (mentor to ‘Little’ Jimmy Page) on the London session circuit. Like Page, Blackmore cut his teeth in the strange world of 60s British pop sessions. But for sheer skill, ambition and – let’s cut to the core – simply bamboozling guitar mastery, Blackmore is very much Page’s peer. The latter will never have the cachet of Led Zeppelin III though, so – to perhaps too many – Ritchie Blackmore is someone who used to be famous. If anything, Blackmore has trodden a more diverse path – crunching hard rock in Deep Purple, wizardly metal to pop-AOR in Rainbow and unique acoustic reveries in Blackmore’s Night. These two behemoths of classic British rock are broadly the same age, and have both influenced myriad players.

READ MORE: Guitar Legends: Rory Gallagher – the self-styled ‘working guitarist’ who was touched by genius.

But it is plausible that he’s actually overlooked somewhat in the guitar pantheon, given the yards of coverage and acclaim given to, say, Jimmy Page? Yes, it is. Every player has likely heard of Ritchie Blackmore.

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