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  Blackmore's Night is:
  Ritchie Blackmore - guitars
  Candice Night - lead vocals
  Lord Marnen - violin, flute
  Lady Madeline - backing vocals
  Lady Nancy - backing vocals
  Sir Robert - bass guitar, backing vocals
  Carmine Giglio - keyboards
  Squire Malcolm - drums, percussion
I'm kind of a travelling minstrel, closely following
BLACKMORE'S NIGHT

Ritchie Blackmore has, in a way, always played Renaissance music. His music in Deep Purple and Rainbow has often been labelled as hard rock, but the main difference has at some moments not been much more than the amplification of his sound. Thus, one day in the 1980's, he heard a German Renaissance band called Die Geyers and thought: "I have to get involved with this music!" And so he did.

About a decade later he formed Blackmore's Night together with his partner, vocalist Candice Night. The band has released three CD's: Shadow of the Moon, Under A Violet Moon and Fires At Midnight.

Ever since I listened to their first album, I've wanted to see them live (as I know that Ritchie Blackmore is the greatest live player ever). In the summer of 2001, I finally had the chance to do it. I saw them twice in Germany and it was as great as I had hoped, if not better. Candice is not only a lovely singer, but also an excellent front-woman; laughing, joking and encouraging the audience to participate.

These are the Blackmore's Night concerts I've attended so far:


  Blackmore's Night was:
  Ritchie Blackmore - guitars
  Candice Night - lead vocals
  Chris Devine - violin, flute, guitar
  Lady Vita - backing vocals
  Sir Robert - bass guitar, backing vocals
  Carmine Giglio - keyboards
  Mike Sorrentino - drums, percussion

Blackmore's Night
Alter Schlachthof, Dresden, Germany
Sunday, August 5, 2001

 When we waited outside the gates of the old slaughterhouse, it started to rain for a moment in the middle of the sunshine and we saw a beautiful rainbow rising. Inside the music was enchanting. They kept on playing for almost three hours and came back onstage a number of times. My first Blackmore's Night concert couldn't have been better.
      Has anyone seen any reviews from this show?


Blackmore's Night
Clara Zetkin Park, Leipzig, Germany
Monday, August 6, 2001

 Having seen the Dresden show, I decided that I just would have to catch the show in Leipzig, which would close the tour. The setting was an outside venue in a park and, of course, it started to rain just in time for the support bands Geyers and Mostly Autumn. Not too bad though, since Mostly Autumn's jiggy instrumentals evolved into fabulous rain-dances with their fresh, organic tributes to nature. Luckily, the rain stopped when Blackmore's Night hit the stage. By then I was soaking wet and ready to enjoy some good music.
      The show wasn't as good as the night before, but still very good. But why did there have to be a curfew? Can't they let people who have paid a lot of money enjoy the music as long as it lasts? Rubbish!
      Here's a picture I took at the concert.
      Reviews, please!


  Blackmore's Night was:
  Ritchie Blackmore - guitars
  Candice Night - lead vocals
  Chris Devine - violin, flute, guitar
  Lady Vita - backing vocals
  Sir Robert - bass guitar, backing vocals
  Carmine Giglio - keyboards
  Squire Malcolm - drums, percussion

Blackmore's Night
Amager Bio, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sunday, October 7, 2001

 A wonderful show with some good friends in wonderful Copenhagen. A Ritchie who was ill but still played wonderfully while he had the power and made it more beautiful than I could ever had hoped for. It was in fact one of the greatest shows I've ever been to. Just wonderful.
      Read die-hard Blackmore's Night fan Rainer Klos's review.


  Blackmore's Night was:
  Ritchie Blackmore - guitars
  Candice Night - lead vocals
  Chris Devine - violin, flute, guitar
  Lady Raine - backing vocals
  Sir Robert - bass guitar, backing vocals
  Carmine Giglio - keyboards
  Squire Malcolm - drums, percussion

Blackmore's Night
Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden
Monday, April 22, 2002

 In October 2001, Blackmore's Night first visited my home town Stockholm to play at the Cirkus. That time the concert was sadly cancelled due to illness. But today it wasn't. The crowd was enthusiastic and gave Blackmore's Night a warm welcome on their first concert in Sweden.
      The Cirkus is a fine theatre, where many great musicians have performed over the years. The only negative thing about it is that there is no space between the first row and the stage, so it's impossible to stand up in front of the stage during the encores.
      You might want to have a look at the setlists for the three shows in Sweden.


