![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse.jpg)
The Köln Concert
For Record Store Day in the UK, there will be an exclusive 3 color vinyl release of the Rainbow concert in Köln/Cologne 25 september 1976. Here is the promo blurb from the Record Store Day UK site:
First time ever vinyl release for this incredible live concert from Rainbow’s debut world tour and documenting one of the band’s first ever shows in Europe, at Cologne’s Kölner Sporthalle on 25th September 1976. Released on 3LP with each disc pressed in a different colour of the Rainbow (Translucent Red, Yellow and Blue) and Newly Mastered by Andy Pearce & Matt Wortham When Rainbow finally landed in Europe for their debut live shows there, it was on the back of both the albums ‘Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow’ and ‘Rainbow Rising’ having charted, so the band were playing sold out venues, and what a band… with the line up consisting of Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James, Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain and Tony Carey As one of the cornerstones of British Rock, Rainbow, led by the never-predictable but ever-astonishing guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, became synonymous with some of the most well regarded and popular charting Rock songs of the seventies and eighties. This show recorded on the bands Rainbow Rising tour in 1976 in Cologne Germany, features stone cold classics such as ‘Stargazer’ and ‘Man on the Silver Mountain’. This live album has only been available on CD pressings originally made 20 years ago, both as a single concert / as part of the Japan only 6-CD Box Set Deutschland Tournee 1976. Now nearly 50 years on from the original concert, the recording makes it’s debut appearance on a vinyl format with the audio Newly mastered by Andy Pearce & Matt Wortham.
Thanks Richard Paul Jones for the heads up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
On my shopping list RSD 26! Looking forward to triple coloured vinyl (red, yellow &
February 9th, 2026 at 08:36blue)..once a wax head , always a wax head…LLRR – PJ
Hello.
This is good news for them who like to add some serious vinyl to their collection I suppose.
Just a little while ago listened the whole Deutschland Tournee CD-box through.
What a band, what a series of marvellous gigs. And what´s most important thing that
shines through the performances : The players involved had real fun when performing together.
Ritchie´s sound plus improvisation, Jimmy´s bottom lines, Tony´s imagination, Cozy´s absolute time and power and last but not least: Ronnie´s intelligent and humorous attitude and of course: The Voice.
Very, very recommended purchase, indeed.
And if only they at last would write the Man on the Silver Mountain´s name just like he himself used and wanted to do : Ronnie James Dio.
Kippis.
February 9th, 2026 at 09:57fingers crossed I can get my hands on a copy
February 9th, 2026 at 11:56I assume that a worthy and proper colored vinyl edition will of course pay tribute to the look of the (in)famous Rainbow lighting rig, not?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-ywgKmyBfss/maxresdefault.jpg
Man, that was one expensive and elaborate way to create a constant buzz tone in Ritchie’s Strats via pick-up interference 🤣, but I’ll admit that it looked impressive at the time, especially from a little father away. If you were headbanging front of stage though, the visual effect was somewhat lost on you.
February 9th, 2026 at 12:33https://lirp.cdn-website.com/67794b89/dms3rep/multi/opt/AuOLT7WcZd-jUDGw7DRgayLlWVMqgNgCbgvwyOSffuE-1920w.jpg
Hi Uwe – yep hoping for 180gm vinyl! Cheers – PJ
February 10th, 2026 at 07:21also; fingers crossed that the other two gigs will be forthcoming RSD releases
February 10th, 2026 at 08:36Those horribly garish vinyl colors look nothing like that lighting rig rainbow did at the time! 🤣 Very poor effort.
February 10th, 2026 at 13:17I mean shouldn’t it have looked more something like this ?
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/-9oAAOSwKdpk2C5w/s-l1200.jpg
I mean if Donna can do it … (who incidentally had a notable preference for the Munich Musicland studio too).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtXq-ONovL0
February 10th, 2026 at 15:08@4 Haven’t seen anyone headbanging at a gig for many a year. Too many wigs would fall off.
February 10th, 2026 at 16:19I was really good at it.
Did it harmy me any?
You bet! 🤣
February 10th, 2026 at 18:37I have the three German shows and I would say the sound quality is decent, I would argue that Live in Germany, which was a combination of the three shows, was the better sounding than the individual shows. I also think Live in Munich 1977 also sounded better. I wonder if any new mastering has improved the sound or not.
