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First Memories in Rock preview
First preview track for the upcoming live Rainbow release Memories in Rock has been published by the record company. It is a slightly anticlimactic Black Night from encore performance in Bietigheim-Bissingen on June 18:
The release is due on November 18, 2016.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Not convinced it’s worth buying.
October 10th, 2016 at 19:44i was there, nice to have, to remember about it, but its without power or passion 🙁
October 10th, 2016 at 19:44I`ll buy everything that has Rainbow name on it… but this is below par big time (except for Ronnie Romero)!
October 10th, 2016 at 19:48Passionless indeed. Disappointing…..
October 10th, 2016 at 21:03OK.
October 10th, 2016 at 22:00All this does is prove that the vibe of the YT clips can’t be improved by professional camerawork and proper audio recording. Very lacklustre.Totally missing power & passion.
That is so weak.Ritchie looks asleep and Ronnie needs to work on his English.
October 10th, 2016 at 22:11Does anyone care?
October 10th, 2016 at 22:56I am a huge Blackmore fan, but.. that video is pitiful.. I do not like it.. Blackmore looks tired, bored, slow, sick.. Hard to explain.. Birmingham was much better indeed.. Sad, very sad.
October 10th, 2016 at 23:17This is not hard rock, it is AOR. I mean this music has to be played passionately, fast and furious.
October 11th, 2016 at 00:22This is a unch of old guys playing “hard rock” at 2000 rpm instead of 18000. How could Ritchie select such a bad drummer? And the bassist! Looks like an old grandpawho was given a bass guitar!
A group of low level, I think ritchie was wrong in choosing the musicians. It sounds empty and slow. I ordered the bluray, I will wait to hear full to issue another opinion. Greetings
October 11th, 2016 at 00:24Nice performance…better than the YT videos suggested…
October 11th, 2016 at 00:25Pretty lame from one of the greatest guitarist of all time. I’m sure he did it strictly for the money, I didn’t see the love in this performance at all. Won’t be making him richer buying this DVD. Just go back to playing the crap you have been playing since you destroyed one of the all time great bands with your attitude!! SMH
October 11th, 2016 at 00:29Sensational!. OMG…. I’ve just cum. Smiles to ya.
October 11th, 2016 at 01:10Wait a minute , no one complained about Ritchie Blackmore on the deep purple DVD , come hell or high water …. There he was just standing playing the guitar , same as this DVD…. Seems like a good decent video performance, just that next time , he should drop the purple stuff , and add more rainbow songs …. I think its a good performance ….
October 11th, 2016 at 01:45Wow!!! Looks and sounds fantastic! Great version of that song. Ronnie sings great on this one, much better than old Gillan these days. Great groovy solo of Ritchie and nice interplay between Jens and Ritchie after that.
I’m really looking forward to this DVD. Long live Ritchie Blackmore. Let’s hope for more dates next year.
October 11th, 2016 at 06:26Slightly anticlimactic “. Understatement of the year award goes to THS! This is so pedestrian and lacking in any energy. Even current day Purple give it more oomph.
October 11th, 2016 at 06:43What is the point of this! A second rate band and Ritchie himself seemingly completely di- interested!!
Think DP themselves are reaching the end but at least they still show energy and enthusiasm!!
Shame..
October 11th, 2016 at 09:29What did I say …
Look yourself.
The best show (Birmingham) was not published because of no professional cameras …
I have made my personal (thank-you:) YouTube-Birmingham-DVD …
This will be a nice gift for some huge Blackmore fans in my circle of personal friends and acquaintances
(like my buddies from DEMON´s EYE)
LLRnR
LL Blackmore
kraatzy
October 11th, 2016 at 12:31Ritchie sounds great.
October 11th, 2016 at 12:37Romerio is completely out of tune.
