Ritchie Blackmore returns to rock music

[Hellraiser]

After almost 20 years of absence iconic guitarist Richie Blackmore made his comeback to rock music yesterday in Germany. The moody guitar player who immortalized himself in the 70s and 80s as the lead guitarist and creative mastermind behind Deep Purple and later his own band Rainbow had last played with a rock band in 1997. At the time he was playing with a reunited version of his own Band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple for the second and final time in late 1993 on bad terms. For the next 2 decades he would play renaissance folk music with his wife Candice Night in their band Blackmore's Night. In the summer of 2015 he announced that he would reunite Rainbow for 3 shows (two in Germany under the "Monsters Of Rock" banner and one in England) to play some of his old rock songs. Depending on how these concerts go he might perform more concerts. But not in 2016 as he plans to spent the rest of the year touring with Blackmore's Night. Aside from Blackmore this incarnation of Rainbow includes 4 relatively unknown musicians. Neither of the old members of Rainbow and Deep Purple are involved. The most well known of these musicians is Jens Johansson who played with Finnish power metal band Stratovarius for the last 2 decades and who first made a name for himself as the initial keyboard player of Yngwie Malmsteen's band from 1984 to 1989 as well as with a short stint with Ronnie James Dio from 1989 to 1991. Bassist Bob Nouveau and drummer David Keith have played with Blackmore's Night in the past. Fronting the group was Chilean singer Ronnie Romero who also fronts Italian metal band Lords Of Black.

The band played at the Freilichtbühne Loreley in Sankt Goarshausen near Koblenz. For this show and today's gig at the Festplatz am Viadukt in Bietigheim-Bissingen near Stuttgart they have dug up the "Monsters Of Rock" moniker. Monsters Of Rock used to be one of the major Hard Rock/Heavy Metal festivals in Europe that took place at Castle Donnington in England from 1980 to 1992, 1994 to 1996 and again in 2006. There have also been several big tours promoted under the name as well as offshoots in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Italy and Spain. In this edition of the festival Rainbow are supported by Thin Lizzy (featuring original members guitarist Scott Gorham and keyboarder Darren Wharton, Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton, The Almighty singer Ricky Warwick, former Alice Cooper guitarist Damon Johnson and Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis) and Manfred Mann's Earth band.

They played the following set:

01. Highway Star (Deep Purple cover)
02. Spotlight Kid
03. Mistreated (Deep Purple cover)
04. Since You Been Gone (Russ Ballard cover)
05. Man On The Silver Mountain
06. Catch The Rainbow
07. Difficult To Cure (Instrumental)
08. Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover)
09. Child In Time (Deep Purple cover)
10. Long Live Rock 'N' Roll
11. Stargazer
12. Black Night (Deep Purple cover)
13. Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple cover)

I've read some reports from concert goers and overall it seems like it was a good albeit a bit chaotic gig for a band that has played together for the first time yesterday. The sound was decent although some noted that the keyboard was a bit too quiet. Blackmore himself was said to be good but he played some things differently than he used to in the past and made some mistakes. But I suppose that is to be expected from a man that turned 71 in April, who has mainly played acoustic guitars for the last 2 decades and had surgery on his fingers recently. Singer Ronnie Romero was described as a bit unsure at times but his vocal performance was universally praised. I suppose one could argue about the set-list and personally I would've liked to see more Rainbow stuff and less Deep Purple but overall it is a good selection. Blackmore mentioned in some recent interviews that they plan to record these shows and release them on DVD and Blue Ray later on.

Here are some fan-filmed videos:

Stargazer:

Perfect Strangers:

Spotlight Kid:

Smoke On The Water:

 

Edited June 20, 2016 by Hellraiser

[METALMAN]

Hmm. I'm not a huge Rainbow fan but I like some of the Deep Purple ones - namely Child In Time and Black Night. I wouldn't have minded being there to see those. And I'm sure Smoke on the Water and Highway Star would be a lot of fun.

[Bobfoc]

I'd have liked to see this, but ticket prices were too high. Dio-era Rainbow produced some of my favourite music, and Deep Purple were no slouches either. Stargazer is one of my favourite songs, and I think the singer does a decent job with it.

[Hellraiser]

I wasn't so sure about Ronnie Romero when Rainbow first announced him as their new singer But judging from the fan-filmed footage he did good.

Edit: According to someone from setlist.fm the Deep Purple songs "Soldiers Of Fortune", "Lazy" and "Burn" as well as the Rainbow classic "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" were on the setlist as well but weren't played. So maybe they've changed it up for today.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Hellraiser

[Hellraiser]

Setlist from Bietgheim-Bissingen:

1. Highway Star (Deep Purple cover)

2. Spotlight Kid

3. Mistreated (Deep Purple cover)

4. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves

5. Since You Been Gone (Russ Ballard cover)

6. Man on the Silver Mountain

7. Difficult to Cure (Instrumental)

8. Catch the Rainbow

9. Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover)

10. Stargazer

11. Long Live Rock 'n' Roll

12. Child in Time (Deep Purple cover)

13. Black Night (Deep Purple cover)

14. Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple cover)

I haven't seen as much reports from this gig than from the first one but judging from the few reports I did read this was a much better gig.