My 2 Cents,
Frank
February 11th, 2026 at 03:24Me too. My neck used to be sore the following morning but not as bad as my ears. Motörhead- pah! Loudest gig I ever went to was Rainbow in 1983
February 11th, 2026 at 10:22Pah, I beat you! Loudest gig? Slade in 1979 or so, they played a club (it was the nadir of their career – before the Reading resurrection), but packed their stadium-fit PA into it (it towered almost to the high ceiling left and right) AND THEY USED IT ALL! 🤣 Guy beside me with his head in the bass bins had instant nosebleed (he was ecstatic nonetheless) when they started, it was THAT physical. Their first song was Ten Years After‘s Hear Me Calling and they pulled off the trick of initially playing it in the dark and only with their backline on until Noddy sang “Hear me calling … LOUD!!!“ and the guy behind the mixing desk switched on the light show and the audience PA to eardrum- and nose blood vessels-debilitating effect. 🤗😂 ‘Appy memories!
My other painfully loud gigs are a strange mix: Böhse Onkelz, Queensryche and, strangely, Uli Jon Roth. The latter two had the same issues as Slade – not being able to adjust their volume to a small hall and, in Uli‘s case, a small club. He played great, but it was painful (and I can endure extreme volumes).
February 11th, 2026 at 14:29Is this where the ‘Barbarian at the Gates’ mentality comes from, in regard to Uwe Hornung? Being pummelled into submission at a Slade gig, head banging etc, who would have ever thought. Cum On Feel the Noize…..At least we are all aware of the ‘consequences’ that have followed Uwe to THS. ‘Get Down and Get With It’……………..”Gudbye T’ Jane, Gudbye T’ Jane painted up like a fancy young man”………..Mama Mama Weer All Crazee Now…………I am so glad I was a Deep Purple geek back in my school days and I had sufficient weaponry to ward off my friend who was a Slade geek……… Still, we have both survived those days and now half a century later we are both much more mature, sophisticated, sane and everything else………Look Wot You Dun………Noddy Holder, Look Wot You Dun…….ha ha ha, bless him. Cheers
February 11th, 2026 at 21:26I‘m kind of the wrong way round – due to my absence from Europe in the first half of the 70s, I was a Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Status Quo, Black Sabbath and what have you-fan long before I heard Slade, Sweet, T. Rex and other Glamrock artists for the first time. They all existed side by side at one point. To this day I can hear a Bay City Rollers album followed by a Return to Forever one, I‘m entertained by both. 🤗
My distance to Rainbow is probably best explained by the fact that I was at all times too much of a Deep Purple fan to be much charmed by Rainbow, any incarnation. I think I prefer Ritchie being a(n of course excellent) component of a band as opposed to him being its be & end all. Ritchie all by himself and calling all the shots can be a little trite and one-dimensional. At one point, he developed very much of a recipe he would repeat over and over.
That doesn‘t mean that I‘m not looking forward to the makeover the Rainbow oeuvre is now belatedly receiving. From little snippets I have heard of the new remaster of Stagazer, at least Carey‘s keyboards seem more prominent and fill up the sound a bit more. Let‘s see (or hear).
February 12th, 2026 at 11:51Is any good, reports please ! 😁
February 12th, 2026 at 13:14Saw what purports to be Slade (just Hill these days) at Planet Rockstock in December and it was underwhelming to say the least
February 12th, 2026 at 15:55Munich 1976 is what we want, and the Japanese show meant for the On Stage Deluxe they omitted.
February 12th, 2026 at 16:24Slade s song reminds me of ROADHOUSE BLUES as done by QUO.
February 12th, 2026 at 20:24AC/DC was a support …those who were at the concert say that the ticket then cost 16 german marks, around 8 euros in total…incredibly well invested financial resources…if it’s true?
February 13th, 2026 at 11:57Hello.
Everything louder than everything else? WHAT did You say ? : )
My loudest live concert experience could possibly be this (Uwe, don´t You reveal the content if someone in Denmark has had enough coffee to find this, too ; ) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzWijeZxXkk
We could have had the tickets to the 7th row (Stalls, they had the seats on the floor of the icehall those days, too), but for some reason (maybe luckily, too) purchased them to the 12th row. For the next two days after the gig I couldn`t hear my own voice. And if I could just a little, the voices kind of came through somekind of curtain, no treble at all. Very scary, I must say!
Of course it was a big relief when my hearing healed to normal mode. Lesson learned! Ever since I have had the earplugs in every concert. Because…You always can take those off, too, if the situation allows You to do that!
