Connoisseur - Rainbow - Live in Germany 1976

Notes

Taken from four German dates on the European leg of Rainbow's first world tour in 1976, these two CD's represent the definitve live album from the classic Rainbow line-up:

Setlist

Disc 1

Kill the KingBlackmore/Dio/PowelllMunich5:25
MistreatedBlackmore/CoverdaleMunich16:00
Sixteenth Century GreensleevesBlackmore/DioCologne7:50
Catch the RainbowBlackmore/DioDusseldorf14:50

Disc 2

Man on the Silver MountainBlackmore/DioMannheim13:37
StargazerBlackmore/DioCologne17:10
Still I'm SadSamwell-SmithCologne7:50
Catch the RainbowBlackmore/DioDusseldorf14:50

Review

Of the goody pack the Connoisseur sent me to review, this double CD set wasn't near the top of the stack. However, circumstances conspired to put it right after Elements and The Mask for review. Firstly, I watched the video of the California Jam, so the question in my mind was "well, how do you top that?" Secondly, I'd had Deep Purple's new album "Purpendicular" for a couple weeks, so the question was "so what are they missing without Ritchie?"

For the non-Rainbow Deep Purple fan such as myself, this CD set provides the answers to both those questions, whilst remaining strangely unsatisfying, in the same way that "Purpendicular" is unsatisfying for the die-hard Ritchie Blackmore fan.

Dio belts his lungs out, without ever touching Gillan or Coverdale for range or emotion and Cozy thunders monstrously without ever nearing Paice's telepathic link with the rest of the band.

In spite of this, the absence of the rest of Deep Purple, with their own minds, as his own personal backing band is a liberation for Ritchie. Indulgent, Hendrix-style noodling passages can ramble on demonstrating Ritchie's supremacy as someone who can make the guitar sing, shout, scream and cry: something modern technicians appear unwilling or unable to do. Do they never listen to B.B. King, who can make a single note dictate an entire love story? However, that musical antagonism is also what drives creativity and innovation.

So, in the final analysis, this CD is to Rainbow what In Concert is to Deep Purple: a snapshot of a band belting out their finest. At this instant, it's a reminder of what it is that makes Ritchie the greatest and what a hard act he is to follow. It's a CD set I'll come back to when Speed King just ain't hard enough, or when I need reminding of what a great backing bands Lord/Paice/Glover and Lord/Paice/Hughes were.

Dave Hodgkinson 14 January 1996

Dave Hodgkinson
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