BLACK KNIGHT 
(the first ever unauthorised Ritchie Blackmore biography) 
  
Published Price: £19.95 
ISBN: 1846092663 
Published by Omnibus Press

Publication Date: 4th September 2006  
Order from More Black than Purple now!  
(All copies bought from MBTP will be personally signed by the author)
Format: Hardback, 400pages, 23.4cm height, b&w photos

• Ritchie Blackmore- Arguably the greatest rock guitarist of his generation. 

Although he is dubbed the 'Man In Black' Ritchie Blackmore is without doubt one of the most colourful and enigmatic characters in the history of rock 'n' roll.

• From humble beginnings, born in the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare, Ritchie Blackmore initially found fame and fortune with seventies rock giants Deep Purple and was the creator of rock anthems such as 'Black Night' and 'Smoke On The Water.' 

• Walking away from the band he helped to create eight years earlier, Blackmore then formed his own group Rainbow and enjoyed huge success again including three successive top ten UK singles with 'Since You Been Gone', 'All Night Long' & 'I Surrender.' 

• An accountant's dream of a reunion with Deep Purple in the mid eighties turned sour a decade later when he handed in his resignation in the middle of the band's twenty-fifth anniversary tour. Once again Blackmore reformed Rainbow, but in 1997, he took the bull by the horns and turned his career on its head with the formation of his acoustic, Renaissance inspired project, Blackmore's Night. 

• From Black Night to Mediaeval Knight is an unlikely path for any rock musician yet long before all that, Blackmore's formative years in the music business also involved a heady cocktail of eccentrics, geniuses and superstars: Screaming Lord Sutch, Joe Meek, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Freddie Starr and Tom Jones… just some of the iconic figures whose own careers are woven into Blackmore's life story.

• His love-hate relationship with Deep Purple's lead singer Ian Gillan, and a reputation as a 'hire and fire' merchant, with a seemingly endless number of musicians passing through his own bands are just two examples of why his critics love to hate him. His moodiness and antics both on and off stage have often left fans and critics bewildered, but Blackmore's musicianship, flair for improvisation, as well as his showmanship, with countless guitars destroyed over the years are just some of the reasons why, almost forty years since first coming to prominence with Deep Purple, he still has a huge army of fans. 

• Behind the dark exterior lay a different character, a man of numerous paradoxes: Animal lover, passionate about football, and an interest in Mediaeval Castles, séances and medicine, but a man who is lacking in self-confidence and both self-critical and intolerant of others- a man who also thrives on friction and loves to complain.
Add in three marriages, police chases, imprisonment, ghosts, and impersonators and you start to get the picture that this is no ordinary life.

• Now for the first time, a biography that looks beyond the myth and the rumours of this most charismatic but much misunderstood guitarist. Written and researched by Jerry Bloom who first met Ritchie more than twenty years ago; has followed his career since the seventies, and since 1996 has published and edited the International Ritchie Blackmore magazine 'More Black than Purple.' 

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