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Confidant and wardrobe consultant
Candice Night was interviewed by eonmusic, and in between some things that have been discussed previously, the last Rainbow incarnation came up.
Finally, I wanted to touch on Rainbow’s shows in 2016, and onward; that must have been special for you, to help make that all happen.
One hundred percent. I absolutely loved doing that because, I mean, it’s funny being, you know, the wife, the best friend, the confidant, the wardrobe consultant, and everything, but also being such a big fan of that band and of his, and watching him in his element, doing the songs that I grew up on that I’m just such a huge fan of. So as he’s sitting there doing the track list and making it, I’m going; “wow!” And I honestly didn’t think he was going to ask me to do backing singing. I was just happy to be around that music in a live forum, so when he asked me to do it, and the other backing singer from Blackmore’s Night at that point, we were able to get out there and just stand on that stage and listen to those songs live, and a lot of the songs I had never heard. I mean, the first time I saw Ritchie live, was six months before I met him, I went to a concert out here in the Meadowlands. It was a huge stadium, and it was Deep Purple, Guns n’ Roses on their maiden tour with ‘Appetite for Destruction’, and Aerosmith on a triple bill.That’s a great line-up!
I was boots on the floor, general admission, getting knocked around, and all five four of me, but that energy! I later heard that during ‘Smoke on the Water’ the fans had set the seats on fire. It was 1989 and that’s the first time that I saw Ritchie perform on stage, and then I met him a few months later because I was working at the radio station, and we met on the football pitch, but I’d never seen Rainbow from back in the day, and when he started reforming Rainbow in 1995, and of course, I went on tour with them, with Doogie White [singing], it was great to be part of that whole thing. But hearing those classic songs that I grew up with, yeah, being part of that, and watching that from the stage is just that was electric. I’m really glad I was part of it all.
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Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
It would be nice if the shows from Loreley and Bietigheim were both released in their entirety. I never had the chance to see Rainbow in their prime but enjoyed the show at the Loreley in 2016 a lot.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:20In hindsight, Candice’s and her co-singer’s backing vocals were the most forceful, professional and committed contribution to the overall sound of Reunionbow – those two women at least showed some power and determination in an otherwise flaccid group performance.
Meanwhile, the other Ronnie still milks the back catalogue occasionally:
https://youtu.be/mBBFiyYhFlo
To his defense, it’s a nice rendition of a song the real Rainbow never had the guts to play live, that “Jimi Hendrix goes medieval”-ballad. Also, next to the two background singers, his contribution to the reunion, ignoring language insecurities for a moment, were among the more dynamic too.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:07Bietigheim was substandard (for Ritchie), Loreley a bottomless pit. I was so ashamed as I had dragged quite a few people from my family along to demonstrate what a great guitarist Ritchie was. My heart sank already with their half-arsed version of Highway Star that plodded underrehearsed out of the PA speakers. And it didn’t really pick up after that. Ritchie damaged his own legacy that night and proved that you can actually unlearn playing heavy rock convincingly if you have done poppy folk Schlager for too long.
I saw them twice more in Glasgow and Berlin. Those shows were marginally better, but still nowhere near to how I saw Rainbow with Dio (2x), Bonnet (1x), Turner (2x) and White (2x).
I just realized, I saw Rainbow eleven times! Munich 77 and the Bonnet one were best.
April 24th, 2025 at 14:00The Meadowlands concert she is referring to was 8/16/88. As always, I was there and yes there was a large fire, an entire section was a blaze during Smoke on the Water. I remember when that show first went on sale it was Aerosmith with Guns and Roses but do to poor ticket sales Deep Purple was added in the middle and then it was sold out. I, like most people left after Purple. I was very lucky, any Purple, Rainbow, Gillan or Whitesnake concert from 1974 to present in the New York, New Jersey area I was there. Very fortunate indeed.
April 24th, 2025 at 15:53I’ve seen Aerosmith thrice, once brilliant, once totally knackered, but still working hard to put on a good show, and once as elder statesmen where they still excelled. (And I saw the Joe Perry Project in the early 80s opening for Auntie Alice at Cobo Hall, Deeeetroit.) I’ve only experienced them as a very good live band even when their albums were hit & miss.
April 24th, 2025 at 21:36The two “reunion” shows the the NEC Birmingham were fantastic. Was it the same as the Dio, Bonnet, JLT and Doogie gigs I went to? No. And my expectations were that it wouldn’t be.
Pretty much everyone who attended had a wonderful time, one lad even commenting at the first show in 2016 that it was the best moment of his life
The following year’s show Ritchie had such a great time they had to kick the band off for going over the curfew.