Highway Star:

Man On The Silver Mountain

Stargazer:

 

[DFF]

I've got tickets to the Birmingham show - am massively stoked for it

[Hellraiser]

The setlist from the Birmingham gig yesterday:

01. Intro (Land of Hope And Glory, Over The Rainbow)
02. Highway Star (DEEP PURPLE)
03. Spotlight Kid
04. Mistreated (DEEP PURPLE)
05. Since You Been Gone
06. Man On The Silver Mountain
07. Soldier Of Fortune (DEEP PURPLE)
08. Difficult To Cure
09. Band Jam + Drum Solo
10. Catch The Rainbow
11. Perfect Strangers (DEEP PURPLE)
12. Long Live Rock 'N' Roll
13. Child In Time (DEEP PURPLE)
14. Stargazer
15. Black Night (DEEP PURPLE)

Encore:

16. Burn (DEEP PURPLE)
17. Smoke On The Water (DEEP PURPLE)

So instead of Sixteenth Century Greensleeve you got Burn & Soldier Of Fortune. Nice. And that is it. Let's hope that Blackmore enjoyed himself so that we might get more gigs in the future.

[Hellraiser]

So Rainbow has released a live album made up of the two Germany gigs earlier this month. It's called "Memories in Rock - Live in Germany". I still don't get why they didn't record the UK gig since according to concert goers that was the best gig of the three. Be that as it may, here are some live clips from the gig and they are not good.

Spotlight Kid:

 

Man On The Silver Mountain:

 

Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple):

 

Black NIght (Deep Purple)

 

So let's start with the positives: I think Ronnie Romero did a good job. He is a talented singer. And Jens Johansson is good as well although that was to be expected. The man is a wizard behind the keys. The set-up sure looks nice. And that is about all the compliments I can muster up. The sound is terrible. The guitars are way to quite and don't pack any punch. That is especially noticable in "Spotlight Kid" which is supposed to be a fast, energetic song in the vein of burn. It just sounds powerless here. I know Blackmore is 71 years old and you have to take that into account when watching these videos but I can't help but be disappointed watching this. I thought they could maybe they could touch that up in the studio. But they didn't. So I guess the one thing you can take away from this is that they are an honest band. The rhythm section sounds powerless as well. The setlist is okay. You have the big Rainbow hits. But too much Deep Purple if you ask me. And I'm disappointed about the lack of Graham Bonnet-era Songs. The only thing they play from that time is "Since You Been Gone" and that wasn't even written by the band.

If you want to listen to Rainbow in their prime there are several recordings of the Band with Dio from the 70s. Most notably "On Stage", "Live in Germany 1976" and any of the Live records released in 2006. Recently they also released live albums from the band's time with Graham Bonnet ("Monsters Of Rock - Live At Donnington 1980", "Down To Earth Tour 1979" three disc set), Joe Lynn Turner ("Boston 1981", "The Ritchie Blackmore Story" DVD set. DVD 1 is a documentary and DVD 2 is "Live In Tokyo 1984") and even the short-lived reunion in the mid 90s with Doogie White ("Black Masquerade"). I reckon you'll get more out of those than you'll get out of the new live album

[DFF]

I've not listened to the above clips, but they sounded good enough at the gig itself (Birmingham for me).

 

In other news, they've confirmed they are doing a handful of UK dates next year (London, Manchester and one or two others IIRC). Hopefully they'll stick to the interview RB gave afterwards where he said any future tour would feature more Rainbow and less Purple.

[Hellraiser]

4 hours ago, DFF said:

I've not listened to the above clips, but they sounded good enough at the gig itself (Birmingham for me).

 

In other news, they've confirmed they are doing a handful of UK dates next year (London, Manchester and one or two others IIRC). Hopefully they'll stick to the interview RB gave afterwards where he said any future tour would feature more Rainbow and less Purple.

1. I've read many reports about the Birminhgam gig and they all said it was good. I think there were even some reports by people who watched all 3 gigs who said that it was better than the German gigs. However that is not the show they recorded. They recorded the 2 gigs in Germany. And the 4 clips I posted above from those shows sound abysmal.

2. Here are the exact dates for the gigs in 2017:

June 17 - London, UK - The O2 (Stone Free Festival)
June 22 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Arena
June 25 - Glasgow, Scotland - The SSE Hydro
June 28 - Birmingham, UK - Genting Arena

Let's just hope the band is in better shape next year.