Posted on by Nathan Beaudry

Episode 366 – Blackmore’s Night – Fires at Midnight (Part 2)

Link to video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQFugPPVEN0

Disclaimer: The video used on YouTube is a byproduct of producing our audio podcast. We post it merely as a convenience to those who prefer the YouTube format. Please subscribe using one of the links below if you’d prefer a superior audio experience.

Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

How To Support Our Show:

The Deep Purple Podcast is 100% listener supported and ad-free! If you receive value from our show please consider supporting us!

Patron Benefits:

  • Access to our Patrons-only Discord
  • Access to our ratings spreadsheet
  • Invites for livestream episodes
  • Link for Submission for all album rankings episodes
  • Access to our “Too Hot For YouTube” forbidden episodes via Patreon

Thanks to Our Executive Level Patrons:

  • The “In Memoriam” Tier
    • Gerald “Jerry” Kelly & Family
  • The $25 “Uncommon Man” Tier
    • Ovais Naqvi
  • The “Twenty is Plenty” Tier
    • Alan “Ain’t Too Proud To” Begg
  • The £10 “Good Doctor” Tier
    • Dr. Mike Kattan
  • The Turn it up to $11 Tier
    • Clay Wombacher
    • Frank Theilgaard-Mortensen
    • Mikkel Steen
    • Will Porter, PhDPP
    • Michael “Don’t Call Him Bradford” Bagford
  • $10 “Some One Came” Tier
    • Ryan M
    • Jeff Breis
    • Victor Campos
    • “Better Call” Saul Evans
    • Peter from Illinois
  • The  £8 “Lesser Known Patrons” Tier
    • Robert Smith
  • The “Deep Thoughts by John Mottola” Tier
    • Fielding Fowler

The Deep Purple Podcast Hall of Fame:

  • Rich “Yngwie” Shailor
  • Jörg Planer
  • Norman Weischlebaum

Updates, Live Show Reviews & News:

Upcoming Rankings Show:

  • Deep Purple “Come Taste The Band”
    • Patron rankings needed by August 1st
    • Become a patron if you want to be invited to the live stream and submit your rankings!

Thanks to Our Core Level Patrons:

  • The $6.99 “The Nice Price Plus” Tier
    • Spike the Rock Cat’s Ghost
    • Sugar T
  • The Episode $6.66 Tier
    • Steve Coldwell
    • Arthur Smith
    • Charles Meadows
  • The $6.65 “Almost Evil” Tier
    • Kenny Wymore
    • Richie Sucksmith
    • Sarajane
  • The 70 NOK Tier
    • Kai Rune “Yes, I’m Norwegian” Olsen –  🇳🇴
  • $5.99 The “Nice Price” Tier
    • Adrian Hernandez
    • Scalloped Strat Matt
  • The 60 Kroner “Scandinavian Nights” Tier
    • Knut Morten Johansen –  🇳🇴
  • The €5.50Tier
    • Merlijn Rotte
  • The £4.00 “Lucyfour” Tier
    • Duncan Leask
  • $5 “Money Lender” Tier
    • John Convery
    • German Heindl
    • Jesper Almén
    • Oleksiy The Perfect Stranger Slyepukhov
    • Kev Roberts
    • Scott Zerns
    • Cynthia Dube
    • Raff Kaff
    • Coyote Bongwater
    • John Miceli
    • Sarah Sanders
    • Jellybean
    • Evan Robison
    • Purple Swede
    • Ralphie Lee
    • Joe “Dopefish” Siegler

Album Tracks:

All songs written by Blackmore/Night unless otherwise specified.

