The night Ritchie Blackmore set the stage on fire: How a feud with Yes led to arson

 

Guitar heroes are a funny old breed, and one of the most enigmatic of this set is Ritchie Blackmore. A hard rock and metal icon who took the baton from Jimi Hendrix and set the scene for Eddie Van Halen, his pioneering, dynamic and atmospheric sound remains one of his era’s most important.

However, just like many guitar-playing maestros of his heyday, Blackmore is a curmudgeon with distinct views on the world. He knows what he likes, and what he doesn’t, and has always been bold in discussing such thoughts in public, detailing an array of famous artists whom he isn’t a fan of. From his contemporary Eric Clapton to the entire punk genre, a lot furrows his brow.

As well as firmly sitting in the ‘hater’ camp, which adds another dimension to his legacy, Blackmore has committed to many moments of pure rock ‘n’ roll chaos that leaves us regular folk aghast like many of his six-string peers. His highlights reel includes a drunken altercation with Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham in Los Angeles’ Rainbow and, of course, the California Jam incident in 1974, which saw him smash up his guitar on stage before his amp exploded into flames and caught his hair on fire.

 

Although a disagreement with the organisers led to the outburst at the California Jam, it has always seemed rather affected, particularly given his lightly tapping of his guitar on the camera, not going whole hog smashing the glass to bits, and the clearly prepared amp explosion. However, not long after, the guitarist would put this stunt to shame with some genuine rock ‘n’ roll destruction after a disagreement with prog rockers Yes, a group whose sound had partially inspired Deep Purple’s prog exploration on their hit 1974 album, Burn.