Maybe Ritchie should learn a little from what Glenn Hughes is doing on “Resonate”. Beyond if the music from Resonate is good or bad, i mean the attitude, the passion, the joy, the enthusiasm… Watching this video of the upcoming Rainbow release is a pity. Is sad to see Blackmore playing this way… The body language is a shame… as danielpurple (#9) said : “old guys playing “hard rock” at 2000 rpm instead of 18000”
October 11th, 2016 at 12:56Bittersweet.
I’ll buy this and was at the UK gig but i think Ritchie’s heart isn’t with the Strat these days…however, Soldier of fortune on acoustic was a pleasure to listen to.
October 11th, 2016 at 14:27I really do think it is time for some Prozac
October 11th, 2016 at 15:07To borrow a lyric from The Wall:
The evidence before the Court is incontravertable
There’s no need for the jury to retire.
A sleepy,uninspired performance,at best.
October 11th, 2016 at 16:28The Depeche Mode t-shirt the drummer is wearing says it all 🙂 I did not expect that Ritchie would have the same energy as for 30 years or so ago, but then again… The band looked to small for the stage, maybe it was lack of amplifierstacks. I know that you don’t need 20 stacks on stage to sound good, but the looks of it. And it sounded small. To bad that the best show is not on the dvd.
October 11th, 2016 at 16:44It is ritchie blackmore’s rainbow.. cool… better than nothing..
October 11th, 2016 at 16:47I made a point in another related post that there were reasons for the overall lacklustre performance of the two German shows but also Birmingham ( though better )….. Ritchie’s surgery on his fingers, under-rehearsed and I guess being away from playing straight down the line rock for a lot of years didnt help matters. I still feel they needed a rock/metal inspired bass player and drummer to give everything a bit of zest. At least Ritchie’s amazing guitar sound can be heard in this recording . All in all it could have been better but hey I get 5 songs on the DVD/CD from Loreley which I attended so happy with that 🙂
October 11th, 2016 at 17:29I’m disappointed because I expected much more passion and attitude from someone who once argued that Eric Clapton can’t play guitar. Well, Ritchie, go to a Clapton concert nowadays and have your ass handed to you big time in terms of feeling and attitude. I don’t want to be rude or offending, but I’m afraid, it’s the truth – sad to say. Romero must have had a hard time on stage with such a weak band backing him up. In some spots it felt as if he was almost alone out there – what a disgrace.
October 11th, 2016 at 21:46Who the hell picked up this song for a DVD trailler?? It’s the worst version I’ve heard of this song. Deep Purple is playing same song thousands times better than this. Also, it’s not a song for Ronni Romero, who fits very well on Dio/Coverdale songs. Got to see them in Birmingham and it was absolutely great. For marketing sales they could have choosen “Stargazer”, “Man on the silver mountain”or even “Since you’ve been gone”. Come on…
October 11th, 2016 at 22:38Gosh, this one is a true disater 🙁
October 12th, 2016 at 05:36Love it.
October 12th, 2016 at 08:29Not sure what people are expecting. I was at Birmingham and it was great. Maybe not like it was-and I have seen Ritchie since the 70s- but still worth it. I am pleased to see the quality of the recording as i think a lot of people have made up opinions from you tube. I expect showing the quality is what the marketing is about rather than which song. Ok so maybe not the best concert of the three but that’s what has always happened though I don’t understand why when there was only three concerts they didn’t record them all.
I have not seen Purple for a while as I felt they were trading on too many past songs live which though very polished were missing any spark.
October 12th, 2016 at 11:23I like some of the new stuff and have nothing against Morse or Airey but they are not Lord and Blackmore so should concentrate on their material more as that would get them the respect for their contributions which I think they deserve.
Seems like a second round of sticking the knife in from certain individuals here, cannot resist eh chaps! Predictable indeed, comical also! You guys have already said the same thing before, remember the saying?