  1. Storm
    • “The clouds grow dark, lightning splits the sky and the winds surround you. It is as if you could close your eyes and be swept away by the intensity of the storm. This song allows it to happen.”
  2. Mid Winter’s Night
    • “Borrowed from a Provencial French carol from the sixteenhundreds a cold winder’s night in a small French farming town. A bed of straw and the church bells won’t stop ringing – sleep does not come easily.”
    • Merlijn:
      • Traditonal: “Maire, Lei Campagno” This traditional song dates from around the 16th century, and the Occitan language, which is now endangered. Broadly speaking it is about bells ringing on a mid-winter’s night keeping the narrator awake. It has been recorded in recent years by the Terra Nova Consort, as in link Maire, lei campagno
      • Maire, lei campagno
      • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occitan_language
  3. All Because of You
    • “Remember that feeling of the love that made every moment seem like a gift; every day seem like summer? You felt as if you could fly and you couldn’t help but smile all of the time. That feeling is All Because of You.”
    • Albert Dannemann – bagpipes on “All Because of You”
  4. Waiting Just For You
    • “Going against what others tell you for love’s sake is part of living and loving, when you know its [sic] right – advice from outside influences makes no difference. Even if you have to wait for it. The main theme of thes [sic] melody is taken from an 18th century song by Clarke.”
    • Trad by Jeremiah Clarke
    • Merlijn:
      • Jeremiah Clarke (c. 1674 – 1 December 1707)[1] was an English baroque composand organist, best known for his Trumpet Voluntary, a popular piece often playeat wedding ceremonies or commencement ceremonies. Blackmore’s Night copied the melody of this song. Note for note. “Trumpet Voluntary”: Prince of Denmark’s March / Trumpet Voluntary – Jeremiah Clarke 
      • Prince of Denmark’s March / Trumpet Voluntary – Jeremiah Clarke
  5. Praetorius (Courante) (Instrumental)
    • “This tune is like a spring day from the 1600’s.”
    • Trad by Michael Praetorius
    • Merlijn:
      • Michael Praetorius (born as Michael Schultze, probably 28 September 1571[1] – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist.[2] He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns. His family name in German appears in various forms including Schultze, Schulte, Schultheiss, Schulz and Schulteis. Praetorius was the conventional Latinized form of this family name,[3] Schultze meaning “village judge or magistrate” in German. The Latin Praetorius means “magistrate-related or one with the rank of a magistrate. Praetorius was a prolific composer; his compositions show the influence of Italian composers and his younger contemporary Heinrich Schütz. A more commonly known Praetorius piece, for courante (French fo
  6. Benzai-Ten
    • “In Japanese folklore there is a story of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. Benzaiten is the only goddess in this group of deities. Legend has it that she is the daughter of a dragon and that she married a dragon king to stop him from eating humans. Her story spans the ages of the 11th century through to the 16th century. It is said she is the goddess of music, marriage, happiness, wealth and love. She plays an instrument called the Biwa which is a type of Japanese lute and that she lives at the bottom of Lake Biwa by the medieval city of Kyoto.
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzaiten
    • Merlijn:
  7. Village on the Sand
    • “Inspired by a night spent at Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor, England. About the love that changed the life of a pirate.”
  8. Again Someday
    • “For those who have left us…”

Bonus Tracks:

  • EU version:Possum’s Last Dance
  • US and Japanese Version: Sake of Song
  • Also some versions contained a CD video extra of “The Times They Are a-Changin’”

Thanks To Our Foundation Level Patrons:

  • £3.50 “Deep Purple NY” Tier
    • Lord Longford
  • The £3 “The Aromatic Feed” Tier
    • Simon Ford
  • The €3.50 Tier
    • Weston Super-Mare Pilgrim
  • The 293 Pence Tier
    • Blackmore’s Tights
  • The €2.50 “Too Many Tiers” Tier
    • Soldier of Fortune 
  • The $3.33 Half Way to Evil Tier
    • Stephen Sharpe
  • $3 “Nobody’s Perfect” Tier
    • Peter Gardow
    • Ian Desrosiers
    • Mark Roback
    • Stuart McCord
    • Flight of the Rat Bat Blue Light
    • Øyvind Fjeldbu – 🇳🇴
    • Runar Simonsen – 🇳🇴
    • Ruinous Inadequacies
    • Corey Morrissette
    • Ashely { Still I hear, “Burn” } Rose
    • Adam Corke
    • Tim Wood
    • Steve “Down to Earth” Koeller
    • Michael
    • Matt in Vegas
    • Leezus Christ Superstar
    • Eddie Lion 
  • The 19.31 kr.  “Cold Hard Danish Kroner” Tier
    • Carsten Lau
  • $1 Made Up Name Tier
    • The “midwinters ooze” Leaky Mausoleum
    • Stephen Sommerville The Concerto 1999 Fanatic
    • Hank the Tank
    • Private Eyes
    • Ashen Lionel
    • Zwopper The Electric Alchemist
    • Anders Engstrom
    • I see DC
    • Durple Purple
    • David Hattam
    • Graham Bonnet’s Disco Pants and Haircuts
    • Sicktone

Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

Reviews

Fires At Midnight – Album Review
Blackmore’s Night : Fires At Midnight SPV 085 72432: EU : August 2001It’s now five years since Blackmore embarked on his current musical direction, attempting to forge some sort of medieval inspired pop/rock fusion and get away from the hard rock he’d publicly stated was now too boring for him to want to play (whatever that means). It was a typically dramatic move by the man and whatever one thinks of the results, you can’t argue that he’s better off doing something he actually enjoys. And lets face it, the last Rainbow album was so contrived, anything had to be preferable.I found his debut Blackmore’s Night album bland and uninvolving for the most part. Come this third offering I thought I’d give it a try and see whether anything had moved on. So far as I can tell it hasn’t; overall the production is crisper, the guitar work is integrated into the sound more fully and the acoustic playing seems to be more natural, but when it comes to the music we seem to be dancing round the same maypole once again.A short rocky opening piece leads right off into the single “The Times They Are A Changing” (SPV 056 72463 – with a non-album track and video as extras. Some percussion which reminds me of The Third Ear Band, plus nice guitar flourishes, are swiftly buried by non too subtle medieval musical pointers and tacky hand-claps. I don’t have a single Bob Dylan record to my name but Candice’s bland approach to this fierce sixties anthem makes me want to dash out and buy the original. “I Still Remember” opens well enough but is again flattened back thanks to the one dimensional vocal technique. There are a few bursts of stunning guitar in here, even a couple of “Gates Of Babylon” flourishes, and when you dig deep enough there’s enough here to suggest that an instrumental remix would be well worth spending some time on. Any such musings are quickly dashed by the reality of “Home Again” and I finally realise that Candice sounds like the more mannered excesses of Petula Clark’s more theatrical work. An unbelievably kitsch rowdy pub crowd sound effect throughout is simply risible, and the late night Italian restaurant mandolin bits near the end merely add to the unintentional humour of it all.There are a few quite disciplined solo acoustic pieces interspersed throughout the CD, “Fayre Thee Well” is the first, and if that’s your cup of tea then you’ll find them engrossing. The album title track is a biggy – over seven minutes worth. Another atmospheric opening passage before Candice jumps in, sounding exactly like she does on every other number. It’s all humming along, complete with a few bars of up tempo bagpiping, and you’re starting to lose it until at 4.15 seconds (index it now) Blackmore just suddenly opens up on the Strat and blazes away. Almost a minute and a half of blistering guitar that just blows away the last five years in an instant. As the rest of the musicians return, the whole thing – with Candice buried in the mix a little, storms along with a hint of what Blackmore could really achieve if he had the desire and vision to push this to the limit. Revel in it. After that nothing else comes close.

Deep Dive Podcast Network:

Check out our website to find other like-minded shows taking deep dives into individual songs, bands, and albums.

Brendan Ashbrook – Logo Designer

For More Information:

Special thanks to Merlijn Rotte for his extra help in gathering historical information and reviews for these episodes!

Listener Mail/Comments

  • Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, or Threads.

Leave a Reply