Watch Ritchie Blackmore perform with Deep Purple for first time in 33 years

Ritchie Blackmore joined Deep Purple on stage for the first time in more than three decades last night – check out footage of the shock reunion below. Fans of the legendary rock group had long given up on the idea of seeing the band share the stage with founding guitarist Blackmore after a well-publicised estrangement dating back to the early ’90s, which was so fraught Blackmore did not show up at the band’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2016. However, on Wednesday night (August 12), the band reunited for a song at the group’s Jones Beach gig in New York, with Blackmore joining them onstage for a rendition of the group’s 1972 classic, ‘Smoke on the Water’. “It’s gonna be interesting,” Blackmore said in a podcast appearance ahead of the show, in which the 81-year-old guitar musician pre-emptively leaked news of his appearance a day early, in the hopes fans who’d been waiting several decades for this moment would be able to make it down to see it live. “I have not played rock music in 25 years.” As the band wrapped up ‘Smoke in the Water’, vocalist Ian Gillan heaped praise on his former bandmate before he left the stage. “A couple of days ago, I got a message from a local...