October 12th, 2016 at 11:35I have stated like others have also, that the 3rd gig would have been the one to film. We all know why. The reasons I won’t buy this dvd however are, firstly, the fact that the camera operators keep filming the crowd?????????????? I have vented before in regards to that absurd mentality! Who goes to a concert to keep looking at the crowd????????? What is that rubbish that some people think that is a good thing?????? Wow, look at the crowd, oh my look everyone, look at those people over there, look at that person looking gobsmacked, amazing! Hang on, there is another shot panning across the crowd again, oh this is amazing, look at those people in the audience, mind blowing. On & on & on, constant audience shots repeatedly, it’s just so amazing, hang on, here’s another shot of a few crowd participants singing along again, better get in another panning shot across the entire gathering of the clan again! Repeat infinitely!
Film the musicians & nothing else, simple really isn’t it! King Crimson live concerts filmed in Japan, the way to do it!
I also agree with roberto @ 28. Why use this song, a well known & overplayed song by anyone’s reckoning, well almost anyone! Well we know why, marketing rubbish! It was overplayed back when Blackers was still in the band! Rainbow classics indeed should be highlighted. The 2nd reason I have a few issues with these performances at certain times, is the crowd participation sing along crap! Queen were big on that shite! I detest it. Concerts are about the music & the performance, not the pub sing along with everybody! Well for myself & a few others I know they are! Rant over for now! Sing me a song, your a singer! Or shouldn’t that be “play for me minstrel, play! Still enjoyed the Blackmore return to rock for a blast though, no expectations here, it’s all rock ‘n roll. A good time, a blast for the heck of it! Cheers!
It’s what I said all along: Loreley was a nadir in my many Blackmore experiences (and I’ve seen him very drunk, very angry with himself and very bored before, but there were always flashes of inspiration) and Bietigheim-Bissingen compared to even the most perfunctory Morse-era DP gigs as “passionless” – that is exactly the right word. I had bought 5 tickets for Loreley (and four for Bietigheim-Bissingen) and chest-beatingly invited four people to the 1st show “to see what a proper guitarist plays like”. Imagine my – groan … – embarrassment at this lacklustre performance. They (none of them having witnessed Blackmore in a rock context before) said things like: “The singer was actually quite good …” – damning with faint praise, ouch!
And I don’t blame the Depeche Mode t-shirt of the drummer – if anything Depeche Mode are an arena-pleasing machine that has honed its craft to perfection, nothing lame about them. The bitter truth is that a regular Depeche Mode concert would have squashed the new Rainbow against the wall at the two German gigs I saw. Nor do I blame Curiano’s bemused (as if he had been asked to step in at the last minute) overplaying (his style would have gelled with the Ian Gillan Band, I found him (John) Gustafsonish, but without the latter’s intellectual zest in his playing) or Johansson’s rather curious and inspirationless underplaying, most furniture from IKEA catches more attention than his solos. I can also forgive Romero his Ingleesh (I’ve been to too many Scorpions gigs to say özzervise!), he at least made up for it with vibrancy and unadulterated enthusiasm, gracias!
The man with the lack (of pretty much everything that could have made these gigs great) was – squarely and fairly – only the one in black.
My hope is that these outings have gripped Blackmore by the scruff of his hopefully still existent ego and that he will attempt to have Rainbow go out with a bang rather than a whimper in 2017 (yes, I would be there, even after this year’s experiences). Candice, if you’re reading this, tell your hubbie to rehearse more next time around and remind himself of why he became such a great rock guitarist in the first place!!!
October 12th, 2016 at 14:04I agree with all the comments, the group is lousy, the drummer is ridiculous as organist and my idol Blackmore this listless and without passion.
October 12th, 2016 at 16:07Sound and mix are much better than what we can hear on the YT vids..but I didn’t change my mind.Pretty uninspired and lacklustre.Very weak backing band (except Romero who did his best and he’s really good).
October 12th, 2016 at 20:31And yes ,Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale keep the flame and the rock and roll attitude alive,you still can feel high energy and passion when they perform live today.
Why did they choose this weak rendition of Black night to promote the dvd is a mistery…Maybe Ritchie doesn’t care any more or is out of his mind..He ‘ll stay my hero forever but ..still i’m sad.
44 years an RB fan!
