I can only think of one other time Ritchie was smiling much at all and that was a brief second in a video when Deep Purple reunited in 1984. The video for Perfect Strangers to be exact. Love his guitar work even if he takes himself way too serious. And never realized just who all Martin Birch produced for. Sadly Ritchie pushed him out after the Dio years in exchange for Roger Glover who was not terrible, just not as legendary in producer circles is all. Great bassist in his day though.
Purple, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Dio, I yearn for those years. Great music. Fantastic. Jon Lord was such a virtuoso. And to think back to the Perfect Strangers video and song, oh to be a fly on the wall. I think Ritchie is doing a good job with Blackmore’s Night. And the new DP cut Throw My Bones is a current Top 10 for me. The video is pretty original, even if the effects need to be cleaned up a little.
Glover has the new Deep Purple album out as of last week.