And when memorizing those many various concerts…. The second loudest concert experience of mine might easily be Steve Vai´s, under the name VAI, in 1993 at the House of Culture in Helsinki. Great gig, which featured some young Devin Townshend in the lineup, too. He played the guitarparts in perfect harmony with Steve! Amazing kid.
Kippis.
February 13th, 2026 at 14:53Since this album was recorded in Germany, shouldn’t the vinyl be colored red,yellow and black, like the German flag?
February 13th, 2026 at 23:24@ 15 – the only interest I may have in a re- imagined Rainbow Rising album would be a remix of sorts. Unless the remaster is worthwhile, I won’t be buying it. I agree in regard to Carey’s keyboards and the orchestra too in Stargazer. They all need to be heard much more, same with the bass guitar. I will have a listen to those snippets Uwe, thanks for that. I presume they are online at the ‘tube’ somewhere. Cheers
February 14th, 2026 at 00:59David, Dave Hill’s remnant of Slade (formerly Slade II) is horrible – akin to Ronnie Wood touring with a couple of hired hands and calling himself the “Rolling Stones”. I guess Holder and Lea as the sole songwriters felt guilty when Slade folded, knowing fully well that Dave and Don would need to rely on gigging for the rest of their lives. So they let them have the name. Jim Lea and Noddy Holder haven’t played as or with Slade since the breakup in 1992 (and the band had stopped touring years before).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8HSK8UE8No
Ivica, it is true, I saw Rainbow’s Frankfurt gig at the time for the same ticket price. That was about a week’s allowance for me at the time, I didn’t think it was cheap! 😂 Actually my first rock concert ever, I was 15 and we had only returned from Africa in January 1976.
https://www.popdom.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ritchie-Blackmore%C2%B4s-Rainbow-1976-first-German-Tour-Concert-Poster-Konzert-Plakat-768×1056.jpeg?v=1753711407
And yes, lamentably so, AC/DC were the opening act (they did not go down well, people were impatient for Ritchie). It was the beginning of my lifelong disenchantment with that band! 🤣 (That is not to say that AC/DC didn’t play what they played well, they were also allowed a good sound as the opener.)
Robert, it’s schwarz-rot-gold, not “yellow”! But I’m relieved you didn’t name “red, white & black” as our national colors! 😎
February 14th, 2026 at 05:08Maybe my ears are playing tricks on me, but I believed to hear the keyboards in this snipped more prominently than ever before, you guys judge …
https://youtu.be/FOAyFnTZ2Tw
Of course we would have to listen to more to pass an educated judgement.
February 14th, 2026 at 17:41@ 24- “Dave Hill’s remnant of Slade (formerly Slade II) is horrible – akin to Ronnie Wood touring with a couple of hired hands and calling himself the “Rolling Stones”. Not really Uwe, Ronnie Wood isn’t an original member, far from it. Also the Stones (Jagger and Richards) wouldn’t leave their name up for grabs I couldn’t imagine. However I do get your point and Dave Hill, dragging the beast through the mud is, well we have seen that sort of thing before with a few other bands over time. Regarding poor ole AC-DC – “(That is not to say that AC/DC didn’t play what they played well, they were also allowed a good sound as the opener.) What, after the Sunbury debacle in Australia a year or so earlier, I don’t believe it. It is a wonder the gremlins (Rainbow crew) were not watching and waiting at those concerts Uwe, or were they worried about the Aussie lads tendency for a bit of biff and bash, he he he. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnkktH3pSMM&t=276s
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/acdc-deep-purple-fight/
February 14th, 2026 at 18:41Ooops, I linked the wrong promo, I MEANT THIS, sorry:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d8vLbpHvZCc
February 14th, 2026 at 18:57I’ve thought about that too, the Sunbury incident should have poisoned the atmosphere forever, but none of that was apparent at the gig I saw. I guess Ritchie basically didn’t give a fuck about the opener, one way or another. Dio, Bain (an avid Status Quo fan and hence no stranger to simpler forms of rock) and Carey (turned on to Status Quo by Bain’s tapes) apparently regularly watched AC/DC from the side on that tour, liking what they saw and heard. Come to think of it, the Status Quo comparison was something you heard often with early AC/DC in Germany, I guess it was that driving rhythm guitar both bands shared in an era when single solo guitarists plus a keyboarder where more prevalent with heavier bands.
As for Blackmore and AC/DC, I really only remember one indirect comment he once made about them and that was in connection with Rainbow’s then opening acts where he said something like this (I paraphrase): Scorpions, Saxon and Krokus have all supported us – of them, the Scorpions are definitely the best, they have a real sense of melody. Saxon and Krokus are even more heavy-handed than AC/DC – and that is saying something!