October 13th, 2016 at 11:11Not interested
To all the haters…
You forgot this is a 71 years old man. I’d like to see you all rocking on stage at that age, badasses.
Now you criticize, but the day we don’t have him anymore, you all will praise him high. Hypocrites. Be grateful to be contemporary of this musical genius.
October 13th, 2016 at 14:02Its been a long time since we’ve seen RB play these songs. Expectation levels were probably too high and RBs performance levels were that of a 70 year old man, which he is.
IT felt too much like upbeat Blackmore Nights gig and mile away from DP or Rainbow show.
Ive mixed feelings about it
October 13th, 2016 at 15:15@38 Rascal, you’re correct, the fading lights from an old star…. just for fun. He said that he was going to perform a few concerts… just for fun… & that’s exactly what he did. I think he said something like “it’s nice that there are people out there that are interested in what I do for a living”. He did what he could to downplay people’s expectations…. But people didn’t listen.
The people demand that you ‘come back to rock’ & play them some of the old time tunes, to relive some of the old memories… So then when you give in & play some rock for them, all they do afterwards is whinge & complain about it. OOOH….. THAT’S NOT THE WAY I REMEMBER THE SONG…. OOOH, YUCKY!.
For Christsake people, your lives don’t depend on how good or bad these 3 concerts were. You know you can catch more bees with a little sunshine & honey. If you want someone to come back again, then you don’t beat them over the head with a stick. Cheer the fuck up for crying out loud. Do yourselves a favour.
October 14th, 2016 at 10:18Age has nothing to do with it. Go to an Ian Hunter concert if you think otherwise – the man will be turning 80 in three years (5 years older than Ritchie). Or go see Tony Iommi play well with cancer. Remember how tight Cream were at their RAH reunion concerts after nearly 40 years apart.
Ritchie doesn’t need to jump around for me, he doesn’t need to play fast (come the late 70ies, there were more and more people coming up who were faster guns than him, I never cared for his shredding in the early 80ies when he believed he had something to prove), he just needs to play well – with his heart and mind. I don’t care if he sits down while doing that. And it’s not like he lost the capability to solo well, I’ve seen brilliant solos at comparatively recent Blackmore’s Night gigs. But none of that gift showed at the German gigs.
That doesn’t mean he can’t perk up again in the future. It just means that that Rainbow reunion was ill-prepared and that Carol Stevens was perhaps not the best person to handle that affair. I doubt that Bruce Payne would have let Ritchie get away with a rehearsal level as poor as shown at Loreley and Bietigheim-Bissingen.
And there is nothing wrong with stating that clearly even if you are a life-long fan. If the minstrel is caught without tights, you are allowed to point that out.
October 17th, 2016 at 10:52Doing something for fun ?
October 17th, 2016 at 17:15Ermmmmmmmmmm
Dont charge money then.
Blackmore interviewed in DUTCH magazine Oor around 1976 said to the interviewer about Made in Europe :
Dont buy it. 😛
Well, I m going to repeat his words.
DONT BUY IT.
October 17th, 2016 at 17:19@42 Rock Voorne, that’s my point. Nobody’s forcing anyone to buy it. You pay for it in advance & hope for the best. A pig in a poke. Caveat emptor. That’s the essence of rock ‘n’ roll.
October 18th, 2016 at 14:54I loved what I saw of these concerts on youtube!. The difference is that you & most others approached these events with preconceived ideas, whereas I didn’t expect anything more than what was presented. Honestly, I was just tickled & grateful to see the old man playing that ancient stuff again. I doff my hat to him & I hope he sees fit to do it again…. soon.
Anyhow, Que sera, sera…. Be happy!.
I’m coming up to the defense of Made in Europe (an album that only grew on me over time)!!! : – ) True, it showed a listless and introverted Blackmore – he had already mentally left Deep Purple and you could hear that. Still flashes of brilliance or – at the very least – just plain darn cool axe wielding. And the other four played and sang twice as hard on those gigs making those recordings dynamic. Those gigs featured Hughes at his bass-playing peak, just listen to him during You Fool No One.
