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Long Live Rock Candy
The latest issue (#35) of the Rock Candy magazine has Long Live Rock’n’Roll as the cover story, with a 10-page feature inside (you can preview it here). Also in the same issue: 4 pages on Ritchie Blackmore himself, plus another 4 pages on Joe Lynn Turner.
Individual issues and subscriptions are available in both digital and dead tree form from the publisher.
Thanks to our editor emeritus Benny Holmström for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I have it – not a bad artile at all (nor the one about Joe) though it adds little to the feature on the LLRnR-era and the disintegrating Blackmore-Dio-Powell triumvirate a while back in CLASSIC ROCK magazine.
It’s telling that almost nothing from LLRnR (a much superior album to Rising IMHO) ever made it to the stage – Kill The King had been played for ages before, LA Connection was attempted only a few times and then dropped, so only LLRnR (the song) was played. Rather, Blackmore tried to woo REO Speedwagon audiences with a somewhat stale opening act set largely culled from Rainbow’s debut three years before. That didn’t work out too well audience-reaction-wise and Blackmore as former DP rock royalty wasn’t too pleased to be opening for a Midwest outfit and NOT upstaging them every night.
I remember a review in German Musik Express around 1978 that was glowing about REO’s performances on that US tour (back then a new phenomenon for European rock fans and still before they went all ballady), yet scoffed about Blackmore as “an apparently frustrated noise merhant raging on stage with his best years behind him”. Ouch.
To be fair, REO Speedwagon did have undeniable qualities as a live band, they would not have been easily upstaged by any other opening act; they had a great, well-oiled group interplay from years of incessant touring and Gary Richrath was no slouch on his Les Paul:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR8CnXn8LY0
January 3rd, 2023 at 17:50I don’t have this issue but there’s even more DP family links in there. The Moxy article at least mentions Tommy Bolin, and John Norum is not too far off either..
January 3rd, 2023 at 19:09Two Uwes?! It’s getting out of hand!!!
January 4th, 2023 at 13:32@ 3 – you are not wrong there, I was a little confused for a while. I will have to make sure that my deep, philosophical, critical, cryptic, judgemental & fanboy comments get sent to the correct Uwe. To keep him on his toes for another year. Cheers.
January 4th, 2023 at 20:54I’m a glutton for all your your punishments, furry pouch!
January 5th, 2023 at 01:04I grew up and still reside in the Midwest so I had seen REO many times over the years. I remember we couldn’t wait to see Rainbow even if they opened for the “Midwest outfit” on May 11,1978. I wasn’t disappointed actually my pals and I thought they kicked ass, but most of the sellout crowd was there for REO and yes the late Gary Richrath was awesome!
January 5th, 2023 at 11:27That long REO tour which did not see Rainbow conquer America was the proverbial straw breaking the camel’s back as far as the Blackmore-Dio-Powell triumvirate goes. Blackmore has never been patient and one for groundwork, looking back I think his worries/second thoughts about Rainbow’s path began much earlier tham most of us would like to believe. It’s always telling when Blackmore doesn’t play a lot of tracks from a new release and that already began with Rising whose key tracks were rarely played, if at all. Compare that to how much of the Down To Earth album saw live renditions. At the Frankfurt gig I saw they played everything from that then new album except No Time To Lose and Danger Zone (and I’m not even sure that those weren’t played; the other tracks, however, were definitely played).
January 5th, 2023 at 14:57Do recall an COZY POWELL interview where he said they got annoyed by ” some farmers from the MidWest”, meaning REO and or their crew.
Allegedly he and Ritchie got into a real fight with the ” famers” .
Dont think that was a band to support for.
Maybe I missed something but REO was a completely different kinda rock and thus audience.
Tried to get into their music but I wasnt exited about it.
Pity, and maybe telling, I dont know Ritchie played not many songs live from Rising and LLR.
Yes , he was seduced to transform the sound . I think he better had awaited for the NWOBHM and a Tsunami of way heavier bands than the DIO led Rainbow.
Ritchie noticed that they were too heavy for the Americain audience. Such a pity.
But I also understood he ran out of money to endorse the band.
Recently I understood that Dio did not receive royalties untill after his death, which made me kinda sad and sick to the stomache.
Weird though Dio managed to underpay DIO members, according to Vivian Campbell.
I saw the DIO doc on YT 2 days ago and it was nice though certain people(sic) were not interviewed.
