As previously announced, guitar legend Ritchie Blackmore will be back to the stages of rock in 2016. Two shows in Germany have already been confirmed, taking place at the Monsters Of Rock Festival 2016 on June 18th and Loreley, Freilichtbühneon on June 17th.

Accept‘s Wolf Hoffmann, who is one of the most influential German guitarists and songwriters, spoke about Ritchie previously, “Me and a lot of other people in Germany growing up were heavily influenced and totally into Deep Purple and especially Ritchie Blackmore.“

Exciting news but after the announcement of the second show in Germany, a very particular rumour about Ritchie Blackmore performing at Download Festival started surfacing and was discussed at length by British fans on social media. Metal Shock Finland contacted Ritchie's management and they confirmed that, “Rainbow will only be playing three shows in 2016: two in Germany and one in the UK, and the UK performance will not be at Download Festival but details of the show will be announced on November 2nd."

They also made it clear that there are no shows scheduled for the US and Sweden at this moment.

Blackmore recently spole with Billboard.com about these special shows:

“I’m now 70, so I just felt like playing some rock ‘n’ roll for a few days. We’re going to do four or five dates of just playing the old rock stuff, Purple stuff and Rainbow. I’m doing it for the fans, for nostalgia, and the singer I found is very exciting; he’s a cross between Dio meets Freddie Mercury. So this will mean exposing a new singer to the masses, and I’m sure he’ll become pretty famous because of his voice.”