So pleased to have seen the man knowing the chance will probably never come around again.
April 25th, 2025 at 16:13Saw Aerosmith on the Toys in The Attic tour – all good until Stephen Tyler put his Microphone over he audience with dangling
April 25th, 2025 at 16:48Scarf or something which was grabbed, let go and busted him in the mouth!
Show was over – no encore (understandable— hope he learned not to do that!
REO Speedwagon played before them and were fantastic- before the ballad years.
I had the opportunity to attend the Rainbow concert on April 20, 2018 in Prague (a very memorable date for Deep Purple fans). It doesn’t matter that the vocalist was not the same Ronnie, that Ritchie was slower, but they played RAINBOW songs and more, and I thank Providence for the opportunity to see them live
April 26th, 2025 at 06:18The 2016-2019 Rainbow reunion was nothing else than Blackmore’s Night in disguise and as such a trainwreck, probably less impressive musically than Rod Evans’ DP reunion in 1980. Rainbow’s final show took place in Esbjerg in 1997. A lot of water has clearly passed under the bridge since then, as far as RB’s dexterity is concerned. But it was a very strange choice to go public with it for someone who used to hold himself to such a high musical standard. Bad influence from the Night family?
April 26th, 2025 at 08:56Tillytheman and me attended the Rainbow show in Bietigheim and it was an emotional and sentimental affair. I was glad to take my boy to see Ritchie live in a rock-setting for once which he enjoyed and for me it was a Klassentreffen of sorts. Ritchie was just a shadow of the man he used to be but seemed to give it all he had. Goes to show he chose wisely to go in another direction in his later years. Some nice playing from David Keith, a good voice, interesting pronounsation (long leave Rock’n’Roll…)….a good time but sure not mainly for musical reasons. It was a historic event for the sake of the old times. And the man in black billed it Memories in Rock …you knew what to expect. Glad I was there.
April 26th, 2025 at 11:56You junge Leute, who have apparently never seen the original line-ups live, one thing 70s-80s Rainbow always were, if somewhat lacking in a few other departments : A sucker punch of relentless energy. That same Ritchie back then would have laughed his later version off stage and told him to go home. Vintage Rainbow prided themselves in interviews (Cozy) in being more powerful than Aerosmith or Ted Nugent.
April 26th, 2025 at 13:46@2: from my point of view, the show at Loreley was quite enjoyable – https://www.thehighwaystar.com/reviews/dp-related-reviews/2016/06/20/monsters-of-rock-2016-loreley/
April 26th, 2025 at 14:36@ 9 – “The 2016-2019 Rainbow reunion was nothing else than Blackmore’s Night in disguise and as such a trainwreck, probably less impressive musically than Rod Evans’ DP reunion in 1980”. A pretty low insult! Sheeeeesh, it may have been rough in places by some accounts but to compare that 2016 ‘Rainbow Night’ to the charade and fraud of Rod Evans in 1980, a hit well below the belt indeed. People knew what they were getting didn’t they with Blackmore and company? Did anyone seriously expect Ritchie to be doing what he used to be capable of? Put Ian Gillan onstage with Blackmore and you get the same thing, both well past their glory days, elderly gents past their prime etc etc, but still sort of capable of knocking out a tune or two for nostalgia etc. If it wasn’t for the other lads in Purple propping it up for Ian Gillan these days, well enough said there. Time as we know does NOT wait for anyone. Not even a perceived bias it seems. It is what it is. Pile it on lads. Cheers.
April 26th, 2025 at 22:50And I had invited four people of my extended family along, paying for their tickets, and after the gig they were all four (Dream Theater, Metallica, ZZ Top, Status Quo, John Fogerty and Blackmore‘s Night fans among them) lukewarm polite about what they had seen and (not) heard. 🤣
Can you imagine Blackmore eliciting a “lukewarm polite“ reaction in 1970 or 1975 with someone who had never seen him live before? I can‘t. I was a dark day in my Purple fandom and I cringe about it to this day. None of them have ever mentioned that awful gig again.
April 26th, 2025 at 23:18MacGregor, you are absolutely right here. Plus: IG does a small amiunt of singing actually…DP is mostly instrumental. Whereas RB was in focus all night.
I have seen Rainbow in the 70s, 80s, 90s, Uwe but I never expected them to be dangerous, unpredictable and energetic like that when I went to the nostalgia show in 2016. That is was… nostalgia, Memories in Rock. I mean…no new songs, a greatest hits set of Rainbow plus DP-songs, the main man out of practice for 20 years (and let’s face it -96 incarnation of Rainbow was lame too), wifey as a backgound singer…what on earth did you think you’d get there?