Herr MacGregor, you’re of course right that Dave Hill was an original member of Slade (though I would say that Ronnie Wood has meanwhile earned his dues with the Stones – it’s been more than 50 years, even if he will never be another Mick Taylor) and I always liked his melodic and song-serving playing, but the musicians he surrounded around himself in Slade II (Don Powell excepted) just weren’t of the caliber Noddy Holder and Jim Lea had been. Holder’s foghorn voice which always retains the melody is hellishly hard to copy and Lea was one of the best rock bassists around.
February 15th, 2026 at 18:03Slade cannot ever be without Holder and Lea. Not only the two songwriters, but singers too and Noddy as a front man is totally irreplaceable. Lea being a consummate musician too, playing all sorts of instruments. It probably was what you suggested Uwe, the departing members left it to the other two as they were also the original band that Holder and Lea eventually joined, way back further in time than I had imagined. For whatever reason they were obviously not worried at all about doing that. Royalties etc would have been a huge comfort zone for them and getting away from it all a relief no doubt. I just noticed Hill had fired Powell about 5 years ago. Oh dear. Regarding AC-DC and Rainbow, I did read a little about one of those support concerts. One ‘incident’ I read was after a gig, Malcom entered the Rainbow dressing room uninvited without knocking and picked up the remaining beers the Rainbow guys were obviously going to enjoy, gave them all a filthy look and walked out. Ritchie wasn’t in the room apparently, all the other band members were. Something like that. There was something still there about the Aussies having a chip on their shoulder, perhaps about the established British bands etc. Maybe it was a Scottish chip, who knows. The AC-DC lads going to a Led Zeppelin gig was well documented too. Walking out after a few songs with disparaging comments etc. I guess that happens, the new band in town being looked down upon perhaps, or feeling left out of sorts. Being hardened (Scottish blood) Australians they would have been rather cocky too no doubt. Anyway, at least there wan’t too much argy bargy going down and they all would have looked back on that as part of their journey and no doubt laughed about it all. Cheers.
February 15th, 2026 at 22:31Re the coming CD set that spawned the vinyl there is some news:
Barry Robinson (likely no relation to Simon Robinson or am I wrong?), a rather stern-faced middle-aged man who always speaks a bit like he was a member of a Shakespeare Theatre (notice the spelling, Tasmanian!) Company and who hosts the ‘Classic Album Review’ on YT, takes us through the imminent release more in detail, he has an advance copy:
https://youtu.be/qSWRxbDD-FQ
It doesn’t look half bad!
Apparently the remaster of the always murky debut is excellent while the remaster of Rising is at least better than anything he‘s ever heard, but still hampered by the overall “toppiness” of the aftermath-manipulated original Martin Birch mix (at the behest of the American record company who thought Birch‘s mix was too dark for US radio – not that either the NY mix nor the LA mix saw Rising become exactly AOR fodder on FM radio! 😂).
Trainspotters and color-aware people (Karin!) will no doubt notice that the color sequence of the CDs follows the spectrum stripes of a … you guessed it … 🌈 !!!
March 2nd, 2026 at 16:28Interesting Uwe and thank you for that. Some people commenting are saying the original LA mix of Rising has plenty of bottom end. Before it was taken away and then we were left with the toppy high end mix. Where are these people getting to hear that original mix from? Last week I noticed in our local music store the first and third Dio era Rainbow cd’s. The remastered ones from a few years ago I think they were. I put them back as I was thinking about this latest set and also what LLR&R will be linked with if they remaster that album. No remixes at all of these Rainbow albums is very disappointing in this day and age. Remastering, does it really make that much difference? According to this guy it is really good for the first album at least. Who owns the original master tapes? It doesn’t sound like Blackmore does otherwise we would presume a remix would be what we would end up with. I do think we would all be better off getting out our Ouija board or even a crystal ball to see if in our remaining years on earth, will we ever get a remix of the Rainbow classic era albums before we all shake off our mortal coil. We better not hold our breath. Cheers. P.S. I did notice the correct spelling of Theatre, well done Grasshopper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbNCBVzPYak&t=92s
March 2nd, 2026 at 21:47My link to the ‘Grasshopper’ initiation clip from the Kung Fu tv series is to remind Uwe of his spelling, again. Color??????? Grasshopper it is Colour……….even Living Colour the band know that one. There is still much to learn for the uninitiated grasshopper. Cheers.
March 3rd, 2026 at 00:17