Blackmore's Night
Trädgår'n, Gothenburg, Sweden
Tuesday, April 23, 2002

 On to the west coast for another fine performance by the band. The support act was a Swedish band called West of Eden. They played a really good acoustic set with guitar, fiddle, accordion and vocals.


Blackmore's Night
Slagthuset, Malmö, Sweden
Wednesday, April 24, 2002

 The last show in Sweden was maybe the best. After having played very well and been well received on all three nights, the band threw in a couple of special numbers for us who had followed them on the whole tour. These songs, that are quite rarely performed, included Avalon and an unbelievably beautiful version of Beyond the Sunset that drove us all to tears.


  Blackmore's Night is:
  Ritchie Blackmore - guitars
  Candice Night - lead vocals
  Lord Marnen - violin, flute
  Lady Madeline - backing vocals
  Lady Nancy - backing vocals
  Sir Robert - bass guitar, backing vocals
  Carmine Giglio - keyboards
  Squire Malcolm - drums, percussion

Blackmore's Night
Stadthalle, Memmingen, Germany
Saturday, August 3, 2002

 Memmingen is a special place for Ritchie; he's even named an instrumental after this Bavarian town. According to reviews I had read and people I had talked to before the show, Blackmore's Night are always at their absolute best when they visit Memmingen. This concert was no exception. It was surely one of the highlights of the whole tour.
      Since the Swedish spring dates, there had been some changes in the band. Chris Devine couldn't tour with Blackmore's Night this summer, due to family reasons (hope he will be back again). He was replaced by a somewhat strange character, namely a short violin and flute player listening to the name of Lord Marnen of Wolfhurst. Behind the microphones at the back there was not only one girl but two: may I introduce the wonderful twins Lady Madeline and Lady Nancy, also known as the Sisters of the Moon!
      The start of the concert was awful. The mix was weird, Candice's vocals were out of tune and had too much echo, and Lord Marnen wasn't able to cope with it at all, as it seemed. Even one of my favourite tunes, Hanging Tree, sounded bad and, having heard stories about horrible performances earlier on this tour, I expected the worst. Luckily they got rid of the problems after about three songs and the rest was as good as I had expected, which means it was excellent.
      Sometimes when the time and place is right, that special intimate atmosphere suddenly arises; the kind of atmosphere which is perfectly right for Blackmore's Night - that's what it's all about. It isn't a pompous demonstration of fast solos and cool sounds, which hard rock often is. It's all about being among friends, sometimes concentrating hard, listening to serious music; sometimes rejoicing, dancing around, when the music is more allegro. With private minstrels entertaining you, you never get bored, even if you had seen them a hundred times before. Every moment is as exciting as ever: "What will he do now, what will they play? How will he solve this musical problem?"
      My personal highlights included quite a few songs I'd never heard live before. Village on the Sand had Ritchie playing mandolin during the first verses, before he transformed it to a strat. Lord Marnen did some nice work on the violin. Wind in the Willows and Magical World featured Candice and The Sisters Of The Moon side by side. The twins are wonderful singers - they also sang in harmony as a final pre-show act (introduced by Candice!) just before Blackmore's Night came on. Of course, the town's own song, Memmingen, was also played, but here it wasn't an instrumental since it included some lyrics in the end.
      Among the encores were songs like Difficult To Cure, Self Portrait, Temple of the King and a snippet of Burn. Have you ever seen Ritchie play the hurdy-gurdy? I have. He played a wonderful intro "à la Geyers" to The Clock Ticks On. Need I say more?


Blackmore's Night
Kloisters of Fürstenfeld, Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany
Monday, August 5, 2002

 Quite the opposite to Memmingen, which means a good start but all in all not very good. Probably someone was in a bad mood, couldn't play the hurdy-gurdy or shake hands with the audience in the end.
      The memorable event of the evening was the presence of Die Geyers. I didn't know that they were going to be there together with Blackmore's Night, so I was happily surprised. They based their set on songs which had been borrowed by Blackmore's Night and therefore familiar to the audience. The Geyers are real musicians who play real music really well.


Blackmore's Night
Schloss Wertheim, Wertheim, Germany
Wednesday, August 7, 2002

 An old, picturesque castle in a very small town; a perfect venue for Blackmore's Night as it would prove to be. The Geyers were there as well. That intimate atmosphere that I discussed above, appeared once again. Ritchie showed his sense of humour on a couple of occasions. It was a good show, after which we (the front row fans) had a post-tour party at the town's only pub, which must have had a record attendance that night.
      A review of the show can be found here (scroll down a bit).



Last updated:  October 8, 2002

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