April 27th, 2025 at 06:05.
Football comes to mind (not very often in my case…). Think of old chaps like Ritchie’s idol Lothar Matthäus having a game of soccer for some charity purpose. You’d never expect them to be as good or as fast as they were 30 years ago…it’s just good fun, a party, a nostalgic event for old time’s sake. BTW: DC in Cologne didn’t feel much different. To their credit it has to be said that DP are more contemporary but their age shows too. And why not?
April 27th, 2025 at 13:31Good question, what was I expecting? I was expecting a neatly rehearsed oldies show by a few old, but musically good men where the stage mobility of the participants is restricted due to biology and age, but overall professionalism and experience retain a semblance of dynamics. I didn’t expect Rainbow to turn out musically meeker than a hastily assembled Thin Lizzy with one original member or a Manfed Mann’s Earth Band (btw Manfred is five years older than Ritchie and guitarist Mick Rogers only one year younger).
I did not mind that Ritchie couldn’t play as fast as he used too, that was perfectly ok, but I did mind that he was totally lackadaisical in his professional commitment – the band simply wasn‘t tight and that was his fault and his lazy bum ass fault alone. Remember the CREAM performance at RAH? Those three guys were old too, but they had prepared in a way that lived up to their legacy. Listen to CREAM’s RAH concert recordings and then listen to Rainbow’s Memories In Rock live albums and tell me you don’t hear a difference.
What I did totally underestimate is how much Ritchie had “unlearned“ the heavy rock dynamics he was known for (and that made him famous), I had assumed it was more like riding a bike, you can’t unlearn it. Well you can, I know that now.
And I did wonder how the man who had 1975 so nonchalantly fired 3/5 of Elf without having given them the chance to even perform live with him once could stand playing with a rhythm section and a keyboarder so little attuned to his (once) music. Any no-name B or C league heavy band picked randomly from the pages of METAL HAMMER could have done the music better justice.
I have never been to a BN gig (and I’ve been to like a dozen, including some where Ritchie had a few too many) where the music was rendered so unprofessionally and carelessly as at Loreley. It still pains me.
April 27th, 2025 at 13:45Ian Gillan fronts a band that rehearses last I heard, that’s a big dif in my book. They have this really strange concept of wishing to deliver the best they can at their age and work at it in rehearsals (how hilarious and quaint!) – of course, if you’re Ritchie and full of yourself, there is no need to do that, you just wallow in your fame from (when the reunion stuff took place) 20 years ago. Your fans won’t mind as long as you dub it “memories”, they are the forgiving (or forgetting?) kind.
Ian Gillan’s current backing musicians also have a more than passing acquaintance with heavy rock as a music form that demands some experience and skill. [Playing bass with a soulish groove band like Mink/Willy De Ville doesn’t quite prep you for it, nor does playing electronic drums at folk gigs in 3/4 or 6/8 time.]
Face it guys: Blackmore in his teenage years to mid 50s would have been utterly scathing if he had seen his own (and the band’s) performances with Reunionbow.
Daniel’s comment @9 (I love it!) earns him the distinguished title “Forum Viper of the Year”
https://media1.giphy.com/media/M5ufjAPlvhaOQ/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b9527tyfzn9io8gz8nhx0vecyhqr3tmuq5hljml0ez01&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
but my God, the man is right and sooooo apt!!! 😂
I have nothing against the Spouses Blackmore, in whatever biological shape. Unlike most of you, I’ve been listening to Candice’s solo album for the last few days on rotation and – look and behold – it’s actually quite good. It’s Kuschelrock alright, but largely more cringefree than most BN releases (so you can’t blame her for all of it).
April 27th, 2025 at 16:12Don’t forget Uwe has a thing about Rainbow, in any form. It stems from his teenage years and his expectations being too far out me thinks (no Deep Purple can do that to some people, he he he). So anything they (Rainbow) did, ok I am being a little harsh in that aspect, he doesn’t mind the odd song occasionally. I don’t know what he would have told his friends before that gig, it does make us wonder. “this is gong to be great’ etc etc, or perhaps ‘now I am not sure how good this may or may not be’ etc etc. Anyway, it does provide a sense of comedy in that Uwe went to such a concert and ended up rather, well his fathers were ruffled somewhat. Uwe can place that Rainbow Night concert into his ‘the gigs I wish I never went to’ basket and then move on! Cheers.
