Rainbow/Netherlands 1980

After Graham Bonnet joined the band, the Euro tour started in January 1980 as a promotion for “Down To Earth”, followed by the US tour. The performance in Rotterdam, Netherlands on February 2nd was recorded almost completely directly from the first generation master released by Taper in recent years. It is worth noting that only a part of the past has been distributed, and the power and realism can be said to be top class for audience recordings of this era. And the performance was also a time when the composition and set list were almost established for the UK tour that started after this and the Japan tour, and since it is an area known for having many enthusiastic fans since the Purple era, the excitement was tremendous, and as if in response, Richie’s play and performance were truly spectacular. First of all, it started dramatically with the countdown announcing the opening, and the audience who saw Graham’s vocals and the new band for the first time heated up early. Then, new songs were played one after another in the first half of the show, and the composition of “All Night Long” after “Since You Been Gone” is unique to the early days of the tour. Then, following Graham’s “Catch The Rainbow”, Richie’s destructive solo, which makes heavy use of phrases and arming from “A Light In The Black”, and Ailee’s solo, and Cozy’s drum solo are also spectacular, and it is no wonder that this song was described as the best of the tour. Then, while manipulating the bass synth, they entangled “Lazy” and went from “Man On The Silver Mountain” to “Blues”. Although the last song, “Long Live Rock’n Roll”, is not included, the high quality of the performance is special even among this tour, so it is a must-listen item for fans. Incidentally, the next day’s performance at Kirklade was a live performance where Richie was in a bad mood because he lost a soccer game in the afternoon before the live, so there was no encore, and the unmotivated solo in “Lost In Hollywood” in particular was said to be very different from this day. disc one : 1. INTRO:OVER THE RAIBOW/2. EYES OF THE WORLD/3. LOVE’S NO FRIEND/4. SINCE YOU BEEN GONE/5. ALL NIGHT LONG/6. CATCH THE RAINBOW disc two : 1. KEYBOARDS SOLO/2. LOST IN HOLLYWOOD/(incl. GUITAR SOLO~KEYBOARDS SOLO~DRUMS SOLO)/3. 4. MAN ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN/5. BLUES [Live at Ahoy, Rotterdam, Holland 2nd February, 1980] Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar / Graham Bonnet – Vocal / Roger Glover – Bass / Don Airey – Keyboard / Cozy Powell – Drums