Kill The King
Mistreated
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
Catch The Rainbow
Man On The Silver Mountain
Stargazer
Still I'm Sad
Do You Close Your Eyes
Frogtoon Music Album Info: Live In Germany 1976
Published: 07 Jul 2012, 17:09
Stepping Out From The Shadows Of Deep Purple In 1975 Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore Quickly Took His New Band Rainbow To The Forefront Of Hard Rock With Two Powerful Studio Albums. Yet It Was Not Until The Band Hit The Road That Their Full Potential Began To Be Realized. This Collection Of Previously Unreleased Performances From The Band's 1976 Tour Of Germany Clearly Illustrates The Breath Of Blackmore's Vision His Guitar Playing Has Rarely Been Better And With The Talents Of Cozy Powell On Drums And Ronnie James Dio On Vocals These Tapes Show Why Fans Regard This As The Classic Rainbow Line-Up. Rainbow's 1976 World Tour Kicked Off In June With Two Months Of Dates In America.
The Band Arrived In Europe At The End Of August After Which They Were To Spend Almost The Whole Of November In Australia Finishing The Tour In Japan In December. To Many Deep Purple Fans Blackmore Had Been The Essence Of That Band. This Feeling Had Been Reinforced By The Group's Lackluster UK Dates With His Replacement Tommy Bolin. Rainbow's Shows Were Thus Eagerly Awaited And People Were Been To See What He Could Deliver Given A Free Musical Reign.
Their Faith Was To Be Amply Rewarded. Blackmore's Total Musical Control Gave Him A Freedom On Stage Which He Never Had Before And While The Set Remained Constant. He Was Able To Develop And Change The Structure Of The Tracks As He Wished. The Net Result Was Guitar Playing Which Reached New Heights With Solos Stretched Out Or Curtailed As The Mood Took Him Running The Spectrum Of Emotions From Gentle Runs To Intense Heavy Riffing. At Many Gigs Audiences Were Reduced To Absolute Silence In Which You Could've Heard The Proverbial Pin Drop As Blackmore Went Off Into The Outer Reaches During “Catch The Rainbow.” An Album Of The Tour Originally Planned For Just The Japanese Market Was Released In July 1977.
Disappointingly For Many Fans Rainbow's - “On Stage” Album Came In The Main From The Japanese Shows With A Slightly Edited “Mistreated” And Some Of “Still I'm Sad ” The Only Known German Contributions And While We Couldn't Be Sure Of It Seemed To Lack The Intensity Of The European Gigs. In Addition To The Editing The Set Lacked The Band's Most Popular Track “Stargazer ” As Well As The Climatic Guitar Blitzing Encore. A Decade On Several Abandoned Reels Of Tape Were Found In Vaults In London.
While Three Were Dated Accurately The Fourth Was Not. Marked “Nuremberg Sept. 29th” The Band Was In Munich That Right. But On Their Tour List Nuremberg To The Best Of Our Knowledge Wasn't Included. Assuming That The Rolling Stones Mobile Recorded Shows In Succession For Economic Reasons The Mystery Set Probably Comes From Mannheim. Permission Was Sought To Use One Or Two Of These Unreleased Performances For The Second Ritchie Blackmore Rock Profile Set. When We Heard How Good They Were The Chance Of Issuing A Complete Set Seemed Worth Pursuing. Here Then In Original Running Order For Those Legions Of Rainbow Fans For Whom The Classic Blackmore/Dio/Powell/Carey/Bain Line-Up Was Never Really Equalled Another Chance To “Catch The Rainbow.” Original CD Inlay Informations – Eagle Records Connoisseur Collection ER302392 Track Listing Disc 1
01 – Kill The King Blackmore/Dio/Powell – 5 31 Munich 02 – Mistreated Blackmore/Coverdale – 15 41 Munich 03 – Sixteenth Century Greensleeves Blackmore/Dio – 8 01 Cologne 04 – Catch The Rainbow Blackmore/Dio – 14 46 Dusseldorf Disc 2
05 – Man On The Silver Mountain Blackmore/dio – 13 33 Mannheim 06 – Stargazer Blackmore/Dio – 17 00 Cologne 07 – Still I'm Sad Samwell-Smith/McCarthy 15 04 Cologne 08 – Do You Close Your Eyes Blackmore/Dio 10 11 Munich