January 6th, 2023 at 00:35There is no point in trying to beat the Yanks at what they undisputably excel in: good AOR. All the AOR titans of the 80ies were US bands: Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Toto – even Foreigner was essentially an Amerian band given how long Mick Jones had lived and worked there (Lou Gramm being of course an American too).
The simple truth is that Ritchie even with all his gifts wasn’t really cut out to be a continuous hit song provider and cracker of Amerian airwaves like the above bands. DP was always essentially an album band with just a handful of accidental freak hits strewn in over their long career, basically only Hush, Black Night, SOTW and, perhaps, Perfect Strangers.
And there is another aspect – longevity, consistency and perseverance. All thoses above bands recorded and toured massively years and years to get where they ultimately got to – with relatively stable line-ups. Rainbow was way too erratic for that.
January 6th, 2023 at 14:35Rainbow were never quite the same after Ronnie left, then Cozy, Ritchie’s search for players was a sign of his relentless pursuit of players as good as Jon Lord and Ian Paige, even bringing in Roger to help produce and writing to get that slightly more commercial sound. The Long live tour was basically the same as the last one with one change of song in the set. Very disappointing, only bright spots at the Liverpool November 1978 show was Ritchie trashing his guitar in the royal box and a brief performance of “ Night People” an unreleased track from the Long Live sessions.The Down to Earth tour had a better set song wise.
January 8th, 2023 at 13:01” It’s telling that almost nothing from LLRnR (a much superior album to Rising IMHO) ever made it to the stage – Kill The King had been played for ages before, LA Connection was attempted only a few times and then dropped, so only LLRnR (the song) was played.”
Maybe I m not getting this retorical(?)remark.
Anyway, yesterday I saw my first DIO related show since end 2019 when I witnessed LAST IN LINE.
That was very satisfying even though DIO is hard to replace.
Yesterday I saw a 2 hour show for a low price called the DIO MEMORIAL:/TRIBUTE show.
It was supposed to happen in 2020 but was postponed several times due to COVID measures.
The Dutch line up consists of 7 members, incl 2 guitars and a female singer.
She did a lot of duets with the amazing Jaycee Kuypers, Sitting In a Dream and as, I was tired/ill, so doubt here a bit, The Mob Rules.
Show started with Tarot Woman.
Excellent renditions of, unfortunately no ELF or 60 s material, many RAINBOW. Black Sabbath and DIO tracks incl…..
Lady of the lake and Over and Over !!!!!
Of course Egypt, We Rock, Dont Talk To strangers, H and Hell. Stargazer, Gates of Babylon(!!!), Neon Knights, Kill the King, L L Rock and Roll, Stand up and Shout, R and R Children, Man on the Silver Mountain, and a short Catch the Rainbow.
A lovely acoustic re arrangement of HOLY DIVER, dedicated to Jaycees son who died and RJ Dio. was one of the highlights to me.
Not sure what tracks I forgot to mention.
I dont know if this will ever be repeated but I ll try to be there.
It was remarkable they didnt do a total careerspan because no stuff of the albums after SACRED HEART as well.
Plenty of great stuff after 1985 and Id loved a rendition of 1 of the songs Ronnie did for Kerry Livgren.
There will always be nagging points or unfullfilled wishes and I was quite happy how it turned out but yeah……I for example would have loved Falling Of the Edge of the world.
I suppose the keyboardplayer
was under eqipped for STILL I M SAD 🙂
And the drummer was functional but no Cozy Powell, though Appice wasnt as well.(…)
I didnt feel the instrumentalists had real identity but it was all played with loads of energy and tastefull guitarsolo s.
I m a bit ambiguous about the female singer but I think she did it well and has a big troat like Jaycee.
I already knew him from the excellent AYREON works……
One does not often feel someone is up for the job singing songs made by the big voices in Rock but he sure is one.
For now no links on YT except for the earlier shows they did.
My simple canoncamera and or battery seemed to function badly and as yet have to find out if there were more tracks ok than just the acoustic HOLY DIVER.
I hope PAL who posts on PERFECT PURPLE was there to film it with his way better equipment.
I had not been at de Boerderij for 4 years and was unpleasantly surprised when security ordered me to stash my backpack at the wardrobe.
Also not aware I had to pay there with my creditcard and not in cash, one of the annoying things implemented because of COVID.
Also a sign that cash will be abolished soon, dunno.
