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Rainbow Boston 1981

Rainbow Boston 1981 cover art; image courtesy of Cleopatra Records

Rainbow’s Boston 1981 is being released by Cleopatra Records — the same label that brought you the three 1979 Rainbow live releases. The show was broadcast on the radio at the time and was subsequently widely bootlegged. The CD appears to be already available from the label store, with a gatefold double LP on colour vinyl promised to be in the works. Amazon lists CD availability dates at May 13 for the US, May 20 for UK, and May 27 for Germany.

Track listing:
  1. Spotlight Kid
  2. Love’s No Friend
  3. I Surrender
  4. Man On The Silver Mountain
  5. Catch The Rainbow
  6. Can’t Happen Here
  7. Lost In Hollywood
  8. Difficult To Cure
  9. Long Live Rock N’ Roll
  10. Smoke On The Water

Thanks to Anthony for the heads up.



20 Comments to “Rainbow Boston 1981”:

  1. 1
    Andy Thompson says:

    Is the boot any good??

  2. 2
    michael mazur says:

    I have this cd it is awesome!

  3. 3
    Greg Cummings says:

    Entire concert on one disc?

  4. 4
    Blackwood Richmore says:

    Another immaculate, pristine recording no doubt!…. and only 35 years late. Heaven’s to Betsy, I didn’t sound the slightest bit sarcastic there for a moment did I?. Hmmmm. Well, enjoy it anyway. Ahhh Boston, now there’s another great rock band!.

  5. 5
    Dan Cavil says:

    Is this the same show that broadcast on King Biscuit and was a split with Pat Travers? I taped that one off the radio when it aired, and being a split broadcast there was only four Rainbow songs and then Pat Travers came on

  6. 6
    Paul Thomas says:

    I did the same!

  7. 7
    Bob Moon says:

    http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f145/rainbow-london-gb-07-08-81-a-223282.html

  8. 8
    Rock Voorne says:

    http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f145/rainbow-1981-05-07-boston-ma-pre-fm-flac-150790.html

  9. 9
    Dan Cavil says:

    The reception on the radio wasn’t great, so the quality isn’t there, but it was great to go back and listen to.

  10. 10
    Greg Furlong says:

    Is Graham Bonnett on vocal or Show Little Turner??

  11. 11
    Jürgen Piskorowski says:

    Poor sound quality!!!

  12. 12
    Anthony says:

    I have heard this recording and its fantastic…yes indeed 35 years much too late

  13. 13
    Wolf Larsen says:

    This bootleg is as old as the hills, bootleged as “Ultimate Surrender” or “More Coloured Rainbow”.
    Soundquality is in my opinion is very good.
    A must have for all Rainbow-fans.

  14. 14
    Ron Harper says:

    I’ve got the entire two disc show right from the WBCN master. king Biscuit totally screwed up the mix when they put it out. It kind of reminds me of the difference between the original Come Taste The Band and the Caveman remaster. Actually, the boot is available if you can find it, its called ‘Real Boston Complete’.

  15. 15
    KlausVonScribe says:

    This was the show I met Ritchie, and my ex-wife and myself became Ritchie’s guests backstage for the entire show. When I was first introduced to Ritchie, his first words to me were, “on your knees in my presence”, to which I did not obey, but smiled widely at meeting my idol and shook his hand. He demanded everyone backstage leave just prior to Rainbow taking the stage, and said pointing to us, “these two stay”. Throughout the set, we had brief conversations as he came off-stage at different points during the show. Naturally, I heard all the stories of how nasty and such he could be, but he was wonderful and very inviting to us. That was one of the most special nights in my life, and lives on in my memory all these years later.

  16. 16
    TM says:

    The sound quality is not bad. Jesus Christ. Folks need some objectivity. This is NOT the full concert. It’s all the songs, but banter/solos cut out to fit on one disc.

    This is an UNedited version of this show:

    http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f145/rainbow-1981-05-07-boston-ma-pre-fm-flac-150790.html

    If you can find this in lossless FLAC it’s well worth it. If you want the full show taken from the pre-FM source, this is the way to go. But I find the single CD release just fine for what it is.

    And just to reiterate, the sound quality is outstanding on both the official “truncated” release and the pre-FM “bootleg,” if you will.

    Happy (or not) listening! 😉

    ~TM

  17. 17
    Paul says:

    Reason this is available in awesome quality now is because Wolfgang’s Vaults acquired KBFH archives when KB went bust and have legally uploaded the full show from the original master tapes for streaming on their subscription site concertvault.com. It used to be free to stream but now you’ll need to buy a subscription to hear it, but it’s well worth it; hundreds of exclusive live recordings available for legal streaming.

  18. 18
    ChromeVanadium says:

    superb mix for a good concert with an excellent Turner ,a tyred Blackmore and a band in a perfect shape.it’s a shame that this concert is almost 20 minutes shorter than the original,and it’s another shame that this cd is is mastered from the Wolgang’s Vault direct streaming,a streaming with low bitrate (96kb/s) as can you hear during all the concert,including a lot of clicks (similar to the ones from the old windows edition during the browsing thru the folders) and high frequencies with “pixeled” hiss

  19. 19
    ChromeVanadium says:

    those strange noises,are added by Wolfgangs Vault just to avoid unauthorized download or unauthorized performances

  20. 20
    SF says:

    The source is the streaming service mentioned above, not true quality remaster, the frequency response is cut off and indicated a low bitrate lossy source.

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