April 27th, 2025 at 22:29That Cream comparison Uwe is totally out of this world. They (Cream) had a lot more serious reason to be doing that reunion of ALL of the original members. Not a slapped together ‘this will do and I don’t really want to be doing this’ concert. Plus it was at the Royal Albert Hall with Jack Bruce recovering from a liver transplant and a near death rejection following the operation. Not too mention poor ole Ginger was broke and needed the cash………….! And they had not played together for almost 40 years and had been talking about doing that reunion for some time. Ritchie being on his own and retired (you know what I mean), well we know he likes to get his way don’t we and are you seriously thinking that the ‘Rainbow Night’ scenario was his idea from the very beginning, it doesn’t sound like it was but I could be wrong on that. A rather comical comparison and very desperate I might say. And this from a chap who thinks DP should or could have a back up singer(s) or even spare me this one, pre-recorded backup vocals to do the Child In Time falsetto section. Comedy again. And the comparison to a constantly touring nd recording rock band (DP) is comedy gold. Cheers.
April 27th, 2025 at 23:16And speaking of old men who can still rock: I just returned from a small club gig of Martin Turner‘s Wishnone Ash in Mannheim. Martin will be turning 78 this October, yet his band is shit-tight, has great harmony vocals, well-rehearsed dual lead guitars and a great drummer (Tim Brown) plus Martin‘s still worthy singing and one-of-a-kind, gung-ho and inquisitive bass playing. Not to mention a Gillan‘esque humor along the lines of: “The next song is about this gorgeous girl I was in love with. She was Swedish, a few years older than me, blond hair and curly teeth … no, curly hair and blond teeth … ah well anyway, it was very long ago and her hair was BLOWING FREE !!!”
April 27th, 2025 at 23:59Uwe, bei aller Freundschaft, I’m afraid I won’t listen to Memories in Rock again – just because I could barely stand it first time around. It was just a sentimental affair goin’ to that show but I sure won’t listen to the results at home. 🙂
April 28th, 2025 at 05:48As always I think there are many things involved when it comes to the reception of any event. In my case anyway. The weather, the site, the mood, the company… My boy and me had a nice night out and a chance to sing along to those tunes with a few 10.000s for once.
I agree with the opinion that Rainbow 2018 is just nostalgia. But for people from the eastern border it is a chance to hear them live, similar to Deep Purple, who performed in Poland only in 1991. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is no return to the 70s, but it’s good that Deep Purple records new albums, and Ritchie Blackmore has his medieval world.
April 28th, 2025 at 05:57Krie #23
April 28th, 2025 at 08:281991 was Slaves & Masters tour. Classic MK2 came to Poland in 1993 (Battle tour) with one of last concerts of this line-up.
Ah, Herr MacGregor, how you know me!
My first rock gig ever was Rainbow with AC/DC in 1976 (second one was Status Quo in 1977 a few months later). So of course I was a fan, but even then I at the same time missed that (rock &) “roll factor” in their music which made DP so great for me. Rainbow didn’t “roll”, it marched (and that is something us Krauts can do very well on our own, vielen lieben Dank —> Accept or Rammstein).
So yes, Rainbow never reached, much less eclipsed DP’s heights for me. There was less animal grace and elegance in their music.
What did I tell the people before inviting them to Rainbow at Loreley? Since they were all – Edith, Edith’s first husband, Edith’s daughter and her later to be hubby – devout Pink Floyd fans, I had promised them that Ritchie can be as expressive as Gilmour and a real stylist on guitar, “he is that good”.
And then he wasn’t, not that night and not really anytime I saw him with Reunionbow later on (I saw him better at BN gigs, maybe that is the environment he prefers nowadays).
Since we’re talking Gilmour, the amount of careful preparation, the quality of the musicians and the playing intensity that goes into a David Gilmour gig (and he pauses between tours almost as long as Ritchie didn’t play hard rock) makes Reunionbow look amateurish in comparison. And don’t tell me that Floyd fans are any less nostalgic than DP or Rainbow ones, I’ve seen too many oroginal Pink Floyd (Animals/Wish You Were Here Tour still with Waters), Roger Waters solo and David Gilmour solo gigs to give that any credence. Those gigs were holy masses of nostalgia, but unlike at Loreley, the high priests had put some prior work into it for the congregation.
But you seem to think that it is ok for Ritchie – given his past achievements, his legend and his age – to not prepare himself properly for tours and surround himself with second-rate, but convenient musicians. Sorry, I hold him to a higher standard than that. Age is forgivable and so are physical limits, laziness and lack of professionalism isn’t. In my limited world, Ritchie B and David G should be held to the same standard as professionalism and dedication goes or is to you Deep Purple/Rainbow only a joke when compared to what Pink Floyd, Waters & Gilmour do?
