Julio down by the schoolyard, we all know that there is no certainty as to what (if any) Big Ian is wearing underneath at any given moment (maybe Karin has a hunch?), but he‘s certainly made earnest attempts at Hippie Couture in the past!
Julio, Bobby was known as a man of taste regarding women, sadly he passed this January…maybe Mrs Barlowe inspired him a lot
Not to my knowledge Uwe!
But well spotted!! 
Yes, I heard 
Years ago I watched his Netflix documentary, “The Other One”, what a life story the little kid (within the band) had!
Best, J.-
That’s an inconclusive answer. In the Spanish speaking world no man can give a definite answer on the number of his offspring. I am not fooled!
No, dear Uwe!
I am definitely not related to singer Miguel Ríos, nor crooner Julio Iglesias and Paul Simon could not have been referring to me either since I only entered the schoolyard in 1975 at 3 years old.
I am also not related in any way to the famous bisexual sports journalist Julio Ríos (who is also the reason why I block any attempt of a football/soccer player to contact me).
Hope that clears it! 
When I want to listen to more “authentic” versions of Blackmore’s Night songs and medieval music in general, Elthin has become my go-to band, not least because of the length and breadth of their discography. They are of course also very good at and extremely dedicated to what they do.
There is definitely a market for BN “milk and Renaissance” (to paraphrase Pat Boone’s quip about “milk and metal”) interpretations, and I of course love me some Blackmore guitar playing on top of these melodies, but sometimes “the original” thing really shines, and Stella Splendens In Monte is one of those songs that have, for a reason, been hits for centuries and centuries - starting from medieval pilgrims, no less!
Yep, there are plenty of more authentic medieval artists. And this certainly includes the band that inspired Blackmore to pursue that kind of music – Des Geyers (Schwarzer Haufen). At some point he even asked to be their guitar player, but after careful consideration they said “thanks, but let’s stay friends” 
Thanks Zenos for the Elthin link, always nice to hear ‘authentic’ medieval and Renaissance music. I listen occasionally to old world music, much more these days and also to get away from noisy rock music. There are many days that I don’t listen to any music at all, unthinkable when I was much younger. I have bookmarked their website and will delve in a little deeper as time passes. Cheers.
Ritchie joining a band of that calibre, he would last about 2 nano seconds we would think. The discipline would kill him for starters and also it not being ‘his’ band. Thanks for that, I enjoyed it. Cheers.
I’ve probably been to more BN gigs than most people here (I’ve seen them between a dozen and twenty times I think), also own all their albums, but sometimes their music is so banal and lightweight it makes me wince.
And I don’t blame Candice for that, she can’t help her pleasant mainstream voice. Ritchie was and is the musical director of that band and sometimes his taste was appalling. BN is the Peter, Paul & Mary-ization of the source material.
Not that I’m a fan of this medieval retro-stuff like Des Geyers Schwarzer Haufen, I find that obsession with one of the most culturally stagnant periods in Western history peculiar.
This was a good version, too. A bit different too, the German lyrics with a gruffy voice sounded somewhat out of place to me, because I have listened to so many versions with very clear vocals and in original Latin.
I regret seeing BN only once, and even then I really went to see Ritchie play. A decade later I finally listened to their music, and however milk-and-Renaissance it is, most of the music is thoroughly enjoyable. I completely agree that especially some of the cover songs are making Pat Boone’s Tutti Frutti sound like raw and original in comparison. Nevertheless, there’s a great wealth of music underneath, and much of it could and should be brought up more vigorously by the band (see: Blackmore’s Night melody sources list) and not just the fans.
High/Late Medieval and Renaissance periods are the first from which we have preserved a meaningful amount* of temporal (that is, not just sacral) music, so for someone who would want to immerse in a past setting outside the confines of the church, that is pretty much as far as a musician can go.
Also did I understand correctly that you just said a period literally called “rebirth” is “one of the most culturally stagnant”? I’m not saying it categorically wasn’t, but that probably would not be my take.
Here’s an even older song for ya:
It never even crossed my mind to go to a BN concert/partly because I would have felt out of place just wearing jeans and sneakers. Besides, I prefer to remember RB as a rock legend, not a fixture at medieval fairs. I only bought their first album, and it really threw me.
Same, I was excited for RB to follow his true calling and was expecting a full album of “Temple of the King” quality level material when I bought “Shadow of the Moon”.
Boy, was I disappointed…
Not for me, thanks (but more power to 'em, anyway)
Ritchie and Candice always claim their music is Renaissance-inspired, but if it is then it is earliest Renaissance with still a lot of mold from the Middle Ages. I don’t hear much Age of Enlightenment in it.
No amount of romanticism can turn me into a fan of an era that reveled in being a class society system.
The following is not to say that whatever RenFaire fantasy world Ritchie and Candice inhabit through the lyrical content with Blackmore’s Night would not be easy to interpret as reactionary, but I’m still gonna go ahead and say something around the sweeping generalizations (with a sweeping generalization, no less).
Modern research of Medieval history is luckily doing away with many a prejudice associated with the Middle Ages. A rigid class system combined with widespread weaponization of religion did stifle an innumerable amount of talent and creativity - in that sense, not entirely different from what we experience today globally - but even then, great art had ways of expression throughout the whole period. Unlike today, the nominal duopoly of power held by the clergy and nobility was far from absolute; in most situations, the rulers could rule only where they were able to physically manifest, and given the limited methods of travel, in many places that rule was more incidental and symbolic than concrete, let alone total. Surviving Medieval folk songs, for example, are often about something very much else than propping up the status quo.
What is more, you don’t need to be a fan of an era to appreciate the art that was made. Czarist Russia produced a multitude of great artistic achievements and artifacts, yet I don’t see myself agreeing with almost anything that state and society did to its subjects and would-be subjects.
But I digress.
(As a sidenote, I, as most others, associate Renaissance with the the 15th and 16th Centuries, with Age of Enlighenment belonging to the 18th Century.)
