Richard Hugh Blackmore was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on 14 April 1945, Moving to Heston in Middlesex when he was two. At the age of 11 he was given his first guitar by his father on certain conditions, including learning how to play properly, so he took classical guitar lessons for one year. Blackmore left school at age 15 and started work as an apprentice radio mechanic at nearby Heathrow Airport, and he also began taking guitar lessons from legendary session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan. In 1960 he began to work as a session player for Joe Meek's music productions, and performed in several bands, including the instrumental band The Outlaws, playing in both studio recordings and live concerts. His other studio recordings included backing singer Glenda Collins, and German-born pop singer Heinz, as well as performing with horror-themed singer Screaming Lord Sutch, beat singer Neil Christian, and others. Like a previous post in this series by Jimmy Page, Blackmore spent most of the 60's adding his guitar to a variety of singles by small groups who were trying to get a hit, although he did also perform on some singles which did make the charts, such as Heinz's 'Just Like Eddie'. While Page managed to get his guitar-work heard on a number of raucous r'n'b stompers, Blackmore seemed less picky, and can be heard on scores of middle of the road pop songs, so although the tracks themselves might not all be classic 60's r'n'b, I've tried to include the ones that best show off his talents. Once he hit the big time with Deep Purple his time was taken up with recording and touring with the band, and so guest appearances on other artists records dried up, just adding guitar to a single by Randy Pie & Family in 1973, and playing the intro to Adam Faith's 'I Survive' in 1974, so the best place to hear his extra-curricular playing is on his session work in the 60's. In 1970, producer Derek Lawrence gathered together guitarists Big Jim Sullivan, Albert Lee and Blackmore, along with Purple's Ian Paice, Procul Harum's Matthew Fisher, Tony Ashton, and Chas Hodges from Chas & Dave, and recorded a number of mostly covers in a couple of sessions, which was later released under the name of Green Bullfrog in 1971. Lawrence contributed a couple of songs, and 'Bullfrog' was a co-write with Blackmore and Paice, so rounds off this album nicely. And in case you're asking yourself who on earth that is on the cover, this is what Ritchie Blackmore looked like in the 60's, but if you're not keen on it then I've included a couple more recognisable alternative covers in the file. I'd be interested to know which one most people prefer and I might update it later.
Track listing
01 Law And Order (The Outlaws 1963) 02 Just Like Eddie (Heinz 1963)03 Jesse James (Chad Carson Unreleased 1963) 04 Like A Bird Without Feathers (Burr Bailey 1963)05 I've Been Thinking (Michael Cox 1963)06 Tell The Truth (Andy Cavell 1964)07 Bike Beat Part II (The Rally Rounders 1964)08 Let Me In (The Sessions 1965)09 Train Kept A-Rollin' (Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages 1965)10 It Can Happen to You (Jess Conrad 1965)11 Earthshaker (The Lancasters 1965)12 I'm Not A Bad Guy (Heinz And The Wild Boys 1966) 13 What Did I Do (Tony Wilson 1967)14 Yaketty Yak (Neil Christian And The Crusaders 1968) 15 Down In The Flood (Boz 1968)16 So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star (Sun Dragon 1968)17 Bullfrog (Green Bullfrog 1970)