Glenn Tipton suffered from Parkinson’s in his final touring years with JP – once an athletic and technically expert performer, he first gradually lost agility on stage and then – not much later – on the fretboard too. He compensated by (to the bewilderment of his band mates who did not know the reason for it until later) by rehearsing and training for hours before each and every gig on his final tours with JP to at least approximate his former fluidity. Of course he lost the battle in the end and had to step down, you don’t win against Parkinson’s. And you little Tasmanian Devil tell me Blackmore’s slipshod approach was ok?
Max and Krie, I totally understand the nostalgia thing (I saw with tears in my eyes Status Quo on the Frantic Four Reunion Tours with an MS-impaired Alan Lancaster who was a pale shadow of his former muscular bass playing that influenced me so much when I started out as a bassist), also the spirit of communion & bonding it can bring when father & son go to a rock gig together – I’ll never forget the look of bewonderment in the eyes of my then 12-year old son when I took him to a KISS gig and he saw them open with Detroit Rock City descending on their platforms from the hall’s ceiling as the curtain flew away or the way he sat on my shoulder transfixed for much of one of the early Priest gigs after Halford had rejoined.
April 28th, 2025 at 16:21@ 25 -“But you seem to think that it is ok for Ritchie – given his past achievements, his legend and his age – to not prepare himself properly for tours and surround himself with second-rate, but convenient musicians.” No, I do NOT think that is ok, I am a realist Uwe. We all have a fair idea of Ritchie’s attitude from following DP and Rainbow etc over the last 50 years or so! All those other artists that you mention as a ‘comparison’ do not have Ritchies’s attitude, good or bad. Plus they are going out for much longer than reunion Rainbow Night did. A slap happy affair of two or three appearances is not a tour. The more that first appearance was unfolding, the more Ritchie was most probably thinking, ‘why am I doing this”. I would imaging all the other musicians would have loved it to be more rehearsal and everything else, but can you imagine the situation? Anyway, regarding 20 years of not rocking out on guitar look at the issues Trevor Rabin went through starting out again with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. Rusty, rusty and even more rusty after weeks and weeks of practising and then rehearsing for a few more weeks. Come gig time, it showed bit time and he wasn’t loving it. He was ok after half a dozen concerts or so and on song of course. Rabin does NOT have Blackmore’s ‘attitude’ so he gets on with it because they were primed to get stuck into it on tour etc. By the time you witnessed ARW they would have been on song big time I imagine. It happens sometimes with certain artists, it is rock ‘n roll. Look at Jack Bruce and Robin Trower in 2009, not a lot of rehearsing and then going out for a handful of concerts. I have that live DVD from Holland, a bit shaky it seems as Jack also comments about that after a while. Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s one off appearance at Download or whatever it was in 2010, another example of being out of touch, much to Carl Palmer’s displeasure with the other two ‘older’ musicians. It is what it is. Throw in Led Zeppelin too from 2007, that dvd has been ‘touched up’ apparently. Cheers.
April 28th, 2025 at 21:58SONGS I GREW UP ON….
“and a lot of the songs I had never heard.
I mean, the first time I saw Ritchie live, was six months before I met him.”
Ow dear.
April 28th, 2025 at 22:49You can’t blame her for her age, RV, Candice was born when Fireball came out, she was five when DP split up and 13 when they reassembled. She was 16/17 when she saw Ritchie with DP for the first time (I was just about to turn 16 when I first saw him with Rainbow in 1976) – for someone growing up in America and as a member of her generation (Bon Jovi was a household name for her, not DP), that can hardly be faulted.
And she sure left an impression on him. A 45-year-old man laying eyes on a 19-year-old girl (talk about “young enough to be my daughter”) and deciding she’s the one after an adult lifetime of access to loads of women as a rock star.
There is a certain industrious tenacity to Candice that deserves admiration. I doubt that it is easy to get along with Ritchie continuously on an everyday basis – most of the time the guy doesn’t get along with himself! 😂 She has stuck with it, risking – as biology goes – that she will very possibly be a widow by the time their kids finish college. I don’t think she’s a gold digger, she could have left him long ago and done very well for herself, thank you, there is some real commitment to him and that marriage there. As things look now, she will in the next few years (i) experience the passing of her beloved mother, (ii) have to oversee that Autumn and Rory grow into content young adults, and (iii) very likely have to house-care for an healthwise ailing and feebler-growing husband – that sounds like a handful to me, all during menopause btw. Silly Renaissance garments aside, I really respect that, she’s gonna need that sunny outlook on life.
April 29th, 2025 at 12:50