Purple family double dip
Another long form interview courtesy of the dreaded lurgy. Eddie Trunk did a “double dip” on his latest (September 2) podcast by talking to Graham Bonnet and Roger Glover. Roger’s segment starts at...
View ArticleNot just a cabaret show
Roger Glover shows his artsy side in this early 80s vintage TV interview. Thanks to Yvonne for the info.
View ArticleThe rock’n’roll that didn’t live for long
David Stone talks to the Metal Express Radio about his current projects, his career, and of course, his stint with Rainbow: Not long after the [Symphonic Slam] album was released you had joined...
View ArticleDiscovering a pleasant fellow
Trouser Press was a music magazine published in New York during the late 70s to early 80s. Their entire magazine archive is now available online, and issue 30 from July 1978 has a very interesting...
View ArticleEverything is on standby
Ronnie Romero is doing interviews promoting the latest release of his other band Lords of Black Alchemy of Souls Pt. I. During the chat with Italian Linea Rock, he was asked whether Rainbow is still an...
View ArticleThey’ll meet again
Don Airey will be a guest musician on the upcoming album of his Rainbow ex-bandmate Graham Bonnet. Que the singer: Similar to the first two albums, it will reflect different eras of my career, but with...
View ArticleOne instead of one
Another TMZ moment involving another two Rainbow vocalists. For a number of years, Joe Lynn Turner was the singer in the Sunstorm project, a brainchild of Frontier Records president Serafino Perugino....
View ArticleNot democratic at all
Here is a Ronnie James Dio interview from 1981, where he talks about his current band (Black Sabbath) and the previous one (you might have heard about them — Rainbow). The recording is from the...
View ArticleHere endeth the medieval blues
Louder Sound (nee Classic Rock magazine) has a feature on Rainbow’s Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll album, and it’s a good read. There is, however, one chink of light in the bleak, drowsy fug of that UK chart...
View ArticleEvery opera singer can learn from this
Watch this if you enjoy knowing how the sausage is made. A genuine bona fide opera singer is reacting to Stargazer, dissecting the greatness of Ronnie James Dio, and in the process discovering for...
View ArticleAlways do your homework
Rolling Stone magazine has series called Unknown Legends where they interview “[…] veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the...
View ArticleSomething epic is about to happen
Our favourite opera singer continues fangirling over Ronnie James Dio with her analysis of Rainbow’s Gates of Babylon. Bonus: how her descent down the rabbit hole started a few month prior — Heaven and...
View ArticleCity of heavenly sin
A cover of Rainbow Gates of Babylon done by a neoclassical metal band Lost Symphony with guest musicians, including Dave Abbruzzese (of Pearl Jam fame) on drums. Fun fact: despite Abbruzzese being in...
View ArticleChewing up and spitting out
Another Rainbow related interview in the Rolling Stone’s Unknown Legends series — this time it’s an in-depth conversation with Bob Daisley, covering his career from a 3 year old listening to his...
View ArticleTwinkle, twinkle
Take a heavy rock song and turn into a lullaby? We could totally see how this could be done to Temple of the King, but Stargazer, Heaven and Hell, or The Last in Line? Surely not. Until someone did…...
View ArticleA potential supergroup
Another bit of history appearing in the venerable Music History for Those Who Are Able to Read blog. It is an article from Sounds magazine, originally published on April 17, 1976. The article is an...
View ArticleComplete circle
Don Airey was interviewed for the Rolling Stone Unknown Legends series. It’s a long form interview, with a lot of ground covered — from the humble beginnings in a cruise ship house band to the next...
View ArticleBible Black
News from the branch of the family tree rarely visited on these pages. In the early 1980s Gary Driscoll and Craig Gruber (of Elf and the first Rainbow album fame) were in a band called Bible Black....
View ArticleGoing radio friendly
Louder Sound has a story of how a cover of Since You Been Gone became the first ever Top 10 hit for Rainbow. Russ Ballard admits he got his recording of Since You’ve Been Gone all wrong, bur Rainbow...
View ArticleA King Has Gone
A track from the upcoming Michael Schenker Group album Universal is intended as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio, in particular to his performance on Rainbow Rising. The track is called A King Has Gone...
View ArticleThe warrior and the owl
Ken Kelly, the artist responsible for the iconic Rainbow Rising cover, has passed away at the age of 76. He also had created many other album covers, most notably for Kiss and Manowar, as well as...
View ArticleHobgoblins and pixies
A pretty nicely put together documentary on the history of Rainbow. It is stitched together from both contemporary interviews from the people involved (and some not at all), and retrospectives from...
View ArticleWho did it better
Vocal teacher Ken Tramplin did a Who Did It Better? series of videos comparing different singers who were in the same band at different times. Here is the episode on Ian Gillan vs. David Coverdale vs....
View ArticleMade in Japan celebration in Japan
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Deep Purple tour of Japan, the one that produced the aptly named live album. Burrrn! magazine publisher Shinko Music is supporting a couple of events...
View ArticleThe cat that walks alone
Jens Johansson, the keyboard player for the last incarnation of Rainbow, spoke to Blabbermouth on the future prospects of the band: I don’t know. You never know. At the moment, of course, with the...
View ArticleWhat a tune!
Doug the classical composer reacts to Rainbow’s Gates of Babylon. Could be particularly interesting for those of us who can tell thy harmonic majors from upper tetrachords. Thanks to Gary Halverson for...
