Rock and Roll Garage

The original Deep Purple guitarist and the leader of Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore is one of the most influential musicians of all time and also one of the most sincere Rock artists. He has always shared his genuine opinions about other bands, even when he did not have positive things to say. Active in the music business since the 1960s, Blackmore witnessed multiple eras of Rock and the rise of several new movements, including New Wave. Over the years he commented on many bands from that period, among them The Police, formed by Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. What is Ritchie Blackmore's opinion on The Police Although Ritchie Blackmore praised a lot of Pop bands during his career, The Police was not one of them. The musician said once that he hated them and the world didn't need bands like the popular British trio. He mentioned them when asked by Metal Hammer in 1987 which was the point when he believed that the Deep Purple reunion (which started in 1984) would work. “I think it was on the first part of the tour, in Australia. I suddenly realized that there was a gap for this type of music because only ZZ Top were doing that aggressive stuff. Everyone was playing like The Police. And can I state here that I hate The Police? There just wasn’t a band playing that earthy kind of rock." Ritchie Blackmore continued: "Our music isn’t contrived, and there isn’t that sheen of gloss,” Ritchie Blackmore said. His bandmate Roger Glover had previously said the world needed a band like Deep Purple and there would always exist one like them. Blackmore commented on that once again mentioning The Police. “It’s quite a profound statement, and Roger doesn’t take drugs. Yeah, I suppose so. That’s the kind of promotional statement that the record company will love. As long as the world doesn’t need The Police, that’s all I care about,” Ritchie Blackmore said. Curiously, The Police was first active only in the years when Deep Purple was inactive. When The Police was formed in 1977, Deep Purple already was one of the biggest bands in the world but had came to an end one year earlier. At the time Blackmore had already been on the road with his own band, Rainbow and had released two records. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland would remain together for the first time until 1984, when Deep Purple reunited the classic MK II line-up, releasing their comeback album "Perfect Strangers". Sting hated bands like Deep Purple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNIZofPB8ZM&list=RDKNIZofPB8ZM&start_radio=1&pp=ygUUZG9uJ3Qgc3RhbmQgc28gY2xvc2WgBwE%3D Ritchie Blackmore and Sting feel the same way about each other's bands. The Police vocalist and bassist hated Deep Purple. That's what he told Musician magazine in 1981, saying he found their kind of music abhorrent. "I played Dixieland, mainstream, bebop, free-form, I played in a big band. I also played as a backing musician for various cabaret artists." "It was a very rich education which was totally outside of Rock and Roll. I wasn't interested in rock'n'roll. The halcyon days for me to be interested in Rock music were the early 70s. I found the Rock music of the time abhorrent. It was Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple - music I just hated," Sting said. The musician also recalled once that it was really difficult to get a record deal until the mid-70s. Because if you didn't sound like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, it was quite hard to be signed. Since he was not playing that kind of music, he said a few times it was frustrating. Andy Summers worked with the Ritchie Blackmore bandmate Jon Lord Curiously, although The Police was formed in the late 70s, the guitarist Andy Summers is actually much older than Stewart Copeland (10 years) and Sting (11 years). He was born in 1942, three years before Ritchie Blackmore and he started his career in 1959, one year before the Deep Purple guitar player. Before joining The Police, Summers worked with many praised artists. One of them was the late Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord. He played the guitar on the musician's second solo album "Sarabande", released in 1976. Talking about that album in an interview with Keyboards magazine in 1994, Lord said the musicians who were part of that record were "outstanding". When talking with Analog Planet in 2024 about The Police's biggest hit "Every Breath You Take", the interviewer said the riff of the song was one of the most popular ones alongside Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". Summers agreed with that and said: " Yes, with 'Smoke on the Water.' They’re kind of like one-two there, right? (both laugh)." He continued: "I mean it’s a different kind of metal. A different kind of music, but it’s an idea that’s still very striking. And you have to keep it in mind, that one in particular — 'Smoke on the Water,'" Andy Summers said. During their career The Police have released only five studio albums but they are one of the best-selling bands of all time. They have sold an estimated amount of more than 75 million records worldwide, 25 million less than Deep Purple. They were active from 1977 until 1983 and reunited for a few shows for the last time in 2007. Summers and Copeland are currently on a legal battle against Sting because of a deal he made to write the rights to his songs, which includes The Police catalogue.

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