Description

Ritchie Blackmore, 1970, Reading Festival Surrey

I traveled with the Yes band to the festival with my daughter Saskia, who was just a tot. We were sitting a few yards from the stage and while Saskia held her fingers in her ears, I took pictures of Deep Purple. In Richie’s guitar solo this strobe light started flashing and as I could not manage to snap on the moment, I set the camera shutter on slow speed. I had no idea what I’d get but when I developed the film I was delighted at the multi-image it gave. Towards the end of the set Ritchie started to push over his amps and speakers, I saw this huge speaker cabinet heading our way and quickly grabbed my daughter and cameras and just managed to move in time before the impact hit the place where we were sitting. Ritchie loved the picture and apologized for nearly taking us out. Man I get so carried away on stage he said. I learned to keep a safe distance from some performers after that when they were performing.