View ArticleRainbow: A Visual Biography
Another “visual” book pre-order — Rainbow: A Visual Biography by renowned Blackmorologist Jerry Bloom. From 1975, through the eighties, re-activated in the nineties and a slight return in 2016-18,...
View ArticleLong Live Rock Candy
The latest issue (#35) of the Rock Candy magazine has Long Live Rock’n’Roll as the cover story, with a 10-page feature inside (you can preview it here). Also in the same issue: 4 pages on Ritchie...
View ArticleConverting them one person at a time
Elizabeth introduces her Aussie colleague to the joys of stargazing. Que the happy giggles. Brush up on your staccatos and legatos for the technical analysis.
View ArticleIt all started with an empty email
Last Rainbow vocalist Ronnie Romero appeared on The Classic Rock Podcast talking about how did he find himself fronting the legendary band, the prospects of performing with Blackmore again (spoiler:...
View ArticleMr. Richard Hugh Blackmore was a romantic gentleman
A branch of the family tree rarely explored — an interview with Shoshana Feinstein, a former Blackmore’s girlfriend, who sang background vocals on the first Rainbow album. Christopher: How and in what...
View ArticleLift the spirit higher
Paul Gilbert has an RJD tribute album coming out on April 7 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group. It is called simply The Dio Album and contains purely instrumental covers of tracks...
View ArticleSteal from everybody and get your own style
Metal Edge magazine has reprinted online a Ritchie Blackmore interview from February 1997. It goes from the heat of the moment to some timeless advice. What do you love most about the guitar?...
View ArticleSuck you in, bleed you dry, and set you free
Doogie White reminiscences about his days in Rainbow: The full interview is over half an hour long and can be found as a podcast on podfollow. It covers the range of issues from the British class...
View ArticleA small place with about 300 rooms
Rolling Stone has a long form interview with Joe Lynn Turner, focusing on his days in Rainbow and Deep Purple. This was done for the magazine’s King for a Day series that “features long-form...
View ArticleSince they’ve been gone
A heavily augmented remix of Rainbow take on Since You’ve Been Gone is used in the Volume 3 of the Guardians of the Galaxy fairy tale superhero franchise. Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the info.
View ArticleNo chain of events can shackle him down
Graham Bonnet appeared on the Vintage Rock Pod(cast), talking about his illustrious career, starting all the way from back in the 60s. Almost half of the conversation dealt with his days in Rainbow....
View ArticlePortraits of Rainbow
Rufus is gearing up for another photo book — this time it’s Portraits of Rainbow — The Dio Years with words by Geoff Barton. From the publisher blurb: Portraits of Rainbow – The Dio Years book is a...
View ArticlePlaying Hammond through eight walls
Tony Carey appeared on the VintageRock Podcast to talk about his experience of being in Rainbow. We explore the making of the iconic album ‘Rainbow Rising’ at Music Land Studios in Munich, while Tony...
View ArticleCourt minstrels of yesteryear with electric guitars
Geir Myklebust posts on his blog a Rainbow Rising review by Geoff Barton that first appeared in the issue of Sounds from May 22, 1976: “WITH RAINBOW’S music I intend to carry on and expand upon the...
View ArticleElectrocute the lot of ’em, especially the critics
A historical interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Cozy Powell from the same issue of Sounds dated July 24, 1976. Blackmore swings the axe Peter Crescenti dodges the blows RITCHIE BLACKMORE harbours no...
View ArticleClearwell ghosts never showed up
Louder Sound has a short, but fairly informative interview with Glenn Hughes. What’s the first thing that comes into your mind when you think about either the Burn album or the sessions for it?...
View ArticleSome boys still haven’t washed their hands
A vintage review of a Rainbow gig at the New York’s Beacon Theater. It first appeared in Sounds magazine on July 24, 1976. Rainbow hit nirvana Blackmore´s Rainbow Beacon Theatre, New York Concert...
View ArticleHow about singing into the microphone?
Graham Bonnet and his bass player and life partner Beth-Ami Heavenstone recently appeared on the Disturbing The Priest podcast. Graham tells, amongst other things, a story of how his then lucrative...
View ArticleHad a letter, once
Don Airey and Cozy Powell promote the Down to Earth Rainbow tour on British telly: Thanks to Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow channel for posting the video and to Hein for bringing it to our attention.
View ArticleFired a couple of times, then hired back
A few months ago, we’ve posted an interview with Tony Carey. Here is a much, much longer version of that conversation that has surfaced on YT since then. Tony digs deeper into his Rainbow story, and...
View ArticlePark and bark
Elizabeth the opera singer is drooling all over Rainbow take on Mistreated from Munich’77.
View ArticleBe professional, be reliable
Bob Daisley was interviewed by the Rock Daydream Nation podcast about his days in Rainbow. Thanks to the Ultimate Guitar for the heads-up.
View ArticleArigato means thank you
Here’s Pete Makowski’s feature on Rainbow December’76 tour of Japan, originally published on January 29, 1977, in the Sounds. It is a rather long read, but well worth it. “RADIES AND GENTLEMEN...
View ArticleWhen in doubt, have a beer
Here are a couple of excerpts from what appears the same Joe Lynn Turner interview, published on two different YouTube channels. JLT is reminiscing about his work with Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwie...
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