THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: rainbow

RAINBOW – Down To Earth

April 5, 2023 /

Down To Earth is the album where Ritchie went pop, if you believe what was read in the music rags of the time. That slur was mainly due to the hiring of Graham Bonnet on vocals, who had perviously had been in a pop band called The Marbles. It was also due to the more commercial direction on a couple of the album’s tunes, namely Since You’ve Been Gone, and All Night Long both of which did extremely well in mainstream charts all over the world.

Other than the Rainbow live album, this has become my favourite record by the band. Ritchie is still in fine form on tracks like Eyes Of The World which has that old Rainbow feel from the earlier albums, and Lost In Hollywood where the notes fly far and wide in the solo spot. It’s the less well known tunes like No Time To Lose and Danger Zone that shake my tree the most. Mainly because I like the simple riff and groove of these tunes, and Bonnet’s voice is killer. My favourite track however is Love’s No Friend. An old blues riff and groove with a killer vocal and a snappy solo from Ritchie.

I thought with the success of the singles from the album that this record would have sold quite well, but it’s only their fourth best with Rising at the top.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

RAINBOW – On Stage

August 15, 2022 /

What was it with the seventies producing so many great live albums? There are a ton of them, and all (for the most part) are killer recordings. Mr Blackmore himself appeared on possibly the greatest of them all – Made In Japan. This album came out in ’77 and draws from the band’s first two albums – plus a cover of Purples Mistreated.

I’m not the biggest Dio fan as I never really connected with the whole swords and sorcery thing, but he does sing his ass off in this recording. It’s great to hear Cozy Powell pounding the crap out of his kit here – you forget how good he was.

Here’s one for the trivia fans. It is rumoured that Phil Taylor from Motorhead drew inspiration for the track “Overkill” from Cozy’s performance on Kill The King from this album.

You don’t get the chance to hear Ritchie rip it up on the guitar much these days, but back in the day he never missed an opportunity as nearly every track gets the treatment – especially on the Blues showcase. They were not afraid to flesh out the tunes in a live setting, as Catch The Rainbow is at 15.40, and Mistreated is at 13.04. They are the real highlights of the album, but my favourite is Kill The King as this song rips along and is better than the album version.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

RAINBOW – Long Live Rock n Roll

November 23, 2021 /

This is the last of (what I call) the classic Rainbow and Blackmore albums before he went in a more commercial direction. Depending who you believe (Richie or Ronnie), this was Dio’s last involvement with Rainbow. Richie said Ronnie was becoming lazy and disillusioned, and he didn’t like the fact that the band were Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow, so he decided to remove Ronnie and get another singer in. Dio says he left the band because he did not want to go in a commercial direction and wanted to carry on the way things were. ‘m sure the real reason is somewhere between the two, and we will never know for sure.

Even though this is the weakest album with Dio, it still has some kick as moments. The title track is a killer opening and is just classic Blackmore with that trademark simple riff. Gates Of Babylon is just an epic piece of rock and one of my favourite Rainbow tunes. Kill The King, which opens Side 2, is another beast of a song. There is some great playing by Blackmore on this record, in fact, some of his best.

Dio must have loved this record as he was playing Kill The King and Gates of Babylon in his live shows. It’s an end of an era album for sure, as Rainbow were never the same after this as Blackmore wanted to explore different things.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

RAINBOW – Down To Earth

March 18, 2021 /

This is the album where Blackmore ditched the dungeons and dragons and went for a more commercial pop sound. With the discovery of vocalist Graham Bonnet ( who was only known for singing in an Aussie band called The Marbles), the new version was ready to go. In Bonnet, Ritchie had found an incredible talent with a strong powerful voice that was perfect for this type of rock.

The opening track, All Night Long, is a great tune and was a hit single all over the world, and showed everyone Bonnet’s talents. If anyone was in any doubt that Blackmore had sold out, a more recognizable vibe was present with the next track Eyes Of The World, which sees a long solo piece to keep the faithful happy. No Time To Lose is next up and is a straight up rock n roller. Side closer, Makin Love, is ballad city with some nice classical guitar from Blacker’s at the intro.

Over to Side 2 we go and the best known track from the band’s history, Since You’ve Been Gone. Unless you have been on a different planet for the past 40 years, you cannot have missed this song – this was as commercial as Blackmore came. DIO could never have sung this. Love’s No Friend is next up, and is pure Deep Purple in vibe – I wonder if this was a left over riff?! Danger Zone has a cool choppy riff and a great vocal from Bonnet. That brings us to the album closer, Lost In Hollywood, a decent rockin’ tune.

Bonnet only lasted this one album before he was gone. He would later join MSG for the great Assault Attack album. Not a bad album and was a success sales wise.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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