That didn’t happen with the Rainbow gigs, Herr Romero being the notable exception with his Graham Bonnet-type overenthusiasm. Eyeryone else played either hesitantly (keyboards), bemused (bass) or too concentrated and eager too please (drums). The band never came near of stepping on Blackmore’s musical toes – never mind that he had his musical toes curled all the time. If they had, Ritchie’s ever-present ego might have fired him up a little.
October 21st, 2016 at 13:12@ 44-Very well said,Uwe.
October 23rd, 2016 at 18:52Both your defense of Made In Europe & observations on the individual components of Rainbow,2016 are right on the mark.Coverdale,Hughes,Lord and Paice,were strong enough musicians & personalities to push Ritchie-without going to his side of the stage.Romero,Johanssen & Co, probably feared the wrath of The Man In Black if they did more than play the required parts.
Kinda starting to look more and more like an exercise in ego…or a final cash grab. And I read not long ago that he realized his guitar-playing dexterity was ‘deteriorating’. Then why bother? Because he knows he has legions of fans that will buy into (then buy) anything? Can’t wait for 2026, when everybody will be clamoring for the 10th Memories In Rock Anniversary Tour. Losing tons o’ respect for TIMB over this. He should’ve left well enough alone.
October 23rd, 2016 at 21:28@44 & @45…. & yet the videos of the 3 Rainbow gigs quite clearly show the audiences smiling, singing along & heavily applauding for Mr B & his band. Hmmmm…. Yeah, I absolutely adored the Made In Europe album. People, in any marriage or partnership, you love ’em in the high times & you love ’em in the low times. You just love ’em. Big sloppy doe eyed smiles to ya!.
October 23rd, 2016 at 22:55Blackwood Richmore @ 47- well said. As we constantly read here at times, some people cannot get past certain things in life. It haunts them, or possesses them, they become irrationally possessed it seems! They cannot move on & they end up sounding like the proverbial cracked record etc! The repeated references to the glory days are, well, beyond comical indeed! Even more hilarious, the ‘cash’ grab rubbish!
October 24th, 2016 at 20:46As Blackwood said at 43 chaps, que sera sera! Cheers.
“@44 & @45…. & yet the videos of the 3 Rainbow gigs quite clearly show the audiences smiling, singing along & heavily applauding for Mr B & his band”
They were smiling, singing along & heavily applauding at the Frantic Four reunion tour too, yet you had to be blind and deaf not to hear that Alan Lancaster’s bass playing (which I loved all thru the 70ies) was only a shadow of itself due to his health/muscle control issues, the characteristic “pummeling Lancaster throb” was gone. I was at two gigs to know.
That is nostalgia and it’s ok. It’s mostly the same people who clap and cheer loudest when Smoke on the Water is played. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a majestic riff, but perhaps not the standard of the most discerning Blackmore enthusiast, ok? I thought we here at The Highway Star are just a bit more demanding than that.
As regards the cash argument, I’m sure Ritchie doesn’t need the money (and I would have gladly paid four times as much for better gigs), but you could be forgiven to wonder why a man who consciously tours with his renaissance outfit at smaller venues (with lots of space between dates) because he prefers that both for his life style and the quality of the music (which is commendable) all of the sudden decided to play two massive outdoor gigs (more massive than anything Rainbow played in Germany in their 70ies and early 80ies prime) on two consecutive days (and with no large outdoor gig venue experience of all involved musicians for two decades or so). A tour through mid-sized halls might have given the band less nerves and gradually more experience as they went along.
October 25th, 2016 at 20:27“I thought we here at The Highway Star are just a bit more demanding than that.”
You are new here?
October 26th, 2016 at 12:59This is getting tedious folks….
October 26th, 2016 at 19:02The very nature of this blog is that we are invited to offer our OPINIONS. Opinions are subjective critiques.We will never all agree……nor do we have to.
I don’t whine & complain.Nor am I obsessive.I offer my opinion at THS when a topic interests me . Nothing more,nothing less.