So, weird and very special to have waited for events like this for 40 years plus.
January 8th, 2023 at 19:07Though there have been tribute acts sometimes I could enjoy.
Purple Rainbow was one of them . Mario Roelofsen, RIP.
ON TOPIC
I just emailed Derek to find out if its true there is NO physical edition to order.
January 8th, 2023 at 19:48ad.
Well excuse me….
I did forget A LIGHT IN THE BLACK for a moment.
January 8th, 2023 at 23:00That seems to have been quite a comprehensive show of Dio’s musical legacy!
My comment re LLRnR was to indicate that Ritchie was already beginning to struggle with the initial Rainbow concept early on and found less and less music on Rainbow albums that he was satisfied/happy to play live (the lion’s share of Rainbow’s Dio years live set always came from the first album). I wouldn’t call his choice of musicians a bad one per se though, yet unlike DP he never allowed Rainbow to really morph into a collective with a creative band spirit (his songwriting partnership with Dio being the exception). But it is interesting to note that Jimmy Bain, Tony Carey and Bob Daisley all showed a greater artistic contribution in bands that followed their tenure with Rainbow. Bain became a member of the songwriting team of early Dio (the band), Carey became a successful songwriter both for himself and other people and Daisley’s musical and lyrical input was pivotal for Ozzy getting his solo career off the ground and, uhum, over the mountain (terrible pun intended).
January 9th, 2023 at 10:15@ 7 Uwe … you’re telling us they did Makin’ Love back then? They didn’t in Heidelberg I’m pretty sure and I never heard of them playing that song at all… But who am I to doubt your expertise?
January 9th, 2023 at 11:54Getting old sucks, so does my memory.
I think they did Children of the Sea and The Last In Line as well.
Hopefully that was all 🙂
January 9th, 2023 at 23:40I BELIEVE to remember it, Max, but at 62 that is not saying much! It was a song where I liked the melody and the arrangement, so I was pleasantly surprised, even elated by them giving it a go.
It was also the first time I saw Roger Glover on stage. That was a welcome sight though I was initially a bit disappointed that he played a Gibson Thunderbird and not the Ric 4001 he was known for in his latter days with DP. They played the Festhalle in Frankfurt, actually the only time Rainbow chose that venue which regularly they would face issues selling out, but it was well-filled that night,
January 10th, 2023 at 15:19Uwe
I think you were referring to my review?
Comprehensive as in covering all era s? I wouldnt say so.
Everything after Sacred Heart was dismissed and ELF tracks and older as well.
If they had the lust to do very heavy stuff and the Butterfly Ball(The outro tape btw was LOVE IS ALL, the members bowing out to the audience) they might as well have picked soft solo stuff from the 60 s and things like GOD COMPUTER , STRANGE HIGHWAYS etc as well?
I m not complaining, it was excellent considering what we ve to deal with what is left now.
I m glad I saw them. Who knows whats in the can in the future?
Not everyone is into “tribute acts” but I ve had great moments with some of them and soon they ll probably be all we can get.
Theoretically its possible now and then new young Gods will be born but I m afraid that will be rare.
January 12th, 2023 at 20:32@ 17
“If memory serves me right …” I always liked that phrase … for uns it’s “wenn mich meine Erinnerung nicht im Stich lässt …” 😉
Be that as it may, maybe you were one of the chosen few who came to listen to that one in a show. I will never ever forget that night in Heidelberg on that tour – I was just 15 – and Ritchie did a guitar crash, he did mount that wall of amps, he did play like a man possesed and – if memory serves me right – played an encore that what about as long as the regular show before that, the instrumental part of Kill the King going on for ages. Plus I got Graham’s autograph and Roger’s as well. Poor little me, heart beating fast, standing in front of that legend only to realise I was much taller than him and stuttering “thank you for ze music” … and he kindly replied “thank you for your voice!”. The only Purple guy I was lucky enough to meet a couple of times and he always was were funny and very kind and hey, he even gave me a beer.
January 16th, 2023 at 11:08It was a Dio audience initially, people were there to see how that new upstart with the short hair would do – Bonnet had won them over (including me) by the end of Eyes of the World, their first song. Never mind Roger’s off-key backing vocals on that song! : – )
January 17th, 2023 at 00:31I ordered the physical edition but got the digital edition first which for me is unpractical to read having become an old geezer.
But ok….
I still have to receive the physical edition 🙁
January 24th, 2023 at 01:03