After, reportedly knocking Olso completely out of shape with the most unbeleivable show yet (including two encores AFTER Smoke On The Water!), Ritchies Rainbow returned to Copenhagen, where the previous week, they'd been rehearsing their show at K.B. Hallen. And since Helsinki the show had gained a support act; Milky. Quite good to listen to, but totally repulsive to look at...
Pomp & Circomestance and "We must be over the Rainbow" overwith it's almost instantly obvious that tonight was going to be something utterly special. Already during Spotlight Kid and Too Late For Tears (the verses) Ritchie is doodling away in a most inspired manner. There indeed ruled tonight a very positive mood! Again in Long Live Rock'n'Roll we're subjected to a long sing-a-long passage, though tonight the playful mood gives it a whole new and fresh dimension, even the falderi-faldera part is doubled in length, quite obviously as a result of the high spirits onstage, and immediately followed by Ritchie initiating Doogie to sing several verses of Greensleeves. Now we know for certain it's one of "those" nights.
Here comes the ending of Long Live.. Doogie and Ritchie lead us into a couple of old Scottish drinking songs (at least that's the way the sounded in my ears) and there's a massive applause - soon the whole venue is smitten by the refreshing attitude of the band. Hunting Humans seems another tune filled with little doodlings of the like you wish he'd never stop playing. What a night!
Wolf To The Moon has lost its Blues intro since Helsinki and we're straight into it. Powerful. This leads straight into another rush-through of Difficult To Cure and while still not one I'm especially looking foreward to, they manage to make it sound even interesting.
The keyboard solo is very much as it was in Helsinki, though a bit longer and more cohesive. I kept thinking however, how much it seemed to be modelled after Jon Lord's solos from the last Purple tours; a section of piano with VERY classical touches, some synthesizer ramblings, cue the drummachine/sequencer with some sort of of rhythmic pattern to play along and round it all off with a few bombastic chords. Nice and quite superfluous!
Still I'm Sad seems again like an enjoyable visit by an old friend, with an even longer drumsolo inserted tonight, where Chuck powers along in a manner you thought had died with John Bonham years ago. He's got such a refined technique it's intertaining to watch him play, and unlike the keyboard-solo, which tends to totally rob everyone of any kind adrenalin rush supplied by whatever comes right before it, the drum-solo retains the emotionally high speeding pace all along.
We're now quite clearly into the middle third highlight of the show, where Man On A Silver mountain is lifted up into the skies by some nifty and clever playing by the Man. He takes this tired, old chestnut and injects portions of energy into its butt, just like that. Amazing! Up next is one of the most eagerly awaiting songs of the night. Temple Of The King might again not be entirely faultless, but the solo... Well, you know "those" solos where you wish he'd just keep playng and never stop? It was just like one of those. There you are watching the man and you can't help getting that warm feeling inside. How come, after all his crazy ideas, changes of personel, the way he has treated us and more important, his fellow bandmembers in Deep Purple, etc... How come on a night like this you just want to run up and kiss him and forgive him everything, if only he'd promise not to stop playing? Well, you explain that, coz I certainly can't!
I could go on about his playfulness throughout the night; Black Masquerade steamed along and he was everywhere. After this we got another Scottish drinking song, before Ariel is introduced by a very Greensleeves-like quiet intro. As opposed to Helsinki six days earlier, tonight the song is massive, huge. Doogie is leading the song and the crowd and there's frenzy in the frontrow. For the quiet middle part where Candice breathes the title over and over he once again seems at a loss at what to play. It's like he can't figure out how to make anything work on top of that backing. Because of her singing he can't just terminate the backing at wish like he used to do in Anya, and pretty much like in Helsinki on the opening night, we only get minor, pointless notes and licks, where something truly magical had been expected. Go away Ritchie, work it out, then come back and floor us all.
Before the next song Doogie is approaching Ritchie with the microphone, could he please explain to the crowd "what you've been doing Since You Been Gone!" Oh no, not that one! Yes, that one. Luckily it only last a verse and a chorus and then leads straight into Perfect Strangers. Somehow this old majestic track transforms tonight. From being something you loved to listen to in almost religious silence, it becomes something that is exciting in a totally different way. It makes you feel like dancing (huh-oh!) and acting as if you belonged among the hyper-energetics in the frontrow! (God help me!) And what's more, it all happend without this reporter feeling bad at all about it, though Doogie didn't do quite as well on the vocal as he did in Helsinki.
Hall Of The Mountain King was greeted with much cheering. Doogie was saying something about the album being number eight in the charts and therefore many of the new songs were greeted equally enthusiasticly as the old ones, something which apparently pleased the band.
The band is off after...Mountain King and the cheering of the crowd is extraordinarily loud and there's even a rhythmic stomping of feets on the wooden floor and of course the band returns... Burn it is, followed by that (now) old quiet intro to Smoke On The Water - quite effective it is as well, though portions of the crowd are already humming the chorus of the song.
This has been one incredibly enjoyable show. Ritchie has been handling beers to those in the frotrow, using a long stick as on the 1993 tour, and when he threw out a couple of t-shirts, instead of rising to a little mountain of arms grabbing for the shirts, somehow the crowd fell flat on their arses - 25-30 people in a big circle right in front of me. Most enjoyable!
But hey, what is this? The band is returning AFTER Smoke! Ritchie chucks out a heavy rhythmic pattern until the band joins in and then turns it into Black Night. The intellectual part of the crowd (meaning those not drunken out their heads on beer!) would probably have preferred almost any other track, with a little more relevance to the band in question, though as a sign of approval for a great show from Ritchies's point of view, it must be appreciated. And so it most certainly was. But quite what really happend then is anyone's guess; mid-song Ritchie put down his guitar, one wave to the crowd and he was off. Leaving the band very confused, not least Doogie who was looking around, gesturing at the leaving guitarist (well, OK then, banjo-player!) and looking very bewildered. The band played on for about half a verse then decided enough was enough, brought the song to a halt and were off. Goodnight!
Apparently a local, Danish harmonica player was all set to come on after Black Night to do a version of Hey Joe with the band, but because of another engagement he had to leave early ( I mean, wouldn't you have thought Sod it and stayed on for a jam with Blackmore and his boys???) and perhaps that's why the show ended in such a haphazard way. It wasn't till Judy Garland's Somewhere Over The Rainbow came on the P.A. that the crowd sensed the show was actually over!
I had not planned to see another Rainbow show, just hoping that Copenhagen would make up for the halfhearted affair in Helsinki. But make up it certainly did and now I could walk away in peace, knowing that Ritchie Blackmore has not yet lost his magic touch on the guitar. Whenever he wishes he can wipe the floor with anyone else in the business. The show in Copenhagen prooved that. The next afternoon he left his hotel (the band travels and sleeps on the bus!) wearing his black tophat, as seen on the album. Though he had to take it off to get into his limo! And with a little smile and a wave he was off. Bye-bye Ritchie.
Oct. 7,1995
Rasmus Heide
Svante Pettersson 13 december 1995
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